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 used principally by the historicist school of prophetic interpretation.[1] It is not popular among contemporary scholars, but was held by most Protestant Reformers, and is retained by groups such as the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Jehovah's Witnesses today.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Application to three-and-a-half-days

The day-year principle was first used in Christian exposition in 380 AD by Tychonius, 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' ('dies tres et dimidium; id est annos tres et menses sex'). 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' ('Tres et dimidius dies tribus annis et sex mensibus respondent), 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' ('Tres dies et dimidium possumus intelligere tres annos et sex menses'.[2] The same interpretation of Revelation 11:9 was given by the later Christian expositors Bede (730 AD), as well as Anspert, Arethas, Haymo, and Berengaud (all of the ninth century).[3]

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 11:0 ('More Scripturae loquentis utentes, quod dictium legius de quadraginta diebus quibus exploratores terram Channan circuierunt, anus pro die reputabitur; ut hic, versa vice, dies pro anno positus agnoscatur').[4]

Very few of the Early Fathers actually commented on the three and a half days of Revelation 11. They are not expounded by Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Lactantius, Cyprian, Jerome, or Augustine, even though these were the most prolific eschatological commentators among the Early Fathers (it is uncertain, but it seems Victorinus interpreted them as literal days). But of the three who did expound this time duration explicitly, all understood the three and a half days here to represent three and a half years.

[edit] Application to long time periods

The day-year principle was first applied to the longer time periods 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 four primary precedents in Scripture:

  1. Genesis 29:27. "Finish this daughter's bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work."
  2. Numbers 14:34. The Israelites will wander for 40 years in the wilderness, one year for every day spent by the spies in Canaan.
  3. 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.
  4. Daniel 9:24-27. This is known as the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks. The majority of scholars understand the passage to refer to 70 "sevens" or "septets" of years—that is, a total of 490 years. However, many non-historicist scholars do not see the day-year principle as being necessary for this interpretation, as "septet" is not the ordinary Hebrew word for the time period "week".

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] Three and a half day prophecy

Historicist interpreters typically understand the 'three and a half days' of Revelation 11:9 as three and a half years. They are sometimes understood to have taken place during the era of the French Revolution, between the years 1789 and 1796.

[edit] 1260 day 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 the same time duration (though some have considered them separate durations). They are typically understood to represent a period of 1260 years.[5] These time periods occur 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.

A minority of interpreters have also considered the "three and a half days" of Revelation 11:9 to represent 1,260 years,[citation needed] though most historicists interpret this period as three and a half years.

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", three time spans have proven overwhelmingly popular. The majority of historicists throughout history have identified the "1,260 days" as being fulfilled by one or more of the following three time spans [6]:

  • 312 AD to 1572
  • 606/610 AD to 1866/1870
  • 533/538 AD to 1793/1798

Seventh-day Adventists believe the prophecy stretches from 538AD to 1798AD, allegedly a period of papal supremacy.[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.[7]

[edit] Additional Interpretation

Ellis Skolfield has written about the central role of Islam in fulfilled end-time prophecy by using the day-year language, within the traditional continuous-historic context, applied to both the Old and New Testaments. This context recognizes that prophecy is fulfilled incrementally, as the era about which it is written unfolds, like Daniel's successive kingdom/beasts for example.[1] Skolfield's eschatology is somewhat better known, and taught in seminaries, in Africa.

[edit] Seven times

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the "seven times" of Daniel 4:25 represents 2520 years (7 × 360) terminating in 1914, when Jesus became king in heaven, and began his rule amidst his enemies, invisible from Earth. (See Eschatology of Jehovah's Witnesses).

[edit] Criticism

[edit] General

The day-year principle is used by descendants of the Adventist movement, as well as by Christadelphians (who developed independently of the Adventist movement) and a few others; however it has very few supporters within mainstream evangelical Christianity and institutional Christian churches such as the Anglicans, Orthodox, and Roman Catholics. Most theologians from the mainstream Christian denominations do not regard the principle as valid.

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" (or "septets", or "heptads"), rather than seventy "weeks", and the word "day" is not found in the passage.

However, in the KJV the word used in this passage (Strong's) 07620 shabuwa` {shaw-boo'-ah} is translated as "week" 19 out of 20 times that it appears in scripture, including Genesis 29:27 (above in "biblical basis") that describes a "week" of days as years. Whereas the word 07651 sheba` {sheh'-bah} is translated as "seven" 355 times elsewhere.

[edit] Seventh-day Adventist usage

There are also some within the Seventh-day Adventist Church who have questioned the validity of the day-year principle. Most notably, Desmond Ford challenged 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[8]

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).

However not all Adventists who believe in the day-year principle limit Jesus' second coming to a late date such as above. Instead, they emphasize the conditional nature of prophecy. In fact this point was debated during the writing of the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, when associate editor Raymond Cottrell originally wrote that all prophecies are possibly conditional, whereas editor-in-chief F. D. Nichol modified the statement by adding a qualifier that the apocalyptic prophecies of Daniel and Revelation are not conditional.[9]

Raymond Cottrell wrote about challenges presented to him as the associate editor of the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary,

"What should an editor do with 'proof texts' that inherently do not prove what is traditionally attributed to them—as, for example, Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6;... In most of these and a number of other passages, pastoral concern led us to conclude that the Commentary was not the place to make an issue of the Bible versus the traditional interpretation, much as this disappointed us as Bible scholars and would be a disappointment to our scholarly friends who know better."[10]

The "us" Cottrell is referring to are the "[m]embers of the editorial team".[11] (Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6 are classic texts used to argue for the day-year principle.)

[edit] 1260 day prophecy

In recent years, few others besides Adventists have attempted to substantiate the interpretation that the 1260 days represent 1260 years spanning AD 538 and 1798 (the Christadelphians are an exception). The majority of historians do not consider this a period of papal supremacy, and it is disputed whether the events which Adventists allege took place in AD 538 did in fact occur in that year. 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. ^ Jerry Moon. The Year-Day Principle. SDAnet.
  2. ^ EB Elliott, 'Horae Apocalypticae', volume III, page 280, fifth edition, 1862
  3. ^ The Early Fathers - Times And Seasons
  4. ^ EB Elliott, 'Horae Apocalypticae', volume III, page 280, fifth edition, 1862
  5. ^ a b (2005) Seventh-day Adventists Believe (2nd ed). Ministerial Association, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 184-185. ISBN 1-57847-041-2. 
  6. ^ Leroy Edwin Froom, The Prophetic Faith Of Our Fathers, volume II (1948) pages 784, 787; volume III (1946) pages 744-745; volume IV (1982) pages 392, 395-397, 399-400
  7. ^ (2005) Seventh-day Adventists Believe (2nd ed). Ministerial Association, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 358-359. ISBN 1-57847-041-2. 
  8. ^ "Desmond Ford on His Previous Defense of the Year Day Principle", 'Adventist Today, 2006
  9. ^ The Untold Story of the Bible Commentary by Raymond Cottrell in Spectrum 16:3 (August 1985), p.42
  10. ^ "The Untold Story of the Bible Commentary" by Raymond Cottrell in Spectrum 16:3 (August 1985), p. 35–51 (this quote from p. 43–44)
  11. ^ ibid., 43

[edit] Resources