11.1 Time periods and witnessing
DIGRESSION 11.1 - THE SEVENTY SEVENS PROPHECY
WITNESSING AND TIME PERIODS
It is important for us to establish the general usage of these numbers in Scripture before we examine their more specific application in Revelation.
The 1260 days and 42 months, as well as the 3½ years or ‘time, times and half a time’ are the same period of time (1260/30 = 42), but are differentiated in order to emphasise certain spiritual lessons.
The number 42 denotes a time of trial (and persecution) before obtaining the inheritance:
1) 42 campsites in the wilderness (count them in Numbers 33)
2) 42 generations between Abraham and Christ (Mtt.1:17; 3x14=42)
3) At the dedication of the tabernacle (Num.7), each tribe brought instruments weighing 210 shekels (210x12=2520 shekels = 2x1260 shekels). This denotes 2 time periods of 1260.
4) Elijah’s drought for 3½ years = 1260 days = 42months (Lk.4:25, compare Rev.11:6).
5) The seven times of madness of Nebuchadnezzar – he turns into a beast for seven years (=2x3½ ) (Dan.4:31-37).
Two of the time periods in Daniel’s prophecy are intimately connected with other time periods in Scripture: 1260 (time, times and a half, 12:7) and 1290 days (12:11);
1260 = 3x 420
1290 = 3x 430
The numbers 420 and 430 are repeatedly used (both directly and indirectly) in the O.T.
The Jews were commanded to keep a yearly Sabbath every six years and every 49th year they kept a Jubilee.
6 years S 6 years S 6 years S 6 years S 6 years S 6 years S 6 years J
Therefore in a period of 49 years there were 42 normal years (6x7) and 7 Sabbath years (including the Jubilee) 42+7=49.
The people of Judah went into captivity for 70 years (Dan.9:2) because they had neglected to keep the Sabbaths for a period of 490 years (420+70=490).
“Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbaths”. ( Lev.24:34)
“To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years”. (2 Chron.36: 21)
Daniel’s seventy sevens prophecy is also a period of 490 years, this time divided into three periods of years of which the last period is seven years, deliberately divided into two (Dan.9:27).
(49+434+7=490)
(3½ +3½ =7)
The number 430 also reoccurs in the divine history of Israel and Judah:
Ezekiel lies on his side 390 days for Israel and 40 days for the sins of Judah (390+40=430). The apostle Paul informs us that there were 430 years (Gal.3:17) between Abraham and the Exodus (till the building of the Temple?). (These periods sometimes overlap because they are counted from different starting dates, compare 1 Kgs.6:1 = 480 years; Acts 13:19,20 = 450 years.) A Bible dictionary will show that from the building of the Temple to the return of the exile is also 430 years (970-537=433 years, again depending upon which dictionary, etc…).
The conclusion from a general examination of Scripture must be that the divine history of the Jews is divided into specific periods of 420 years, 430 years and 490 years – these are interconnected and often overlap and are intended to teach certain spiritual lessons.
The numbers 1260 (3x420) and 1290 (3x430) reflect these general principles but more specifically they point to a particular period; 3½ years (or 7 years?) at the time of the end (Dan.12:4).
THE TIME OF THE END, A 3½ YEAR PERIOD OR A SEVEN YEAR PERIOD?
There is no doubt that Scripture refers to two specific periods of 3½ years in divine history, it is however difficult to establish whether the seven yeas are continuous or discontinuous (or both?). Daniel’s prophecy indicates that the seven years are divided into two (9:27).
If we consider the first 3½ year period as the Jewish war (AD 66½ - 70), then we are left with the following options:
A)
3½
JEWISH WAR
2000 YEARS
3½
AD 66½ - 70
FUTURE
B)
3½
JEWISH WAR
3½
BAR KOCHBA REVOLT
2000 YEARS
3½
3½
AD66½ - 70
AD132½ - 135 1
FUTURE
In scheme B first century events typify future events.
The 1335 days:
“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days” (= at the end of the 1335 days) (Dan.12:12,13).
The 1335 days is obviously referring to the resurrection “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection” (Rev.20:6).
The number 1335 is representative of the number of the redeemed. In Numbers chapter 3 Moses and Aaron are commanded to number the Levites and to number the firstborn among Israel. The Levitical priests were used to redeem the firstborn in Israel, but obviously the numbers of priests and the numbers of the firstborn were not likely to be the same. The survey showed the following:
Number of priests (Levites) 22,000
Number of firstborn 22,273
Number of unredeemed 273
The 273 ‘unredeemed’ firstborn were to pay 5 shekels of the sanctuary in order to be redeemed.
273 x 5 shekels = 1365 shekels
But the Saviour did not require redemption by the Levitical priesthood for he redeemed himself, for he was God’s ‘firstborn’.
“And I said unto them, if ye think good, give me my price (valuation) and if not forbear. So they weighed for my price (valuation) thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it into the treasury* (RV mg. Syriac version) a goodly price that I was priced at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the treasury in the house of the Lord” (Zech.11:12,13).2
· The AV reads ‘cast it unto the potter’.
1365 – 30 = 1335 shekels
Thus 1335 represents the redemption money of the redeemed minus the one who was valued at 30 shekels.
It is interesting to note that the price (valuation) for Christ was six times that of a normal individual (5 shekels) in that he paid the price for Adam (made on the sixth day) and thus redeemed us all.
THE SEVENTY SEVENS PROPHECY (Dan.9:23-27)
In order to determine the 3½ year time period(s)? of Revelation, we would benefit greatly from an enhanced understanding of the seventy weeks prophecy of Daniel chapter 9.The seventy weeks prophecy is difficult to understand and this is partly due to corruption of the text; this can be instantly observed by the amount of footnotes in the AV/RV margins and is largely due to the Jews trying to force the interpretation to fit the era of the Maccabees and their struggle against Antiochus.3
The ‘seventy weeks’ prophecy is usually regarded as the classic instance of ‘a year for a day’ in the understanding of prophetic time-periods. It is however a misconception, for the original phrase is ‘seventy sevens’ (not weeks), the unit of time not being specified, but undoubtedly referring to sevens of years in the context of the far reaching extent of the prophecy.4
When the two schemes are examined critically all sorts of problems arise:
1 Bro. Thomas has the prophecy terminate at the crucifixion (490 years after the 20th of Artaxerxes). He remarks that if he (Christ) had not voluntarily surrendered himself to death, the work of the last seven years would have been null and void 7 – he probably means by this the ministry of the Baptist (3½ ), followed by the ministry of Christ (3½ ). This would then equate the baptism and not the crucifixion as “confirming the covenant with many” for it is the baptism that happens in the midst of the week. In his scheme the end of the 69th seven does not mark any significant event – and bro. Thomas himself admits that his interpretation overruns the allotted time period: “This was two years and nine months after the end of the 69th heptade; and consequently so far advanced into the seventieth week”.8 This would place the start of the Baptist’s ministry before the end of the 69th heptade.
The traditional interpretation (scheme 2) does not fare much better – for the unused 3½ years, it is customary to point to the death of Stephen. After the rich prophecy concerning Messiah, is this not an anticlimax, great man though Stephen was? Is the prophecy so inaccurate as to leave an unexplained margin of 3½ years?
2 The prophecy runs ‘unto Messiah the Prince’. This calls for a further reference long after the crucifixion.
3 What has the ‘destruction of city and sanctuary and the desolation of Jerusalem’ (v.26) got to do with the crucifixion?
4 Why should the ‘abomination of desolation’ (v.27), forty years after the crucifixion, come into a prophecy which runs only to the death of Christ?
5 The vision clearly runs until the Kingdom age:
a) To finish transgression (of Jerusalem), Jer.4:14.
b) To make an end (of the nation’s) sin, Jer. 31:34.
c) To make reconciliation for (Israel’s) iniquity, Jer. 31:34.
d) To bring in everlasting righteousness (the Kingdom), Jer.23:5,6 (= the righteousness of ages).
e) To seal up (conclude its usefulness) the vision and the prophecy, Dan.12:9 – compare the resurrection, Dan.12:12,13.
f) To anoint (the) a most holy.
The crowning of Christ as the bridegroom? (Song of Songs 3:11, Isaiah 62:5), or does this refer to his enthronement? (Heb.1:9).
6 The years used in the prophecy of Daniel are all lunar years of exactly 3609 days, not solar years of 365 days; this means the time periods are wrong for both schemes. Neither scheme has a satisfactory primary application, this is always an indication that the interpretation is incorrect. As we have seen the prophecy of Daniel presents us with two main problems:
a) Its starting point – “from the going forth of the commandment…”(v.25).
Is this the commandment (decree) of:
- Cyrus in his first year? (BC538)
- Darius Hystaspes in his second year? (BC 520)
- Artaxerxes in his seventh year? (BC 457)
- Artaxerxes in his twentieth year? (BC 444)
b) The termination of the 62x7 ….. unto the Messiah the Prince (v.25).
Does this run until:
- Christ’s birth?
- Christ’s baptism?
- Christ’s crucifixion?
In order to answer these questions we have to understand the primary fulfilment of the prophecy. Daniel was aware from his understanding of the prophet Jeremiah that the seventy years of desolations were nearly over (9:2); he was praying for the restoration of the city of Jerusalem (v.16), the sanctuary (this also means the priesthood) (v.17) and also the return of the people (v.19). The answer to his prayer should therefore address all of his requests.
Daniel is told that from the first moment he prayed and confessed his sins, the commandment (v.23) went forth. This is not referring to any of the decrees or commandments issued by the various monarchs, but to the word (Heb. dabar) of God to his angels. Gabriel was immediately sent to explain the vision to Daniel.
The word (dabar) of the Lord had first come to Jeremiah (9:2). God had confirmed his words (dabar) against his people by punishing them (v.12) and now God’s commandment (= word = dabar) had gone forth in the form of Gabriel in order to explain the vision to Daniel (v.23).
The question presents itself; What vision is the angel referring to, as chapter 9 does not describe any vision at all!? It obviously refers to the vision of the previous chapter of Daniel chapter 8 which ‘belongeth to the appointed time of the end’ (RV 8:19) in which the king of fierce countenance is broken without hand (cp. Dan.2:45) by the Prince of princes (8:25).
