My journey through the Bible timeline crosses the entire Bible in service of generating a coherent timeline and eschatological model. In this article, I will instead pull from different parts of the timeline and eschatological model to generate a coherent interpretation of the single book of Daniel.

Scope

The scope of the Book of Daniel can be clearly understood by looking at the beginning and end of the text. The book opens in the third year of Jehoiakim, the year Nebuchadnezzar began co-reigning with his father in Babylon, and ends with references to end time events, including an oblique reference to the Third Jewish-Roman War. Therefore, we can see that Daniel encompasses the time period from the beginning of the Gentile empires ruling over Israel to the abolition of the nation of Israel. This time period is referred to in the Bible as the “latter days” (Daniel 2:28).

Structure

The book of Daniel divides neatly into two halves: Daniel 1-6 tells a series of stories of extreme importance from Daniel’s life, while Daniel 7-12 relates a series of prophetic visions and angelic revelations given to Daniel later in his life.

The stories in the first half of the book are mostly simple and easy to understand, although the timing and use of names requires careful analysis. The second half, however, is almost completely incomprehensible without an understanding of the prophetic symbols used therein. Even with proper interpretation, Daniel is still a complex read that requires a solid understanding of the post-Exile Restoration, the intertestamental period, and the Jewish-Roman Wars. In this analysis, I will go through the whole book and detail out the chronology and eschatology of all of it.

Chronology

In the Bible, the calendar year in which a man becomes king is called “the year the king began to reign.” The next calendar year is said to be the “first year of the king’s reign.” The calendar year after that is the “second year,” and so on.

Sometimes kings would place their sons on the throne while the father was still alive and reigning. Nowadays we call this a “co-reign,” with each king being called a “co-regent.” The Bible rarely explicitly calls out co-reigns, but they’re very common, which is why the years of the kings seem weird and inconsistent at first glance. At any point in time, a year listed in the Bible could be called the “Nth year of a king’s reign” without clarifying whether that’s dated from the beginning of a co-reign or the death of the king’s father. You have to do the math to figure it out.

The Initial Setting

In Daniel 1:1, we see Nebuchadnezzar besieging Judah in the third year of Jehoiakim. We know from Jeremiah 25:1 that the fourth year of Jehoiakim was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, which means Nebuchadnezzar “began to reign” in the third year of Jehoiakim, which was the year 3345 as dated from creation (i.e., with creation occurring in year 0).

In 2 Chronicles 36:6-7, we read about Nebuchadnezzar besieging Judah, binding Jehoiakim in bronze fetters to take him to Babylon, and carrying some of the articles from the First Temple to Babylon, where he put them in his own temple. However, we know from Jeremiah 22:18-19 that Jehoiakim would “be buried with the burial of a donkey, dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” Thus, we can deduce that Jehoiakim, who was installed into power by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt (2 Kings 23:34), was originally bound for captivity but pledged to switch his allegiance from Egypt to Babylon, causing Nebuchadnezzar to release him without taking him to Babylon. Jehoiakim then served Nebuchadnezzar for three years, before rebelling against him (2 Kings 24:1).

Thus, we can conclude that the siege of Daniel 1:1 was the same one mentioned in 2 Chronicles 36:6-7. Daniel 1:2 says almost exactly the same thing about Nebuchadnezzar carrying articles from the First Temple into the house of his god.

This siege right at the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign reflects God’s promise in Jeremiah 27:1-11 to give all the nations of the world system around and including Israel into the dominion of Nebuchadnezzar, his son, and his grandson. Judah was commanded to submit to Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, just like every other nation, but they did not (Jehoiakim only did so at first to save his own neck), which eventually resulted in the first sacking of Jerusalem (when the First Temple was burnt to the ground) and the Exile.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

In Jeremiah 46:2, we see that Nebuchadnezzar defeated the army of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which would be 3346, the year after Nebuchadnezzar began reigning. However, we know from extra-biblical historical records that Nebuchadnezzar’s father, King Nabopolassar of Babylon, died shortly after this battle and that Nebuchadnezzar was proclaimed king afterwards. This means that, according to the Bible, Nabopolassar had a one-year co-reign with Nebuchadnezzar starting in 3345, and Nebuchadnezzar became sole king of Babylon in 3346.

This one-year offset explains the dates of Jeremiah 52, including how the sacking of Jerusalem is said to be in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar in Jeremiah 52:12 (as dated from 3345) but the eighteenth year in Jeremiah 52:29 (as dated from 3346), while the capture of Jehoiachin was in the eighth year in 2 Kings 24:12 (as dated from 3345) but the seventh year in Jeremiah 52:28 (as dated from 3346).

In Daniel 2:1, Nebuchadnezzar has his alarming dream and begins slaughtering the wise men in the “second year” of his reign. However, it is clear from Daniel 2 that Daniel and his three friends had already completed the three years of training (Daniel 1:5) and been interviewed (Daniel 1:19) and appointed as royal counselors. Hence, the three years of training must have begun in 3345 (the year Nebuchadnezzar began co-reigning with his father) and ended in 3348 (the second year from when Nebuchadnezzar began solo reigning in 3346). Nebuchadnezzar thus had his dream after the end of the training but before the end of the calendar year of 3348.

The Conquest of Babylon

Jeremiah 27:7 indicates that the fall of Babylon would come in the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson: “So all nations shall serve him and his son and his son’s son, until the time of his land comes; and then many nations and great kings shall make him serve them.” Nebuchadnezzar’s son was Evil-Merodach (2 Kings 25:27; Jeremiah 52:31), and his grandson was Belshazzar. Hence, the reference to Nebuchadnezzar as Belshazzar’s “father” in Daniel 5:11 follows the meaning of a male ancestor, not an immediate father.

A critical key to understanding the narrative of Daniel is to realize that “Darius the Mede” is an alias for Cyrus the Great. Cyrus’s father was Persian, but his mother was a Median princess, which explains why Darius is said to be “of the lineage of the Medes” in Daniel 9:1. “Cyrus” was his Persian name, while “Darius” was his Median name. I will use the name “Cyrus the Great” in this article to identify the man behind both names.

Note: the word for “and” in Daniel 6:28 can also be translated “that is,” such that that verse actually says, “So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, that is, in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”

Cyrus slayed Belshazzar and conquered Babylon in 3430, the 70^th Sabbath of Sabbaths from creation (3430 = 7 x 7 x 70), and the 70^th year of the 70 years of Judah’s Exile in Babylon. His release of the Jews in the first year of his reign (Ezra 1:1-4), which returned them to the land of Judah, thus occurred in the 70^th Jubilee from creation, 3431. This is very fitting symbolically, considering that in the Law of Moses the Jubilee represented a return of the Israelites each to his possession (Leviticus 25:10).

Note: Daniel understood that the first year of Cyrus’ reign was the first year after the 70 years in Exile, and thus the time had come to release the Jews, which is why he prayed for God to turn His anger away from Judah and Jerusalem in that specific year (Daniel 9:2).

Daniel 5:31, which states that Darius the Mede received the kingdom of Babylon, thus connects to Daniel 1:21, which states that Daniel “continued” until the first year of King Cyrus. Daniel continued his role as “royal counselor in exile” from 3348 until Cyrus released the Jews in 3431. At that point, Cyrus set up a new administrative system (as described in Daniel 6:1-2), of which Daniel was a part. Of course, Daniel excelled in his role, impressed Cyrus, and was on the verge of being promoted to Cyrus’ right-hand man, which caused his colleagues to conspire to have him thrown into the den of lions.

This timeline shows us two interesting points:

• Cyrus was “about 62” when he conquered Babylon in 3430 (Daniel 5:31). That means he was born around 3368. That means he was either not yet born or relatively young when Nebuchadnezzar published the letter of Daniel 4. Even though Persia and Media were not under Babylonian control when the letter was sent, this widespread missive extolling the power of the God of Daniel (which itself followed on from the decree of Daniel 3:29 for no one in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom to speak anything amiss against God) would have certainly made a strong impression on a young political scion like Cyrus, no doubt contributing to his decision to sponsor the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem many years later.
• Daniel is described as a “young man” in Daniel 1:3-7. If he was 15 when he was captured in 3345 (we don’t know exactly how old he was, but that’s probably close), then he would have been 101 when Cyrus returned the Jews to Judah. Daniel was therefore around 100 years old when he was thrown into the lion’s den (not the young man often depicted in children’s Bible books). This would explain why the latest mentioned year in the Book of Daniel is the third year of Cyrus (Daniel 10:1) – Daniel undoubtedly died of old age shortly after that.

The Prince of Persia

In Daniel 10:5-6, Daniel sees “one having the likeness of a man” (Daniel 10:18) whose description is similar to the appearance of Jesus in Revelation 1:12-16. This, however, is not Jesus, because He identifies Himself as a separate entity from Michael (Daniel 10:21), which is Jesus’ angelic name (discussed later in this article).

Given the description of His appearance, the fact that He is hovering over the river (Daniel 12:6), and how He is positioned between two angels (Daniel 12:5), we can conclude that this is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit hovered over the waters in Genesis 1:2, and as God, He is flanked by two cherubim (Numbers 7:89).

In Daniel 10:13 and Daniel 10:20, the Holy Spirit mentions a “prince of Persia” whom He and Michael (Jesus) are working together to oppose (Daniel 10:21). This prince is Cambyses II, Cyrus the Great’s son and successor, who was an enemy to the Jews.

In Daniel 11:1, the Holy Spirit mentions that he stood up to “confirm and strengthen” Cyrus in the first year of his reign. According to historical records, shortly after Cyrus conquered Babylon, he appointed Cambyses as governor of northern Babylon. This governorship lasted nine months, from April until December, at which point Cyrus dismissed him from the post.

The Jewish year starts in spring, so Cambyses must have been appointed right at the beginning of Cyrus’s first year, 3431. The Holy Spirit must have strengthened Cyrus by inciting him to dismiss Cambyses, similar to how He had stirred up Cyrus’ spirit to release the Jews from exile (Ezra 1:1).

Not long after that happened, Babylonian records show both Cyrus and Cambyses as carrying the title “King of Babylon, King of the Lands,” suggesting that Cyrus established Cambyses as co-regent shortly after removing him from his governorship. This must have been in the third year of Cyrus (Daniel 10:1), the biblical year 3433, and it sent Daniel into three full weeks of fasting and mourning (Daniel 10:2). Through his mourning, Daniel no doubt hoped to petition God to remove Cambyses again, but unfortunately, while the Holy Spirit gave Daniel a revelation concerning future events, he did not promise that Cambyses would be removed. Instead, Cambyses remained as co-regent until Cyrus’ death.

Note: the Jews laid the foundation of the Second Temple two years after returning to Jerusalem (Ezra 3:8), which means two years after 3431, or in 3433. That year, the enemies of the Jews “hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.” This dovetails nicely with Daniel 10, as the co-regency of the anti-Jewish Cambyses starting in 3433 gave the enemies of the Jews an ally in the palace to work with for the remainder of the life of Cyrus, then all the days of Cambyses (there was then a brief tumult after the death of Cambyses, followed by the reign of Darius the Great, who was friendly to the Jews).

Eschatology

I will present the meaning of the prophetic symbols roughly in chronological order, rather than by the order they appear in the text of Daniel. This is especially important because the same events are often covered multiple times in the text, so it would be confusing to bounce around the timeline as I explain them.

The Four Gentile Empires

In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant image made of four metals that is destroyed by a stone. In Daniel 7, Daniel dreams of four beasts that are replaced by the Son of Man. These two dreams are one, like the two dreams of Pharaoh (Genesis 41:25). They both represent a vision of the world empire that was established by the authority of God and given to Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon initially, then expanded through the imperial conquest of subsequent successive empires (the final full dominion under Rome being referred to as “all the world” in the census of Luke 2:1), then was replaced by the kingdom of God, which has Jesus as its perpetual ruler. Note that because the empires built on each other, all four of these empires are shown as existing at the time they were replaced by the Messianic kingdom, but because Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36), instead of building on the other four, it breaks in pieces and consumes them (Daniel 2:44).

Each kingdom inherited its mandate to rule the world around Israel during the reign of a particularly significant king. The kings within a specific kingdom are represented by horns on a beast. Note that the beasts are from the sea (Daniel 7:2-3) because in biblical symbolism the sea represents Gentiles (while the land represents Israel), and the empires are ruled by Gentile kings.

Here is the mapping of kings to metals and beasts:

1. As Daniel stated explicitly, Nebuchadnezzar the Great and Babylon are the head of gold (Daniel 2:36-38). They are also the lion of Daniel 7. Note that the wings of an eagle being plucked off, the lion standing like a man, and the heart of a man being given to it (Daniel 7:4) resemble the language of Daniel 4:33-36, where Nebuchadnezzar has hair like eagles’ feathers and nails like bird’s claws and has his reason restored to him when he converts to Yahweh worship.
2. Cyrus the Great and Media-Persia are the chest and arms of silver in Daniel 2 and the bear in Daniel 7. The bear is raised up on one side because of the imbalance of power between Media and Persia. The three ribs in its mouth possibly represent the three kings who reigned in Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-Merodach, and Belshazzar) before it was conquered by Media-Persia. The bear being told to “arise and devour much flesh” (Daniel 7:5) reflects the prophecies in Isaiah 13 and Jeremiah 51 about the destruction of Babylon by the Medes.
3. Alexander the Great and Greece are the belly and thighs of bronze in Daniel 2 and the leopard in Daniel 7. The bronze kingdom “shall rule over all the earth” (Daniel 2:39) and the leopard would have “dominion given to it” (Daniel 7:6) because of the great military conquests of Alexander. The four heads and four wings of the leopard reflect the fact that Alexander died young without an heir, after which his kingdom was divided primarily into four pieces ruled by Diadochi, i.e., rival generals, family members, and friends of Alexander who fought for control of Greece.
4. Julius Caesar and Rome are the iron legs and feet in Daniel 2 and the terrifying beast in Daniel 7 (although Rome conquered Israel before Caesar declared himself dictator for life). The break between the third and fourth beast (Daniel 7:7) represent the time from which Israel established independence from Greece (under the rule of the Jewish Hasmonean dynasty) until they were conquered by Rome. The legs of iron represent the period from 63-37 BC, when Israel was a protectorate of Rome but was still ruled by the Hasmoneans. In 37 BC, the Edomite Herod the Great was pronounced King of the Jews under Roman governance, and from then until the transfer of the kingdom from Rome to Christ was the time of the feet of iron and clay, with Rome as the iron and the Herods as the clay. The iron and clay did not adhere to one another (Daniel 2:42-43), because there was enmity between the two sides (Luke 23:12).
   Rome was a terrifyingly powerful and all-conquering political empire, which is why it broke in pieces and crushed the other kingdoms (Daniel 2:40) and went about devouring the whole earth with iron teeth, breaking it in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet (Daniel 7:7, 23). Its nails of bronze (Daniel 7:19) represent the heavy influence of Greek culture on Rome.

Alexander Conquering Persia

The ram of Daniel 8 is by the river in Shushan (Daniel 8:2) because Shushan was one of the most important administrative centers and capitals of the Media-Persian empire during the reigns of Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great (Nehemiah served Darius there – Nehemiah 1:1), and the ram represents Media-Persia (Daniel 8:20). The ram has two horns because during the Restoration era (when the Jewish temple was rebuilt and glorified with the support of Media-Persia), the two main Media-Persian emperors were Cyrus and Darius. Cambyses is only mentioned in passing in the Bible as the “prince of Persia” in Daniel 10, and Bardiya, who succeeded Cambyses, only reigned for a few months before Darius overthrew him (I don’t know of Bardiya being mentioned in the Bible anywhere besides Daniel 11:2).

Here is where the biblical narrative deviates significantly from secular history (which evangelical commentaries generally follow). Daniel 11:2-4 makes very clear that after the major rule of Cyrus, the minor rules of Cambyses and Bardiya, and the major rule of Darius, Alexander the Great conquered Persia. There were no Persian kings between Darius the Great and Alexander.

How is this possible? Well, we get most of our extra-biblical information about Persian history from Greek historians like Herodotus. When these Greek historians wrote, rigorous scientific methods for historical scholarship (vs. hagiography and myths) were just being developed. Moreover, the Greeks tended to assign a single name to each king they wrote about, a practice we follow in America today.

The Bible authors, however, were very comfortable assigning multiple names/titles to one king and switching between them without warning, often to emphasize a theological point. The chronology of the Bible makes clear that in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and the later minor prophets, Darius the Great was referred to as “Darius the Persian,” “Ahasuerus” (except in Daniel 9:1, where the name refers to Cyrus’ father), and “Artaxerxes.”

The most logical explanation of the scholarship concerning later Persian kings is that the Greeks misinterpreted stories and historical records and assumed that references to each of these titles were actually references to different kings. This is bolstered by the fact that the name of almost every single supposed later king of Persia is a variation of either Darius, Ahasuerus, or Artaxerxes. Note: interestingly, evangelicals generally interpret the first three kings of the Restoration Period to be Darius the Great (who sponsored the completion of the Second Temple), then Ahasuerus/Xerxes (who supposedly married Esther), then Artaxerxes (who sponsored Ezra’s trip to Jerusalem), which matches the supposed order of the first three kings after Bardiya according to secular scholars. This suggests that Greek historians might have used the Old Testament as a historical reference and thought the Jewish authors were referring to three different kings.

At any rate, Darius the Great was indeed “far richer than the other kings” (Daniel 11:2), as we can see in Esther 1:1-4 (this is why his horn was “higher” than Cyrus’ – Daniel 8:3). Even the historical stories that are officially ascribed to Darius the Great show him invading Greece, thereby “stirring up all against the realm of Greece.” The later wars with Greece of the supposed subsequent Persian kings would also be those of Darius the Great, which explains why the goat of Daniel 8, which is Greece (Daniel 8:20) and was “from the west” (Daniel 8:5 – Greece was west of Persia) and whose “notable horn” (Daniel 8:5) / “large horn” (Daniel 8:8) / “large horn” / “first king” (Daniel 8:21) was Alexander, was “moved with rage” and attacked the ram “with furious power” (Daniel 8:6-7). Darius had no power to withstand Alexander, who “trampled him” (Daniel 8:7) by killing him when he conquered the Persian empire for Greece. This conquest by Alexander was also the “coming of the prince of Greece” of Daniel 10:20 (Alexander was the prince of Greece before he became king).

