Chapter 6: The Decree of 457 B.C., The Jews return.
483 Years:
Daniel 9:24. This section of Daniel was written in the first year of Darius, the king of the Persia, in the year 530 B.C. This is the same year Cyrus the Great, king of Persia was beheaded at the battle of Massagetae.
Daniel writes in 9:24-25, “Seventy weeks (490 Years) are determined upon your (Daniel’s) people (the Jews) and upon the holy city (Jerusalem), to finish (end) the transgression, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophesy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto (to) the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks (483 Years): the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”
From the above, we are told, after a full 490 Years have ended, everlasting righteousness shall be brought in by Jesus Christ. Now it’s up to us to break this 490 Years down so it makes sense and does not force or distort any verses or words.
The prophesy is broken down into several segments beginning with the command to restore and to build Jerusalem until the Messiah the Prince.
The first segment of time is seven weeks, meaning 49 Years. This began when the command was given in 457 A.D. The second segment was 62 weeks, or 434 years. The third part, one week or 7 years is not mentioned in Daniel 9:25, but is picked up in Dan.9:27.
We are told that this seven years will be broken into 2 periods, of 3 ½ years each. So here is what we need to be figured out.
- Who gave the command to the Jews to return home?
- When was the command given?
- When did the first 49 years begin and end?
- When did the 434 years begin and end?
- When does the first 3 ½ years of the seven begin, and who is it that confirms that?
- When does the second 3 ½ years begin and end, and who’s to confirm it?
The last part of the prophesy in Dan.9:24, “to finish (to end) the transgression, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophesy, and to anoint the most Holy,” is to be fulfilled only after the last seven years has been completed, and the day the Lord sets up his 1000 Year reign.
Dan.9:24, “Seventy weeks (490 Years) are determined upon your (Daniel’s) people (the Jews) and upon the holy city (Jerusalem),
In the first year of Darius, king of Persia in the year 530 B.C., is when the angel Gabriel informed Daniel of the prophesy. The prophesy concerns a future king of Persia. That king would be Artaxerxes who began his rule in the year 457 B.C.
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 (49 Years) and threescore and two weeks (434 Years): the street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublous times.” The period mentioned above, covers only 483 years, and not the whole 490 years.
Four words stand out in the verse and must be examined and understood. They are, Restore: Build: Street: and Wall.
The 1st word is Restore:
In most commentaries I have read, the word “Restore” has been miss-represented. Its true meaning in Hebrew speaks of the Jews returning, being sent back to their former residence, to the place of their original habitation, that place, Israel. So, to restore means to return from captivity.
The 2ed word is “build,” means to construct, repair: to bring back to its past condition; raise up and establish.
3ed word is “Street. (refers to the open square in Jerusalem):”
The 4th word: is “Wall.” In Hebrew “wall” has several meanings: (1) In Daniel it speaks of a ditch or moat, (2) and the wall surrounded Jerusalem. Obviously, after 70 years in captivity, the moat, wall and square in the city were in dire need of repair.
Now, when we move forward in time from the year 457 B.C. when the king published his decree for the Jews to return, until the end of the 69 weeks of years, or 483 literal years, we would be standing in the year 26 A.D.
It was in October of 26 A.D. when Jesus, the prophesied Messiah, the Prince of Peace would be revealed to the religious leaders, and the people of Israel at the river Jordon. This happened when Jesus was 30 Years of age, see Luke 3:23.
Jesus was baptized by John; then by the Holy Spirit; then declared by His Father in heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” So there we have three witnesses
Then Jesus was sent into the wilderness; fasted for 40 days and during that time tempted of the devil. Luke 4:2, “Being forty days tempted (tested) of the devil.” After fasting forty days he was tempted 3 more times by the devil, and when it was over, Jesus said to the devil,
Matt.4:10, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, you shall worship the LORD your God, and him only shall you serve.”
Matt.4:11, “Then the devil left him.” Also, we read in Luke 3:13, “the devil departed only for a season.”
