Arguments for and Against the 444 BC Date
The 360-Day Year Argument
There are web sites, books, and preachers
who claim that the original years God used were 360-days
long and therefore the prophetic years are still that
long. It appears from the arguments, the author has encountered,
that they base this on several ideas.
First is the fact that there are 360 degrees
in a circle. Nobody to this day knows exactly who defined
the circle that way, but from somewhere out of the mists
of time of the past, it simply is. The suggestion from
mathematics, astronomy, and history is that there might
have been a time when the year was in fact 360-days long
and was changed. From
this, they surmise, people defined the circle as having
360 degrees, 1 degree for each day of orbiting around
the sun in a 360-day year. It is unknown
if there ever was a 360-day year, though some things
in the Bible certainly could suggest the idea of a change
in the year length, such as the clock going back 10 steps
for King Hezekiah (2 kings 20), or the sun staying up
for almost a whole extra day when Joshua was trying to
defeat the Ammonites (Joshua 10:12). The flood of Noah
might have been such an event, which triggering a change
in the length of the solar year, but it really is unknown
whether this happened, then or otherwise.
Another
argument they use in their favor, according to one
web site, is that most cultures supposedly used a
360-day year until about the seventh century B.C,
after which most of them switched to a 365-day year. They
propose that this change occurred around the time
of the going back of the clock in the time of King
Hezekiah. The author is inclined to disbelieve such
a claim because there is evidence against it in the
bible, such as the visit of the magi, which argues
against use of a 360-day year. However, we have more
information on this topic in another section. Further,
the author has not encountered statements from either
professional astronomers or historians that widely
support the idea that this has been the case in history.
That does not mean it is impossible, but with today's
knowledge of ancient history, it seems likely that
most professionals would know by now of such and would
be discussing it. Their silence on this issue does
suggest something.
Some also use the number of days for the
flood. The flood story indicates that five months were
150 days, so all months would appear to have been 30
days long.
A few claim that the Jews defined the year
as having 360-days in a year so that all months were
30 days long, a fallacious argument because this is factually
incorrect.
Some have other arguments in their favor.
These arguments may even be quite sophisticated and appear
to work quite well, but that does not mean they are right.
Another argument some use is that Revelation
12 and 13 define a month as 30 days long. Of course,
never mind that Revelation 12 and 13 were written long
after Moses wrote his books, or Daniel wrote his book,
and so nobody at that time had ever heard of the book
of Revelation and the 42 month prophecy!
Most all of these theories base their starting
date for the 70-weeks prophecy of Daniel 9 from 444
B.C, which is the currently accepted date by
most authorities for the trip of Nehemiah from Babylon
to Jerusalem. A few try to date it from 445
B.C, but most authorities no longer accept this
date as valid.
This
will help you understand the math for calculating
A.D. Dates from B.C. Dates or B.C. Dates from A.D.
Dates. This is important and relatively simple,
so I would urge you to read the calculation page.
It gives the formulas and a bit of an explanation
for doing the calculations shown below.
One EXTREMELY IMPORTANT concept in prophecy
is that when we consider it fulfilled, the significant
predicted events must occur. This means that the prophecy
of the coming of Jesus as the Messiah at the end of the
69 weeks of years is an event that matches the details
of the prophecy. Nothing else will do. It must be essentially
exact in all details. The essential exactness means that
the calculation of dates and other numerical values must
match the prophecy, and not undergo some extreme transformation
to make the event match the prophetic details. This also
means that the end of the 70-weeks must end with events
that indicate whether the Jews had kept the covenant
with God, as that clearly is the entire intent for setting
up 70-weeks of years time span for them to come around
to fulfilling the conditions of the covenant. If either
of these predicted events fails, then the wrong start
date or the wrong calendar year is in use (or both) and
the calculation of the wrong termination time is a consequence
of the incorrect information. With this in mind, let
us test whether or not the calculated dates indeed terminate
at times when the predicted events occur.
If the starting date is set to 444 BC,
and you use solar years of 365.2422 days in length, here
is how the math works out for the end of the 69 weeks:
A.D.
