"Daniel 7:25
And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
The Time Period
THE “they” of course refers to the “saints of the Most High” and the “times and laws,” which are mentioned in the same verse.
The “time and times and the dividing of time,”then, indicates the period of Papal supremacy, and of the unlimited reign of lawlessness.
In the first place we may notice that in the Douay Bible, as well as in the Revised Version,“time and times and the dividing of time,”is rendered,“time, and times, and half a time.”
We have no need to conjecture what this means, for the Bible is its own interpreter.
In Revelation 12 we find the same period of time mentioned:
Revelation 12:14
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she
might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Now in verse 6 of the same chapter the same event is brought to view in these words:
6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
From these two verses we learn that “a time, and times, and half a time” is only another expression for twelve hundred and sixty days.
Then the little horn of Daniel 7 was to have supremacy for twelve hundred and sixty days.
But the question now arises,“Is it possible that 1,260 days, or three years and a half, cover the whole time which the prophecy allows to the Papacy?”
We answer, No; and the explanation is simple.
The prophecy is symbolic;
four mighty empires are represented by short-lived beasts;
the Roman Catholic power is represented by a little horn of one of these beasts.
---It is obvious, then, that the prophecy would not be consistent if it should express the duration of those powers in literal years.
The time would be out of proportion to the nature of the symbol representing the power.
---Therefore it is evident that the time must also be symbolic.
We inquire, then, What is the standard of time when used in symbolic prophecy?
In Ezekiel 4 we read the answer:
Ezekiel 4:4 Lie you also upon your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; according to the number of the days that you shall lie upon it you shall bear their iniquity. 5 For I have laid upon you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so shall you bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 And when you have accomplished them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days; I have appointed you each day for a year.
Therefore the “time, and times, and half a time,” or twelve hundred and sixty days, indicate just twelve hundred and sixty years."
E.J. Waggoner