The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

V. Cappel Begins Seventy Weeks With Seventh of Artaxerxes (457 B.C.)

JACQUES CAPPEL (1570-1624), Lord of le Tilloy and eminent Protestant theologian, was born at Rennes. His father, a judge, had to flee because of his religious convictions. But Jacques was left in Sedan to study theology. His father died in exile soon after, and the mother, with the younger children, reduced to dire poverty, renounced the faith in order to receive a subsistence for the children. Stricken by grief and remorse, she soon followed the father into the grave. The girls and the little brother were sent to a convent. In 1593, after having completed his studies, the first thing Jacques did was to secure the release of his brother and sisters from the convent. He also re covered his paternal possessions, the estate of Tilloy. In 1596 he was called to Sedan by the duke of Bouillon to be pastor as well as professor of Hebrew in the seminary. Here he completed his lifework. ³⁵ PFF2 630.1

Cappel was distinguished as an exegete, philologist, historian, and antiquarian, and during extensive travels in Italy and Germany formed the acquaintance of many noted Protestants. He was the author of many theological works, most of them written between 1611 and 1622. Among them we find In Apocalypsin D. Johannis CHECK CHECK, printed in 1605. PFF2 630.2

In 1616, taking up the cudgels against Ferrier, the apostate Protestant minister, Cappel wrote Les livrees de Babel, ou l’his-toire du siege romain (The Flunkeys [Footmen] of Babel or the History of the Roman See), dealing with the issue of Antichrist. Dedicated to the prince of Sedan, now marshal of France, who was his former pupil’ the book stresses the consent of scholars in many nations that the pope is Antichrist. Many chapters deal with the exposition of Revelation and Daniel; and one chapter, with the three advents of Christ. There are two striking characteristics of his prophetic interpretation. The first is his consecutive arrangement of the prophecies—those of the Revelation following those of Daniel and earlier, which he ends at the cross. Thus he completely separates Daniel’s prophetic periods from those of the Revelation, so that, for ex ample, the 1260 days of John are not the same as Daniel’s “time and times and the dividing of time.” The second distinctive interpretation is his assigning fixed time values to some of the outline prophecies—for example, fifty years each to the seals and 150 years each to the trumpets. (Title page appears on page 648.) PFF2 630.3

1. PROPHECIES COMPASS CHRISTIAN ERA

The Apocalypse cannot extend from John’s time to the end, he insists, unless the “1260 days make up as many years, and unless every seal and every trumpet embraces a certain length of time.” Placing the seven churches in John’s lifetime, he counts the seals, beginning with the death of John, from A.D. 100 to A.D. 400, with fifty years for each seal. ³⁶ The trumpets, following the sixth seal (presum ably, therefore, included in the seventh), are each given five months, like the fifth trumpet, that is, 150 years—the first (400-550) being the barbarian invasions of Europe, the second (550-700), the Lombards, Persians, and Mohammedans, and so on. ³⁷ PFF2 631.1

2. HOLDS HISTORIC POSITION ON OUTLINE PROPHECIES

Cappel makes the first beast of Revelation 13 the old Roman state up to the year 500, and the two-horned beast from the earth the Papacy—the two horns being the claim of spiritual and temporal power. ³⁸ The paralleling prophecies of Daniel 2 and 7 are declared to compass Babylonia, Medo Persia, Greece, and Rome, in connection with which several supporting Jewish expositors are also cited. ³⁹ PFF2 631.2

3. BEGINS 490 YEARS IN 457 B.C.

Although rejecting the reckoning of Cardinals Damian, Bellarmine, Alcazar, and others who make the 1260 days literal, Cappel treats the 1290 and 1335 days as only literal days applied to Antiochus, ⁴⁰ and the 2300 days similarly; ⁴¹ yet he makes the 70 weeks “a period of 490 years,” starting from the seventh year of Artaxerxes, at 457 B.C., and sealing and fulfilling all the prophecies of Daniel and of earlier times with the death of Christ. Note the clarity of his reasoning: PFF2 631.3

“The weeks are to begin with the publishing of the edict of Artaxerxes Longimanus, an edict obtained by Ezra in the seventh year of his reign.... Therefore, from that edict to the baptism of our Lord, who by the voice of the Father was declared the Christ and the Prince of our salvation, there are sixty-nine entire weeks.... And during the seven weeks the places and the ditches shall be rebuilt in a time of anguish. These seven weeks enclose Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s government from the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus to the sixteenth year of Darius the Bastard, from the year 457 down to the year 408. ⁴² PFF2 632.1