Post by Questor on Dec 4, 2015 14:43:24 GMT -8
This is a very long and detailed explanation written as an article about the three different Calendars... Gregorian, Julian and Israeli; Yeshua’s entry into Jerusalem; and why it affects prophecy during the end times.
My apologies to all for the length of this post, but I had to explain all of this as I wrote about it just to keep track of all the details.
My thanks to everyone who has attempted to explain all of this in the past and from whom I have learned over the last 19 years when I first began to understand when Yeshua actually rode into Jerusalem, how to prove it, and why it matters. As this information is not a unique discovery, merely a concerted effort at describing how all the elements fit together, a lot of others work inevitably got mixed into mine, and my apologies to all for my lack of scholarly notation.
There are many prophecies concerning the Messiah to be found in the Hebrew Scriptures. The majority of them are the glorious kingly and priestly prophecies which Yeshua haNotsri did not fulfill when he was on earth some two thousand years ago.
Rabbinical Jews typically point to this fact as proof that Yeshua ha Notsri is not the Messiah.
Those of us, who believe Yeshua haNotsri is alive and returning, believe that he will fulfill all of these glorious prophecies when he returns. But there are a few Messianic prophecies that are not glorious and indicate that the Messiah would suffer. Isaiah 53 is probably the most notable of them. Here are a few excerpts.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and YHWH has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ... He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare his generation? For he was cut off (karat - Hebrew ) from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people, he was stricken, and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah 53:5-6, 8-9
This chapter from Isaiah concerning the suffering servant is best read in its entirety. It's too large to print here. On the occasions when Jewish teachers try to address this prophecy we are told that the suffering servant is Israel as a nation and not prophetic of Yeshua haNotsri. We are told that Israel is suffering for its own sins in this passage. But there are several things wrong with this picture.
The first is Isaiah's use of the term "cut off", (karat) which means killed or executed. This understanding is evident in that the one "cut off" was removed from "the land of the living". Israel as a nation of people has never ceased to exist and continues to live.
Secondly is the idea that Israel is suffering for its own sins, when this prophecy clearly indicates that someone other than "My people" (Israel) is suffering on Israel's behalf.
Thirdly, is the picture in the prophecy that this suffering person had done nothing wrong and was guiltless.
How could this possibly be speaking of Israel as a nation? Are we really to believe that Israel is his own guiltless sufferer who is suffering for his own sins? The Jewish picture caves-in on itself. The interpretation simply doesn't fit the passage, and it should be apparent that some Jewish teachers are desperately trying to find some interpretation other than the obvious.
So, however transparent the prophecy in Isaiah is to Believers in Yeshua ha Notsri as Mashiach, it is crucial to bring a prophecy about the Messiah that can be proven without doubt, and this is where the Book Daniel comes in in describing the same suffering servant picture of Messiah, but tells us exactly when the advent of the Messiah would be.
The angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel and gave him a prophecy concerning when the Messiah would come and what would happen to him. Before it can be interpreted, there are important details in this prophecy that need to be understood.
"Seventy weeks (70x7=490 years) are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks (69 weeks total - 49 years, then 434 years for a total of 483 years) The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks (which is the end of the same 483 years) Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be as with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week (7 years); But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate." Daniel 9:24-27
Here again it is prophesied that the Messiah would be executed, and again not for himself. (Ein Lo)
This prophecy is impossible to avoid and I have yet to hear an argument as to how this could be in reference to anyone or anything other than Yeshua haNotsri once you realize that Israel cannot fulfill the actually prophecy, but that only a single person can.
Many Jews have become Messianic believers in Yeshua haNotsri on the basis of this prophecy alone. But not only does this prophecy predict the execution of the Messiah, it predicts when he would come...to the day.
The term "week" in this prophecy is generally accepted to be a period of 7 years. One of the most important keys to unlocking its interpretation is to remember that this prophecy focuses on the city of Jerusalem. Nearly all expositors seem to lose track of this fact before reaching the end of the prophecy.
Gabriel said that at the end of the 490-year period would come the end of Jerusalem's troubles. Everlasting righteousness would come, and the Holy of Holies in the temple would once again be anointed with the presence of God. The picture Gabriel paints of the time immediately following the fulfillment of the 70 weeks is a description of the Messianic age.
However, understanding the time frames given by Gabriel has been a bit of a nightmare for scholars. The full time frame of 490 years is obviously divided into three parts. They are 49 years, then 434 years, and 7 years. The first two parts are evidently consecutive and together add up to 483 years. Then there is a gap or span of time between the end of the 483 years and the last 7 years.
The first 483 years of this prophecy is the total amount of time that would elapse between two specific events, specified as (1)) "...the going forth of the decree to restore and build Jerusalem", and (2) “the appearing of "Messiah the Prince" in Jerusalem”.
Fourthly, we have the difficulty of the calendars, and how time is calculated in prophecy.
So, instead of trying to make historical events fit the 483 year time frame, it is best to approach it from a different angle and start by looking at the prophecy itself to establish which events best fit the description of the prophecy.
The first event is the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. There were two decrees issued 13 years apart by Artaxerxes, King of Persia.
The first decree as recorded in Ezra 7 is the fulfillment of the first part of this prophecy, the initial 7 years of the 490 total years of the prophecy. Here, Ezra gives a year and month in which Artaxerxes, King of Persia, issued a decree to go and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. It was in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king’s reign. The problem with this decree is that it concerns rebuilding the temple, and has nothing to do with the city of Jerusalem.
It is the second decree of Artaxerxes that came 13 years later that specifically concerns the city. This decree is recorded in Nehemiah 2 where it says the decree went out in the Hebrew month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes.
This date would have been anywhere from mid-March to late April in the year 445 B.C on the Gregorian Calendar, and 446 B.C. on the Julian Calendar which is used to establish the date of the going out of the decree from Babylon to rebuild the City of Jerusalem…not the Temple that most of the scholarly people in the past have used, but more often reject as the beginning of the time specified in the prophecy because 483 calendar years later takes us to 38 A.D. This is at least 6 years too late to reconcile with any event during Yeshua haNotsri's time.
"...from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince..."
"...until Messiah the Prince..." When Messiah the Prince comes into Jerusalem as the Messiah. This is crucial to determining what event is being talked about in reference to the specified years in Daniel’s prophecy.
The central figures throughout the prophecy are the Messiah and Jerusalem together. There is only one event in the life of Yeshua haNotsri that can fit this prophecy. Interestingly enough, this event has a parallel prophecy.
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey." Zechariah 9:9
I know…this sounds off track, but it’s really important, and people often dismiss it. This is a prophecy of Yeshua's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In the record of this event found in Luke 19:28-44, Yeshua haNotsri also said something interesting as he was riding the colt toward the city:
"At that time, Yeshua was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying; "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" And some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." But he answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." Now as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace..." Luke 19:37-42a
This day was no ordinary day. It was apparently so special, had not the disciples praised Yeshua haNotsri as the Messiah, the stones apparently would have done the job for them. And Yeshua said to Jerusalem, "in this your day"!
What day?
The very day the prophecies from Daniel and Zechariah were fulfilled. The prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27 states the coming of Mashiach as being on a particular day, in a particular year: the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 describes the details of how it is fulfilled in a particular way, while other prophecies describe what happens on that day, and are not included for sake of brevity.
There is only one year that works for everything in the combined prophecies, and on all three calendars
used in calculating exactly what day Yeshua rode into Jerusalem.
On the Gregorian calendar it would have fallen on Saturday, March 30, 30 AD; April 1, 30 AD on the Julian calendar, and on Nissan 10**, 3790 on the Israeli Calendar.
See Attached File for 3/30/30 AD Gregorian Calendar Nisan 10, 3790 Israeli Calendar
and Attached File for 3/20/445 BC Gregorian Calendar Nisan 1, 3315 Israeli Calendar
That particular Saturday was four days before Erev Passover on Wednesday of the following week, when Yeshua was crucified, with Passover beginning at sunset on Wednesday by Western Caculations, but in the evening of Thursday, the 15th day of Nissan 3790, which equates to the Julian calendar AD 30.
**Westerners, please remember that computer calendar converters do not take into account the half day known as Erev on any day from the Western calendars that begin on their calendars at midnight of the following day in the West. 00:00 hours shows the Israeli times as opposed to the Western Calendars which are correct only at 12:00 midnight.
Consequently, Saturday the 10th of Nissan didn’t begin until Midnight of Sunday for Westerners (Making it Palm Sunday to the Greco-Romans) but was actually Shabbat haGadol, the Sabbath before Passover, and the actual day of the month in that particular year where 10 Nisan fell on a Shabbat when one chooses a lamb for sacrifice on Passover, then you tie it near your home for 4 days, get real cuddly with it, while the kids name it, and then it really hurts when you have to kill it.…or so goes the rational of these matters.
Riding a donkey is only permitted on Shabbat if it has not ever been ridden before, thus not needing a Sabbath rest,
and then only by the King of Israel!
What else was so significant about Yeshua riding on a donkey?
By riding a colt of a donkey on the Sabbath Yeshua was making a specific claim that He was Mashiach, the anointed One, and King of Kings.....because, according to the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, and Rabbinical reasoning, only a donkey that had never been ridden before could legally be ridden on the Sabbath...and to do so was indicative of kingship, and of being the Messiah.
Zechariah 9.9 prophesied:
Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.’
This prophecy is referred to in Matthew:
Yeshua said .., ‘Go into the village opposite you, and you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.’...All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet. Matthew 21.1-5
The law is specifically stated:
Exodus 23:12 "Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest"
God’s instructions in the
are clear that even ‘your donkey’ must rest on the Sabbath. So, Yeshua‘s decision to enter Jerusalem sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey must have happened on the Sabbath, because for it to have happened on any other day would have had no significance.
Thus, Yeshua's triumphal entry into Jerusalem had to be on a Sabbath for a colt of a donkey to be important, or mentioned at all. This helps mark the year that Yeshua entered into Jerusalem on a colt of a donkey.
Now, we have a Sabbath prior to Passover occurring on a Wednesday (Western Calculation), and had to be in a year prior to the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, that also matches the approximate time we know Yeshua was crucified according to standard historical writings. This marks a Passover week that begins on the Sabbath, with the lambs being inspected on the 10th of Nisan. Yeshua, being the ultimate Passover 'Lamb'...the lamb that like the first sacrifice in Egypt would keep death away...the second death, at judgement, presented himself to all the people of Jerusalem, and being hailed as Messiah, much to the dismay of the Temple Hierarchy.
Also, by riding an unworked colt of a donkey on the Sabbath Yeshua was making a specific point that he was Messiah, the Anointed One, and King of Kings.....because, according to the Rabbis, only a donkey that had never been ridden before could legally be ridden on the Sabbath as it had never been worked...and to do so was in indicative of kingship. (Sanhedrin 98a)
Considering the extreme accuracy of the prophecy in Daniel I am trying to explain, stranger things have happened.