The Maccabean Revolt

Alexander grew great through conquest (Daniel 8:8), but then he (the “mighty king” of Daniel 11:3) was broken (i.e., died young). After his death, his kingdom did not go to his posterity nor was divided up according to the realms he ruled (Daniel 11:4) but was divided up amongst the Diadochi. The “four notable horns coming up toward the four winds of heaven” of Daniel 8:8 were the four Diadochi who reigned the four largest resultant chunks of the Greek empire (the “four kingdoms” of Daniel 8:22): Ptolemy I Soter, Cassander, Lysimachus, and Seleucus I Nicator.

The Ptolemaic Kingdom was just south of Israel and initially gained control over Israel after Alexander’s death, while the Seleucid Empire was just north of Israel and later defeated the Ptolemaic Kingdom in battle and gained control of Israel from them. The rulers of these two kingdoms are the “king of the South” and the “king of the North” in Daniel 11. Daniel 11:5-19 thus describes events that stretched from the division of the Kingdom of Greece after Alexander’s death to just before the rise to power of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the Seleucid Empire.

Daniel 11:20 is a clear reference to Heliodorus, who attempted to tax the Second Temple and only reigned briefly before being overthrown by Antiochus Epiphanes, who declared himself king in place of the true heir Demetrius I (“not receiving the honor of royalty” and “seizing the kingdom by intrigue” – Daniel 11:21). Antiochus is significant in the prophecies of Daniel because unlike the Gentile rulers before him, he sought to stamp out the Jewish religion and force the Jews to worship his gods.

Antiochus Epiphanes is therefore the “little horn coming out of one of the four notable horns” in Daniel 8:8-9, because he was a later ruler of the kingdom of Seleucus (which is why Antiochus is depicted as a “king of the North” in Daniel 11). Through his persecution of faithful Jews, Antiochus cast down some of the host of heaven and the stars to the ground, trampled them, and exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host (i.e., the pre-incarnate Jesus who was the archangel of heaven), per Daniel 8:10-11. Antiochus is likewise said to rise against the “Prince of princes” in Daniel 8:25. He is also the “vile person” of Daniel 11:21 and the “king with fierce features” in Daniel 8:23.

Many of the events depicted in the remainder of the sections of Daniel concerning Antiochus’ persecution of the Jews can be understood by reading the deuterocanonical (i.e., not divinely inspired but still historically important) book of 1 Maccabees, which begins by detailing the conflict. The “prince of the covenant being swept away” (Daniel 11:22) refers to Antiochus deposing the high priest Jason and replacing him with Menelaus (this was the “league” of Daniel 11:23 and the “renegade covenant” of 1 Maccabees 1:11). This began the “2300 days” of Daniel 8:13-14.

After that, Antiochus engaged in several conflicts with the Ptolemaic Kingdom, stole articles from the Second Temple, defiled the altar by sacrificing a pig on it (the “abomination of desolation” from Daniel 11:31 and 12:11, by which Antiochus “opposed the daily sacrifices” – Daniel 8:12), and persecuted anyone who refused to go along with his demands to violate traditional Jewish principles of worship. However, faithful Jews led by the Maccabees revolted against Antiochus (Daniel 11:32), fought his armies, eventually recaptured Jerusalem, and restored Jewish temple worship.

The remainder of Daniel 11 describes these events, leading up to Antiochus’ death, as documented from the remainder of 1 Maccabees 1 through 1 Maccabees 6:16. Note that Antiochus was prophesied to be “broken without human means” in Daniel 8:25, and he “shall come to his end, and no one will help him” (Daniel 11:45). In 1 Maccabees 6, Antiochus is said to have died from his deep disappointment in failing to eradicate the Jewish religion.

1 Maccabees puts exactly three years from the setting up of the “desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering” and the offering of an abominable sacrifice on that “altar that was on top of the altar of burnt offering” (1 Maccabees 1:54-59) to the restoration of proper sacrifice (1 Maccabees 4:52-54). Assuming that the timeline of 1 Maccabees is accurate, it is probable that the 1290 days of Daniel 12:11 started with the initial defiling of the sanctuary in 1 Maccabees 1:27 and ended with the conquering of Jerusalem and the beginning of the process of cleansing the sanctuary in 1 Maccabees 4:42-43. The cleansing probably took 45 days, such that the 1335 days of Daniel 12:12 ended with the restoration of proper sacrifice in 1 Maccabees 4:52-53. The 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 would have ended with either the beginning or completion of the cleansing process.

