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God cannot be second-guessed. That must be stated first. Maimonides even declared a curse on those who predicted the end of time. Predictions such as these are dangerous. He believed they had a great potential to lead astray the untutored and uneducated. Maimonides has been proven right, as many Gentile cults have shown.
But God does sometimes reveal a pattern which does have a secondary purpose to reveal the coming of significant events in given periods of time. He told Jeremiah there would be a captivity for 70 years. Not only did this physical captivity come about between 606/5 BC to 536/5 BC, but there was a clear 70 year spiritual desolation of Israel symbolized by the desolation of Moriah between the first Temple’s destruction in 586 BC and the second Temple’s dedication in 516 BC. Furthermore, there was another desolation of the land in the sense that Jerusalem remained undefensed and in ruins until Nehemiah finished the wall in 446/445 BC-- another undeniable 70 years from the Temple’s dedication in 516 BC.
This pattern is undeniably the foundation to the statements in Daniel 9 regarding the desolations (in plural) Daniel noted in regard to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah. The prophet Jeremiah, however, had not spoken of “desolations” but a desolation of 70 years. Daniel 9:1 reads: In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
Desolations in the plural was obviously the case, though Jeremiah had declared it in the singular. Daniel had understood a pattern, an undeniable timetable, as we noted above in the 3 sets of 70. The pattern proves 70 years applied to 3 distinct periods. One was a physical servitude of the king of Babylon 70 years; the next 70 years symbolized a spiritual desolation as the Temple mount was in ruins; and the last 70 years symbolized the desolation of the land and city of Jerusalem until it was rebuilt and its walls enclosed. Altogether the time periods tallied together equal 160 years. (See Daniel 9 Cipher for more details).
This is only one example, and a significant one, where God openly showed a pattern between key events in the history of Israel. Other references to 70 years also can be found, as in the case of the city of Tyre. But this is outside the general thesis of this page right now and won’t be dealt with.
There are, however, other interesting time lines mentioned in prophecy which help to highlight significant events in the history of Israel. The Essenes at Qumran had many extra-biblical scrolls and peshers. At one point the deduction was made that “the age” would end as it had begun with a 40 year period of time. Remarkably, this time period was found to be true. Only 40 years after the crucifixion of Christ in 30 AD the Temple was destroyed and Israel was scattered. Our entire age had ended.
A new and strange age had begun. The Gentiles flocked to worship the God of Israel. The sure belief that Christ was the fulfillment of all that was written and predicted to come in the Hebrew Scriptures spread throughout the Roman world and, with time, throughout all the Earth. The Nazarenes, the original Jewish believers, continued on as a trickle compared to this torrent until finally smothered by the intolerant Catholic hierarchy in the 4th century which cracked down on anything it considered heresy from its point of view. The Age of the Gentiles was thus fully established and had, furthermore, like Israel begun with a 40 year period as well, from 30 to 70 AD.
The question on many minds today is, will the Age of the Gentiles follow the pattern of the Age of Israel? Not precise, but will there be significant periods spanning certain events as there was in the events in Israel’s age? The coming Age of the Gentiles was understood from scripture. Isaiah 11 and Isaiah 49 spoke of the nations seeking the branch of Jesse that would arise. Isaiah 49 declared that even though Israel will not be gathered the Redeemer would be glorified in God’s eyes and would be given as a light unto the Gentiles to be God’s salvation to the ends of the Earth. But in Luke 21:24 we read the ending of such an age would be signified by the temple mount no longer being in desolation and in the control of the Gentiles. In predicting the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Lord speaks: And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Shall the ending of the Age of the Gentiles, and the many events that must lead up to it, be marked by significant periods of time as Israel’s was? Let us look at the controversy of the Template Theory.
Israel was called out of Egypt to be a nation. Through Moses God gave us laws at Horeb after he called us forth from Egypt. Moses impressed upon the people the significance of this. For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
Never had man seen God reveal his direct hand so clearly as in the Exodus and at Horeb. When we did not wish to hear his voice, he declared he would not speak direct to us again. He would raise up “that prophet” to come.
For 40 years we wandered and then we entered Canaan. It was accepted by ancient Jewish scholars that 592 years spanned the time between the Exodus and the Temple foundation being laid in the 4th year of Solomon. Where 480 years comes from is hard to say (1 Kings 6:1). It was unknown by the ancients. Josephus says 592 years in quoting the historical books, and Paul of Tarsus (Acts 13:20) declares there was a 450 year period for the Judges alone. In tallying up the reigns of the Judges one does in fact come to 450 years 7 months for this period (the ark was 7 months with the Philistines.) The evidence indicates that 592 was the only time period known by the ancients. Add 40 years for both Saul and David’s reign and the 4 years for Solomon to the 450 years for Judges and the 40 years for wandering in the desert, and a total of 574 years is achieved. The remaining 18 years must apply to the period it took to conquer Canaan and for Joshua’s judgeship (never specifically calculated in scripture). In any case, 592 years appears a very acceptable span of time between the Exodus from Egypt and the Temple foundation being laid in Solomon’s 4th year.
