nativity of Nebuchadnezzar to be the true root of the seven times, let us examine Mr. Faber's data for determining the epoch on which he makes every other prophetic æra, either directly or indirectly, to depend-the epoch of "the sacred calendar of prophecy.' That King Nebuchadnezzar's age when he ascended the throne of Babylon, B. c. 604 according to Ptolemy (B. c. 605 according to our author), is not on record, Mr. Faber admits*. But the Chaldean historian, Berosus, writes, that on the revolt of the Egyptian Satrap (Pharaoh-Necho), a year or two previously, Nabopolassar, the father and predecessor of Nebuchadnezzar, being then old and infirm, appointed his son, "then in mature age" (as our author translates the expression OVTL ETL EV Kia), commander of part of his armies +. From this Mr. Faber infers that the age Nabopolassar could not be less than "between seventy and eighty years," and that of his son Nebuchadnezzar not less than "from forty to fifty," at the time in question; admitting that the latter, who reigned from forty-three to forty-five years, must by consequence have been "about ninety years old at the time of his death +." of On these data alone it is assumed that the birth of Nebuchadnezzar, whose age is fixed at from forty to fifty in the year B. C. 607, occurred between the years B. c. 658 and 646 §; and the author's date of the bisection of the seven times, or of the latter three times and a half (i. e. the period of the little horn's reign, Dan. vii. 25; of the scattering of the holy people, xii. 7; of the woman's nourishment in the wilderness, Rev. xii. 14, &c.), being calculated to the year of our Lord 604, the year B. c. 657 (i. e. 1260 years before A. D. 604), as falling between the two former dates, is assumed as conclusively determined to be that of the seven times of the Gentiles, and of "the sacred Calendar of Prophecy. We are, however, happy to observe, that the writer in another place admits his determination of the birth of Nebuchadnezzar to between the years B. c. 658 and 646 to be" a loose date ¶." It will, in fact, be readily seen that his radical epoch of the seven times and sacred calendar, depends altogether upon the subor*Vol. i. p. 63; vol. ii. p. 10. † Josephus con. Apion, lib. i. c. 19; Cory's Ancient Fragments, ed. 1832, p. 38. Vol. ii. p. 12, 13. § "We may be morally sure," says the author, "from our certain knowledge of this epoch (i. e. that of Nebuchadnezzar's reign and victories), that he must have been born in the course of the ten years which elapsed between the years 658 and 646 before the Christian æra." Vol. i. p. 63. Vol. i. pp. 151-165. Vol. i. p. 165. For the arithmetic of this date the reader is referred to the note § (in this page); the assumed identity of the numbers ten and twelve being, in reference to it, carried on throughout the whole work-an oversight which we notice only as decided enemies to carelessness in computation, particularly when bearing on a point of such vital moment as the chronological root of all prophecy. dinate æra of the bisection A. D. 604; and that the longer period, as set forth in this work, has no pretension, on the author's shewing, to the distinguished title of the calendar and regulator of prophecy. The expression οντι ετι εν ηλικια, translated being then in mature age," on which the whole system is founded, the author himself admits to be "ambiguous," and its precise import determinable from the context alone *-we suppose, the context of Mr. Faber's system, for we can perceive nothing in the passage of Berosus more than a statement that Nebuchadnezzar had arrived at manhood, so as to be old enough to command the forces of the empire. Our author infers, that, as Nabopolassar is said to have been old and infirm, a "mature age" of from forty to fifty years is the least that can be assigned to his son. But (it being the higher number which is adopted, as above) this would make the age of Nebuchadnezzar himself not less than ninety-six at his death; yet we may be sure, from Ezek. xxix. 17, 18, et seq., that he was an active warrior in and after the 27th year of king Jeconiah's captivity, which fell out in the 8th of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar†. But 50 +2+8 + 27 = 87 P. 12. * Vol. ii. + The subject will be illustrated by a table of the principal dates of this most active and important reign, as determined by the joint evidence of Revelation and science-adding the years of the monarch's age, according to Mr. Faber on the one hand, and to historical truth on the other. Faber. An. Et. B. C. i. 657. Birth of Nebuchadnezzar, epoch of seven Times (Faber) xxxii. 626-5. Empire founded by Nabopolassar. Nebuchadnezzar born about this date. li. 607. Pharaoh-Necho's expedition against the king of Nineveh. lii. 606. Nineveh destroyed by the Babylonians and Medes. xxi xxii liv. 604. Nebuchadnezzar defeats Necho at Carchemish. Nabopo- xxiii lvi. 602. Jehoiakim revolts. Ixii. 596. Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem. Jokoiakim's death. lxvi. 592. Zedekiah revolts. Ixvii. 591. Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem. XXV хххі XXXV xxxvi lxviii. 590. ——raises the siege and advances against Pharaoh Hophra. xxxvii lxx. 588. Nebuchadnezzar renews the siege. xxxix lxxii. 586. Jerusalem destroyed. xli lxxiv. 584. Nebuchadnezzar besieges Tyre thirteen years. lxxvi. 582. Sends Nebuzaradan to desolate Judea. xliii xlv lxxxvii. 571. Tyre taken. Ivi lxxxviii. 570. Nebuchadnezzar reduces Egypt and appoints Amasis his xcvii. 561. His recovery and death. Evil-Merodach reigns. lxvii it years, for that prince's age in the 27th of Jeconiah's captivity, as Mr. Faber computes; and he yet does not venture to assign more than from seventy to eighty years to the aged and infirm Nabopolassar. It follows, that, to be consistent, we cannot assume the age of the former, when his father's power was delegated to him, at more than the common majority of man, twenty or twenty-one, at the most; for even this would make him nearly sixty years old at the date mentioned by Ezekiel. Again, were that prince forty or fifty years old two years before his father's death, why should the historian tell us that he had arrived at maturity, or manhood? The use of the expression clearly implies that he had just emerged into manhood. Let us compare a parallel case in John ix. (ver. 21, avros Hλikiav EXEL: ver. 23, or λikiaν EXεi), "He is of age." Here the expression is the same as in the Chaldean annalist. But had the blind man been so old as forty or fifty, why should the expression have been used? for all present must have known he had arrived far beyond the age of legal majority*. The context shews that he had just emerged from youth; and therefore duly determines, on the highest authority, the definite import of λka to be "manhood." And, applying this as an index to the passage of Berosus, we have Nebuchadnezzar's age determined to about twenty years when he took the command of his father's armies †, as above. It follows, that Mr. Faber's determination is truly a loose one; and that the seven times of the Gentiles and Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, if to be deduced from the birth of Nebuchadnezzar, must, as well as all other epochs depending upon it, be lowered at least thirty years, or from B. c. 657 to about B. c. 627. It hence appears that ninety-seven would be the full age of the Babylonian prince, according to the date of his birth as fixed by Mr. Faber, and that of his death as determined by the Chaldean eclipses of Ptolemy-an age which, it will be manifest, is utterly inconsistent with the history of this active reign. It moreover makes Nebuchadnezzar to have arrived at the age of decrepitude (between seventy and eighty years, according to our author's estimate of his father's life when Jerusalem was destroyed-an epoch when history, both sacred and profane, assures us that the king of Babylon was in his full vigour. On the other hand, it appears that the king was then in about his forty-first year, and that he died at about the age of sixty-six, according to historical truth. If, however, we may interpret Isai. xxiii. 15, Tyre" shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king," literally, as referring the seventy years to Nebuchadnezzar's age, in a primary sense, rather than to the seventy years of his empire's duration---a course which his typical character seems to justify-we shall then have the full age of this king settled by Scripture, exceeding that deduced from history by four years. * That is, twenty years: see Num. i. 3, 4, 5, &c. Mr. Cory, in the second edition of his admirable work, "Ancient Fragments," &c. queries, in a note, whether the alleged "ambiguous" expression in Berosus does not simply mean " but a youth," p. 38. This view, in our apprehension, best explains why the historian of Babylon has introduced the words ovti eti ev λixiḍat all. Indeed, the use of the particle ε,“ still ”" (which, by the way, Mr. Faber omits, reading ovti eu nλing vol. ii. p. 12), conclusively limits the But the era of the Babylonian empire, founded by Nabopolassar (the father of Nebuchadnezzar), the viceroy of Babylon, who revolted from the king of Assyria, is fixed by Ptolemy and Berosus to the year B. c. 525*; at about which time it would appear, from the above, that Nebuchadnezzar was born †. The prophet Ezekiel dates it one year higher, or 40 years (the period of the prophetic siege of Jerusalem, Ezek. iv. 6) before the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar, when Jerusalem was destroyed. This lastmentioned æra also corresponds with the 13th year of king Josiah, when the mission of Jeremiah to denounce the Babylonish invasions and captivity commenced-a mission exactly coequal with the 40 years of the prophetic siege (Jerem. i. 2, 3), originating from the first going forth of the Babylonian lion to desolate the nations (Jer. iv. 7). It follows, that whether we deduce the seven times of the Gentiles and epoch of the golden head from the birth of Nebuchadnezzar, with Mr. Faber, or from the imperial Babylonian