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he says, "In the very same manner Daniel also wrote about the rule of the Romans, and that by them Jerusalem will be desolated and the temple will be destroyed." But you, consider for me the love of truth of the man, who even if he was a Jew, yet did not 1.407 endure to emulate the Jewish contentiousness and falsehood. For having said that Jerusalem will be desolated and the temple will be destroyed, he wrote, but he no longer added that the desolation would ever cease, since he did not even find the prophet adding any such thing. Where, then, did Daniel say that the temple will be desolated? Listen. For when he had made that prayer in sackcloth and ashes, Gabriel came to him, and says, "Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city." Behold, here too a time is mentioned not of the captivity, but after what time the captivity was to happen. Then again he says more precisely, "And you shall know and understand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, until Christ the prince, shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." Here pay attention to me intelligently; for the whole matter in question is here. Therefore, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks are 483 years. For here he speaks not of weeks of days, nor of months, but of weeks of years. But from Cyrus to Antiochus Epiphanes and that captivity are 304 years.

Then teaching us from where we must count, that it is not from the day of the return but from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem. But it was not built in the time of Cyrus, but in the time of Artaxerxes Longimanus. For after the return came Cambyses, then the Magi, and after them Darius son of Hystaspes, after whom Xerxes son of Darius and Artabanus. Then Artaxerxes Longimanus 1.408 reigned over Persia; in the 20th year of his reign Nehemiah went up and restored the city, which things Ezra accurately recounted to us. If, then, from this point we set four hundred and eighty-three years, we shall certainly arrive at its destruction, as Josephus again testifies, saying, "The desolation of the city and of the temple happened to take place according to the prophecy of Daniel, made 408 years before." For this reason he says, the street and the wall shall be built. When therefore it rises up and receives its proper form, from that point count the 70 weeks. But after the weeks an anointed one shall be cut off, and there shall be no judgment in him, as has been said before. For after the desolation that happened under Vespasian and Titus, the Jews, gathering together under Hadrian, were eager to return to their former state, the foolish ones fighting against God. Having subdued them, indeed, the emperor, and having destroyed the entire city and having obliterated all the remains, and after these things having rebuilt it, he named it Aelia according to his own name. Whence Christ, having come after Antiochus Epiphanes, and proclaiming beforehand the captivity that was to be, and showing that Daniel foretold it, says, "When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let the one who reads understand." For since every idol and every image of a man was called an abomination among the Jews, enigmatically indicating that statue, he announced beforehand both when and by whom the captivity would be. 1.409 But that these things were said about the Romans, Josephus also testifies, as we said before. What argument, then, is left for them now? when the prophets are seen to have spoken of the captivities with definite times, but for this one they set no time, but on the contrary said that the desolation will be until the consummation. That, if the present servitude were going to come to an end, the prophets would have foretold this too and would not have been silent, we have sufficiently demonstrated, by showing that all the captivities were inflicted upon them with a prediction; for of each of these both the ways and the times were fore-procl

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φησί "τὸν αὐτόν γέ τοι τρόπον ∆ανιὴλ καὶ περὶ τῆς Ῥωμαίων ἡγεμονίας ἀνέγραψε, καὶ ὅτι ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἐρημωθή σεται τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα καὶ ὁ ναὸς καταλυθήσεται." σὺ δέ μοι σκόπει τὸ φιλάληθες τοῦ ἀνδρός, ὃς εἰ καὶ Ἰουδαῖος ἦν, ἀλλ' οὐκ 1.407 ἠνέσχετο ζηλῶσαι τὴν Ἰουδαϊκὴν φιλονεικίαν τε καὶ ψευδηγορίαν. εἰπὼν γὰρ ὅτι ἐρημωθήσεται τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα καὶ ὁ ναὸς κατα λυθήσεται, ἔγραψεν, ὅτι δὲ στήσεταί που τὰ τῆς ἐρημώσεως οὐκέτι προσέθηκεν, ἐπειδὴ μηδὲ τὸν προφήτην εὗρε τοιοῦτόν τι προσθέντα. ποῦ τοίνυν εἶπε ∆ανιὴλ ὅτι ὁ ναὸς ἐρημωθήσεται; ἄκουσον. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τὴν προσευχὴν ἐκείνην τὴν ἐν σάκκῳ καὶ σποδῷ ἐποιήσατο, ἦλθε Γαβριὴλ πρὸς αὐτόν, καὶ φησίν "ἑβδο μήκοντα ἑβδομάδες συνετμήθησαν ἐπὶ τὸν λαόν σου καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἁγίαν." ἰδοὺ καὶ ἐνταῦθα χρόνος εἴρηται οὐ τῆς αἰχμα λωσίας, ἀλλὰ μεθ' ὅσον χρόνον ἔμελλεν ἡ αἰχμαλωσία ἀπαντή σεσθαι. εἶτα πάλιν φησὶν ἀκριβέστερον "καὶ γνώσῃ καὶ συνήσεις ἀπὸ ἐξόδου λόγων τοῦ ἀποκριθῆναι καὶ τοῦ οἰκοδομῆσαι Ἱερουσα λήμ, ἕως Χριστοῦ ἡγουμένου, ἑβδομάδας ζʹ καὶ ἑβδομάδας ξβʹ." ἐνταῦθά μοι νουνεχῶς πρόσεχε· τὸ γὰρ πᾶν ἐνταῦθά ἐστι τὸ ζη τούμενον. ἑβδομάδες οὖν ζʹ καὶ ἑβδομάδες ξβʹ υπγʹ ἔτη εἰσίν. ἑβδομάδας γὰρ οὐχ ἡμερῶν ἐνταῦθα λέγει, οὐδὲ μηνῶν, ἀλλ' ἑβδομάδας ἐνιαυτῶν. ἀπὸ δὲ Κύρου ἐπὶ Ἀντίοχον τὸν ἐπιφανῆ καὶ τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν ἐκείνην ἔτη εἰσὶ τδʹ.

Eἶτα διδάσκων ἡμᾶς πόθεν ἀριθμεῖν δεῖ, ὅτι οὐκ ἀπὸ τῆς ἡμέρας τῆς ἐπανόδου ἀλλ' ἀπὸ ἐξόδου λόγων τοῦ ἀποκριθῆναι καὶ τοῦ οἰκοδομῆσαι Ἱερου σαλήμ. οὐκ ἐπὶ Κύρῳ δὲ ᾠκοδομήθη, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἀρταξέρξου τοῦ μακρόχειρος. μετὰ γὰρ τὴν κάθοδον ἐπανῆλθε Καμβύσης, εἶτα οἱ Μάγοι, καὶ μετ' ἐκείνους ∆αρεῖος Ὑστάσπου, μεθ' ὃν Ξέρξης ὁ ∆αρείου καὶ Ἀρταβάνης. εἶτα Ἀρταξέρξης ὁ μακρόχειρ 1.408 ἐβασίλευσε τῆς Περσίδος· ἐν τῷ κʹ ἔτει τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ Νεεμίας ἀνελθὼν τὴν πόλιν ἀνέστησεν, ἅπερ ὁ Ἔσδρας ἀκριβῶς ἡμῖν διηγήσατο. ἂν τοίνυν ἐντεῦθεν τετρακόσια ὀγδοήκοντα τρία θῶμεν ἔτη, ἥξομεν πάντως ἐπὶ τὴν κατασκαφὴν ταύτης, ὡς καὶ Ἰώσηπος αὖθις μαρτυρεῖ λέγων "τὴν δὲ τῆς πόλεως καὶ τοῦ ναοῦ ἐρήμωσιν συνέβη γενέσθαι κατὰ τὴν ∆ανιὴλ προφητείαν, πρὸ υʹ καὶ ηʹ γενομένην ἐτῶν." διὰ τοῦτό φησιν, οἰκοδομηθήσεται πλα τεῖα καὶ περίτειχος. ἐπειδὰν οὖν ἀναστῇ καὶ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἀπολάβῃ σχῆμα, ἀπ' ἐκείνου τὰς οʹ ἑβδομάδας ἀρίθμει. μετὰ δὲ τὰς ἑβδομάδας ἐξολοθρευθήσεται χρίσμα, καὶ κρίμα οὐκ ἔσται ἐν αὐτῷ, καθὼς προείρηται. μετὰ γὰρ τὴν Οὐεσπασιανοῦ καὶ Τίτου γενομένην ἐρήμωσιν ἐπὶ Ἀδριανοῦ συστάντες οἱ Ἰουδαῖοιἐσπούδαζον ἐπὶ τὴν προτέραν πολιτείαν ἐπανελθεῖν οἱ μάταιοι θεο μαχοῦντες. χειρωσάμενος δὴ αὐτοὺς ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ τὴν πόλιν πᾶσαν καταστρέψας καὶ τὰ λείψανα ἀφανίσας πάντα, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα αὐτὴν ἀνεγείρας, Αἰλίαν αὐτὴν προσηγόρευσε κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ ἐπωνυμίαν. ὅθεν ὁ Χριστὸς μετὰ Ἀντίοχον τὸν ἐπιφανῆ παραγενόμενος, καὶ προαναφωνῶν τὴν μέλλουσαν ἔσεσθαι αἰχμα λωσίαν, καὶ δεικνὺς ὅτι ὁ ∆ανιὴλ περὶ αὐτῆς προεῖπε, φησίν "ὅταν ἴδητε τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως, τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ ∆ανιὴλ προφήτου, ἑστὼς ἐν τόπῳ ἁγίῳ, ὁ ἀναγινώσκων νοείτω." ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἅπαν εἴδωλον καὶ πᾶν ἐκτύπωμα ἀνθρώπου βδέλυγμα παρὰ τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ἐκαλεῖτο, αἰνιγματωδῶς ἐμφαίνων τὸν ἀνδριάντα ἐκεῖνον, ὁμοῦ καὶ πότε καὶ ὑπὸ τίνος ἔσται ἡ αἰχμαλωσία προανήγ 1.409 γειλεν. ὅτι δὲ περὶ τῶν Ῥωμαίων εἴρηται ταῦτα, καὶ Ἰώσηπος μαρτυρεῖ, καθὼς προέφημεν. τίς οὖν αὐτοῖς ὑπολείπεται λοιπὸν λόγος; ὅταν τὰς μὲν αἰχμαλωσίας οἱ προφῆται φαίνωνται μετὰ διωρισμένων χρόνων εἰπόντες, ταύτῃ δὲ μηδένα χρόνον ὁρίσαντες, ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον εἰπόντες ὅτι μέχρι συντελείας ἔσται ἡ ἐρήμωσις. ὅτι μὲν εἰ τέλος ἡ παροῦσα ἔμελλε δουλεία λήψεσθαι, καὶ τοῦτο ἂν προεῖπον οἱ προφῆται καὶ οὐκ ἐσίγησαν, ἱκανῶς ἀπεδείξαμεν, τὰς αἰχμαλωσίας ἁπάσας μετὰ προρρήσεως δείξαντες ἐπενεχθείσας αὐτοῖς· ἑκάστης γὰρ τούτων καὶ τρόπους καὶ χρόνους προανακη