SRR 94 The Danielic Imperative Part 17

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SRR 96 The Danielic Imperative Part 18

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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,
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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 back to our listeners.
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Thanks so much for your patience. This is your host, Timothy F. Kaufman, and you're listening to our eschatological series,
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The Danielic Imperative. We took a bit of a break there since our last episode because I was focusing on some writing on a study of Irenaeus.
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And we will let our listeners know when that is published so they can read it if they like. We have also been working on a separate podcast called,
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The Diving Board. And the inspiration for that podcast is the vast historical ignorance displayed and the historical revisions that occur when
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Roman Catholic apologists try to explain the allegedly ancient apostolic roots of their religion.
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And particularly, the Protestants who fall for the lie and buy into it wholesale. Our inaugural episodes on The Diving Board covered the lecture by former
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Anglican priest, Ray Ryland, who had converted to Roman Catholicism after, quote, discovering papal authority in the early church.
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His lecture was given at the Deep in History conference many years ago, so named because Roman Catholics often think that they are very deep in history, when in fact they are still swimming in the shallow end.
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That deep in history line is from a 19th century essay by former Anglican, John Henry Newman, who said famously, and inaccurately, that to be deep in history is to cease to be
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Protestant. As you might expect, the boastful rallying cry of the Roman apologists that they are deep in history is meant to cloak in obscurity the weakest point of their argument.
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As it turns out, there is no evidence of what we would call the Roman Catholic religion prior to the second half of the 4th century.
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And the Roman apologist has to spend most of his time explaining why he can't find evidence of his ancient religion prior to that.
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We address that point more fully in The Diving Board, so go take a listen. But back to the
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Danielic Imperative. We are picking up where we left off in the spring. We are back with another episode, and we will briefly remind our listeners about why we call it by that name.
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Our series is called The Danielic Imperative because the Lord established a timeline in Daniel, and it is imperative that we understand that timeline in order to understand the eschatology of Jesus and his apostles.
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The immediately preceding episode, episode 16, led up to the destruction of Jerusalem and showed that in the years preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus and his apostles explained
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God's plan to set up a heavenly kingdom in the period of the feet of the statue of Daniel, chapter 2.
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In fact, Jesus couched the destruction of Jerusalem and the taking of the kingdom from the
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Jews and giving it to the Gentiles in terms that were resonant of and consistent with the stone -striking
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Nebuchadnezzar statue in that chapter of Daniel. It was shortly after 69
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AD that the period of the feet of Daniel's statue would have begun, the first seven
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Roman emperors comprising the period of the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar's statue, and thus the taking away of the kingdom from the
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Jews and setting up a heavenly kingdom coincided with the destruction of Jerusalem. We also relied on that Danielic timeline to show that, through Jeremiah, the
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Lord had warned the Jews about their sanctuary and Sabbath violations and idolatries in accordance with Leviticus 26, and that when they refused to repent, the
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Lord sent them away to Babylon to accomplish 70 years in the desolation of Jerusalem. We also showed that the
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Jews did not adequately or properly repent of their sins during that 70 years, and in accordance with Leviticus 26, the
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Lord multiplied their punishment sevenfold. That is why, when Daniel was praying about the end of the 70 years in Daniel 9, the angel
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Gabriel responded to his inquiry with an answer about 490 years instead of 70.
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He had multiplied the punishment sevenfold in accordance with Leviticus 26. Then, in the midst of his explanation of the 490 years,
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Gabriel divided the 490 years into three separate prophecies of 7 sevens, 62 sevens, and 1 seven, which is to say 49 years, 434 years, and 7 years, each prophecy with its own starting point and ending point.
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We will not revisit that analysis, but we will return to one aspect of it because we never really took the time to explain when the 70 years actually took place.
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In fact, the duration of that 70 years, the original punishment prophesied by Jeremiah, is one of the most baffling prophecies in the
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Bible because nobody seems to know for sure when it occurred. The scriptures say it definitely happened, and the scriptures even identify its beginning point and prophesy its ending point.
