The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

CHAPTER EIGHT: Jewish Expositors Stress Rome and Year-Day Principle

The historical survey of prophetic interpretation, in Volume I, began with Jewish exposition prior to the Christian Era. But from the time of Josephus onward, the tracing has almost entirely concerned Christian exposition of prophecy. This course was followed, first, because of the relative paucity of Jewish interpretation in the early centuries. And it seemed best, instead of scattering such interpretations through other chapters, to assemble them at this point. This was likewise desirable because the Jewish viewpoint, background, and relationship to the Messianic hope are basically different. Under these circumstances, although the Jews had their hearts set simply on the long-delayed coming of the Messiah, prophecy would have quite a different connotation for the Jews from that anticipated by the Christians. PFF2 184.1