The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

VII. Summary of Pre-New-Testament Jewish Exposition of Prophecy

From the foregoing evidence—limited but sufficient—we may sum up the essential Jewish code of interpretation (including Josephus) under these points: PFF1 203.1

1. OUTLINE PROPHECIES:

(1) The four “kings” of Daniel’s prophecy are kingdoms. PFF1 203.2

(2) The four world empires identified are Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. PFF1 203.3

(3) The stone which succeeds the four empires is the Messianic kingdom. PFF1 203.4

(4) The ram and he-goat refer to the Medo-Persian and Macedonian empires. PFF1 203.5

(5) The he-goat’s great horn denotes Alexander the Great. PFF1 203.6

(6) The great horn is replaced by the four secondary horns, the divisions of Alexander’s empire among his successors; and the Little Horn emerging from one of them is Antiochus. PFF1 203.7

(7) Rome is the predicted power that would desolate Jerusalem and the temple. PFF1 203.8

(8) A “time” in Daniel stands for a year. PFF1 203.9

(9) The seventy weeks involve the thought of periods “of years.” Thus the application of the year-day principle is begun. PFF1 203.10

These obviously are basic positions. We may therefore properly conclude that the Jewish interpretation of the four metals as the four successive empires of prophecy, and the yearday principle, formed the groundwork of that system of interpretation upon which the apostles and succeeding Christian writers of the early centuries built their amplified exposition of Daniel, ³⁶ and of the complementary prophecies of Paul and John. PFF1 203.11

2. ESCHATOLOGY COLORED BY EXTRA-BIBLICAL WRITINGS

But it is likewise established that PFF1 204.1

(1) They expected the Messianic kingdom to be established on earth, thus blending ethical and carnal concepts. PFF1 204.2

(2) They believed in a literal resurrection at the last day, but also in innate immortality of the soul, with a conscious, intermediate state, and the conscious torment of the wicked. PFF1 204.3

(3) They believed in a six-thousand-year duration of the earth, with Messiah’s advent in the fifth millennium—a sort of prototype of the Christian millennial expectation to come. PFF1 204.4