Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus I: Demonstratio Christiana

1. Jacob prophesies that the Messiah will come when the earthly dominion of Judah is turned into a spiritual dominion over the nations: "The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah, nor a ruler from his thigh, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." By the word "until" is meant either that all dominion is to be taken away from Judah when Shiloh comes, or that the dominion of Judah is never to be taken away, but rather, when Shiloh comes, is to be extended to the nations. This latter meaning seems altogether to be preferred, in view of all the later prophecies about the Son of David (of the tribe of Judah) who is to reign over Israel forever.¹ Or rather, both meanings are to be joined in such a way that we understand that at the coming of Shiloh the earthly dominion of Judah was to be converted into the spiritual dominion of the Messiah over the nations. For no earthly or political kingdom can embrace all peoples. Therefore the words of Jacob indicate precisely this: that the political rule of Judah over Israel was to be succeeded, at the time of Shiloh, by that messianic kingdom, spiritual or religious, of which the whole Old Testament prophesies.

When, therefore, someone born of Judah obtains the spiritual obedience of the nations, with the earthly rule wholly removed from Judah, then the Messiah has certainly already come. But since in the year A.D. 70 the Jewish commonwealth was utterly abolished, all earthly dominion was taken away from Judah, and at the same time the spiritual kingdom of Christ, who was born of the tribe of Judah,² began to be spread abroad to all nations. It is established, therefore, that the Messiah had already come at that time, and that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the Messiah himself.

2. Haggai and Malachi prophesy more precisely that the Messiah is to come while the second temple of Jerusalem is still standing. When the Jews returning from captivity grieved exceedingly over the meanness of the temple restored by Zorobabel, the prophet Haggai consoled them, foretelling that the glory of the second temple would be greater than the glory of the first, because this second temple was to be glorified by the Messiah, the Prince of Peace desired by all nations: "For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Yet one little while, and I will move the heaven and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will move all nations, and the desired of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts ... Great shall be the glory of this last house, more than of the first, saith the Lord of hosts, and in this place I will give peace, saith the Lord of hosts."³

What Haggai had signified, Malachi expressly declares, namely that the Messiah is to enter the Zorobabelian temple: "Behold I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face: and presently the Lord, whom you seek, and the Angel of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple. Behold he cometh, saith the Lord of hosts."⁴ The Lord whom the Jews sought, the founder of the new testament, is plainly the Messiah, who is God.⁵ But the Messiah, who is God, will come to his temple, i.e. the temple of Jerusalem, after another divine legate has prepared his way.

That both prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus Christ we see from the Gospels. He himself came while the second temple was still standing, announced beforehand by John the Baptist, and he entered the temple again. Both prophecies therefore fit him, and indeed him alone, since no one else came to the temple of Jerusalem to whom the cited prophecies could apply, and to whom a divine legate was sent ahead as forerunner.

3. Daniel prophesies with the greatest exactness the years of the public manifestation and of the death of the Messiah. When Daniel, praying to God in the Babylonian captivity, asked on behalf of the people of Israel and the city of Jerusalem that the messianic time might be hastened, the archangel Gabriel appeared to him, announcing when the Messiah was to come:

"Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished and sin may have an end and iniquity may be blotted out, and everlasting justice may be brought in, and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled, and the holy of holies may be anointed."

"Know thou therefore and take notice: From the going forth of the word, that Jerusalem is to be built again, unto Christ the prince there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. And again the street and the walls shall be built in the straitness of the times. And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain, and his people shall not be his that shall deny him. And the people with the prince that is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be desolation, and after the end of the war the appointed desolation."

"And he shall confirm the covenant with many, one week: and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail, and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation, and the desolation shall persevere even to the consummation and the end."⁶

For this prophecy of the seventy weeks three terms are to be sought: the term "what" (terminus quid), the term "from which" (terminus a quo), and the term "to which" (terminus ad quem)?

a) The term "what" (terminus quid). It is resolved by two questions: what is to be understood by the 70 weeks, and what is accomplished in the 70 weeks?

What is to be understood by the 70 weeks? That the seventy weeks are to be understood as a definite period of time is evident. For the angel says that these weeks are "abbreviated", or rather, according to the Hebrew, "cut off" from the course of time; indeed he divides the weeks into 7 + 62 + 1 weeks, and this last week is in turn subdivided into two parts. By the word "weeks" the Hebrews commonly designated a heptad of days as well as of years. That in this passage the weeks are to be understood not of days but of years is easily shown. For Daniel had been meditating on the 70 years of the captivity; hence, if the angel suggests to him 70 weeks within which the messianic deliverance was to be accomplished, it is clear that the discourse is of weeks of years. This follows a fortiori from the fact that within 70 weeks of days (= 490 days) those things could not be done which are said to be done within those 70 weeks. Therefore the 70 weeks of Daniel are 7 × 70 = 490 years.