Note: When the Maccabees cleansed the sanctuary and restored Second Temple Judaism, they created a new altar of burnt offering and new holy vessels (1 Maccabees 4:44-51). God’s presence in the Old Covenant was tied closely to the holy vessels, which is why it matters that Nebuchadnezzar took the original holy vessels to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:7, 36:18), as this represented God moving to Babylon with the “good figs” of Jeremiah 24:5. When the Jews returned to Judah from exile, they took the holy vessels back home with them (Ezra 1:7-11).

Hence, the transition to a new set of holy vessels moved Israel into the “time of the end,” as referenced in Daniel 8:17, Daniel 8:19, and Daniel 11:40. This time period started with Antiochus stealing and/or defiling all the original holy vessels (1 Maccabees 1:20-24) and also defiling the sanctuary (1 Maccabees 1:37). As I shall explain shortly, it continued until the Jewish-Roman Wars described in the Book of Revelation.

Note also that in Daniel 8, Daniel is given a very high-level overview of the Maccabean Revolt, then told to “seal up the vision” in Daniel 8:26. Daniel 11 represents the unsealing of the vision, which is why there’s so much more detail given in that chapter concerning these events.

The 70 Weeks of Years

As previously mentioned, in Daniel 9, Daniel recognizes in the first year of Cyrus the Great that the time has come for the Jews to be released from exile, and thus he prays on behalf of the nation of Judah. God responds by sending Gabriel to present Daniel with insight about the remainder of the era of the Gentile empires.

Gabriel indicates that there will be “seventy weeks” for the Jews and the city of Jerusalem until “the finishing of transgression, the end of sins, the reconciliation for iniquity, the bringing in of everlasting righteousness, the sealing up of vision and prophecy, and the anointing of the Most Holy” (Daniel 9:24). These are all a reference to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus (even though prophecy continued for several decades past the resurrection, Hebrews 1:1-2 indicates that during the several decades following the resurrection, the work of prophets was replaced by the “speaking of the Son”).

The “weeks” in Daniel 9 represent “weeks of years,” i.e., cycles of seven years each. The 70 weeks thus refer to 490 literal years. We can prove this literal interpretation from looking at the first seven weeks, which begin with the “going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem” (an obvious reference to Cyrus’ decree in Ezra 1:1-4, which would have happened shortly after Daniel’s prayer) and encompass the rebuilding of the “street and wall, even in troublesome times” (Daniel 9:25). These rebuilding efforts and the troublesome times are recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah, which span from the decree of Cyrus until the 32^nd year of Darius the Great (Nehemiah 5:14, 13:6).

As previously mentioned, the Jews returned to Judah in 3431, then laid the foundation of the temple in 3433. If the rebuilding, glorification, and restoration of the temple worship system and the supporting civil system lasted an additional 46 years (John 2:2), then the 32^nd year of Darius the Great was in 3479. 3431 was thus the first of exactly 49 years that covered the post-Exile Restoration under the purview of the four Persian kings referenced in Daniel 11:2. This would be the first “seven weeks of years,” as 7 x 7 = 49.

Interpreting the next 62 weeks requires a bit of nuance. According to Daniel 9:25, there would be 62 weeks of years (after the first seven weeks) that would stretch until “Messiah the Prince.” Then Daniel 9:26 says that “after the 62 weeks Messiah shall be cut off.” However, if the “cutting off” occurred right after the 62 weeks, then the time of the Messiah would have no length. Furthermore, no description is given of the 70^th week.

Looking at the chronology, we can deduce that Jesus’ earthly ministry lasted seven years. He was born in spring of 6 BC, became a rabbi during the biblical year that ran from spring of 25 AD to spring of 26 AD (when He was “about 30” – Luke 3:23), was baptized in early 30 AD (after about five years of non-miraculous rabbinic ministry that is not recorded in the Bible), then was crucified and resurrected in spring of 32 AD (His miraculous ministry only lasted a little over two years). This means the 70^th week of Daniel ran during the seven biblical years from 25 AD to 32 AD, ending at the end of the year 3920, 490 years after Cyrus conquered Babylon. 3920 was the 80^th Sabbath of Sabbaths (3920 = 80 x 7 x 7). Jesus entered Jerusalem right at the beginning (Nisan) of 3921, the 80^th Jubilee from creation, and was crucified and resurrected shortly afterward. Note: Jubilees were a proclamation of liberty (Leviticus 25:10), and Jesus came to “proclaim liberty” in the “acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19), which was 3921.

Hence, the 62 weeks of years ended when Jesus became a rabbi, and the 70^th week ended just before Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly. Several weeks into the first year after the 70^th week, Jesus was resurrected, making an end of sin and bringing in everlasting righteousness.

