The Danielic Imperative

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I do a podcast. I'm not interested in your podcast. The anathema of God was for those who denied justification by faith alone.
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When that is at stake, we need to be on the battlefield, exposing the air and combating the air.
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We are unabashedly, unashamedly Clarkian. And so, the next few statements that I'm going to make,
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I'm probably going to step on all of the Vantillian toes at the same time. And this is what we do at Simple Riff around the radio, you know.
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We are polemical and polarizing Jesus style. I would first say that to characterize what we do as bashing is itself bashing.
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It's not hate. It's history. It's not bashing. It's the Bible. Jesus said, woe to you when men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.
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As opposed to, blessed are you when you have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. It is on.
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We're taking the gloves off. It's time to battle. Welcome to episode 25 of the
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Danielic Imperative. A podcast in which we understand the eschatology of the people of God in the light of his revelation to the prophet
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Daniel. Jesus and his apostles expounded upon the future in explicitly and implicitly
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Danielic terms. And unless Christians are familiar with the Danielic timeline, the revelations of Jesus and his apostles will remain clouded in mystery.
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It is therefore imperative that Christians be familiar with the Danielic timeline. This week we continue our discussion on the two witnesses of Revelation 11.
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In our previous episode, we addressed five assumptions and mistakes Christians typically make in their analysis of the two witnesses.
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And we showed that the text of Scripture overturns those assumptions and corrects those mistakes. By way of a recap, the first mistake is historical.
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And that mistake is to defer to Irenaeus and Augustine on the late dating of the book of Revelation under the reign of Domitian.
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There is no reason their opinion should be of any greater weight than the many opinions that existed in the early church that the book had been written under other emperors.
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We'll demonstrate today that the book of Revelation must have been written no later than 63 AD and possibly even earlier than that.
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The next three mistakes are exegetical. One exegetical mistake is assuming that the 1260 days of the testimony of the two witnesses and the 42 months that the great city is trampled underfoot refer to the same time period as the 1260 day flight of the woman to the wilderness in Revelation 12 and the 42 month reign of the beast of Revelation 13.
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That would seem to make the two witnesses of Revelation 11 concurrent with the reign of the beast of Revelation 13.
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And most commentaries take that as a given. However, as we noted in episodes 20 and 21, the 1260 days of Revelation 12 and the 42 months of Revelation 13 both refer to the time, times, and the dividing time of the little horn of Daniel 7 .25.
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And since a literal three and a half years is never 42 months long in the Hebrew lunisolar calendar, and a literal 42 months is never 1260 days, but all three times clearly refer to the same time period, then the time period itself must in this case be figurative and not literal, and must refer to 1260 years rather than 1260 days.
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The 42 months and the 1260 days of Revelation 11, however, must be literal, because Jesus said the trampling of Jerusalem by the
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Gentiles would happen within one generation, that's Luke 21 verses 24 and 32, making it impossible for those 42 months of Revelation 11 to be a figurative period of 1260 years.
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Thus, the time period of the two witnesses of Revelation 11 cannot be the same time period as the beast of Revelation 13 and the little horn of Daniel 7.
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And importantly, since 42 literal months on the Hebrew lunisolar calendar is never 1260 literal days, the 42 months of Revelation 11 too is not and cannot be the same time period as the 1260 days of Revelation 11 .3.
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And since the prophets could hardly testify in the great city for 1260 days after it had already been leveled, the 1260 days must come first, and the 42 months of trampling must follow.
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And that means that the two witnesses must have started prophesying at least 1263 and a half days before the 42 months even began, and thus their ministry began about seven years before the destruction of Jerusalem.
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And that means the two witnesses must have begun testifying no later than 63
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AD. And that, of course, means that John must have recorded his vision even earlier than that.
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Second, the two witnesses are not killed by a beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit, but rather are killed by a beast that comes out of the abyss or the sea, which is simply a reference to the
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Roman Empire, one of the beasts that comes up out of the sea in Daniel's visions. The third exegetical mistake is to assume that the ministry of the two witnesses occurs between the 6th and 7th trumpet, which would place the two witnesses in the distant future, since the 7th trumpet introduces the earthly reign of Christ after the earthly reign of Antichrist is over.
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But as we showed last time, John always includes an intermission between the 6th and 7th seal, trumpet, and vial judgments, and those intermissions are not necessarily part of the seals, trumpets, and vials chronology.
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Finally, the last mistake is a translation issue. While the two prophets are numerically two, they are physically one, as indicated by the text that refers to their mouth, singular, their body, singular, and their tomb, singular.
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That singular language to refer to two witnesses is said in the same context as Jerusalem, one city, that is called both
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Sodom and Egypt, and the fact that the two candlesticks of Revelation 11 are actually the one candlestick of Zechariah 4 .2.
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The grammatical tension between singularity and plurality leads us to a single person who is in fact two people, which points us to Elijah the prophet returned and John the
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Baptist raised from the dead, since John is repeatedly and emphatically identified both as John and Elijah throughout the
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New Testament. So what does all this mean? It means that we are looking for one individual to preach in Jerusalem for 1 ,260 days, starting in 63
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AD, be murdered in 67 AD, be raised from the dead three and a half days later, accompanied by an earthquake, a voice from heaven calling him up to heaven, and a cloud.
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And as it turns out, that is exactly what happened in 67 AD. Today we will identify the 1 ,263 and a half day period for the prophetic ministry of the two witnesses, and we will also identify the 42 month period that followed when the city of Jerusalem, and indeed the outer court of the temple, was tread underfoot immediately after the resurrection of the two prophets.
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Students of history know very well that the siege of Jerusalem only lasted five months, and the Romans didn't even break through the innermost wall of the city until the last month of the war, which raises an important question.
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Why does the scripture say the outer court of the temple and the city were trampled by the Gentiles for 42 months, if the
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Romans didn't even break through to the court of the Gentiles until the last month of the siege, according to The Wars of the
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Jews by Josephus, Book 6, Chapter 2, Paragraphs 1 and 7? In what way was the city trampled by the
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Gentiles for 42 actual months, if the Romans only trampled it for one? We will answer that question today as well.
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So, that's our agenda. The 1 ,263 and a half day prophetic ministry, death, and resurrection of the two witnesses, the 42 month trampling of the city by the
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Gentiles, and the identity of those Gentiles, who obviously cannot be the Roman soldiers who participated in the five month siege of Jerusalem.
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Okay, let's begin with the prophetic ministry of the two witnesses. It is depicted for us in Revelation Chapter 11, which is our focus today, as it was last time, and I'll start by reading the first few verses of the chapter.
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Now citing Revelation 11, verses 1 to 3. Okay, so there you have it.
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The city is tread underfoot by the Gentiles for 42 months, and the two witnesses will prophesy for 1 ,260 days.
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The historical record is incredibly difficult here, but we are not without help. The question is, can we find a 1 ,263 and a half day period, that starts with one person prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem, and ends with an earthquake, a cloud of light, and a voice from heaven, and then another 42 month period, after that, when the city of Jerusalem is trampled by the
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Gentiles. The answer is, yes, in fact, we can. Let's start with what happened when the two witnesses are murdered, and then raised from the dead, after three and a half days.
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It says in Revelation 11, verses 11 to 13. That's Revelation 11, verses 11 to 13.
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Let me start by saying that the two witnesses were real, and literal, and really did walk around Jerusalem as one man for 1 ,260 days, before the start of the
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Roman -Jewish war. They were really killed, and really lay in the streets for three and a half days, and really rose from the dead, and really ascended in a bright cloud into heaven, upon a loud command, accompanied by an earthquake.
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The scripture said it would happen, and the historical record indicates that it did. Josephus records an interesting event that occurred, as he says, about four years before the war began, at the
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Feast of Tabernacles. A guy started walking around Jerusalem, prophesying against it. Here's what
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Josephus wrote. Now citing from Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 5,
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Paragraph 3. But what is still more terrible, there was one
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Jesus, the son of Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years before the war began, and at a time when the city was in very great peace and prosperity, came to that feast whereon it is our custom for everyone to make tabernacles to God in the temple, began on a sudden to cry aloud,
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A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the
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Holy House, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people. This was his cry as he went about by day and by night in all the lanes of the city.
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However certain of the most eminent among the populace had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took up the man and gave him a great number of severe stripes.
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Yet did not he either say anything for himself or anything peculiar to those that chastised him, but went on with the same words which he cried before.
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Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine fury in the man, brought him to the
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Roman procurator, where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare. Yet he did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke of the whip his answer was,
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Woe, woe to Jerusalem! And when Albinus, for he was then our procurator, asked him who he was, and whence he came, and why he uttered such words, he made no manner of reply to what he said, but still did not leave off his melancholy ditty, till Albinus took him to be a madman and dismissed him.
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Now during all the time that passed before the war began, this man did not go near any of the citizens, nor was he approached by them while he said so.
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But he every day uttered these lamentable words, as if it were his premeditated vow, Woe, woe to Jerusalem!
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Nor did he give ill words to any of those that beat him every day, nor good words to those that gave him food.
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But this was his reply to all men, and indeed, no other than a melancholy presage of what was to come.
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This cry of his was loudest at the festivals. Again, that's Josephus, Wars of the
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Jews, Book 6, Chapter 5, Paragraph 3. Okay, so that's a little unexpected, right?
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For some unknown reason, four years before the war begins, a guy starts walking around Jerusalem with a single message saying,
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Woe, woe to Jerusalem! As Josephus says, this occurred about four years before the war, and he started preaching at the
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Feast of Ingathering, as described in Exodus 34 .22, or the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths, or Sukkoth, as described in Leviticus 23, verses 39 to 43.
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We'll come back to this in a minute, but for now we can at least say that there was some guy walking around Jerusalem prophesying against the people, the city, and the temple for four years before the war, and he started doing this on the
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Feast of Tabernacles. We have some homework to do now, but our efforts will pay off.
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There are four main focuses in this part of our study. First, when did the war begin?
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Without that knowledge, we have no idea of what year the prophet started preaching, only that he started preaching at the
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Festival of Tabernacles. But we will show that he started preaching in 63 AD, exactly as we should have expected based on the timeframe provided in Revelation 11.
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Second, exactly when did he start preaching? If we are trying to establish the duration of his ministry, death, and resurrection to within a 12 -hour accuracy, we need to know the exact hour he started his preaching.
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We'll show from the historical record that he would have started his preaching at 3 PM, three hours before sunset, which would have been three hours before the beginning of the
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Festival of Booths in 63 AD. Third, exactly when was he raised from the dead?
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We can establish from the historical record the exact hour and day he was raised from the dead. And we'll show that he was raised from the dead at 3
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AM, six days before Passover, in 67 AD. And fourth, when we are finished, we'll show from the lunar -solar calendar that 3
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PM at the beginning of the Festival of Tabernacles in 63 AD to 3 AM, six days before Passover in 67
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AD, is exactly 1 ,263 and a half days. Okay, let's start with number one.
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When did the war begin? Historians have typically placed the beginning of the preaching of the prophet four years before the war, in about 62
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AD, because Josephus three times states that the war began in the twelfth year of Nero, which would be 66
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AD. That's according to Antiquities, Book 20, Chapter 11, Paragraph 1, and Wars of the
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Jews in the Preface, Paragraph 7, and Wars of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 14,
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Paragraph 4. Four years before 66 AD would be 62 AD.
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But actually, it is not as simple as that, because Josephus mentions multiple different beginnings of the war in several different months, and in fact, in different years.
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Josephus records about five or six different beginnings of the war. For example,
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Josephus says the occasion of this war was Jewish interference in a Roman construction project the month after Passover in 66
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AD. That's according to Wars, Book 2, Chapter 14, Paragraph 4, after which
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Procurator Florus blew up the war into a flame by stealing 17 talents from the temple treasury.
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That's Book 2, Chapter 14, Paragraph 6. That would put the start of the war in April of 66
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AD, and in fact, Josephus says exactly that in Book 2, Chapter 14. Yet, according to Josephus, a month later,
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Procurator Florus was still trying to force the Jews to begin the war, in Josephus' words, by accusing them of revolting against Governor Cestius.
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That's Wars, Book 2, Chapter 16, Paragraph 1. It was at that point that King Agrippa convinced them not to go to war against the
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Romans. That's Chapter 16, Paragraph 4. And thus, King Agrippa had, quote, put a stop to that war which was threatened.
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That's Book 2, Chapter 17, Paragraph 1. This suggests, of course, that the war had not yet begun, even in May of 66
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AD, even though Josephus said it had already started the previous month. But a couple months later, some of the
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Jews attacked the fortress at Masada, and others refused to make sacrifices for Caesar and the temple, and still others decided to besiege a
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Roman garrison at the fortress of Antonio. That's Wars of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 17,
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Paragraphs 2 through 10. Josephus says, quote, this was the true beginning of our war with the
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Romans. Book 2, Chapter 17, Paragraph 2, which would put the start of the war in July of 66
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AD because Josephus reports that these events occurred around the 15th day of the month of Av. That would put the beginning of the war in late
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July of 66 AD by our calendar. Josephus then says some people in Jerusalem did not want, quote, to put an end to the war, suggesting that the city of Jerusalem was already at war in the heat of the summer of 66
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AD, according to Wars of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 17,
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Paragraph 10. And yet, by the Feast of Tabernacles in September of that same year,
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Josephus says the Jews saw General Cestius approaching and realized that the war was approaching to their metropolis.
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That's Book 2, Chapter 19, Paragraph 2. And then elsewhere, Josephus explicitly states that the war began because of what happened with General Cestius.
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That's Wars of the Jews in the preface, Paragraph 7. And what happened with General Cestius was that he was routed by the
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Jews in his failed attack on Jerusalem in 66 AD. The Jews defeated General Cestius, and Josephus puts that defeat in late
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October, early November of 66 AD, according to Wars of the Jews, Book 2,
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Chapter 19, Paragraph 9. But Roman historian Tacitus said that the next year passed in inactivity so far as the
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Jews were concerned. That's Histories, Book 5, Paragraph 10. And for this reason, in the spring of 67
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AD, Josephus still has the Jews making preparations for the war with the Romans. That's Book 2,
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Chapter 22, Paragraph 1, as if the war had not yet even begun. And so, late in winter, about February of 67
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AD, Emperor Nero was greatly distressed because the east was in so great a commotion, and he wondered who he might send to punish the
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Jews for their rebellion. It is at this point that the emperor mobilized his forces and prepared for an invasion, or as Josephus writes, to undergo the great burden of so mighty a war.
