two periods of six months, one of which parts was reckoned from the beginning of the months, the other from the beginning of the year, viz. in spring and in autumn. See Ord. Temp. pp. 19, 27 [Ed. ii. pp. 16, 23]. Nor is it in the first month that the Jews increase the age by the addition of the year ; but it is in the beginning of the seventh month, for instance, that they would begin to write a.m. 5500, in- stead of 5499, with the approbation of Moses : Ex. xxiii. 16, xxxiv. 22. At any rate, from the time of Moses a period of six months was always very remarkable among the Israelites in life and its vicissitudes : and the courses of the priests divided the year into two periods of about six months. Moreover there was an interval of six months between the forerunner John and Christ Jesus Him- self : Luke i. 36. R. Ase had his disciples with him six months in every year ; he ordered them to be at home six months. We have not collected these things to demonstrate the precise length of the prophetical day, but only for the purpose of showing that that length ought not to appear so strange to us. We have derived the demonstration itself from a different source.
§ 11. Any, it is only thus that interpretations branching off into intricate and extreme points are avoided. — The year- day, which many Protestants have long defended, is longer, and much longer, than truth permits ; the ordinary day, which is maintained by Ro- manists and some of our more recent writers, is shorter, and much shorter, than truth permits. I have demonstrated both these points in my German Introduction, § 38, etc. It is evident that these are the two chief sources from which so many false interpretations have flowed. The truth lies between the two. Whoever is able to en- trust himself to this will be in safety. See on ver. 1, Prop. 10, Obs. 29.
§ 12. Therefore both the months of the beast and his number , and the number of his name , have a system free from difficulty. — The 666§ years, which equal the months of the beast and the number of the beast (see EM. Offenb. p. 133), had their commencement, when the event was proceeding from the beginning of ch. xiii. to the middle of ver. 5, at the commencement of the pontificate of Cceles- tine II. on September 25th A. 1143. Gregory VII. began to be independent of the Roman Emperor, Coelestine II. of Rome itself, during the flourishing period of which the beast is not. At that time, therefore, power teas given absolutely to the beast. The number of the name of the beast began from Gregory VII., who claimed for the Roman Pontiff alone the name of Pope, in the most