The Seventy Weeks of Daniel, and Persian Chronology

Extract

One would naturally think that a prophecy like that of the seventy weeks (heptades) of Daniel—known to have been fulfilled—would admit of easy proof and explanation; but so far is this from being the case that (as Professor Stewart justly remarks) “it would require a volume of considerable magnitude to give a history of the ever-varying and contradictory opinions of critics respecting this locus vexatissimus, and perhaps a still larger one to establish an exegesis that would stand. I am fully of opinion that no interpretation as yet published will stand the test of thorough grammatico-historical criticism, and that a candid, searching, and thorough critique here is still a desideratum.”