Because Newton’s writings on religion were posthumously published from his original manuscripts, it is not always clear what he meant. His publisher had to do a forensic analysis of handwritten notes without the input or clarification from the author. The page referenced here is an example of the difficulty of the task.
https://2046ad.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/NewtonPapers2AP_800x1041.jpg
According to Donald Patten, Newton’s membership in the Royal Academy of Sciences required that he abstain from publishing anything on the subject of religion. Newton left that task to his assistant, William Whiston, whose writings should be consulted to discover what I will now call the “Newtonian Cosmological Interpretation of Bible Prophecy” or NCIBP. This website is building a case that according to NCIBP, the dating methods of the Biblical prophets (e.g. Daniel and St. John) were not based merely upon the predestination of human behavior, but include a larger interrelation with cosmological forces.
I offer below a transcription of Newton’s Notes as cited above [my interpolations are in brackets]:
Newton’s Notes for Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John
Proposition 1. The 2300 prophetical days did not commence before the [time] of the little horn of the He Goat;
[Proposition] 2 Those day[s] did not commence [before][prior] the destruction of Jerusalem of the Temple by the Romans AD 70;
[Proposition] 3 The time, times, and half a time did not commence before the year 800 in which the Pope’s supremacy commenced
[Proposition] 4 They did not commence after the [time][reign] of Gregory the 7th. 1084 [AD]
[Proposition] 5 The 1290 days did not commence before the year [blotted scribble mark] 842 [AD]
[Proposition] 6 They did not commence after the reign of Pope Gregory 7th. 1084 [AD]
[Proposition] 7 The difference between the 1290 and 1335 days are [a] part[s] of the seven weeks.
Therefore, the 2300 years do not end before the year 2132 nor after 2370 [AD].
The time, times and half time do not end before 2060 [AD] nor after [missing factor]
The 1290 days do not begin before 2090 [entry partially illegible because of crease in the parchment] nor after 1374 [AD]
The reader will notice that these notes were written on a previously used piece of thin vellum-like paper. It appears that the back side of the paper has entries of a mathematical nature which show through the surface. They seem to be undecipherable and evidently unrelated, much how some men will write down a sudden inspiration on the back of a napkin or a shopping receipt.
The lower right corner contains notations and a seal which probably catalogues and establishes its provenance. It’s important for the reader to know that this folio was never published nor found in any subsequent edition of Newton’s book – at least to the knowledge of this writer. What you see here would be considered “new” information.
An interpretation and discussion will be forthcoming.
JWS, March 26th, 2023
