DANIEL'S 70x7s: DATUMS - LIMITING FACTORS. (Daniel 9:24)

Four decrees at different times were issued with regard to the city of Jerusalem. Commentators have experienced difficulties in deciding which decree Daniel 9:25 refers to as the starting date for the 490yrs from the going forth of the commandment to restore the city of Jerusalem. The prophesy reads:

Daniel 9:24 Seventy sevens are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression - and To make an end of sin  -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. 25 Therefore know and understand That from issuing the decree To restore and to build Jerusalem Until the Messiah Prince [the Lord Jesus the Christ], There will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. The paved open area will be formed again and the wall, Even in troublesome times. 26 And after sixty-two sevens The Messiah will be cut off, but not for Himself, and People, of a prince who will come, [Titus' army], Will destroy the city and the sanctuary - and The end of it will be with a flood - and Desolations are determined until the end of the war. 27 And He will confirm the covenant with many for one seven - and In the middle of the seven He will cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease  - and Because of the overspreading of abominations one will make it desolate, Even until the consummation - and That which is determined will be poured on the desolate.

Daniel 9:24 Ktxn Myebs Myebs Ksdq rye-lew Kme-le esph alkl twajx Mtxlw Nwe rpklw Mymle qdu aybhlw aybnw Nwzx Mtxlw Mysdq sdq xsmlw 25 lkvtw edtw rbd aum-Nm Mlswry twnblw byshl dygn xysm-de Mynsw Myss Myebsw hebs Myebs Myteh qwubw Uwrxw bwxr htnbnw bwst 26 Mynsw Myss Myebsh yrxaw wl Nyaw xysm trky abh dygn Me tyxsy sdqhw ryehw Pjsb wuqw twmms turxn hmxlm Uq dew 27 dxa ewbs Mybrl tyrb rybghw ewbsh yuxw hxnmw xbz tybsy Mmsm Myuwqs Pnk lew hlk-dew Mms-le Ktt hurxnw

From verse 25 it will be seen that two limiting factors must be satisfied when considering the historical evidence, a start date and a finishing date for the 69 sevens. These dates are:

1. the year when the commandment to restore the city was issued
2. the year when the Lord Jesus was anointed Messiah

We rely on secular history for these dates and the easiestto establish the date when the Holy Spirit descended on the Lord Jesus anointing Him as the Messiah at His baptism.

Establishing The Date When Jesus Was Baptised

The following historical events tie down the baptism of Jesus to AD 26:

[The superscript numbers refer to footnotes in the article "THE LORD'S BAPTISM, HIS THREE YEAR MINISTRY AND PETER'S KEYS WERE ALL WITHIN DANIEL'S 70th SEVEN YEARS"]

1. John 'the Baptist' began baptising in the fifteenth year of Tiberius reign - summer AD 26 to summer AD 27). (Luke 3:1-2).⁴
2. When the Lord Jesus came to John, He was "beginning to be thirty years of age". wsei etwn triakonta arcomenoV (Luke 3:23).³
3. At the time of the first passover following Jesus' baptism, the Jews claimed that the temple had been building for forty six years (John 2:20).⁵
4. Jesus was born before the massacre of the infants in Bethlehem which must have taken place before Herod's death on the 25th of November BC 4.³
5. Jesus was crucified during the passover, which was in the spring. This was half way through the final 7 years of Daniel's 70x7s. "In the middle of the seven he will cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease" (Daniel 9:27).] It follows that Jesus being baptised three and a half years earlier. He would have been baptised in the autumn. Since He was beginning to be thirty years old in the autumn, it follows that he would have been born in the autumn, which would have been about the time of the 'feast of the trumpets' and the 'feast of atonement'. It follows then that Jesus was born in the autumn of BC 5, which would mean that Jesus was baptised in the autumn of AD 26 when the 'feast of the trumpets' introduced the jubilee year.
6. Jesus being baptised and anointed by the Holy Spirit in the autumn of AD 26 means that for Daniel's prophecy to be correct the decree to restore the city must have been given 483 years, plus one year, before autumn AD 26, that is in BC 458. Plus one year, because the dating begins one year "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem until the Messiah Prince" Daniel 9:25.
   [See the chart 'DATE FROM WHICH DANIEL'S 70x7s YEARS ARE TO BE RECKONED' and also The ten kingdom's during which the Messiah's everlasting kingdom would be set up.]

