Day of Jesus prophesied 600 years beforehand?
Prophesies are meant to be somewhat hidden, especially to the general non-seeking public. But when the event happens it becomes clear. We can look back and see that Daniel 9 clearly predicted the very year of Jesus’ arrival 600 years before it happened. Daniel 9:1 tells us that the book of Daniel was written in the first year of Xerxes, which was 539-538 B.C. See my other article on how it knew details only known in that time period so it does look to be this old. (Look half way down the article.) However, critics try to say Daniel was written much later to avoid explaining all its exact prophesies. But they do have to admit it was written by 153 B.C. at the very latest because it was part of the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint), which was finished by 153 B.C. at the very latest. So at the very minimum, Daniel predicted the year of the Lord 180 years before it happened, which still isn’t bad.
“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. Daniel 9:25
The prophesy says that the messiah would come after 7 “sevens” and 62 “sevens” (69 “sevens” total) from when there was a decree to rebuild Jerusalem. The “sevens” are periods of 7 years. So 69×7=483 years. In Ezra 7:11-26 Artaxerxes gives Ezra permission to rebuild Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king. Secular historians agree Artaxerxes ruled from 465-424 B.C. (Wikipedia link below), so the 7th year of his reign was 458 B.C. (465 B.C. – 7 years = 458 B.C.).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artaxerxes_I_of_Persia
8 Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king. …11 This is a copy of the letter King Artaxerxes had given to Ezra the priest… 13 Now I decree that any of the Israelites in my kingdom, including priests and Levites, who volunteer to go to Jerusalem with you, may go. … 18 You and your fellow Israelites may then do whatever seems best with the rest of the silver and gold, in accordance with the will of your God. Ezra 7:8, 11, 18
26 A.D. is 483 years after 458 B.C. (remember to add 1 to the count since there is no year 0 A.D.). So this is when the Messiah would come. But His coming could mean His birth, ministry or death, etc. So we’re not sure what part of His coming this refers to. By looking at all the dates and historical events, it appears to coincide with the day Jesus publicly started his ministry because it fits into the chronology of all the events best (see chart below). It may have been on the actual Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, the highest Holy Day, because this day is 6 months before Passover. These six months, or half a year, is how he had 3 -1/2 years of ministry before His death on the Passover in the Spring of 30 A.D., 3.5 years later. This is when he was “cut off” in the middle of his 7 years as Daniel 9 and Isaiah 53:8 predicted.
After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Daniel 9:26a
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Isaiah 53:8
It also interesting that if this is the right date for His death, then the destruction of Jerusalem was exactly to the day 40 years after Jesus’ death. This could be related to Ezekiel 4:6. Or it could be one generation. Either way, Josephus (who was not a Christian so he’s not biased) recorded (see quote in table below) that Titus began the attack on Jerusalem on Passover in 70 A.D., exactly 40 years to the day after Jesus died. Interesting coincidence which must tie in somehow. This verse above also tells us that the coming Antichrist (“the ruler who will come’) will be from the Roman empire because it was that empire that destroyed Jerusalem.
Jesus may come back to finish his week (3-1/2 additional years) on a future Day of Atonement. You’ll notice that a lot of events in Revelation are all 3-1/2 years. The Antichrist seems to have 3-1/2 years to deceive the nations and bring havoc on the earth, especially the Christians. He signs a 7-year peace accord and then he sets up an abomination in the Temple (or possibly just a Tabernacle) halfway, 3.5 years, into this. This appears to be when Jesus comes back to bring wrath upon the Antichrist and all who follow his terrible ways (the wrath is well deserved-we’ll probably understand it better at that time just how well deserved it is).
The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him. Daniel 9:26b-27
Then after this remaining 3-1/2 years, the complete “Seventy-Sevens” will be finished as mentioned in the beginning of the passage. This may be when the millennial (1,000 year) reign of Christ starts.
