xxi
but intermediate events were to the patriarchs a mass of confused imagery. The succeeding prophets saw them more clearly ; still more so the apostles’ and most of all the last of them, S. John. From Heb. ix. 26, 1 Cor. x. 11, 1 Pet. i. 20, iv. 7, ITabak. iii. 2, Bengel thought the New Testament will not be so long as that of the Old. Being then less than 3943 years, the whole period of the world at farthest will be not more than 7880 years : and in his time (1740) 5690 years had elapsed; and still the 2000 years of Rev. xx. were yet to come ; there could be only 200 years before the prophecy of that chapter begins to be fulfilled. Now, supposing, by a common analogy, the duration of the world is involved in the number seven , i.e. that it is 7777 years, there can be only 97 years left before the 2000 years, and these would transpire by the year 1837. With this agreed the interpretation of the Apocalypse, based on the number of the Beast 666, synchronous with the 42 months.
The most important point maintained in his u Harmony of the Gospels” is, that there could have been hut three Passovers between the LordHs baptism and crucifixion. The Lord adapted His discourses to the portions of Scripture read publicly on the Sabbaths and festivals. Whilst keeping aloof from arbitrary ways of reconciling discrepancies, he established the important principle, that each Evangelist did not intend to relate every event in chronological order. In 1765, “A History of the Life, etc., of our Lord, compiled from Bengel’ s Har- mony,” was published anonymously at Leipsic. G. C. Storr added Bengel’s Table of the Harmony to an Ed. of the Lutheran Bible, published in 1793.
B. remarks, that an Expositor of the Apocalypse, who concerns himself only with the events , and not also with the dates , is a useless one : for that God has connected the two together, and u what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” In preparing a sermon for the first Sunday in Advent 1724, his thoughts were led to the 21st ch. of Revelation. Suddenly the idea forcibly struck him, that the 42 months of the Beast’s blasphemy (ch. xiii. 5, 6), and likewise the number of his name 666, denote a precise* period of TIME, and that these two denote one and the same period. From that moment he set about tracing the line of Scripture chronology both backwards and forwards. As to the prophetic day , he makes it a mean between the literal day and the year (the length assigned by most expositors to the prophetic day), i.e. about half a common year. In ch. xiii. 8, u let him calculate,” implies, there
must be at least tivo numbers for our calculation. That other num- ber besides the 666 (ver. 18), is the 42 months (ver. 5). Thus 42 : 666 :: 1 : x : giving a period of 15f- years for one prophetical month ; and thus each prophetic day is about half a year. He makes a y.cup'og 222§ years; a yyfmz, 1111^- years (ch. vi. 11): an a/m, 2222 1 years (ch. xiv. 6). The 666 years were between 1074 and 1740, the beginning of the reign of Hildebrand to the death of