The Week of War

After the 70 weeks of years, Gabriel speaks of an additional week, in which the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the Second Temple) would be destroyed during a war (Daniel 9:26). In the middle of the week, sacrifice and offering would be brought to an end (Daniel 9:27).

To understand this week, let’s first consider some language we see in Revelation and Daniel. A 3.5-year period is called “a time and times and half a time” (Daniel 7:25, 12:7), i.e., one year plus two years plus half a year. It is also called “forty-two months” (Revelation 11:2, 13:5), because 12 x 3.5 = 42, as well as “one thousand two hundred and sixty days” (Revelation 11:3, 12:6), because a standard Jewish month is 30 days, and 42 x 30 = 1260.

The structure of Revelation reveals the meaning of the week of Daniel 9:26-27. Revelation 6-11 describes the 3.5-year period during which Vespasian and his son Titus waged war on the Jewish rebels during the First Jewish-Roman War, starting in early 67 AD (once Vespasian replaced Cestius Gallus) and ending with the sacking of Jerusalem in fall of 70 AD, when the Romans burned Jerusalem and the Second Temple to the ground. Revelation 12-16 describes the 3.5-year period when Roman forces fought against Simon Bar Kokhba (the “beast from the sea,” who was supported as a false messiah by Rabbi Akiva, the “beast from the earth”) and the Jewish rebels during the Third Jewish-Roman War, starting in 132 AD and ending in 135 AD.

Revelation 16:18-19:10 then goes back to the middle of the First Jewish-Roman War to describe the actual destruction of Jerusalem. The text then shifts to the defeat of Bar Kokhba’s forces for the remainder of Revelation 19, before shifting again in Revelation 20 to cover events that happened hundreds of years after the Jewish-Roman Wars.

From this narrative structure, which provides no break between the events of 70 AD and the events of 132 AD (other than the step-back in Revelation 12 that sets up Satan’s role in the Bar Kokhba Revolt) we can see that the two 3.5-year periods of conflict in the First and Third Jewish-Roman Wars together constitute the final week of Daniel 9. The destruction of Jerusalem represents the middle point of this two-part week (the “middle of the week” – Daniel 9:27).

The Second Coming of Jesus

As I have described in my analysis of the end times, Jesus “returned” in fall of 70 AD, when Roman forces sacked Jerusalem. In the physical world, the “people of the prince who is to come” (i.e., the Romans under the control of General Titus, who was a Roman prince at the time of the fall of Jerusalem, as his father Vespasian was emperor) destroyed “the city and the sanctuary” (Daniel 9:26). Jesus said His coming would be like the Flood (Matthew 24:37-39), which explains why Daniel 9:26 says that “the end of it shall be with a flood.”

Critical to understanding Daniel 9:27 is to realize that it is the Messiah who “confirms the covenant with many for one week,” not “the prince of the people who is to come.” The week of war confirmed the New Covenant in several ways:

• It rescued (via rapture) Christians who were being persecuted (discussed shortly).
• It resurrected Christians who had died, just as Jesus promised them (discussed shortly).
• It brought judgment on the faithless Jews who murdered Jesus and persecuted Christians after His ascension.
• It destroyed the Second Temple worship system, proving the New Covenant was sufficient to stand on its own.
• It ended the Roman emperor’s special role as spiritual king of kings, replacing him with Jesus as the Messianic King of kings (discussed shortly).
• It led to Judah being destroyed and the Jews being expelled from Jerusalem, thereby shifting the entire focus of the progression of God’s kingdom to the spread of the Church.

The “desolations” mentioned in Daniel 9:26-27 are the second Abomination of Desolation, the cessation of sacrifices by the Jews on behalf of the Roman emperor (also discussed in The End Times article).

Proof that Jesus’ Second Coming occurred in the first century is found in Daniel 7, where the kingdom of God is given to the Son of Man, exactly as described in Revelation 11:15-18 at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, during the time of the tenth and eleventh horns of Rome (Daniel 7:7-8).

To understand the exact timing, we must realize that as previously mentioned, Julius Caesar was the first king of Rome during the time Rome controlled Israel. The next true king was Augustus, followed by Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. After the death of Nero, there was the “Year of the Four Emperors,” when Galba, Otho, and Vitellius fell in quick succession, to be replaced by Vespasian. This makes Vespasian the tenth horn.

Another little horn came up from among the ten horns, a king who would subdue three kings (Daniel 7:24). This requires a bit of nuance to interpret, but clearly the three kings are Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. The eleventh horn would be Titus, who initially served under his father during the First Jewish-Roman War, then took over the war effort when his father became emperor. Vespasian’s triumph in the Year of the Four Emperors was necessary for Titus to eventually become emperor, so in a sense, the three emperors fell before him just as they fell before his father.

Titus laid siege to Jerusalem and eventually sacked it and destroyed the temple, thereby “intending to change times and law” (Daniel 7:25). His words were “pompous” (Daniel 7:8, 11, 20, 25) because he presumed the right to war against the Jews and the holy city of Jerusalem. He and his father “made war against” (Daniel 7:21) and “persecuted” (Daniel 7:25) the “saints of the Most High” (i.e., the Jews), who were given into his hand for 3.5 years (Daniel 7:25).

In the spiritual realm, when Jerusalem fell, the divine right to rule the world that had passed from Nebuchadnezzar down to Rome was taken away and given instead to Jesus and his saints (which means Christians in Daniel 7:18, 7:22, and 7:27, not Jews like in 7:21 and 7:25 – the shift in reference represents the shift from the Jews being God’s people to Christians being God’s people in the New Covenant). Christ’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom (Daniel 7:27), which is why the stone (Jesus the cornerstone – Acts 4:10-11) that struck Nebuchadnezzar’s dream image “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:35).

Daniel 2:44 makes clear that Jesus was enthroned as king of the world during the rule of Rome. Even though Titus later became king and Rome continued as a political entity for several more centuries, it no longer had its divine mandate. Instead, the mandate belonged to Jesus, who eventually converted the Roman empire to Christianity starting with Constantine the Great.

For more information about what lies in our future if the Second Coming was in the past, please see The Millennium and the Future.

The End of the End Times

Daniel 8:17, 8:19, 11:27, 11:35, and 11:40 all connect “the end” with the Maccabean Revolt, because, as previously mentioned, the sanctuary was renewed and the altar and other holy articles were replaced at that time. Daniel 12:1-3, however, jumps forward to the coming of Jesus.

“Michael” is Jesus’ heavenly name as archangel, who is referred to multiple times as “the Angel of the Lord” in the Old Testament, because He commands the angelic armies of the Lord (Joshua 5:13-14) and can summon them at a moment’s notice (Matthew 26:53). Michael is referred to as “the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people” because at the time the Book of Daniel was written, God the Father (the “Ancient of Days” in Daniel 7:9) was King of Heaven and Earth, but Jesus was not yet enthroned as co-regent (that happened in 70 AD). Hence, Jesus was a heavenly prince.

The “time of trouble” in Daniel 12:1 could refer either to the Great Tribulation of the Christians (their persecution by Nero from 64 AD to 68 AD) or the Great Tribulation of the Jews (Titus and Vespasian waging war against them from 67 AD to 70 AD). Either way, the faithful were “delivered” through rapture or resurrection (or, if the time of trouble refers to the Great Tribulation of the Jews, Jewish Christians fled Jerusalem when Roman forces under Cestius Gallus withdrew temporarily, per Jesus’ instructions in Luke 21:20-21, thereby avoiding the torments of the Jews at the hand of Rome).

As discussed in The End Times, the first-century Church was either raptured or resurrected at Christ’s coming. Faithful Christians were brought into Jesus’ presence in Heaven, while false Christians were sent to Hell, just as described in Daniel 12:2. The righteous would “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43), which matches Daniel 12:3 perfectly. In fact, just as eternal life begins in this life for those who drink Christ’s water (John 4:14), this “shining” began when the early Christians converted, before they even died and were resurrected and judged (Philippians 2:14-15).

After the brief preview of the time of Jesus in Daniel 12:1-3, the Holy Spirit tells Daniel to “seal the book” (Daniel 12:4). It is this book that is unsealed in Revelation 5. Daniel 11 was the unsealing of the scroll of Daniel 8 concerning the Maccabean Revolt, while the Book of Revelation is the unsealing of the scroll of Daniel 12 concerning the “end of the end times.”

Importantly, even though the Old Covenant was wiped away in 70 AD, the nation of Israel continued until the Third Jewish-Roman War. Hence, in Daniel 12:6-7, the Holy Spirit swears that after 3.5 years, “the power of the holy people will be completely shattered, and all these things shall be finished.” This language matches Revelation 16:17, which says at the conclusion of the Third Jewish-Roman War, “It is done!” The destruction that followed that proclamation (the Romans inflicted a near genocidal level of death and destruction on Judea, including banning the Jews from Jerusalem) finished the judgment on Israel that arose from their murder of the prophets, Jesus, and the early Christians (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16).

Hence, the bloodguilt of the Jews was wiped clean by 136 AD. The Jews have largely rejected Jesus in the nearly two millennia since, but they have only been judged during that time for their own lack of faith in God. This national “clean slate” has set the stage for the Jews to convert en masse in the future, as described in Romans 11:25-27.