Bible Question:

I am intrigued by your study on Daniel 9:25-27, but I have a question on the dates. The decree went out on 1 Nisan and (7 + 62) * 7 * 360 days (173880 days) followed. Shouldn't the end date be 1 Nisan again? Since multiples of 360 days passed (the number of days in a Jewish year), we should end up back at 1 Nisan. Even if leap months were inserted (and they no doubt occurred), they are still 30 day leap months which should maintain the day of the month.

Bible Answer:

In the study titled, “Prophecy of Daniels’ 70 Weeks,” it was demonstrated that the Messiah would die 483 biblical years and 25 days after the start date of 1 Nisan 444 B.C., which is the Hebrew or Jewish year of 3317. The end date of March 24, A.D. 33, is typically calculated in the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, the questions we are concerned with is, “Can the 483 years (69 weeks x 7 years/week) simply be added to the Jewish year of 3317 in order to arrive at the correct date in the Jewish calendar?” and “Should the end date be on 1 Nisan?”

End Date Computed in The Jewish Calendar

It would seem that we could use the Jewish calendar to compute the end of Daniel’s prophecy of seventy weeks by just adding 483 years, since the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar. It would also seem that 1 Nisan would be the end day and month of the calculation. But the following will show that this assumption is not correct.

Therefore, we will add 483 years (69 weeks x 7 year/week) to the start date of 1 Nisan 3317 and we obtain 1 Nisan 3800. Then we must add 25 days and the final date is 26 Nisan 3800 (26 Nisan A.D. 40) or April 25, A.D. 40. However, “Prophecy of Daniels’ 70 Weeks” has demonstrated that Christ died on 14 Nisan A.D. 33 or 1 April A.D. 33. Therefore, in using this method of calculation we discover that the end date is wrong by 7 years and 12 days.

End Date Computed in Gregorian Calendar

If the calculation was performed by converting the start date of 1 Nisan 444 B.C. into the Gregorian calendar as described in “Prophecy of Daniels’ 70 Weeks,”and then adding 483 years and 25 days, the end date is 24 March A.D. 33 which corresponds to Nisan 6, A.D 33 in the Jewish calendar. Christ was crucified on 14 Nisan A.D. 33 or 3793 in the Jewish calendar. Please see “Prophecy of Daniels’ 70 Weeks” for details and a discussion of issues related to the calculation. The 24 March A.D. 33 end date is the Thursday of the week before Christ’s death on 14 Nisan A.D. 33.

Jewish Calendar 3793

Reason The End Dates Are Different

The end date derived by using the Jewish calendar is 26 Nisan A.D. 40. But when the Gregorian calendar was used, the end date is 6 Nisan A.D 33. The end date of 26 Nisan 3800 is wrong. Now we ask, “Why did we arrive at the wrong end date when we added 483 years to 1 Nisan 3317 in the Jewish calendar?” The answer is that the 483 biblical years contain three hundred and sixty days per year (360 days/year). But the Hebrew calendar contains an average of 365.2468 days per year.[1] Since the Jewish calendar has 5.2468 more days per year (365.2468 days/year – 360 days/year) than the biblical year, this approach will add about seven more biblical years to the end date (5.2468 days/year x 483 years). The difference in the end dates between the Jewish and Gregorian calendars is seven years.

Convert 483 Biblical Years Into Jewish Years

A quick alternate calculation will demonstrate that this conclusion is correct. The correct method for determining the end date of the prophecy is to convert the 483 biblical years into days and the result is 173,880 days. Then we convert these days into Hebrew or Jewish years by dividing 173,880 days by 365.2468 days/year, the result is 476.0616657. This number represents 476 years and 22.52 (365.2468 x 0.0.0616657) days or 23 days. We used the average of 365.2468 days per year in the Jewish calendar.

