G. B. Hardy has stated,

    Only the supernatural mind can have prior knowledge to the
    natural mind.  If then the Bible has foreknowledge, historical
    and scientific, beyond the permutation of chance. . . . it truly
    then bears the fingerprint of God.  (Steve Kumar and John
    Heininger, _Christianity for Skeptics_ (Auckland: Worldwise
    Communications, 1987), 66.)

The passage in question is Daniel 9:24-26, which reads:

    Seventy `weeks' are decreed for your people and your holy city
    to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for
    wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up
    vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy.  Know and
    understand this: from the issuing of the decree to restore
    and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the Ruler, comes,
    there will be seven `weeks' and sixty-two `weeks.' It will be
    rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.  After
    the sixty-two `weeks,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will
    have nothing.  The people of the ruler who will come will destroy
    the city and the sanctuary.

Daniel was a wise young man who lived in Babylon during the Babylonian
captivity.  He informs that he wrote this passage in the first year of
the reign of King Darius, son of Xerxes (Daniel 9:1).  From history, we
know that the reign of King Darius began in the year 538 or 537 B.C.

Daniel further informs that he was reading the Scriptures which had
foretold both the Babylonian captivity and the return of the captive
Israelites to their land.  Thus, he says, ``. . . . I, Daniel,
understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord
given to Jeremiah the Prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would
last seventy years (Daniel 9:2).''

Jeremiah also stated, ``This whole land shall be a desolation and a
horror and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy
years (Jeremiah 25:11).'' At the end of this time, the Lord said,
``When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you
and fulfill my good word to you, to bring you back to this place
(Jeremiah 29:10).''

Daniel had been involved in the first deportation to Babylon, in 605 B.C.
when Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabopolassar, the king of Babylon, had invaded
Israel.  In 538 B.C.  (67 years later), Daniel realised from his study of
Jeremiah that the 70-year captivity was nearing its completion.

Daniel further realised that the reason for Israel's captivity was their
refusal to obey God (Jeremiah 29:17-19).  The prophets had continually
warned Israel about the consequences of seeking false gods and of ignoring
God's commandments.

Specifically, Israel had ignored God's command to give the land a sabbatical
rest.  Leviticus 26:33-35 states:

    I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and will draw out a sword
    against you; and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
    Then shall the land enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate,
    while you are in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest
    and enjoy its sabbaths.  As long as it lies desolate it shall rest;
    because it did not rest in your sabbaths when you dwelt upon it.

Hence the period of exile would be a time of rest for the land - a time for
its sabbaths, while Israel was removed from her land due to her disobedience
in this area.  This is stated again, later in Leviticus 26:43:

    The land shall also be left by them, and shall enjoy its sabbaths
    while it lies desolate without them; and they shall accept the
    punishment of their iniquity because they have despised my judgments
    and because their soul abhorred my statutes.

The sabbaths spoken of in these passages are seven year sabbaths, for the
law of Moses stated that the land should be tilled for six years and then
allowed to lie fallow on the seventh year (Exodus 23:9-11; Leviticus 25:2-5)
as a sabbath to the Lord.  As this commandment was disobeyed, the land was
to lie fallow for a period of 70 years.  The book of II Chronicles records
that during the Babylonian captivity the land enjoyed its sabbath rests:

    And those who had escaped from the sword he carried away captive to
    Babylon, where they became servants to him and to his sons until the
    Lord delivered the kingdom to the Persians; to fulfill the word of
    the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet until the land had
    enjoyed its sabbaths, all the days that it lay desolate until the
    seventy years were completed (II Chronicles 36:20-21).

Ankerberg comments:

    Because they had disobeyed, they were suffering one year of captivity
    for every Sabbath year they had neglected.  Daniel realized that the
    70 years of punishment stood for each of the Sabbath years that
    Israel had not kept over a 490-year period of time (490 years / 70
    disobedient Sabbaths = 70 years of captivity).  Daniel concluded
    that before the exiles returned to their homeland, they needed to
    confess and repent of their sin of disobedience before God.  He
    proceeded to confess the sins of the nation in prayer.  At that point
    the angel Gabriel appeared and gave him the astonishing message about
    the Messiah in the future.  (John Ankerberg, John Weldon and Walter
    Kaiser, _The Case for Jesus The Messiah_ (Melbourne: Pacific College
    Study Series, 1994), 68)

There is no doubt that Gabriel's message refers to the Messiah, because the
Hebrew word which is used is _Mashiach_, which must be translated as
``Messiah'' or ``Anointed One.''

