In searching for symbolic numbers we found that number49 stood both for the Jubilee year and for the Feast of Weeks:—Concerning the Jubilee it was said:—“And thou shalt number 7sabbaths of years unto thee, 7times 7years: and the space of 7sabbaths of years shall be unto thee 49years.” LeviticusXXV.8.—Concerning Pentecost it was said: “And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God”—“Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the 7weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.” Deu.XVI.9,10. The feast was to be kept in a fourfold manner with the offering of a tribute, with rejoicing, with remembrance, and with obedience. For more than 3600years has this beautiful custom been observed among the Jews, so that49, the number of days, comes to us with special emphasis. With such a prominent place assigned to it in the Jewish ritual, no wonder if it found a place in the symbolic language of the heavenly visitor. We have discovered that such was the case and accordingly have made calculations for the three periods represented by “2300days,” “1290days” and “45days” (1335 less 1290) on the basis that each prophetic “day” equals 49ordinary days of 24hours each. They stand for 112,700 ordinary days; 63,210days and 2205days. In reducing these days to years the sidereal year was taken as the Standard year. A sidereal year, or time in which the earth makes one revolution, the point of reference being a fixed star, amounts to 365days 6hours 9minutes 9⁶/₁₀seconds, expressed decimally it equals 365.2563611 days. By dividing each period of ordinary days by the number of days in a sidereal year we obtain the actual length of each prophetic period. In arranging these periods, the starting point was May4th B.C.141, or day on which the Temple precincts were cleansed by Simon Maccabeus. The 1290days carries us directly to May24th A.D.33, which was the day of Pentecost “that great and notable day of the Lord” when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples at Jerusalem. It is interesting to note in this case how very precise is the language of Scripture. The passage reads:—“When the day of Pentecost was FULLY come.” After their return from Babylon the Jews were accustomed to devote two days, instead of one, to the observance of the feast, and as Pentecost that year fell on May23rd and24th, the day of Pentecost was FULLY come on the day indicated by our chart. The event therefore happened precisely as foretold by the heavenly visitor, who said to Daniel, “the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is TRUE,” and it came about with that degree of exactness with which astronomers become familiar in their study of the heavenly bodies. The chart clearly proves that the “1290days” is a perfect fit between two well-known dates. The other periods give us two extremely important dates heretofore absolutely unknown to Bible students.

The Holy Spirit’s appearance to the Gentiles in the Summer of A.D.39 was at a time peculiarly favorable for the conversion of Cornelius. The persecution of A.D.36, following the dismissal of Pilate, was succeeded by a period of rest and rapid growth among the infant churches. There was, then, neither the marching of armies, nor even the rumor of war. True, these all came in the Fall of A.D.40, when Petronius was sent to Syria with instructions to place the images of the Romans in the Temple at Jerusalem. It may be said in passing, that the expedition landed in Ptolemais and there wintered. But in the Spring of A.D.41 the attitude of the Jews was so determined, that Petronius sent to Rome for additional instructions. The Emperor, however, died quite suddenly, and the expedition was finally abandoned. The year A.D.39 was a time of peace and good order; a time most favorable to the all-important mission of the Holy Spirit.