583. 'And there was given unto him authority to act for forty-two months' signifies the opportunity for teaching and doing the evils and untruths of that doctrine up to the end of that Church, until the beginning of the New. By 'there was given unto him authority to act' is signified authority 'to speak great things and blasphemies', that is to teach and do evils and untruths, of which just above (n. 582). By 'forty-two months' is signified to the end of the former Church and the beginning of the New, as above (n. 489); the same as is signified by 'three days and a half' (n. 505), and by 'a time, times and half a time' (n. 562), also the same as by 'a thousand two hundred and sixty' [days] (n. 491), because forty-two months make three years and a half.