What is the prophecy of 1,260 days in Revelation?

The Great Tribulation will last exactly 1260 days or 3.5 prophetic years which are 360 days long. It is the last half of Daniel's last week (Dan. 7:25; 9:27; 12:7; Rev. 11:2; 12:14; 13:5). It is called the time of Jacob's trouble because of its special effect on Israel, but it severely affects the whole world (Jer. 30:7; Rev. 3:10). Its widespread evil will be so bad that no time before or after will equal it (Matt. 24:21; Mark 13:19). The intense evil is the result of Satan being cast from heaven (where he now has access—Job 1:6-8; 2:1-2) to earth, and being full of wrath because he knows his time of freedom is short (Rev. 12:7-12). The two beasts are then energized directly by Satan (Rev. 13:4, 14-15) and begin their reign of terror. Unless those days were shortened—not allowed to run their natural course—no people would be left alive (Matt. 24:22). There will be extreme demon activity everywhere, causing great hardships.

One Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Days. The last prophecy of the seventy weeks will enable us to settle an important question as to whether the days spoken of in these prophecies mean days or, as is often assumed, years The woman who flies into the wilderness is said (Rev. 12:14) to be nourished there "for a time, and times, and half a time," and in verse 6, to be fed for "a thousand two hundred and three score days." The words "a time, and times, and half a time" mean therefore twelve hundred and sixty days; and as these words are taken from the Greek version of Daniel, the words used by the prophet, and translated "a time, and times, and the dividing of time" (Dan. 7:25) have the same signification. This, according to the Jewish reckoning, in which a year contains twelve months of thirty days each, is just forty-two months, or three and a half years, or one-half of a week of seven years.

Now we have seen that the last half-week in the prophecy of the seventy weeks represents a period of three and a half years. It is during this time that the wickedness and idolatry of the beast manifest themselves. It is of this time then, and not of any more lengthened period, that the Revelation speaks. This is the time that Jerusalem is trodden under foot after it first appears as the centre of God's purposes. This is the. time that the witnesses prophesy. This is the time that the persecuted saints flying to the wilderness are cared for by God. This is the time that the idol is set up in Jerusalem. This is the time that the little horn flourishes. This is the time that the beast has power given him over all kindreds and nations. All falls within the last half-week, or one thousand two hundred and three score days, which closes Gentile rule, completes God's judgment of His chosen people, and ushers in the Messiah's reign.

The expressions of time are threefold — that is, a time and times and half a time, 1260 days, and forty-two months being the same extent of period, according to Jewish reckoning. It will be found that 1260 days are, in regard of the half week, previous to the great tribulation; and a time and times and half a time, refer to the Jewish position in the last tribulation, and the 42 months to the same period; but in respect of the great Gentile oppression. But the holy city being trodden under the foot of the Gentiles could not be less in this case than this power, and it is not used in application to anything else, and I trust this will be clearer as I proceed. The 1260 days, as the first half week, are so placed as to be alone capable of application to a more extended period of some kind, and so it has been justly applied, and variously true, and to a yet more extended thought of general time from Christ downwards, and which is the case in this twelfth chapter; but not excluding the more strict use of it, closing the first half week. The use of time and times and half a time by Daniel is decided in its character by the period he speaks of and those concerned. This period we find in this chapter. The grand conclusion of Daniel's prophecy being 1290 and 1335 days at the close exceed these periods, whereas his proper subject is, as in chap. 7 of his prophecy where this period of a time and times, etc. occurs, for it relates to the fate of his people in particular.

I should, I think, safely say that there are three applications of the 1260 days; that is, the strict real days, or three and a half years, a period of 1260 years, and general time. It may be all three, or the first and last of three, in this chapter. Again, the period of 1260 days is applied to the period of the testimony of the witnesses, in strict application to the first half week, and their time of testimony is closed by the entrance of the Gentile powers, that is to endure forty and two months. It occurs again in its proper application in Rev. 13:5.

This being so, the dragon turns his attention to the woman, and in this the sign carried us on to things yet to come at the extreme end of the times of the Gentiles. The true Israel of God will not be called upon to resist the dragon but to flee to a place of no human resources where she will be under Divine protection and care for the stated period. Elijah, we may remember, fled into the wilderness to a place ordained of God, and later to Zarephath, and in both places was miraculously fed, and the time of trial for him lasted three and a half years. Now the 1,260 days of our verse is exactly 3 years, according to Jewish reckoning. This same period appears again as "a time, and times, and half a time," in verse 14, and we have had it already in chapter 11, as 42 months as well as 1,260 days. It is doubtless the fateful latter half of Daniel's 70th week (see Dan. 9:27).

Everything is under divine control. The enemy can only act within divine limitations. The tribulation is definitely fixed for 1,260 days (Rev. 11:3), and the cruel oppressor is unable to make it one day longer. It is the second half of the last of the seventy prophetic weeks of Dan. 9, during which human wickedness, especially in its fearful claim that man is God, rises to its utmost height, to be quickly avenged by a long-patient Creator.

So we find the woman (the people of Israel) flies into the wilderness, into a place prepared for her of God, and there fed for 1260 days, that is 3 years (counting the prophetic years as consisting of 360 days), the time of the great tribulation, prophesied by Daniel, and again by our Lord when He spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem.