Just look at the Gregorian calendar date for Yeshua’s entry into Jerusalem…30th of March in 30 AD. The year AD 28 has the same configuration of days of the week for that year, but is not the right gematria of three 3’s (appearing in the date according to the Gregorian Calender), so one thinks of G-d being involved as no calendar had been changed as yet by the Romans, and the Gregorian Calendar was not even thought of yet, whereas the Julian Calendar was set in place by Julius Caesar in 46 BC.
The historical date setting used by everybody to correlate calendars before the Julian calendar rests on the date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, long before Daniel got to Babylon in 605 BC, while the Byzantine Calendar was only required by Emperor Justinian in 557 BC. These dates are important so that you can judge how long before Decree of Artaxerxes occurred that Daniel wrote the prophecies down, beginning in at least 480 BC, and establishes just how much calendar juggling was done with only the loss of ten/eleven days between east and west by the time the Gregorian Calendar was put into place for the Western world by the Catholic Church in 1582 AD. The details are boring, but they are also critical in the accuracy of the timing of the prophecy.
Now, let’s talk about the Fast of the First Born Son. What has this to do with Prophecy? Nothing, exactly, but it explains the reason that Yeshua hosted a celebratory dinner for himself and his twelve talmidim on the Erev Preparation day for the Passover (Tuesday Night to Westerners). He was not celebrating Passover early. The bread was not unleavened either, as the Feast of Unleavened Bread had not yet begun.
Yeshua hosted 'a feast day' Tuesday evening (Western Calculation) during Passover week in AD 30, in the earliest hours of preparation day known as Erev Wednesday, celebrating a time of rigorous application of study by having the Last Supper with his Talmidim because the Fast of the First born began on Tuesday Night/ Erev Wednesday the 14th of Nissan in AD 30. Passover began on Erev Thursday, the 15th of Nissan in AD 30.
Westerners, please recall that the evening of a day is still the same next day in the Israeli tradition, (sunset to sunset) so Yeshua and other first born sons within his Talmidim were supposed to Fast all of the day of preparation, from Sunset on Erev Wednesday to sunset Erev Passover, or give themselves a special holiday, and feast instead of fasting as a reward for diligent study, beginning the evening before the day of preparation for Passover…in this case Erev Wednesday, which we Westerners call Tuesday Evening. For a group so close to their Master, there would have been others at the last Supper that were first born sons…perhaps Peter, or James ben Zebedee, and possibly Judas Iscariot, but in that group of Twelve soon to be Apostles (except for that single damned Talmid named Judas Iscariot), there were younger brothers, including Yeshua’s brothers. For some to keep a fast, and some to eat as usual was not always the most practical means of dealing with dinner in extended families with lots of cousins, uncles and grandparents of a lot of children and generations meeting in Jerusalem at Passover; or as in this case brothers and followers of a Rabbi who was a First born son.
As a way around what may have been an all too common problem the Rabbis were not without merit in getting around detailed laws that are too confining for mankind when meeting with rarely seen extended family at Passover. The Rabbis instituted a reward dinner instead of keeping the Fast of the First Born, if they, the First Born, had completed a difficult schedule of Study prior to the Fast of the First Born.
Well, with Yeshua, one can be sure, the study was deep, and difficult to understand, and that he would have had to explain again and again how all the prophecies of the Jewish Bible about the Messiah were to be concluded in him, in two separate states of existence…such as the fact that he had been born a specially designed mortal man with a bit of a soul implant that had existed prior to the Universe coming into being, along with that perfect Y Chromosome and who knows what other redesign of Mary’s excellent Davidic and Cohenic bloodlines making for a very unusual mortal child…another Adam. Yeshua ben Yosef was of the Davidic Line by adoption for inheritance purposes through Yosef with rights to the Throne of Judea as well as tribal association and inheritance rights through Soloman’s elder son, Jeconiah. Jeconiah, you will recall, was cursed by G-d, and eliminated from the Davidic line of inheritance. However Yeshua's blood right was through Mary’s genealogy and that was perfect and uncursed. Mary was from the Davidic line through Nathan, son of Solomon, and YHVH specifically appointed Mary to the task of being the Mother of the Messiah, Josef to be the putative father of Yeshua, whereas Yeshua became YHVH's adopted son.
Returning to the main point of just what happened when and where, four days after being acclaimed by all of Jerusalem, just like the lamb that was picked out, and tied close to those that would sacrifice it, on the day of the preparation for Passover, called Erev Passover, which was Wednesday afternoon in 30 AD, Yeshua was killed in accordance with Roman Law, and did not protest his execution.
Preparation Day for Passover for most observant Jews and Gentiles begins at noon of the day of Erev Passover. This is to make sure no one misses that very special sunset, and all the cooking gets done enough to start eating at sunset which was about at about seven o’clock at that latitude and time of year, having been able to start roasting the sacrificed lamb after 3:00 pm. I live in SoCal so I am guessing the time with the help of Hebcal.com. Then, each family still needed to continue eating the roasting lamb as it was turned on a spit, while everyone feasted until dawn, eating the rest of the entire lamb by the next morning, and burning the remnants.
Yeshua got himself arrested on Erev Wednesday, the Preparation day for Passover, condemned on Erev Wednesday the Preparation day for Passover, and died at the same time the lambs began to be slaughtered in the Temple on Preparation day for Passover. The last fulfillment of the Passover Story is Yeshua resurrecting himself on Erev Sunday, which we Westerners call Saturday EVENING after sunset, which is considered ‘very early in the day’ by Israeli’s. This is the Feast of First Fruits.
Anyone trying to figure all this out in the first try need not try so hard…YHVH wanted us to really be puzzled by the change of calendars and how one is supposed to count the hours of the day, and what to call different parts of the day, or what the names of the days were, so that the prophecy could not be figured out without help from G-d in the end days, or by a few very talented Persian astrologers, and the odd Israeli Prophet. Yet even the people of Israel knew that it was the time for the Messiah to appear at that approximate time.
