Posted on Friday, March 27, 2009 - 8:05 pm:

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THE NUMBER SHOULD BE 2200

It may surprise some Seventh-day Adventists to learn that, although the author of their book, "Thoughts on Daniel," has quoted Dr.Hales to prove that there is no number in the Bible whose genuineness is better ascertained than that of the 2,300 days, that it is by no means true that 2,300 is the correct number.

When Jesus was on earth, He quoted from the Septuagint or Greek translation by the LXX, as also did His disciples after him, and yet in that translation (Vatican MSS) the number is given as 2400.

If Jesus had attached the importance to the 2,300 days (or "evening-morning") that the Adventists do, He no doubt would have called attention to the discrepancy, but He knew that these days (or "evening-morning") had passed and could have no serious effect upon the future - hence His silence.

Then, too, some of the older copies of the book of Daniel, noticed by the great scholar and translator of the Vulgate, Jerome, give the number as "2,200 evening morning," which is perhaps correct, as the oldest manuscripts are without question more true to the original.

Clearly, then, Seventh-day Adventists are out of joint with the prophecy in every particular.

The difference in figures noted above is the fault of copyists, who never claimed inspiration and were never credited with being inspired. The figures 2,200 appearing in the oldest manuscripts, have greater claim to our acceptance, particularly so, in as much as the actual historical occurrences fit these figures ("2200") to a nicety - We are furnished with the exact time or date when the desolation of the sanctuary and abolition of the daily, evening and morning sacrifices took place, as follows:

On the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the one hundred forty-fifth year (of the Selucid era, or 168 B. C.), they set up the abomination of desolation on the altar (1 Mac. 1:54).

On that date the temple was desecrated, an altar and the statue of Jupiter Olympius set up, displacing the worship of Jehovah and putting an end to the Jewish evening and morning sacrifices.

Ten days later, on the 25th of Casleu, the sacrifices to Jupiter began and the temple was sprinkled with the broth of swine's flesh.

In 1 Mac. 4:52-54, we find the date when the temple service was resumed after its cleansing. We read:

Now on the five and twentieth day of the ninth month, which is called the month of Casleu, in the hundred and forty-eighth year [B.C. 165], they rose up betimes in the morning and offered sacrifices according to the law upon the new altar of burnt offerings, which they had made.

Look at what time and what day the heathen had profaned it, even in that it was dedicated with songs, and citherns, and harps and cymbals. Josephus also bears witness to these dates, as follows:

This desolation happened to the temple in the hundred forty and fifth year, on the twenty-fifth day of the month Apelleus (Casleu), and on the hundred fifty and third Olympiad: but was dedicated anew on the same day, the twenty-fifth of the month Apelleus (Casleu), on the hundred forty-eighth year and on the hundred and fifty-fourth Olympiad, and this desolation came to pass according to the prophecy of Daniel, which was given four hundred and eight years before: for he declared that the Macedonians (Greeks) would dissolve the worship [for some time] (Antiquities 12, 7, 6).

He speaks in another place thus:

And that from among them [the four horns of the rough goat] there should arise a certain king that should overcome our nation, and should take away their political government and should spoil the temple, and forbid the sacrifice to be offered for three years' time. And indeed it so came to pass, that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to "Daniel's vision and what he wrote years before they came to pass" (Antiquities 10, 11, 7).

The Jews did not reckon time by the sun, but counted each new moon as the beginning of their religious month.

Watchers were appointed to notice the first appearance of the new moon, and as soon as it was observed, trumpets were blown at the temple and fires were lighted upon eminences. These months consisted of 29 1/2 days, or as they counted, 29 days in one month and 30 in the next.

Their religious year of 12 months consisted of 354 days and to equalize their time with the solar year, they added an intercalary month of 29 days every three years.

It will be observed that Josephus counts three years from the time the heathen sacrifice began in the temple of the Lord until the sanctuary was cleansed and the morning and evening sacrifices were again resumed; but according to Judas Maccabees, before quoted, the Jewish sacrifices were set aside ten days before the heathen sacrifices began (1 Mac. 1:543), so to get the correct time, we must count three years and ten days.

Let us do some figuring:

Three years of 354 days each, equal ...1062 days. One intercalary month ...29 days. From 15th to 25th of Casleu...10 days. Total time ...1101 days.

This included the 25th day of Casleu, which was the day that the daily evening and morning sacrifices were resumed, after the cleansing, hence it is necessary to deduct this one day, as the abolition of sacrifices and desecration were brought to an end the preceding day (24th) and the sacrifices were resumed the 25th day. This makes our total just 1100 days. Counting two sacrifices each day, one evening and one morning, we multiply 1100 times 2 and see that 2200 sacrifices were abolished.

This harmonizes with the prophecy and is in accord with the older versions seen by Jerome as well as with the reckoning of Josephus, and this establishes the fact that the more correct rendering of the text would be:

"...Unto two thousand and two hundred evening morning (sacrifices) then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."

JOSEPHUS CLEARS THE RECORD OF DANIEL 8:14

It is very evident that what Josephus says of Antiochus Epiphanes fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel in desecrating the temple and abolishing the morning and evening sacrifices for three years, is established beyond peradventure of doubt, and that he resorted to the oldest manuscripts obtainable. This should settle any discussion or question as to the time period of Daniel 8:14. It is unimpeachable evidence that the correct rendering is "2200 days," or "evening and morning" (sacrifices) and NOT "2300," as our King James version gives it.

We have diligently searched the writings of Josephus and among other evidence substantiating the conclusions herein set forth, we find Josephus saying:

Now that Scripture which is laid up in the temple, informs us... (Antiquities, Book 3, Ch.1, end of last part).

And again, he says:

I have translated the Antiquities out of our sacred books; which I easily could do, since I was a priest by birth, and have studied that philosophy which is contained in those writings (Against Apion, Par. 10).

Commenting further as to the holy books (Scripture), to which he had access, Josephus says that these ancient manuscripts fell into his own possession following the destruction of Jerusalem; that they were presented to him by Titus. He says:

Moreover, when the city of Jerusalem was taken by force, Titus Caesar persuaded me frequently to take whatever I would of the ruins of my country, and said that he gave me leave so to do; but when my country was destroyed, I thought nothing else to be of any value which I could take and keep as a comfort under my calamities; so I made this request to Titus, that my family might have their liberty: I had also the holy books by Titus's concession (Life of Josephus, written by himself. Whiston's Josephus, p. 35).

The "holy books" referred to in this quotation, comprised the whole of what we now call the Old Testament; for proof of which see Flavius Josephus against Apion, Whiston's Josephus, Bk.1, Par.7.

Thus it appears that Josephus not only had access to the oldest Scriptures, while the temple was standing, but actually owned them after the destruction of Jerusalem. These were the very Scriptures which were in use in the temple at Jerusalem in the time of Christ and these gave the reading of the time period in Daniel 8:14 as "2200 evening morning;" of this there can be no question.

In view of all the evidence presented, even the most skeptical must be convinced that Daniel 8:14 should properly read:

"...Unto two thousand two hundred evening morning (sacrifices), then shall the sanctuary be cleansed"

Josephus was an honorable man and a scholar, a firm believer in the inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures of which he said in his writings against Apion "which are justly believed to be divine," and then he tells us that the temple was desecrated for three years and of these three years, that:

Indeed it so came to pass that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel's vision and what he wrote years before they came to pass.

We would be foolish indeed to suppose that he tried to fit three years into 2300 days - we would be obliged to question the intelligence and honesty of a wonderful scholar and the best Jewish historian who ever lived, and knowing that he took his reckoning from history less than two hundred years in the past and compared it with the very Scriptures used in the Jewish temple at Jerusalem in the time of Christ, such imputation would only prove our own ignorance, therefore it remains a settled and proven fact that 2200, and not 2300, is the correct number in Daniel 8:14

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