Having the correct numbers as opposed to the evangelical bibles reveals significant events spanned by blocks of repeating numbers. From the period Israel is finally established in the land after Joshua dies until David there is thus 450 years + 40 years for Saul = 490 years. The precise amount of time Daniel 9 says are allotted Israel from the command to rebuild Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince and then Jerusalem’s destruction.
The purpose here must be reiterated. It is not to calculate Bible history, but to highlight certain repeating spans between significant events in ancient Israel’s history. It is significant that after Israel was left on its own after Joshua, a span of 490 years ensued until God raised up his chosen king, David of Bethlehem. In that time we were basically left on our own to see how we would fair. Direct prophecy was not given much, not until Samuel at the end of the period of Judges. In this time we left off following God’s laws and the customs. In fact, in Ezra’s time people rejoiced at keeping Tabernacles for they had not kept it “since the days of Joshua the son of Nun,” nigh unto 1000 years! Such a span that covers our beginning is declared by Daniel to span our end.
Let us look at another.
God also gave Ezekiel a time line. Ezekiel 4:4 Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.
A day for a year. The disparity in the number of days allotted Israel and Judah accentuates how much more wicked Israel was than Judah. But the sum total is what is being accentuated the most. Ezekiel’s act was a symbol of the years that Israel and Judah existed as kingdoms. Adding 390 and 40 together we have 430 years. From the 4th year of Solomon (966/7 BC) to the ending of the captivity (536 BC) is 430 years. Quite an insult, really, when you think of it. God is saying that basically we had been wicked the whole time.
This span covers two significant points. We see it covers the foundation of the first Temple in Solomon’s 4th year and the foundation of the second Temple in 536/5 BC.
Many scholars believe David’s reign ended in Solomon’s 4th year, that is, there was a period of co-regency. This is very probable, since it is alluded to in the histories where David wanted to see Solomon crowned. Thus David’s reign ended in the year Solomon’s independent reign actually began and the year he laid the foundation of the Temple.
In going back from the First Temple’s foundation, we find a 40 year reign for David. In noting time spans David’s reign always stands apart, causing us to appreciate how David’s 40 years is unique and on its own. For in going back further we find it is can never be incorporated into any significant greater span of time. Saul’s 40 years can be added to Judges to give us 490 years or seventy sevens as in Daniel 9. But 2 historical reigns always stand out: Joshua and David. Joshua’s time was during an unspecified period of Judgeship after conquering (conquering Canaan inclusive amounting to 18-22 years, the latter if David and Solomon’s years overlap by 4 years). We have 40 years wandering in the desert = 592 years.
Going back further in history, a 592 year period from 967\66 brings us to 1558 BC for the Exodus. The significance of the 16th century BC is that this is when the Hyksos came up out of Egypt, leaving it in great devastation. Ancient Jews again were certain these to be the Hebrews. Hyksos is the Greek rendering of the Egyptian word for “rulers of foreign lands,” a word applied to Palestinian and Syrian sheiks. The Hyksos were regarded as Asiatic peoples from Canaan who migrated into Egypt and eventually, during the intermediate period when central rule broke up, took control of large portions of the Delta region of Lower Egypt. Many Pharaohs ruled in this period of instability, sometimes commanding former nomes (counties) or just a city. Scholarly claims that Hebrews were not involved in this period are humorous in light of the fact certain local Pharaohs bore Hebrew names, such as Jacobaam, Jacober, and in the titular of Apophis there appears Jacob El, or, that is, God of Jacob.
There seems little doubt from Genesis that the Hebrews were in key places to take advantage of the collapse of order that eventually resulted in Egypt. With time it seems the native Egyptians got the upper hand and enslaved the Hebrews. After perhaps a hundred years of slavery, Moses led out the Hebrews around this time of 1558 BC.
In Biblical time reckoning we encounter yet another 430 year period with the Exodus. Exodus 12: from the LXX And the sojourning of the children of Israel, while they sojourned in the land of Egypt and the land of Chanaan, was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And it came to pass after the four hundred and thirty years, all the forces of the LORD came forth out of the land of Egypt by night.
This would mean that the promise to Abraham was given 430 years earlier, about 1988 BC. If the promise came to Abraham when he was 75 years old, then Isaac was born to him in 1963 BC when he was 100 years old. Abraham died in 1888 BC at the age of 175. Isaac died at 180 years of age. This would roughly translate to the year 1783 BC. Jacob was born to Isaac when Isaac was 60 years old. This means Jacob was born in 1903 BC. Jacob was 130 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, the year his whole household entered Egypt. Thus we can say that this was around 1773 BC. Isaac had been dead ten years. Jacob lived on in Egypt 17 years, dying at the age 147. This would indicate 1756 BC. If the Exodus occurred around 1558 BC, the Hebrews were in Egypt 215 years.