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But even with that information, it is difficult to nail down an exact 70 -year period that would qualify.
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That's what we're going to focus on today. We can't wrap up a study on the 70 weeks of Daniel and explain the entire prophecy in precise historical detail and not pinpoint the actual 70 years of the original prophecy that started it all.
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So, before we move on with the study of Danielic eschatology, we're going to spend an entire episode today just on those 70 years.
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The difficulty of analyzing the 70 -year prophecy of Jeremiah may be discerned simply by reading the many commentaries on the subject.
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Here is just a sampling. This is from Ellicott's commentary for English readers. He said,
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Well, the problem with that commentary is that Nebuchadnezzar did not come to power until 605
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BC, and the first deportation of the Jews to Babylon did not occur until 598 BC, and further,
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Cyrus's decree for the return of the exiles was issued by Cyrus, king of Persia, in 538
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BC, not 536. So Ellicott's attempt to find the 70 years was based on inaccurate historical data.
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Moving on to Benson's commentary, he said, Note the indefinite nature of the claim, nearly 70 years, more or less.
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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges says, Notice how indefinite the fulfillment of the prophecy is, not differing very much from 70, or approximately 70.
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The pulpit commentary is quite similar, no more help than the previous. It says,
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The problem with all of these commentaries is either that they use incorrect dates that stretch events to make them fit 70 years, as in Ellicott's case, or they throw biblical math to the dogs and settle on an approximation.
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But we've spent a great deal of time showing that Gabriel's 490 -year prophecy was a seven -fold multiplication of Jeremiah's 70 -year prophecy in chapters 25 and 29, in accordance with the
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Leviticus 26 protocol, which says that God would punish the Jews if they failed to repent under punishment, namely, that he would multiply the punishment seven -fold.
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But seven times nearly 70, or approximately 70, or more or less 70, or not differing by much from 70, or a very long time, does not really equal 70 times 7.
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Gabriel must have been multiplying 70 actual years by 7 to get 70 times 7.
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In fact, the angel in Zechariah 1 .12 and the Lord in Zechariah 7 .5
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actually refer to the 70 years as a specific historical period. So there must have been an actual 70 years.
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Listen to all the scriptural references to a very specific and literal 70 years.
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Jeremiah 25 .12 Jeremiah 29 .10
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Daniel 9 .2 Zechariah 1 .12
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Zechariah 7 .5 So those are the six explicit references to the 70 years.
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Surely there is an actual 70 year period in history. Jeremiah prophesied that there would be, and Zechariah said that there had been.
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But it will not help us to assume that the 70 years begins with Israel's captivity, or with their exile to Babylon, or with the desolation of Jerusalem, since the scripture never actually refers to it as a 70 year exile, or a 70 year captivity, or even a 70 year desolation.
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What the scriptures do say is that Israel would be a desolation and an astonishment, which is true, and all these nations would serve the king of Babylon 70 years, which is also true.
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And Daniel said that God would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. But he did not say that Jerusalem would be a desolation for 70 years.
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We really ought to start our analysis with the understanding that the Lord had raised up Nebuchadnezzar as king in order to discipline the
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Jews. They began to serve the king of Babylon, not at the beginning of their captivity, or even at the beginning of his belligerence toward Jerusalem, but rather at the moment when
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Nebuchadnezzar came to power. In Jeremiah 46 -2, the Lord calls
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Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon when he mustered the Babylonian army to march against the
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Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC. Nebuchadnezzar's father,
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Nebuchadnezzar, died in August of 605 BC, but according to Scripture, Nebuchadnezzar was already king by then.
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Then in Jeremiah 27, verses 6 -7, God says, Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and the beasts of the field
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I have given him also to serve him, and all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son.
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In fact, the Jews and everyone else began to serve him the moment he came to power, and that was in the spring of 605
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BC, when Nebuchadnezzar was preparing to march on the Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish. The Scriptures, after all, do say that springtime is the time of year the kings march out to battle.
