Daniel 8:14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Unto two thousand and three hundred days— In the original, Unto two thousand and three hundred mornings and evenings; an evening and a morning being the Hebrew notation of time for a day. See Daniel 8:26. Now these 2300 days can by no computation be accommodated to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes, even though the days be taken for natural days. The days, without doubt, are to be taken, agreeably to the style of Daniel in other places, not for natural, but for prophetic days or years; and as the question was asked, not only how long the daily sacrifices should be taken away, and the transgression of desolation continue, but also how long the vision should last; so the answer is to be understood: and these 2300 days denote the whole time from the beginning of the vision to the cleansing of the sanctuary. The sanctuary is not yet cleansed, and consequently these years are not expired. It is difficult to fix the precise time when the prophetic dates begin and end, till the prophesies are fulfilled: but it appears to me that the 2300 days should be computed from the vision of the he-goat, or Alexander's invading Asia. Alexander invaded Asia in the year of the world 3670 (according to the common calculation, which may in some degree be erroneous), and before Christ 334. Two thousand and three hundred years from that time will draw towards the conclusion of the sixth millennium of the world. See Bishop Newton. But I shall speak more on this subject when we come to the Revelation.