Timeline

Prophecy and interpretation through time

When prophecies were given, the dates people predicted from them, proposed fulfillments and later interpretations. Choose a view: the overview shows where the material lies, the chronicle reads century by century, life-lines follow one prophecy or one line of prediction, and said vs. expected shows how far ahead each prediction looked.

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7 dates

1st century

  1. Approximately 90–95 CE · one proposed range

    Estimated composition of Revelation’s final form

    Prophecy given or recordedThe seven bowls of wrathGeneral Christianity

    Dating basis

    Early Christian Writings gives 90–95 CE; USCCB places Revelation’s present form near the end of Domitian’s reign. This follows the late-date view.

    Date reference ↗

18th century

  1. 1705 · reported by Jurieu

    An anonymous divine, reported by Jurieu: the Antichristian empire ends in 1705

    Predicted dateThe seven bowls of wrathGeneral Christianity

    Dating basis

    Jurieu reports that an anonymous writer “fixes it precisely to the year 1705”, puts “the end of the Antichristian Empire in the year 1705” and reckons the ruin of the papacy from 1689. Jurieu rejects his treatment of the vials.

    Stated year of a reported prediction

    Stated 1687–1688. Jurieu's French continuation of the Accomplissement des prophéties appeared at Rotterdam in 1687; the English translation with the Confirmation on the vials was printed in London in 1688.

    Date reference ↗

  2. 1710–1720 · restated in 1688

    Jurieu restates the end of the papacy as between 1710 and 1720

    Predicted dateThe seven bowls of wrathGeneral Christianity

    Dating basis

    In 1688 Jurieu writes of the end of the papacy: “I fixt it betwixt the year 1710. and the year 1720.” His 1687 Accomplishment put the fall of the Antichristian empire between 1710 and 1715.

    Stated range, as the author restates it

    Stated 1687–1688. Jurieu's French continuation of the Accomplissement des prophéties appeared at Rotterdam in 1687; the English translation with the Confirmation on the vials was printed in London in 1688.

    Date reference ↗

20th century

  1. 1918 · revised American edition

    Christian Herald edition of Forty Prophetic Wonders

    Interpretation recordedThe seven bowls of wrathGeneral Christianity

    Dating basis

    Copyright 1918, The Christian Herald, New York; “our second edition.” Also dates the preface’s explanation of the calendar.

    Year of the witnessed edition.

    Date reference ↗

  2. Fall 1920

    Republics disappear into anarchy

    Predicted dateThe seven bowls of wrathGeneral Christianity

    Dating basis

    Explicit fall 1920.

    approximate_season

    Stated July 1917–1918. The Finished Mystery was first published in July 1917, when it was sent to all Watch Tower subscribers; these words stand in the 1918 printing, which carries the 1917 copyright.

    Date reference ↗

  3. 2 May 1929 or 9 April 1931 · alternatives

    1918 calendar: Christ’s descent at Armageddon, 2 May 1929 or 9 April 1931

    Predicted dateThe seven bowls of wrathGeneral Christianity

    Dating basis

    “Fortieth Wonder. May 2, 1929, or Ap. 9, 1931. End of this Age by Christ’s descent at Battle of Armageddon … probably on last day of Passover Week, Thurs., May 2, 1929, or Ap. 9, 1931.” Two alternative dates; the calendar ties them to a covenant beginning at Passover 1922 or 1924.

    alternative_dates

    Stated 1918. The revised American edition Forty Prophetic Wonders, with its calendar for 1929 and 1931, was copyrighted in 1918.

    Date reference ↗

21st century

  1. About 2016 · end of the 1,260 years

    Lowman: the antichristian power destroyed about 2016, before the millennium

    Predicted dateThe seven bowls of wrathGeneral Christianity

    Dating basis

    Lowman counts the 1,260 years of the beast’s rule “from about the Year 756, to about the Year 2016” (Scheme, p. xxxi) and writes that the last vial, “suppose, from about the Year 1900, to about the Year 2016, shall quite destroy the tyrannical and persecuting Power of the antichristian Kingdom”, making way for the period in which Satan is bound (Revelation 20). He calls the historical application of this part “very uncertain”. Jonathan Edwards later reported Lowman as putting the millennium after 2000.

