Appendix 91

THE "SEVENTY WEEKS" OF DAN.9.24-27.

Footnotes:

(1) Archbishop Ussher's Chronology was first added to the A.V. by Bishop Lloyd in the edition of 1701.  But, in Neh.2.1, Bishop Lloyd put his own date, "445 B.C.", to suit his own theory.  Archbishop Ussher's date for the commencement of the reign or Artaxerxes was A.M. 3531, which, in his Collatio Annorum, corresponds to 474 B.C.  "The twentieth year of Artaxerxes "would, therefore, be 454 B.C., as given above.

(1a)  N.B. There was a further division of this first period of seven sevens which may be mentioned.  From the decree of Neh. 2.1 to the end of the Babylonian servitude (see notes on p.615), which was the "first year of DARIUS" (= CYRUS, see Ap.57) the son of ASTYAGES, was 28 years (454 - 426 = 28); and those events closed the fourth of the seven sevens.  See Ap.50, p.60.

(2) The era called "Anno Domini" was first fixed by a monk (Denys le Petit, commonly known by his Latin name, Dionysius Exiguus), about A.D. 532.  It did not come into general use for some centuries.  Charles III of Germany was the first who used the expression, "in the year of our Lord", in 879.  It was found afterward that a mistake had been made by fixing the era,  four years, too late!  This explains the marginal notes in Matt. 2.1, and Luke 2.20, "The fourth year before the Common Account called Anno Domini."  (In some editions of the A.V. we have seen "the fifth year", Luke 2.1, also "the sixth year", Luke 1.6)  Hence, the year called A.D. 33 was really the year A.D. 29.  This, with 454, makes exactly 483 years, or 69 weeks of years.