Daniel was praying because he knew that the 70 years of Jerusalem’s desolations were nearly over. Instead he received a prophecy telling him that there would be a further 70x7 years of desolations before the vision of chapter 8 was fulfilled and the kingdom established!!
We will discuss the implications of this later ; Daniel’s more immediate concern was the end of the 70 years of desolations and the re-institution of Temple worship. Daniel was no doubt reading Jeremiah 29:10:
“That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word (dabar) toward you, in causing you to return to this (Jerusalem) place.”
The starting point of the 70x7 prophecy should surely be from the destruction of the Temple, for this was the ultimate confirmation that God had abandoned the people of Israel (9:12). God says through the prophet Ezekiel: “There shall none of my words (dabar) be deferred (RV) any more, but the word (dabar) which I have spoken shall be done saith the Lord God” (Ezek12:28).
This word was the final overturning of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple: “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more (monarchy and priesthood) until he come 10 whose right it is; and I will give it him” (Ezek.21:27).
We are informed in both Chronicles and Ezra that Cyrus issued a decree to build God a house in Jerusalem because the Lord had stirred up his spirit in order that the word (dabar) of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled (RV accomplished) (Ezra 1:1; 2 Chron.36:22).
The fulfilment therefore of God’s good word is the rebuilding of the Temple.
The rebuilding began in the second month of the second year (Ezra 3:8) of Cyrus with Zerubbabel appointed as governor and Joshua as the high priest.
This is exactly 49 years and 9 months after the destruction of the Temple. 11
To summarise:
BC 586
BC 537
7x7=49
Destruction of Temple by Nebuchadnezzar.
Rebuilding begun under proclamation of Cyrus.
God confirms His word as spoken by his prophets –
PUNISHMENT.
God’s good word.
RESTORATION
- a most holy (Christ)
- the most holy (Temple).
Daniel’s prayer: God’s word to Gabriel to answer the prayer.
The typical and primary fulfilment of this prophecy was the anointing of the most holy 12 (place) (9:24), the appointing of a priest, Joshua, and a governor, Zerubbabel.
Joshua was the first high priest after the captivity – God had as it were “plucked him out of the fire (of captivity) like a firebrand” and cleansed both Joshua (and the nation) in order that they might serve him.
The true fulfilment of the prophecy is our great high priest Joshua/Jesus who “put off the filthy garments” of the flesh (see Zech. chapter 3) and who is truly a most holy priest – anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows on the day of his enthronement (Heb.1:9).
The second segment of Daniel’s prophecy (62x7) concerns the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Again it is in answer to another prayer, this time of faithful Nehemiah, who like Daniel confesses his sins, and the sins of his people, that the word of God goes forth. Note especially Neh.2:5,6: “So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the King…” His instant prayer was answered…. “And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me” (v.8). This prayer was answered in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (BC 444) (v.1) and the prophecy must therefore be dated from this event. We have already remarked that the prophecy of Daniel is based on lunar years of 360 days and not solar years of 365. This means that 434 lunar years (62x7) equates to 365/360 x 434 = 440 solar years.13
This would terminate the prophecy in 4 BC (444 – 440) which is the birth date of the Messiah. The significance of this should not be lost on us, for it was the angel Gabriel who calling Daniel ‘greatly beloved’ (9:23) delivered the prophecy and who also announced the birth of Jesus to Mary with the words “Hail, thou that art highly favoured” (Lk.1:28). Moreover, Gabriel announced the birth of John to Zacharias and gently castigated him because he “believed not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season” (Lk.1:20) [Alluding to Daniel’s prophecy?]
It was after the threescore and two weeks that the anointed one would be “cut off”. He was to suffer a violent death as contrasted to a natural one. The Hebrew verb employed here, is often used in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers of being sentenced to death. Compare also Isaiah 53:8 where a different verb of similar import is used – “he was cut off out of the land of the living”.
“And shall have nothing”, literally “and there is not in him”. We may supply the word ‘guilt’ and see in the testimony of Pilate “I find no fault in him”, as the fulfilment of this part of Gabriel’s message. Or possibly it is an allusion to his desertion by his apostles: “Ye shall be scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone” (John 16:32).
Now contrast the typical or primary fulfilment in the time of Nehemiah with the true fulfilment in Christ: Page_10 Index_of_tables_and_diagrams
BUILDING THE WALLS OF (THE NEW) JERUSALEM
NEHEMIAH (TYPE)
CHRIST (TRUE)
“At that time I had not set up the doors on the gates” (6:1).
Possess the gates of his enemies, hell and death (Rev.1:18; Gen.22:17).
Asked 4 times to come down off the wall… “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down” (6:3).
Asked 4 times to come down off the cross (Mtt.27:41-43).
Accused of wanting to be king of the Jews (6:6).
Crucified as king of the Jews (Mtt.27:37).
“Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now, therefore, O God, strengthen my hands” (6:9).
His hands strengthened for the cross.
“And there appeared an angel from heaven strengthening him” (Lk.22:43 – Gethsemane).
“And I said, should such a man as I flee? And who is there, that being as I am, would go into the Temple to save his life? I will not go in” (6:11).
“Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” (Mtt.26:53,54).
“For they perceived that this work was wrought of our God” (6:16).
“Truly this was the Son of God” (Mtt.27:54).
