And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety (1290) days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty (1335) days.
14 But I would like to interpret the daily sacrifice [Dan. 12:11] in a spiritual way, that it is the Holy Gospel, which must remain until the end of the world, together with the faith and the Church. But nevertheless it may happen that the world will become so epicurean that there will be no public preaching [or pulpit] in the whole world, and public speaking will be a vain epicurean outrage, and the Gospel will be heard only in houses by the fathers of the house; and this will be the time between the words of Christ on the cross: Consummatum est [“It is finished”], and: Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum [“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”, Luke 23:46]. For just as Christ lived a little after such Consummatum, [consummation], so also the Church can remain a little after the public silence of the Gospel. And just as the daily sacrifice of the Jews was indeed done away with in the seventh week by the Apostles' council [Acts 15:6], and yet remained afterward until the destruction of Jerusalem, and was also kept by the Apostles themselves where they wished (but without necessity), so also the Gospel can publicly become dormant [liegen] and remain silent in the pulpit, and yet be preserved by pious Christians in homes.
15 But such misery should not last longer than 1290 days, that is, four and a half years; for without public preaching the faith cannot stand for long, because at this time the world also becomes more evil in one year. The last 1335 days will finally be evil, so that there will continue to be little faith even in homes. Therefore He says: Blessed is he who endures until that Day. As if to say, as Christ said [Luke 18:8]: “When the Son of Man comes, do you think he will find faith on earth?”
16 Almost all teachers have spoken of such four and a half years, and all the books are full of them, without pointing to the reign of the Antichrist [Endechrist], which, according to the order of the text, Daniel does not suffer, who goes on to prophesy what is to happen after the fall of the Antichrist, and places these four and a half years after Michael, and after the oath of the angel on the water.
17 And although this interpretation seems as if one should be certain of the Last Day, which day or year it should come, that yet Christ denies knowing, Acts 1:7 and in the Gospel [Mark 13:32], yet it falls far short. First of all, if the sacrifice of the Gospel is made in public, no one will be able to recognize the year or the day when it begins, since it cannot cease on one day in all sacrifices. On the other hand, even if it were already known when it should begin, the 1335 days are set above the 1290, which no one in the whole world would recognize. And in summary, I think that these 1335 days will not be publicly understood as being fulfilled on the Last Day. Unless God were to raise up a Noah, for example, who could count these same days and certainly fulfill them.
18 But I for myself am content with this, that the Last Day must be at the door, for the signs which Christ preached and the Apostles Peter and Paul have now almost all come to pass, and the trees are budding, the Scriptures are greening and blossoming. Whether we can't just know the day is not the point; another make it better; it is certainly all at the end.
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