The prophecy in Daniel 9, is the greatest and most important in the Bible. It foretells the history of the Jewish nation and the specific time the long awaited Messiah would arrive to fulfil His mission on the earth. At the beginning of the chapter we find Daniel in the first year of Darius the Median King. The Medes and Persians had recently taken over the Babylonian empire and the date was around 539BC. This date fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jeremiah 25:9-12) which stated that Babylon would rule for 70 years[1].

Daniel studied the book of Jeremiah and understood that Jeremiah 29:10 specifies that after the 70 year rule of Babylon, God would allow the Jews to return home. As a result of understanding this Daniel began to pray asking God for the forgiveness of his and the Jewish nation’s sins. While Daniel was praying, the angel Gabriel came to him and answered his prayer. In this answer Daniel is told the future of the Jewish nation and the details and time of the coming of the Messiah.

In verse 24, Gabriel tells Daniel that 70 weeks are determined or allotted for six events to take place which impact the Jewish people.

1. Finish the transgression – Time for Jews to turn back to God (Rom 10) (Matt 21:43
2. Make an end of sins (sin offerings) – Stop the animal sacrifices in the temple on earth. (Matt 27:51)
3. Make reconciliation for iniquity – Through Christ’s death (Rom 5:10, 2 Cor 5:18-21)
4. Bring in everlasting righteousness – Jesus’ sinless life (Rom 8:3, 1 Jn 2:1,29, Rom 3:20-22)
5. Seal up vision and prophecy – Fulfillment of prophecies concerning the messiah (Luke 24:25-27, 44-45)
6. Anoint the most Holy – Anoint heavenly sanctuary (Exo 30:26, 40:9,10; Heb 9:11,23,24)

The seventy weeks in this prophecy do not represent a literal 70 weeks or 490 days (7 x 70), but rather a prophetic 70 weeks; where applying the day for a year rule (D4Y), we get 490 years. In Ezekiel 4:6 God gave a prophetic sign to Israel through Ezekiel and he was instructed to lie down for a certain amount of time, one day representing every real year. The day for a year rule is also found in Numbers 14:34, where the Israelites were to walk around the wilderness for 40 years which represented the 40 days the spies went into the land to see the promise land.

Daniel 9:25 tells us that from the time the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem is given there would be a period of 7 weeks and 62 weeks. This gives us 69 weeks in total, or 483 prophetic years. Now that we have the length of the prophecy it is important to identify when the prophecy begins. This part is very important in demonstrating the accuracy of the prophecy. So detail will go into explaining the evidence to make it clear, please take the time to read and understand and check out the dates for yourself and you will see how powerful this prophecy actually is.

The Bible shows that there were four decrees issued by Medio-Persian kings that related to the Jews returning to Jerusalem to restore and build the city and temple. One of these four decrees holds the important command to restore and build Jerusalem and so identifies the start date of the prophecy.

Decree	King	Date	Details
1	Cyrus	Around 540BC	Rebuild Isa 44:28;Build God a house in Jerusalem (Rebuild the temple) 2 Chron 36:22,23; Ezra 1:1-4
2	Darius	515BC	Restart the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 6:8-12)
3	Artaxerxes	458/457BC	Any one who is free minded to return to Jerusalem and that a governmental system should be set up which would judge the people and enforce independent Jewish law (Ezra 7:13-26; esp 25 & 26)
4	Artaxerxes	445/444BC	The king gave Nehemiah a letter which gave him the permission to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city (Neh 2:8). Nehemiah then went back to the city to give the command that the walls and gate should be rebuilt.

Table 2.1 – Summary of the Medio-Persian Decrees

So which out the four decrees or commands identifies the restoration and building of Jerusalem and beginning of the prophecy? The first decree given by Cyrus is specifically about rebuilding the temple, the second is a re-statement of the first decree, so these two can be omitted. This leaves us with the two decrees, given by Artaxerxes. Out of the four utterances from the rulers, the 3^rd one is given in the most detail, talking about judicial power being restored to the Jewish people, so that they would be able to govern their own nation. The fourth and final command by a Persian king for the Jews to return is not actually mentioned as a decree, rather it was a letter of personal permission to Nehemiah to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

The decree which represents the restoration and rebuilding of the city is the third decree. This decree enabled the Jews to operate as an individual entity. It is not the first and second because these refer to the temple and before the temple was built people had already returned to Jerusalem and Judah and were setting up homes. So in essence, the city was being rebuilt from the time of Cyrus’ decree. However, it was not until the decree given by Artaxerxes to Ezra that the city was taken from the rulership of Babylonian/Persian authority and fully restored to the Jews.