62 x 7 = 434 (=440 solar)
“AFTER CUT OFF”
Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah.
Birth of the Messiah. Building the ‘NEW JERUSALEM’
commences.
The last segment of the prophecy, which is divided into two periods of 3½ years, presents many difficulties of interpretation.
1) Is ‘Messiah the Prince’ (v.25) the same person as ‘the prince that shall come’ who
will destroy the city and the sanctuary (v.26)?
2) This same ‘prince that shall come’ will confirm the covenant with many for one week (v.27).
3) He will also cause the sacrifice and oblation (meal offering) to cease after 3½ years (v.27).
4) He will also make it (the sanctuary) desolate because of the abominations (pollutions) and the promised punishment will be poured out on the desolator (polluter) (v.27).
5) This still leaves the last 3½ years of the prophecy about which not much is said, except that we know that the covenant (made in the middle of the seven) extends to and includes this last 3½ year period.
In order to interpret this last section of prophecy, we will have to attempt to answer the above points satisfactorily:
1. Nobody would argue that ‘Messiah the prince’ does not refer to Jesus Christ,
but does ‘the prince who shall come’ also refer to him?
It is interesting to note that John the Baptist uses this title in Luke 7:18-23: “Art thou he that should come? or look we for another”.
John wished to know whether Jesus was the one who would fulfil the prophecy of Daniel (destroy the Temple). John did not doubt that he was the “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) but was he also the ‘coming one’ – “the Lord whom ye see, shall suddenly come to his Temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:1).
John had been warning about the impending judgment – “the axe is laid to the root of the tree” (3:9) and was preaching the baptism of repentance.
Jesus, however, answered John by showing John’s disciples an array of healing miracles and telling them to relay these things to John (who was in prison).
“Go your way and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached” (Lk.7:22).
John, who was extremely familiar with the prophecy of Isaiah, would understand that this is what Jesus was referring to:
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God” (Isa.61:1,2).
We note that Jesus had deliberately neglected to mention two things in his response:
1 The opening of the prison.
2 The day of vengeance.
John the Baptist would have immediately recognised that the time had not yet come for the day of vengeance or the (final) release of the prisoner (resurrection) – nevertheless his question had been answered, Jesus was the coming one.
The same title is used in Hebrews 10:37:
“For yet a little while, And he that shall come will come, and will not tarry”.14
Again, this is in the context of judgment:
“Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb.10:30,31).
Hebrews is warning that the day of judgment is near, and that the Temple and Mosaic system would soon be destroyed.
The prophet Ezekiel, who was contemporary with Daniel warns that Nebuchadnezzar) would overturn the Temple and the monarchy and that it would not be restored until he come whose right it is (21:26).
This is an obvious reference to Genesis 49:10: “Until Shiloh (peace) come”.15 Jesus Christ would unite the functions of the priesthood and the monarchy in his person (king – priest): “And he shall be a priest upon his throne and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (king/priest) (Zech.6:13).
We can safely say that Messiah (anointed priest) the Prince (king) is the same as the ‘coming one’, SHILOH.
2. Confirming16 the covenant with many for one week.
What better way of confirming (strengthening) the new covenant than by removing the old?
The destruction of the Temple would both verify the prophecy of Christ concerning the Temple and the warnings given in Hebrews – “the removing of those things that are shaken” (12:27). This would act as a powerful polemic for the first century Christians, and justify their faith in the new covenant.
It is interesting to note that Malachi refers to, ‘ the messenger of the covenant…. that suddenly comes to his Temple’ 17 (3:1). Jesus did this when he cleansed the Temple at Passover time (John 2:13-15). A secondary fulfilment of this passage is the angel of Rev.10:1. The Hebrew word for messenger is malak, and often this refers to angels. The angel of 10:1 has a rainbow upon his head and commands John to measure the temple (11:1) – the association of the rainbow with the covenant, and with the measuring of the temple offer an interesting secondary fulfilment to the Malachi prophecy.
Is it coincidental that the 3½ years of witnessing is preceded by a vision of the rainbow covenant and terminates with a vision of the ark of the covenant (Rev.11:19)? The confirming (strengthening) of the covenant occurs in the midst of the seven, clearly dividing the period into 2 x 3½ years. Note the following comparison:
Page_13 Index_of_tables_and_diagrams
WITNESSING AND TIME PERIODS (THE SEVENTY SEVENS PROPHECY)
DANIEL (SEVENTY SEVENS)
REVELATION
GENESIS
GOSPELS
The end thereof shall be with a flood (9:26).
Tormented for 5 months (9:5,10).
Waters upon the earth18 five months (150 days, Gen.7:24).
As in the days of Noah…the flood came and destroyed them all (Lk.17:27).
Unto the end war (9:26).
Locust invasion (chapter 9).
Earth filled with violence (6:11).
Cp. Rev.9:20.
Wars and commotions…but the end is not by and by (Lk.21:9).
Gabriel (9:21) (God’s strong one).
Strong (mighty) angel (10:1).
Rainbow covenant (9:13-16).
Contrast the sign of the Son of Man in heaven (Mtt.24:30).
Confirm the covenant (gabar briyth = strengthen? the covenant) (9:27).
