Read source passages and their interpretations here, or browse the full bibliography for additional works.
Ellicott commentary contributors; individual Matthew author not established in this inspection
Connects recurring historical judgments with the final coming and considers why the apparent nearness of that coming has not been realized.
Text available here
Plumptre: the sign is the Son of Man himself · commentary →
View cited source · biblehub.com ↗Edition and location
Bible Hub English transcription of Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers; exact print edition requires collation.
Matthew 24:27-29
John Thomas
John Thomas’s 1849 exposition of the kingdom of God and the time of the end, published in London. It dates the end of Daniel’s 1335 days to about 1865.
Text available here
John Thomas: the 1335 end about 1865, then forty years · commentary →
John Thomas revises Elpis Israel in 1867: 2400 for 2300, about 1868, and the kingdom after forty years · commentary →
John Thomas revises Elpis Israel in 1867: 2400 for 2300, about 1868, and the kingdom after forty years · commentary →
View cited source · archive.org ↗Edition and location
John Thomas, Elpis Israel; a Book for the Times: Being an Exposition of the Kingdom of God, with Reference to “the Time of the End” and “the Age to Come” (London: published by the author, 1849), p. 373, one paragraph from “From this diagram it will be seen” through “absorbs everything.” Internet Archive scan of the 1849 first edition, page image inspected (leaf 391); the diagram above the paragraph (labels quoted in the timeline basis) was read from the image. Line-end hyphenation joined; italics rendered plain; whitespace normalized.
p. 373
Jihyun Kim
Studies spirit-written promises of rescue at a cosmic transition and moral renewal in late Chosŏn Korea.
Text available here
The Thearch of Literature warns of catastrophe →
Kalpa and the work of spirit-writing · commentary →
View cited source · mdpi.com ↗Edition and location
Religions 11 (2020), 273; DOI 10.3390/rel11060273; publisher reprint in Religious Conflict and Coexistence.
Sections 5.1–5.2 and 7; collected PDF pages 129–131 and 139–140
Moses Maimonides
Rejects precise messianic dates and astrology while transmitting a family calculation for restoration of prophecy; also describes wonders as messianic evidence, a tension with Mishneh Torah requiring contextual analysis.
Text available here
Maimonides’ tradition of prophecy returning in 4970 →
The letter’s warning before its discussion of dates · commentary →
Failed forecasts and the expected approach of redemption · commentary →
Calculating redemption and trusting the stars · commentary →
How Maimonides tests the Yemeni claimant · commentary →
The claimant’s powers and the danger to the community · commentary →
View cited source · en.wikisource.org ↗Edition and location
Boaz Cohen English translation, American Academy for Jewish Research 1952; Abraham S. Halkin edition/introduction; Wikisource transcription
Sections xii–xiii and xv–xviii, especially date computation and claimant criteria
Nelson H. Barbour
Nelson H. Barbour’s 1871 Second Adventist tract, published at Rochester, New York. It reads the parable of the ten virgins and the prophetic periods of Daniel as pointing to Christ’s coming in 1873.
Text available here
Barbour’s 1873 expectation →
Barbour’s table: “The 1335 days reach to 1873” · commentary →
View cited source · archive.org ↗Edition and location
Nelson H. Barbour, Evidences for the Coming of the Lord in 1873: or the Midnight Cry, second edition (Rochester, N.Y.: published by Nelson H. Barbour, 1871), from “An Exposition of the Parable of the Ten Virgins,” printed pp. 20–21, four consecutive paragraphs from “This is self- apparent” through “this present generation.” Witness: a modern retyped transcription that keeps the 1871 page numbers, hosted by the Internet Archive (PDF pages 14–15, page images inspected). Wording, spelling, straight quotation marks and the transcription’s spaced hyphens (“self- apparent,” “faith- not,” “sin- cursed”) are kept as the transcription gives them; italics rendered plain; page markers and ornamental rules removed; whitespace normalized. No omissions within the unit.
Printed pp. 20–21
Joseph Smith, attributed source of the naming; George W. Robinson and James Mulholland, journal keepers
An entry in Joseph Smith’s 1838 journal, under 19 May, records that Spring Hill in Daviess County, Missouri, was named Adam-ondi-Ahman as the place where Adam would come to visit his people. The sentence is now Doctrine and Covenants 116.
Text available here
D&C 116: Adam-ondi-Ahman, where the Ancient of Days shall sit →
View cited source · josephsmithpapers.org ↗Edition and location
Joseph Smith Papers featured historical witness: JS, Journal, Mar.–Sept. 1838, pp. 43–44. Source note and historical introduction consulted 30 September 2026. Catalogue identity for the revelation; the selected reader text is the later official English scripture witness (edition-lds-dc-116-english).
JS, Journal, Mar.–Sept. 1838, pp. 43–44
General Christianity
John Gill
Gill’s verse-by-verse exposition identifies Revelation’s beast with the papacy and proposes 1866 as the end of its reign, while explicitly calling the calculation uncertain.
Text available here
Gill proposes 1866, with a qualification · commentary →
William Burkitt
Distinguishes gospel expansion, Jerusalem's destruction and final judgment as three comings sharing suddenness.
Text available here
Burkitt: three meanings of Christ’s coming · commentary →
View cited source · studylight.org ↗Edition and location
StudyLight English transcription of Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament; exact printed witness requires collation.
Matthew 24:27-30
Traditional attribution; historical authorship not established here
Dry bones vision explicitly identified as the house of Israel, restored breath and return to land; avoid universal-resurrection-only paraphrase.
Text available here
Ezekiel 40: the gates and courts of the visionary temple →
Ezekiel 37: dry bones and two sticks joined →
John Fairburn, publisher; author unnamed
Reports Tozer’s August 1814 expectation of a mid-October birth and peace without labor or war. Reprints Southcott’s conditional warnings to bishops and September denial of seal sales and extravagant gifts.
Text available here
Southcott’s promised child →
Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI says Fatima’s prophetic mission remains open and prays that the seven years to its centenary hasten the triumph of Mary’s heart. The passage expresses a prayer.
Text available here
Benedict XVI on Fatima’s continuing mission · commentary →
Paul
Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth discusses resurrection, the defeat of death and God’s kingdom.
Text available here
1 Corinthians 15:20–28 →
Neal A. Maxwell
Warns against premature expectation from selective signs and against complacency. Distinguishes multigenerational developments from rapid scourges, and explicitly says some but not all signs suggest nearness. His Jewish-return fulfillment assertion remains attributed interpretation.
Text available here
Maxwell sees some signs still ahead · commentary →
Michael M. Baxter; 1918 Christian Herald edition
A 1918 American edition of Michael Baxter’s prophetic calendar, published by the Christian Herald after his death. Its calendar dates the end of the age to 2 May 1929 or 9 April 1931.
Text available here
The 1918 publishers: Baxter averaged other writers’ dates · commentary →
The 1918 publishers: Baxter averaged other writers’ dates · commentary →
The 1918 calendar: Armageddon on 2 May 1929 or 9 April 1931 · commentary →
View cited source · archive.org ↗Edition and location
Michael M. Baxter (“the late Rev.”), Forty Prophetic Wonders Predicted in Daniel and Revelation, “our second edition” (Cleveland, Ohio: Union Gospel Printing Co.; copyright 1918, The Christian Herald, New York). Internet Archive scan fortypropheticwo0000mich (The Master’s College Library), page images inspected: Preface, pp. 3–4, the paragraph “Regarding the Calendar of prophetic dates” through “compilation of the Calendar.”; Prophetic Calendar, p. 8, the Thirty-Sixth through Fortieth Wonders. Small-capital headings rendered in title case; line-end hyphenation joined; whitespace normalized.
Preface pp. 3–4; Prophetic Calendar p. 8
Isaac Newton
An unpublished manuscript fragment interpreting Daniel and Revelation. Newton calculates 2060 from a proposed 800 CE starting point, allows a later ending, and rejects claims to know the exact end.
Text available here
Newton’s conditional 2060 calculation · commentary →
View cited source · newtonproject.ox.ac.uk ↗Edition and location
Isaac Newton, YahudaMs7.3g, f13v, complete calculation beginning “So then the time times” through its closing qualification. Newton Project normalized electronic edition, transcription Shannon Higgins, checked Niki Black, code checked Robert Ralley. Normalized edition incorporates additions and expands abbreviations.
YahudaMs7.3g,f13v
Late Heian compilation
A Japanese chronicle in kanbun from the late Heian period, arranged by reign with an emphasis on Buddhist events. Its entry for Eishō 7 (1052) records that the Final Dharma began that year.
Text available here
Fusō ryakki: the Final Dharma begins, 1052 →
Canonical Buddhist discourse; Thanissaro Bhikkhu translator
The discourse forecasts deterioration in ordination, teaching and practice while urging action to prevent it.
Text available here
Five dangers to the teaching →
What “developed in body” means · commentary →
Canonical Buddhist discourse; Thanissaro Bhikkhu translator
Predicts luxury and property accumulation undermining renunciant practice; contextual decline, not world-ending prediction.
Text available here
When monks seek comfort and possessions →
Michael Baxter
Michael Baxter’s prophetic calendar in its eighth edition of 1894, published by the Christian Herald in London and New York. Its title page dates the ascension of 144,000 living Christians to about 12 March 1903 and the Second Advent to 23 April 1908; a postscript of 1897 allows a covenant week ending in 1911.
Text available here
Baxter’s dates for 1903 and 1908 →
Baxter’s preface and 1897 postscript: the covenant week may instead run to 1911 · commentary →
Baxter’s preface and 1897 postscript: the covenant week may instead run to 1911 · commentary →
View cited source · archive.org ↗Edition and location
Rev. M. Baxter, editor of “The Christian Herald,” Future Wonders of Prophecy … eighth edition in 1894, “one hundredth thousand” (London: Christian Herald Office, 20 Tudor Street, and Bible House, New York). This copy includes a postscript dated 1897, so it is a printing of 1897 or later. Internet Archive scan futurewondersof00theouoft (University of Toronto, Robarts Library), page images inspected: title page (leaf 4), complete title block from “Future Wonders of Prophecy” through “for 1000 years.”; Preface to the Eighth Edition, dated March 1894, and its “Postscript in 1897,” complete (leaf 8). Title page set in capitals and small capitals, rendered here in title case following the large capitals; the misprint “Ppophecies” is kept; spaces before semicolons closed; broken type read as “without” and “with”; whitespace normalized.
Title page; preface and 1897 postscript
Francis
Joins expectation of an unknown date of Christ’s return to present work and peacemaking.
Text available here
Francis on watchfulness in daily life · commentary →
Narrator unnamed in this chapter; traditional Mosaic attribution not asserted as established authorship
The opening book of the Torah narrates creation and the lives of Israel’s ancestors. Its garden narrative includes the words about enmity between the serpent and the woman’s offspring.
Text available here
Genesis 45: Joseph makes himself known to his brothers →
Genesis 3: the woman and the serpent →
General Christianity
Johann Albrecht Bengel · William Fletcher translation
Bengel’s New Testament commentary gives a connected chronology of Revelation. The displayed historical translation preserves the predicted years and his qualification of their certainty.
Text available here
Bengel’s timetable: 1810, 1832 and 1836 · commentary →
Bengel’s timetable: 1810, 1832 and 1836 · commentary →
Bengel’s timetable: 1810, 1832 and 1836 · commentary →
View cited source · biblehub.com ↗Edition and location
Bible Hub English translation with separately signed editorial notes; translator and print impression unspecified on inspected page.
Matthew 24:27–30, especially four observations on verse 29
Unknown; traditionally attributed to John
The Gospel according to John, the fourth canonical gospel. In its farewell discourse Jesus promises to come again and receive his disciples.
Text available here
John 14:1–23: I will come again →
View cited source · ebible.org ↗Edition and location
King James Version (1769 standard text), eBible.org electronic witness; see the source editions for each selection.
John 14:1–23
Traditionally attributed to Luke
Luke 21 describes Jerusalem surrounded by armies, distress among nations, and the coming of the Son of man. Its warnings about Jerusalem and its instructions to remain alert can be read alongside Matthew and Mark.
Text available here
Luke 12: be ready for the returning master →
Jesus’ discourse on the Mount of Olives →
View cited source · ebible.org ↗Edition and location
eBible American Standard Version (1901), electronic HTML; index/copyright reports generated 8 August 2026 from source files of that date
Luke 21:5-7; Luke 21:8-19; Luke 21:20-24; Luke 21:25-28; Luke 21:29-36