Of course, some skeptics doubt this, claiming that Gabriel is actually
referring to Cyrus, king of Persia.  However, this cannot be the case,
because (as shall be shown), verses 25 and 26 declare that the Messiah will
not arrive until some 400 years _after_ Cyrus lived.  Others believe Gabriel
is talking about Antiochus Ephiphanes, a Syrian ruler.  However, he died in
164 B.C., and again, as shall be shown, the prophecy talks about the Messiah
coming to Jerusalem almost another 200 years after that!  Therefore, the
individual called _Mashiach Nagid_ - Messiah the Prince - cannot refer to
either Cyrus or Antiochus Epiphanes.  As Professor E. J. Young has said,
``The non-Messianic interpretation is utterly inadequate (Idem, 69).''

Whoever the Messiah actually is, the prophecy states that He will appear
_after_ the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, and be killed _before_
the city and its Temple are again destroyed.

Continuing with the prophecy, Gabriel informed Daniel that the Messiah would
come after a period of seven ``weeks'' followed by sixty-two ``weeks'' -
hence sixty-nine ``weeks'' in total.  After this He would be ``cut off'' -
the Hebrew verb here frequently referring to a form of violent death (Ibid.).

However, what does the term ``weeks'' mean? In modern times, a ``week'' is
restricted to seven days.  However, the Hebrew word is not similarly
constrained and instead refers to ``units of seven''.  In fact, the word
translated ``week'' literally means ``sevens'' and was a common Jewish term
for seven _years_.  In chapter 10 Daniel specifically inserts the word
``days'' when referring to the three weeks of days of fasting.  Smith adds:

    Whereas westerners think in terms of units of ten years (decades),
    the Israelites organized years into units of seven.  Every seventh
    year the land was to be fallow (Exod.  23:11) and Hebrew slaves were
    to be set free after seven years of service (Deut.  15:12) (Smith,
    op. cit., 383-384).

Having established this, the prophecy continues to state that these periods
of seven years will not begin until a decree to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem has taken place.  Much debate rages over when this decree was
actually issued.  Smith states that the ``interpretation of Daniel 9:24-27
is notoriously difficult.  It baffles the acumen of the wisest scholar
(Smith, op. cit., 389)'' and discusses numerous methods used to interpret
this passage, giving quite differing starting dates (Idem, 389-396).

In essence, there are four likely dates where the 70 heptads may begin to be
counted from.  However, three of these are invalid.

Firstly, it could not be the edict issued by Cyrus in 539 B.C.
(II Chronicles 36:22) because Cyrus' command refers to the rebuilding of the
Temple, and not to the city.  Further, the inhabitants of the city did not
erect natural defences around the city in order to defend themselves - hence
this was not a complete rebuilding, as was prophesied.

Secondly, it could not be the decree which was issued in 519/18 B.C.  by
Tattenia, governor of Judah (Ezra 5:3-17).  His decree simply confirmed
Cyrus', referring again to the Temple, and not to the city.

Thirdly, it could not be the decree of Artaxerxes to Ezra in 457 B.C.
(Ezra 7:12-16).  Yet again, this decree says nothing about the city of
Jerusalem, only the Temple.

Fourthly and finally, the only possible decree was that issued by Artaxerxes
to Nehemiah in 444 B.C. (Nehemiah 2:1-8).  This directly refers to the
prophesied restoration of the city gates and walls (c.f. Daniel 9:25).  In
addition, Artaxerxes wrote a letter to Asaph specifically asking for
materials which would be used to build the walls of Jerusalem
(Nehemiah 2:8).  In both Nehemiah and Ezra one is informed that the
restoration of the walls was performed in most distressing circumstances
(Ezra 4:7-23) - again, compare with Daniel 9:25.  No later decrees were
given by Persian kings pertaining to the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

With confidence that the decree of Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. is the decree that
Gabriel spoke of, it is now possible to determine when the first seven and
sixty-two ``weeks'', that is, 483 years (69 x 7 = 483) was completed -
when the Messiah would be killed.