Date = B.C. Date + Number of Years + one =
-444 + 483 + 1 = 40 A.D.
This creates a major problem because nobody
believes that Jesus was even here in 40 A.D.! Therefore,
how do we resolve this issue? Those who believe in the 444
B.C. starting date have two choices, which are
to either select another start date, or else shorten
the calendar year. Their proposed answer is that the
prophetic years are to be measured using a 360-day year,
the same as the number of days in the year used to count
the number of years in bible prophecy (in Revelation
12 and 13). The reason is quite simple. A 360-day year
is shorter than a 365.2422 day year, and over hundreds
of years, that 5.2422 day difference in each year begins
to add up to years of difference that help close the
gap between 40 A.D. and the
proposed life span of Jesus on earth. We can express
the 360-day year as a fraction of the solar year that
is 360/365.2422, to give us the proportional reduction
in the length of the proposed prophetic year.
If the starting date is set to 457
B.C. and the 360-day year is used, the result
is that the prophecy fails to reach the time of the
ministry of Jesus. Here is the calculation for the
termination date of the 69-week prophecy for the beginning
of the ministry of Jesus. When we use a starting
date of 457 B.C. and a
360-day year we see these results:
360/365.2422 x 483 years = 476.068 solar
years, which we will round off to 476 years.
Here we compute a proportion of the solar
year to convert four hundred eighty three 360-day years
to solar years. The proportion is 360/365.2422.
To reiterate, this converts the 483 solar years to 483
years of 360-days in length, which is equal to 476.068
solar years (which the author will round off to 476 years).
Next, we use the same starting date to
determine when Jesus started his ministry, 457 B.C. +
476 years + 1 = -457 + 477 = 20 A.D.
Now, does it seem reasonable that Jesus
came in 20 A.D? The author thinks it is extremely unlikely
that Jesus came then in the biblical prophetic sense.
Jesus was alive but everyone knows that Jesus was not
doing his public ministry at that time. Further, as the
author will show in the next section, God marked Jesus'
arrival by anointing Him with the Holy Spirit, something
that almost certainly took place in 27
A.D. at Jesus' baptism. 27
A.D. is seven years later than 20
A.D, a discrepancy too great to ignore. Thus,
it is clear from this that you cannot start in 457
B.C. and go forward 483 360-day years (476 solar
years). It does not work because it takes you only
to 20 A.D.
The point of this little exercise is twofold.
First that those who believe in the 444 B.C. starting
date cannot use solar years for their calculations, and
that those who believe in the 457 BC starting date cannot
use 360-day years either. Second that none of the 69
week prophecy termination dates calculated above occurs
at a prophetically significant time. Nothing of significance
happened on those dates. Jesus was not doing his public
ministry in 20 A.D. and he was not even here in 40 A.D.
This shows that one can judge the calculation by what
happens on the calculated date. Therefore, even if something
of significance happens on a calculated date, then one
must be sure it matches the prophecy itself. Thus, the
20 A.D. date is not significant because during that year,
Jesus did not begin and was not engaged in his ministry.
Jesus did not publicly become the Messiah for the world
in that year.
Those who believe in the 360-day year do
so because there seems to
be no decree that matches the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27,
and calculations such as the author has done above show
that if one sticks with the assumption of the 444
B.C. date, then the believer MUST believe in
a shorter year. There is no other way around it. Consequently,
these people think that the trip of Nehemiah appears to
answer the prophecy, so there must have been a decree
in 444 B.C! Therefore, the
prophecy must begin in 444 B.C, according
to them. As a result, because of the way the math works
out, only the 360-day year can help close that obvious
gap. Let us see if this is true in the light of history
and prophecy - and mathematics.
First, here are the three known decree
dates and the names of the Persian kings who issued these
decrees:
King Decree
Date
------------------------------------------------------
Cyrus II 536
B.C.
Darius I 519
B.C.
Artaxerxes I 457
B.C.
Note that there is no decree recorded in
Nehemiah. We can infer that the king issued a decree,
but there really is NO actual decree recorded there.
If you do not believe this, go read, Nehemiah and you
will discover that THERE IS NO DECREE RECORDED THERE.
