As we read in Matthew 24, Jesus identifies Daniel as both a
prophet and the author of the book of Daniel.
This week, we study the 70 Weeks in Daniel 9:24-27. Actually, we’re going to talk about the first
69 weeks in this lesson.
We learned that “weeks” are sevens. In this case, they represent years. And years to the ancient Jews were made up of
360 days, not 365 days! In 701 BC, the
calendar was modified to contain 365 days in one year. However, King Hezekiah reorganized the Jewish
calendar by adding one 30-day month each Jewish leap year (which occurs 7 times
every 19 years).
The angel tells Daniel that from the command to restore
Jerusalem to Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem “…shall be seven weeks,
and threescore and two weeks…” He
mentions the building of the street and the wall, so this relates to the
rebuilding of the city, not just the temple.
Dr. Missler becomes very excited talking about this “to the date”
fulfillment of this prophecy. I WANT to
be this excited about it, but I can’t get any two sources to agree on the date
of the decree OR the date Christ entered Jerusalem! I also can’t get the maths to work even using
the dates provided by Dr. Missler!
The time period between the decree and the Messiah is 69 x 7
x 360 = 173880 days. I get that. If you take the decree being made on 14 March
445 BC and Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on 6 April, AD 32, that’s 476 years –
there is no year zero. Dr. Missler says
that 445 BC to AD 32 = 173740 days. I
come up with this number if I multiply 476 by 365. OK, I get that, too. Add 24 days for the time between 14 March and
6 April. I get that, too. He loses me when he calculates the leap years
of that time period as 116. First of
all, haven’t we already accounted for the leap years by multiplying by 365
(rather than 360)? Second, I have no
idea where the number 116 comes from.
Dr. Missler’s maths make for a pretty and exciting
calculation: 173740 + 24 + 116 = 173880
– the exact number predicted in the book of Daniel. But I don’t see it. If this makes sense to you, or you think you
might be able to explain it, please leave a comment. Maybe I’ll take my class’ advice and write to
khouse. Actually, I did just that. And the response I received was a snippet
from Sir Robert Anderson’s book “The Coming Prince”. This snippet confirmed the maths that Dr.
Missler used in his supporting material and mentioned a couple of items of
interest regarding the days in the calendar year and the leap years, but I
still don’t understand how anyone arrived at 116 days for leap years. I will keep investigating.
OK. I finally got
it! First of all, multiplying by 365
doesn’t account for leap years. Every four
years, there are 366 days! So, if you
divide 476 by 4, you come up with 119 leap year days. According to “The Coming Prince” by Dir
Robert Anderson, the Julian calendar contains three leap years too many in four
centuries, so we subtract 3 from 119, which equals 116! Woo Hoo!
That was some serious mental exercise.
Homework for next time:
None.
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