A rainbow upon his head (10:1)19
In the midst of the week (3½ ) he shall cause sacrifice and oblation to cease (9:27);
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary (9:26).
See 1260 days, Dan.12:7.
Outer court trampled by the Gentiles 42 months (=3½ years) (11:1).
Arphaxad lived 530 years and begat… (Alexandrian text 430 years).
Eber lived 430 years and begat Peleg and after he begat Peleg lived 430 years (11:12-17). (3x430= 1290, see Dan.12:9).20
Jerusalem trodden down of the Gentiles (Lk.21:24). Jerusalem compassed with armies…her desolation nigh at hand (Lk.21:20).
The abomination of desolation.
The image of the beast (13:13).
Tower of Babel in Shinar (chp.11, cp. Dan.3:1).
When ye shall see the abomination standing in the holy place (Mtt.24:24).
3. He shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease after 3½ years (v.27).
The Jewish war lasted 3½ years from AD 66½ to AD 70 culminating in the burning of the Temple21 by the Romans and the suicide at Massada.
The text in Daniel comments that the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary (v.26). This refers either to the Romans, who acting under divine guidance, destroyed the city or more likely to the Jews themselves22 who through their own actions polluted the sanctuary. The RV has an interesting alternative reading in this place, the margin reads: and the Jews shall no more be his people. If this is a more correct reading then it is easy to see how it fell out of the text.
4. He shall make it (the sanctuary) desolate because of the abominations (pollutions)23 and the promised punishment will be poured out on the desolator (polluter). Jesus warned that their house would be left desolate (Mtt.23:38) that the Temple would be destroyed (Mtt.24:1,2) and he referred specifically to the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet (Mtt.24:15) all indicating that the first 3½ years of Daniel’s prophecy were fulfilled in AD 70.
5. The last 3½ years, over which the covenant (made in the middle of the seven)
still extends, must be the 3½ years of Revelation chapters 11 and 12.
To summarise Page_14 Index_of_tables_and_diagrams
DANIEL
REVELATION
HISTORY
Sanctuary destroyed by a flood.
3½ years.
Locust invasion .
5 months torment.
Jewish war.
3½ years.
Siege 5 months.
Strengthened covenant.
(chapter 10)
Strong (angel)
(Rainbow)
Covenant.
Israel temporarily cast off.
Last 3½ years still not fulfilled.
Conclusion Page_15 Index_of_tables_and_diagrams
The prophecy of Daniel 9 is segmented because it is not continuous. There are specific events that trigger each section of the prophecy after long periods of seeming inactivity.
1x7
62x7
3½
3½
BC 586
BC 537
BC
444
BC
4
AD
66½
AD
70
AD
??
The prophecy adds up to a total of 490 years or 70 x7 years, but between each section there are ‘gaps’. This explains why the prophecy runs to the bringing in of the righteousness of ages (the Kingdom).
Both Daniel and Revelation depict the events of the last ‘seven’ as following directly one after the other without any time lapse; this is because the events of AD70 (and possibly AD 132½ ) are typical of the future, both the witnessing and the destruction have already happened and will happen again!!
NOTES
1 The BAR-KOCHBA REVOLT, AD 132 – 135.
There arose during this time period a Messianic claimant, a man named Simon. Simon might have not made much headway but for the fact that his Messianic claims were warmly supported by Akiba, the leading rabbi of the day. In vain did some of Akiba’s more cautious colleagues remonstrate with him. (Akiba, said one, grass will grow out of your jaws before the son of David comes); Akiba was sure that Simon was the Messiah, and hailed him as the ‘star out of Jacob’ celebrated in Balaam’s prophecy long centuries before (Num.24:17). For this reason Simon became known by the surname of Bar-Kochba, which is Aramaic for ‘son of the star’.
The suddenness of the rising (132) took the Romans unawares. Judea, since the late war, had been governed not by a procurator but by an imperial legate of independent status, with a stronger military force on the spot than Gessius Florus had in AD 66. Even so, it proved inadequate; Bar-Kochba was soon master in Judea. According to Dio-Cassius (150–235 AD, author of a Roman history in Greek), the defenders recruited soldiers from all countries of the Empire and beyond the Euphrates, inhabited by their ‘fellow nationals’. The solidarity of Jews elsewhere in the Empire with the Judean rebels under Bar-Kochba is also stressed by Dio. (Epitome 69:13).
To mark independence a new coinage was struck, bearing such legends as ‘Simon Prince of Israel’, ‘For the freedom of Jerusalem’, ‘Year one of the redemption of Israel’. The warfare was guerilla in character, as it had been in the days of the Maccabees, and it took the Romans a long time to put it down. Three and a half years severe fighting followed before the Roman general Julius Serverus succeeded in crushing the revolt. The records, although incomplete, indicate that during this period some form of worship was reinstated, an altar was erected on the temple mount for sacred worship. The Nazarenes had refused to take part in the Bar-Kochba rising, because they could not by any means recognise his Messianic claims. For them there could be not other Messiah than Jesus. Because of their refusal to join what seemed the patriotic cause, they suffered considerable persecution. From that time onwards, then, the distinctively Jewish Christian communities went their own way, isolated in religion from their fellow Jews, and to a large extent isolated from the main stream of Christianity. Justin Martyr (1 Apology 13) briefly referred to the timoriai deinai – the terrible punishments of Christians ordered by Bar-Kochba, unless they denied and blasphemed Christ. That the persecutions were simultaneously political and religious in nature lies in the character of Messianic wars (see Early Church History p.226 note 8 for references). Bar-Kochba was put to death at the end of the 3½ year revolt, along with the other instigators, including the intrepid Akiba himself. And now Jerusalem was rebuilt as a Roman colony with a Temple duly consecrated to Jupiter Capitolinus – an order that was to endure until the time of Constantine, nearly two hundred years later.