Whenever God wants us to know the date when an event took place in the Bible, he always had the author state a historical reference which can be tracked by external sources. In the case of this decree, Ezra 7 says that the decree was given in the 7^th year of King Artaxerxes. According to modern historians, Artaxerxes began his reign in 465BC (1) however older scholars date the beginning of his reign to 464BC. It is difficult to be sure which is 100% right and for the purpose of the detail we are going into this chapter it does not matter. Therefore counting 7 years from these beginning dates brings us to between 458 and 457BC (-465/464 + 7 = -458/457).

Sections of the Prophecy

The prophecy says that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (458/457BC) until the time the messiah would come would be 7 weeks and 62 weeks. Within the first 7 week or 49 year period the street and walls would be built which refers to the rebuilding of the walls which took place under Nehemiah, under the attack of the local enemies. Finally, after 62+7=69 weeks >>> 69 x 7=483 days >>> 483years the messiah would arrive on the earth (1).

-458/457+1+483 = 26/27AD

There is no zero year, so the plus one is placed into the calculation to account for the difference. In normal math, we count -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3 … etc, but in years, it goes, 2BC, 1BC, 1AD, 2AD, so there is a gap of one year which needs to be accounted for. Table 2.2 below shows that the years will be one year ahead.

Normal math	-3	-2	-1	0	1	2	3
Years	3BC	2BC	1BC	1AD	2AD	3AD	4AD

Table 2.2 – Explanation of gap year

 

So the prophecy is telling us that in 26/27AD, the Messiah would turn up on the earth…The question is did this actually happen?

The answer is yes, and there are three ways of proving that Jesus came onto the scene in 26/27AD.

1. Tiberius Caesar
2. Birth of Jesus
3. Rebuilding of the temple

Method 1 = Tiberius Caesar

Luke chapter 3 shows us the baptism of Jesus (by John the Baptist) when the Holy Spirit came upon him. It was at this point when he became Christ or in Hebrew, the Messiah. The word Messiah means anointed one and it was at his baptism that he was anointed by the God’s spirit to carry out his mission. It is not until this point that he started going out and doing the work of full time ministry. Luke chapter 3 tells us that John the Baptist was baptizing people in the 15^th year of Tiberius Caesar. Tiberius began his reign in 12AD, when his step father and ruler of Rome Augustus Caesar, now old in age and ready to die gave him equal power to himself. This gave Tiberius the position of Caesar and co-princeps (co-ruler) with his father in law. This information can be found in Tiberius Caesars wiki page (2), but they assign his first year as the year when his step-father Augustus died and he began to reign alone (14AD). Assuming that the people at the time took 12AD as his first year adding 15 years to 12AD brings us to 27AD. Showing our first piece of evidence that Jesus was anointed and became messiah in 27AD.

Method 2 = Jesus Birth

The passage in Luke 3 tells us that Jesus was around 30 years old when he was anointed messiah (v23). There is significance in this, in that 30 years of age was the age when men could take up the full role as a priest. If we can work out exactly when Jesus was born, we can use his age to identify when he became Messiah. Jesus was not actually born in year 0 as some imagine, Matthew 2:1 says that Jesus was born in the days of Herod the King and according to Josephus, Herod died in the same year as a solar eclipse (3), historians date this event to March/April 4BC (4). Two biblical events took place between Jesus’ birth and Herod’s death i.e. wise men going to visit Jesus and Herod ordering infants under 2 years old in Bethlehem to be killed. History tells us that Herod died from a chronic kidney disease and Fournier gangrene. Historians say it was so painful he tried killing himself. Herod died in 4BC, therefore, lets say Jesus was born a year before his death. Then Jesus would have been born in 5BC. -5+1+30 = 26AD, so here we get Jesus was anointed about 26AD (+/-2).

