Sixth Period

The Temple Era from the Foundation to the Destruction by Nebuchadnezzar

Embraces 430 years.

Notes on the Sixth Period

1.—The Number 430

1. I style this sixth period THE TEMPLE ERA, because its 430 years are current with the existence of Solomon’s building, from its foundation to its destruction; and because its foundation is made an epoch in 1 Kings vi. 1.

2. The whole number 430 is evidently an important and significant totality in Bible Chronology. There was exactly that number of years from the Confirmation of the Abrahamic Land Covenant to the historico-typical initial fulfillment of its promises at the Exodus. In this sixth period it is exactly reproduced. It was a time in which, as Daniel testifies, “We, Israelites, have sinned, and committed iniquity, and done wickedly, and rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts, and from thy judgments, O Yahweh, the great and dreadful God; neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, who spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land”—ch. ix. 4-6. For this general apostasy, and for their not turning from their iniquities that they might understand the truth, Daniel furthermore deposes that, in destroying the city and temple, slaying them by the sword, and sending them into captivity far off from the land, which he terms “a great evil,” the Deity had “confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us; . . . for under the whole heaven hath not been p. CH 23 done as hath been done upon Jerusalem; as it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us”—ver. 12, 13. Of this period of 430 years, Judah was held responsible solely for 40 years of the iniquity; because, during that period, from the foundation of the temple to the 4th of Rehoboam’s reign, Judah was the ruler of the nation. It was Solomon’s commingling of idolatry with the worship of Yahweh that brought calamity upon Israel; for which apostasy, consummated nationally in Rehoboam’s reign, Judah was severely punished at the end of the 430 years.

From the 4th of Rehoboam to the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar was an interval of 390 years. This was the remainder of the 430, after deducting the 40 years assigned to Judah. Of these 390, the kingdom of Ephraim, consisting of the Ten Tribes, continued 256 years; and ceased to exist forever in the 6th of Hezekiah, A. M. 3363. After this, Judah continued the sole kingdom in the land 134 years, which bring us to the end of the 430, in all of which Judah had the supremacy 174 years.

Now the whole number 430 years, and its division into 40 years for Judah, and 390 for Israel, are chronologically determined in Ezek. iv. 4-6. In this place, the prophet is made to represent the Hebrew nation laden with iniquity. As its sin-bearer, he is commanded to lie on his left side, with the iniquity of the House of Israel upon it, to bear its iniquity as many days as it was years in accumulating—390 days for 390 years; or “a day for a year.” He was to go through the same course on his right side for Judah—a day for a year; or 40 days for 40 years. Had the accumulated iniquity been developed only in the 256 years of the kingdom of Ephraim, Ezekiel would have laid on his left side 256 days; but the iniquity to be punished with the destruction of the City and Temple, had been accumulating in all the temple-era of 430 years; and, therefore, the prophet had to bear it typically 430 days for the real time 430 years. In this way, Ezekiel determines for us the exact number of the years of the sixth period of our chronology, with which we find events and their times in strict accord.

The fifth of Jehoiachin’s captivity was the 13th year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign; and the 30th from Josiah’s great passover, in the 18th of Josiah’s reign. In this year of the captivity “the word of Yahweh” began to “come expressly to Ezekiel in the land of the Chaldeans.” Ezekiel became a captive in the 7th of Nebuchadnezzar—Jer. lii. 28. In the 12th of his captivity, he received information by one who had escaped that Jerusalem was taken—Ezek. xxxiii. 21. It was smitten the year before the temple was burned, in the 18th of Nebuchadnezzar. In the five years between the fifth of Jehoiachin and the 18th Nebuchadnezzar, Ezekiel typically bore Israel’s iniquity 430 days; or 1 year, 2 months, and 10 days. As he typically laid siege to Jerusalem while he was typically bearing the iniquity of the nation, his typical siege must have commenced at the beginning of the 430 days. While these were progressing, it was “a sign to the House of Israel,” that the nine years siege of the city would end at the end of the days in capture and destruction, in part punishment of past iniquity; and, furthermore, that the 430 typical days being ended, they should enter upon a like period p. CH 24 of 430 years, in all of which “the children of Israel should eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither Yahweh would drive them”—Ezek. iv. 13.

Daniel was informed, in reference to the condition of his compatriots in this long period, in which they groaned under Chaldean, Persian, and Greek oppression, that “they should fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, days.” It was not necessary to tell him how many “days,” for that had been significantly revealed through Ezekiel. He was told respecting the end of those “days,” that “the people who knew their God should be strong and do;” and that “those among the people who understood should instruct many”—Dan. xi. 32-34. This was encouraging; and also remarkably verified in the times of the Maccabees. This Levitical family, known also as the Asmoneans, began to acquire celebrity in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, who undertook to abolish Judaism, and to make all his subjects Greeks. This mad enterprise was initiated in the 145th year of the Era of the Greeks, when he caused an abomination of desolation to be placed upon the altar—1 Macc. i. 54. This answers to A. M. 3918. The year after, Mattathias the patriarch of the family died, and, on his deathbed, appointed his son, Judas Maccabæus, to lead the revolt of Israel against the Greeks. This was in the year before Christ, 170. Six years did Judas, by his mighty deeds, show that Israel was in the epoch foreshown to Daniel. Judas and his adherents, “who knew their God were strong and did exploits.” “In his acts he was like a lion, and like a lion’s whelp roaring for his prey; for he pursued the wicked and sought them out, and burned up those that vexed his people. Wherefore the wicked shrunk for fear of him, and all the workers of iniquity were troubled. He grieved also many kings, and made Jacob glad with his acts, and his memorial is blest for ever”—1 Macc. iii. 4. Judas died in battle, in the year 152 of the Era of the Greeks, or B. C. 164, which was 428 years after the burning of the temple in the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar. There still remain two years of the 430 to be accounted for. In regard to these, the history of the epoch informs us that Judas’ brother Jonathan was elected “Prince and Captain in his stead;” and that, on the death of Alcimus, in the 153rd year, the Greeks evacuated the land of Judea, in consequence of which, “it was in rest two years;” at the end whereof, there was a delivery of Hebrew captives, and “the sword ceased from Israel”—A. M. 3927, and B. C. 162—1 Macc. ix. 54, 57, 73.

Thus, having “eaten their defiled bread among the Gentiles” 430 years, as a punishment for 430 years iniquity under their kings coeval with the existence of Solomon’s temple, “they were holpen with a little help,” according to the Deity’s word in Dan. xi. 34. The wars of this Maccabæan epoch had reconquered for them their independence. Under their Asmonæan kings, Israel again became a power in the earth; and, in alliance with their new friends of the Roman Senate, assumed not only a respectable, but a formidable, position in the esteem of their still powerful neighbors of Syria and Egypt.