The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

III. Hales-Dates Cross in 31 but Ends 2300 in 1880

The first Protestant expositor to be examined is WILLIAM HALES (1747-1831), famed for his New Analysis of Chronology, who was also a minister and an interpreter of prophecy. Born in Ireland, he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, receiving his B.A. in 1768 and later his D.D. degree. After serving for a time as a tutor, he became a professor of Oriental languages, wearing a white wig to obviate objections of parents to his youthful appearance. Having taken orders in the Church of England in 1788, he resigned his professorship for the rectory, where he lived in retirement. Here he devoted much of the test of his life to research and writing, in 1812 holding the chancellorship of the diocese.” ⁹ PFF3 329.3

Picture 1: PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION
The Lower Chart is an Enlargement of the right hand portion of the upper full length chart. It is designed to portray nineteenth-Century relationships and sequences to the developments of the earlier centuries covered in prophetic faith, Volumes 1 and 2. The particular period of present Study is the old world advent awakening, involving the proclamation of the ending of ihe 2300 Years in 1843-44, With the Old World Phase Slightly Antedating but Reaching Its Climax in the New. The Details and Expansions of the Final Segment Appear on Pages 266, 267. The Slight Duplication of the Cuts Where the Pages Join Is to Facilitate the Complete Reading of Each. The Other Portions of the Lower Segment Appear in Volume 2.
page 332

Hales was author of twenty-two works. He wrote in the fields of science, including astronomy, as well as in theology, chronology, and prophecy. One of Hales’ works was a vindication of Newton, and his Dissertations on the Principal Prophecies was issued in 1808. lint hack in 1803-04, writing under the pen name of “The Inspector,” he took issue with others in a series of articles headed “Sacred Criticism” in The Orthodox Churchman’s Mugazitic, over the true number of Daniel 8:14-whether 2400 or 2300. ¹⁰ Hales contended that the “2300” is one of the best authenticated numbers in all Scripture. ¹¹ In its chronological position he followed Hans Wood of Rossmead, Ireland, ¹² holding the seventy weeks to be the first segment of the 2300 years. This position he confirmed in his best-known work, A New Analysis of Chronology (1809-1812), based on original sources, and the result of twenty years’ study. His Synopsis of the Signs of the Times was published in 1817. PFF3 332.1

1. MAINTAINS STANDARD EXPOSITION OF Daniel 2 and 7

Quite a section of volume 2 of A New Analysis of Chronology is devoted by Hales to an expository outline of the prophecies, which form the setting and framework for his chronology. He here shows the relationship and paralleling character of the prophecies of Daniel 2, 7, 8, and 11. His chronology is thus based upon Babylon, Persia, Grecia, Rome, and Rome’s divisions, followed by the eternal kingdom of Christ. ¹³ ms are tabulated as the Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Heruli, Saxons, and Longobards. ¹⁴ The little horn is declared to be the Papacy, and the three uprooted horn-kingdoms are identified as the Heruli. Ostrogoths, and Lombards. ¹⁵ PFF3 332.2

2. MARKS 1880 TKRMINUS OP 12(50 AND 2300

Hales location of the time periods is odd and isolated among nineteenth-century writers. Though consistently applying the year-day principle, he terminates the 1260 and 2300 years in 1880. The origin and reason for this position will be noted later. But the 1260 years are located from A.D. 620 to 1880, and the 2300 are dated from 420 B.C. to A.D. 1880, with the seventy weeks as from 420 B.C. to A.D. 70.”’ ¹⁶ The 1290 years he places from A.D. 70 to 1360-the time of Wyclif; ¹⁷ and the 1335 years are dated from A.D. 70 to 1405-the time of Huss. ¹⁸ These were all rather speculative. PFF3 333.1

3. CORRECTNESS OF 2300 VERSUS SKI-TUAGINT 2100

How ever, as to the reliability of the 2300-year figure of Daniel 8:14 as against the Septuagint 2400, Hales emphatically asserts, as the conclusion from extensive research: PFF3 333.2

“There is no number in the Bible whose genuineness is better ascertained than that of the 2300 days. It is found in all the printed Hebrew editions, in all the MSS. of Kennicotl and De Rossi’s collations, and in all the ancient Versions, except the Vatican copy of the Septuagint. which reads 2400, followed by Symmachus; and some copies noticed by Jerom, 2200; both evidently literal errors in excess and defect, which compensate each other, and confirm the mean, 2300.” ¹⁹ PFF3 333.3

4. CRUCIFIXION IN MIDST OK WEEK TN A.D. 31

Recognizing the seventy weeks as “weeks of years,” and therefore “without doubt, 490 years,” ²⁰ Hales frankly discloses the origin of his unusual position in terminating the seventy weeks in A.D. 70- which leads to the extension of the 1800 remaining years of the 2300 period to 1880. ²¹ But the cross is securely placed in A.D. 31, in the midst of the one week of years, with the end year placed in 34 thus: PFF3 333.4

” ‘After the sixty-two weeks,’ but not immediately, ‘the MESSIAH was cut off; for the sixty-two weeks expired in A.D. 14; and the one week, or passion week, in the midst of which OUR LORD was crucified, A.D. 31, began with his public ministry, A.D. 28, and ended with the martyrdom of Stephen, A.D. 34.” ²² PFF3 333.5

But along with his dating of the seventieth week, conies this curious interpretation of the segments of the seventy weeks. Though somewhat technical and tedious, his reasoning is well worth following: PFF3 334.1

“The passion week, therefore, began two [prophetic] weeks after the sixty-two weeks, or at the end of the sixty-four weeks; and there were five weeks, or thirty-five years, after the passion week, to the destruction of Jerusalem. So that the seventy weeks must be chronologically divided into sixty-four, one, and five weeks.” ²³ PFF3 334.2

5. BORROWED “ADJUSTMENT” SCHEME FROM WOOD

The footnote to the foregoing statement, crediting Hans Wood ²⁴ is scheme, is a statement of great importance to our study: PFF3 334.3

“This simple and ingenious adjustment of the chronology of the seventy weeks, considered as forming a branch of the 2300 days, was originally due to the sagacity of Hans Wood, Esq. of Rossmead in the county of Westmeath, Ireland, and published by him in an anonymous Commentary on the Revelation of St. John, London, 1787. Payne. 8vo. Whence I republished it in the Inspector, 8vo. 1799. And afterwards, in the Orthodox Churchman’s Magazine, 1803; and now more correctly, 1809.” ²⁵ PFF3 334.4

6. EARLIEST PUBLISHING OF SCHEME IN 1799

Hales’ first employment of the scheme was in The Inspector, or Select Liter ary Intelligence (1799). ²⁶ Here Hales ends the seventy weeks in A.D. 70. ²⁷ Then he says it is “exactly 490 years from the assumed commencement of the 70 weeks, and also of the grand prophetic period of 2300 days, B.C. 420.” ²⁸ PFF3 334.5

But the three key dates of the “one week” are now set as of A.D. 27, 31, and 34, thus: PFF3 334.6

“And after the sixty and two weeks, before specified, as the largest division of the 70, was the ANOINTED [LEADER] ‘cut off’ judicially, by an iniquitous sentence, in the midst of the one week, which formed the third and last division, and began with our Lord’s Baptism, about A.D. 27.-‘when he was beginning to be thirty years of age,’ and commenced his mission, which lasted three years and half until his crucifixion, about A.D. 31. PFF3 334.7

“27. During this one week, which ended about A.D. 34 (about the martyrdom of Stephen,) a new covenant was established with many of the Jews, ot every class; in the midst of which the Temple sacrifice was virtually abrogated by the all-sufficient sacrifice of the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the [repentant and believing] world.” ²⁹ PFF3 335.1

In this he follows Wood by making a gap between the “62 weeks” and the “Passion Week.” ³⁰ PFF3 335.2

