Did You Know (Part I)...

Did you know...the Triumphal Entry of Jesus was predicted almost 300 years before it happened!  The Septuagint has been dated to 270 B.C.  The Septuagint was necessary because the Jews of that day spoke Greek rather than the Hebrew in which the scriptures were penned.  Liken it to going to Catholic mass in Latin.  Nobody speaks fluent Latin these days and they did not speak fluent Hebrew either.  There was a need for a version of the Holy Scriptures that could be understood by these Greek-speaking Jews.

• Septuagint Translation (LXX): From 285-270 B.C., Ptolemy Philadelphus II commissioned 70 top scholars at Alexandria to translate the Hebrew Tenach (Old Testament) into the common Greek of that day.
• It is the primary quoted text in the New Testament.
• Jesus quotes Daniel 3 times: “Daniel the Prophet"
  

The following is excerpted from one of my favorite authors, Chuck Missler, in his commentary on the Book of Daniel (specifically Chapter 9).

Gabriel comes and delivers a message to Daniel.  Now while I [was] speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God, yes while I [was] speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering (Daniel 9:20-21 NKJV).

The “70 Weeks” of Daniel

• The Scope 9:24
• The 69 Weeks 9:25
• (The Interval) 9:26
• The 70th Week 9:27 
• The Scope (verse 24)
  

24] Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy 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 the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy Place.

shabu’im = sevens, “week.” (Gen 29:26-28; Lev 25, 26).
hatak, determined, reckoned.

1. The focus of the passage is on the Jews, not the Church or the Gentile world.  
2. The six major items listed have yet to be completed…to seal up (close authority of) the vision; to anoint the godesh gadashim, the Holy of Holies, etc.

Unfulfilled in over 2000 years: v.26 will detail an intervening Interval between the 69th and 70th Weeks. A key to understanding this passage is to realize that the 70 “Weeks” are not all contiguous.



“Weeks” = ?

     Days: Sabbath on the 7th Day (Gen 2:2; Ex 20:11);
     Weeks: Feast of Weeks (Lev 23:15,16);
     Months: Nisan to Tishri (Ex 12:2; Lev 23:24);
     Years: Sabbatical Years for the Land (Lev 25:1-22; 26:33-35; Deut 15;
     Ex23:10,11; 2 Chr 36:19-21).

     Note: focus of entire prophecy is Israel, not the Gentile world (Dan
     9:24).Seventy “Sevens” imply weeks of years (Gen 29:27, et al.).
     Sabbath forthe land ordained and failure to keep the sabbath of
     the land was the very basis for 70 years captivity (2 Chr 36:19-21).

The 69 Weeks (verse 25)

25] Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the King shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall,even in troublous times.

The Trigger (terminus ad quo):

   The Decrees to “Rebuild Jerusalem”? 

1. Cyrus, 537 B.C. Ezra 1:2-4 
2. Darius Ezra 6:1-5, 8, 12
3. Artaxerxes, 458 B.C. Ezra 7:11-26
4. Artaxerxes, 445 B.C. Neh 2:5-8, 17, 18
   

             (1) (2) and (3) were to build the Temple. Only the last one (4) was to rebuild
             the city, the walls, etc. Note:  rehob, “street”; haruts, moat,
             fortification. Why “7 + 62”? Time to build the city? Time to close the
            Old Testament canon? Time between Testaments?

Nominal 360-day Years

• Biblical Usage: Genesis (Gen 7:24; 8:3,4); Daniel (Dan 9:27; 12:6); Revelation (Rev 11:2,3; 13:5).
• Ancient calendars based on 360-day years.
• Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks,Phoenicians, Chinese, Mayans, Hindus, Carthaginians, Etruscans, Teutons, et al.

All these calendars were based on a 360-day year; typically, twelve 30-day months. (In ancient Chaldea, their calendar was based on a 360-day year and it is from this Babylonian tradition that we have 360 degrees in a circle, 60 minutes to an hour, 60 seconds in each minute, etc.)

• Orbital Changes? Long day of Joshua (Josh 10:12, 13) due to Mars
  pass-bys? [Strangely corroborated by Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s
  Travels, which draws on eye witness account of the two moons of
  Mars before adequate telescopes available. Cf. Joshua Commentary
  or our briefing package, Signs in the Heavens..]
  

In 701 B.C., all calendars appear to have been reorganized. Numa Pompilius,the second King of Rome, reorganized the original calendar of 360 days per year, by adding 5 days per year. King Hezekiah, Numa’s contemporary, reorganized his Jewish calendar by adding a month each Jewish leap year (on a cycle of 7 among every 19 years).

The Target (terminus ad quem)

     The Meshiach Nagid: “The Messiah the King.” The prediction is to
     the presentation of the Messiah the King (Nagid is first used of King
     Saul). On several occasions in the New Testament when they attempted
     to take Jesus as a King, He invariably declined, “Mine hour is not yet
     come.” (Jn 6:15; 7:30, 44; etc.) Then one day, He arranges it.

The Triumphal Entry
     Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem:
     behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; 
     lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
          Zechariah 9:9

All four Gospels, Mt 21:1-9; Mk 11:1-10; Lk 19:29-39; Jn 12:12-16. Nisan 10:“take to everyone a lamb.” Jesus deliberately arranges to fulfill Zech 9:9. This is the only day He allows them to proclaim Him King (Lk 19:38).

     Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace 
     in heaven, and glory in the highest.
          Luke 19:38

…quoting Psalm 118.

     And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, 
    “Master, rebuke thy disciples.”
          Luke 19:39

Why? What for? The Pharisees assure our noticing the significance!

     And He answered and said unto them, “I tell you that, if these should 
     hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”
          Luke 19:40

Jesus held them accountable to recognize this very day (Lk 19:41-44). This was the 10th of Nisan, prior to the Passover on the 14th of Nisan, A.D. 32.

Don't believe anything I say - Check it out for yourself!


Blessings!