The Coming Prince

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In conclusion, the correct start date is 27 February 444 B.C. 444 B.C. and the end date of the prophecy is 6 Nisan A.D. 33, which occurred before Christ’s death on 14 Nisan 33 A.D. If that didn't make sense to you, it's because it doesn't make sense. It is just plain wrong! The Jews would add in a 13th month every 2 or 3 years. Since this 13th month was the length of a lunar month, as Anderson admits above, there was no "epact remaining." Thus Nisan 1 would still have begun with observing the new crescent on the evening of March 31st, making April 1st Nisan 1, and April 10th (not April 6th) Nisan 10. So Nisan 10 occurred at the earliest on April 10, not April 6 as Anderson supposed. The very fact that Anderson, in retrospect, was able to demonstratewith mathematical accuracy the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy for the First Adventof the LORD Jesus Christ, indicates that the Father is completely pleased and willingthat His Saints and Angels be occupied with labor, study, and anticipation for theSecond Advent of His Dear Son. "Unto whomit was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things,which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you withthe Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven; which things the angels desire to look into" (1Peter 1:12). When the 483 biblical years or 173,880 days are converted from the biblical calendar into the solar calendar calendar, all three documents conclude that the days correspond to 476 years plus some additional days.

God is omnipresent; but there is a real sense in which the Father and the Son are not on earth but in heaven, and in that same sense the Holy Spirit is not in heaven but on earth. The 70th Week is clearly still in the future (Daniel 9:27) and so seems to be divided off from the other 69 Weeks. However the prophecy implies that all 70 Weeks are all together as one unit (v24) with the Messiah bringing Salvation and the Kingdom at the end of the 70th Week (His time starting after 69 Weeks). The failed attempts to make the first 69 Weeks stand alone in measuring the time up to the Cross, confirm that all 70 Weeks should be kept together as one unit. What we have here is a classic prophetic paradox. On one hand, the 70th Week should run straight after the 69th. On the other hand, it is yet future! How can both be true? Rather than choosing one over the other as most interpretations do, let us proceed on the basis that both are true, even if this initially seems impossible! And such persons have transcendental proof of the truth of Christianity. Their faithrests, not on the phenomena of their own experience, but on the great objective truthsof revelation. Yet their primary conviction that these are Divine truths doesnot depend on the "evidences" which skepticism delights to criticize, buton something which skepticism takes no account of. [ 10 ]Prophecy is not given to enable us to prophesy, but as a witness to God when the time comes." – PUSEY, Daniel, p. 80. In Prophecy of Daniel’s 70 Weeks, we increased the precision of the number of days in the solar year or tropical year to 365.242190419 days. Therefore, the timeline from the start to the end date is 476 years plus 24.7 days in the Gregorian calendar. The Coming Prince, The Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ and Prophecy of Daniel’s 70 Weeks [6] all understand that the start date begins with Artaxerxes’ Decree to “restore and rebuild Jerusalem.” Nehemiah 2:1-8 states that the decree occurred in the twentieth year of the king’s reign.[7] However the documents disagree about the actual calendar date of the decree. In The Coming Prince, Sir Robert Anderson states that the start date is 14 March 445 B.C. He is off by one year which resulted in a one year shift in his end date calculation.

The dominant decree in Ezra-Nehemiah around which all the action is based is the one in Artaxerxes’ 7th year (Ezra 7). That’s why it is emphasised so strongly and dated so exactly,as if God was underlining it (as anyone can verify by reading it). Thus the only possible start date for the 70 Weeks is 458BC. This agrees with the prophecy itself (Daniel 9:24,25) which says there would be a decree to rebuild Jerusalem and that it would be rebuilt as a fortified city within the first 7 Weeks (49 years) in troublous times (against much opposition). Now while Cyrus’ decree (537 BC) to rebuild the Temple resulted in the resettlement of Jerusalem this prophecy was not fulfilled in the years (537-488 BC). It was however clearly fulfilled in the days of Ezra-Nehemiah (458 - 409 BC). This command was then given in Ezra 7 in his 7th year (458 BC), where the king makes a decree which clearly has divine origin coming directly from God’s throne (v27) as the word ‘dabar’ requires. This decree imparted full authority to Israel for self-government, so that it could function as a city (under the Persian Empire). This command also gave them authority to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem as Ezra 9:9 explicitly tells us.

