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Daniel’s Timeline – Part 2
Part 2 – Daniel’s Timeline and the dual meaning of Shavua
The angel Gabriel was sent to the prophet Daniel giving him a precise timeline for the coming of the Messiah. Since the Messiah comes twice at two different times in history, the prophecy concerns two different time frames simultaneously. The great mathematician and theologian Sir Isaac Newton is one who held to this belief as well as many others over the course of time. One key to understanding the double time line is hidden in the dual meaning of the word for “weeks”. Another is in understanding that the 70th week is still yet to be brought to fulfillment.
Seventy weeks [490 years] are decreed for your people and for your set-apart city [Jerusalem] to put an end to the transgression, and to seal up sins, and to cover crookedness, and to bring in everlasting righteousness [final atonement will come at the end of the 490 year count], and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Most Set-apart [The Messiah]. Know, then, and understand: from the going forth of the command to restore and to build Yerushalayim until Messiah the Prince is seven weeks and sixty-two weeks [483 years]. It shall be built again, with streets and a trench, but in times of affliction. And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off and have naught [The Messiah will be killed]. And the people of a coming prince shall destroy the city and the set-apart place [then Jerusalem and the Temple will be destroyed]. And the end of it is with a flood. And wastes are decreed, and fighting until the end.
[Daniel 9:24-26]
The going forth of a decree to restore came in the year 444 B.C.E. on the 2nd of Abib by King Artaxerxes during the time of Israel ’s captivity under the Medes and Persians. A prophetic year is 360 days, not 365. 360 days x 483 years is 173,880 days. The end of the count was the 10th of Abib in the year 31 C.E. In that year, the day of Passover, the 14th of Abib was on a Wednesday placing the death of Y’shua on the 4th day of the week. It could be no other day of the week, as was mentioned earlier, since this speaks prophetically of the millennia that were to pass from the creation of Adam to that event.
This prophecy is like no other since it pinpoints to the day the arrival of the Messiah telling us that He will be killed. It also tells us that after this, Jerusalem and the Temple will be destroyed. It’s really quite simple. Is the Temple still standing? Then the Messiah has come! And this prophecy is two-fold, speaking of two time frames simultaneously. Considering the accuracy of the count for Messiah’s First Coming, is it not reasonable to say that the counting for Messiah’s return would be equally accurate?
A popular and long standing belief is that Daniel’s 70th week has not yet occurred and that it will begin with a 7 year peace treaty that the anti-Moshiac will make with Israel. However, this is problematic since the word in Daniel 9:27 is confirm from higer meaning to strengthen, not make. Also, it is The Covenant that YHWH has with Israel that is being strengthened. This is not something the anti-Moshiach would want to do. Besides that, if this were the anti-Moshiach it was referring to, how is he confirming a covenant for 7 years if he breaks it in the middle? I have more on this in Part 5.
The word for “week” in Hebrew is “Shavua” which is a period of seven days, or years. “Shavua” can also refer to the annual feast that occurs seven weeks after Passover. So the count can be both;
70 X 7 years = 490 years or 70 Shavua (70 years)
The starting point for both countings is a decree to restore and build (Daniel 9:25 ). Was there a decree given that concerned the restoration and rebuilding of Israel in our modern day? Yes! It came on November 29th in the year 1947 when moved by the horrors of the holocaust, the United Nations voted to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab States. One year later, the Nation of Israel declared its independence. 70 years from 1947 is the year 2017.
Remember, the pieces have to come together without any gaps. This is only one piece to the whole!
Tags: Daniel, escatology, Judaism, messiah, Messianic Judaism, prophecy, Teaching
The only way I can make sense of the text is to translate it according to the way it is written. The fact is that if we start counting using the information from scripture, (Genesis 5) to the time the Israelites come into the land in 2488, in 70 year periods. Each cycle of 70 years repeating itself we soon arrive at the time period spoken of in Daniel. There are two cycles mentioned one is the Jubilee cycle that started 14 years after they came into the land (the other the 70 years mentioned above). This 14 years is according to tradition, but can be proven from the scriptures if we examine Ezekiel 1 and 40. during the beginning of the exile.
As to the coming of Messiah this prophecy concerns a period not only to the death of Messiah but also to Messiah the Prince. One becomes Prince of his household when he becomes 30 years of age. This is the very reason the scriptures gives us the time period when The Messiah Yeshua became about 30 years of age. Luke 3:23
I have worked on chronology for over 25 years and I have developed a time-line that then allows all of these pieces of information to come together as they are written. Each piece of information in the scriptures is important and they must all come together perfectly or there is a problem.
For instance we see the Genealogies in Genesis 5 and then through 11. We understand then Genesis 15:13 the 400 year prophecy as having a beginning point and an ending point of 400 years between. The ending is the Exodus from Egypt. The beginning is noted by a ‘key word’ and that key word is ‘seed’ meaning the birth of Isaac in the year 2048. Four hundred years later is then 2448 (2048 + 400=2448). 1 Kings 6 then speaks of 480 years after the Exodus. This is the fourth year of the reign of King Solomon and he begins the Temple. 480 years added to 2448 is then 2948.
The Temple is built for 7 years this is then 2935, and then we are told that Solomon builds his own house for 13 years this then is 2948; some 20 years after he started the temple. 1 Kings 9 then tells us that G-d appears to Solomon a second time and warns him (at this point 20 years after he started the Temple)telling him what would happen if he and the children of Israel do not keep the laws give his father David.
Fast Forward
Then Ezekiel is told in his 4th chapter about laying on his left side for 390 days each day for a year for the iniquity of the ‘house of Israel.’ Another key word ‘house of Israel’. This 390 years if added to the very year in which Solomon was warned 2948 plus 390 then brings us to the very year in which the First House or Temple is destroyed in the year 3338.
You might notice the 8′s Remember for a moment that G-d saved 8 souls on the Ark. That the Israelites were to circumcise their sons on the 8th day. There were 7 Feast Days given Israel and at the end of the seven days of Tabernacles there appears a command to keep an ‘eighth day’ that is not part of the Feast of Tabernalces. Now if I went back to Shem who was Noah’s son and worked my way forward I would see a pattern. Shem was born in 1558 and his son in 1658. Avraham was born in 1948 and his son is 2048 and his son Jacob in 2108. The Exodus takes place in 2448 and they enter the land in 2488. Solomon starts the Temple in 2928 and is warned by G-d in 2948, and the first Temple is destroyed in 3338.
Well I could go on but there are so many patterns and orders of law that exist within the Torah that have to be observed. Leviticus 26 describes all of this with the term 7 Times. This is an interesting mathematical term, and it yields a number called by our math professors LCM or least common multiple, and it is the number 2520. Divided by 2 is 1260. Divided by 36 is 70. Divided by 7 it is 360 and so on. You may recognize those numbers from scripture.
BTW I have studied the calendar systems of the world and I have looked at all of the computer converter programs and also sync’ed the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars, and I can tell you there never was a Nisan 14 that fell on Wednesday in 31 A.D. In fact the only Nisan 14 of this period fell on April 7th 27 A.D. that being an Embolismic deficient year of 383 days, and then again on April 3rd 30 A.D. this year being a common regular year of 354 days. (Nisan 14 in 31 A.D. fell on Monday March 24th this being a common complete year of 355 days),in fact there is not another Nisan 14 that falls on Wednesday within this 8 year period between 34 A.D. and 27 A.D.
There is a common mistake made using the date converters by those who are not familiar with how the Hebrew year is calculated. For instance if someone types in 3729 Nisan 14 on the converter it yields the common complete year of 355 days and the Julian calendar then would be March 21, -32 a Wednesday and the Gregorian March 19 -31 a Wednesday, however, this year is not 31 A.D. but rather 31 B.C.E.
Others use their own systems in one way or another but these are not within the order of the bodies used to calculate the systems of calendars that have designated the dates of the months on the calendars of time. They were not those being used by Daniel in his time nor are they the way we calculate today. G-d did not give mankind a time period to be calculated in such a way that was not commonly known to all men at the time.
Now I have seen all sorts of manipulations but the simple fact is that these are not correct. The time periods that we are using with the Hebrew calendar today go back to Hillel II and the Gregorian is a combination of efforts by Dionysius, Bede, and Pope Gregory XIII. In reality is that all of this had to do with the Romans ,and church and their refusal to allow the people to observe anything they saw as ‘Jewish.’ This meant Nisan 14 Passover could not be observed…..it was Jewish. Therefore the church set another day for Passover then calling it Easter (set as the first Sunday after the vernal (spring) equinox, as they had done with Sabbath and Sunday so they did with Nisan 14.