What is accomplished in the 70 weeks? The prophecy is threefold. The first part contains a prospect of the messianic goods, which are partly negative, namely "that transgression (apostasy) may be finished, that sin may have an end, and that iniquity may be blotted out"; and partly positive, namely "that everlasting justice may be brought in, that vision and prophecy may be fulfilled, and that the holy of holies may be anointed" (Hebr. the holy of holies, i.e. the new temple of God = the Church of the Messiah). In the second part of the prophecy the weeks are divided into 7 + 62 + 1, and to each space of time its own events are assigned, in such a way that in 7 weeks the city of Jerusalem is built again, then, as the 62 weeks draw to their end, the Messiah the prince appears, and finally in 1 week, i.e. the seventieth, the Messiah is slain, whose slaying will visit the Jews with the greatest punishments (the people being rejected, and the city and the temple destroyed forever). The third part of the prophecy, completing the second, adds what will happen in the seventieth week besides the death of the Messiah and what will follow from it: the new messianic covenant will be confirmed in the last week; consequently, in the middle of the week the old sacrifices will cease; finally, at an indefinite time, the temple will be desolated forever.

b) The term "from which" (terminus a quo) from which the 70 weeks are to be computed is indicated by the words: "From the going forth of the word, that Jerusalem is to be built again", i.e. from the time at which the decree is promulgated that the city of Jerusalem, destroyed by the Chaldeans in the year 586 B.C., may be rebuilt. Now the first decree of this kind was issued by Artaxerxes Longimanus in the seventh year of his reign.⁷ By the use of this decree the Jews restored the city in great part.⁸ But since they were hindered by enemies from completing what they had begun,⁹ the same Artaxerxes, in the twentieth year of his reign, granted a second and most ample decree for the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem.¹⁰ Now some compute the 70 weeks from this twentieth year, while others, more correctly, compute them from the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes. The seventh year of Artaxerxes, however, is probably the year 454 B.C., although others hold it to be rather the year 457 or 458.

c) The term "to which" (terminus ad quem). "From the going forth of the word, that Jerusalem is to be built again", i.e. from the year 454 B.C. unto "Christ the prince", 69 weeks = 483 years are to be computed; unto the death of the Messiah, however (with which the abrogation of the old sacrifice announced by Daniel coincides), 69 weeks and a half = 486½ years. If then to the year 454 B.C. you add the 483 years, you arrive at the year A.D. 29, at which time the Messiah was to begin his public life; if, however, to the year 454 you add the 486½ years, you arrive at the year 32/33, to which the death of the Messiah is to be assigned. Moreover, since we cannot establish with full certainty the term "from which" of the weeks, neither can we exactly define the term "to which" of the prophecy. And since, furthermore, neither the year in which Jesus Christ was born¹¹ nor the year in which he began and ended his public life is certainly known, the fulfillment of the prophecy cannot be sought with mathematical precision. That Jesus Christ, however, appeared and died at the end of the weeks of Daniel, no one will call into doubt.¹²

All the chronological prophecies, therefore, which concern the coming of the Messiah demonstrate the time of Jesus Christ. Hence the Jews at that time were expecting the Messiah. The Gospels expressly relate that they "were waiting for the consolation of Israel" or "the redemption of Israel".¹³ Josephus Flavius likewise narrates that nothing stimulated the Jews more to revolt from the Romans and to defend the city of Jerusalem most fiercely against the Romans than the hope of the Messiah who was to come at that time.¹⁴ The rumor of this expectation had also spread among the Gentiles. "Many were possessed by the persuasion that it was contained in the ancient books of the priests that at that time the East would grow strong, and that men proceeding from Judea would obtain possession of affairs",¹⁵ writes Tacitus. Therefore the later rabbis, knowing that the time of the Messiah's coming foretold by the prophets had long since elapsed, forbade the computation of the times: "The sages",¹⁶ says Maimonides (12th century), "whose memory be for a blessing, forbade us to compute the terms of the Messiah's coming, because the people are scandalized that the times are fulfilled and he nevertheless has not appeared. Wherefore the sages said: may the bones burst of those who compute the periods of the times, because they scandalize the people."

In fact, however, Jesus Christ had come at the time appointed by the prophets, showing himself to be the Messiah and fulfilling as well all the biographical prophecies that pertain to the Messiah.