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Now Daniel refers more than once to a peculiar period at the time of
the end:
'A time and times and the dividing of time' (7:25).
'A time, times, and an half' (12:7).
'Let seven times pass over him' (4:16).
A consultation of the margin of Daniel 11:13 will show that 'times' may
be synonymous with 'years'. If that is so, then a time, times and a half may
be a prophetic and cryptic way of describing three and a half years. This
being just half the seven -year period exactly meets the requirements of
Daniel 9:27.
We have, however, clearer evidence in the book of the Revelation:
'A time, and times, and half a time' (Rev. 12:14).
This is the period during which the woman is nourished in the
wilderness. In Revelation 12:6 we read:
'They should feed her there 1,260 days'.
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that 1,260 days, and a time,
times, and a half, are periods of the same duration.
There is evidence in Scripture of the recognition of a year of 360
days. For example, it is computed that between the seventeenth day of the
second month, and the seventeenth day of the seventh month is 150 days
(Genesis 7 and 8), a computation which supposes a month of thirty days.
Dividing 1,260 by 30 we have 42 months, or three and a half years. Now
Scripture speaks of a period of 42 months, and places it in such proximity to
that of 1,260 days as to remove all doubt as to the length of the prophetic
year:
'The holy city shall they tread under foot 42 months' (Rev. 11:2).
'My two witnesses ... shall prophesy 1,260 days' (Rev. 11:3).
We have already seen that Revelation 13 speaks of the time when the
fourth beast of Daniel 7 shall be in power; and if Daniel 9 speaks of this
same power and period, we may expect to find here some confirmation:
'He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week (a period of 7
years): and in the midst of the week (after a period of 3.5 years, 42
months or 1,260 days) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to
cease' (Dan. 9:27).
'And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and
blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue 42 months' (Rev.
13:5).
That the Hebrew language can refer to 'sabbaths of years' is shown in
Leviticus 25:8, where a period of forty -nine years is also called 'seven
sabbaths of years, seven times seven years'.
These things furnish sufficient proof that the final week of Daniel 9
is a period of seven years. And if the last week be a week of years, it