Method 3 = Rebuilding of the Temple

This final method, provides additional strong evidence to show that Jesus started his ministry in or around 27AD. In John 2:20 Jesus goes into the temple and he is having a little altercation with the Jews. He says that as a sign he would “destroy this temple and in three days… raise it up.” The Jews then responded to him, 46 years was the temple in building and in three days you will raise it. What they did not understand is that Jesus was talking about his body. For this study, the important thing is to identify the timing of this event. This was Jesus’ first time in Jerusalem for Passover since he began his ministry, which would put it at a maximum of one year after his anointing. At that time King Herod was refurbishing the temple. According to Josephus the historian, Herod began to rebuild the temple in the 18^th year of his reign (5) that began in 37BC. Therefore the rebuilding of the temple began in (-37+18 = -19) 19BC. When Jesus arrived in the temple for the first time in his ministry, the temple had been being refurbished for 46 years. If we add 46 years to 19 or 18BC we get, (-19+46+1 = 28) 28AD. Just a reminder, Jesus’ first Passover as the anointed Messiah took place in the 28AD, the year following his baptism (27AD).

So the date Jesus became Messiah has been proven 3 different ways:

1. Luke 3:1 = 15th year of Tiberius Caesar 12+15=27AD
2. Matt 2:1 = Jesus born in days of Herod the king, Herod died in 5BC (+/-1), -5+30+1=26AD (+/-1)
3. John 2:20 = Temple building 46 years, Jesus’ first Passover; -19+46+1=28AD

Let me reiterate the power of this. In 538BC, Daniel was informed that the Messiah the Prince, would come onto the Earth’s scene 483 years after the restoration of Jerusalem, which lead to 26 or 27AD, (inaccuracies are down to calculations of historians). This foretelling of the future was fulfilled to the exact date, as it has been proven from three sources that Jesus started his ministry in the same year, 26 or 27AD.

The next part of the prophecy in Daniel 9 tells us about the death of Christ. Daniel 9:25 says that after 69 weeks converted to 483 years from 457BC, the Messiah would be cut off, or killed. But it says that he would not be killed for himself and we have learnt from Isaiah 53 that it was also foretold that he would die for the sins of man. Daniel 9:26 says that he (the Messiah) would confirm the covenant for one week, this last week refers to the last 7 years of the prophecy, it reiterates that he would be sacrificed, because it says that inside of 7 the year period he would cause the sacrifice to cease.

Did Jesus fulfil this prophecy? Yes, he fulfilled it to the very tee. The book of John mentions three distinct Passovers that Jesus went to, and He was killed on the last one, this shows us that Jesus’ ministry lasted about 2 years. His first Passover being 28AD and his last one being 30AD. From the New Testament evidence we can ascertain that Jesus fulfilled this part of the prophecy also, dying within the 7-year period. Also, Matthew shows us that when He was killed, the curtain in the temple supernaturally tore in two from top to bottom with unseen hands signifying the end of the earthly sacrificial system. The rest of the 7-year period, where it says that he shall confirm the covenant for one week refers to the work which he did while He was on the earth, the work which was finished by the disciples once he had left. Heb 2:3 “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him”

Works Cited

1.	Wikipedia (Accessed July 28, 2015) Artaxerxes I of Persia. In: Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artaxerxes_I_of_Persia
2.	Wikipedia (Accessed July 16, 2015) Tiberius – Heir to Augustus. In: Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius#Heir_to_Augustus
3.	Josephus, F. Herod’s death at solar eclipse – Chapter 6.4. In : Antiquities of the Jews – Book 17..
4.	Wikipedia (Accessed July 5, 2015) Herod the Great Death. In: Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great#Death
5.	Josephus, F. Chapter 11.1 – Date for Rebuilding Herod’s Temple. In : Antiquities of the Jews Book 15..

[1] Babylon ruled from 609BC when Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Ashur-uballit II of Assyria till 539BC when they were defeated by Cyrus.