The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. Clement of Alexandria’s Chronology of Seventy Weeks

As the second century drew to its eventful close, the growing church entered upon a new stage in its history. It had already spread from the land of its birth out to Britain in one direction and to the Ganges in the other, and all the way from its original base in Syria to the delta of the Nile. Alexandria, with its great libraries, was famous as a seat of learning. The Alexandrian church, which became the rival of Antioch and Rome, was at the center of two streams of influence. There, says Schaff, “the religious life of Palestine and the intellectual culture of Greece commingled and prepared the way for the first school of theology which aimed at a philosophic comprehension and vindication of the truths of revelation.” ⁸³ PFF1 263.2

Alexandria’s catechetical school was well known, with Pantaenus of Sicily as one of its early heads. Farrar gives a valuable pen picture of Alexandria that may well be borne in mind in familiarizing ourselves with Clement of Alexandria: PFF1 264.1

“But Alexandria was pre-eminently the home of theosophy, the seat of those studies in which Judaism and the religions of the East were deeply affected by contact with Platonism and other schools of Greek philosophy. Christianity, while making itself felt among these forms of belief, received in turn a powerful impress from the prevalent conceptions. In such a city as Alexandria—with its museum, its libraries, its lectures, its schools of philosophy, its splendid synagogue, its avowed atheists, its deep-thinking Oriental mystics—the Gospel would have been powerless if it had been unable to produce teachers who were capable of meeting Pagan philosophers and Jewish Philonists and eastern Eclectics on their own ground.” ⁸⁴ PFF1 264.2

It was during this time that Clement, who soon developed into one of the best-known early Christian writers, became one of Pantaenus’ students. Through his writings he showed paganism to be an outworn, futile creed, to be dismissed with contempt, as he exposed the folly and irrationality of its multiple gods. He showed that pagan mythologies had polluted the very atmosphere of life. And he became the ethical philosopher of the Christians, as he sketched the reformation which Christianity imposed on society ⁸⁵ PFF1 264.3

TITUS FLAVIUS CLEMENS, or Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-e. 220), whose birthplace is unknown, was originally a pagan philosopher. Upon entering the Christian church he sought instruction from its most eminent teachers, traveling extensively in Greece, Italy, Egypt, and Palestine. Thus he came to Pantaenus at Alexandria, and soon became celebrated for his learning, and was made a presbyter in the church of Alexandria. He became the illustrious head of the Catechetic School, possibly about 189, succeeding his master, Pantaenus. Among his pupils was Origen, who was his successor in the same school. He left the city during the severe persecution under Septimius Severus, fleeing to Syria about 202. Later he appeared in Palestine and Asia Minor. PFF1 264.4

Clement was the contemporary of Tertullian of Carthage, but he wrote in Greek. His Old Testament quotations are from the Septuagint, as Greek was the universal language of the eastern Mediterranean, and even the churches of the West were really Greek religious colonies. His chief works form a trilogy—The Exhortation to the Heathen (an exposure of the sordidness of heathenism), The Instructor (a guide for the formation of Christian character), and his greatest, the Stromata (Miscellanies). This latter is an unorganized discussion of doctrinal theology or Christian philosophy, written in opposition to Gnosticism. It is a medley, bringing out the blended beauties and monstrosities of the pagan world of antiquity. It contains chronology, philosophy, and poetry. Clement’s tendency was to construe the Bible philosophically, and to lean toward speculation. Greek philosophy was to him the preparatory stage of the Christian faith. This tendency continued to grow until it changed the whole emphasis of the church. PFF1 265.1

1. SEVENTY WEEKS INCLUDE CHRIST’S ADVENT

A treatise On Prophecy is included in a list of works which Clement refers to “as written or about to be written” by him. There is only scattered treatment of prophecy in the Stromata. Clement was one of the first, of whom we have record, to apply the seventy weeks historically. In Stromata, after quoting Daniel 9:24-27, Clement declares that the temple was built in the prophesied “seven weeks,” ⁸⁶ or first period. During the “sixty and two weeks” all Judea was quiet. Then “Christ our Lord, `the Holy of Holies,’ having come and fulfilled the vision of the prophecy, was anointed in His flesh by the Holy Spirit of His Father.” Clement says that Christ was “Lord” during the one week. Clement thought that in the first “half of the week” Nero held sway, and placed the abomination in the holy city Jerusalem; and in the other half of the week he was taken away, and Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius reigned. Then “Vespasian rose to the supreme power, and destroyed Jerusalem, and desolated the holy place” ⁸⁷ at the end of the period. PFF1 265.2

2. DANIEL’S LONGER PERIODS APPLIED TO JERUSALEM’S DESTRUCTION

Later in the chapter, in discussing further the time phase of Daniel’s prophecy, Clement gives more detail. He applies not only the seventieth week to the seven years before the destruction of Jerusalem, but the 1290, 1335, and 2300 days as well: PFF1 266.1

“I mean the days which Daniel indicates from the desolation of Jerusalem, the seven years and seven months of the reign of Vespasian. For the two years are added to the seventeen months and eighteen days, of Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius; and the result is three years and six months, which is ‘the half of the week,’ as Daniel the prophet said. For he said that there were two thousand three hundred days from the time that the abomination of Nero stood in the holy city, till its destruction. For thus the declaration, which is subjoined, shows: ‘How long shall be the vision, the sacrifice taken away, the abomination of desolation, which is given, and the power and the holy place shall be trodden under foot? And he said to him, Till the evening and morning, two thousand three hundred days, and the holy place shall be taken away.” ⁸⁸ PFF1 266.2

“These two thousand three hundred days, then, make six years four months, during the half of which Nero held sway, and it was half a week; and for a half, Vespasian with Otho, Galba, and Vitellius reigned. And on this account Daniel says, ‘Blessed is he that cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.’ For up to these days was war, and after them it ceased. And this number is demonstrated from a subsequent chapter, which is as follows: ‘And from the time of the change of continuation, and of the giving of the abomination of desolation, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three and thirty-five days.’” ⁸⁹ PFF1 266.3

This very imperfect attempt at the chronology of the seventy weeks by Clement was next taken up by Julius Africanus, with whom he was a partial contemporary. ⁹⁰ Maitland’s comment on Clement’s discussion is, “The attempt can scarcely be termed successful.” ⁹¹ However, later expositors rectified and clarified this vital prophecy of the Messianic prophecy of the seventy weeks of years. PFF1 266.4