A time is a year (for the force of the term, time, see Dan. 4:16-37); times, two years; dividing of time, or half a time, signifies half a year; months are of 30 days; days are literal days of 24 hours. Now these periods refer to the same time, namely, the last half of the 70th week. They cover the period of the tribulation. It will be observed that in Rev. 11:3 and Rev. 12:6, days, and not months or times, are spoken of, the reason being that God’s suffering saints are in view; hence the days of their testimony and trial are carefully numbered. Days of interest to Him, Who has numbered the hairs of our heads. But when the power and blasphemy of the great political enemy of God and of the Lamb, as also the persecutor of the godly-fearing part of Judah, the king of the west is in question, and we may add, of the oppressing Gentiles as well, then the period is curtly spoken of as 42 months (Rev. 13:5; Rev. 11:2). The days are twice named in reference to God’s saints. The months are twice named in relation to the enemy of God’s people. “Times and laws,” not the saints, are given into the hands of the little horn, or head of the revived Roman empire, “until a time, and times, and the dividing of time” (Dan. 7:25). He rages and ravages in the wide scene of Christian profession, but especially in Palestine is his iron hand felt, not against the nation as such, but against the God-fearing part of the people who boldly witness for God in these awful times. The Antichrist will support the pretensions of the arrogant, blaspheming king, energised by Satan cast down from Heaven, whose expulsion therefrom is noted in Revelation 12. Daniel 7:25 and Revelation 13:5 refer to the same personage and to the same period. The continuance of the last and satanic phase of the empire (Rev. 17:8) is limited to 42 literal months. Thus the 1260 days of suffering, 42 months of 30 days each of Gentile domination, and time, times, and half a time of Judah’s abject misery synchronise.

In turning now to look at the historical interpretation, we find at once a manifest difference, and much that commends itself to the Christian heart. The Church, for instance, finds such a place in it as we might expect. It has, indeed, too large a place: and the connection with Jewish prophecy here almost disappears. Thus we have, in another direction, again a violation of the apostle's rule that no prophecy of Scripture is of isolated interpretation. Here Rome appears naturally in its professedly Christian character, not only in Babylon the Great, but also in the seven-headed and ten-horned beast, which is the papacy; a fulfilment for which the name Lateinos proffers once more its significant 666, the number of the name. It can appeal also to history for the witness of the 1260 years of its duration, though somewhat variously reckoned, now expiring. We need not enter upon it largely now, as we shall have to consider it more fully after taking up the book in detail; but as exact and full truth, everything depends for it upon that year-day system which furnishes us with these 1260 years themselves. They are the "time, times and a half," or "42 months," or "1260 days," which are found thus variously given in Revelation, and which are admittedly derived from the Book of Daniel. The fourth beast of Daniel's seventh chapter wears out "the saints of the Most High, and thinks to change times and laws, and they are given into his hand until a time and times and half a time." Judgment at the hands of the Son of Man, who comes in the clouds of heaven to execute it, and Himself to take the kingdom, ends the history of the beast both in Daniel and in Revelation. Thus it is certain that we have the same power, in fact, before us in each case. The "times" enumerated here are the same "times" in every instance of their enumeration. It is therefore most important to see how they are to be taken. If the 1260 days indeed stand for the corresponding number of years, then the application to the papacy must be taken as undoubted. No other figure that history can furnish can be substituted for this. If, on the other hand, they are simply 1260 days, (three years and a half, literally,) then, of course, they cannot measure the duration of the papacy at all. They must have reference to something else; and taken into connection with their close at the coming of the Lord, we may say with certainty that their fulfilment is still future. Futurism to this extent will have its undeniable justification. Is there, then, any positive way of settling this? If we will take again the apostle's rule, and seek to bring together the various passages in which these 1260 days are set before us, we shall surely be able to settle without a doubt what is alone their complete and adequate fulfilment. Now if we turn to the Book of Daniel, we find in the twelfth chapter the "time, times and a half" to be clearly reckoned from the continual offering being taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up. To this time there are added, in the eleventh verse, thirty more days, making 1290; and in the twelfth, forty-five days more, making 1335; but this in no wise affects the first period.

Nowhere does it appear that any solid proof has ever been given for regarding even Dan. 7:25 as anything more than the 3.5 years of the peculiarly blasphemous and violent monarch in the future crisis of the revived Roman empire before God judges it, and destroys him so signally at Christ's appearing. If so, the dates in the twelfth chapter as well as in chap. 8. (though the latter be somewhat singularly expressed) claim, if we would be consistent, to be understood similarly. That is, they were not meant to express the long providential history of medieval and modern times, of which men make so much. They in fact converge (save "the morning-evenings" of Dan. 8) on the unexampled tribulation in store for the Jews under Gentile persecution before the Lord interferes for their deliverance from heaven and notably in Jerusalem and the land. For it is in the typical part that we read this extraordinary expression of time, not in the verses which look on to the closing antitype. And the time expressed in no way speaks of the long period of Gentile empires, as Mr. D. assumes with others, but solely of the peculiar enormity of one profane oppressor of the Jews and their religion. Natural days therefore are in question, and not so many years.

And note well, what many have overlooked, that in Rev. 12, which (6) speaks of the 1260 days and "a time, times, and half a time" (14), this very period is described in ver. 12 as "but a short time." Now in a prophecy where times and seasons are spoken of definitely and in their relative proportion, this is evidently of the utmost importance. It is not a possibly long while made short by the power of faith, as Christ's waiting to the Christian, but an absolute statement which could hardly be if 1260 years were meant. In the same book the reign of the saints with Christ is declared to be 1000 years. Why not "days" if this always be the symbol? If "days" mean "days," all is clear and consistent.

When the twelve hundred and sixty days are made years of (save as a general possible analogy) all is false. The three times and a half are the half week of the seventy weeks of Daniel. The days are already years. There have been analogies, as there were many Antichrists (not the Antichrist); but there is no proper date but Daniel's weeks; when it begins is nowhere stated. The church is a heavenly timeless gap in the world's history, while it is said, Sit at my right hand, till - when God puts Christ's enemies under His feet, earth's history, and the Jews, and computation of time, begin again.