What would you say if scripture pointed to a very specific future event, then to a second more distant future event and then it told the exact number of days in between? Scripture does make this incredible prediction and the details are specified below. *****This is it!*****
Below you will see how Daniel predicts the exact number of days from the time the conquering King allows the Jews to rebuild the temple and streets of Jerusalem until the Messiah (Jesus) dies and exactly how many days are between these two incidents.
Setting:
Daniel's amazing prediction is recorded in Daniel 9:24,25,26. Here he proclaims 3 things.
1. First event - There will be a time when a decree will go out to rebuild the temple and the 'streets' of Jerusalem.
2. Second event - The Messiah will be cut off (Jesus will die)
3. How much time will elapse between these two events: 69 "sevens" often called "weeks"
First Event (#1 above)
There are four decrees that went out for the rebuilding of the temple. They are:
1. Cyrus in 539 B.C. (Ezra 1:1,2,3,4)
3. Artaxerxes to Ezra in 457 B.C. (Ezra 7:11,12,13,14,15,16)
4. Artaxerxes to Nehemiahin 444 B.C. (Nehemiah 2:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
All of the four options above are interested in rebuilding the temple. But only in the fourth option are they rebuilding the city (streets) as well. Therefore Option #4 Artaxerxes to Nehemiah, marks our starting point. The verses give the Hebrew month of Nisan as the starting month. While the exact day is unknown, tradition dictates that if the day was not included, the first of the month is assumed. Therefore, our starting time is Nissan 1, 444 B.C. which translates in our calendar as March 8, 444 B.C. If desired, confirm through any date translator such as this one. Use Hebrew year 3316 to get Gregorian year 444 BC (-444).
Second Event
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Dan 9:25 talks about the coming of the anointing one. The Anointing one means Jesus, the Messiah. When did He come? The answer, when He was publicly recognized as Messiah by the crowds. That happened when He rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, less than a week before He was crucified.
**********************Number of days
A week is 2520 days . How do we get this? Thus 69 sevens (weeks) are 69 times 2520 or 173,880 days. Calling a year 365.2422 days we calculate that 173,880 days is 476 years 24.7 days, or round to 25 days. Starting on March 8, 444 B.C. and adding 173,880 days (476 years 25 days) we get March 29,33 A.D. Confirm here. This is Palm Sunday. Five days later it is Passover, the day Jesus was crucified. Add five days to March 29th and that yields April 3, 33 A.D. Was that a Passover? Yes, that is the exact date. This can be confirmed here .
When speaking to the crowd, Peter quotes the Old Testament Prophet Joel is (Acts 2:15-20). He said Jesus death was foretold, and mentions several signs. Scripture does mention the sky gets dark, but it also says the moon will turn to blood (Acts 2:20). Scripture doesn'tmention how. However, very interestingly there was a lunar eclipse on the day Jesus was crucified, April 3, 33 AD
Summary
This prophecy has been well known for a long time. Skeptics tried to defeat it by saying that it was post-dated. However, that argument suffered a setback when the book of Daniel was found as part of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Carbon-14 dated to over 100 B.C., well before Jesus dies.