The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. Four Vital Interpretative Principles Injected

In spite of the impropriety of the Septuagint translators injecting their own interpretation into a version, their procedure is useful to us because it reflects certain of their prophetic interpretations, thereby unwittingly revealing the Jewish prophetic understanding o f the times, which is what we seek. There are four of these principles that are noteworthy. PFF1 174.3

1. IN Daniel 4:16 and 32—“TIMES” REGARDED AS YEARS

In place of the “seven times” of Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation, the expression is four times rendered “seven years” in the LXX—though the phrase occurs in verses 13, 29, and 30 in the LXX, because the verses are differently divided. In further confirmation of this year-time principle, the LXX in Daniel 11:13 states that the king of the north comes “at, the end of a time, of a year.” This key principle of a time for a year carries over into the Christian Era and reappears constantly, as will later become apparent. PFF1 174.4

2. IN Daniel 7:17—“KINGS” INTERPRETED AS KINGDOMS

Instead of “four kings,” as in the Hebrew, the LXX (and also the Theodotion version) reads, “These great beasts are four kingdoms”—obviously the true sense, as the fourth beast is explicitly declared to be the “fourth kingdom.” PFF1 175.1

3. IN Daniel 11:30—“SHIPS OF CHITTIM” CONSTRUED AS THE ROMANS

Furthermore, in the developing line of successive prophetic empires, the fourth, or Roman power, is here definitely discerned, though it had not yet taken over the dominion from Greece, the third prophetic empire. In place of the “ships of Chittim,” in Daniel 11:30, the LXX drops all prophetic reserve and plainly declares, “And the Romans shall come and expel him, and rebuke him strongly.” On this rendering, Pusey makes this pertinent comment: PFF1 175.2

“The translation of the later historical prophecy, (ch. 11.) is remarkable in another way. The prediction is to have been, (Porphyry and his school say,) history in the form of prophecy, because it is so exact. Of all this historical prophecy, the translator understood well one part, just that which a Jew, living at the time at Alexandria, would know, or what happened in Egypt itself. He paraphrases rightly the words, ‘there shall come ships of chittim,’ by, ‘And the Romans shall come and shall expel him, and shall rebuke him strongly,’ in allusion to the peremptory way in which Popilius cut short the subterfuges of Epiphanes.” ¹⁸ PFF1 175.3

4. IN Daniel 9:25-27—“WEEKS” UNDERSTOOD AS “OF YEARS.”

Striking and significant is the injection of the interpretative “of years” into the numerals of the prophecy of the seventy weeks. ¹⁹ It should be noted that in this first interpretation of Daniel, giving mere flashes of third century B.C. prophetic understanding, the first recorded exposition of time prophecy appears—the application concerning the “sixty-two of years” in the seventy weeks pertaining to the Jews, which if followed through would bring them face to face with the first advent and the suffering Messiah. The time had not yet come for emphasis to be centered on the second advent, the first advent being the immediate concern. This prophetic exposition “of years,” hints of the year-day principle, which was later to become an abiding heritage in the Christian Era, and never to be lost throughout succeeding centuries by either Jewish or Christian expositors, as our quest will disclose. PFF1 175.4