Establishing The Date When The Decree From The Command To Restore And Build Jerusalem Was Given

For Daniel's prophesy in 9:25 to have been fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ at his baptism in the autumn of AD 26, the commandment for the restoration and building of Jerusalem must have been made in BC 458.

Six decrees are mentioned in Daniel 9:20-27 (see the chart 'THE SIX DECREES'). Four of these have to do with work in the city of Jerusalem:

The first in Ezra 1:1-3 (Cyrus' decree to build the temple) is too early by 78years.
The second in Ezra 6:6-14 (the decree to resume the work on the temple) is too early by 61years.
The third in Ezra 7:6,11-26 (the decree in which Ezra is authorised to administer God's law) is the exact year (BC 458).
The fourth in Nehemiah 2:1-6 (the decree in which they are authorised to rebuild the city walls) is too late by 14years.

Of these four decrees, are there any sound reasons why the decree given in Ezra 7:6,11-26 should be the one referred to by Daniel?

The others are either too early or too late. Also, although the last decree (Nehemiah 2:1-6) is preferred by many, it is ruled out because God's original intention was that Jerusalem would be built without a city wall He himself being the city's protective wall of fire.

Zechariah 2:4 And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: 5 For I, says the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.

Cyrus' command (Ezra 1:1-3) to rebuild the temple necessarily authorised rebuilding adequate city infrastructure, such as housing, businesses and streets, to enable the work on the temple to proceed but it did not authorise rebuilding city walls. It appears that an attempt to rebuild the city wall gave the Samaritans opportunity to lodge a valid complaint with the king of Persia that this would be seditious. (Ezra 4:12-13,15,19). So the king commanded work on the city to cease at least until he gave further instructions (Ezra 4:21) but he did not prohibit the work on the temple.

See " A Study in Zechariah The Mount of Olives Split! - When ?" for an information on the delay to the rebuilding of the temple.

However, for the city to be fully restored to its former glory, it had again to be a capital and centre of administrative authority over a reunited state of Israel as one nation under God. The Persian rulers would not tolerate that being done without their authority.

Significantly, the decree recorded in Ezra 7:6,11-26, authorised Ezra to go to Jerusalem to organise the administration justice according to God's law.

Ezra 7:10 ... Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD,to put it into effect, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgements.

11 Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of his statutes to Israel:

12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace ...  13 I make a decree, that all those of the people of Israel and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, who are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with you.  14 Inasmuch as you are sent by the king and by his seven counsellors to enquire about Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of  your God which is in your hand;

25 And you, Ezra, after the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, set magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of your God and you teach them that don't know them.  26 And whoever will not do the law of your God and the law of the king, diligently administered judgement on him, whether it is to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

One thing that is overlooked is that for Jerusalem to function as the city in which God's glory resided, as well as having the temple, it had to be the centre from which God's law was administered

Isaiah 2:3 ... many people will go and say "Come! and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us about his ways and we will walk in his paths, because the law will issue forth out of Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

This is the first instruction in which Jerusalem regains its position as a centre of authority over a renewed state of Israel as one nation under God. Is it appropriate then that the 70x7s of Daniel's decree to the Messiah begins from this decree (BC 458).

So Jerusalem became again the predictive depiction of spiritual Zion, the Lord Jesus' church:

Micah 4:2 ... many nations will come and say, "Come! and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, even to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us about his ways and we will walk in his paths, because the law will issue forth out of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem."

Hebrews 12:22 ... you are come to mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem ...