Let us move on to the end date, and the other significant dates in between.

What are the significant dates on the other end, and what happened then?

This week's study presents another longer prophecy, the 2300 day/year prophecy.

Using Daniel 9:24 (quoted below), both last week's and this week's study says that the 70 week/490 year prophecy was cut off from the longer 2300 day/year one of Daniel 8:13-14 (also quoted below).

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Dan 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined {cut off} upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

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Dan 8:13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spoke, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?
Dan 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

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How do we get from Daniel 9:24 that it is cut off from that of Daniel 8:13-14?

Daryl,

Chapter 8 ends thus: “‘The vision of the evenings and the mornings which has been told is true; but seal up the vision, for it pertains to many days hence.’ And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days; then I rose and went about the king's business; but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.”
Then comes chapter 9, and when the angel arrives, he says, “‘O Daniel, I have now come out to give you wisdom and understanding. At the beginning of your supplications a word went forth, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the word and understand the vision. Seventy weeks are decreed [cut off] concerning your people...’” (verses 22-24).
The angel tells Daniel to understand the vision, but no vision followed, just an explanation; therefore, the vision referred to can only be the vision of chapter 8, “the vision of the evenings and the mornings”, which Daniel had not understood.

From the word study in Thursdays section last week it is clear that the message from Gabriel in Dan 9 is an explanation about the time period of the previous chapter. The link isn't numbers themselves but the "vision" reference in ch.9...

Yes, the word mareh...

The 70 weeks prophecy has a definitive start mentioned by the angel, which is the issuance of Arthaxerxes decree to rebuild Jerusalem. But not the 2300 evenings and mornings.

Is it right to give a same start of dating to the 2300 evenings and mornings as the starting date of the 70 weeks prophecy?

There were four decree issued regarding the rebuilding of Jerusalem; Cyrus in 536 BC, Darius in 519 BC, Arthaxerxes in 457 BC and 444 BC. Why we take 457 BC as a starting date?

In His love

James S

James,

I think that was also asked and discussed in the Lesson Study #7 topic, however, seeing it is also part of this study, it can also be discussed here.

To me the end dates of the various aspects of the 70 week/490 year prophecy verifies that 457 BC is the correct start date.

James,

As far as the start date goes for the 2300 day/year prophecy, do you see any other possible start date?

I'm scheduled to teach this tomorrow in SS, so I did a bit of review. (And also to answer my own question from last week.) I'm just going to lay out my thoughts, with little pre-determined order. I hope this makes some kind of sense.

I found several books that had a lot of good information. Clifford Goldstein's book, 1844 Made Simple, is a good one for starters (and this quarter is mostly taken from that book). Then there's the Daniel and Revelation Committee series by the BRI (a bit heavy, but good info). There's also The Santuary and the Atonement (if only I could get my hands on the unabridged version...).

Goldstein makes it clear in his book and the quarterly that his arguments and conclusions are based on the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. The first 69 weeks of the prophecy ends with the "anointing" of the Messiah. Half way through the last week, the Messiah is "cut off" (not the same word as Dan 9:24). Historical sources date Christ's baptism to AD27, and He was sacrificed about 3.5 years later. You set down those dates and 457BC is the only date that makes sense for the start of the 70 weeks.

This should work well for convincing Christians of the 457BC date, but not so well for non-Christians. However, those who separate the 70th week from the rest might not be so easily convinced.

Goldstein's arguments based on hazon and mareh are pretty convincing to show that the 70 weeks is cut off from the 2300 days. William Shea makes an argument based on the literary structure of Daniel 8 and 9. Basically, Dan 9 is unlike chaps 7 and 8 in that it puts the time elements at the beginning of the chapter, causing the 70 weeks to be adjacent to the part of Dan 8 where the 2300 days should have been explained.

Where do we cut off the 70 weeks?

If you cut it off at the end, that means that the time of the end was around AD34 - doesn't fit. Plus, analysis of Dan 8 points to the Medo-Persian kingdom as the start of the 2300 days. That puts the end well past AD34.

Daniel 7 puts a 1260-year reign of the little horn before the judgment. Goldstein argues that the judgment must happen after the 1260 years, which is reasonable. We know, and Goldstein pointed this out a few weeks ago, that the cleansing of the sanctuary and the judgment are closely linked. That would put the end of the 2300 days after the 1260 years.

That narrows down the end date of the 2300 days to some time in the late 18th or early 19th century. That means that the 70 weeks must be cut off somewhere near the start of the 2300 days.

I haven't yet found anything that a non-Adventist would accept to pinpoint the end of the 2300 days to 1844. But I don't see how it really matters to us today. Rather than wrestling over the 50-year uncertainty, I prefer to focus on the certainty of judgment and righteousness.

Arnold,

What 50-year uncertainty?