This fits perfectly with the picture given in Daniel's prophecy.
Back to Daniel:
Gabriel said that after the 69 weeks "Messiah shall be cut off". Again, this is a well-understood Hebrew phrase meaning "executed". But at first glance the math doesn't work out if you are using a standard Gregorian or Israeli Calendar of Solar years!
The confirmation of the key to solving this puzzle can be found in Revelation chapter 12, and is matched almost word for word in Daniel.
In Revelation Chapter 12, verse 6, there is mention of a time period of 1,260 days. Later, in verse 14, this same period of time is referred to as 3.5 years in the encrypted phrase, "a time, and times, and half a time".
We know that the Persian Astrologers/Sorcerers/Mages were looking for Mashiach long before he arrived, and Daniel’s writings are proved to be at least 300 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Babylonians no doubt had a copy, (See Matthew chapter 2.) and perhaps a few of the scholars of the time were keeping track…like the Prophets in Bethlehem…(Luke 2:25-36 – Simeon and Hannah)
So, if we keep to God’s original, perfect, Edenic Year, we divide 1,260 days by 3.5 years and we get 360-day years!
This is the key.
God does not see a year as 365.25 days as we do. He counts 360 days as a year for descriptive and prophetical reasons. Our planet is sadly off track, and getting more so with each earthquake. We keep shifting the angle of the poles of the earth, and it’s really messing up the weather…and changing how time is calculated.
This fact can also be deduced from the account of the flood in Genesis 7:11,24 and 8:3-4 where five months are equal to 150 days.
This means there were 30 day lunar months as opposed to our current 28/29 day lunar month in the time of the flood.
12 months of 30 days each makes a 360-day year!
Presumably, before the flood, our clock (both solar and lunar) was in perfect sync with God's clock in heaven. But astronomical events would be responsible for the physics of the flood, and the breaking of the mantle of the earth’s crust into plates floating on lava. The world changed from Noah’s time prior to the flood to how it became after the flood, but the situation stands, and it is still apparent from the books Genesis, Daniel, and Revelation that God sees a year as 360 days because otherwise the prophecy in Daniel 9:24 would not predict exactly the day Yeshua rode into Jerusalem.
To prove what I am going to say, go to CalenderHome.Com, and take a look.
Type in March 30, AD 30 at 0:00 hour on the Gregorian calendar line…and take a look as I spell out the mathematics.
Or look at the attached files!
See Attached File for 3/30/30 AD Gregorian Calander Nisan 10, 3790 Israeli
and Attached File for 3/20/445 BC Gregorian Calander Nisan 1, 3315 Israeli
Let's take the dates I have given for the beginning and end of the prophecy and rework them with this piece of data. We only have a specific month to work with for a beginning of the 483-year prophecy (Nisan), but we have an exact date for the fulfillment of the prophecy... Nisan 10, 3790 / March 30, AD 30.
Please note again the date…3/30/30, in Hebraic gematria is 3/3/3…Nifty planning by Abba on a Calender not yet in use until 1582 AD Gregorian Calendar!
Working with whole Julian Calendar years from this point back to April 4th 446 B.C Julian we simply type in the date of Yeshua’s ride into Jerusalem on a donkey into the calendar converter using the Gregorian Calander date of 3/30/30 AD at 00:00 hours.
We can then count the actual days, and come up with 173,859 days. If we now divide that time period by 360, guess what we come up with? We get 482.9416 lunar years! Round that up to the 483 years in the prophecy in Daniel, with only the final 7 lunar years to complete the prophecy of the ‘seven shavua’s determined upon your people’.
This is Saturday, the 1st of Nisan of the year 3315 Israeli; Sunday March 20, 446 B.C. Julian calendar; or Sunday March 20, 445 BC on the Gregorian calendar when the decree went out.
This is the very month that Nehemiah said Artaxerxes made the decree.
Yeshua made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Shabbat haGadol... right on schedule, to the day. He was then executed as the prophecy also foretold, exactly according to Levitical doctrine on just when you pick your lamb, and when you kill it, on the right days of the calendar that Israeli’s used.
The Greco-Romans did not quite understand all this, and didn’t try all that hard later on to fix the deadly errors of Palm Sunday; Their description in the translations of the original Apostolic writings had Yeshua dying on Friday afternoon having eaten the Passover supper the previous Thursday Evening, and rising at Dawn on Sunday BECAUSE they did not understand that the Weekly Sabbath, and a Feast Day Sabbath were both days of rest…not exactly three nights and three days, nor does it fit with the reality of a Jewish Passover week. The days of Passover Week in the translations of the Greek New Testament have been altered by the Western translators, since they could not wrap their minds around the very different Israeli Calendar, and were not looking at Leviticus, not did they understand that you could have a Passover Sabbath on Thursday, and the regular Weekday Sabbath on the Saturday following
So we do have a 360 day PROPHETIC Lunar Calendar. The Calendar thing is scary…go fiddle with the dates. And thus we can prove to the day exactly when Yeshua rode into Jerusalem, and exactly when he was executed, and when he rose from the dead as the First Born of many sons to YHVH.
Type in 3/30/30 at 00:00 hours into the Gregorian calendar at the top of the Computer Calculator Site, and see what happens. Then type in 12:00 am.
The day even changes from a Saturday to a Sunday at midnight. Spooky!
See Attached File for 3/30/30 AD Gregorian Calander Nisan 10, 3790 Israeli
and Attached File for 3/20/445 BC Gregorian Calander Nisan 1, 3315 Israeli..
www.calendarhome.com/calculate/convert-a-date/
My apologies to all for the length of this post, but I had to explain all of this as I wrote about it just to keep track of all the details.
My thanks to everyone who has attempted to explain all of this in the past and from whom I have learned over the last 19 years when I first began to understand when Yeshua actually rode into Jerusalem, how to prove it, and why it matters. As this information is not a unique discovery, merely a concerted effort at describing how all the elements fit together, a lot of others work inevitably got mixed into mine, and my apologies to all for my lack of scholarly notation.
Calculating the Days of Messiah
There are many prophecies concerning the Messiah to be found in the Hebrew Scriptures. The majority of them are the glorious kingly and priestly prophecies which Yeshua haNotsri did not fulfill when he was on earth some two thousand years ago.
Rabbinical Jews typically point to this fact as proof that Yeshua ha Notsri is not the Messiah.
Those of us, who believe Yeshua haNotsri is alive and returning, believe that he will fulfill all of these glorious prophecies when he returns. But there are a few Messianic prophecies that are not glorious and indicate that the Messiah would suffer. Isaiah 53 is probably the most notable of them. Here are a few excerpts.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and YHWH has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ... He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare his generation? For he was cut off (karat - Hebrew ) from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people, he was stricken, and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah 53:5-6, 8-9
This chapter from Isaiah concerning the suffering servant is best read in its entirety. It's too large to print here. On the occasions when Jewish teachers try to address this prophecy we are told that the suffering servant is Israel as a nation and not prophetic of Yeshua haNotsri. We are told that Israel is suffering for its own sins in this passage. But there are several things wrong with this picture.
The first is Isaiah's use of the term "cut off", (karat) which means killed or executed. This understanding is evident in that the one "cut off" was removed from "the land of the living". Israel as a nation of people has never ceased to exist and continues to live.
Secondly is the idea that Israel is suffering for its own sins, when this prophecy clearly indicates that someone other than "My people" (Israel) is suffering on Israel's behalf.
Thirdly, is the picture in the prophecy that this suffering person had done nothing wrong and was guiltless.
How could this possibly be speaking of Israel as a nation? Are we really to believe that Israel is his own guiltless sufferer who is suffering for his own sins? The Jewish picture caves-in on itself. The interpretation simply doesn't fit the passage, and it should be apparent that some Jewish teachers are desperately trying to find some interpretation other than the obvious.
So, however transparent the prophecy in Isaiah is to Believers in Yeshua ha Notsri as Mashiach, it is crucial to bring a prophecy about the Messiah that can be proven without doubt, and this is where the Book Daniel comes in in describing the same suffering servant picture of Messiah, but tells us exactly when the advent of the Messiah would be.
The angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel and gave him a prophecy concerning when the Messiah would come and what would happen to him. Before it can be interpreted, there are important details in this prophecy that need to be understood.
"Seventy weeks (70x7=490 years) are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks (69 weeks total - 49 years, then 434 years for a total of 483 years) The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks (which is the end of the same 483 years) Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be as with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week (7 years); But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate." Daniel 9:24-27
Here again it is prophesied that the Messiah would be executed, and again not for himself. (Ein Lo)
This prophecy is impossible to avoid and I have yet to hear an argument as to how this could be in reference to anyone or anything other than Yeshua haNotsri once you realize that Israel cannot fulfill the actually prophecy, but that only a single person can.
Many Jews have become Messianic believers in Yeshua haNotsri on the basis of this prophecy alone. But not only does this prophecy predict the execution of the Messiah, it predicts when he would come...to the day.
The term "week" in this prophecy is generally accepted to be a period of 7 years. One of the most important keys to unlocking its interpretation is to remember that this prophecy focuses on the city of Jerusalem. Nearly all expositors seem to lose track of this fact before reaching the end of the prophecy.
Gabriel said that at the end of the 490-year period would come the end of Jerusalem's troubles. Everlasting righteousness would come, and the Holy of Holies in the temple would once again be anointed with the presence of God. The picture Gabriel paints of the time immediately following the fulfillment of the 70 weeks is a description of the Messianic age.
However, understanding the time frames given by Gabriel has been a bit of a nightmare for scholars. The full time frame of 490 years is obviously divided into three parts. They are 49 years, then 434 years, and 7 years. The first two parts are evidently consecutive and together add up to 483 years. Then there is a gap or span of time between the end of the 483 years and the last 7 years.
The first 483 years of this prophecy is the total amount of time that would elapse between two specific events, specified as (1)) "...the going forth of the decree to restore and build Jerusalem", and (2) “the appearing of "Messiah the Prince" in Jerusalem”.
Fourthly, we have the difficulty of the calendars, and how time is calculated in prophecy.
So, instead of trying to make historical events fit the 483 year time frame, it is best to approach it from a different angle and start by looking at the prophecy itself to establish which events best fit the description of the prophecy.
The first event is the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. There were two decrees issued 13 years apart by Artaxerxes, King of Persia.
The first decree as recorded in Ezra 7 is the fulfillment of the first part of this prophecy, the initial 7 years of the 490 total years of the prophecy. Here, Ezra gives a year and month in which Artaxerxes, King of Persia, issued a decree to go and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. It was in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king’s reign. The problem with this decree is that it concerns rebuilding the temple, and has nothing to do with the city of Jerusalem.
Remember, the prophecy in connection with the appearance of the Messiah
concerns the city of Jerusalem, not the temple.
It is the second decree of Artaxerxes that came 13 years later that specifically concerns the city. This decree is recorded in Nehemiah 2 where it says the decree went out in the Hebrew month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes.
