Day-year principle


The day-year principle or year-for-a-day principle is a method of interpretation of Bible prophecy in which the word day in prophecy is considered to be symbolic of a year of actual time. It was the method used by most of the Reformers, and is used principally by the historicist school of prophetic interpretation. It is actively taught by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Christadelphians, though the understanding is not unique to these Christian denominations; since for example, it is implied in the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks. The day-year principle is also used by the Baháʼí Faith, as well by most astrologers who employ the "Secondary Progression" theory, aka the day-for-a-year theory, wherein the planets are moved forwards in the table of planetary motion a day for each year of life or fraction thereof. The astrologers say that the four seasons of the year are directly spiritually, phenomenologically like the four "seasons" of the day.

Biblical basis

Proponents of the principle, such as the Seventh-day Adventists, claim that it has three primary precedents in Scripture:
  1. . The Israelites will wander for 40 years in the wilderness, one year for every day spent by the spies in Canaan.
  2. . The prophet Ezekiel is commanded to lie on his left side for 390 days, followed by his right side for 40 days, to symbolize the equivalent number of years of punishment on Israel and Judah respectively.
  3. . This is known as the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks. The majority of scholars do understand the passage to refer to 70 "sevens" or "septets" of years—that is, a total of 490 years.
While not listed as primary precedent by the proponents, some supporters cite a direct reference to the day-for-a-year concept is made in Genesis.
  1. . Laban requires an additional seven years of work in contract for Rachel's hand in marriage, calling it a week.
Jon Paulien has defended the principle from a systematic theology perspective, not strictly from the Bible.

History

The day-year principle was partially employed by Jews as seen in , Ezekiel 4:4-7 and in the early church. It was first used in Christian exposition in 380 AD by Ticonius, who interpreted the three and a half days of Revelation 11:9 as three and a half years, writing 'three days and a half; that is, three years and six months'. In the 5th century Faustus of Riez gave the same interpretation of Revelation 11:9, writing 'three and a half days which correspond to three years and six months', and in c. 550 Primasius also gave the same interpretation, writing 'it is possible to understand the three days and a half as three years and six months'. The same interpretation of Revelation 11:9 was given by later expositors like Anspert, Haymo, and Berengaudus. Primasius appears to have been the first to appeal directly to previous Biblical passages in order to substantiate the principle, referring to Numbers 14:34 in support of his interpretation of the three and a half days of Revelation 11:9. Haymo and Bruno Astensis "justify it by the parallel case of Ezekiel lying on his side 390 days, to signify 390 years; — i. e. a day for a year. — ". Protestant Reformers were well established on the day/year principle and it was also accepted by many Christian groups, ministers, and theologians.
Others who expounded the Historicist interpretation are John Wycliffe, John Knox, William Tyndale, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Philip Melanchthon, Isaac Newton, Jan Hus, John Foxe, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles Finney, C. H. Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes, and Bishop Thomas Newton.

Christian historicist application

70 weeks or 490-year prophecy

contains the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks. Biblical scholars have interpreted the 70 weeks vision in the historistical methodology for nearly two millennia as illustrated in the following table.
The vision of the 70 weeks is interpreted as dealing with the Jewish nation from about the middle of the 5th century BCE until not long after the death of Jesus in the 1st century CE and so is not concerned with current or future history. Historicists consider Antiochus Epiphanies irrelevant to the fulfillment of the prophecy.
Historicist interpretation of the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks was that it foretells with great specificity information about Jesus as the Messiah, not some lowlevel official or antichrist figure. Daniel 9:25 states that the 'seventy weeks' is to begin "from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem," which is when the Persian king Artaxerxes I, gave the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to Ezra, so the 490 years point to the time of Christ's anointing.
In the 21st century this interpretation is still held by Seventh-day Adventists and other groups.