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That's Wars of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 1, Paragraph 2. And yet, even when the 5th, 10th, and 15th legions were mobilized from Egypt and Syria, they then tarried at Ptolemaeus on the coast as they were making ready for war, according to Josephus in Book 3,
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Chapter 6, Paragraph 1. It is at that point, in the spring of 67 AD, that Josephus describes this war that was now beginning.
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That's Book 3, Chapter 3, Paragraph 4. And yet, by May of 67
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AD, according to Josephus, the war still had not yet begun, even though there were occasional skirmishes in which the
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Jews attempted to engage the Romans and others in which a Roman political appointee attempted to engage the
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Jews but was repelled. Throughout all this time, General Vespasian camped at the bounds of Galilee, as Josephus relates, in order to display his army in full view of the
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Jews and, in Josephus' words, to afford them a season for repentance to see whether they would change their minds before it came to a battle.
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And even then, Vespasian restrained his soldiers who were eager for war. That's Wars of the
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Jews, Book 3, Chapter 6, Paragraph 3, suggesting that even in the late spring of 67
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AD, the war had still not yet begun, and Vespasian was still holding back in the hope that the
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Jewish revolt could be put down without a war. So, yes, while it is true that Josephus places the beginning of the war in the twelfth year of Nero, he wavers repeatedly about when that war even started.
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A month after Passover in the early spring of 66 AD when the Jews interfered with a construction project?
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Or maybe a month later when Procurator Florus accused the Jews of revolting against Governor Cestius? Or maybe again in the summer of 66
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AD when some Jews attacked Masada and others refused to make sacrifices for Caesar? Or maybe in the fall of 66
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AD when the Jews defeated General Cestius? Or maybe in February of 67 AD when
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Nero mobilized the 5th, 10th, and 15th Legions? Or maybe in the spring of 67
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AD, and yet even in late spring, as General Vespasian restrains his men at the border of Galilee, still hoping to avoid a war?
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What Josephus probably means is that the events that led to war began in 66 AD, but war did not break out until May of 67
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AD. So, to get back to our point about the prophet who began to preach in Jerusalem four years before the war began, it is most likely that he began to preach in Jerusalem four years before the start of the war in 67
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AD. Why? Because although Josephus mentions many different times that the war allegedly began, as it were, by the time he mentions the prophet in Jerusalem, his most recent and most proximate reference to a date for the beginning of the war was after Passover in the late spring of 67
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AD. And since Josephus has the strange prophet beginning to preach at the Feast of Tabernacles four years before the war began, that would mean the prophet began preaching at the
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Feast of Tabernacles in 63 AD, which is the September -October time frame. And, as it turns out,
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Josephus actually hints to us later, as we will see, that the war that followed the preaching of the prophet only lasted three years and five months, which, as we have shown from the lunisolar calendar, is exactly 42 months.
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And since the war ended in the fall of 70 AD, then the beginning of a three -year, five -month war would have started in the spring of 67.
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And thus the strange prophet would have begun his preaching at the Feast of Tabernacles four years before that, which is the fall of 63
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AD. Okay, number two.
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When did he actually start his preaching? So we know the day and the year the prophet started preaching.
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Now we'll need to spend just a few minutes on the Feast of Tabernacles, or booths, or sukkot, which is celebrated on the 15th of the seventh month and is the day the prophet is alleged to have started preaching, according to Josephus.
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I'll just point out that, according to the scriptures, the Jews were to construct and live in makeshift shelters, or booths, for eight days, starting on the evening of the 15th day of the seventh month, according to Leviticus 23 -34.
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And the first day of the feast is a holy Sabbath, a solemn assembly, and a holy convocation, in which no servile work is allowed, according to Leviticus 23 -35, 36, and 39.
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Because it was a Sabbath, the Jews would have had to be finished constructing their booths before the
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Sabbath began on the 15th of the seventh month, at sunset. But in the first century, the custom of the
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Jews was to honor the approach of the Sabbath at the ninth hour of the day, or 3 p .m., at which point everyone would have immediately ceased from any work.
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And therefore, the Jews would have stopped building their shelters, because it was time to get ready for the festival of booths.
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This is according to Josephus, who records this fact for us in Antiquities, Book 16,
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Chapter 6, Paragraph 2. Caesar Augustus, high priest and tribune of the people, ordains thus,
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Since the nation of the Jews hath been found grateful to the Roman people, it seemed good to me and my counselors, according to the sentence and oath of the people of Rome, that the
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Jews have liberty to make use of their own customs, according to the law of their forefathers, that they be not obliged to go before any judge on the
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Sabbath day, nor on the day of preparation to it, after the ninth hour. That's Josephus, Antiquities of the
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Jews, Book 16, Chapter 6, Paragraph 2. Since the first day of the
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Feast of Tabernacles was a holy convocation and a solemn assembly and a Sabbath, and all servile work was to end by 3 p .m.
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on the afternoon of the fourteenth of the seventh month, everyone would have completed their makeshift Sukkot shelters by then.
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Josephus only tells us that the strange prophet came to that feast whereon it is our custom for everyone to make tabernacles to God in the temple, and that he began on a sudden to cry aloud.
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If all the busyness and work of constructing the shelters would have ended by 3 p .m., it would have gotten awfully quiet at 3 p .m.,
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which is the ninth hour, just three hours before sunset, three hours before the Festival of Tabernacles officially began.
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That's not a bad time to start preaching, so let's just assume for the sake of argument that the prophet started preaching at that moment.
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It is an assumption, I don't deny it, but it is not an unrealistic one. So, let's move on to point three.
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When was he raised from the dead? For the sake of argument, we're going to say he started preaching at 3 p .m.,
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the ninth hour of the day, just before the Feast of Tabernacles was to begin. That was the beginning of the two witnesses' preaching, which concludes with their murder 1 ,260 days later, plus an additional three -and -a -half -day period during which the witnesses lie in the streets until they are raised from the dead.
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This, of course, is accompanied by a bright cloud and a voice from heaven and an earthquake. So, what we're looking for is something to happen 1 ,263 -and -a -half days later, after the
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Feast of Tabernacles in 63 A .D., an earthquake, a voice from heaven, and a cloud in which the witnesses ascend at the ninth hour of the night, which is 3 a .m.
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That is what we're looking for in the historical record. And, to set a time frame, 1 ,263 -and -a -half days from the
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Feast of Tabernacles at the beginning of autumn in 63 A .D. gets you to the beginning of springtime in 67
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A .D. So, we're looking for some pretty significant supernatural events to take place in the spring of 67
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A .D. Well, Josephus happens to mention exactly that happening in the spring of 67
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A .D. He wrote, There were also such omens observed as were understood to be forerunners of the evils by such as loved peace, but were by those that kindled the war interpreted so as to suit their inclinations.