I have repeated this for emphasis so you do not miss
the point. Now, this is very strange when you reflect
upon the importance of the prophecy, which is that from
the decree dates the coming of the Messiah. One can be
certain that God would be sure to have that decree recorded
because of its importance. It seems extremely probable
that the angel Gabriel would be commissioned to visit
Nehemiah to insure he wrote down that decree, just like
he (Gabriel) was commissioned to visit Daniel to record
the prophecy about this very thing. Yet strangely, the
book of Nehemiah is silent about any visits of angels
- there are none recorded and no decree is recorded either.
It seems that should leave a very big question mark upon
the 444 B.C. date.
As it is, Nehemiah records that the king
gave him letters providing him safe passage to Jerusalem
and the right to take materials from the forests for
building projects for the city of Jerusalem. Is it not
very strange that Nehemiah would mention these letters
and yet Nehemiah does NOT speak of a much more important
decree? Such an omission is a major clue that maybe the
assumption of a decree is in error. Assumptions are nice,
but they can often be wrong for they are not necessarily
facts.
The coming of the Messiah was extremely
important to the Jewish people. God promised this to
Abraham in the very beginning and God repeated this to
various people in the history of the Jewish people. Nehemiah
would very likely have been familiar with the writings
of Daniel, so for this very reason, you can be sure that
if there were a decree, which would have fulfilled the
prophecy of Daniel, he would have made sure to write
it down for all to see. His omission of that is a very
ominous sign that the assumption of a decree is faulty.
Next, the original language of the prophecy
shows that 457 B.C. is in
fact the correct decree. There is more information regarding
the 457 B.C. date in the section on the language of the
prophecy. The 444 B.C. date
does not answer the prophecy by any stretching of the
facts. However, now the author wishes to demonstrate
that 444 B.C. does not fulfill
the prophecy.
Let us do the math for 444 B.C. and see
how things work out. Using the Formula from the calculations
page, A.D. Date = B.C. Date + Number of Years + One,
calculate the termination date for the 69 weeks prophecy
using the 360-day year:
444 BC + 476 years + 1 = -444 + 476 + 1
= 33 A.D. Note that the 476
solar years was calculated above (it is 483 360-day years).
Now, what happened here on earth to the
Messiah in 33 A.D? Are you
not sure? You should not be. Many look at this date calculation
and conclude that Jesus must have been here at that time.
They then conclude that he died in the spring of 33
A.D, so this calculated date must fall in the
week before his death. They often conclude that it points
towards Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. They
base this on calculations that show the conclusion of
the prophecy exactly in that week. Of course, because
of uncertainties about the date for the Jewish Passover
during that year (they will claim they know the exact
date, but according to authorities, that is not so),
this makes these calculations suspect. We do know that
Passover occurred sometime during March or April of that
year but we cannot pin it down to an exact date.
However, this ignores direct biblical evidence
that Jesus was not here on earth in 33
A.D. We will cover this more extensively
later, but for now let us say that the prophetic and
historical evidence, together points to Jesus baptism
as taking place sometime in the fall of 27
A.D. (see calculations below). Since his
ministry was about 3 1/2 years long, this would mean
that Jesus would have died in the spring of 31
A.D. Therefore, if Jesus died at the Passover
in the spring of 31 A.D, then
Jesus was resurrected and in heaven before 33
A.D. From this, we see that Jesus was not even
here in 33 A.D. Thus, nothing
happened to the Messiah on earth in 33
A.D. if Jesus' death was in 31
A.D.
For this scenario (Jesus'
death in 33 A.D.) to work, it would logically
require that Jesus be baptized in the fall of 29
A.D, at which time he would be about 32 years
of age. This might be seen as a bit of a stretch of
the truth considering that priests normally started
their work at 30 years of age and it seems likely
that like priests were supposed to do and as our eternal
high priest, Jesus would have also started his work
at 30 years of age. Therefore, baptism at 32 years
of age seems a bit late, though possibly acceptable.
Of course, another big problem with this
scenario is the assumption of a decree in 444
B.C. it is impossible to verify such a decree
and therefore very suspect. Should one trust to something
that is impossible to verify? As mentioned previously
fulfilled prophecy requires events that must be essentially
exact in all details. The essential exactness means that
the calculation of dates and other numerical values must
match the prophecy, and not undergo some extreme transformation
to make the event match the prophetic details.
However, the biggest problem in using the 444
B.C. date is the fact that it fails to fulfill
the prophecy. The prophecy was that he would come
at the end of the 69 weeks and given that, the bible
says; he was the Messiah, which means, "anointed
one," it seems extremely likely that he was to
be anointed at the end of the 69 weeks, and not after
that time. As will be shown in the next section, the
anointing of Jesus occurred at his baptism, not at
some later event.
The anointing of real priests of the Jewish
family of the Levite's was ALWAYS before beginning their
work, and not later on. In the case of Jesus, who is
our high priests forever, it means that he must first
receive an anointing before beginning his work. Many
who believe in the 360-day year believe that the 69 weeks
terminated when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey in
the spring of 33 A.D. during
the week just before his death. The
problem is that riding into Jerusalem on a donkey is
not the anointing for his work - that had happened 3
1/2 years before at his baptism. So, one ends up twisting
the events around to support the 360-day year for the
end of the 69 weeks. It does not terminate at the right
event. Thus, we see that the 444
B.C. date for the beginning of the prophecy does
not lead to the right termination event.
Try implementing the 360-day year for the
end of the 70-weeks:
360/365.2422 x 490 = 483 solar years
Using the formula A.D.
Date = B.C. Date + Number of Years + One,
444 BC + 483 + 1 = -444 + 484 = 40
A.D.
What happened in 40 A.D. that would mark
this date? No events of particular significance took
place in this year. Here is how the author knows this.
According to Ted Noel's book, the conference recorded
in Acts 15 is widely believed to have occurred in 49-50
A.D., and the stoning of Stephen then had to have occurred
16 years earlier in 34 A.D. We can determine this based
on how long it was from the time Paul's conversion, to
his attending this conference, which Acts 15 describes
in detail. For details of how this is calculated, see
Ted Noel's book.
There is evidence that suggests the stoning
of Stephen occurred several years after Jesus died. Consequently,
virtually all Christians were out of Jerusalem years
before 40 A.D. (hints of
this is found in Acts 11:19). Scholars believe only the
apostles remained in Jerusalem after that. The gospel
work continued but nothing of particular prophetic significance
to the Jewish people occurred in 40
A.D. Remember that the prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27
is that the 70-weeks were set aside for the Jewish people
to bring in righteousness, so whatever terminated the
70-weeks must be an event related to them in some way.
Nothing else will do, therefore this event primarily
involves the Jews. The significance of this event for
Christians is the Gospel going to the Gentiles. As any
reader can see for himself, the Bible does not record
any significant events in 40 A.D. involving
both the Christians AND the Jewish people. Hence, 40
A.D. is not significant for the end of the 70-week
prophecy. Therefore, the conclusion
is that using the 360-day year and the 444 B.C. starting
date leads one to prophetically insignificant dates for
the end of the 69 weeks AND the end of the 70-weeks.
Both dates are essentially meaningless from a prophetic
standpoint.
Now, if one accepts that solar years are
to be used to measure prophetic time instead of the 360-day
year, where do the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel 9 end?
Now remember that those who believe in the 444 B.C. date
cannot use solar years, but those who believe in 457
B.C, as the starting date must use solar years
for their calculations. Thus, we are clearly going to
be starting from 457 B.C. for
our calculations. To answer the question about the end
of the 69th and 70th weeks, here is the math using the
formula AD Date = BC Date + Number of Years + 1 (remember
that BC dates are negative numbers in this formula):
483 solar years + 457 B.C. + 1 = 483 -
457 + 1 = 27 A.D. For
the end of the 69th week
490 solar years + 457 B.C. + 1 = 490 -
457 + 1 = 34 A.D. For
the end of the 70th week
What event was to mark the end of the 70th
week, 34 A.D? Many think it appears to have been an insignificant
event, but nothing could be further from the truth. Daniel
9:24 says this about the seventy weeks:
"Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish
the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and
to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring
in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision
and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy."
