The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VIII. Petri First to Begin 70 Weeks Synchronously With 2300

JOHANN PHILIPP PETRI (1718-1792), apparently the first expositor to begin the 70 weeks synchronously with the 2300 days, was born the son of a carpenter, near Hanau, Germany. He attended the gymnasium of Hanau, and finished his theological studies at the universities of Halle and Marburg. Later he became pastor of the Reformed Church in Seckbach, a suburb of Frankfurt am Main, where he served from 1746 to 1792. Energetic and studious, he was particularly interested in the prophecies. ⁶⁶ He was author of eleven treatises on the prophecies, ranging from 24 to 212 pages. ⁶⁷ It is interesting to note that the spread of the disorders of the Seven Years’ War over Ger many, together with the serious state of the church, inspired him to study the numbers of Daniel and the Apocalypse till he felt he had a clear understanding of them. PFF2 713.3

Picture 1: PETRI AND WOOD BEGIN 2300 YEARS WITH 70 WEEKS
Petri of Germany Announced in 1768 That the 2800 Years Began Synchronously With the 70 Weeks (Left); Church of Which He Was Pastor at Seckbach (Bottom); Hans Wood of Ireland, in 1787, Took Essentially the Same Position (Upper Right). Discussed on Pages 719-722
Page 713

1. PETRI’S TWELVE PROPHETIC NUMBERS

Petri’s first published treatise, in 1768, was a 24-page Aufschlusz der Zahlen Daniels und der Offenbahrung Johannis (Explanation of the Numbers of Daniel and the Revelation) “based upon the divine Word.” Twelve prophetic time numbers, six from Daniel and the same number from Revelation, are treated: (1) the 2300days—the largest number and including all others—applied typically to days, literal days in the time of Antiochus, but principally as prophetic days, or literal years, with the key to their chronological beginning found in the 70 weeks; ⁶⁸ (2) the 70weeks with their subdivisions—Christ baptized in the 483rd year—with both periods beginning simultaneously in 453 before Christ’s birth, and the 2300 years ending in 1847, the end of the abomination; ⁶⁹ (3) the 1290 year-days, which Petri likewise ends in 1847, and therefore begins in A.D. 557, as the beginning of abomination in the church of Christ; ⁷⁰ (4) the 1335 years, whichext end forty-five years beyond the 1290, or to 1892-preparatoryyears for the eternal rest; ⁷¹ (5) the three and a half times of the Little Horn of Daniel 7:25, which Petri interprets as the Mo hammed an Turks; ⁷² (6) the same period of Daniel 12:7; (7-10)the 1260 years and their paralleling numbers of the Revelation, likewise ending in 1847 ⁷³ (thus beginning about 587-590, with Gregory I); and (11, 12) the two beasts of Revelation 13, both symbolizing the same blasphemous religio-political empire, to whom the same time is applied. ⁷⁴ PFF2 715.1

2. MILLENNIAL VICTORY FOLLOWS CHRIST-SATAN CONTRO VERSY

In 1769 Petri published Aufschlusz der drey Gesichter Daniels (Unfolding of the Three Visions of Daniel). J. D. Michaelis, reviewing both pamphlets, demanded clear information on the thousand years. Petri responded with Das nahe Tausendjahrige Reich Christi und darauf folgende Reich des Vatters (The Imminent Thousand-Year Kingdom of Christ and the Succeeding Reign of the Father), declaring that the main portion of the Revelation is devoted to the controversy between Christ and Satan, while Revelation 20-22 gives a description of the victory of Christ. This controversy has its appointed time in these various time periods, but the victory is in the thousand years. PFF2 715.2

3. MILLENNIAL REIGN BEGINS AT ADVENT IN 1847

In 1774Petri wrote Die Offenbahrung Jesu Christi durch Johannem(The Revelation of Jesus Christ by John), declaring that the seven churches, seals, trumpets, and vials all run parallel-the seventh beginning in 1847, and the thousand years beginning at that time. ⁷⁵ Petri’s explanation is explicit: PFF2 716.1

“According to my explanation of the visions of Daniel, it is to be easily seen that the seventy weeks and the 2300 evenings and mornings of Daniel 8. begin together in the same year. Therefore at the time of the birth of Christ, 453 years of both these periods had passed; what remains and has to be done is the cleansing of the abominations and the consecration of the sanctuary at the coming of Christ, 1847, ... whose kingdom and victory begins therewith and lasts during that glorious Sabbath year, Hebrews 4, Revelation 20, for 1000 years. PFF2 716.2

“4) At the end of the 1000 years follows a little time in which Satan will be released and attack the camp of the saints.” ⁷⁶ PFF2 716.3

In other writings Petristrikes at the concept of a golden age before the advent. PFF2 716.4

4. SEVENTY WEEKS PROVIDE KEY TO UNLOCK 2300 DAYS

Petri’s first treatise, although not claiming to calculate the time of the advent, undertakes to explain the numbers in Daniel, the first and most important being the 2300 days, and the 70 weeks, which give the clue to its beginning. The 490 years are located, he says, by three landmarks: the end of the 7 weeks, which he places in Nehemiah 2; the end of the 62 weeks in the 30th year of Christ, at His baptism; and the crucifixion three and a half years later in the midst of the week. Here is Petri’s statement: PFF2 716.5