This date would have been anywhere from mid-March to late April in the year 445 B.C on the Gregorian Calendar, and 446 B.C. on the Julian Calendar which is used to establish the date of the going out of the decree from Babylon to rebuild the City of Jerusalem…not the Temple that most of the scholarly people in the past have used, but more often reject as the beginning of the time specified in the prophecy because 483 calendar years later takes us to 38 A.D. This is at least 6 years too late to reconcile with any event during Yeshua haNotsri's time.
"...from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince..."
"...until Messiah the Prince..." When Messiah the Prince comes into Jerusalem as the Messiah. This is crucial to determining what event is being talked about in reference to the specified years in Daniel’s prophecy.
The central figures throughout the prophecy are the Messiah and Jerusalem together. There is only one event in the life of Yeshua haNotsri that can fit this prophecy. Interestingly enough, this event has a parallel prophecy.
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey." Zechariah 9:9
I know…this sounds off track, but it’s really important, and people often dismiss it. This is a prophecy of Yeshua's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In the record of this event found in Luke 19:28-44, Yeshua haNotsri also said something interesting as he was riding the colt toward the city:
"At that time, Yeshua was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying; "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" And some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." But he answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." Now as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace..." Luke 19:37-42a
This day was no ordinary day. It was apparently so special, had not the disciples praised Yeshua haNotsri as the Messiah, the stones apparently would have done the job for them. And Yeshua said to Jerusalem, "in this your day"!
What day?
The very day the prophecies from Daniel and Zechariah were fulfilled. The prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27 states the coming of Mashiach as being on a particular day, in a particular year: the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 describes the details of how it is fulfilled in a particular way, while other prophecies describe what happens on that day, and are not included for sake of brevity.
There is only one year that works for everything in the combined prophecies, and on all three calendars
used in calculating exactly what day Yeshua rode into Jerusalem.
On the Gregorian calendar it would have fallen on Saturday, March 30, 30 AD; April 1, 30 AD on the Julian calendar, and on Nissan 10**, 3790 on the Israeli Calendar.
See Attached File for 3/30/30 AD Gregorian Calendar Nisan 10, 3790 Israeli Calendar
and Attached File for 3/20/445 BC Gregorian Calendar Nisan 1, 3315 Israeli Calendar
That particular Saturday was four days before Erev Passover on Wednesday of the following week, when Yeshua was crucified, with Passover beginning at sunset on Wednesday by Western Caculations, but in the evening of Thursday, the 15th day of Nissan 3790, which equates to the Julian calendar AD 30.
**Westerners, please remember that computer calendar converters do not take into account the half day known as Erev on any day from the Western calendars that begin on their calendars at midnight of the following day in the West. 00:00 hours shows the Israeli times as opposed to the Western Calendars which are correct only at 12:00 midnight.
Consequently, Saturday the 10th of Nissan didn’t begin until Midnight of Sunday for Westerners (Making it Palm Sunday to the Greco-Romans) but was actually Shabbat haGadol, the Sabbath before Passover, and the actual day of the month in that particular year where 10 Nisan fell on a Shabbat when one chooses a lamb for sacrifice on Passover, then you tie it near your home for 4 days, get real cuddly with it, while the kids name it, and then it really hurts when you have to kill it.…or so goes the rational of these matters.
Next Major Prophecy fulfillment that many people think is really minor!
Riding a donkey is only permitted on Shabbat if it has not ever been ridden before, thus not needing a Sabbath rest,
and then only by the King of Israel!
What else was so significant about Yeshua riding on a donkey?
By riding a colt of a donkey on the Sabbath Yeshua was making a specific claim that He was Mashiach, the anointed One, and King of Kings.....because, according to the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, and Rabbinical reasoning, only a donkey that had never been ridden before could legally be ridden on the Sabbath...and to do so was indicative of kingship, and of being the Messiah.
Zechariah 9.9 prophesied:
Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.’
This prophecy is referred to in Matthew:
Yeshua said .., ‘Go into the village opposite you, and you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.’...All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet. Matthew 21.1-5
The law is specifically stated:
Exodus 23:12 "Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest"
God’s instructions in the
are clear that even ‘your donkey’ must rest on the Sabbath. So, Yeshua‘s decision to enter Jerusalem sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey must have happened on the Sabbath, because for it to have happened on any other day would have had no significance. Thus, Yeshua's triumphal entry into Jerusalem had to be on a Sabbath for a colt of a donkey to be important, or mentioned at all. This helps mark the year that Yeshua entered into Jerusalem on a colt of a donkey.
Now, we have a Sabbath prior to Passover occurring on a Wednesday (Western Calculation), and had to be in a year prior to the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, that also matches the approximate time we know Yeshua was crucified according to standard historical writings. This marks a Passover week that begins on the Sabbath, with the lambs being inspected on the 10th of Nisan. Yeshua, being the ultimate Passover 'Lamb'...the lamb that like the first sacrifice in Egypt would keep death away...the second death, at judgement, presented himself to all the people of Jerusalem, and being hailed as Messiah, much to the dismay of the Temple Hierarchy.
Also, by riding an unworked colt of a donkey on the Sabbath Yeshua was making a specific point that he was Messiah, the Anointed One, and King of Kings.....because, according to the Rabbis, only a donkey that had never been ridden before could legally be ridden on the Sabbath as it had never been worked...and to do so was in indicative of kingship. (Sanhedrin 98a)
Considering the extreme accuracy of the prophecy in Daniel I am trying to explain, stranger things have happened.
