The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

IV. Nahmanides Employs Time Prophecy in Debate With Dominican

[17] NAHMANIDES, or Moses ben Nahman, or RAMBAN (1195-1270), of Spain, was a practicing physician. In marked contrast to Maimonides, he was a conservative, with unbounded respect for Moses and the prophets. He fought against the rationalizing of the Scriptures and the rejection of miracles. He also rejected the exegesis of Ibn Ezra, and many Karaites attended his lectures. But Nahmanides revived the mystical Cabalism. ⁶⁷ PFF2 215.4

In his Sefer Hagulah (Book of Redemption), Nahmanides seeks to harmonize the various time periods and dates so as to deduce the Messianic year, setting 1358 C.E. for the Messiah’s coming. ⁶⁸ Nahmanides believes that the six days of creation represent six millennia, ⁶⁹ at the end of which the Messiah would appear. The seventh would be the millennial Sabbath. The seventy weeks are 490 years, from the close of the first commonwealth to the end of the second, and involving the devastation of Europe. As regards the 1290, 1335, and 2300 periods, when the sanctuary shall be victorious, dated from King David’s rule, Nahmanides says, “Days stand for years.” ⁷⁰ He likewise had recourse to Gematria. PFF2 216.1

1. DRAMATIC DEBATE WITH PABLO CHRISTIANI BEFORE SPANISH KING

In September, 1263, the Dominican Era Pablo Christiani (a former Jew) challenged the Jews to a series of public disputations before King James of Aragon, on the differences between Jews and Christians. The three main points were: Had the Messiah appeared? Was He human or divine? And who possesses the true faith? The king ordered Nahmanides to engage him at Barcelona, granting the former full freedom of speech. Four days were consumed in this spectacular dispute, which centered on the Messianic question. ⁷¹ Nahmanides explained the 1290 days as 1290 years, referring to Leviticus 25:29 and Genesis 24:55 to illustrate the year-day principle. Pablo contended that the 490 years reached to the “Most Holy” and the “anointed prince.” Nahmanides responded that Jesus was born seventy years before the nation fell. In the course of the debate he said: PFF2 216.2

“It is now 1195 years since the destruction, or 95 years less than the Messianic figure [1335] of Daniel. We believe that the Messiah will come that year.” ⁷² PFF2 217.1

Nahmanides was adjudged the winner, the king giving him three hundred gold dinars and royal protection on his homeward journey. ⁷³ But in 1264, by order of a papal bull, all copies of the Talmud in Aragon were confiscated and certain anti-Christian passages stricken out. Nahmanides’ published account was condemned to be burned and he was banished from the country, thus suffering under the Catholic government of Spain, which had compelled his participation in the disputation, and which resulted in his exile. Nahmanides looked for a resurgence of Mohammedan power as a preliminary to redemptive deliverance. ⁷⁴ PFF2 217.2

It is noteworthy not only that Nahmanides employed the 1290—year time prophecy in his public debate before the king, but that Pablo—a Jewish renegade, and therefore somewhat acquainted with prophecy—projects the 490 years to prove Christ to have been the promised Messiah. But Nahmanides wins the point from him, because Pablo, now a Catholic, was not sufficiently informed rightly to place the period of the seven hebdomads in answer to Nahmanides’ rebuttal—Jew and Catholic alike acknowledging the year-day principle. Truly, prophecy has had the spotlight in many a dramatic setting, and not a few times before kings—even in the thirteenth century! PFF2 217.3

2. OTHER RABBIS OF MIDDLE AGES APPLY YEAR-DAY PRINCIPLE

Only the barest mention can be made of five other less prominent thirteenth- and fourteenth-century expositors of the year-day principle. These were: PFF2 217.4

[18] BAHYA BEN ASHER (c. 1260-1340), of Spain, who held that the 1290 and 1335, and the 2300 divided by 2 (or 1150 years), were all year-days. ⁷⁵ PFF2 218.1

[19] GERSONIDES, OR LEVI BEN GERSHON (RALBAG) (1288-1344), French philosopher, stated that the last portion of Daniel had clear reference to Rome, with the 1290 years reaching from the destruction to the redemption, which he placed at 1358 C.E. ⁷⁶ The four beasts of Daniel 7 were explicitly declared to parallel the four kingdoms of Daniel 2—Babylonia, with the swiftness of a lion; Medo-Persia, with the rapacity of a bear; Greece, with its four divisions; and the fourth dreadful, long-enduring beast as “the kingdom of Rome.” ⁷⁷ PFF2 218.2

[20] MENAHEM BEN AARON BEN ZERAH (1310-1385), of Spain, held the 1290 and 1335 days as years. ⁷⁸ PFF2 218.3

[21] SIMON BEN ZEMAH DURAN, or RaSHBaZ (1361-1444), rabbi and physician of Algiers, who had fled thither from Mallorca, because of persecutions of the Jews, in 1394 became chief rabbi of Algiers. He wrote numerous commentaries on the Bible and Talmud, his commentary on Job, Oheb Mishpat, giving 1850 C.E. as the Messianic year. Citing Ezekiel 4:4 as evidence that prophetic days stood for literal years, he alluded, among other discussions, to the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14, which he interpreted as so many years. Taking the final destruction of the kingdom of Israel, about 450 B.C.E., as the starting point, he looked to the redemption to take place 2300 years later, or in the year 1850 C.E. Duran similarly applied the 1290 year-days of Daniel 12:11 to the conquest of Jerusalem by the Mohammedans. The end of Mohammedan rule could therefore be looked for 1290 years after the rise of Mohammed (1290 -f 622 = 1912 C.E.), and the beginning of the end sixty years earlier, in 1850 c.E. ⁷⁹ PFF2 218.4