When did that season end for the devil? 3 ½ years after the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus was at the last supper with the twelve. This would be the devils second attack on Jesus, the season for him had arrived,
Luke 22:3, “Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he (Judas) went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him (Jesus) unto them.”
Let’s back up once more to the days soon after Jesus baptism. He goes to the Synagogue to read from the book of Isaiah, Luke 16-30. After the Lord closed the book, the people,
Verse 29, “Rose up, and thrust him (Jesus) out of the city, and led him unto the brow (edge of precipice) of the hill where their city was built, so that they (the crowd) might throw him down headlong. But he passed through the middle of them and went his way.”
Now we know, after his baptism by the Holy Spirit, in October of 26 A.D. he would first be tested by the devil; then confronted with violence by the Jews in the synagogue. The war between the devil and his disciples was about to explode into a full scale spiritual war, lasting 3 ½ years, until Jesus death on the cross.
So, it was in Oct of 26 A.D. after Jesus temptation with the devil in the wilderness when the Lord would be cut off by the people. But, soon after, he began to confirm the new covenant found in Jer.31:31 with the people. Of course, we know they rejected the message and the messanger.
This would finish the 69 weeks, or 483 years end on October of 26 A.D. So, the final 3 ½ Years of confirming God’s new covenant with the Jews remains unfulfilled.
When Artaxerxes made his decree in 457 B.C., the Jews returned to their homeland to begin repairing Jerusalem, the square, the moats, and the walls surrounding the city. But, the work on the Temple would not be finished until Herod the Great ruled, more than 400 years after the Jews returned.
When the year 26 A.D. ended, two parts of Artaxerxes prophesy had been completed. The first 7 weeks or 49 years began in 457 B.C. and ended in 408 B.C.
408 B.C. ended the Old Testament prophets and their writing. Malachi was the last book to be written and finished sometime late in the 4th century B.C. 408 B.C., may have been the year Malachi died, fulfilling the 49 years.
The next 62 weeks of years, meaning 434 Years ended in 26 A.D. as prophesied. The above period of time began and ended exactly to the day and year declared by God. What remains are the final 3 ½ years of the 7 Years.
I find no evidence from Christ’s baptism to this day 2018, where exactly 7 years fits anything in history. Some try to attach it to the Temples destruction. Not so! Only several days before the Lord went to the cross in April of 30 A.D., He declared;
Matt.23:38, “Your house (the Jews) is left unto you desolate (abandoned).” The Temple had been abandoned by God, having no further value to Him or the Jews.
“For I (Jesus) say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth, until you (the Jews) shall say, blessed is He that comes in the name of the LORD.” This is yet to be fulfilled.
Matt.24:1, “And (after Jesus said the above) he “went out, and departed from the temple,” no evidence He had ever returned.
Why was the Temple now valueless? Because, there was no Levitical priests as ordered by law. The Ark of the Covenant was missing, the mercy seat and eternal flame, gone! These were the types, the shadows of the things to come, and when Jesus came, He was rejected. Jesus Christ was that antitype, the real deal.
He is to the Jews, their King, their High Priest who is after the order of Melchizedek; he is that mercy seat; he is the Ark of the Covenant that held the rod of Aaron, the broken stone in which the law had been written; and the manna from heaven.
Also, the Holy Spirit with Christ was that eternal flame. Once they left, the Temple was of no further value to God or the people.
In Matt.24:3, in early April of 30 A.D., days before the cross, at the top of the Mt of Olives Jesus points to the buildings of the Temple Mt. and the Temples and said,
“See you all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Some 40 years later, Jesus the prince of the people, sent in the armies of Rome under the command of general Titus to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple. This was God’s will.
God did just as He had done when he sent in Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple; as He had sent Cyrus, Darius, Alexander, Seleucid, Antiochus, and the Romans to punish the Jewish people with the rod and the stripes of men.
70 A.D. fulfill God’s prophesy. Over a million Jews were killed, and some 100,000 thousand taken into captivity, the Temple destroyed as was Jerusalem.
Prophesy fulfilled!
Phil LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com