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And the very state of the city, even before the Romans came against it, was that of a place doomed to destruction.
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That's Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 22, Paragraph 1.
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Keep in mind, this is what Josephus describes in the months following the defeat of Roman general
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Cestius in October of 66 A .D., which he related in Wars of the Jews, Book 2,
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Chapter 20, Paragraph 1. And then he relates that the Jews from that point forward started making preparations for war with the
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Romans. That's Wars of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 22, Paragraph 1. As Josephus explains, as the men prepared for war after Cestius' defeat, there were omens that were not of a good kind pointing to Jerusalem's coming destruction rather than to its success.
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As Josephus relates a few books later, those omens that occurred after the defeat of Roman general
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Cestius took place in the spring, around Passover of 67 A .D.
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Here is what Josephus said happened six days before Passover, just before the war broke out.
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Now, citing from Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 5, Paragraph 3. Thus also, before the
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Jews' rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread on the eighth day of the month of Xanthicus, which is
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Nisan, and at the ninth hour of the night, that is 3 A .M.,
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so great a light shone around the altar and the holy house that it appeared to be bright daytime, which lasted for half an hour.
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Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner court of the temple, which was of brass and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night.
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That's Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 5, Paragraph 3. Roman historian
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Tacitus also says at the same time the gate was thrown open and a brilliant light from the clouds was shone from the temple, there was an earthquake and a great voice was heard, which seemed to be saying,
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The gods are departing. This is from Tacitus, Histories, Book 5, Paragraph 13.
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Suddenly the temple was illumined with a fire from the clouds. Of a sudden the doors of the shrine opened and a superhuman voice cried,
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The gods are departing. At the same moment the mighty stir of their going was heard. That's Tacitus, Histories, Book 5,
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Paragraph 13. Now these are very significant events, a light showing forth from the temple, said by Josephus to have taken place on the eighth day of Nisan, which, as we know, is six days before Passover.
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And he said it occurred at 3 a .m., the ninth hour of the night. And equally important,
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Tacitus says at the same time the doors were thrown open and a light shone forth from the temple, there was an unexplained supernatural voice and an earthquake.
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So this places the omens, the light in the temple, the voice, the earthquake, in the spring of 67
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A .D., six days before Passover at 3 a .m. Okay, let's do some math.
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Josephus said the man began to prophesy about four years before the conflict with Rome broke out into open war.
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And he said the prodigy of the light in the temple, the loud voice, the earthquake, the temple doors being opened on their own, all took place immediately before the war broke out.
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So we are looking at events that took place over the course of about four years, as Josephus said.
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So that's our time frame, from 3 p .m. during the preparation for the festival of tabernacles in 63
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A .D. to 3 a .m., six days before the festival of Passover in 67 A .D. How long do you suppose that time period is?
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Well, let's use the Hebrew lunar -solar calendar and look up the dates of the festival of tabernacles on the 15th of the seventh month in one year, which is when
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Josephus said the guy started prophesying in the temple, and the date of the feast of Passover on the 14th of the first month, four years later.
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And you'll find that the total elapsed time between the festival of tabernacles, one year, and the festival of Passover, four years later, is usually 1 ,269 days, assuming there is only one intercalary month in that time period.
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I looked at all the dates of both festivals over a 250 -year period on the lunar -solar calendar, and 68 % of the time, the total days between those two festivals is 1 ,269.
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Due to the nature of the lunar -solar calendar, the length of time can vary. It can be 1 ,268, 1 ,269, 1 ,270, or 1 ,271, depending on the length of each individual year.
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Or, when there are two intercalary months, as we have discussed on many occasions, the elapsed time can be 1 ,297, 1 ,298, or 1 ,299 days.
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But over the course of two and a half centuries, when there is only one intercalary month, it was almost always 1 ,269 days.
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And for the time period under discussion, we are assuming that there was only one intercalary month added between Tabernacles of 63
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A .D. and Passover of 67. Okay, so if it is usually 1 ,269 days from the
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Feast of Tabernacles one year to the Feast of Passover four years later, and the guy started prophesying at 3 p .m.
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in the afternoon before the Feast of Tabernacles began in 63, and there was a brilliant cloud at 3 a .m.
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from six days before Passover in 67 A .D., does anyone want to guess how many days elapsed from the beginning of his preaching at 3 in the afternoon until there was this unusual fiery cloud from heaven and an earthquake and a voice from heaven at 3 in the morning?
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Anybody? Any wild guesses out there? How about 1 ,263 and a half days?
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That's how long it is. 1 ,269 days between those two festivals, less six days because it happened on the 8th of Nisan, which is six days before Passover, plus a half a day because it started at 3 p .m.
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before Tabernacles and ended at 3 a .m. on the 8th day of Nisan. 1 ,263 and a half days.
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That's the 1 ,263 and a half day period of which John wrote in Revelation 11. And from the historical record, it appears to have happened exactly as John prophesied.
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Now, it is important to know that while there are some points of agreement between them, the testimonies of Tacitus and Josephus are not entirely consistent, and there are other problems with the data as well.
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But there are some very high probabilities, not the least of which is the time frame. That is, during the period of three and a half years before the war began, as well as the length of time between Tabernacles in 63
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A .D. and six days before Passover in 67, and it is known from the scriptures that Jews really did purify themselves before Passover each year.
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That's John 11 .55. And it appears this was done six days before Passover because the next chapter begins with what
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Jesus was doing in Bethany six days before Passover. These are all things that are either known from the scriptures or can be validly deduced from them.
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However, Josephus only gives us the exact date and time of the omens. That is, 3 a .m.
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on the 8th of Nisan, six days before Passover. And only Tacitus implies that all these things happened on the same day.
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What is more, Tacitus lists the illumination of the temple with the fire from the clouds first and the opening of the gates second, while Josephus lists them in opposite order, saying the gates were opened in the sixth hour and the temple was illumined with light in the ninth.
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On top of that, Josephus says the earthquake and the voice from heaven took place at Pentecost, not Passover.
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This is from Josephus' Wars of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 5, Paragraph 3. Moreover, at that feast which we call
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Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that in the first place they felt a quaking and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying,
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Let us remove hence. That is Josephus' Wars of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 5,
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Paragraph 3. And what is more than that? Josephus says the guy who began to prophesy on the temple at the
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Feast of Tabernacles about four years before the war began continued testifying for seven years and five months until he was hit by a stone from a catapult from a
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Roman siege engine, and that is a lot longer than 1260 days. He wrote,
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This cry of his was the loudest at the festivals, and he continued this ditty for seven years and five months without growing hoarse or being tired therewith until the very time that he saw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege, when it ceased.
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For as he was going around upon the wall he cried out, with his utmost force,
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Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house. And just as he added at the last,
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Woe, woe to myself also, there came a stone out of one of the engines and smote him, and killed him immediately.
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And as he was uttering the very same presages, he gave up the ghost. That's Josephus, Wars of the
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Jews, Book 6, Chapter 5, Paragraph 3. So, that's Josephus telling us that this prophet who spent his last days on earth wandering through the city of Jerusalem crying,
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Woe, woe to the city, the people, and the temple, did so for seven years and five months, which is more than twice as long as the 1260 day ministry of the two witnesses as represented in Revelation 11.
