Daniel predicts the arrival of Jesus as Messiah

 We are going to look a prophecy written down around 500 bc

Lets dig in and examine what the scripture is clearly pointing out:

Daniel 9: 25

²⁵ “Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be 7 weeks and 62 weeks;
The street^[c] shall be built again, and the wall,^[d]
Even in troublesome times.

We can see that messiah the prince, will be revealed AFTER the command to rebuild Jerusalem.

If we add 7weeks to 62weeks we get 69weeks

We find that a week of years is 7 years in Jewish culture and history. They call it shabua or shabu’im

So each week represents 7years, time for some more maths…..

      7 weeks   

  +  62 weeks  

  =  69  Weeks of years in this prophecy

Now we must multiply the 69 weeks with 7 to find the Jewish days

  69   weeks

      x    7   weeks of years

     =  483  Jewish years

God provided the actual Jewish people the most superior calendar on Earth.  It is both a Lunar and a Solar calendar.  The Jewish calendar uses a 360 day lunar year and then gives a ‘Leap Month’ on certain years to precisely correspond with the Solar cycle we use on our ‘Julian’ calendar …

The Bible uses the Jewish calendar for prophecies and expects us to add the appropriate ‘leap months’  So, the simplest way to unravel this prophecy is to first convert this prophecy into days.

   483              

      x   360                   

     =    173,880       Jewish days

Now, to convert the 173,880 into our years, we must first add 0.25 to account for the leap years

173,880 days ÷ 365.25 =  476  years 

So we are told by the prophet Daniel, that it will be 476 years from the ‘commandment to rebuild Jerusalem and its walls’ then the messiah of Israel would for the first time ever, be revealed to the world as Messiah.

The Commandment explained

This particular prophecy of the arriving Messiah is actually both amazing and extremely precise.  There were additional orders to reconstruct the Temple, however, there was only one commandment to restore Jerusalem and its walls.

 On March 14th, 445 BC, as verified by modern archaeology, King Artexerxes I of Persia granted the commandment to reconstruct Jerusalem and that included it’s walls.

 the book of Nehemiah records the rebuilding of both the walls and the city

Nehemiah 2:2-9

So this is how the prophecy was fulfilled

Now take the 476 years in this prophecy and simply start counting from March 14, 445 B.C.

That’s when the command was given to rebuild the city and walls remember? and you finish on the precise year, even the very day, Jesus rode ‘triumphantly’ into Jerusalem, which turns out to be Palm Sunday.

So if we count from March 14, 445 BC. When the command was given

To April 6 32 A.D When Jesus was welcomed as KING and MESSIAH

That’s      477  years

–      1  year         Subtract one for no “0” A.D. or B.C.

=  476  years       Spot on!

Jesus praised as King and Messiah by thousands upon thousands of the Jewish people who had assembled from all over for the Passover Holidays.  Honoured, yet humble, riding on a donkey – exactly how the prophet Zechariah, said He would

Zechariah 9:

⁹ “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey

References/Further Study: