What Daniel Said About the Coming Messiah
Daniel in the lion's den.
Daniel lived from 620 BC to 536 BC
Daniel 9:20-26
I went on praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, pleading with the Lord my God for Jerusalem, his holy mountain.
As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice.
He explained to me, “Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding.
The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God. Listen carefully so that you can understand the meaning of your vision.
A period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times.
After this period of sixty-two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end.”
Daniel’s Messiah Summary
Daniel’s prophecies about the Messiah are somewhat different than the other giants of the faith. Daniel gave a very specific timetable for the coming of the Anointed One that included the prediction that the Messiah would be killed. Daniel also states that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed. At the time Daniel made this prediction, the city and the Temple had not yet been rebuilt from the Babylonian destruction in 586 BC. Let’s look at Daniel’s timetable for the arrival and murder of the Messiah. Our starting point is “from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem.”
According to the prophet Nehemiah, the order to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls was issued in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king (Nehemiah 2:1-8). Artaxerxes first became king in the year 465 B.C. That would make the 20th year of his rule 445 B.C. This is the starting point for Daniel’s messianic prophecy.
This is where our study gets a little complex. In Daniel’s time, the Jewish calendar consisted of twelve, 30-day months per year or 360 days per year. If we take Daniel’s prophecy in the above verses and convert years to days, it becomes possible to overlay our modern-day Julian calendar, or 365 days per year, with a leap year day added every four years to Daniel’s prophecy. Daniel prophesied that the Anointed One would arrive in Jerusalem 173,880 days after the order to rebuild was issued. This is arrived at by taking (7 x 7) + (62 x 7)= 483 years. Then we take 483 years multiplied by 360 day (the number of days in the Jewish calendar year during Daniel’s time) = 173,880 days. If we divide these 173,880 days by our modern 365 day calendar, we get 476.38 years. Then we must factor in 119 leap year days (476.38 years divided by 4 -- one day added every 4 years = 119 extra days). This gives us a fairly firm 476.7 years after the Artaxerxes order was given. If we plot this out in an equation, it this looks like this:
476.38÷4=119; 119+173,880=173,999÷365=476.7
An Important Note on the Daniel Prophecy
Because of the historical discrepancies about the number of days in the Jewish calendar year (the issue presented in the chapter dealing with the Temple priest work schedules), it is important to also examine Daniel’s 69 Weeks Messiah Death Prophecy using the Hebrew lunar calendar and Hebrew solar calendar.
Messiah Prophecy Using the Lunar Calendar
Using the same 483 years (69 weeks) after the order to rebuild Jerusalem was given, when the angel Gabriel said the Anointed One would be killed, here are our findings:
Take 483 years multiplied by 354 days in the lunar calendar, and we arrive at 170,982 days. Next, divide 170,982 days by our 365 modern day Julian calendar, and we come up with 468.44 years. If we add 117 days for the leap years, we come up with a total of 468.8 years from the time the order was given to rebuild Jerusalem which was 445 BC.
This would make Gabriel’s Messiah Death Prophecy around the lunar calendar date 24 AD.
Messiah Prophecy Using the Solar Calendar
Take 483 years multiplied by 364 days in the solar calendar, and we arrive at 175,812 days. Next, divide 175,812 days by our 365 modern day Julian calendar and come up with 481.67 years. If we add 120.42 days for the leap years, we come up with a total of 482 years from the time the order was given to rebuild Jerusalem in 445 BC.
This would make Gabriel’s Messiah Death Prophecy around the solar calendar date 37 AD.
Daniel Timeline Conclusions
All three of the calendar equations call for the Messiah to be killed early in the first century AD between 24 AD and 37AD.
Daniel's Messiah Prophecy
The book of Daniel tells us how the prophet was visited by the angel Gabriel and told when the arrival of the Messiah would take place. Gabriel told Daniel that 173,880 days after the order to rebuild Jerusalem is given, the Anointed One would be killed before his work was finished. We believe the order to rebuild the Holy City was issued in 445 BC by King Artaxerxes to Nehemiah. From what we know about the number of days in the Jewish calendar during Daniel’s lifetime, Gabriel told Daniel the Messiah would be killed in or around 24-37 AD.
In Other Words:
The Messiah would be killed before his work was completed. This was to take place between 24-37 AD.
