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meaning than srog. Whence the comic writer said, sruv sviavrovg , and Plato in his Cratylus does not vary much from him. It has a closer reference to this, that the noun sviavrog is used for denoting any positive year, so to speak, while srog is only used to denote the natural year. Apollodorus, lib. iii., speaking of Cadmus, dtdiov sviavr'ov sdrireufcv dpsi' r\v ds sviavrog rors o>croj srr\. And the LXX., Deut. xxxi. 10, f^sra sk rd srrj, sv xaipti sviavrov rv\g dp'soswg : and thus continually, Lev. xxv. 10, 10, 52, xxvii. 18 ; Judg. x. 8. Whence it comes to pass, that in innumerable places the noun srr\ is con- strued with any cardinal number whatever, and often a large num- ber ; whereas sviavrog is never so used, but for the most part indefi- nitely, or in the singular number : Gen. xlvii. 28 ; 2 Sam. xxi. 1 : compared with 1 Kings xiv. 21 ; 2 Kings xxiv. 18 ; 2 Chron. xxii. 2. And this difference between the words ought not to be ne- glected, because it is peculiar to the Greeks, and not customary with us.
We have thus far discussed the subjects which we proposed, § 3. For the subject, viewed in this light, plainly, 1) consists of *4 ^<poi, elements of calculation , and contains division, multiplication, sub- traction, and addition ; and by means of those elements of calcula- tion, first, its noun, years , is connected with the adjective itself, 666 ; and then many other computations also are made from these. 2) It squares with the number of the beast , properly so called. 3) It introduces the number of the times of a man ; 4) and the 666 years.
§ 8. Hence several lesser periods of times are resolved. — After the analogy of 42 months, other periods, for instance, the five months of the first woe, the hour and day and month and year of the second woe, are easily resolved ; and the history corresponds, as we have shown at the proper places. But the question respecting the precise length of the Apocalyptic hour itself separately, of the day, the month, and the year, might be omitted. If, however, it is in- quired into, it is easily deduced from those things which we have said. A month is the twelfth part of a year ; a year has days ; a day has 24 hours : and with this natural division the pro- phetical corresponds. Moreover, since the 42 prophetical months are 666§ ordinary years, the length of the prophetical times readily pre- sents itself. In short, each measure of ordinary time is with refer- ence to prophetical time, as 190|f to 1, or as 4000 to 21.
§ 9. In the same manner greater periods also of time are resolved. — We propose this progressive system : —
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