7. REPEATS A.D. 1880 DATING IN 1803

In the series of articles in The Orthodox Churchman’s Magazine, Hales, under his nom de plume “Inspector,” says, in the August, 1803, issue, that the “attentive reader” of the “chronological prophecies of Daniel”- PFF3 335.3

“will find internal evidence the most cogent and irresistible, that this most famous prophecy will not be fulfilled, till the grand prophetic period of two thousand three hundred days (Daniel 8:13-14.) shall be finished; which, according to my reckoning, will expire about A.D. 1880.” ³¹ PFF3 335.4

8. TWO-HORNED BEAST Is MOHAMMEDANISM

In the October issue Hales interprets the four beasts of Daniel 7 to symbolize the Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Macedo-Grecians, and Romans, with the Little Horn as the “Roman Ecclesiastical Power of the papacy,” which plucked up three. ³² The “idolatries and corruptions” of the power of Daniel 11:36, 39 are likewise applied to the Papacy. ³³ In his November article, Hales again stresses the “papal Antichrist” of Daniel 7, and identifies the first beast of Revelation 13 as the same. ³⁴ But the second, or two-horned beast, he applies to the “Apostate Greek Church,” centered in Constantinople, afterward succeeded by the “Apostate Mahometan church,” with 666 as the number of Mohammed’s name. ³⁵ PFF3 335.5

9. BEGINNING OF 1260 COUNTED BACK FROM 1880

On the assumption that the 1260 years end simultaneously with the 2300 years in 1880, Hales says: PFF3 336.1

“If then we count backwards 1260 years from A.D. 1880, their termination, as already shewn; it will give A.D. 620, for the commencement of this disastrous period of the sufferings of the ‘two thoughtful witnesses;’ about the time of the adoption of the Gregorian Liturgy in the west, and of the publication of Mahomet’s visions and revelations in the east.” ³⁶ PFF3 336.2

10. A.D. 620 COMPARED WITH EARLIER DATINGS

Hales then tabulates the varied attempts of men in earlier generations to determine the beginning of the 1260 years-Whiston, 455 or 456; Isaac Newton, 378 or 379; King and Valpy, from 538, ³⁷ and ending in 1798; and Bishop Newton, from 606. ³⁸ Then Hales cites Hans Wood, the layman of Ireland, in these words: PFF3 336.3

“To this most sagacious and original expositor, perhaps, since the days of Mede, we owe the important Chronological adjustment of the three divisions of Daniel’s seventy weeks; which I endeavoured to support and establish, in the INSPECTOR, 1798; the termination of the grand prophetic period of 2300 days in the year, A.D. 1880, and the commencement of the period of general persecution, A.D. 620, which I have here adopted; and 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 Rossmcacl, in the county of Westmeath, Ireland; who is gone to his reward!” ³⁹ PFF3 336.4

Then Hales comments that the Romanists, “to elude the force of this prophecy,” take the 1260 as a literal and future three and a half years. But he adds that the choice lies between Bishop Newton and Wood-“of which the latter is most comprehensive, as including the Mohametan, who surely is equally entitled to the palm of persecution, with his predecessor, the Papal antichrist.” ⁴⁰ PFF3 336.5

11. CHOOSES WOOD’S CALCULATION OUT OF MANY

So in February, 1804, Hales made his initial declaration of the basic soundness of the 2300 years, ⁴¹ later repeated in his New Analysis of Chronology, as noted. He then declares that “the end of the 2300 years is not yet come.” ⁴² As he comments on the attempts of others to fix their location, he adds: “The most judicious mod ern Critics, look forward to some future termination of the 2300 days, reckoning from different periods.” ⁴³ Thus, while adopt ing the hypothesis of Hans Wood” ⁴⁴ -terminating the 2300 years in 1880, and embracing the 1260-, 1290-, and 133.r)-year periods-Hales steadfastly holds the passion week of years as of A.D. 27-8, 31, and 31, giving technical authorities in support. ⁴⁵ This is destined to be of great importance in our future quest. PFF3 336.6