45 
said, “ the Christian religion rests,” we may gather from com- 
paring the expression in Daniel, “ after the sixty-two weeks 
shall Messiah be cut off,” with the words of our Lord when 
speaking of His own resurrection — “after three days and three 
nights,” at the expiration of which period He would, as He had 
foretold, rise again. Even so at the expiration of the sixty-nine 
weeks or hebdomads* the Messiah would be cut off. 
16. The difficulty which commentators have had to contend 
with in the interpretation of this prophecy, so far as it relates 
to “ the cutting off of the Messiah ” at the expiration of the 
sixty-nine hebdomads or 483 years from the time of the decree 
for building the walls of Jerusalem, has been the impossibility 
of reconciling the usual dates for the accession of King 
Artaxerxes, who granted the decree, with the requirements of 
the prophecy. Scripture shows that there were four edicts 
granted to the Jews after the Babylonish captivity by certain 
Persian kings, viz. by Cyrus, Darius Hystaspes, and two by 
Artaxerxes Longimanus in the seventh and twentieth jmars of 
his reign. Of these four edicts the first three relate exclusively 
to the building of the Temple, and the order of public worship 
therein. f The fourth edict, viz., that granted in the twentieth 
year of Artaxerxes, and so fully detailed in chapters i. and ii. of 
Neliemiah, alone relates to the building of the city and the 
broken-down walls of Jerusalem, and consequently it must 
be this decree with which the prophecy of Daniel is at all 
concerned. 
17. It is most important, therefore, that we should find the 
true date for the accession of Artaxerxes, from which the 
Scripture writers, like Ezra and Nehemiah, evidently date the 
beginning of his reign, and this we are enabled to do by the 
modern discovery of an Egyptian monument, which throws 
light upon an important point of history in a very singular way. 
Archbishop Usher, and Whiston, a learned divine who wrote 
much on prophecy at the commencement of the last century, 
It is important to notice an unfortunate omission in oul- English 
Bible of the definite article in this passage of Daniel, which reads “ after 
62 weeks” in place of the undoubted Hebrew reading “after the 62 
weeks,” showing a reference to the 7 weeks mentioned immediately before, 
and proving that it included the whole period of the 69 weeks or hebdomads. 
It is, therefore, worthy of note that the LXX., Aguila’s version, and the 
Arabic, all repeat the word “ seven ” in this verse, and read it thus : — 
“ After the 7 and the 62 weeks.” 
f Cf. Ezra i. vi. vii. 