    Approximate year: “to about the Year 2016”

    Stated 1737. Lowman's A Paraphrase and Notes on the Revelation of St. John was first printed in London for John Noon in 1737, with the same reckoning to about 2016.

    Date reference ↗ Additional dating source ↗

Durations and conditions

Some passages give a span of time, a relative deadline or a condition. Explore those expressions here, with the words and context that define them.

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112 timing expressions

General Judaism · Duration

“A. D. J.”: seven years of temple building from 1874

Seven years from the autumn of 1874

the time of building is seven years

The seven years of Solomon’s temple building are applied to the period from Christ’s presence in the autumn of 1874, giving the fall of 1881.

Zion’s Watch Tower, January 1881 · Article “How Long, O Lord?” signed “A. D. J.”, Zion’s Watch Tower, January 1881, pp. 4–5 (reprint [180]–[181]), from “The laying of the foundation-stone” through “the time given for building.”

Read this commentary at its passage → Source edition ↗

General Christianity · Relative deadline

“This generation”

Before this generation passes

[34] Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished.

Matthew records this relative expression without defining it as a fixed count of years. Interpretations of the generation and the events remain attached to the source passage.

Gospel according to Matthew

Read these words in the passage → Source edition ↗

Jewish / Christian — Shared scriptures · Condition

A warning to those who reject Southcott’s words

Fatal consequences for denying the woman’s words

confess the Woman true, or fatal now will it be for you all that deny her words

Within her claimed divine answer, Southcott adds a conditional threat to people who deny her words. It is an attributed warning beyond the Genesis interpretation.

A Communication Given to Joanna in Answer to Mr. Brothers’s Last Book · Joanna Southcott · introductory account and claimed divine answer

Read this commentary at its passage → Source edition ↗

General Judaism · Maximum interval

Arnold, writing in 1297: the present age ends before two centuries are completed

Before two centuries are completed

priusquam duo centenaria compleantur, status presentis seculi finietur

Arnold, writing when “we now count 1297 years from the Lord’s coming”, says the state of the present age will end before two centuries are completed.

De tempore adventus Antichristi · Arnold of Villanova, De tempore adventus Antichristi (1297), as printed by H. Finke, Aus den Tagen Bonifaz VIII. (1902), pp. CXXXI–CXXXII; English translation by Rainbow Watch (2026)

Read this commentary at its passage → Source edition ↗

General Latter-day Saint · Condition

Cannon: no return until the Saints obey the earlier order

Until the Saints obey the revelation on consecration

until we did obey that the privilege of going back

Cannon reports what he had been taught: the return to Jackson County and the temple promised for “this generation” would wait until the Saints obeyed the early revelation on living as one family.

George Q. Cannon on the temple to be reared in this generation · George Q. Cannon, as reported by David W. Evans, 8 October 1874; Journal of Discourses 17, pp. 232–233, two paragraphs from “If then, my brethren and” through “in the beginning to obey.”

Read this commentary at its passage → Source edition ↗

General Christianity · Alternative durations

Colin Deal: forty years from 1948, or seventy or eighty from 1918

A forty-year generation from 14 May 1948, or a seventy- or eighty-year generation from the Balfour Declaration of 1918

each brings us near the same termination point

Deal reads the fig tree as Israel and says the generation that sees its rebirth will see Christ’s return. He sets out a forty-year generation from 1948 and a seventy- or eighty-year generation from 1918, says “each brings us near the same termination point,” calls the length and starting point “open for speculation,” and concludes that the generation that will witness the return “is none other than our own.”

The Day and Hour Jesus Will Return · Colin Deal, The Day and Hour Jesus Will Return (Colin H. Deal, 1988), pp. 89–92; short excerpt of six paragraphs.

Read this commentary at its passage → Source edition ↗

General Judaism · Duration

Daniel’s closing periods

1,290 days and 1,335 days

11 And from the time that the continual burnt-offering shall be taken away, and the detestable thing that causes appalment set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. 12 Happy is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

The passage connects its count with removal of the continual offering and the setting up of the detestable thing.

Daniel

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