LOOKING UNTO JESUS OR CHRIST IN TYPE AND ANTITYPE. BY ...

From this testimony respecting the seventy weeks we learn,
(1) that the going forth of a commandment to restore and to
build Jerusalem marks their beginning; (2) that seven
weeks, or forty-nine years, were allotted to the work of
restoration; (3) that sixty-nine weeks, or 483 years, would
span the interval to the time when the Messiah the Prince
should appear upon the earth, or which our Lord should commence
his public ministry here among men; (4) that during
the last, or seventieth week, the Messiah should confirm
the covenant (the new covenant. Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-12)
with many; (5) that in the midst, or middle, of that last
week, he should be cut off, and cause the sacrifice and oblation
to cease. These expressions can refer to nothing
else but to his crucifixion, and the effect which his thus
offering himself upon the cross would have upon the Jewish
sacrifices and ceremonies; it would cause them virtually to
cease. When the seventy weeks, therefore, are correctly located,
we shall find the seventieth week falling at such a
time that the commencement of Christ's ministry will stand
at the beginning of the seventieth week, or the last seven
years of the four hundred and ninety years, and his crucifixion,
three and a half years later, in the middle of that
last week. The whole question might, therefore, be left to
an argument on the date of the crucifixion of Christ, since
this has as much bearing upon the point at issue as even
the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, from which
this period is to be dated. p. 177, Para. 5, [LOOKING].
But it is not difficult to find the commandment to restore
Jerusalem, and to ascertain that it went forth at the precise
time to render the prophecy harmonious in all its
parts. p. 178, Para. 1, [LOOKING].
There are four events which have by different ones at different
times been regarded as the commandment to restore
and build Jerusalem. These are, (1) the decree of Cyrus for
the rebuilding of the house of God, B.C. 536 (Ezra 1:1-4);
(2) the decree of Darius for the prosecution of that work,
which had been hindered, B.C. 519 (Ezra 6:6-12); (3) the
decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus to Ezra, B.C. 457 (Ezra 7);
and (4) the commission to Nehemiah, from the same king in
his twentieth year, B.C. 444. Nehemiah 2. p. 178, Para. 2,
[LOOKING].
1. Respecting this last, we find no such features about it
as are necessary to constitute it a Persian decree. It was