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The 70 years in Scripture must of necessity begin in 605 BC when Nebuchadnezzar came to power.
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That means the 70 years must have ended 70 years later, in the spring of 535
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BC. So, let's figure out what happened in the spring of 535 BC to bring the 70 year period to its completion.
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It is a complex puzzle, but the answer is in the Scriptures, and with a little simple math and a little bit of detailed analysis, we'll be able to figure it out.
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As our listeners will recall, it was in the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar that Jeremiah received a promise from the
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Lord that he would rebuild Jerusalem. That's in Jeremiah chapters 30 to 33. And according to Daniel 9 .25,
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it was another seven sevens, that is 49 years, to the coming of an anointed ruler, which the
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Scriptures identify as Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord's anointed, in Isaiah 44 .28.
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As Isaiah prophesied, Cyrus was the Lord's anointed and would restore Jerusalem and the temple and the foundation, according to Isaiah 44 .28
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to 45 .1. So we'll use some simple math here. 18 years until Jeremiah receives the promise that Jerusalem would be rebuilt, plus another 49 years until Cyrus, equals 67 years from the rise of Nebuchadnezzar in 605
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BC until the coming of Cyrus, king of Persia, in 538 BC. So whatever happened to conclude the 70 years took place three years later, in the spring of 535
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BC. There must be something that happened at that time to indicate the completion of the 70 years.
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And in fact, the Scripture indicates exactly what that was. According to Ezra 1 verses 1 to 2 and Ezra 6 verse 3, in his first year,
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Cyrus declared that the Lord hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid.
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And according to Isaiah 44 .28, Cyrus was raised up by the Lord to say to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid.
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Cyrus decreed these things in his first year, having become king of Babylon on October 12 of 538
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BC, two days after routing the Babylonian army at the Battle of Opus. At this point, we'll remind our listener of what we said in the preceding episodes, namely, that the whole point of the 70 -year punishment, in accordance with Leviticus 26, was to cause
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Jerusalem to be an astonishment to the surrounding nations, and to desolate the land and the sanctuary.
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That's according to Leviticus 26 verses 31 to 32. So we are looking for a time when the temple began to be restored, and the surrounding nations stopped being astonished at Israel's desolation.
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We can pinpoint that time from Ezra 3 .10, when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the
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Lord, and Ezra 4 .1, when the surrounding nations began to complain and worry that the
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Jews had begun to rebuild their temple. In fact, the laying of the foundation of the temple was the turning point, indicating the end of the 70 years.
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So, when was the foundation laid? That's what we're going to find out today. The book of Zechariah deals explicitly with those 70 years and what they accomplished, if you look at chapter 1 verse 12 and chapter 7 verse 5.
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Then, according to Zechariah 8 verses 9 to 13, the laying of the foundation was the indication that the
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Lord's promise in Jeremiah 29 .10, that is, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, had in fact come to pass.
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Listen closely to Zechariah as he describes that the laying of the foundation was in fact the turning point.
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Now citing Zechariah 8 verses 9 to 13. Now citing
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Zechariah 8 verses 9 to 13.
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Notice that in Zechariah, the laying of the foundation that the temple might be built is the turning point.
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From this we know that the laying of the foundation is the sign of the end of the desolation that fulfilled the 70 years.
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What we need to do is find out when the foundation was laid. The scripture says that the first time the
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Jews returned from captivity was after Cyrus set them free in his first year. The scripture does not say what month
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Cyrus issued his decree, and it does not say what month the Jews departed from Babylon, and it does not say what month the
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Jews arrived in Jerusalem, but it does say that when they arrived, they came to the house of the Lord, which is at Jerusalem.
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That's in Ezra 2 .68. And made offerings of gold, silver, and priestly garments, and then retired to their cities.