“The angel showed the thirtieth year of Christ or the 483rd year of the 70 weeks and therefore the 453rd year as the birth of Christ, so that was the correct explanation of the sealed vision of the 2300 days. 453 years of the 2300 had passed at the birth of Christ and the remainder of this number continues from that date to A.D. 1847, as 1847 plus 453 makes 2300.” ⁷⁷ PFF2 717.1

He ignores secular chronology, and indicates no event for the starting point; his key date is the 30th year of Christ’s life. He does not designate 453 B.C but 453 years before Christ’s birth. It has generally been assumed that he had 453 B.C. in mind, but he merely subtracts, and observes that the date of Christ’s birth is in dispute, with a possible discrepancy of several years in historical dates. ⁷⁸ PFF2 717.2

In the following year he uses more exact time statements, and makes the point that his 1847 is not necessarily the accepted A.D. 1847. PFF2 717.3

“By this Nehemiah could know who received such a command (in the second chapter) in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of Arthasasta [Artaxerxes], as well as all of Israel that now seven weeks or forty-nine years of the seventy weeks (as well as 49 years of the 2300) had passed.... Seven weeks and 62 weeks make 483 years, which in the 30th year of our Lord had been completed of the 70 weeks, and at the same time of the 2300 years.... In the middle of the 70th week, three and one-half years later, therefore, in the year 486 and one-half, at the time of the Easter festival in the month of Nisan, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, when Christ died on the cross, 4861/2 years of the 2300 had also been completed. Now the dark vision was clear to Daniel and the people of God had received an unmistakable pivotal point of time, by which it was possible to recognize exactly the beginning of the 2300 before as well as after Christ.... PFF2 717.4

“Since 458 years of the 2300 have elapsed at the time of Christ’s birth, so the remaining will bring us to the year 1847 when the sanctuary will be dedicated. As far as the calendar is correct, so far will the end of the 2300 be correct. The proof here rests not upon shaky Persian or Greek dates, but upon the Word of God.” ⁷⁹ PFF2 717.5

He states the principle that unlocks the 2300 years, in relation to the judgment-hour cleansing of the sanctuary, in these impressive words: PFF2 717.6

“And therefore, I find that the commentators up to now could not possibly understand the vision, because they separated the second vision Daniel 8 and 9 [the seventy weeks from the 2300 days]. It is impossible to cut off one piece of this vision and then to understand the whole of it with out its [proper] connections. Therefore such commentators neither could find the beginning nor the end of the seventy weeks.” ⁸⁰ PFF2 718.1

“The foundation for the complete understanding was laid in His first coming through the suffering and the death; but the fight and the destruction will continue to go on in His church among the people of Christ until the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary which is the day of judgment, when the Ancient of days will give the Son of man and His holy people the kingdom, power, and might under the whole heaven as was shown Daniel in the first vision in chapter 7, vs. 14, 27.” ⁸¹ PFF2 718.2

5. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PETRI CONTRIBUTION

The significance of the Petri contribution looms before us in its true proportions in the light of the following retrospect: The year-day principle, as applied to the 70 weeks by the Jews centuries before Christ, was generally accepted by Christians; next was added the application of the principle to the 1260 days by Joachim, about A.D. 1190. This, in turn, was extended to the 2300 days by Villanova about 1297 and Cusa in 1440-dating its be ginning from the time of the vision. During the Reformation men like Funck (1564) were perfecting the chronology of the 70 weeks, which was generally connected with the death of Christ, but as yet unconnected with the 2300 years. Then post-Reformation writers, like Tillinghast (1644), and later Beverley, concluded that the 2300 days embraced the 70 weeks. Sherwin and Beverley anticipated the terminus of the 2300 years about 1700, and Horch looked toward 1790; others fixed upon dates but a few years different. PFF2 718.3

And now Petri, in 1768, evidently was the first to begin these related greater and lesser periods together; he began both periods 453 years before Christ’s birth, with the cross in the midst of the seventieth week, and ended the longer period in the year 1847 after Christ’s birth. After him came others who did practically the same thing; in the nineteenth century the majority of expositors calculated backward from the time of Christ to a starting point in B.C. 457, or 453, to begin the 2300 years with the 70 weeks. PFF2 718.4

To recapitulate: The 70 weeks as years, long accepted, had become firmly established in prophetic interpretation, located by a majority with reference to the death of Christ. The growing conviction of the soundness of the year-day principle for the 2300 days also, especially as keyed to the 70 weeks by Petri, set the stage for the next expected test of that principle, namely, the anticipated ending of the 1260 years in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The recognition, in turn, of the fulfillment of this expectancy, under the events of the French Revolution period, laid the foundation for the great emphasis upon the approaching terminus of the 2300 year-days in the early decades of the nineteenth century, as will be seen in Volumes III and IV of Prophetic Faith. PFF2 719.1