Note 26 — Chapter VI · EXTENT OF THE FIFTH AGE OF THE WORLD.

“I have endeavoured to shew,” says Mr. Cuninghame, in the former of the places cited, “that the periods of 390 and 40 mystic days, during which Ezekiel was commanded to lie on his sides, bearing the iniquity of Judah and Israel, are a period of 430 years, computed from the finishing of the Temple, B.C. 1020, to the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem, B.C. 590. But it now appears to me that the 430 years may with equal probability be computed from the first Passover in the Temple. The dedication was in the month Tisri of B.C. 1019, which is exactly 91 jubilees from the creation; the first Passover was therefore in Nisan B.C. 1018, whence to the taking of the city in Ab B.C. 588, are 430 years and three months; and computing back from B.C. 588, the second period of 40 years, it brings us to B.C. 628, the 13th of Josiah, and the very year, according to Prideaux, of the commission of Jeremiah. * * * Whether, therefore, we compute the period of 430 years from the finishing of the Temple B.C. 1020, to the beginning of the siege B.C. 590, or as above, from the first Passover to the taking of the city, it comes out with equal exactness.”