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So, yes, we have our work cut out for us. The historical record is not consistent with our hypothesis.
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But, let's walk through these three obstacles to our path. The first obstacle before us is that we lack any historical evidence to corroborate
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Josephus' account of the guy wandering around Jerusalem prophesying against the city. There's no other historical account of it, and the one account we do have describes him doing it for seven years and five months.
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But I will show that Josephus would have been present for the beginning of the prophet's ministry, but he was actually 75 miles north of Jerusalem in the spring of 67
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AD, and he would not have been an eyewitness to the prophet's disappearance. He had no way to account for the disappearance of such a remarkable character, and so he actually had to make up an account of the demise of the prophet.
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I'll show you in a moment how we can know that. The second obstacle is that for the points on which we have multiple historical testimonies, the data are inconsistent, as in Tacitus saying the light, the cloud, the earthquake, the temple doors being thrown open on their own accord, the loud voice, all happened on the same day.
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In Josephus saying the light of a cloud and the doors being thrown open occurred six days before Passover, while the earthquake and the voice from heaven occurred at Pentecost, which would be 55 days later.
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But we'll show that Josephus was not near Jerusalem at the time these events occurred, and therefore was not an eyewitness or eyewitness to these events, and had to stitch the account together decades later, since he did not write down the account of the war until 93
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A .D., almost 30 years after the events he was describing. The third obstacle is that Josephus says the prophet was a plebeian by the name of Jesus, son of Ananus.
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If he was really John the Baptist and Elijah, why would Josephus say he was a guy named
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Jesus? Well, let's begin with his statement that the person prophesying woe to Jerusalem four years before the war continued doing so for seven years and five months.
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A simple analysis will show that Josephus' explanation of the prophet's death is impossible. His description places his death by a stone from a catapult in a time when the
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Roman catapults were not within range of the walls of Jerusalem, and therefore could not have occurred as Josephus describes it.
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According to Josephus' Wars of the Jews, Book 5, Chapter 3, Paragraph 1, the Roman siege did not begin until Passover in 70
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A .D., placing the beginning of the siege on the 14th of Nisan. And when the siege began, the siege engines were too far away to do any good, so Titus had his men level the ground between his camp and the city so that he could bring the siege engines closer.
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Roman historian Tacitus says while they leveled the ground, there was a respite of fighting until they made ready every device for storming the city.
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That's Histories, Book 5, Paragraph 13. So obviously the catapults were too far away to reach the walls when the siege began.
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Josephus said it took four days just to level the ground. That's Wars, Book 5, Chapter 3,
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Paragraph 2 and 5. And then some more time to bring timber from the suburbs of Jerusalem in order to construct embankments to protect the engines and those operating them, according to Chapter 6,
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Paragraph 2. And even then, according to Josephus, when the catapults finally started to operate, the
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Jews were able to see the stones coming from a distance, and the initial volleys in Josephus' words, did them no harm.
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That's Wars of the Jews, Chapter 6, Paragraph 3. According to that same chapter, the
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Romans figured this out pretty quickly and changed their tactics and started taking out a lot of Jews in a single shot.
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So, from the time the siege began, it was at least a week before the catapults started actually killing people.
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If the siege started at Passover, then the earliest possible date of the catapults actually killing anyone, and therefore, the earliest possible date of the death of the prophet, would be seven days later, the 21st day of Nisan in 70
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A .D. That's the earliest possible date for the death of the prophet. Now, let's establish the latest possible date for the use of the catapults.
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It was 105 days from the 21st of Nisan until the Roman soldiers made their final assault on the innermost walls of the temple and finally broke through on the 8th day of Av.
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That was the day Titus brought in the battering rams, penetrated the last wall, and finished off the resistance. That's Josephus' Wars of the
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Jews, Book 6, Chapter 4, Paragraph 1. At that point, catapults would be of no further value and would not have been used to attack the walls of the city.
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So, that's the latest possible date for the prophet's death. And that establishes our time frame during which
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Roman catapults were being used within the range of the walls of Jerusalem during the siege. It could have been no earlier than the 21st of Nisan and no later than the 8th of Av.
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in 70 A .D. The point is, we have a very definite window of time for the death of the prophet according to Josephus, if he truly went about the city prophesying woe for seven years and five months and was finally killed by a stone from a
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Roman catapult. And it doesn't take long to figure out that Josephus' account of the prophet's death can't possibly be true.
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Josephus told us that the prophet started prophesying at the Feast of Tabernacles four years before the war began.
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Let's assume for now that the war began in late spring of 67 A .D. Okay, seven years and five months later gets you to the 15th of Adar, the 12th month in 71
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A .D. That's more than six months after the war was already over. There is simply no way the prophet could have been killed by a
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Roman siege engine as he was going around upon the wall more than six months after the war ended.
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The war was over and the walls long since destroyed. If the prophet was really killed seven years and five months after he started preaching, he would have been preaching in a city already destroyed, on a wall that was no longer standing, and killed by a siege engine that was no longer even there.
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So obviously, something is wrong with Josephus' account. But, what if we assume the war began in the early spring of 66
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A .D.? Four years prior gets you to the Feast of Tabernacles in 62 A .D.
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But the problem remains. If you start at the Feast of Tabernacles in 62 A .D. and go forward seven years and five months, that gets you to the 15th of Adar in 70
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A .D., which is a month before the siege even began, and five weeks before the siege engines could have been brought close enough to the city.
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In that case, if the prophet was really killed seven years and five months after he started preaching, he would have reached the end of his life in a city that was not under siege, on a wall that was not under assault, and killed by a siege engine that was still too far away to reach him.
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We have provided a visual in the show notes so you can see graphically on a calendar why it is impossible that the prophet
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Josephus describes really preached for seven years and five months. It just doesn't work out.
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His math was all wrong. So, what gives? How could Josephus be so specific to the month about the duration of the prophet's preaching, seven years and five months, when it is so clearly impossible based on the
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Jewish calendar? Based on what Josephus has told us about the start date of his preaching and the beginning and end of the siege, there is simply no way the prophet could have been killed when, where, and how
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Josephus very plainly claims he was. Why would Josephus do this? Well, I have a theory.
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Every historian knows that Josephus struggled with consistency in his details and was a classic narcissist, and thus enormously proud of how detailed he was in his writing.
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It is no surprise to find that when you get to the chaos in Jerusalem, the responsibility to get the
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Jews battle -ready falls to no less than Josephus himself. And yet, for all of his pride as a general and a historian, he struggled even with the simplest details and was often guilty of giving inconsistent and contradictory testimony.
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His propensity for chronological dyslexia borders on pathological. For example, in Wars of the
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Jews, Book 5, Chapter 13, Paragraph 1, he explains as a matter of fact that Matthias, the son of the high priest, ran away to the
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Romans before his father's death. And then in the very next book, Book 6,
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Chapter 2, Paragraph 2, he just as plainly insists that Matthias ran away to the Romans after his father's death.
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Which is it? Nobody knows, and it is up to our best guess. Similarly, when describing the reign of Antiochus IV under the
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Greek Empire, Josephus explains that Antiochus forbade the offering of sacrifices for three years and six months.
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That's Wars, Book 1, Chapter 1. But elsewhere says that Antiochus forbade sacrifice for three years.
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That's Antiquities, Book 10, Chapter 11, Section 7. And again, in the very same chapter, for 1296 days.
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What a mess. And yes, I do realize that I am trying to rely on Josephus to understand the chronology of the
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Roman War with the Jews, and at the same time arguing that Josephus' chronology is unreliable.
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Like I said, the historical data is difficult. But I do have a theory. As we have noted from our study of intercalation, three and a half years is always either 43 months or 44 months, but it's never 42.
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And 42 months is never three and a half years. 42 months is a month shy of three and a half years.
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Or to put it another way, 42 months on the Jewish lunar -solar calendar is three years and five months.
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And, as we will show in a few minutes, the war against the Jews lasted 42 months because the city was to be trampled by the
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Gentiles for 42 months, according to Revelation 11. Josephus knew how long the war lasted because he witnessed its beginning with the invasion of Galilee.
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In fact, he was in Galilee when it started. And he witnessed its end with the siege of Jerusalem.
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In fact, he was outside the walls of Jerusalem throughout the siege. And what is more, he also would have had first -hand knowledge that the prophet began testifying four years before the war began during the
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Feast of Tabernacles because all Jewish men were required to be in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, according to Deuteronomy 16.
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All of his testimony on these points can be given the benefit of the doubt because he was there to see it all.
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But in the spring of 67 AD, Josephus was 75 miles north of Jerusalem, fortifying the cities of Galilee in anticipation of a
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Roman invasion, and would have missed the Feast of Passover that year, and would therefore have missed the events surrounding the departure of the prophet.
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By his own hand, he acknowledges that while these omens were happening in Jerusalem in the spring of 67
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AD, that is, the voice from heaven, the temple doors being thrown open, the bright cloud at 3
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AM, six days before Passover, he was not even near the city. And thus, he would have had no first -hand knowledge of the death, resurrection, and ascension of the prophet 1 ,263 1⁄2 days after he started preaching.
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Josephus wrote these histories 23 years after the war in 93 AD, according to Antiquities, Book 20,
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Chapter 11, Paragraph 3. And it was hard enough to recall the things he actually had seen, much harder to recall the things he had not, and almost impossible to get it right considering his propensity for chronological dyslexia.
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And what we know for sure is that Josephus did not see and could not have seen the events surrounding the actual death of the prophet.
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The necessity of reliance upon hearsay from hardly any surviving Jewish witnesses, and the decades that elapsed between those events and his description of them, surely must have taken their toll on Josephus' memory and accuracy.
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This may account for why Josephus places the bright cloud on the opening of the temple doors just before Passover, but places the voice from heaven and the earthquake at Pentecost, whereas Tacitus places them all on the same day.
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Tacitus was not an eyewitness to the events either, but he would have drawn from the accounts of Roman survivors, of which there were, of course, considerably more than there were
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Jewish survivors. And to our point about the duration of the prophet's preaching,
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Josephus is nothing if not a good storyteller who prides himself on providing minute and trivial information, yet he suffered from a pathological desire to give specific details, even if he had no reliable knowledge of them.
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And it may very well be that he had simply no logical explanation for how the story of the prophet ended. And if you're a storyteller, you can't introduce such a striking character to the plot without having an explanation of what happened to him.
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But that is exactly where Josephus found himself when he was describing the remarkable events surrounding the last seven years of the nation of Israel.
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What was he to do? There was a weird guy going around preaching doom and gloom to Jerusalem and the people and the city for four years before the war began.
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And Josephus had no knowledge of his disappearance and no way to account for it. So Josephus did the only thing he could do.
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He made up an ending. If the prophet started preaching four years before the war began, as Josephus says, and the war lasted three years and five months, as Josephus acknowledges and which we will demonstrate shortly, then the prophet must have preached a total of seven years and five months and was killed at the end of the siege.
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A fitting end to such a novel character is this strange prophet who predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and was himself the victim of it.
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Josephus simply added four years to the length of the war and wrote that down as the total duration of the preaching of the prophet, never imagining that someone might go back and check his math.
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And the fact is, his math doesn't work. Seven years, five months after the Feast of Tabernacles in 63
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A .D. gets you to early 71 A .D., six months after the war was over. Seven years, five months after the
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Feast of Tabernacles in 62 gets you to the 15th day of Adar, four weeks before Passover, a full month before the siege even began, and five weeks before the
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Roman catapults were even within range of the walls. The figure seven years and five months is therefore impossible, a literary device to account for the case of the missing prophet, which, as it turns out, cannot possibly be true.
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The same may also be true of Josephus' identification of the prophet. Josephus says his name was
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Jesus, the son of Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman. Josephus does nothing more than provide the name, but the name carries with it an odor of fiction because when the prophet is brought before Albinus, the
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Roman procurator, he has the prophet whipped and asked him who he was and whence he came and why he uttered such words, to which inquiry the prophet made no manner of reply, according to Josephus, Wars of the
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Jews, Book 6, Chapter 5, Paragraph 3. If the man's identity and origin was so obvious to Josephus and presumably to everyone else in Jerusalem, why was
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Albinus engaged in such violent efforts to extract his name and origin? If Josephus was right, anyone could have provided that information to Albinus, yet Albinus demanded that information from the prophet and received no reply.
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It seems to me that if the man was truly a plebeian, a Roman citizen, his name and occupation would have been freely available to Albinus in the census and tax records, and he would have had no need to extract the information by force.
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But that, of course, is all speculation about an uncorroborated series of events recorded by an unreliable historian.
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So let us therefore turn our attention to what we can know with certainty. We know from the scriptures that the
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Jews purified themselves six days before Passover, as John 11, 55 -12. We know from the biblical festivals and the lunisolar calendar that there are really, typically, 1 ,263 and a half days from 3 p .m.
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on the afternoon before the start of the Feast of Tabernacles in one year until 3 a .m. six days before Passover four years later.
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And we know from the scriptures that before the city of Jerusalem was trampled by the Gentiles for 42 months,
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Revelation 11, 2, one man signifying two persons representing both the law and the prophets must have preached in the city for 1260 days before being killed by the
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Romans and then remaining unburied in the streets for three and a half days and raised again from the dead and ascended into heaven in a bright cloud accompanied by an earthquake and a loud voice from heaven.
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That's Revelation 11, verses 3 -13. That much we know is true. The scriptures say so.
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Can we say with certainty that such an odd series of events appears to have occurred during three and a half years before the
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Roman invasion of Judea in the spring of 67 A .D.? Yes, we can. Yes, we most certainly can.
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Not because of Josephus' account, but because of John's. And as we alleged in our previous episode, that means the
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Apocalypse of John must have been written not just before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A .D. and not just before the
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Roman invasion of Judea 42 months earlier, but three and a half years even before that. Before the prophet even began to preach at the
55:20
Feast of Tabernacles in 63 A .D. And as we have noted in our previous episodes, the proposed date of 95
55:27
A .D. for the writing of the Apocalypse of John is just a tradition. There are plenty of other traditional sources indicating an earlier date, even earlier than Paul's epistles.
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But we don't need to rely on tradition. We can derive from Revelation 17 that the Apocalypse was written during the reign of Nero, the sixth emperor of the
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Julio -Claudian line. And thus, John's words, there are seven kings, five have fallen, one is, and one other is not yet come.
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Revelation 17 .10. And from the events of Revelation 11, that it must have been written in 63
55:59
A .D. or earlier. Well, that concludes our discussion on the 1263 and a half days between the preaching of the prophet and the resurrection of the prophet and ascension into heaven.
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So, let's turn our attention to the other time period mentioned in Revelation 11. After the witnesses have testified 1260 days and been killed and laid in the street for three and a half days, and then there's an earthquake and a voice from heaven calling them to come up hither, and they ascended in a bright cloud, there ought to be a 42 month period when the city of Jerusalem is trampled by the
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Gentiles. Revelation 11 .2 says, but the court which is without the temple leave out and measure it not, for it is given unto the
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Gentiles, and the holy city they shall tread under foot forty and two months. So that's what we should have expected, but instead,
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Rome invades Galilee and subjugates the cities there, and then invades Judea and subjugates all the cities there, and saves
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Jerusalem for last, and only spends four months besieging the city and then it collapses and the vast population within it is either starved to death, killed in the siege, or is taken captive and led away over the course of the next month.
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But the Romans only had unobstructed access to the city for about a month after the siege. They certainly did not trample the city for 42 months, and Jesus was very specific about this.
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Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, Luke 21 .34, and the holy city shall be tread under foot forty and two months,
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Revelation 11 .2. This is not a simple prophecy of the Romans making life hard in Jerusalem or bombarding the city with stones and assaulting it with siege engines and spending 42 months subjugating
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Judea. It is a very specific prophecy that the Gentiles will occupy the city and tread it under foot for 42 months.
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But the Romans never did that. What happened? Well, actually, the answer is very simple.
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The word Jesus uses for Gentiles here, in fact, the word for Gentiles throughout the New Testament, is simply the
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Greek word ethnos, from which we get our English word ethnic. It simply means nations.
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That word can be used to describe the Jews, as in John 7 .5 and John 18 .35, and can be used to describe the
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Samaritans, as in Acts 8 .9, and can be used to describe the people of Galilee, as in Matthew 4 .15,
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and as is evident when you compare Mark 3 .7 and Matthew 12 .18 to 21. It can also be used to describe all the nations that were displaced when the
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Jews entered the Promised Land, according to Acts 13 .19, and it can be used to describe all the nations of the earth,
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Matthew 25 .32. The point is, the trampling of Jerusalem by the Gentiles is simply the trampling of Jerusalem by the nations, and to put a fine point on it,
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Galilee in Scripture is called Galilee of the Gentiles, or literally Galilee of the
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Nations. Now, with that in mind, we will simply note that in the spring of 67 AD, when the
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Romans were preparing for their invasion, the Jews had assigned Jewish generals to oversee the defense of Jerusalem and Judea, according to Wars of the
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Jews, Book 2, Chapter 20, Paragraphs 3 -4, and the people of Galilee brought their internal squabbles to an end and began to work together to prepare for war, as Josephus describes in Book 2,
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Chapter 22, Paragraph 1. The disturbances of Galilee quieted when, upon their ceasing to prosecute their civil dissensions, they betook themselves to make preparations for the war with the
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Romans. Again, Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 22,
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Paragraph 1. The significance of this is two -fold. First, when the
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Romans began their invasion in the late spring of 67 AD, they set up camp at the boundaries of Galilee and just stayed there, waiting for the
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Galileans to make the first move, according to Wars, Book 3, Chapter 6, Paragraph 3.
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Second, when the Romans reached the next target, the city of Gadara, they found that the inhabitants had already fled to other fortified cities, and the
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Romans moved on to the next target. As news of the invasion spread, more and more people from Galilee retreated to other fortified cities, or repaired to Jerusalem, the most fortified city of all.
01:00:10
This continued until Titus arrived for the final siege in the spring of 70 AD. As Tacitus describes it, by the time
01:00:19
Titus arrived to besiege Jerusalem, the city had been overrun for years by the constant stream of rabble that continued to arrive in the city since the invasion began in the spring of 67.
01:00:30
And most importantly, those Jewish leaders had long since been replaced by the robber zealots of Galilee.
01:00:36
Now citing Roman historian Tacitus, Histories, Book 5, Paragraph 12. The population at this time had been increased by streams of rabble that flowed in from the other captured city, for the most desperate rebels had taken refuge here, and consequently sedition was the more rife.
01:00:55
There were three generals, three armies, the outermost and largest circuit of the walls was held by Simon, the middle of the city by John, and the temple was guarded by Eleazar.
01:01:06
That's Tacitus, Histories, Book 5, Paragraph 12. Again, that is
01:01:12
Roman historian Tacitus explaining that by the time Titus arrived to besiege Jerusalem, the city was teeming with rebel armies under the command of three quarreling generals,
01:01:21
Simon, John, and Eleazar. And who were these three generals? Simon ben
01:01:26
Giora was from the region known as Gerasa, or Gadara, the famous region in Galilee where Jesus encountered the demoniac, as recorded in Matthew 8,
01:01:35
Mark 5, and Luke 8. John of Geshala was the famous robber from the city of Geshala, a fortified city in Galilee.
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Our listeners will recall episode 23 in which we highlighted John abandoning thousands of women and children in the wilderness in his flight to Jerusalem.
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Eleazar ben Simon is another rebel leader believed to have been raised in Galilee. So, the sum of the matter is that when the whole region was preparing for war in the spring of 67
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AD, the Galileans were in control of Galilee and the Jews pretty much had Jerusalem, Judea, and Idumea under the control of their own generals.
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But by the time Titus arrived at the walls of Jerusalem, the city was swarming with the wretched refuse of Galilee, the teeming masses of refugees from the north, and had suffered greatly in the transition.
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The three different Galilean armies had essentially taken Jerusalem under their control. They fought ruthlessly among themselves for control of the city and Jerusalem paid a terrible price for it.
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Tacitus notes that the factions remained at odds with one another until the Romans approached the city to besiege it and Josephus notes that they spent the intervening years fighting for or destroying each other's food and supplies, leaving the inhabitants surrounded and starving before the siege even began.
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That's Wars of the Jews, Book 5, Chapter 1, Paragraph 4. That destruction of the city by the
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Galilean armies from within the walls of Jerusalem lasted from the first incursion of Rome into Galilee back in 67
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AD and concluded when the city was sacked and destroyed in the late summer of 70 AD. It wasn't the
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Romans that Jesus had foreseen trampling the city for 42 months. It was the Galileans, the people from Galilee of the nations, or as it is typically translated,
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Galilee of the Gentiles. And that explains one of the puzzles of Revelation 11.
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Generally speaking, the 42 months during which the Gentiles are to tread the holy city underfoot is understood either in a preterist sense, to refer to the
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Roman war against the Jews from 67 to 70 AD, but Rome did not even approach the city until the spring of 70
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AD and the siege only lasted four months. So the Romans certainly were not in view. Historicists have understood the prophecy to refer to a prophetic timeline of 1260 years, but that can hardly be true since Jesus foresaw the trampling of the city within the generation, according to Luke 21 -32.
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Futurists would generally see it fulfilled in a literal 42 -month period sometime in the future, but that cannot be true for the same reasons.
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So how was it fulfilled? It was fulfilled in the 42 months of the Jewish -Roman war from 67 to 70
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AD, and I might add that according to the lunar -solar calendar, 42 months is three years and five months, which is why
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I found Josephus' time period so interesting. He said the prophet started preaching four years before the war and continued for three years and five months after it started.
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We show that time frame to be impossible, but it serves us well, at least in this way.
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It suggests that Josephus thought the war started in the spring of 67 AD and lasted three years and five months, which is to say it lasted 42 months.
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So when did the trampling of Jerusalem start? Well, let's take a look. Remember, the Roman legions arrived at the city of Ptolemaeus in the spring of 67
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AD and were welcomed by the citizens as friends. That's Wars of the Jews, Book 3,
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Chapter 2, Paragraph 4. Despite some skirmishes initiated on both sides by the
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Jews and a Roman tribune, the Roman legions simply remained in a mode of preparation and did not initiate an invasion.
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As Josephus recorded, Vespasian, with his son Titus, had tarried some time at Ptolemaeus and had put his army in order.
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That's Wars, Book 3, Chapter 6, Paragraph 1. The first legitimate engagement of the war was the siege of Jonapata in Galilee, which lasted 47 days and concluded, according to Josephus, on the evening of the first day of Tammuz, which is the middle of the summer in 67
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AD. Wars of the Jews, Book 3, Chapter 7, Paragraph 36. 47 days before the first of Tammuz is the 14th day of Iyar, exactly one month after Passover.
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Thus, the siege of Jonapata must have started one month after Passover in the spring of 67 AD. Prior to the siege of Jonapata, Josephus says that the first city
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Vespasian had attacked was Gadara, but he had taken it with no resistance because the inhabitants had already fled.
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That's Wars of the Jews, Book 3, Chapter 7, Paragraph 1. And we certainly know where they went when they fled, because Simon Ben -Giora was one of the three generals that occupied
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Jerusalem, and he was from Gadara. Once Vespasian realized that Gadara was empty, he immediately set his sights on Jotapata.
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That's Book 3, Chapter 7, Paragraph 3, about 30 miles from Gadara. Let's assume, for the sake of discussion, that it was a week from the first hostile incursion into Galilee with the sack of Gadara until the beginning of the siege of Jotapata, and that puts the real start of the
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Roman invasion on the morning of the seventh day of Iyar in 67 AD. That was when the Galileans started to flee from Galilee to the safety of Jerusalem, and that is when the trampling would have begun, when the
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Galilean refugees started heading toward and arriving in Jerusalem. And when did the trampling end?
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Well, Josephus also reports that the war came to its catastrophic end at sundown on the seventh day of the month of Elul in 70
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AD, with the utter destruction of Jerusalem. The whole city was engulfed in flames as the sun was setting.
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So, that's exactly three years and five months since Vespasian's first incursion into Galilee. That's the three years and five months
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Josephus was talking about. Now, if we had no knowledge of the lunar -solar calendar, we might think we had miscalculated.
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If there are twelve months in a year, and the trampling of Jerusalem began on the seventh day of Iyar in 67 AD, and ended on the seventh of Elul in 70
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AD, it is a matter of simple calculation to prove that the total elapsed time is only 40 months.
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But we do have knowledge of the lunar -solar calendar, and we know that every three years the Jews had to add an intercalary month, and occasionally they even had to add a second intercalary month within a three -year period, just as we discussed.
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We also know from the lunar -solar calendar that three and a half years is 1260 days, which is 43 months, which would have included exactly one extra intercalary month, and because of that we know that during the preaching of the prophet in Jerusalem from 63 to 67
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AD, there must have been only one intercalary month added. For the sake of illustration, we have assumed the intercalary month,
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Adar 1, took place in 65 AD, as you can see in the graphic that is provided in the show notes. But after that stretch with only one intercalary month, the calendar was due for a double intercalary correction, so we have assumed for illustration that there was an intercalary month added in 68
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AD, and another one added in 70. With those two intercalary months, the totally lapsed time from the invasion of Galilee until the destruction of Jerusalem would be three years and five months, as suggested by Josephus, but exactly 42 months as prophesied by John.
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We have provided a graphical depiction of the entire calendar of events from the Feast of Tabernacles in 63
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AD until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, including two illustrations of the impossibility of Josephus' claim that the prophet actually preached for seven years and five months.
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So, that's where we'll end today. The 1 ,263 -and -a -half -day period of the two witnesses took place from 3
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PM, the afternoon before the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles in 63 AD, and ended at 3
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AM, six days before Passover in 67 AD, after their body had landed the street for three -and -a -half days.
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Less than a month later, on the 7th of Iyar in 67 AD, the 5th, 10th, and 15th legions led an assault on Gadara, only to find that the inhabitants had already fled for Jerusalem, and the
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Roman armies turned their attention to Jotapata of Galilee. And, by the time Titus arrived at the walls of Jerusalem, the population of the cities of Galilee had fled to Jerusalem for safety, and had been doing so for 42 months, neatly organized within the city into three
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Galilean armies, ruining the city before the Romans had even come to besiege it. The war ended on the 7th day of the month of Elul in 70
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AD, as the sun set on Jerusalem, after it was sacked by the Romans. With no intercalary months, that would only be a 40 -month time span, but after the 1260 -day ministry of the two witnesses, in which there was only one intercalary month, the
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Hebrew lunisolar calendar was due for a correction, requiring two intercalary months between the spring of 67 and the fall of Jerusalem, resulting in a total of 42 months of Jerusalem being trampled by the
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Gentiles, or, literally, the nations of Galilee. Now, it is true,
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I grant the listener, that I have attempted to reconstruct this timeline using inconsistent and sometimes uncorroborated evidence from the historical record.
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And, barring any additional discoveries of historical written records of the final seven years of Jerusalem, this is as good as the data is going to get.
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But we do have something else, something more reliable. We have the scriptures. We know that Jerusalem was to be trampled within the generation.
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We know the Hebrew lunisolar calendar, so we know how long it is from Tabernacles in 63 to Passover in 67.
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And we know that John and Elijah are co -identified as the person who is to come before the great and awful day of the
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Lord. And we know that Galilee of the nations refers to the Gentiles. And we know all of this was supposed to happen before the fall of Jerusalem, and it did.
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I may not have all the details exactly right, but we can have confidence from the scriptures that the two witnesses prophesied and the
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Gentiles trampled Jerusalem before the sack of Jerusalem in 70 A .D. That much we can know with certitude of scriptural knowledge.
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We should not be ashamed to say it. John foresaw it and recorded it for us before 63
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A .D. And it is the word of God. This is Timothy F. Kaufman, your host of the
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Danielic Imperative. This concludes part two of the two witnesses of Revelation 11.