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Daniel 9:24
Here is a chart showing all the New Testament events and how they fit into secular recorded events. The scenario that I’ve picked lines up with all of them. There is another theory that uses a lunar calendar of 30 days in a month and uses another king’s decree to finish the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Both theories actually work to the general time period but that one doesn’t fit with the first census of Quirinius (as you will see below). Also the event it uses to start the clock, Artaxerxes to Nehemiah to rebuild the walls Nehemiah 2:1-8, is not a decree to rebuild the city but just the walls. And even then, it’s not a decree to rebuild them but just permission for him to return to Jerusalem. Then he rebuilds them when he gets there. Using that method, you basically just take a strict 360 day year and multiply by 483 years. That gives you a certain number of days, then you divide by 365.25 to get it back to solar years so you can use our typical dating. But I don’t think you can do this because even when people used a lunar calendar in the Old Testament, when they look at things over a long time period like this, they needed to make adjustments from time to time to get it back on track with the solar calendar so the seasons will be right. I’ve heard they added a leap week or month occasionally when they noticed it getting off. Otherwise your summer will be in the winter months. So the years still turn out to be solar years eventually. For short term calculations (up to say 50 years or so) you can use the lunar calendar but with longer calculations the difference starts to be significant. So anyway, I used the solar calendar and things really line up nicely. I put the dating for both methods side by side here at this link. And below is another website discussing it.
| Decree to rebuild Jerusalem | 458 | Artaxerxes gave Ezra permission to rebuild Jerusalem in Ezra 7:11-26, during the fifth month of the seventh year of the king. Secular historians agree Artaxerxes ruled from 465-424 BC so the 7th year of his reign was 458. |
| Years before the Messiah comes | 483 | 483 years. 62 sevens and 7 sevens is 69 sevens. 69 times 7 is 483. |
| Jesus’ Birth | 5 BC | Before 4BC, Herod’s death |
| 1st census of Quirinius. | 6-4 BC | Quirinius was possibly in office for two terms, first 6-4 B.C. and then A.D. 6-9. A census is associated with each term. This is the first; Ac 5:37 refers to the second.
From the AIG website: “The excavators Granfell and Hunt reported that their evidence showed that this was the first census (poll tax—enrollment) that took place in the time of Quirinius. (Another inscription has shown that Quirinius was in Syria twice—first as a military leader at a time of civil unrest, and later as Governor of Syria.) The census was probably delayed in Palestine because of that civil unrest.” https://answersingenesis.org/archaeology/does-archaeology-support-the-bible/ |
| Pilate becomes Procurator in Judea | After 26 AD | Pilate was not appointed Procurator in Judea till 26 AD and we know that according to the scripture he was already appointed when Jesus started his ministry |
| Jesus starts his ministry | Day of Atonement. Fall of 26 AD (483 years later) | John the Baptist starts in 26 or 29, 15 year of Tiberius (Luke 3). First date is taken from when Tiberius became co-regent in 11AD. Then he started to actually reign 18 Sept 14AD. Day of Atonement was in the Fall. Lk 3:23 Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry (it would be 30 exactly if He was born in 5 BC and started in 26 AD) |
| Jesus debates with Pharisees | 27-29 AD | 27-29 (unsure) Jesus debate with Pharisees: “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years” Josephus (Ant 15.11.1) states that the temple’s reconstruction was started by Herod in the 18th year of his reign |
| Crucifixion | April 7, 30 AD (3.5 years later) | Passover was on Friday April 7, 30 AD . Passover was 6 months after Day of Atonement so Jesus’ death would be 3 1/2 years later. |
| Judged by Pontius Pilate | Before 36 AD | Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea from 26 AD until he was replaced by Marcellus, either in 36 AD or 37 AD |
| Judged by Herod Antipas | before 39 AD | Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, was born before 20 BC and was exiled in the summer of 39 AD following a lengthy intrigue involving Caligula and Agrippa I |
| Trial of Paul | 51-52 AD | trial before Junius Gallio in Achaea Greece (Acts 18:12-17) around 51-52 AD |
| Fall of Jerusalem | 70 AD (exactly 40 years after Jesus’ death) | Ezekiel 4:1-7. Ezekiel is to lie down for each day of Judah’s sin, which has been interpreted as the 40 years of rejection of their Messiah. The Romans, according to Josephus, began their siege on Passover 70 AD, exactly 40 years to the day after the crucifixion of Christ:
Wars of the Jews, Flavius Josephus, Book V, Chapter 13, Verse 7. “And, indeed, why do I relate these particular calamities? while Manneus, the son of Lazarus, came running to Titus at this very time, and told him that there had been carried out through that one gate, which was entrusted to his care, no fewer than a hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty dead bodies, in the interval between the fourteenth day of the month Xanthieus, [Nisan,] when the Romans pitched their camp by the city, and the first day of the month Panemus [Tamuz]” |