Delving into The Da Vinci Code Part-3
Decoding the 70 Weeks of Daniel
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown has provoked theological questions--is Jesus truely the Son of God, or the promised Messiah? Is there a biblical cryptogram that can provide some answers?— Let's zero in on a prophecy given in 539 BC by the prophet Daniel foretelling with exact dating, the time of the messiah. As we have seen from Bible codes, there are many mysterious and important truths hidden deep within this tome. In the following pages we will follow Daniel as he receives a prophecy revealing a very important event-- the exact year when the Messiah was to be “cut off” (crucified).
During the Medo-Persian Empire in 539 BC, when Darius was ruler-- Daniel was then an old man over 80 years old, but Darius recognized his great wisdom and administrative abilities—and perhaps also because he had foretold the victory of the Medes (Daniel 5:28). So this prophet Daniel was having visions and prophesying and seeing the future. One day, about the time of the “evening oblation”; “Oblation” means offering or sacrifice, and the evening sacrifices were made in the Temple a long way from Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed nearly 50 years earlier and there were no longer any animal sacrifices, but this was at the time that they used to offer them… and Daniel had the following communication with Gabriel the Archangel (The bible-Daniel 9:21):
Daniel 9:22 And he informed me, and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
Daniel 9:23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
Daniel had been praying for God to forgive his people (the Jews) and to release them from Captivity so that they could restore the Temple and the city of Jerusalem, and the Archangel Gabriel has now appeared to tell him when and how God is going to save them.
God tired to help Daniel understand these prophecies He gave him, even though most of the time he wasn’t able to understand them. (Dan. 7:28; 8:27, 12:8) The Lord was predicting the following prophecies literally hundreds, even thousands of years in advance before they ever happened, and Daniel didn’t actually have to understand. But he did have to write it down and put it on record so that we who are living in the Endtime would understand when the time came. (See the interpretation to Dan.8:26 (C) and 12:4)
Daniel 9:24 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 bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people”: it’s important, first of all, to know what the meaning of the word “weeks” is. In the original Hebrew, the word used here is “shabuah”, which was used interchangeably for either the figure 7 or the weeks of the month. In this case, it would have been more accurate if the translators of the Bible had translated it as “sevens”, so this phrase would have read “seventy sevens”. But because “shabuah” was also the common name for the “week”—and also because they probably didn’t understand what the prophecy meant-- they translated it as “weeks”.
But it’s clear that the Lord wasn’t talking about the weeks of the month, because if you try to say these are merely literal weeks, it would have to have been fulfilled a little over a year later, and of course it wasn’t, so you couldn’t possibly interpret it that way. It didn’t happen in any little number of weeks, but it took hundreds of years!
The Lord was talking about “sevens” here, sevens of years, which makes a big difference! So to bring out the actual meaning whenever it uses the word “weeks”, we will follow it by the word “sevens” in brackets.
So “seventy weeks (sevens) are determined upon thy people”: How long is that? Seventy times seven years equals 490 years. 490 years are “determined upon thy people”. In other words, “within 490 years the full history of your people, the Jews, is going to be completed and this vision and this prophecy will be completely fulfilled, or ‘sealed up’!” To fully understand the meaning of this verse, let’s first study the more detailed time prophecies given in verse 25:
Daniel 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks (sevens), and threescore and two weeks (sevens): the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem”: As explained earlier under verse 3, Cyrus authorized the Jews to return to Jerusalem in 536 BC to build their Temple, but neither he nor the following Persian kings told them they could rebuild the city of Jerusalem itself or build up and fortify the walls, because they were afraid that the Jews might rebel again. (See Ezra 4:11-24; Nehemiah 6: 5,6) As long as the walls were down flat, they knew the Jews couldn’t cause trouble or defend themselves if they rebelled. The first Medo-Persian kings figured, “We’re doing you a favor even to let you go home and build your Temple.”
But finally, along came Artaxerxes, Longimanus, the fifth king of the Medo-Persian Empire, and he ruled from 465 to 425 BC. Artaxerxes was very favorable to the Jews (See Ezra 7:12-27; Nehemiah 1:11, 2:1-8).
In 457 BC (Ezra 7:6,7) Artaxerxes authorized Ezra the priest to go to Jerusalem and teach God’s Law and set up magistrates and Judges. (Ezra 7:25, 26)—And four years later, in 453 BC Artaxerxes issued this famous commandment to allow the Jews to rebuild the city and fortify its walls.
Some people question the fact that Artaxerxes made this edict in 453 BC, as it is not specifically mentioned in the Bible Handbook, for example, suggests that perhaps this commandment to restore and build Jerusalem happened in 457 BC when Artaxerxes let Ezra go to Jerusalem, but if you’ll check the book of Ezra, you’ll see that no commandment to build Jerusalem was given at that time. As nearly all the other Bible Handbooks say that 454/3 BC was the year that Artaxerxes issued his edict for the Jews to rebuild the city, that really isn’t a valid objection. The majority of the historians and Bible scholars say that 453/4 is the date the edict was given, and it fits Daniel’s prophecy exactly. So why question it?
