The Daniel 9 Prophecy

[SmokingMan]

The prophesy told by the prophet Daniel in the Old Testament of the Bible is one of the most controversial and striking areas of study in the Bible. Unlike the common generalized prophesies told by so-called psycics and fortune tellers, this prophecy gives unmistakable details and even the year of its fulfillment. This prophesy was written in the 6th century BC and was fulfilled in the 1st century AD at the time acurately predicted by the author. The accuracy of this prophecy has sent a shockwave of panic through the skeptic community, causing them to try to prove that the book of Daniel was written after 70 AD. This cannot be done because the Hebrews had their Bible completed and in hand with the book of Daniel as it exists today by 350 BC. Between 250-150BC a Greek version, (the Septuigant ) was translated in Alexandria - still at least 180 yrs. before the prophesy was fulfilled. This raises compelling validity to the idea of divine influence behind the Holy Scriptures.

The prophesy reads:
Daniel 9:25-26
"Know therefore and comprehend: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and sixty two weeks; it will be built again, with street and wall, even in distressful times. And after the sixty two weeks Messiah will be killed and will have nothing; and the people of the prince who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary..."

The word "weeks" in this passage, is translated from the Hebrew word which literally means a seven year period. Some Bible versions read "sevens" instead of "weeks". So, seven weeks= 49yrs, and 62 weeks=434yrs. for a total of 483 years. Basically Daniel is saying that from the time this decree goes out for the rebuilding of Jerusalem there will be 483 years until the time when "Messiah" will die.

When the prophesy was written, the city had been destroyed. Firstly, Daniel knew that it would be rebuilt in distressful times. In the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, he issued a decree allowing for the Hebrews, lead by Nehemiah to rebuild the wall and city, and alloted for the materials to be used for this effort. During the rebuilding, especially of the wall, the Hebrews were under constant attack by nearby conquering empires. One historian records that the builders had a trowel in one hand for the masonry work and a sword in the other to defend the city.

Artaxerxes began his reign in 464 or 465 BC which makes his 20th year 444 or 445 BC. If we do the math from this starting point we land right at about the time of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

There are a couple of ways to do the math, our starting point is give or take a year, the exact year of Jesus's death is not agreed upon by all, and you can use either the Hebrew calender based on 360 day years or the calender we use today based on 365 day years. I would use the Hebrew calender method of counting years seeing as the calender we live by today wasn't invented until the 6th century AD. Either way though, you're still going to end up within a few years of the known time of Jesus's death.

Then, Daniel predicts that after this a prince will come and destroy the temple and city. In 70 AD the Roman General Titus, the son of Emperor Vespasion (and as such, a prince) Destroyed the city of Jerusalem and its temple. Jesus also predicted the temple's destruction.
Titus, himself later succeeded his father as the Emperor of Rome.

There are a final 7 years involved in this prophesy that come after the death of Messiah. Some think that this final 7 years was fulfilled by the events that preceeded the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, while others believe that these final 7 years are reserved for the activities of the final antichrist immediately preceeding the 2nd coming of Christ.

There are some who claim they can make this prophesy work exactly to the year, and there are at least 2 theories and ways of doing the math that work. Personally, I don't think we have the historical data to know the exact year of Christ's death, or whether the starting point is 444 or 445 BC. One thing we have to consider, for example is that the calender we use today, though based on "The Year of our Lord", (Anno Domini or A.D.) wasn't created until the 6th century, and Dionysius Exiguus, (Dennis the Little) who invented it, basically took an educated guess as to the year Jesus was born. In more recent historical findings however, it has been concluded that he was off by a few years. It is virtually unanimous today among theological scholars and historians alike that Jesus must've been born in the first decade BC, most evidence pointing to between 6 and 4 BC. He was 33 and a half years old when He died. Since there was no year 0 AD, and the calender goes from 1 BC straight to 1 AD, then 34 AD should be the year of His death before compensating for Dennis the Little's mistake. The math can get confusing if you try too hard to make it work out perfectly. The fact that the math puts us within less than 5 yrs of Jesus's death is enough for me to see that Daniel's prophesy was for real.

Thoughts?

[Truthed]

I hate math, haha. But i did enjoy the post. I have read about this a little before and i find it very interesting as the accuracy is very close whether it is with in a few years or exact.

ps - welcome back smokingman!