Although this precise amount of time has been derived before by others (see Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible and its various articles), its significance was always brushed aside by evangelical historians out to prove the sanctity of their particular Masoretic Text (Codex Leningradis) where it says 430 years in Egypt alone. The Septuagint reflects the Greek translation of a Hebrew textual tradition that was probably more current in Palestine and Egypt in the 3rd century BC. This is not the argument here, however, and the reader can access many books on the scrolls at Qumran and textual criticism to investigate more closely the textual differences between the Masoretic and the Septuagint and how both textual readings can be found in Hebrew at Qumran. Suffice it to say that “430 years in the land of Canaan and Egypt” was regarded as the correct one by the ancients. In Galatians Paul even regards Horeb and the Torah as coming 430 years after the promise to Abraham, thus reflecting the LXX reading of “430 years in Canaan and Egypt.”
The problem has been that in the one Masoretic Text the evangelicals have (Codex Leningradis), it says “430 years in Egypt” alone as the period of the sojourn. All the calculations for trying to determine a time period for the Hebrews in Egypt hinge upon this and the erroneous “480 years” in 1 Kings 6:1 rather than the correct 592 years. Needless to say, this has caused many evangelical Bible scholars to stretch here and cut off there to make things fit. One significant piece of evidence always gets hacked out: The Hyksos.
Very few Bible scholars wanted to ever associate the Hyksos with the Hebrews. Why? It is hard to say. Sometimes it is as simple as the land of Rameses being mentioned in Genesis 47:11, when Pharaoh tells Joseph his family is to take the best of the land of Goshen. Ra-Meses in Egyptian merely means “Son of Ra.” It does not imply any association with the Rameses Dynasty of the 13th century BC. It was part of the land of Goshen. But because Rameses is mentioned, the Exodus has been moved forward by a few hundred years. 1 Kings 6:1 allows one to inaccurately compress more time, for it drastically shrinks 592 years down to 480 years. Both are erroneous spans.
Abiding by what we know to be accurate scripture, we thus see an interesting pattern in the time spans between certain key events in Israelite history.
To Summarize, they are
430 years from the promise to Abraham to the Exodus (LXX Exodus 12:40)
40 years in the desert
About 18 to 22 years for the conquest of Canaan and Joshua’s Judgeship.
490 years of Judges and King Saul to the establishment of God’s chosen king, David.
40 years for David.
Solomon reigns and lays the foundation of the Temple, which probably coincides with David’s last year. 430 years later the Captivity ends and the Temple foundation is re-laid in 536 BC.
This year is the last of the 70 years of captivity that began with a number of Israelites being taken as prisoners to the king of Babylon in 606/5.
The Temple was destroyed in 586 BC. 70 years later it is was finished and dedicated in 516 BC. In 446/5 BC Nehemiah finishes the walls of Jerusalem, and it is a restored city. This is also 70 years.
The pattern does not permit one to second guess God’s actions. Nor is it meant to be a code. It is not intended as a means of calculating the precise history of the Earth. Its use here is to show a repeating span of time between significant events. This pattern is not meant to be prophetic (except those periods declared beforehand), for much cannot be noted until after-the-fact. That is the advantage of the Template Theory. If Israel is an example for the Age of the Gentiles, will some of this repeat?
The 70 weeks of Daniel 9 seem to take their cue from the 70 years of captivity which Jeremiah declared would happen. There is no denying a neat pattern of 3 sets of 70 years can be identified. The historical dates, such as the 6th year of Darius (516 BC) and the 20th year of Artaxerxes (446/5 BC) leave little doubt that 70 years falls between the events mentioned in Daniel 9 about the wall being built, etc. Daniel does, undeniably, extrapolate a pattern from a previous prophecy.
The problem is trying to figure out the precise ending of the age is determining how 70 hebdomads or “weeks” —7 sets of 70 or 70 sets of 7— fit between what dates. There seems to be little doubt that they terminate at 70 AD, with the destruction of the Second Temple Period and the long and anguished captivity we have endured since. Our age effectively ended and God cast us off into the nations, a sign of his curse upon us for our sins.
In no other place is “sevens,” meaning sets of 7 years, mentioned except in the Jubilee countdown in which 7 sevens is 49 years and then the 50th year is the Jubilee. If Daniel 9 is invoking this, then it is speaking about a Jubilee countdown. In other words, a 500 year period, not a 490 year period since 10 Jubilee years must be incorporated into the time frame before the counting of the next sets would commence again.
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