Correction For Longer Jewish Calendar

However, the 22.52 days must be reduced by 2.2 days since the Jewish calendar is longer than the solar year. For example, the number of days in the solar year are 365.2421987[2] compared to the average number of days in the Jewish year of 365.2468. Thus the average number of days in the Jewish calendar is greater by 0.0046 days per year. By multiplying this number by 476 years we obtain 2.2 days. That is, the Jewish calendar is off by about 2.2 days over 476 years. These days must be subtracted from the 23 days which results in 21 days (23 days – 2.2 days).

Correction Inaccuracies In The Lunar Calendar

Next, in non-leap years or intercalary years, the Jewish calendar contains 354 days each year.[3] In leap years an additional month or 30 days are added for a total of 384 days. Sometimes the additional month is called Adar 2, Veadar or Adar I. It depends upon the author of the calendar. The leap years were calculated as follows:

The Jewish leap years are years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 of the Metonic cycle. To determine whether a year is a leap year, find the remainder when dividing the Jewish year number by 19. If the remainder is 3, 6, 8, 11, 14 or 17, the year is a leap year and an extra month, Adar I, is added, preceding Adar II (sometimes called “the real Adar”). If the remainder is zero, the year is also a leap year since year 19 of the Metonic cycle is a year exactly divisible by 19. Another way to check a specific year is to find the remainder in the following calculation: ( 7 x the Jewish year number + 1 ) / 19. If the remainder is less than 7, the year is a leap year.[4]

By adding 476 years to the beginning date of the prophecy, which is 1 Nisan 3317 in the Jewish calendar, we arrive at the year 3793 in the Jewish calendar.  This is  the twelfth year in the Metonic cycle (19-year cycle). We can determine this by observing formula in the quotation above. If we divide 3781 by 19, we obtain a zero in the Metonic cycle. The year 3793 is the 12 year in this Metonic cycle. Now we can determine the number of days missing in the Jewish calendar by 3793.

The years whose remainders are 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10 are non-leap years. The other years whose remainders are 3, 6, 8, 11 are leap years. Since non-leap years contain 354 days, this means each year these Jewish years end prematurely by 11.2421987 days (365.2421987-354) and the next year starts prematurely. This means that by the year 3793 the Jewish calendar would have prematurely advanced by 11.2421987 days x 12  years or 134.903844 days, if the four leap years had not occurred. When we include the leap years, the 134.903844 days are reduced by 120 days (4 x 30 days) since there are four leap years in the Metonic cycle between 3781 and 3793 and one additional month is added in the leap years. Therefore, the Jewish calendar had prematurely advanced by 15 days (14.9063844 days) in 3793. Therefore, we must subtract the 15 days from the 21 days in the month Nisan which results in 6 days in the month of Nisan. Thus the end date for the prophecy using the Jewish calendar and making these adjustment results in 6 Nisan 3793. This agrees with the end date obtained by using the Gregorian calendar.

Conclusion:

If the Jewish calendar is used to calculate the end date of the seventy weeks of Daniel, the end date is not 1 Nisan. We have discovered that using the Gregorian calendar is easier since we do not have to consider the complexities of the lunar-based Jewish calendar. Daniel’s prophecy of 69 weeks points to Christ dying after 24 March A.D. 33 in the Gregorian calendar, which corresponds to Nisan 6, A.D 33 in the Jewish calendar.[5]

 

References:

1.  Jewish Calendar Description (stevemorse.org/jcal/rules.htm)
2. Small Mahzor. Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Mahzor).
3. Jewish Calendar Description. Ibid.
4. Hebrew Calendar (oer2go.org/mods/en-wikipedia_for_schools-static/wp/h/Hebrew_calendar.htm).
5. Abdicate.net (www.abdicate.net)

Suggested Links:

Searching For God
Prophecy of Daniels' 70 Weeks
Year of Jesus’ Death Was Prophesied
Is it significant the 7 weeks and 62 weeks are separated in Dan. 9:25?
How does 483 biblical years convert to 476 Gregorian years and 25 days?
What is the correct calculation of Daniel’s 69 Weeks?