“From the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem… shall be seven weeks (sevens) … the street shall be built again , and the wall, even in troublous times.” Why is this period of 49 years mentioned? – Because from the time that Artaxerxes gave the commandment in 453 BC that was exactly how many years it took them to rebuild the wall and the city! The reason the Lord mentioned these 49 years was because it was going to be very important to the Jews to know how long it would take them to rebuild the city itself and the wall for their self-defense. So the Lord foretold the future and predicted that it would take 49 years. – And that’s exactly how long it did take!
Despite Artaxerxes’ official edict in 453 BC, however, there was very little progress made for the following nine years, because whenever the Jews would start work on the wall, their more powerful hostile neighbors would stop them. In 444 BC, when Nehemiah, the king’s cupbearer, heard that the city and the walls were still lying in ruins (See Neh.1:1-4), he asked the king to allow him to go to Jerusalem to personally direct the rebuilding of the wall and the fortifying of the city. Artaxerxes granted him permission, even giving him the position of Governor. (Neh. 2:1-8; 5:14)
Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem, and within a period of 52 days the wall was rebuilt (Neh.6:15) – but rebuilding all the streets, the buildings and houses of Jerusalem itself was undoubtedly a slower process, and it took a full 40 years to complete it.
“Even in troublous times”: Despite the fact that Nehemiah had letters of recommendation from King Artaxerxes himself and was given an honor guard (Neh.2:7-9), he still suffered considerable opposition from the Jews’ enemies (See Nehemiah Chapters 4 and 6), and under constant threat of attack, he and his men had to work with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other. (Neh.4:17)
That was the fulfillment of the first 49 year period; now let’s examine the second period of 62 sevens:
Daniel 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks (sevens) 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!
“Threescore and two”: A “score” is an old English expression meaning 20, therefore “threescore and two” would be 60 and two, or 62 sevens, or 434 years.
As verse 25 said, “From the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven sevens (49 years), and threescore and two sevens (434 years). As we learned above, the first 49- year period involved the rebuilding of the wall, the city and the streets. And the Lord prophesied that after that would be another 483 years until the Messiah was “cut off”. Who was this “Messiah the Prince” that was “cut off”? It was none other than Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace! (Isaiah 8:6) – Who as Isaiah had prophesied hundreds of years earlier, would be “cut off out of the land of the living (slain)” (Isaiah 53:8) Now, 49 plus 434 equals a total of 483 years. So adding 483 years to 453 BC brings us to what year? – To exactly 30 AD! – The very year of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ!
We know from secular history that Jesus was born around the last part of 4 BC, (virtually the beginning of 3 BC), and at the beginning of His ministry, Luke 3:23 says, “And Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age.” So if He was born in late 4 BC, and after a little over three years of public ministry, was crucified around April, 30 AD. So here we have the 69 sevens of years, or 483 years, giving us the exact year of the Messiah’s crucifixion! This was prophesied in 538 BC, almost 600 years before Jesus the Messiah was crucified! The archangel Gabriel made it clear that the Messiah, the Christ, would die in 30 AD, and Jesus Christ was the only One Who fulfilled this very specific prophecy! – Proof that He is the Son of God!—And this is only one of over 300 Messianic prophecies fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, written from 400 to 1,500 years before He was born!
Nearly all the historical books and Bible scholars agree that Artaxerxes Longimanus issued his edict for the Jews to rebuild the city about 453 BC. Now, the Jewish Passover was celebrated every year in the month of April (Leviticus 23:3-4), which was the first month of the year according to the Jewish calendar. (Exodus 12:2,3,6). Jesus was crucified at “the preparation of the Passover” (John 19:14,31), so we can pretty clearly ascertain that He died in April, 30 AD. So for Daniel’s prophecy to be fulfilled to the exact month, Artaxerxes would have to have given his edict exactly 483 years earlier, in April, 453 BC! – And this may have very likely been the month he did give it!
Some scholars, however, say the edict may have been given in 454 BC instead. This may be possible, but it does not change the amazing fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy at all. If the edict was made even as early as May, 454 BC – which is unlikely – It would still be technically within the 483rd year measuring from 30 AD till then. As you remember, this time prophecy was given in years, and as long as it is therefore fulfilled to the year, you don’t need to worry about trying to pin it down to the exact day or even month of the particular year.
So this prediction is astonishingly accurate, whether you want to say that the edict was made in late 454 or early 453 BC—Because 483 years after it was made, Jesus the Messiah was “cut off”, just as it said He would be!
D.B. Berg.
Ben Fighter
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