The city was renamed AElia Capitolina after the Emperor’s family name (his full name was Publius AElius Hadrianus) and Capitolina after the Roman Jupiter to whom the new temple was dedicated. It was a completely Gentile city; no Jew was permitted entry on pain of death.
Bar-Kochba’s real patronymic was Ben-Kosebah (found in a cave in the Wadi Murabba’at). In Jewish sources his name is Bar Koziba, probably because his Messianic pretensions were never realised. Bar Koziba means ‘son of a deceiver’.
The third trumpet (Rev.8:10,11) is possibly referring to Bar-Kochba:
“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp (i.e. the Messiah was a lamp – John 1:8,9) and it fell on a third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of the waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter” (false prophet Deut.29:18).
Bibliography:
THE SPREADING FLAME, BRUCE.
EARLY CHURCH HISTORY, Stephen Benko & John J O’Rourke.
A Concise History of the Church. August Franzen/John P. Dolan.
From the Apostolic Community to Constantine (vol 1), Karl Baus.
Judaism and Christian Beginnings, Samuel Sandmel.
The Diaspora Story.
The Encyclopaedia Judaica (vol 1-16).
2 This is the money which Judas cast into the sanctuary (Matthew 27:5) with which the priest
bought the potter’s field (Matt.27:7). Thus fulfilling both versions of the prophecy!!
3 Boutflower admits the following (In and Around the Book of Daniel, p.175):
The untrustworthy character of the Septuagint and the liberties taken by the translator are thus freely admitted by Driver, when comparing it with the received Hebrew text:
“The Septuagint, though in isolated passages it may preserve a more original reading, as a whole has no claim whatever to consideration beside it: the liberties which the translator has manifestly taken with his text being quite such as to deprive the different readings, which, if it were a reasonably faithful translation, it might be regarded as presupposing, of all pretensions to originality – except, indeed, in a comparatively small number of instances in which they are supported on strong grounds of intrinsic probability” – Cambridge Bible, p.g.11.
4 The ‘seventy sevens’ prophecy seems to have an intimate connection with Jewish feast days. The‘feast of weeks’(or sevens) was celebrated (7x7) from Passover (49 days) and is better known as Pentecost– this was the harvest of the first fruits, when the loaf of bread was waved before the Lord. A perfect Jewish year had 354 days (lunar calendar) and a leap year 383 days (29 extra), so from Passover in a leap year to Passover in the next year was 383 days, Pentecost is 49 days later, inclusive reckoning totals exactly to 434 days! (62x7=434).
This would leave the last seven of Daniel’s prophecy to be possibly equated with the last harvest feast (7 day feast) of Tabernacles, which celebrated the ingathering of the wine and oil harvest. Is this the harvest of Revelation 14 which describes the reaping of the earth (Israel) as follows:
“And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God”.
The last ‘seven’ of Daniel’s prophecy is also a time of judgment and punishment.
5 The traditional date for the decree is usually given as 457(7th year of Artaxerxes not the20 th), marking the end of the first period in 408 BC. Boutflower remarks that more strictly the period begins in the year 458 BC. Bro. Thomas takes the 20th year of Artaxerxes as 456 BC+ 9 months (instead of the traditional 444 BC date) as his point of departure (see exposition of Daniel, p.36).
6 Jesus was 30 years old at his baptism (Lk.3:23). Bro. Thomas reckons a period of 485 years and 9 months between the 20th of Artaxerxes and the baptism (455 + 9 months + 30 = 485 + 9 months). This would date the birth of Christ in 1 BC (instead of 4/5 BC).
7 Exposition of Daniel, p.37.
8 Exposition of Daniel, p.36.
9 Dan.12:7: TIME, TIMES, AND A HALF.
This is 3½ years i.e. Time = 360 days; TIMES = 2 x 360 days; A HALF = 180 days. 360 + 720 + 180 = 1260 days. Therefore the years used in Daniel are Babylonian lunar years of 360 days each.
10 The expression ‘until he come’ refers to Christ and is found in Daniel’s “seventy sevens prophecy -the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary…” (9:26).
11 The Temple was destroyed in the 11th year of Zedekiah in the 5th month on the 10th day of the month (Jer.52:13).This equates with the 19th (or 18th) year of Nebuchadnezzar (see Ezek.12:13;Jer.52:8), BC 586.
See also Josephus Apion i.21, Hag.2:18.
12 This expression is used 42 times in Scripture!! It refers to the anointing of a most holy high priest, or to the action of anointing the mercy seat with blood on the day of Atonement. Either way, a new and special act of priesthood is implied. The next verse promises Messiah the Prince: the divine priest/king.
