1. The Date of the Edict. — We have supposed this to be from the time of its taking effect at Jerusalem rather than from that of its nominal issue at Babylon. The difference, however (being onlv four months), will not seriously affect the argument. Ezra states (vii, 8) that "he arrived at Jerusalem in the fifth month [-li, our July-August] of the seventh year of the king," Arta- xerxes. Ctesias, who had every opportunity to know, makes Artaxerxes to have reigned forty-two years; and Thucydides states that an Athenian embassy sent to Ephesus ill the winter that closed the seventh year of the Peloponnesian war was there met with (he news of Artaxerxes's death : Trv^iifievoi . . . ' Apra^ip^rfv . . . VEMtTTi TtSrrTiKoTa (Kara yap toT'tov tov ^povoi' trt- XfVTrjrriv) {Bell. Pelop. iv, .^0). Now this war began in the spring of B.C. 431, as all allow ('I'huc. ii, 2), and its seventh year expired with the spring of B.C. 424 ; con- sequently, Artaxerxes died in the winter introducing this latter calendar year, and his reign began some lime in B.C. 466. The same historian also states tliat Tlie- mistocles, in his flight to Asia, having been driven by a
storm into the Athenian fleet, at that time blockading Naxos, managed to get safely carried away to Ephesus, whence he despatched a letter of solicitation to Ar- taxerxes, then lately invested with royalty, viUKrrl jiatTiXeuoi'Ta {Bell. Pelop. i, 137). The date of the conquest of that island is B.C. 466, which is, therefore, also that of the I'ersian king's accession. It is now necessary to fix the season of the year in which he be- came king. If Ctesias means that his reign lasted for- ty-t\voJ'ull years, or a little over rather than under that length, the accession must be dated prior to the begin- ning of B.C. 406; but it is more in accordance with the usual computation of reigns to give the number of aa-- renl years, if nearly full, and this will bring the date of accession down to about the beginning of summer, B.C. 466. This result is also more in accordance with the simultaneous capture of Naxos, which can hardly have occurred earlier in that year. I may add that it like- wise explains the length assigned to this reign (forty- one years) by Ptolemy, in his astronomical canon, al- though he has misled modern compilers of ancient his- torj- b}' beginning it in B.C. 465, having apparently himself fallen into some confusion, from silently annex- ing the short intermediate periods of anarchy, some- times to the preceding and at others to the ensuing reign. The "seventh year" of Artaxerxes, therefore, began about the summer of B.C. 460, and the "first [Hebrew] month" (Nisan) occurring within that twelve- month gives the following March-April of B.C. 459 as the time when Ezra received his commission to proceed to Jerusalem for the purpose of executing the royal mandate.
2. The Date of the Conversion of Cornelius. — The solution of this question will be the determination of the distance of this event from the time of our Sav- iour's Passion; the absolute date of this latter occur- rence must, therefore, first be determined. This is as- certained to have taken place in A.D. 29 by a com- parison of the duration of Christ's ministry with the historical data of Luke iii, 1-28; but the investigation is too long to be inserted here. See Chronology. A ready mode of testing this conclusion is by observing that this is the only one of the adjacent series of years in which the calculated date of the equinoctial full moon coincides with that of the Friday of the crucifix- ion Passover, as any one may sec — with sufficient ac- curacy for ordinary purposes — by computing the mean lunations and the week-day back from the present time. This brings the date of Christ's baptism to A.D. 25; and the whole tenor of the Gospel narratives indicates that this took place in the latter part of summer.
I'he following are special treatises on this prophecy : Ilulsius, Ahrahanelis Com, in LXX Ileh. Confut. (Breda, 1653); Calov, De LXX Septinianis (Vitemb. 1663); Sosimann, De LXX Hebd. Dan. (Lugd. 1678) ; Schon- wald. Diss, de LXX Hebd. (Jen. 1720) ; Marshall. Trea- tise on the 70 Weeks of Daniel (Lond. 1725); Markwick, Calculation of the LXX Weels of Daniel (ibid. 1728); Pfaft; Diss, de LXX Hebd. ( Tiib. 1734 ) ; Pagendorn, Diss, de Hebd. Danielis (Jen. 1745) ; Ayroliis, Liber LXX Hebdomatum Resignntvs (Rom. 1748) ; Offerhaus, De LXX Septinianis Danielis (Groning. 1750); Parry, On Daniel's 70 Weeks (Northampton, 1762); Micliaelis, Versvch iiber d. 70 Wochen Dainels (Gott. 1771); also Epistolce de LXX Hebdomndibus (Lond. 1773); Hasen- k!vm\),Neue Erhlar.d.'iO W. (Lemgo, 1772); Kluit, 7'>- plirafio LXX Hebd. (jNIiddelb. 1774) ; Jung, Chronologia LXX flebd. (Heidelb. 1774); Blayney, Dissertation on the 70 W. (Oxf. 1775) ; Winter, Sermons on the 70 W. (Lond. 1777); Lorenz, Lnterpret. Nov. LXX Hebd. (Ar- gent. 1781); Wiesner, Inquis. in LXX Hebd. (Wirceb. 1787) ; Vri, Intey-pret. LXX Hebd. (Oxon. 1788); Butt, Commentari/ on the 70 II'. (Lond. 1807) ; Faber, Disser- tation on the 70 W. (ibid. 1811); Stonard, Disseiiation on the 70 W. (ibid. 1825) ; Scholl, Comment, de LXX Hebd. (Francf. 1829); Steudel, Disq. de LXX Hebd. (Tub. 1833) I Wieseler, Die 70 W. crortert (Gcitt. 1839);