This is a conditional prophecy. The people of Daniel (the Jews) had 70-weeks
of years to accomplish all these things. If they did, certain consequences
would follow. If they failed, certain other consequences would also follow.
This is similar to what God did with the
Israelites in the original covenant he established with
them. Leviticus 26 lists the blessings that would come
to the Israelites by keeping the covenant with God, and
the bad things that would happen if they failed to keep
the covenant with God. Therefore, in other words, God
is saying prophetically that if they keep the covenant
with him, a number of blessings would follow. Likewise,
if they failed to keep their covenant with him, certain
bad things would follow.
The 70-weeks of years, prophecy of Daniel
9 is also conditional. If they failed to fulfill the
conditions, certain bad things would happen (which in
this case was war and desolations and destruction of
the city and sanctuary). One can be certain that at the
end of the 70-weeks, God would examine the record to
see if they met the conditions of the prophecy. This
examination, remember, is not for the benefit of God,
for He already knows the answer, but rather it is for
the benefit of the angels in heaven and other intelligent
life that God has created. They need to know if God is
being fair about what He is doing. If the Jewish people
have met the conditions, then certain blessings would
follow. Did this examination happen? It appears it in
fact did occur. Which event qualifies as the point where
God would examine the record of the Jewish nation?
Ted Noel in his book "I Want to Be
Left Behind" presents evidence that the trial and
death of Stephen was
actually the final act of the Jews that indicated they
rejected the covenant relation with God. It was not just
Stephen on trial there. The Jewish nation was on trial
at the same time in heaven. This Stephen recognized as
he saw what was happening in heaven as they had him on
trial here on earth. It was recognition of the significance
of what he was seeing in heaven that so enraged the Jewish
leaders that they blocked their ears so they would not
hear what he had to say, and what led them, at least
in part, to stone him to death. This was their last chance,
and they blew it. They understood that when he said he
saw Jesus at the right hand of God that there was a trial
going on in heaven - and they realized that THEY were
the ones on trial! They did not want to hear this and
it angered them greatly. Once it became clear that they
had rejected the covenant with God, it was already determined
what would happen to them in the prophecy - the destruction
of the city, the sanctuary, and the desolations that
would follow. History records the awful results that
followed some years later.
It is interesting that after this event,
the gospel began to go out with great vigor to the gentiles. This
fact is a strong hint that the Jews were no longer exclusively
God's people. The gentiles now counted among God's people
as well, and the Jews would have no formal part imparting
the gospel message to the world at large. On the other
hand, had they fulfilled the covenant conditions for
the blessings, they would likely have been used by God
to spread the gospel message to the whole world and would
have been greatly blessed by so doing. However, sadly,
it was not to occur.
Therefore, the trial of Stephen, which
evidence says occurred in 34 A.D, was
the terminating event of the 70-week prophecy because,
along with his trial, there was a trial in heaven to
determine whether they had kept the covenant with God.
Because evidence showed that they had not, they were
condemned to their previously prophesied fate. Hence,
a 34 A.D. termination date
for the end of the 70-weeks prophecy does occur on a
significant event. We do not know the exact date of Stephen's
stoning and death, but were it known, you can be certain
it would be in the autumn of 34 A.D. because
the 69 weeks began in the autumn of 457
B.C. and consequently must also terminate in
the autumn of 34 A.D.
It seems more logical that one should date
things using a solar year. God knows the exact length
of our solar year. God does not give us information in
terms that would confuse us about prophetic events. He
did use the 360-day year to give us a count of the years,
but for actual time measurements, he certainly must have
used the solar year because the 360-day year simply does
not terminate on prophetically significant events. Solar
years do terminate on prophetically significant dates.
God knows events ahead of time. He certainly has measured
out the amount of time necessary for these events to
transpire. The logical conclusion then is that 457
B.C. is the correct starting date and solar years
are the measuring standard of the passage of time.
Here is evidence that the 444
B.C. starting date with the 360-day year does
not compute. Here are two verses from Daniel 9 that
are relevant to this discussion:
Dan 9:26 And after threescore
and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:
and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy
the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall
be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations
are determined.
Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm
the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst
of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation
to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he
shall make it desolate, even until the consummation,
and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Now what this means is that after the 69
weeks have passed, which would be in the 70th week, in
the middle of the 70th week He shall cause the sacrifice
and the oblation to cease. Only Jesus could sensibly
be said to have done this because only by his death could
the sacrificial system be rendered meaningless. The sacrificial
system was symbolic of his death, so once Jesus died
on the cross, there was no more need for the symbolic
sacrifice that pointed to a future event. That future
event (his death) was no longer in the future. This fact
also renders any attempts to move the 70th week far forward
into the future useless. The fact is that the sacrificial
system has no more value whatever after the death of
Jesus. There would be no significance to its resurrecting
the sacrificial system today, so the prophecy could not
be about something so very insignificant.
So, what does this have to do with the 444
B.C. Date? If the spring of 444
B.C. dates the beginning of the prophecy and
one is using 360-day years, then the end of the 69th
week had to have fallen in the spring of 33
A.D. Most authorities believe that the death
of Jesus cannot have come later than 33
A.D. This means that the 69 weeks of years
ended in 33 A.D, followed
almost immediately by his death. Many subscribe to
the idea that the 69 weeks most probably extends to
the event in which Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a
donkey.
The first problem with this scenario is
that there is a difficulty with when the assumed decree
would go into effect. Decrees generally do not go into
effect until the notification those affected by the decree.
This presents a problem for dating the supposed decree
of Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. because
if there were such a decree, issuing of the decree can
be no sooner than the month of Nisan in 444
B.C. Now, as one can easily guess, it was a journey
of months across the desert to Jerusalem. We know that
Ezra seemed to take about 5 months to make the journey.
We can reliably guess that Nehemiah would have not taken
as long because he would not have more than a few people
in his party. Therefore, this means that perhaps he could
make the journey in 3-4 months. Now, the month of Nisan
would occur in March or April, so assuming he left immediately
(which we don't for a fact know that he did), it still
would have taken him until June, July, or even August
of 444 B.C. to reach Jerusalem.
Only then could he have notified the people living there
of the assumed decree, at which time it would begin going
into effect. This is very reasonable because it is clear
that the decree of 457 B.C. could
not have gone into effect until the proclamation of the
decree to the people. There is evidence from history
that this is so. Likewise, any decree in 444
B.C. would not go into effect until the proclamation
of the decree to the people it affected. Thus, this summer
or early autumn date would have been the actual effective
date of any 444 B.C. decree.
What this means is that the end of the
69 weeks would actually fall in the summer of 33
A.D, AFTER JESUS IS BELIEVED TO HAVE DIED, RESURRECTED,
AND GONE BACK TO HEAVEN! This means that according to
their interpretation of the prophecy using the 360-day
year and the starting date of 444
B.C, he would come AFTER he had gone! Does this
begin to show you that something is wrong with this hypothesis?
Nevertheless, they would argue that the
decree goes into effect immediately. The author respectfully
disagrees as it only makes sense that there must be notification
first before it can go into effect. However, assume
for argument's sake that they are right.
Now, the problem with this scenario is
that it violates the prophecy in Daniel 9:27. Jesus
is the one who caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease
(not the Antichrist), but according to the prophecy,
he does so in the middle of the 70th week, not at the
beginning of the 70th week. Therefore, those who
believe in the 444 B.C. starting
date still have the problem that the death of Jesus cannot
possibly occur for approximately 3 1/2 years after the
end of the 69 weeks, which according to them is the spring
of 33 A.D. This must be true
if one is to stay consistent to the prophecy.
Ignoring the fact that by their calculations
the 69 weeks ends on events that do not indicate an anointing
has occurred, but still using the starting date of 444
B.C, the 360-day year, and the assumption that
there was a decree given to Nehemiah that went into effect
from the moment Artaxerxes I wrote the decree. The prophecy
itself then indicates Jesus should have died in the fall
of 36 A.D. - 3 1/2 years
later, the wrong time of year, and far too late because
the death of Stephen came after the death of Jesus and
is believed to have occurred in 34
A.D.
