Day-year principle

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The day-year principle, year-day principle or year-for-a-day principle is a method of interpretation of Bible prophecy in which a day in apocalyptic prophecy is sometimes understood to represent a year of actual time. It is unique to the historicist school of prophetic interpretation. It is not popular among contemporary scholars, but was held by some Protestant Reformers, and is retained by groups such as the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Jehovah's Witnesses today.

Contents

[edit] History

The day-year principle was invented in the ninth century by the Jewish Karaite scholar Benjamin Nahawandi, who interpreted the time periods of Daniel as pointing to the coming of the Messiah in AD 1010. The principle was subsequently adopted by other Jewish thinkers, and then by medieval Catholic theologians. The Joachimites pointed to the end of the Christian era in AD 1260 on the basis of the principle. Many of the Protestant Reformers accepted the day-year principle, but it has since fallen into disfavour among most Catholics and Protestants.

[edit] Biblical basis

Proponents of the principle claim that it has three primary precedents in Scripture:

  1. Numbers 14:34. The Israelites will wander for 40 years in the wilderness, one year for every day spent by the spies in Canaan.
  2. Ezekiel 4:5-6. 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. Daniel 9:24-27. This is known as the 70 weeks prophecy. The majority of scholars understand these 70 weeks to represent 70 weeks of years, thus being compatible with the day-year principle. However it must be pointed out that most of these scholars do not see the day-year principle as being necessary for this interpretation.

Also there is parallelism in the Hebrew Old Testament between the words day and year. Supporters also use some other lines of evidence to establish the case for the method.

[edit] Applications

[edit] 1260 day prophecy

Historicist interpreters understand the time periods of "time, times and half a time", "3½ years", "1260 days" and "42 months" mentioned in Daniel and Revelation to be identical. They stand for 1260 years, which were fulfilled in the Middle and Dark Ages. (Seventh-day Adventists believe the prophecy stretches from 538AD to 1798AD).

These time periods occur precisely seven times in scripture, in Daniel 7:25, Daniel 12:7, Revelation 11:2, Revelation 11:3, Revelation 12:6, Revelation 12:14 and Revelation 13:5.

[edit] 2300 day prophecy

The distinctly Seventh-day Adventist doctrine of the investigative judgment, based on the 2300 day prophecy of Daniel 8:14, relies on the day-year principle. The 2300 days are understood to represent 2300 years stretching from 457BC, the starting date of the 70 weeks prophecy, to 1844AD, when the investigative judgment began.

[edit] Criticism

The day-year principle is only used by descendants of the Adventist movement, and has very few supporters outside of it. Most theologians from the mainstream Christian denominations do not regard the principle as valid. In addition, there are a considerable number of people within the Seventh-day Adventist church who have questioned the validity of the day-year principle. Most notably, Desmond Ford challeged the use of the day-year principle in his critique of the investigative judgment doctrine.

A wise man changes his mind sometimes, but a fool never. To change your mind is the best evidence you have one. The last redoubt holding out for me was the year-day principle (on which I had written a defense in 1972 for the Southern Publishing Association Daniel volume which was published in 1978). This collapsed when I handled hundreds of books of commentary on Revelation in the Library of Congress stacks and found that the respective authors had in many cases suggested dates that seemed appropriate for their own time but ridiculous later. It became clear that we, as Adventists, had done the same as our predecessors. So when I gave the Forum meeting at Pacific Union College all the problems I had been fighting tumbled out, my rearguard action was over.

—Desmond Ford[1]

Critics argue that Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:5, 6 do not satisfactorily establish the day-year principle. These verses give no indication that the words "day" or "year" are meant to be taken symbolically, nor do they indicate that a rule is being established to be used elsewhere in Scripture. The use of Daniel 9 to support the day-year principle is also criticised. The prophecy literally refers to seventy "sevens", rather than seventy "weeks", and the word "day" is not found in the passage.

It is pointed out that Adventists do not apply the day-year principle consistently. That is, there are other contexts, besides the 1260 and 2300 day prophecies, where the principle is not applied and references to time are taken literally. For example, the millennium of Revelation 20 is believed to be a literal millennium, rather than 365,000 years. The decision when to use the principle thus appears arbitrary.

A major criticism is that the Adventist application of the day-year principle to prophetic periods makes it impossible for Christ to have returned prior to the year 1798, when in fact the New Testament church believed themselves to be living in the "last days" (Hebrews 1:2) and expected the second coming of Christ to occur at any moment (Revelation 22:20). Christ himself is noted to have suggested to his followers that his coming could be within their lifetimes (Mark 13:30-37).

[edit] 1260 day prophecy

Besides Adventists, few others have been able to substantiate the interpretation that the 1260 days represents 1260 years spanning AD 538 and 1798. Secular historians generally do not regard this period of time as being particularly significant. Preterists interpret the 1260 days as a literal 3½ year period that was relevant to the original recipients of the prophecies, while futurists believe it is a literal 3½ year period in the Great Tribulation at the end of time (corresponding to the final "week" of Daniel 9 that is divided in half). Idealists note that 3½ is half of 7, the symbolic number for completeness, and therefore regard the prophecy as meaning that the powers of evil will operate for a limited time.

[edit] 2300 day prophecy

Critics of the traditional Seventh-day Adventist interpretation point out that the word "day" does not appear in the Hebrew of Daniel 8:14; instead the phrase "evenings and mornings" is used, indicating that literal days, not symbolic ones, are in view. Virtually all non-Adventist exegetes of Daniel, and some Adventist exegetes (such as Desmond Ford and Raymond Cottrell), believe that the 2300-day period refers to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Desmond Ford on His Previous Defense of the Year Day Principle, Adventist Today, 2006

[edit] Resources

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