W. S. Auchincloss

PREFACE.

CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction by Prof. A. H. Sayce, LL.D. 7

PART I. HISTORIC SECTION. CHAPTER I. [ Written in Hebrew. ] B.C. 606.

PART II. PROPHETIC SECTION. CHAPTER VII. [ Hebrew. ] B.C. 541.

JEWISH INDEPENDENCE DAY.

NOTE A. DARIUS, OR CYAXARES. [DANIEL V. 31.]

NOTE B. "THE SUM OF THE MATTERS." [DANIEL VII. 1. AND 25.]

NOTE C. "DAYS."

NOTE D. "TWO THOUSAND AND THREE HUNDRED DAYS." [DANIEL VIII. 14.]

NOTE E. THE EXODUS FROM PERSIA. [DANIEL IX. 25.]

NOTE F. DATE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. [DANIEL IX. 26.]

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

YEARS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST.

YEARS IN THE LIFE OF HEROD.

ASMONEAN DYNASTY.

REIGNS OF THE CHALDEAN AND MEDO-PERSIAN KINGS.

Transcriber’s Notes:

Punctuation has been standardized.

Roman numerals have been standarized as capital letters.

Words printed in red in the original text have been displayed by indenting the block of text.

This book was written in a period when many words had not become standardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged unless noted in the text.

Queen’s College, Oxford.

September 4, 1902.

Mr. Auchincloss has asked me to prefix a few words of introduction to his book:

There is little to say, as the book tells its own tale—clear and to the point.

He has very rightly taken the sidereal year as the basis of his calculations; any other system of computation ends only in difficulties.

But the reader will find other novelties, not the least among them being the fact that the prophecies of Daniel are made to end with the beginning of the history of the Christian Church, instead of lengthening out into a still unknown future; this is a great advance on previous interpreters. And he will doubtless be struck by calculations according to which the 1290 Days of the Hebrew Prophet terminated in A.D. 33.

Assouan, Egypt,

January 17, 1905.

Thus far I had written in 1902. Since then the public has shown that it can appreciate good work by the rapidity with which copy after copy of Mr. Auchincloss’ little book has been called for. It is now issued once more with additions and improvements, but otherwise in an unchanged form.

There is one paragraph in it to which the Assyriologist is now able to add a few words. Mr. Auchincloss draws attention to the sense of completeness and perfection which is associated in the Old Testament, not only with the number seven, but also with the number ten. It has long been known that the Babylonians possessed a week of seven days. But it is only recently that I have pointed out that they also possessed a week of five days. Besides the week of five days, however, there was a double week of ten days, the month consisting of thirty days and being divided into three equal parts.