æra, in harmony with the Persian, Macedonian, and Roman æras of the silver, the brass, and the iron, the chronological root is the same; falling in the year B. c. 626 according to the Hebrew, and B. c. 525 according to the Chaldean computation-i. e. 31 or 32 years below Mr. Faber's "loose " determination. This will consequently likewise lower the date of the bisection, or of the latter three times and a half, from A. D. 604 to A. D. 635 or 636; and that of the termination of the calendar from A. D. 1864 to A.D. 1895 or 1896; thereby doubling the interval between the present time and the Millennial æra, on our author's principles-an important distinction to the existing inhabitants of the world. Let us now inquire into the distinguishing historical characters of the year 635-6 of the Christian æra, the root of the latter three times and a half, and of the bisection of the Calendar, as corrected by true history, sacred and profane. age of the king to the period of youthful maturity. Here let us remark, that it cannot but be pleasing to lovers of truth that reference to the original passages of the Chaldean, the Egyptian, and other profane authorities, which are so necessary to the connection of sacred and profane history, as well as to that of the histories of the Old and New Testament, is, by the publication of the "Fragments "above mentioned, placed in the power of every reader, who may, by reference to an octavo volume, correct erroneous readings, &c. the data for which were heretofore obtainable only in the folios of Josephus, Eusebius-Greek, Latin, and Armenian-of the Byzantine historians, &c. &c. See A. Polyhistor, Abydenus, and Ptolemy, in Cory's Fragments, pp. 59, 64, 83: also Introduction, p. 32. The queen of Nebuchadnezzar was the daughter of Astyages, prince of the Medes; and the marriage took place before the deaths of Nabopolassar and Cyaxares, the father and predecessor of Astyages, and immediately before the destruction of Nineveh. Idem, ibidem. Compare the Median catalogues, Fragments, p. 85-87. This furnishes another proof of the youth of Nebuchadnezzar, were it required. In that year we know, from history, that the Saracens conquered Syria, and erected their first mosque in Jerusalem; whereby the Mahometan power became the little horn of the Macedonian he-goat (Dan. viii. 9, 23): for although the current Mahometan æra-that of the Hegira-falls A. D. 622; and although the false prophet began his ministry about A.D. 608 or 609; it is plain that the rise of the horn cannot be dated, neither the treading under foot of the sanctuary, until Christendom was invaded, nor until the horn became planted within the territory of the Macedonian goat and Roman beast *. The analogy of the ten Gothic horns of the beast is conclusive upon this point. These characters for the bisection of the seven times, and root of the three times and a half of the scattering of the holy people, are, besides, in perfect keeping with those of the root of the seven times, and of the prior three times and a half. The rising up of an idolatrous empire, the conquest of Palestine, and the siege and desolation of Jerusalem (in the first case inhabited by the Israelites, in the second by representative Israelites), were common to both epochs. " Again, as the era of bisection, A. D. 636, is historically and prophetically fixed as that of the rising up of the little Oriental horn and of the three times and a half of scattering; so it is chronologically determined to be that of the rising up of the Apocalyptic bicornal beast, or false prophet (Rev. xiii. 11 et seq. with xix. 20, &c.), whose number or period, to be "counted, together with his name, is 666. But 666 years was precisely the age of the fourth, or Roman, beast of Daniel (the first in the Apocalypse), when the little Oriental horn, or false prophet, arose in the dominions of the former, computing from the Actian and Ptolemaic æra of the empire, B. c. 30, A. D. 636 being the 666th year of the empire of Augustus. Then it was that the apostasy, founded by a man whose name, Maoueris, expresses the same number, obtained it's first footing in Christendom; and if the two horns of the second Apocalyptic beast be identical with the two little horns of Daniel's fourth beast and he-goat, we are also here presented with the epoch of the Western apostasy, together with its name, Aarevoç: and the period of three times and a half being assigned to both apostasies, the identity of the * The Saracens began to invade the Roman Empire a. D. 634, and set up the caliphate at Damascus A. D. 637. Here Sir Isaac Newton accordingly places the rise of the locusts under the fifth Apocalyptic trumpet; referring this plague, in common with many other commentators, to the Saracens He fixes the end of the first five months, or 150 prophetic days, to the removal of the seat of government from Damascus to Bagdad, A.D. 766; and that of the second five months to the surrender of his temporal power by the caliph of Bagdad, A. D. 936. Bagdad was taken by the Turks two years afterwards. |