However, let us assume that the 3 1/2 years
is off by half a year. Then, his death would still have
to have occurred sometime in the spring of 36
A.D. or 37 A.D. based on their ideas and the
prophecy. Even if you allow his death to occur in the
spring of 35 A.D. or 38 A.D, it
still creates problems. Putting it further away from
the middle of the 70th week would violate the prophecy,
which says that in the middle (middle or half according
to the Hebrew), the sacrifice, and oblation would cease.
Therefore, there is a resolvable problem introduced by
the use of the 444 B.C. date
and a 360-day year. Hence, it DOES NOT WORK! A better
solution is to use the 457 B.C. starting
date and a solar year for measuring time. Nothing else
works out so well.
Do remember that the 70th week must immediately
follow the 69th week in the prophecy. The weeks
are contiguous.
Since God knows the future, then He can
accurately forecast that the sacrifice of Jesus would
in fact occur during the middle of the 70th week. This
means no stretching of the prophecy. It cannot be that
Jesus died right at the beginning of the 70th week and
we then claim that this satisfied the requirement to
be in the middle of the week. God would not be that inaccurate.
This should tell the reader something important.
Many get around this by claiming that the
70th week is far into the future and applies to the Antichrist.
This is strange because nothing in that prophecy says
anything about the Antichrist. The prophecy applies to
Jesus, not the Antichrist. Further, there is no evidence
that the Jews perceived a gap in the prophecy itself.
In addition, according to Ted Noel in his book “I
Want to Be Left Behind,” the meaning of the word
for "determined" or "cut off" in
the original Hebrew means to amputate. You amputate a
whole piece, not sections (at least not normally.) However,
they will object that the explanation is broken up. That
is true because it can be broken up into individual parts
that are part of the whole 70- weeks. It is just like
amputating an arm. The arm consists of a hand, forearm,
elbow, and the upper arm, however, the doctor amputates
the whole arm. No natural gaps exist between these parts
normally. In addition, the Bible does not say that the
individual parts separate from the whole prophecy. Instead,
the Bible indicates that the 70 weeks are a prophetic
whole, and since the explanation in Daniel 9 refers to
the vision of Daniel 8, we need to treat the 70-week
prophecy as a contiguous period. Therefore, putting gaps
between any of the prophetic parts is not valid.
The fact is that the Bible in the original
language says the whole 70-weeks are "amputated" from
a longer period, which obviously must be the 2300 days.
The Bible does not say to amputate the parts of the 70-weeks
individually. Therefore, this means the 70-weeks are
taken off as one whole block of time from the larger
part, and that means the 70-weeks are contiguous (the
parts are connected to one another and have no gaps between
them).
It is like this graphic illustration below:
|--------------------------------2300
days--------------------------------|
|-----70-weeks-----|
Moving the 70th week far forward into the
future is likely to be false for several reasons. First,
doing so creates a very complicated scenario for end
events that the Bible does not support. The simplest
explanation is most likely to be the right one, and in
this case, it means one should not move the week far
into the future.
The 69 weeks prophecy is broken up into
parts, and yet there clearly is no gap between the parts
of the 69 weeks. If there is no gap between the parts
of the 69 weeks prophecy, why insert a gap into the timeline
for the 70th week? Nothing in the Bible indicates that
there is a time gap in the 70-week prophecy. Inserting
a time gap into the 70-week prophecy is not logical since
the 70-week prophecy is the beginning of the larger 2300-day
time prophecy. Moving the 70th week far into the future
down to what is yet our own future ignores the basic
facts about the 70-weeks and the 2300 days prophecy,
because the 2300 days ended in 1844. If
you do not believe this, figure out the math: start in 457
B.C, add 2300 years, and then add 1 - that gives
you 1844 A.D. This
means the 70th week, even if you move it forward, must
occur within that period and not after, for it is part
of the 2300 days, not part of a later time.
