The letter in which Sir Isaac Newton predicted that the world would end in 2060 remains on display at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. First exhibited to the public in 2007, the letter became widely known in 2003 when the BBC aired the documentary Newton: The Dark Heretic, which showcased these manuscripts for the first time.
Newton, renowned for formulating the laws of motion and gravity, dedicated part of his life to the study of religious texts. He believed that the Holy Scriptures contained a message from higher powers about the future of the world and was particularly interested in the Book of Revelation.
In a letter written in 1704, Newton stated, "It may end later, but I see no reason for it ending sooner," indicating his belief that the end of the world would not before 2060. The letter contains a series of mathematical calculations based on his interpretation of biblical prophecies, particularly from the books of Daniel and Revelation.
Professor Stephen D. Snobelen, a historian of science and technology from King's College University in Halifax, examined Newton's archives. He explained that Newton employed simple arithmetic in his calculations. "For Newton, there was no impermeable barrier between religion and what we today call science. Throughout his long life, Newton worked to discover the truth of God—whether in Nature or in the Scriptures," said Snobelen, according to The Economic Times.
Newton interpreted the days mentioned in the prophecies as years, particularly focusing on the period of 1,260 years. By adding the 1,260 years mentioned in biblical prophecies to the year 800 CE, the date of the founding of the Holy Roman Empire, he concluded that the world would reset in 2060.
"Then the time, times, and half a time are 42 months or 1260 days or three years and a half, counting twelve months for a year and 30 days for a month as done in the primitive year calendar," Newton wrote in his letter.
Newton believed that this period represented the duration of the abandonment of the Church and the rise of "corrupt" Trinitarian religions, primarily Catholicism, which some Protestants considered a cult.
"This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophecies into discredit as often as their predictions fail," Newton wrote.
Snobelen explained that Newton did not believe the world would literally end. Snobelen said that for Newton, the year 2060 would be a new beginning, marking the end of an old era and the beginning of a new one, which the Jews refer to as the "messianic era" or the millennium of the kingdom of God.
Newton's calculations, rooted in the Book of Daniel, suggest that the year 2060 will mark a shift from chaos to peace, culminating in the kingdom of the Messiah, which he believed would bring harmony and prosperity.
The documents containing his calculations had been in private collections and only reached the scientific community in the early 1970s. Abraham Yahuda purchased a large part of the manuscripts at a Sotheby's auction in 1936 and donated them to the state of Israel in 1951. The collection arrived at the Hebrew University Library in Jerusalem in 1969.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.
