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The day-year principle or year-for-a-day principle is a method of interpretation of Bible prophecy in which the word day in prophecy is considered to be symbolic of a year of actual time.^[1][2] It was the method used by most of the Reformers,^[3] and is used principally by the historicist school of prophetic interpretation.^[4] It is held by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Christadelphians. The day-year principle is also used by the Baháʼí Faith, as well with by most all astrologers who employ the "Secondary Progression" theory, aka the day-for-a-year theory, wherein the planets are moved forwards in the table of planetary motion (known as an ephemeris) a day for each year of life or fraction thereof. The astrologers say that the four seasons of the year are directly spiritually, phenomenologically like the four "seasons" of the day.

Biblical basis

Proponents of the principle, such as the Seventh-day Adventists, claim that it has three primary precedents in Scripture:^[5]

1. Numbers 14:34. The Israelites will wander for 40 years in the wilderness, one year for every day spent by the spies in Canaan.
2. Ezekiel 4:5–6. The prophet Ezekiel is commanded to lie on his left side for 390 days, followed by his right side for 40 days, to symbolize the equivalent number of years of punishment on Israel and Judah respectively.
3. Daniel 9:24–27. This is known as the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks. The majority of scholars do understand the passage to refer to 70 "sevens" or "septets" of years—that is, a total of 490 years.

While not listed as primary precedent by the proponents, a direct reference to the day-for-a-year concept is made in Genesis.

1. Genesis 29:27. Laban requires an additional seven years of work in contract for Rachel's hand in marriage, calling it a week.

Jon Paulien has defended the principle from a systematic theology perspective, not strictly from the Bible.^[6]

History

The day-year principle was partially employed by Jews^[7] as seen in Daniel 9:24–27, Ezekiel 4:4-7^[8] and in the early church.^[9] It was first used in Christian exposition in 380 AD by Ticonius, who interpreted the three and a half days of Revelation 11:9 as three and a half years, writing 'three days and a half; that is, three years and six months' ('dies tres et dimidium; id est annos tres et menses sex').^[10] In the 5th century Faustus of Riez gave the same interpretation of Revelation 11:9, writing 'three and a half days which correspond to three years and six months' ('Tres et dimidius dies tribus annis et sex mensibus respondent),^[11] and in c. 550 Primasius also gave the same interpretation, writing 'it is possible to understand the three days and a half as three years and six months' ('Tres dies et dimidium possumus intelligere tres annos et sex menses').^[11] The same interpretation of Revelation 11:9 was given by later expositors like Anspert, Haymo, and Berengaudus (all of the ninth century).^[11] Primasius appears to have been the first to appeal directly to previous Biblical passages in order to substantiate the principle, referring to Numbers 14:34 in support of his interpretation of the three and a half days of Revelation 11:9.^[12] Haymo and Bruno Astensis "justify it by the parallel case of Ezekiel lying on his side 390 days, to signify 390 years; — i. e. a day for a year. — ".^[13] Protestant Reformers were well established on the day/year principle and it was also accepted by many Christian groups, ministers, and theologians.^[14][15][16]

Others who expounded the Historicist interpretation are John Wycliffe, John Knox, William Tyndale, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Philip Melanchthon, Isaac Newton, Jan Hus, John Foxe, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards,^[17] George Whitefield, Charles Finney, C. H. Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes, and Bishop Thomas Newton.^[18]

Christian historicist application

70 weeks or 490-year prophecy

Daniel 9 contains the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks. Biblical scholars have interpreted the 70 weeks vision in the historistical methodology for nearly two millennia as illustrated in the following table.