The fact that there is a judgment of the
Jewish nation going on as Stephen was on trial indicates
that the 70-weeks terminated in 34
A.D. and not later. Hence, these events of the
70th week fulfilled the prophecy. Why contradict
this by moving the 70th week far into the future when
events indicate the fulfillment of the prophecy by the
events in 34 A.D. Do remember that there had to
be a trial in heaven at the time of the trial of Stephen
because the prophecy was conditional. There had
to be an examination of the record at the end of that
prophetic period to determine compliance with the conditions
of the prophecy.
Jesus himself contradicts those who would
move the prophecy far into the future. The rest of Daniel
9:26 - 27 consists of a prophecy that many believe refers
to the Romans and what they would do to the Jews in destroying
Jerusalem and their nation. What is interesting is that
Jesus referred to this prophecy and indicated indirectly
that the apostles would see the fulfillment of this prophecy.
See Matthew 24:15 for what Jesus had to say about it.
Clearly, Jesus understood the fulfillment of this prophecy
was something that the apostles would see not some events
far into the future. If we move the 70th week far into
the future then we must also move all of the 70-week
prophecy far into the future since the prophecy functions
as a unit. Moving any part of the 70-week prophecy into
the future negates not only what Jesus told to the apostles
but it also negates the ministry of Jesus as well.
The links below help to explain the Jewish
calendar. They also help explain where the month of Nisan
is in the Jewish calendar.
View
information about the Jewish calendar system.
View
the Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Jewish calendar
system.
View
detailed information about the Hebrew Calendar system.
Now someone could ask if the building program
by Nehemiah had anything to do with the decree of Artaxerxes
I in 457 B.C. The answer
to that is "yes." Here is what Roy Gane,
Ph.D., had to say about this in his book Altar
Call:
"Daniel 9:25 gives the beginning point for the "seventy weeks": "from the time that the word went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem." The book of Ezra records three words/decrees of Persian kings that went out to provide restoration for the Jews after their captivity. The first was that of Cyrus. His decree allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and provided for the rebuilding of the temple there (Ezra 1:2-4; see also 6:3-5), but it did not deal with restoration of the city of Jerusalem itself. A second decree, this time by Darius, was similar in that it showed concern only for rebuilding the temple (Ezra 6:6-12). So the "seventy weeks " did not begin with either of the first two decrees.
As a result of the decrees of Cyrus and Darius, some Jews returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple before Ezra and his group arrived there from Babylonia (Ezra 6:13-22). But the city of Jerusalem, including its walls and gates, still lay in ruins (Neh 1:3; 2:3, 13, 17).
A third decree, issued by Artaxerxes, was addressed to Ezra (Ezra 7:13-26) and equipped him to make provision for the services of the temple (verses 15-24). But this decree included an additional element. Artaxerxes commissioned Ezra to "make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem" (verse 14) and he authorized Ezra to appoint magistrates and judges (verses 25-26). Thus Artaxerxes gave Ezra civil authority in Jerusalem.
Artaxerxes' decree was the first to express concern for the city of Jerusalem and to provide some restoration of Jewish self-governance there, subject to Persian rule. The next major step in the restoration of Jerusalem was the rebuilding of the city walls. This was accomplished a few years later under the leadership of Nehemiah (Neh 2:17-7:4), who was sent to Jerusalem by Artaxerxes (Neh 2) and appointed governor of Judah (5:14). Jerusalem was repopulated and the city walls were dedicated (Neh 11-12).
The restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish nation was a process that involved Ezra and Nehemiah. This process began with Artaxerxes' decree, a copy of which went out with Ezra to Jerusalem in the seventh year of the king's reign (Ezra 7:7-8, 11-13). Investigation of ancient documents dated to the reign of Artaxerxes has shown that his seventh year was 457 B.C. (Siegfried H. Horn and Lynn H. Wood, The Chronology of Ezra 7 [Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1953, 1970], pp. 115, 127). So the "seventy weeks " of Daniel 9 must have begun in 457 B.C."
Conclusion:
I hope that this helps the reader understand the problems with using
444 B.C.
as the starting date for the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9. It simply does not compute.
The termination dates fall on events that are NOT prophetically significant and
serious problems with Bible prophecy results. A better date is
457 B.C.