The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. “Sargis d’Aberga”-the Four Empires and Seventy Weeks

This is really the title of a widely circulated Ethiopian manuscript rather than a person. It was edited and translated into French by Sylvain Grebaut. Its original has been discovered to be a seventh-century work in Greek, the Didascale of. Jacob. Its writing was occasioned by the forced conversion of the Jews under Phocas and Heraclius, and was written in the name of such a converted Jew, who began to study the claims of Christianity, and finally became convinced of these claims by proofs from the Old Testament, and now attempts to convince his brethren through this treatise. The work is in dialogue form, and was translated into Arabic and Slavic, as well as Ethiopic ¹⁵ PFF1 573.2

In the Ethiopian version the texts are replaced by those of the Ethiopic Bible, which frequently differs from the Greek. Furthermore, all concessions under duress are attributed to a strong, choleric governor of Africa and Carthage, called Sargis d’Aberga, of whom nothing is mentioned in the Greek. Research has revealed that under Justinian there was, around 543, a governor of Carthage called Sergius, who was presumptuous and arrogant, and who abused his powers incessantly. ¹⁶ The Greek work is dated 640, and the Ethiopia translation 740, which might, however, be a mistake. PFF1 573.3

This little work is of interest to us only because it shows how clearly and widely the prophecy of Daniel concerning the four kingdoms was understood at the time, and that it was quoted as clinching proof to establish the correctness of the claim that Jesus was the Messiah. It also connects the coming of Christ with the expiration of the sixty-nine weeks. It declares: PFF1 574.1

” The four beasts of Daniel, which are mentioned in Daniel, are the four kingdoms of the world. Then the ten horns, then the little horn, which is the false Messiah. After that the Son of Man will come on the clouds of heaven to judge the quick and the dead.... The golden head is the kingdom of the Chaldeans; the breast of silver, the kingdom of the Medes and Persians; the brass the kingdom of the Greeks, that is, the kingdom of Alexander; the iron legs are the Romans. Are then the sixty-nine weeks passed and has Christ come, or not?’ And Justus the Jew had to admit, ‘Yes, it must be so.’ ¹⁷ PFF1 574.2

And after many other convincing arguments Justus makes the final confession: “I believe in Christ, born of Mary the virgin, at Bethlehem, Juda, 69 weeks after the reconstruction of the temple after the return from the captivity of Babel.” ¹⁸ PFF1 574.3