The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

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A
THE HISTORY OF AN
INTERPRETATION
LL IDEAS have a beginning. People who believe in an idea,
however, are often completely unaware of its background,
origin and development. Ignorance of that history may strengthen
the conviction that the idea is true, even when it is not. As happens
in other cases, this ignorance may provide fertile soil for fanaticism.
True, knowledge of the historical development of an idea does
not necessarily disprove it, but such knowledge does enable us to
improve our judgment of its validity. A clear example of an idea—
in this case, an interpretation — that is obscured by ignorance is a
widely-held concept concerning the “Gentile times” referred to by
Christ at Luke 21:24:
They will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as
captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by
the Gentiles, until the times of Gentiles are fulfilled.—NRSV.
Millions of persons internationally have come to accept the
belief that this prophetic statement definitely points to and is linked
with a specific date in the twentieth century and they even build
their present plans and future hopes on that belief. What is its
history?
The “year-day principle”
The length of the period called the “Gentile times” (translated “the
appointed times of the nations” in the Watch Tower Society’s New
World Translation) has been calculated by some expositors, including
the Watch Tower Society, to be 2,520 years. This calculation is
founded upon the so-called “year-day principle.” According to this
principle, in biblical time-related prophecies a day always stands for
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