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That's in Ezra 2 .70. And Ezra 3 .1 says, When the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem, and began they to offer burnt offerings unto the
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Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. And finally,
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Ezra 3 .8 -10 says, Now, in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the
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Lord. So, what we don't know is what month Cyrus made his decree, or what month the
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Jews left Babylon, or what month they arrived in Jerusalem. And therefore, we cannot discern from this passage the exact year that the foundation was laid.
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But what we do know is that they retired from Jerusalem to their cities upon their arrival, and then returned to Jerusalem again to offer sacrifices on the first day of the seventh month.
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We also know that they laid the foundation of the temple in the second month, in the second year of their coming to the house of the
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Lord, which would be the second year since their first arrival in Jerusalem. But exactly when did they come to the house of the
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Lord? There simply is no fixed point of reference to a known date in the narrative, which is why the date of the laying of the foundation is a little elusive.
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The text does not say they arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of Cyrus's first year, or that they offered sacrifices in the seventh month of Cyrus's first year, or that they laid the foundation in the second month of Cyrus's second year.
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And that is the crux of the issue. There is no explicit fixed reference point for determining when the foundation was laid.
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But we are not without help from the Scriptures. To figure this out, we will need to analyze four different journeys between captivity and Jerusalem, and we will need to understand how long it would have taken to travel from Babylon to the location of the house of God at Jerusalem, the timing of their return in the seventh month to offer sacrifices in Jerusalem, and what the prophet means by in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem.
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In other words, we are going to have to reconstruct a timeline, a sequence of events. Once we do that, it will become clear what year is in view, and from that we will be able to determine when they laid the foundation of the temple.
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So, let's get to work. Let's think through the Jews' travels back and forth from Jerusalem to captivity.
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There are four journeys that will be of interest to us, and they are depicted in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The first journey is that of Sheshbazar and Zerubbabel, depicted in Ezra chapters 1 to 3, upon Cyrus' first decree in his first year.
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And we know that Cyrus made the decree in his first year, and the Jews made their journey that year, and the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem is about 900 miles.
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The second journey of interest to us is that of Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem, depicted in Ezra chapters 7 to 8.
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This journey took place in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, according to Ezra 7 -7, and he departed from Babylon on the first day of the first month of the
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Hebrew calendar, that is, the month of Nisan, which answers roughly to about March 23rd on our calendar.
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It is basically the beginning of spring, and he arrived on the first day of the fifth month of Av, which answers roughly to about July 19th on our calendar.
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It is the middle of summer. The journey was exactly four months. The third trip of interest to us is an obscure journey of some messengers from Jerusalem who traveled to Susa, where Nehemiah was in captivity, in Nehemiah 1 -1.
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The journey from Jerusalem to Susa takes you through Babylon, and is about 1 ,100 miles.
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The messengers arrived from Jerusalem in the ninth month of the Hebrew year, which answers to November -December on our calendar.
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It is almost the onset of winter. This is an important journey in our analysis because it effectively bounds the departure and arrival times of Jewish journeys between Jerusalem and captivity.
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Because of the difficulties of traveling in winter, the Jews would wait until spring, at the earliest, to depart on a journey.
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And they would make sure they departed at the latest in sufficient time to arrive at their destination before the onset of winter.
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The Jews simply did not travel in winter if it could be avoided, as the scriptures indicate in many other places.
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One particularly relevant point of interest is that in Ezra 10, verses 9 -12, it is the twentieth day of the ninth month, which would be about December 7th.
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And it is a time of great rain, so much so that the people could not stand outside the house of God. That is how bad winters could be, and they were certainly not going to travel if it could be avoided.
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As we are about to see, for small groups, this trip could take place in as little as three to four months.
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So the messengers would have departed Jerusalem no earlier than the fifth month, the month of Av, which, as we noted, is mid -summer, in order to arrive in the ninth month before the rain.
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This is an important example to show that journeys between Jerusalem and captivity would begin no earlier than spring in order to avoid leaving in winter, but they could begin as late as mid -summer to avoid arriving in winter.
