25. There were but
two returns from captivity, _Zerubbabel_'s and _Ezra_'s; in _Zerubbabel_'s
they had only commission to build the Temple, in _Ezra_'s they first became
a polity or city by a government of their own. Now the years of this
_Artaxerxes_ began about two or three months after the summer solstice, and
his seventh year fell in with the third year of the eightieth _Olympiad_;
and the latter part thereof, wherein _Ezra_ went up to _Jerusalem_, was in
the year of the _Julian Period_ 4257. Count the time from thence to the
death of _Christ_, and you will find it just 490 years. If you count in
_Judaic_ years commencing in autumn, and date the reckoning from the first
autumn after _Ezra_'s coming to _Jerusalem_, when he put the King's decree
in execution; the death of _Christ_ will fall on the year of the _Julian
Period_ 4747, _Anno Domini_ 34; and the weeks will be _Judaic_ weeks,
ending with sabbatical years; and this I take to be the truth: but if you
had rather place the death of _Christ_ in the year before, as is commonly
done, you may take the year of _Ezra_'s journey into the reckoning.
_Know also and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to
cause to return and to build _Jerusalem_, unto the Anointed the Prince,
shall be seven weeks_. The former part of the Prophecy related to the first
coming of _Christ_, being dated to his coming as a Prophet; this being
dated to his coming to be Prince or King, seems to relate to his second
coming.
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