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periods. A day, week, or month, or year, must, from the nature of the case, represent a definite period of time. Now, when a prophecy uses the terms days, weeks, months, or years, and does not designate what kind of a day, week, or month, is intended, it is plain that the mode of fulfillment alone can determine what is to be understood by them. If the prophecy is not fulfilled in days or weeks, literally, then they must be regarded as the representatives of other larger periods of a well defined nature. The seventy weeks not having been fulfilled in days, nor weeks, nor in 490 solar years, we are forced, from the very nature of things, to look for a larger period of time represented by them. Now, it is obvious that the periods represented by the weeks must be of Hebrew character, because the weeks are Hebrew weeks, and the whole of the old testament chronology is conformable to the Hebrew calendar, and not to the Gentile calendars. We must, then, look into this Hebrew calendar, and ascertain its modes of computing time, and then wo shall be able to make our deductions understandingly.

SECTION III.

HEBREW DIVISIONS OF TIME.

Paragraph I.

HEBREW WEEKS.

All Hebrew time, greater than a day, was divided into weeks of days, weeks of weeks, weeks of weeks of weeks, or 343 days, and weeks of months, and weeks of years. The Sabbatic year was the seventh year; and the jubiles was a Sabbatic year, and occurred every forty-ninth year. The first Jubilee year, was the fiftieth after the possession of Canaan, the first being a rest year; but the jubilee

period itself, was only forty-nine years long, and was made up of seven Sabbatic weeks; and the jubilee year coincided with the seventh Sabbatic year; so that there were not two rest years in succession. In addition to this, they measured long ages by years of years, and these were made up of weeks of years. The proof of this last is found in its use among the prophets.

Paragraph II.

SPIRITUAL AND CIVIL TIME.

In addition to the general division of time into weeks, it was further divided into spiritual and secular. Every seventh day was a holy day; and every seventh year was also a holy year; and every week of weeks of years, or every jubilee, closed with a year more especially sacred than any other rest year. They had also two kinds of calendar years: one began in the month Nisan, and was the sacred, or ecclesiastical year; the other began in the month Tisri, six months later, and was the civil year, at which the jubilee was sounded. The Sabbath, the Sabbatic years, and the jubilee years, were political, as well as spiritual, institutions. No division of the day into. hours was known in the Mosaic economy; so that a part of a day was recognized as a whole day, or spoken of under that name. The amount of sacred time, in a jubilee period, was one and six-sevenths of all time.

Paragraph III.

LENGTH OF THE SACRED AND SECULAR YEARS.

1. The Sacred Year.-This was 364 days long. In proof, we adduce the following considerations: First. We claim, as confirmatory of this position, the general consent of Bible critics, that fifty-two weeks was reckoned

a year, among the Hebrews, as it is in all countries where time is computed by weeks. Second, The fulfillment of prophecy in a year of years, and fifty-two years, is proof that time was measured in this mode annually, and, also, that ages were thus measured. It was written in the law, that when Israel should disregard the Sabbatic years, that God would send them into captivity, until the land enjoyed its Sabbaths. Now, Jeremiah says, that the Babylonish captivity allowed the land of Judea to keep its violated Sabbaths. As the desolation of Judea continued only for fifty-two years, it is obvious that the neglect complained of, must have continued just 364 years. This fulfillment is full proof that God himself regarded the year of years, at least, as consisting of 364 equal parts, for his fulfillment endorses this view.

2. The Civil Year.-The civil year of the Hebrews, according to Calmet, was composed of twelve months. The length of this year coincided with the solar year, as near as it was possible for a year of days to coincide with a true solar year. It must, therefore, have coincided with the present Julian year, which was imported from Egypt, and, no doubt, derived from the Hebrews. It would then have been 366 days long, every fourth year, and 365 days every three years in four. Our reasons for this view are mainly these: First, There is no valid testimony against the position, nor can be. Second. The nature of the ceremonial law required the knowledge of an exact solar year. This all know, who have paid a moment's attention to the requirements of it. According to it, the sacrifices and triennial feasts were obliged to occur regularly, in the spring, summer, and autumn. Now, unless the year had have been exact, there would have been such a shifting of these periods, in the course of ages, as to have carried the vernal feast into the summer,

and to have thrown the autumn feast into the winter, or spring. But, as we find these feasts, without any clashing, occurring at the same periods in the days of Solomon as in those of Moses, it is plain, that the Hebrew civil year must have coincided with the solar, as near as it was possible. Third. As these feasts were of divine origin, God knew that a perfect knowledge of the true solar year was requisite, to keep them up with regularity; and if the correct solar year was unknown, it is unreasonable to suppose that God would keep the Hebrews in ignorance of it, and yet require a close observance of it, as this would be preposterous.

Fourth. The Talmud, which is followed by most modern writers on Hebrew chronology, relates that the ancient Hebrew year consisted of twelve lunar months, which, falling short of the solar year, a month was intercalated whenever the 12th of Nisan happened to fall before the vernal equinox; and this month was called ve-Adar. This may have been their mode after the captivity, and after they became acquainted with the Grecians, but is plainly not of Mosaic origin. The Comp. Commentary remarks: "This arrangement of the Hebrew calendar, is made on the authority of (late) Jewish writers, who are not the best guides even in the affairs of their own nation. Their notation of the months has been implicitly followed by Christian critics and commentators universally; but we believe it to be incorrect; for, according to their distribution of the months, the religious festivals could never have been observed at the stated times; the seasons in Palestine not answering the purpose." In Carpenter's Calendarium Palestinæ, it will be seen that "the present Jewish calender is carried up a month too high." It is irrational to suppose that the Hebrew lawgiver, who regulated all things else

with consummate skill and nicety of harmony, could have left the solar year in such an awkward and ungainly predicament as the Talmud represents it; for, according to its account, all of the fasts, feasts, sacrifices, ceremonies, summers, winters, harvests, and spring times, all of the Sabbatic years and jubilees were moving in a perpetual jerk, going hop, step, and jump, and jolting all civil business and sacred affairs into a perpetual jumble every three, or five, or eight years. A prelate, who was taught that the earth was the center of the universe, and that stars and suns rolled round it every day, impiously remarked, as he saw the absurdity of the doctrines, "that had he been of God's privy council, he would have advised him better." And many a prelate, in reading the Talmud, has felt that he could have advised Moses to adopt a more convenient year for his system to work by. The mechanism of the original Hebrew fabric can not be impeached of imperfection, for all its parts are of divine institution. But unless it was adjusted as near to the solar year as days can begin and end such a year, it was imperfect, as its motions were dependent upon a solar year to keep the machinery in well balanced operation. Springtime, and harvest-feasts were obliged to occur at precise seasons of the year, which could not have been the case, had these seasons been jostled about by the difference of a month or two almost every year. But Moses himself totally demolishes the Talmud fable, for he shows that he did not follow lunar months. The account of months and time, incidentally exhibited in the seventh chapter of Genesis, says Calmut, shows that he estimated the year to be 365 days long, (at least.) Scaliger, Prideaux, and Usher, inform us that the ancient Chaldean, Persian, and Egyptian year was 365 days long; and that some of them intercalated,

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