For those interested in historical stuff go to Advanced Google Book Search
http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search
The top box will have a search criteria ("find results with all of the words"). Type in gentile times 2520. Click "full view books" and put 1800 to 1900 for publication date. Also, check "30 results."
It's amazing how many other people had this idea before Russell and Barbour.
Faber's "Sacred Calendar of Prophecy" (1828) is particularly interesting. Follow this up with additional searches for gentile times in Google Book Search and there are even more. Fascinating stuff.
Gentile Times in Google Book Search
by cabasilas 3 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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cabasilas
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Doubting Bro
Cool. I'm posting so I can find this later. Thanks!
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cabasilas
Another interesting search is just to put "2520 years" I'm amazed at the number of returns. Barbour and Russell were "johnny-come-latelys" on this one.
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cabasilas
Just one more note. Proclaimers p. 134 states (echoing Jonnson's work) that the idea of "seven times" from Daniel chapter 4 equalling 2,520 years can be dated as early as John Aquila Brown in 1823.
However, Joshua Spalding refers to this in "The Divine Theory," written in 1808. See:
http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC05619826&id=Ya0PAAAAIAAJ&dq=times+of+the+gentiles+2520&as_brr=1
He refers to it on page 419 and speaks of it as someone else's view or "supposition." From what I can see he doesn't make try to say how the 2,520 years are applied. So, I think we can push this concept even further back. It'd be interesting to see who first came up with this.