13 The 49 years of the first segment of the prophecy equates to exactly 49 years 9 months in solar reckoning!
14 Hebrews 10:37 is quoting from the Septuagint (LXX) version of Habakkuk: The AV reads as follows: “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry wait for it; because it (LXX = he that shall come) will surely come, it will not delay” (Hab.2:3). It is notable that the phrase, ‘vision that is yet for an appointed time’, refers to the passage in Daniel 10:14, and that the LXX translation personifies the vision as ‘he that shall come’, the same title is used in Daniel 9:26.
15 I have translated shiloh as peace. The Hebrew (7887) shî ylô h comes from a root word meaning tranquillity, security or rest (see 7954) shelâ h – the Hebrew word for peace is shâ lô m (7965). The essence of the meaning is the same: Jesus will bring tranquillity and peace i.e. no more friction between the role of king and priest.
16 Confirm (or make) the (a) covenant.
The word ‘gabar’ is only translated confirm (AV) in this verse. The sense of the word is strong or mighty (possibly strengthen the covenant?). It is obviously a play on the name of the angel Gabriel (cp. also Dan.10:16-20, strength(en) used 5 times).
Strongs gives the following definitions:
(Remember there are no vowels in the Hebrew)
1396 - gabar – to be strong, mighty
1397 - geber – mighty man, warrior
1399/1400 - geber – a man/a certain man
1401/1402 - gibbâ r – intensive plural for emphasis – valiant, mighty warrior
1403 - Gabrî yel – a cognate word, a combination of Gabar and el(ohim), literally STRONG
MIGHTY ONE, both words imply strength = the strong one of God
17 Suddenly comes to his temple: see 1 Thess.5:3: “sudden destruction cometh upon them”, contrast the true temple “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief” (v.4).
18 The last 5 months of the siege of Jerusalem were particularly nasty and are recorded as lasting from April 14th to September 8th (5 LUNAR MONTHS). Josephus comments:
“……the city would either be swallowed up by the ground opening upon them, or been overflowed by water, or else been destroyed by such thunder as the country of Sodom perished by….for by their madness it was that all the people came to be destroyed” (Wars book 5.13.7).
19 As already mentioned in chapter 10 – the seven thunders (Rev.10:3) are connected with the seven voices of the Lord in Psalm 29, note especially the flood connection: “The Lord sat as king at the flood” (RV) (29:10).
20 Peleg: the name means division or earthquake, it was during Peleg’s lifetime that the earth was divided i.e. the tower of Babel was destroyed, and the people (and their language) scattered. COMPARE:
“There was a great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts…” Rev.16:18,19.
21 Josephus comments as follows:
“And now the fatal day was come, according to the revolution of ages: it was the tenth day of the month Ab, upon which it was formerly burnt by the king of Babylon; although these flames took their rise from the Jews themselves, and were occasioned by them…” (Wars book 6.IV.5).
Josephus blames the Jews for the fire (although it was the Romans that actually started the incineration) and remarks that it happened on the same day as it was burned by Nebuchadnezzar!
22 Josephus recounts some of the omens that preceded the destruction of the city:
“I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so a considerable nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armour were seen running about in the clouds, and surrounding of cities” (Wars book 6.V.3).
Are the ‘people of the prince that shall come’ the angels? Compare 2 Kings 6:17.
23 The literal translation is ‘wing of abominations’, or ‘overspreading of abominations’, often taken to refer to a wing or pinnacle of the Temple. More naturally it refers to the overspreading or wing of a cherubim, not the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant, but in the context of Daniel a Babylonian cherubim (the Assyrian cherubim was depicted as a winged lion). The Assyrian invasion is depicted as an overspreading. c.p. Isa.18:1 contrast Ps.57:1, 61:4, 91:4.
The word Abomination is often used of idols in Scripture: “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house” (Deut.7:26).
In the context of Revelation it is the image of the Beast that constitutes the abomination (brought into the house of Israel?).
The Jews of the first century “repented not of the works of their hands, that they should worship devils (demons) and idols of gold, and silver, and of brass and stone and wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Rev.9:20,21).
The Temple itself had become an idol and a den of thieves and murderers, see Josephus (B.J.4.9.10).
The following is quoted from In and Around the Book of Daniel, Boutflower p.200-202:
“The Zealots, whom Josephus so sternly denounces as the direct cause of the destruction of Jerusalem (Wars of the Jews IV.3,3), received their name from their affected patriotism and pretended zeal for the law. In reality they were robber bands, cut-throats and murderers; and are more truthfully described by their other name, Sicarri or Assassins. Herod the Great in his early days did much to put down these robbers, who had made their strongholds in the precipitous hillsides of Galilee. But in the last years of the Jewish state this evil broke out afresh in the same quarter.
