THE SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL - UNDERSTANDING GOD’S CALENDAR

 

DANIEL 9 (King James Version)
9:20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD (*Heb. YHVH) my God for the holy mountain of my God;
9:21 Yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
9:22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
9:23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon they holy city:

1. to finish the transgression, and
2. to make an end of sins, and
3. to make reconciliation for iniquity, and
4. to bring in everlasting righteousness, and
5. to seal up the vision and prophecy, and
6. to anoint the most Holy.

9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troubled times.
9:26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

9:27 And he shall CONFIRM the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (See Daniel’s Hanukkah Prophecy in previous post)

When do the seventy weeks begin? If we can determine that, we can determine the meaning of this passage. Many believe that this seventy weeks is a span of consecutive time at the end of the age. Since no man knows the day, it seems that would make it too easy to figure out the day. We are interested in “discerning the time“, rather than the exact day.

Since the prophecy given to Daniel speaks of the coming of the Messiah and His cutting off, this seventy weeks has to begin sometime in the past. It also has to be about the Lord’s first coming and his death on the cross. The prophesy also concerns the rebuilding of Jerusalem prior to the coming of Messiah. The question is when do the seventy weeks begin?

In order to answer that question we must first determine how God keeps time. The Bible is a coded book and it always interprets itself. All the information we need is in the Bible. In order to understand the Bible we must first let the Bible speak for itself. We need to allow the Bible to show us what it is trying to say, and not twist it to mean what we want it to say. Therefore the Bible must be approached devotionally and we must seek God’s interpretation--not man’s interpretation. This can be difficult as there are so many opinions on everything in the Bible. We will try to let God show us the way, rather than following the opinions of men.


GOD’S TIME
God’s day begins at sunset or 6 PM for practical purposes (Gen 1.5). God’s calendar is a lunar/solar calendar. It is not just a solar calendar. Our solar calendar is based on a calendar designed by Julius Caesar and later amended by Pope Gregory around 1582 by a Papal Bull. A solar year is 365.24 days. This is how long it takes the earth to circle the sun. Every fourth year is a leap year to make up for the lost ¼ of a day that occurs every fourth year.
 
The lunar/solar calendar is based upon the moon’s rotation around the earth every 29.53 days. The Hebrew calendar, which is based on God’s calendar, is a lunar calendar. Each month begins on the new moon. The ancient rabbi’s looked for the first sliver of moon each month and declared the beginning of the month based on this. In modern times we can determine exactly when the new moon appears and calendar’s can be set years ahead based on this information.

The lunar year is about 354.36 days. This means that every year the calendar loses about 11.4 days when you figure in the added day of leap year in the solar calendar. To make up for this the Jewish calendar adds an extra month every few years. This extra month is called Adar 2. This balances out the year so that the feasts and holy days fall about the same season of the year every year. Without the adjustment the fall feasts would be in winter, spring, or summer in coming years. The adjustment keeps everything in season. So you could say the Hebrew calendar has a “leap month.”

To determine this is God’s time we look to Genesis 7.11 and 8.4 for confirmation. The flood waters began on the seventeenth day of the second month and the ark rested on Mt. Ararat on the seventeenth day of the second month, one hundred and fifty days later. That is five thirty day months later, which equals 150 days. In Revelation 13.5 the beast is given power for forty-two months. If we multiply 42X30 = 1260 days divided by 360 = 3.5 years. Therefore, we conclude that God’s time equals a month which consists of 30 days since it began and ended on the seventeenth day of the month. If that is the case than God’s year consists of 360 days. That is the Biblical Year.

You say that this doesn’t match up with the current reality of 29.53 days for the moon to rotate the earth, and 365.24 days for the earth to rotate around the sun and you are correct! The fact is that this is a fallen world that is under the power of Satan and his angels. They were violently thrown down to earth. At that time even the time that the moon rotates around the earth and the earth rotates around the sun may have been violently thrown out of whack. That doesn’t change the fact that God is operating on His time. His time is a 30 day month and a 360 day year, according to His word. Therefore we will interpret all things according to this time table.

The Bible says that in the end times the heavens and earth will be moved. It will be shaken violently. At this time the earth and moon may be realigned to the correct rotational times according to God‘s calendar. During the millennial kingdom, it appears the 360 day year will be the correct God appointed times! Now we can begin to discern the seventy weeks of Daniel.


THE GOING FORTH OF THE COMMANDMENT TO RESTORE AND BUILD JERUSALEM
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troubled times. Daniel 9.25


So we have two very specific dates to consider as markers on a time line pegging out the first 69 weeks of the 70 weeks of Daniel. The likely starting day has been given to us in Nehemiah 2 as being "in the month of Nisan" and "in the 20th year of Artaxerxes".

Artaxerxes began his reign in February of 464 B.C. Nineteen years later his 20th year would have begun in February of 445 B.C. So the 20th year of Artaxerxes is well established historically as beginning in the winter month of February in 445 B.C. Nehemiah went to the king with his request in the springtime a couple of months later. According to Nehemiah this was in the month of Nisan. Nehemiah does not give us a specific date in Nisan, nor does he need to. Any connection into that month will be fine. But we have good reason to look at the new moon of Nisan 1 or Nisan 2 for our starting date. Because the time of the new moon was generally the time when kings made their royal edicts and pronouncements from the throne.

Based upon our calculation, which was first discovered by Sir Robert Anderson, 1841-1918, an inspector at Scotland Yard and devoted Christian, we need to convert the 69 weeks into days and years. If we take 69 and multiply it by 7 weeks of years we get 483 Biblical years. Then we take 483 Biblical years and multiply them by 360 day years and we get 173,880 Biblical days. 483 X 360 = 173,880 days. Then we convert this time into our solar years. So we divide those 173,880 by 365.24 and get 476.0677 years. This comes out to a total of 476 years and 24.7 days in solar time.

We see in Nehemiah 2 that Artaxerxes gave Nehemiah permission to rebuild Jerusalem as a fully functioning city state. The city would now have what it was not permitted to have up until this time--walls to defend itself! (Dan 9.25) That is what Nehemiah asked permission to do (Nehemiah 2.3-8). Edict’s of kings in ancient times were usually given at the time of the new moon or beginning of the month. If we apply this here, this edict would have been given in the month of Nisan 1 or 2 in the year 445 BC.

For more studies:
http://endtimepilgrim.org/70wks1.htm

Tomorrow:
MESSIAH THE PRINCE MAKES HIS ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM