Miniature Symbolization and T H E Year-Day Principle Of
Andn1y.f Uniwr~ipSemimag Stztah, Vol. 42, No. 1, 149- 167. Copyright 0 2004 Andrews University Press. MINIATURE SYMBOLIZATION AND THE YEAR-DAY PRINCIPLE OF PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION ALBERTOR. TIMM Siio Paulo Adventist University College Engenheiro Coelho, SP, Brazil A basic herrneneutical component of the historicist school of prophetic interpretation is the so-called "year-day principle." Thosewho advocate this hermeneutical principle argue that the prophetic time periods connected with the apocalyptic prophecies of Scripture have to be understood not as literal days, but rather as ~ymbobc&.r that represent the same number of litraIyears. So, e.g., the 70 weeks of Dan 9:24-27 are usually interpreted as 490 years; the 1,260 days of Rev 1l:3 and 126 (cf. Dan 7:25; Rev 11:2; 12:14; 13:s) as 1,260 years; the 1,290 days of Dan 1211 as 1,290 years; the 1,335 days of Dan 1212 as 1,335 years; and the 2,300 evenings and mornings of Dan 8:14 (also NASB, NIV)' as 5300 years.2 But several critics have blamed the historicist school for applying inconsistently the year-day hermeneutical principle to some specific Bible prophecies and not to other ones. In 1842, Moses Stuart, professor at Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, inquired ironically why historicists did not use their year-day principle to also interpret the 120 years of Gen 6:3 as "43,920 years"; the "forty days and forty nights" of Gen 7:4 as "forty years"; the 400 years of Gen 15:13 as "144,000 years"; the seven years of plenty and seven of famine of Gen 41:25-36 as "2,529 years of each in Historicists have generally replied that those criticisms fall short by 'Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible references are from the RSV.
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