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The 1st Nisan in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (the edict to rebuild Jerusalem) was 14th March, B. C. 445. Is the Bible a revelation from God? This is now become the greatest and mostpressing of all questions. We may at once dismiss the quibble that the Scripturesadmittedly contain a revelation. Is the sacred volume no better than a lotterybag from which blanks and prizes are to be drawn at random, with no power of distinguishingbetween them till the day when the discovery must come too late! And in the presentphase of the question it is no less a quibble to urge that passages, and even books,may have been added in error to the Canon. We refuse to surrender Holy Writ to thetender mercies of those who approach it with the ignorance of pagans and the animusof apostates. But for the purpose of the present controversy we might consent tostrike out everything on which enlightened criticism has cast the shadow of a doubt.This, however, would only clear the way for the real question at issue, which isnot as to the authenticity of one portion or another, but as to the character andvalue of what is admittedly authentic. We are now far beyond discussing rival theoriesof inspiration; what concerns us is to consider whether the holy writings are whatthey claim to be, "the oracles of God." [ 6 ] the Lord declared, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 16:17) v25: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the (Divine) command (‘dabar’) to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be 7 weeks (49 years) and 62 weeks (434 years); (making a total of 483 years).

And how can such things be, if indeed the God who rules above is almighty andall-good? Vice and godlessness and violence and wrong are rampant upon every side,and yet the heavens above keep silence. The infidel appeals to the fact in proofthat the Christian's God is but a myth. [ 1 ] ta logia tou theou (Romans 3:2). The old Hebrew Scriptures were thus regarded by those who were the divinely-appointed custodians of them (ib.) Not only by the devout among the Jews, but, as Josephus testifies, by all, they "were justly believed to be Divine," so that men were willing to endure tortures of all kinds rather than speak against them, and even "willingly to die for them" (Josephus, Apion, 1., 8). This fact is of immense importance in relation to the Lord's own teaching on the subject. Dealing with a people who believed in the sanctity and value of every word of Scripture, He never missed an opportunity to confirm them in that belief. The New Testament affords abundant proof how unreservedly He enforced it upon His disciples. (As regards the limits and date of closing of the Canon of Scripture, see Pusey, Daniel, p. 294, etc.)

Three Calculations of the 70 Weeks of Daniel

Anderson wrote: "The Julian date of that 10th Nisan was Sunday the 6th April, A.D. 32. What then was the length of the period intervening between the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the public advent of 'Messiah the Prince,' -- between the 14th March, B.C. 445, and the 6th April, A.D. 32? THE INTERVAL CONTAINED EXACTLY AND TO THE VERY DAY 173,880 DAYS, OR SEVEN TIMES SIXTY-NINE PROPHETIC YEARS OF 360 DAYS, the first sixty-nine weeks of Gabriel's prophecy." And the study of prophecy, rightly understood, has a range no narrower than this.Its chief value is not to bring us a knowledge of "things to come," regardedas isolated events, important though this may be; but to enable us to link the futurewith the past as part of God's great purpose and plan revealed in Holy Writ. Thefacts of the life and death of Christ were an overwhelming proof of the inspirationof the Old Testament. When, after His resurrection, He sought to confirm the disciples'faith, "beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." (Luke 24:27) The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times (fulfilled in the time of Ezra-Nehemiah).” As we have shown, the starting date for the 70 Weeks is clearly marked in Ezra 7 as Nisan 1, in the 7th year of Artaxerxes. This was without doubt April 3rd, 458 BC (Gregorian). Measuring forward 69 Weeks (483 Jewish luni-solar years) takes us to the last day of the 69th Week: April 4th 26AD. This means the 70th Week, the Time of Messiah, began on April 5th AD 26 with the ministry of John the Baptist. The seven messianic years are in two halves (3.5 years of John the Baptist followed by 3.5 years of the ministry of Jesus Christ). The 70th Week of Messiah is 7 true solar years which close Wrong Year to Start From. The main purpose of this article is that Anderson’s calculation is demonstrably wrong from a technical point of view, but it is appropriate to also mention that his candidate for the starting year of Daniel’s 70 Weeks (Nisan 445 BC), the 20th year of Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2), does not agree well with the description of Daniel 9:25: “from the going forth of the command (decree of divine origin - ‘dabar’) to restore and build Jerusalem.”