The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

IX. Wood Begins the Periods Simultaneously

HANS WOOD (died c. 1803), pious layman of Rossmead, Ireland, like Petri of Germany, used the 70 weeks as the solution to the beginning of the 2300 years about the same time. He like wise averred that Daniel 9 is the key to Daniel 8, as the 70 weeks were cut off for the Jews. In 1787 he wrote anonymously on the Revelation, which he “considered as alluding to certain services of the Jewish Temple; according to which the visions are stated, as well in respect to the objects represented, as to the order in which they appeared.” ⁸² PFF2 719.2

1. SEVENTY WEEKS ARE FIRST PART OF 2300 DAYS

The 2300 years included the 70 weeks, says Wood. PFF2 719.3

“He comprehended the two parts under one great sum of years, two thousand three hundred; then, at the end of these years, the sanctuary shall be cleansed, which implied the acceptance of all the tribes of Israel; the Sanctuary considered as the Church of God in that season when, ac cording to the Apostle, ‘Israel shall be saved.’ ” ⁸³ PFF2 719.4

But Daniel did not as yet understand how to calculate them, Coming to chapter 9, Wood tells how the angel came to clarify the chronology of the 2300 years. Next the relation of the 70 weeks to the 2300 days is set forth: PFF2 719.5

“The Visions o£ the seventh and eighth Chapters were explained at the time; the latter by this Angel Gabriel, except in the declaration of the two thousand three hundred days: he is now come to instruct the Prophet in them also. The discourse which follows can be well apprehended only in the reference to the long line of years, which was the matter Daniel was now to be made to understand, and the Vision he was to conceive. The date from which the years became current is here set down; the portion of them allotted for the residence of the Jews in their land is assigned; the remainder is attributed to the desolation.” ⁸⁴ PFF2 720.1

Wood begins the 2300 years synchronously with the 70 weeks of years, but he places the “one week” within the 70 weeks—not at the end, but after the sixty-fourth week. ⁸⁵ He ends the seventieth week with the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans; he begins the 70 weeks at 420 B.C. Then, beginning the 2300 at the same time, he arrives at the end of the longer period by calculating: 2300 - 420 = 1880. He holds that the kingdom of righteousness will be established when the full period expires. ⁸⁶ PFF2 720.2

William Hales, the English chronologer, bases his conclusions on Wood, whom he cites in 1799. ⁸⁷ r, in the Anglican Orthodox Churchman’s Magazine for December, 1803, Hales, writing in this journal under his well-known pseudonym, “The Inspector,” after referring once more to the anonymous author of a commentary on the Revelation, and giving full title-page data, attributes it to the “most sagacious and original expositor, perhaps, since the days of Mede,” on the relationship of the 70 weeks and the 2300 days. He then adds: PFF2 720.3

“I am now at liberty to divulge the name of this truly pious, learned, and respectable Layman, which his obstinate modesty forbad, during his lifetime, the late Hans Wood, Esq., of Rossmead, in the county of Westmeath, Ireland; who is gone to his reward!” ⁸⁸ PFF2 720.4

2. FIFTH AND SIXTH TRUMPETS BEGIN IN 630 AND 1030

Wood applies the fifth and sixth trumpets to the Saracens and Turks the 150 years of the Saracen locusts extending from the invasion of Syria in 630 to the defeat in Cilicia, in 780, and the Turkish period beginning in 1030. ⁸⁹ PFF2 721.1

3. PAPAL ANTICHRIST FOLLOWS IMPERIAL ROME

The four empires of Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome are set forth as the foundation for the papal phase of Rome under the first beast of Revelation 13 ⁹⁰ The second beast signifies Constantinople, the seat of Roman dominion after the empire in the West had fallen. ⁹¹ The papal Antichrist is coupled to the “Anti-christian woman” of Revelation 17. The seven heads are forms of Roman government, one of them being the imperial; and the eighth head is the “Universal Bishop.” ⁹² In Revelation 20the millennium follows the “resurrection of the just.” ⁹³ PFF2 721.2

4. LITTLE HORN PAPACY; TURK IN Daniel 11

In chronological sequence the four beasts of Daniel 7 are portrayed in detail and identified, according to the Historical School, with the eleventh horn-coeval with the ten-as the Papacy, having the character of Seer, and dominating for three and a half prophetic years; the Ottoman power is described in Daniel 11:44, 45. ⁹⁴ PFF2 721.3

5. DAILY TAKEN AWAY BY INNOVATIONS IN WORSHIP

Wood declares the 1290 years are to be dated from the taking away of the daily sacrifice, which he defines as the substituted innovations in “divine worship” brought forward by the eleventh horn, and resulting in the “profanation of the temple. “And the activity of the image of the beast and the expulsion of the woman to the wilderness is just at the end of these prophetic periods. ⁹⁵ PFF2 721.4

6. RECKONS SUBORDINATE PERIODS BACK FROM 1880

Presuming there can be no “reasonable doubt” that the 70 weeks ended in the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans, ⁹⁶ Wood discloses how he brings the terminus of the 2300 years to A.D. 1880. PFF2 721.5

“From the great term 2300, deduct 420; the remainder 1880, is the year of Our Lord, according to our stating, with which the great term may be presumed to end. Again, from the year of Our Lord 1880, deduct 1290; the remainder will shew the year in which the ‘daily sacrifice was taken away, and the abomination that astonisheth,’ set up, viz. the year of Our Lord 590, the year in which Gregory the Great ascended the Papal Chair, whose ordinances in the Church, which we have specified where the occasion required to speak of this Prelate, closely correspond with Paul’s notices to Timothy concerning the latter times. From the same 1880, de duct the Woman’s abode in the wilderness, viz. 1260 years; the remainder will give the year of expulsion, 620, the year we concluded on, from historical circumstances, when the cruelty and treason of the Jews of Pales tine, in the reign of Heraclius, were related.” ⁹⁷ PFF2 722.1

7. LAST MESSAGE, ARMAGEDDON, AND ETERNAL KINGDOM

Wood opined that the death of the Witnesses is between 1847 and 1850, and the angel with the everlasting gospel was then to go out among the nations with his special message. Next would come the gathering of the Western powers to Armageddon, to overthrow the great city; then with the sanctuary cleansed, the kingdoms of the world would become the kingdoms of our Lord. ⁹⁸ PFF2 722.2

In New England, as in old England, the same prophetic faith was preached. Many of the earlier ministers of the New World were clear exponents of the Historical School of interpretation, including the year-day principle. The full account of the colonial American and early national expositors of prophecy appears in Prophetic Faith, Volume III. PFF2 722.3