Daniel Predicts the Coming of Jesus with a Timeline
If the Bible can accurately and repeatedly predict the future in detail, including providing timelines for some of its predictions, then the Bible can not be simply a naturally created text. This article aims to unpack the messianic timeline found in Daniel chapter 9, one of the most striking passages in the bible.
Now, some main points before diving in: None of this is number fudging, all of this is clear in the text, and a consistent mathematical result of what the text says. Moreover, even just the predication of the facts themselves is miraculous without a timeline. The predication of the destruction of the temple coming after the death of the messiah is quite striking. As a disclaimer, I’m not an expert, and there are plenty of people who would explain this better.
Now, to get into it. The passage. (Read it carefully)
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” (Daniel 9:24–27, NIV)
Now, first, we need a starting date. There are a small number of popular options, multiple of them actually work quite well. I’ll go into two of the clearest ones, the first being my preferred one, after a short amount of research. Remember, even if there were 10 ways to interpret this, and just one of them was spot on, this would be noteworthy alongside the accurate prediction of the facts.
Prophesy Start Date Option 1
The decree to rebuild the city. Nehemiah 2:5-8. This is given by King Artaxerxes in the passage. “And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes” (Nehemiah 2:1)
Via Babylonian records across multiple sources, Historians are confident about when Artaxerxes I reigned. 465 -425BC. There is occasionally debate over the last year only.
Now further into the passage:
“5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”
6 Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.
7 I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests.” (Nehemiah 2:5–8, NIV)
There are a small number of similar decrees in the Bible, but this is the only one that actually requires a rebuilding of the city itself, including the walls.
We now have a starting date. Not from number fluffing, just from the historical date of 20 years into Artaxerxes’ reign (
“In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes”, which we have confidence from multiple Babylonian sources, is 444BC, maybe 445BC.
Now the only thing to note about this starting date is that it works even more accurately if you use prophetic 360-day years instead of solar years. I’ll explain this further later. There is a strong argument to be made that the original readers would have used these prophetic years, as they are used elsewhere.
Prophesy Start Date Option 2
Ezra 7 verse 8 says, “Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king”
Verse 11 says, “This is a copy of the letter King Artaxerxes had given to Ezra the priest, a teacher of the Law, a man learned in matters concerning the commands and decrees of the Lord for Israel:” it then goes on to allow the Israelites to return and reestablish their law and governance.
This is dated to 457 BC. So the alternative starting date is 457 BC, and this one doesn’t usually get used alongside prophetic years, but rather normal solar years.
The seven sevens
It is agreed by both Jews and Christians, as well as how the original audience read it, that the “sevens” are weeks of years. To put it simply, we know the prophecy is speaking in years. Most Jews agree with this even today. But in case you’d like proof:
- The passage starts earlier by talking about Jerimiah’s 70 years of exile.
- In Jewish law, time is already structured in 7-year cycles (lev 25)
- The original Hebrew literally means “units of seven”, lending itself to not just mean weeks, but weeks of years.
- Days also don’t work logically in the passage itself. It's clearly indicating a longer timeline.
Hence, not many people on any side of the picture debate that the passage is talking about ‘weeks of years’.
So, “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. (Daniel 9:25, NIV)
Seven sets of seven years = 49 years
Sixty-two sets of seven years = 434 years
Total = 483 years
So no matter what start date is used, the prophecy is saying that a specific set of events is going to happen in 483 years. There aren't many good alternative ways to interpret this. Pretty clear.
Option 1’s Simple Math
Now, throughout the bible, it uses prophetic years that are 360 days long. This occurs in multiple places that we can look to.
Therefore, 483 years x 360 days equals 173,880 days.
So in this view, the passage is specifically claiming that the messiah will come 483 prophetic years, or 173,880 days after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem.
Now for some simple math. 173,880 days equals 476 years, nearly exactly
476 years after 444 BC = 33 AD, the exact time Jesus entered Jerusalem to be crucified. Remember, there is no year 0, so you can’t just go -444+ 476.
33AD… wow. Now, have we done any number fluffing to get here? We have just taken the most common reading of the text meaning weeks of years, we have been consistent by using prophetic years, and we have gotten the starting date from a historical consensus.
Option 2’s Simple Math
So 483 solar years (not prophetic years for option 2), after 457 BC, is AD 27, commonly associated with the start of Jesus’s ministry/baptism.
Clarifying point: I will note that the exact dates of Jesus’s life, death, resurrection and ministry are debated. But the idea is these prophecies get unnervingly close, especially option 1 being 33AD, which is a very popular view of when Jesus’s crucifixion occurred.
What’s predicted next?
After this, it says the temple will be destroyed, aligning with the historical fulfilment of the destruction of the second temple in 70AD, shortly after Jesus was crucified.
“And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:26, NKJV)”
The next verses are contested in their meaning, but multiple interpretations could fit.
“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
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 9:27, NKJV)
I think that the correct view is that the punishments on Jerusalem were the confirmation of the covenant, that punishments would come if they broke his law.
Next, we know that in fact, sacrifice has since stopped due to the lack of a temple.
The other view is that the antichrist or an antichrist is described here. This could even potentially be Nero, who died shortly before the destruction of the temple, but he set it in motion.
Even just the fact that Daniel predicts the death of the messiah will be followed shortly after by the destruction of the temple would have to be a wild coincidence. I think the destruction of the temple and siege of Jerusalem shortly after the death of Jesus, is a roaring witness to what has happened in history. This alone, without a timeline, speaks for itself.
In summary
While there are other ways to play with the numbers in the passage, I’d actually strongly argue that I’ve used the most consistent reading of the passage that the original audience would have understood, and thus it is quite a direct and clear prediction. I've even shown multiple interpretations lead to similar conclusions. A lot of Jews today use a similar timeline to show that the destruction of their temple was predicted, rather than disagreeing. They just believe the anointed one in the passage isn’t the anointed one. With this in mind, I feel I have no excuse. There is nothing I can do about this. Even if this was one of the 5 best interpretations of the passage, how do you pull this off? Centuries in advance, with clear math that matches the passage, and with clear historical accuracy, such as the destruction of the temple. And this on top of all of the other clear biblical prophecies, that could be listed endlessly? It would require more of an intellectual price tag to dismiss this than to accept it for me personally.