When we observe the actual meaning of Daniel we find that The Messiah was in fact baptised becoming the Prince of His Father’s household or able to start his Father’s work in the year 27 A.D. as this was the ending of the 69th week as we are told from Daniel. This then is the same pattern of the priest who is then able to begin the work in the Temple at 30 years old.
He was then cut off in the midst or middle of the 70th week which was in fact 30 A.D. a Wednesday the 4th day of the week on Nisan 14 as scripture and calendar note.
That last seven year period or Daniel’s Seventy Weeks began in 27 AD and ended in 33 A.D.(the ideal that it was somehow transported to the end of time is not factual). If you will note the seven day week the day called Wednesday is the 4th day and in the middle of the week. If you will then count from 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 you can see that 30 A D is also the fourth year in this progression just as Wednesday was the midst so too was 30 A.D. (if you count from 27 to 30 or from 33 to 30 you will see that 30 is the middle being the fourth in series.
When we look back at scripture we can see then the counting of the 7 days week, and the 7 year periods, and then the 7 X 7 year periods, and then the 7 X 70 years or 70 weeks (490 years) spoken of by Daniel. All of these are in perfect order and unison sync with each other.
Jim
Thankyou Jim! I would like to have a chance to study the time frames you speak of more fully. I’ll make adjustments where I have missed it when I am certain of the source. There is a parallel to the halfway cut off point for the 7 years of tribulation, but that may be all it is, a parallel event. In any event, Messiah died on a Wednesday in prophetic fulfillment of the 4 millennia that had passed. And the word “shavua” for “weeks” is key to the modern reckoning of the next advent. Thanks again for your scholarly remarks!
There are many cycles and patterns within the scriptures that are the same numerically. For instance in the Book of Daniel 12:11 we see the number 1290 days. We know from Ezekiel 4 that days can also be years, but they do not always have to be anymore than a natural week always has to represent a seven year period. Now let me show you an example with this number 1290 above.
Avraham was born in 1948 and his some Isaac in 2048. If I count from his birth forward in time exactly 1290 years later is the year 3338 the exact year the First Temple is destroyed. So we can see the likeness in these cycles. We can even see them in our more recent history. So you are correct there may well be a parallel to a halfway point of a 7 year period in the very end of time? As 7 Times equals 2520 years so do does the halfway point equal 1260 years. And as we see the term Time, Times and half Time we understand that this too is 3-1/2 Times.
Perhaps you would be interested in my Newsletters on this subject? I only send them out upon request to those who subscribe.
The first three are located at this address if you care to view them and if you should wish to subscribe then you may send an E-mail to jimmyl@centurytel.net and include subscribe to Newsletter in the subject or body of the message.
I do this because I do not wish to send these out to folks who are not interested.
Shavua Tov!
Thank you both for the very usefull information.
Jim: I wanted you to consider the following for your 7 day count AD 27,28, 29,30… with the 30th being the center and the Wednesday (the issue is a standard year and Hebrew year are of different beginning and ends).
Jesus’s ministry started around the fall feasts 27AD (27.75 AD)That is the beginning of the first day (Sunday even Hebrew, Saturday night Standard). Following represent the AD time at the beginning of the Hebrew Day.
S- 27.75
M- 28.75
T- 29.75
W- 30.75
R- 31.75
Half way thru Wednesday (add 0.5 to above) would be the mid point of the week. That would be Passover 31AD or 31.25AD
I have looked at multiple sources to see if the High Holiday of Passover 31 AD was on the Thursday (Nisan 15). Except for the two you gave I find that all of them do place Nisan 14 as a Wednesday.
Thankyou both for your thoughtful writting. What brought me to this site was this past Monday Night (really beginning of Tuesday :-) I was proofing Acts 10 and found for the first time that all the animals were not unclean but that some were clean but had become common (according to tradition) I am thankful for your proof on this as it backs up what I found that day. What shocks me is why it is not obvious to the rest of the world. Fellow readers if you think Peters vision indicates Pork is clean you must read … http://jerusalemcouncil.org/articles/commentaries/peters-vision-clean-unclean/