Seventh-day Adventists

The Seventh-day Adventist interpretation of Daniel chapter 9 presents the 490 years as an uninterrupted period. Like others before them they equate the beginning of the 70 weeks "from the time the word goes out to rebuild and restore Jerusalem," of Daniel 9:25 with the decree by Artaxerxes I in 458/7 BC which provided money for rebuilding the temple and Jerusalem and allowed for restoration of a Jewish administration. It ends 3½ years after the crucifixion. The appearance of "Messiah the Prince" at the end of the 69 weeks is aligned with Jesus' baptism in 27 CE, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. The 'cutting off' of the "anointed one" refers to the crucifixion 3½ years after the end of the 483 years, bringing "atonement for iniquity" and "everlasting righteousness". Jesus is said to 'confirm' the "covenant" between God and mankind by his death on the cross in the Spring of 31 CE "in the midst of" the last seven years. At the moment of his death the 4 inch thick curtain between the Holy and Most Holy Places in the Temple ripped from top to bottom, marking the end of the Temple's sacrificial system. The last week ends 3½ years after the crucifixion when the gospel was redirected from only the Jews to all peoples.
Some of the representative voices among exegetes of the last 150 years are E. W. Hengstenberg, J. N. Andrews, E. B. Pusey, J. Raska, J. Hontheim, Boutflower, Uriah Smith, O. Gerhardt. and Ellis Skolfield.
To understand 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27, one has to use the key. The Prophecy of Seventy Weeks becomes clear, as pointing to the messiah using the prophetic day-year principle. Using this, the 69 weeks, or the 483 years of Daniel 9, culminates in A.D. 27. Now "unto Messiah the Prince" makes sense and indicates the time for the coming of the "anointed one" or Messiah, with the final week during His ministry. It is not the time of the Messiah's birth but when He would appear as the Messiah, and this is right when Christ took up His ministry after being baptized. Thus the prophetic day-year principle correctly points to the anointed as the Messiah in A.D. 27 or the fifteenth year of Tiberius, not in the future or modern time. While there are other possible ways of reckoning, the beginning point of 457 B.C. as the starting point of the 70-week prophecy as the Messianic prophecies points to Jesus as the Messiah.
The seven and sixty-two-week periods are most frequently understood as consecutive, non-overlapping chronological periods that are more or less exact in terminating with the time at which Christ is anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism, with the terminus a quo of this 483-year period being the time associated with the decree given to Ezra by Artaxerxes I in 458/7 BCE. The reference to an anointed one being "cut off" in verse 26a is identified with the death of Christ and has traditionally been thought to mark the midpoint of the seventieth week, which is also when Jeremiah's new "covenant" is "confirmed" and atonement for "iniquity" is made.

1260 year prophecy

Historicist interpreters have usually understood the "time, times and half a time", "1,260 days" and "42 months" mentioned in Daniel and Revelation to be references to represent a period of 1260 years.
These time periods occur seven times in scripture:
  • , "time, times and a half".
  • , "time, times and a half".
  • , "42 months".
  • , "1260 days".
  • , "1260 days".
  • , "time, times and a half".
  • , "42 months".
Historicists usually believe the "1,260 days" spanned the Middle Ages and concluded within the early modern or modern era. Although many dates have been proposed for the start and finish of the "1,260 days", certain time spans have proven to be more popular than others. The majority of historicists throughout history have identified the "1,260 days" as being fulfilled by one or more of the following time spans and identify the Papal Office as the Antichrist and culmination of the Great Apostasy:
The Millerites, like the earlier Bible students of the Reformation and post-Reformation eras and the Seventh-day Adventists, understand the 1260 days as lasting AD 538 to 1798 as the duration of the papacy over Rome. This period began with the defeat of the Ostrogoths by the general Belisarius and ended with the successes of French general Napoleon Bonaparte, specifically, the capture of Pope Pius VI by general Louis Alexandre Berthier in 1798. Seventh-day Adventist use of this principle in Daniel 8:14 is deemed to be of extra-biblical authority due to the Hebrew word "yowm" not extant in the text of Daniel 8:14. This is the word necessary to meet the Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6 day/year principal texts.