In order to do this, however, the length of a year must be established.
The calendar year used in the Scriptures can only be determined from the
Scriptures themselves, which gives a length of 360 days.  For example,
comparing Genesis 7:11 with 8:4 and the two of these with 7:24 and 8:3
reveals that the flood began on the 17th day of the second month, and came
to an end on the 17th day of the seventh month - a period of exactly five
months.  In 8:3 the length of the five month period is given as exactly
150 days.  This implies that each month contained 30 days, and thus
twelve months would contain 360 days.

Another example is in Daniel 9:27 where the final seven years of the
prophecy is split in half by a future persecution, which is obviously three
and a half years.  Two chapters earlier in Daniel 7:24-25 the same
persecution is spoken of.  Again, it is referred to as three and a half
years (times, time and half a time).  Revelation 13:4-7 speaks of the same
persecution lasting 42 months - exactly three and a half years.  Finally,
Revelation 12:13 and 14 speak of the same event, as times, time and half a
time (like Daniel earlier).  Finally, in Revelation 12:6 this same period
is given an exact amount of days - 1,260 days.  For 1,260 days to equal
three and a half years, consisting of 42 months, a year must last 360 days.

Thus the number of days in a year as used by Gabriel in the prophecy is
fixed by Scripture itself as exactly 360 days.  This is supported by
Jerome, who stated in 406-408 A.D.  that ``the Hebrews. . . . did not number
their months according to the movement of the sun [365 days], but rather
according to the moon [360 days] (Ankerberg et. al., op. cit., 128).''
Whereas a 360-day calendar sounds strange in modern times, it was the common
calendar of the Jewish people, who had various methods of adjusting their
360 days so that the year would come out correctly with a solar year (Ibid.).

Thus, from the decree of Artaxerxes in 444 B.C.  until after the death of
the Messiah we find the very times in which Christ Himself lived.  Professor
Harold W.  Hoehner in his ``Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ''
explains in considerable detail:

    Using the [accepted] 360-day [lunar] year the calculation would be as
    follows.  Multiplying the 69 weeks by seven years for each week by 360
    days gives a total of 173,880 days.  The difference between 444 B.C.
    and A.D.  33, then, is 476 solar years.  By multiplying 476 by
    365.24219879 or by 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45.975 seconds, one
    comes to 173,855.28662404 days or 173,855 days, 6 hours, 52 minutes,
    44 seconds.  This leaves only 25 days to be accounted for between
    444 B.C.  and A.D.  33.  By adding the 25 days to March 5 (of 444
    B.C.), one comes to March 30 (of A.D. 33) which was Nisan 10 [Jewish
    calendar] in A.D. 33.  This is the triumphal entry of Jesus into
    Jerusalem. . . . As predicted in Zechariah 9:9, Christ presented
    Himself to Israel as Messiah the King for the last time and the
    multitude of the disciples shouted loudly by quoting from a Messianic
    psalm: `Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord'
    (Ps. 118:26; Mt. 21:9; Mk. 11:10; Lk. 19:38; Jn. 12:13).  This
    occurred on Monday, Nisan 10 (March 30) and only four days later on
    Friday, Nisan 14, April 3rd, A.D.  33, Jesus was cut off or
    crucified (Idem, 128-129).

The prophecy also reveals that the Messiah would seal up sin, make atonement
and so forth.  Indeed ``Through faith in Christ a righteousness from God
apart from the law has been made known (Romans 3:21-26).''

Was this passage recognised by the Jewish people as Messianic? Indeed so,
because it explicitly talks of the Messiah - although as the Messiah's death
is mentioned, some denied this.  However others stated that this passage
predicted the time of the Messiah's appearing so exactly, that if Christ was
not the Messiah, then Israel had no Messiah (Ankerberg. et. al., op. cit.,
72-73)!

davidmwilliams@oocities.com