Below is a facsimile copy of handwritten notes from the collection of Isaac Newton’s papers on his Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. It’s messy and hard to read:
https://2046ad.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/NewtonPapers2AP_800x1041.jpg.
This particular page of notes contains his analysis of the topic of discussion on this website: the 1,260 days, the 1,290 days, the 1,335 days, and the 2,300 days as found in Daniel’s visions. He also integrates these with the “time, times, and half of a time” as found in both Daniel and the Book of Revelation.
I found this handwritten original in the special collections department of the campus library at Garrett Theological Seminary in 1979. As a starving college student, I photo-copied what I could, but couldn’t afford to copy all of the pages.
These handwritten originals are not from editions of the book which have come down to us through various publishers. Dr. Arthur Robinson some years ago reprinted a facsimile copy of a printed edition which was Thomas Jefferson’s personal copy which he bequeathed to the Library of Congress. The edition which is currently in common circulation, and which I use as reference on this website, claims to be the one originally published in 1733, six years after his death, and copyrighted by Anodos Books, Whithorn, England (2019).
But what I found at Garrett were papers not set to type. They were facsimile copies of Newton’s actual handwritten manuscripts.
These are the papers as Newton’s sister would have found them when she submitted them for publication in 1733 . The book was published after his death; consequently, his publisher would have been forced to conduct a forensic analysis without the luxury of consulting the author.
As you read the notes on this page carefully, you will discover an unintentional error in one of Newton’s data entries. The error is obvious and demonstrates the challenge that any interpreter might have in making sense of Newton’s analysis. See if you can find it. I will discuss it at length in a future post.
James Wesley Stivers, March 10, 2023