A strong band of these men had held the town of Gischala against the Romans; but when they saw its capture to be certain, they contrived by a stratagem to make their escape to Jerusalem under the leadership of John of Gischala. Having made their way into the capital, they set to work to corrupt the younger men, and stirred them up to rebel against the Romans. Meanwhile they were joined by many like characters from all parts of the country and were able, by making themselves masters of the Temple, to turn it into a fortress from which they could sally out into Jerusalem and commit any acts of tyranny and savage barbarity which might serve their purpose. There could be no better description of the prosperous career for the time being of atrocious wickedness, violence, murder, rapine and pollution, engaged in so lightly by the Zealot army, and of the terrible gloom which it cast over Jerusalem, than those brief words of Gabriel, “Upon a wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate”. These bold, determined, desperate robbers – ruffians, who jested over holy things, and yet when it suited their purpose professed a zeal for the law and a belief in the prophets, sailed forth boldly on their career of crime like some powerful bird of prey, the terror of the flocks (Isa.8:8). Theirs was a wickedness which for a while prospered exceedingly. They seemed to be borne along on the wing of their own abominations, buoyed up by the various atrocities in which they indulged, by their acts of sacrilege and violence. Their crimes were
‘abominations’ in the truest sense, objects of detestation and horror, ‘desolating’ i.e. appalling those who witnessed them, for such is the force of the two Hebrew words here used. Thus they seized the appointment to the High Priesthood, and elected by lot to that sacred office a rustic clown, whom they decked with the priestly robes and brought him forth as if on the stage, indulging in uncontrolled merriment over his awkwardness, while the more earnest-minded of the priests shed hot tears of indignation at this horrid profanation (Wars of the Jews, book IV.3,8). Josephus, speaking of the Zealots, says that they ridiculed the oracles of the prophets which they themselves were instrumental in fulfilling, adding that “there was a certain ancient oracle of those men, that the city should then be taken and the sanctuary burnt, by right of war, when a sedition should invade the Jews, and their own hands should pollute the Temple of God” (Wars book IV.6,3).
Again, addressing his rival, John of Gischala, one of the principal leaders of the Zealots, just three weeks before the capture of the city, he says: “Who is there that does not know what the writings of the ancient prophets contain in them – and particularly that oracle which is just now going to be fulfilled upon this miserable city – for they foretold that this city should be taken when somebody shall begin the slaughter of his own countrymen! It is God, therefore, it is God himself, who is bringing on this fire, to purge that city and Temple by means of the Romans, and is going to pluck up this city, which is full of your pollutions” (Wars book VI.2,1).”
There is some reason for thinking that the special oracle referred to by the Jewish historian is this vision (i.e. seventy sevens) at which we are looking, for it will be noted that pollution is the keynote on which the Jewish priest and historian harps. The Zealots have filled Jerusalem with their pollutions. More particularly they have polluted the Temple of God. John had told Josephus that he had no fear of the city being taken because it was God’s city. In answer to which Josephus replied in a tone of bitterest satire “To be sure thou hast kept this city wonderfully pure for God’s sake. The Temple also continues entirely unpolluted” (Wars book VI.2,1).
Again and again we find references to the horrible pollution of the Temple. Thus: “Those men made the Temple a stronghold for themselves” (Wars book IV.3,7).
“When they were satiated with the unjust actions they had done towards men, they transferred their contumelious behaviour to God himself and came into the sanctuary with polluted feet” (Wars book IV.3,6).
Ananus, one of the high priests, is represented as saying to the multitude, “Certainly it had been good for me to die before I had seen the house of God full of so many abominations, or these sacred places that ought not to be trodden on at random, filled with the feet of these blood-shedding villains” (Wars book IV.3,10).
Jesus, the eldest high priest next to Ananus, addressing the Idumeans who had been invited to Jerusalem by the Zealots, speaks in the same strain. After denouncing the Zealots as the very rascality and offscouring of the whole country, he adds “They are robbers, who by their prodigious wickedness have profaned this most sacred floor, and who are now to be seen drinking themselves drunk in the sanctuary”…. “These profane wretches have proceeded to that degree of madness, as not only to have transferred their impudent robberies out of the country and the remote cities into this city, the very face and head of the whole nation, but out of the city into the Temple also: for that is now made their receptacle and refuge, and the fountainhead whence their preparations are made against us. And this place, which is adored by the habitable world, and honoured by such as only know it by report, as far as the ends of the earth, is trampled upon (Rev.11:2) by these wild beasts (Rev.11:7) born among ourselves” (Wars book IV.4,3).
John Whenham (Christ and the Bible) comments as follows:
“Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11. The cryptic reference to the desolating sacrilege standing ‘in the holy place’ cannot mean literally an entering of the Temple or city by the Romans, as this would be too late as a warning to those in Judea, though it would adequately represent the Jewish sense of horror towards the Roman ensigns as described by Josephus (Antiq.XVIII.3). Luke’s more straightforward description of the encircling armies might conceivably be understood of the invasion of the holy land, but this is not how a reader of the book of Daniel would naturally take it. R.T. France (following M.J. Lagrange, Matthieu, Paris, 1923, p.461,462) thinks that the profanation of the Temple by the Zealots as described by Josephus (Wars book IV.3) fits the prediction best. In the winter of AD 67/68, as Roman pressure against the Jewish rebels was increasing, Zealots took control of the city, set up their headquarters in the Holy Place and held a mock ceremony to install a bumpkin as High Priest. Carnage followed and the holy city was defiled with blood. The approach of the Roman armies tallies with Luke, and the desecration of the Holy Place tallies with Matthew (and Mark). Either of these would have provided an adequate warning to the Christians that it was time to flee”. (The above is note 4 from the chapter, Objections to the Claims of Jesus.)
