The Perso-Babylonian world-year of twelve millenniums, however, was transformed in Jewish eschatologyinto a world-week of seven millenniums corresponding with the week of Creation, the verse “A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday” (Ps. xc. 5 [A. V. 4]) having suggested the idea that the present world of toil (“‘olam ha-zeh”) is to be followed by a Sabbatical millennium, “the world to come” (“‘olam ha-ba'”: Tamid vii. 4; R. H. 31a; Sanh. 97a; Ab. R. N. i., ed. Schechter, p. 5; Enoch, xxiii. 1; II Esdras vii. 30, 43; Testament of Abraham, A. xix., B. vii.; Vita Adæ et Evæ, 42; Rev. xx. 1; II Peter iii. 8; Epistle of Barnabas, xv.; Irenæus, v. 28, 3). Of these the six millenniums were again divided, as in Parsism, into three periods: the first 2,000 years devoid of the Law; the next 2,000 years under the rule of the Law; and the last 2,000 years preparing amid struggles and through catastrophes for the rule of the Messiah (Sanh. 97a; ‘Ab. Zarah 9a; Midr. Teh. xc. 17); the Messianic era is said to begin 4,291 years after Creation (comp. the 5,500 years after Creation, after the lapse of which the Messiah is expected, in Vita Adæ et Evæ, 42; also Assumptio Mosis, x. 12). On a probably similar calculation, which placed the destruction of the Second Temple at 3828 (Sanh. l.c.), rests also the division of the world into twelve epochs of 400 years, nine and a half of which epochs had passed at the time of the destruction of the Temple (II Esdras xiv. 11; comp. vii. 28). Twelve periods occur also in the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (xxvii., liii.) and the Apocalypse of Abraham (xxix.); the ten millenniums of Enoch xxi. 6, however, appear to be identical with the ten weeks in ch. xciii., that is, 10 x 700 years. As a matter of course, Biblical chronology was always so construed as to bring the six millenniums into accord with the Messianic expectations of the time; only by special favor would the mystery of the end, known only to God, be revealed to His saints (Dan. xii. 9; II Esd. iv. 37, xi. 44; Syriac Apoc. Baruch, liv. 1, lxxxi. 4; Matt. xxiv. 36; Pes. 54b). The end was believed to be brought about by the merit of a certain number of saints or martyrs (Enoch, xlvii. 4; II Esd. iv. 36; Rev. vii. 4), or by the completion of the number of human souls sent from their heavenly abode to the earth, the number of created souls being fixed (Syriac Apoc. Baruch, xxiii. 4; ‘Ab. Zarah 5a; Yeb. 63b). Finally, it was taught that “he who announces the Messianic time based on calculation forfeits his own share in the future” (R. Jose, in Derek Erez R. xi.) and that “the advent of the Messiah is dependent upon general repentance brought about by the prophet Elijah” (Sanh. 97b; Pirḳe R. El. xliii.; Assumptio Mosis, i. 18).