Just look at the Gregorian calendar date for Yeshua’s entry into Jerusalem…30th of March in 30 AD. The year AD 28 has the same configuration of days of the week for that year, but is not the right gematria of three 3’s (appearing in the date according to the Gregorian Calender), so one thinks of G-d being involved as no calendar had been changed as yet by the Romans, and the Gregorian Calendar was not even thought of yet, whereas the Julian Calendar was set in place by Julius Caesar in 46 BC.
The historical date setting used by everybody to correlate calendars before the Julian calendar rests on the date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, long before Daniel got to Babylon in 605 BC, while the Byzantine Calendar was only required by Emperor Justinian in 557 BC. These dates are important so that you can judge how long before Decree of Artaxerxes occurred that Daniel wrote the prophecies down, beginning in at least 480 BC, and establishes just how much calendar juggling was done with only the loss of ten/eleven days between east and west by the time the Gregorian Calendar was put into place for the Western world by the Catholic Church in 1582 AD. The details are boring, but they are also critical in the accuracy of the timing of the prophecy.
The Fast of the First Born Son
Now, let’s talk about the Fast of the First Born Son. What has this to do with Prophecy? Nothing, exactly, but it explains the reason that Yeshua hosted a celebratory dinner for himself and his twelve talmidim on the Erev Preparation day for the Passover (Tuesday Night to Westerners). He was not celebrating Passover early. The bread was not unleavened either, as the Feast of Unleavened Bread had not yet begun.
Yeshua hosted 'a feast day' Tuesday evening (Western Calculation) during Passover week in AD 30, in the earliest hours of preparation day known as Erev Wednesday, celebrating a time of rigorous application of
study by having the Last Supper with his Talmidim because the Fast of the First born began on Tuesday Night/ Erev Wednesday the 14th of Nissan in AD 30. Passover began on Erev Thursday, the 15th of Nissan in AD 30.Westerners, please recall that the evening of a day is still the same next day in the Israeli tradition, (sunset to sunset) so Yeshua and other first born sons within his Talmidim were supposed to Fast all of the day of preparation, from Sunset on Erev Wednesday to sunset Erev Passover, or give themselves a special holiday, and feast instead of fasting as a reward for diligent study, beginning the evening before the day of preparation for Passover…in this case Erev Wednesday, which we Westerners call Tuesday Evening. For a group so close to their Master, there would have been others at the last Supper that were first born sons…perhaps Peter, or James ben Zebedee, and possibly Judas Iscariot, but in that group of Twelve soon to be Apostles (except for that single damned Talmid named Judas Iscariot), there were younger brothers, including Yeshua’s brothers. For some to keep a fast, and some to eat as usual was not always the most practical means of dealing with dinner in extended families with lots of cousins, uncles and grandparents of a lot of children and generations meeting in Jerusalem at Passover; or as in this case brothers and followers of a Rabbi who was a First born son.
As a way around what may have been an all too common problem the Rabbis were not without merit in getting around detailed laws that are too confining for mankind when meeting with rarely seen extended family at Passover. The Rabbis instituted a reward dinner instead of keeping the Fast of the First Born, if they, the First Born, had completed a difficult schedule of
Study prior to the Fast of the First Born.Well, with Yeshua, one can be sure, the study was deep, and difficult to understand, and that he would have had to explain again and again how all the prophecies of the Jewish Bible about the Messiah were to be concluded in him, in two separate states of existence…such as the fact that he had been born a specially designed mortal man with a bit of a soul implant that had existed prior to the Universe coming into being, along with that perfect Y Chromosome and who knows what other redesign of Mary’s excellent Davidic and Cohenic bloodlines making for a very unusual mortal child…another Adam. Yeshua ben Yosef was of the Davidic Line by adoption for inheritance purposes through Yosef with rights to the Throne of Judea as well as tribal association and inheritance rights through Soloman’s elder son, Jeconiah. Jeconiah, you will recall, was cursed by G-d, and eliminated from the Davidic line of inheritance. However Yeshua's blood right was through Mary’s genealogy and that was perfect and uncursed. Mary was from the Davidic line through Nathan, son of Solomon, and YHVH specifically appointed Mary to the task of being the Mother of the Messiah, Josef to be the putative father of Yeshua, whereas Yeshua became YHVH's adopted son.
Returning to the main point of just what happened when and where, four days after being acclaimed by all of Jerusalem, just like the lamb that was picked out, and tied close to those that would sacrifice it, on the day of the preparation for Passover, called Erev Passover, which was Wednesday afternoon in 30 AD, Yeshua was killed in accordance with Roman Law, and did not protest his execution.
Preparation Day for Passover for most observant Jews and Gentiles begins at noon of the day of Erev Passover. This is to make sure no one misses that very special sunset, and all the cooking gets done enough to start eating at sunset which was about at about seven o’clock at that latitude and time of year, having been able to start roasting the sacrificed lamb after 3:00 pm. I live in SoCal so I am guessing the time with the help of Hebcal.com. Then, each family still needed to continue eating the roasting lamb as it was turned on a spit, while everyone feasted until dawn, eating the rest of the entire lamb by the next morning, and burning the remnants.
Yeshua got himself arrested on Erev Wednesday, the Preparation day for Passover, condemned on Erev Wednesday the Preparation day for Passover, and died at the same time the lambs began to be slaughtered in the Temple on Preparation day for Passover. The last fulfillment of the Passover Story is Yeshua resurrecting himself on Erev Sunday, which we Westerners call Saturday EVENING after sunset, which is considered ‘very early in the day’ by Israeli’s. This is the Feast of First Fruits.
Anyone trying to figure all this out in the first try need not try so hard…YHVH wanted us to really be puzzled by the change of calendars and how one is supposed to count the hours of the day, and what to call different parts of the day, or what the names of the days were, so that the prophecy could not be figured out without help from G-d in the end days, or by a few very talented Persian astrologers, and the odd Israeli Prophet. Yet even the people of Israel knew that it was the time for the Messiah to appear at that approximate time.
