Hebdomad

God was now to deliver them, from the bodily captivity of Babylon: ſo was he alſo after ſeventy hebdomades more, to deliver them from bondage of ſin and prevarication, and that by the anointed Meſſias, which is indeed the Holy of Holies. This (I ſay) may be the reaſon of naming ſeventy Hebdomades, thereby to allude to the number of the ſeventy years of that Babylonicall ſervitude. For that immediately after the Angel appointeth the whole exact number to be threeſcore and nine Hebdomades; that is, ſeven to the building of the City and Temple, and threeſcore and two, from that, to the death of Chriſt, in theſe words. [...]

Let us now pass to the other species of the hebdomad, which is comprehended in the decad, and which exhibits an admirable nature no less than the former hebdomad. This, therefore, is composed of one, two, and four, which possess two most harmonic ratios, the duple and the quadruple; the former of which forms the symphony diapason, and the latter the symphony desdiapason.

From the seventh of Artaxerxes to the death of Christ, are exactly seventy hebdomads complete. From the same epoch to the commencement of John's ministry, are exactly sixty-nine hebdomads. [...] From the coming of Christ, that is, from the first preaching of the Gospel, to the destruction of Jerusalem, are seven hebdomads; and this event happened exactly at the end of the first half of the seventh hebdomad, which "sacrifice and oblation" visibly ceased.

The word "hebdomad" stands in the same relation to seven, that "decad" does to ten, or our English word "dozen" to twelve. As therefore we can say a dozen of days, or a dozen of months, or a dozen of years, so we can say, a hebdomad of days, (i.e. seven days,) or a hebdomad of months, (i.e. seven months,) or a hebdomad of years, (i.e. seven years.)

Irenæus remarks that half a hebdomad, being three years and a half, applies to the time of Antichrist. But, if so, that brings it into connexion with Daniel's other prophecy of the "little horn," into whose hand the saints were given for "a time and times and the dividing of time." Dan[iel] vii. 25. The fathers interpreted this horn of Antichrist, and rightly so: and St. John has furnished us with various expressions of this period, as 1260 days, or 42 months, which are equivalent to half a hebdomad.

In Platonic Theology V. 4.19 ff., Proclus further relates that Plato divided the Soul into one circle and seven circles—a monad and hebdomad. [...] Proclus stresses the relationship between the circles of the monad and hebdomad by explaining that the monad is the whole soul which precedes the hebdomad (In Tim. 267.10–15).

The Babylonian race will hold the Roman state in its power for a threefold cycle hebdomad of years. Thereafter the Romans will enslave the Persians in the fifth hebdomad of years.

For that ſaying of our Saviour, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work, is by the moſt judicious underſtood of the works of preſervation and providence: Thoſe of creation being concluded within the firſt Hebdomade, accordingly as is expreſt in the Hiſtory, that God on the ſeventh day reſted from all his works.

[page 115] The truth is, "we discover no trace of a Sabbath" even among those oriental nations which had the hebdomade or week: but to the Greeks, the week itself was unknown!—their smallest interval being the decade or period of ten days. [...] [page 121] Making due allowance for the natural exaggeration of an apologist, the substance of this statement expresses a well-recognized fact in Roman history. "The institution of the Hebdomade" (introduced about the date of the Christian era) did travel almost throughout the empire.

When, then, the Great Archon had been orally instructed, and every creature of the Ogdoad had been orally instructed and taught, and [after] the mystery became known to the celestial [powers], it was also necessary that afterwards the Gospel should come to the Hebdomad, in order likewise that the Archon of the Hebdomad might be similarly instructed and indoctrinated into the Gospel.