XIII. Purves Anticipates 2300 Years Will End in 1766

JAMES PURVES (1734-1795), Scotch sectary, was born in Blackadder, Berwickshire. Selected by a “fellowship society” in Berwickshire for their pastor, he was sent to Glasgoiv college to study, mostly Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In 1776 he moved to Edinburgh, taught school, and was elected pastor of the society there. He wrote a number of works. In his Observations (1777) Purves begins the 2300 days “with the Empire of the Medes and Persians. ^{98James Purves, Obesrvations on Prophetic Time and Similitudes, p. 1.} The “vision being said to be for many days” indicates the cleansing or “making just the sanctuary, was a very distant event; the season or time in which it was to be effected, being 2300 prophetic days [years] distant from the beginning of the Empire of the medes and persians. ^{99Ibid., pp. 4, 5.}PFF2 694.9

Then Purves adds, “Having fixed the beginning of the 2300 days, the end of them is next to be enquired into. ^{100Ibid., p. 5.} Beginning with 534 B.C., Purves ends the 2300 years in 1766, ^{101Ibid., p. 6.} when the justification would take place. Others, such as Imrie ^{102DAVID IMRIE, minister at St. Mungo in Annandale, wrote A Letter ... Predicting the Speedy Accomplishment of the Great, Awful and Glorious Events Which the Scriptures Say Are to Be Brought to Pass in the Latter Times. (Published at Edinburgh in 1755; reprinted at Boston, 1756). This looked for the speedy fall of Antichrist-the three and a half times of the Beast- about 1794. (Pages 10-12.) Coupled with this, he extended the 2300 years from 538 B.C., the first year of Medo Persia, until the cleansing or justification of the sanctuary. (Page 12.) Imrie cites Fleming, Newton, and Mede.} and Taylor, ^{103LAUOHLAN TAYLOR, minister of Larbert, in An Essay on the Revaluation of the Apostle John (1763), says that the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 “signify years,“calculating the beginning from the time of the vision-perhaps 532 B. C. They end “according to this caculation, about the year 1761” (p. 141), when the sanctuary should be cleansed.} had been making similar inquiry.PFF2 695.1