This fits perfectly with the picture given in Daniel's prophecy.
Back to Daniel:
Gabriel said that after the 69 weeks "Messiah shall be cut off". Again, this is a well-understood Hebrew phrase meaning "executed". But at first glance the math doesn't work out if you are using a standard Gregorian or Israeli Calendar of Solar years!
The confirmation of the key to solving this puzzle can be found in Revelation chapter 12, and is matched almost word for word in Daniel.
In Revelation Chapter 12, verse 6, there is mention of a time period of 1,260 days. Later, in verse 14, this same period of time is referred to as 3.5 years in the encrypted phrase, "a time, and times, and half a time".
We know that the Persian Astrologers/Sorcerers/Mages were looking for Mashiach long before he arrived, and Daniel’s writings are proved to be at least 300 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Babylonians no doubt had a copy, (See Matthew chapter 2.) and perhaps a few of the scholars of the time were keeping track…like the Prophets in Bethlehem…(Luke 2:25-36 – Simeon and Hannah)
So, if we keep to God’s original, perfect, Edenic Year, we divide 1,260 days by 3.5 years and we get 360-day years!
This is the key.
God does not see a year as 365.25 days as we do. He counts 360 days as a year for descriptive and prophetical reasons. Our planet is sadly off track, and getting more so with each earthquake. We keep shifting the angle of the poles of the earth, and it’s really messing up the weather…and changing how time is calculated.
This fact can also be deduced from the account of the flood in Genesis 7:11,24 and 8:3-4 where five months are equal to 150 days.
This means there were 30 day lunar months as opposed to our current 28/29 day lunar month in the time of the flood.
12 months of 30 days each makes a 360-day year!
Presumably, before the flood, our clock (both solar and lunar) was in perfect sync with God's clock in heaven. But astronomical events would be responsible for the physics of the flood, and the breaking of the mantle of the earth’s crust into plates floating on lava. The world changed from Noah’s time prior to the flood to how it became after the flood, but the situation stands, and it is still apparent from the books Genesis, Daniel, and Revelation that God sees a year as 360 days because otherwise the prophecy in Daniel 9:24 would not predict exactly the day Yeshua rode into Jerusalem.
To prove what I am going to say, go to CalenderHome.Com, and take a look.
Type in March 30, AD 30 at 0:00 hour on the Gregorian calendar line…and take a look as I spell out the mathematics.
Or look at the attached files!
See Attached File for 3/30/30 AD Gregorian Calander Nisan 10, 3790 Israeli
and Attached File for 3/20/445 BC Gregorian Calander Nisan 1, 3315 Israeli
Let's take the dates I have given for the beginning and end of the prophecy and rework them with this piece of data. We only have a specific month to work with for a beginning of the 483-year prophecy (Nisan), but we have an exact date for the fulfillment of the prophecy... Nisan 10, 3790 / March 30, AD 30.
Please note again the date…3/30/30, in Hebraic gematria is 3/3/3…Nifty planning by Abba on a Calender not yet in use until 1582 AD Gregorian Calendar!
Working with whole Julian Calendar years from this point back to April 4th 446 B.C Julian we simply type in the date of Yeshua’s ride into Jerusalem on a donkey into the calendar converter using the Gregorian Calander date of 3/30/30 AD at 00:00 hours.
We can then count the actual days, and come up with 173,859 days. If we now divide that time period by 360, guess what we come up with? We get 482.9416 lunar years! Round that up to the 483 years in the prophecy in Daniel, with only the final 7 lunar years to complete the prophecy of the ‘seven shavua’s determined upon your people’.
This is Saturday, the 1st of Nisan of the year 3315 Israeli; Sunday March 20, 446 B.C. Julian calendar; or Sunday March 20, 445 BC on the Gregorian calendar when the decree went out.
This is the very month that Nehemiah said Artaxerxes made the decree.
The date landing on the 1st of Nisan in 3315/446/445 nails the decree
to the 360 day lunar PROPHETIC calendar.
The Greco-Romans did not quite understand all this, and didn’t try all that hard later on to fix the deadly errors of Palm Sunday; Their description in the translations of the original Apostolic writings had Yeshua dying on Friday afternoon having eaten the Passover supper the previous Thursday Evening, and rising at Dawn on Sunday BECAUSE they did not understand that the Weekly Sabbath, and a Feast Day Sabbath were both days of rest…not exactly three nights and three days, nor does it fit with the reality of a Jewish Passover week. The days of Passover Week in the translations of the Greek New Testament have been altered by the Western translators, since they could not wrap their minds around the very different Israeli Calendar, and were not looking at Leviticus, not did they understand that you could have a Passover Sabbath on Thursday, and the regular Weekday Sabbath on the Saturday following
So we do have a 360 day PROPHETIC Lunar Calendar. The Calendar thing is scary…go fiddle with the dates. And thus we can prove to the day exactly when Yeshua rode into Jerusalem, and exactly when he was executed, and when he rose from the dead as the First Born of many sons to YHVH.
Type in 3/30/30 at 00:00 hours into the Gregorian calendar at the top of the Computer Calculator Site, and see what happens. Then type in 12:00 am.
The day even changes from a Saturday to a Sunday at midnight. Spooky!
See Attached File for 3/30/30 AD Gregorian Calander Nisan 10, 3790 Israeli
and Attached File for 3/20/445 BC Gregorian Calander Nisan 1, 3315 Israeli..
www.calendarhome.com/calculate/convert-a-date/
Attachments:
