Daniel 9:25 NASB
Imagine you are living in Nazareth. It's the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate is governor of Judea, Herod is tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip is tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lyanias is tetrarch of Abilene. It was at this time when Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, that John the Baptist came preaching a baptism of repentance. The year is 27 AD.
You think back on the last thirty or so years. Rome had been in power for some time now, and Messianic fervor abounded. There was that time when some shepherds saw angels who told them of the birth of the Messiah. Or what about those wise men from the east who were looking for the king of the Jews who had recently been born? Herod and all of Jerusalem were pretty upset about that. He had ordered all the boys under two years old to be killed. Apparently he didn't want any competition.
Everyone is looking for the Messiah. Daniel the prophet wrote that sixty-nine "sevens" would pass until the Messiah, and that is where we are at now. Where can he be?
As you are thinking on these things you are sitting in the synagogue. Suddenly Jesus stands to read out of the scroll. This is something he has customarily done. "I better pay attention," you tell yourself, "Jesus is about to read."
Jesus takes the scroll of Isaiah and begins to read,
"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has annointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD."
The Messiah was right on time. Sixty-nine weeks of sabbath years were fulfilled.
So how do we determine the accuracy of Daniel's prophecy? He foretold a complete sabbath year cycle of forty-nine years followed by sixty-two more "weeks" or cycles for a total of 483 years. We need to determine a start of that cycle, and than determine if the close of those sixty-nine sabbath years coincide with the appearance of the Messiah.
There are several passages in the Bible that we need to look at as potential start dates. The first, is the decree of Cyrus, permitting the Babylonian captives to return to Jerusalem for the purpose of rebuilding their temple.
2 Chronicles 36:22-23 records that in the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia, a decree was issued by him allowing the return of the exiles, and permitting the temple to be rebuilt. Ezra 1:1-4 affirms this, also adding that he ordered the people who presently occupied the land to provide the Jews with whatever was necessary for the rebuilding of their temple.
I looked at potential dates, for the following information that I will share, on several sites.
biblicalarcheology.org was the one I primarily used. It is very technical so I will aim to keep my post simple.
The year the Babylonian empire was defeated by the Persians was 539 BC. The return of the exiles occurred in 538 BC, so if we add 483 years to that we arrive at 55 BC. That would mean the arrival of Jesus (the Messiah) would have to occured then. That is considerably early considering most scholars believe that Jesus began his ministry between 27 to 30 AD and was crucified sometimes between 39-33 AD. Luke 3:1-3, which I alluded to in the above illustration, timestamps the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry to 27 AD, which would mean that Jesus' baptism and "revealing" to Israel (see John 1:31) would have occured shortly thereafter.
If one reads through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah along with Haggai and Zechariah you find a lot of information about the events surrounding the building of the temple, and then the building of Jerusalem, starting with its walls.
The building of the temple came with much opposition. The building was eventually forced to a stop until second year of Darius, the king of Persia (see Ezra 4:1-24). This Darius after searching the records found that Cyrus had previously authorized the building of the temple, so around 520 BC he issues a decree that orders those who hindered the work to cease their opposition and allow the Jews to continue on. He also states that the royal treasury will cover the costs of the project, and whatever the priests need to offer the daily sacrifices must be provided for them (see Ezra 6:1-12).
According to the Full Life Study Bible the temple was completed in 516 BC, which was in the sixth year of Darius ( Ezra 6:15). Again, this would place the issuing of his decree allowing the completion of the temple in 520 BC
If we add sixty-nine weeks (483 years to this we arrive at 37 BC, which is still to early if the arrival of Jesus is what is spoken of here in Daniel 9:25.
Again, to keep it simple, I am only touching on the basic facts here. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah go into more detail about the opposition the Jews faced in the rebuilding of both the temple and the wall itself of Jerusalem. Several letters were written and sent to various Persian kings, voicing "concerns" if the building was to continue. Read these accounts for yourself to get more details.
Now we will take a look at Ezra, and the decree given by Artaxerxes in 457 BC. Ezra 7:1-28 records that in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, He issued a decree sending Ezra with a group of priests and Levites to Jerusalem to teach the law of their God. The empire again pledged financial support for the temple and the sacrifices needed for temple worship. Ezra was granted the permission to do whatever seemed best according to the will of God, with any of the extra money (Ezra 7:18).
The restoration of Jerusalem spiritually seems to be in mind here. Ezra came with the intent to teach the law of God to those who had previously returned. Although they had begun the sacrificial system, they needed a spiritual reformation, as can be seen as one reads through the passages related to these events.
Also of note is the fact that they now have permission to use the money given them for "whatever seems best according to God's will." While not an outright command to rebuild the walls and city itself, it opened up the possibility. It is interesting to note that the letter sent that effectually put a stop to the building of the temple previously, was primarily concerned with the "dangers" of the Jews rebuilding the wall and city itself ( Ezra 4:12-22).
If we add sixty-nine weeks from this starting point we arrive at 27 AD, which makes this perfectly fit within the life and ministry of Jesus.
483 years brings us to the timeframe we are looking for, but can we determine if this is the cycle of seven year sabbaths, or just an arbitrary number of years?
Again, Ezra's main concern in his return to Jerusalem is the reformation of the people. He has come to teach and implement the law of God. More than a mere religious system, it is worship, and pleasing to God, if obeyed from a willing and submissive heart; a heart devoted to God. The people had gone into exile for their departure from the Lord. As shown in my previous posts, the sabbath cycle was one of the things neglected as the nation slid into apostasy. 2 Chronicles 7:21 specifically mentions the seventy year captivity as a time for the land to receive its rest, one year for each sabbath year missed. It would seem likely that Ezra, in his efforts to bring the people back to covenant obedience, would restart the sabbath year as well, as soon as possible.
We find some clues in Nehemiah. Although there is no verse that explicitly states the exact point at which the sabbath year cycle was reinstated, we find that is was, and more than likely, this occured on the first day of the seventh month in 457 BC, after Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem.
The book of Nehemiah begins with Nehemiah receiving word from the remnant in Jerusalem describing the condition of the city. The walls were broken down and the gates burned. This moves Nehemiah to seek the favor of God as he desired to go back and help his people rebuild.
Nehemiah receives permission from Ataxerxes along with a letter granting him safe passage and timber for rebuilding the city gates and wall. This occured 13 years after Ezra's return in the seventh year of Artaxerxes. Nehemiah returns in 444 BC, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2:1-9).
There are some interesting clues that help make the case for the restarting of the sabbatical year, found in scripture. In Nehemiah 8:1-3 we read that the people all assembled on the first day of the seventh month for the public reading of the law. This was something commanded to occur every seventh year, in the seventh month during the feast of booths (Deuteronomy 31:10-13). One can deduce from this that the Shemitah cycles had been started at least six years previously. As this event occured 13 years after Ezra's arrival in 457 BC, it is quite possible that on the first day of the seventh month after his arrival he, as part of his reforms, began the sabbath year cycle once again. Therefore, when Nehemiah arrives 13 years later, the cycle is entering it's seventh year for the second time. As the sabbath year is tied to the agricultural season instead of the yearly calendar which started in the first month, it started in the seventh. It is widely accepted that the first day of the seventh month was when it usually began. The following is a quote from the website Associates for Biblical Research (biblicalarcheology.org)that explains this,
"Jewish tradition (Rosh HaShanah 1a in the Talmud) is that Sabbatical years and Jubilee years began in Tishri, the seventh month according to the religious calendar that starts in Nisan (roughly April). This is consistent with the text of Leviticus 25, which for both Sabbatical and Jubilee years speaks of sowing before mentioning reaping. In Israel, the sowing of the winter crops (barley and wheat) takes place in approximately November and reaping takes place in the spring. If the Sabbatical and Jubilee years started in Nisan, then the crop sown in the preceding fall could not be harvested, after which the fall sowing would be missed, thus resulting in two years without harvest rather than the one year that is intended in the legislation. Sabbatical and Jubilee years therefore started in Tishri, the month in which the Jewish Rosh HaShanah or New Year’s Day was celebrated in the past and is celebrated in our own day."
And another quote from the same site that shows how Israel could already be going into the sabbath year shortly after the arrival of Nehemiah in 444 BC.
"Zuckermann’s tabulation includes both 451/450 and 444/443 BC as sabbatical years, years we independently proposed based on Ezra’s beginning the counting of years for the initial post-exilic sabbatical year cycle as of the first Tishri after his arrival in 457 BC. Thus Zuckermann corroborates the dates we derived from considering the implications of Ezra’s summer 457 BC return to the Land."
As I stated earlier, this site contains much information. It can get long and technical, however feel free to check it out. If you would like to, click on the link here
It is interesting to note that the people gather again for a time of national mourning and repentance on the twenty-fourth day of the same month. This leads to the making of a covenant, by the people, to fully obey the laws Moses set forth, including laws forbidding mixed marriages, buying and selling on the sabbath, and the observation of the seventh year sabbaths ( Nehemiah 10:28-31). These three things were specific problems that Israel had struggled with, even in the post-exilic time they were now living in. Again, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah should be read through for a deeper understanding of these things.
To sum this up, we find that the "seven weeks" were fulfilled in the start up of the sabbath year one again. Sixty-two sabbath cycles followed after for a total of sixty-nine cycles or 483 years. During this time Jerusalem was rebuilt in turbulent times, as Daniel predicted. The opposition was relentless, even throughout the days of Nehemiah which extended to at least 432 BC.
The sixty-nine weeks closed with the arrival of Jesus Christ. In 27 AD He was revealed to Israel at His baptism and began His ministry. It is fitting that He read from Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue at Nazareth, applying these verses to Himself. As I stated in my previous which you can read here the Jubilee has a deeper spiritual meaning that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the return of Christ and the millennial age.
I would like to continue this in another post, and discuss what comes next.
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