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That fact will become important a little later in our discussion. So that's the third journey of interest to us.
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The fourth journey of interest is Nehemiah's return to Jerusalem from Susa the following spring after the messengers arrived from Jerusalem.
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Nehemiah wrote that the messengers from Jerusalem had arrived in the month of Kislev, according to Nehemiah 1, verses 2 -3.
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Nehemiah held on to that information through the winter and then approached King Artaxerxes in the month of Nisan to ask permission to return.
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That's Nehemiah 2 -1. The king granted permission immediately and Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and rested three days there, according to Nehemiah 2 -11.
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He then spent 52 days working on the wall and completed the wall on the 25th day of the sixth month, which is the month of Elul, according to Nehemiah 6 -15.
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That date corresponds to about the second week of September. Now, if the wall took 52 days to complete and it was completed on the 25th day of Elul, the sixth month, then construction must have begun on the third day of Av, the fifth month.
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And since Nehemiah said he waited three days at Jerusalem upon arrival, Nehemiah must have arrived in Jerusalem no later than the first day of the fifth month, which, as noted previously, answers to late
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July in our calendar. The significance of this to us is that if Nehemiah departed from Susa on the first of Nisan, or at least in early
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Nisan, in the spring, then his trip from Susa to Jerusalem was also about four months, even though he had 300 more miles to travel than Ezra did when he journeyed from Babylon to Jerusalem in roughly the same length of time.
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Of course, he could have departed at any time in the month of Nisan, and the scriptures don't actually tell us, so it is conceivable that it could have been as short as three months to travel those 1 ,100 miles.
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The important item of note is that it was about three to four months for Nehemiah to travel from Susa to Jerusalem.
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So, those are the four journeys that we have to think about. Sheshpazar's and Zerubbabel's journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, Ezra's journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, the messenger's journey from Jerusalem to Susa, and Nehemiah's journey from Susa to Jerusalem.
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We do need to sort out the travel times and distances, but we also need to sort out the number of travelers and what they were carrying and whether they were traveling with an armed guard.
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These factors all make a difference in our analysis. While Nehemiah's 1 ,100 -mile trip took between three and four months from Susa to Jerusalem, and Ezra's 900 -mile trip took four months from Babylon to Jerusalem, there were some mitigating factors that would account for Nehemiah's group traveling so much faster than Ezra's.
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For example, Nehemiah was one man traveling under an armed guard, according to Nehemiah 2 .9.
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But Ezra was traveling without an armed guard, according to Ezra 8 .22.
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And Ezra had nearly 2 ,000 men with him, according to Ezra chapter 8, not counting women and children.
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So his total entourage was probably close to 8 ,000. Additionally, Ezra stopped at the river
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Ahava and realized that he had not brought any Levites with him and had to send some messengers back to recruit some priests and then proceeded once the
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Levites joined them, departing from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of Nisan, according to Ezra 8, verses 15 -16.
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So that is why Ezra's trip may have been about the same duration as Nehemiah's, or maybe slightly longer, even though Nehemiah was traveling 1 ,100 miles from Susa and Ezra was only traveling 900 miles from Babylon.
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But from these two journeys we know several important facts. Journeys begin no earlier than the spring, and one man traveling under armed guard may travel more rapidly, as shown by Nehemiah's three - to four -month trip from Susa to Jerusalem, and a group of about 8 ,000 people traveling without an armed guard will be a little slower, as shown by Ezra's four -month trip from Babylon to Jerusalem.
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So now let's turn our attention to the trip that really matters to us in our analysis of the 70 -year punishment, and that is their very first trip back from captivity.
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I refer to Sheshbazar's and Zerubbabel's trip from Babylon to Jerusalem in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, as depicted in Ezra 1 -3.
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Based on our analysis so far, Cyrus became king of Babylon on October 12 of 538
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B .C., and the Jews certainly would not have begun a 900 -mile journey that would leave them en route through winter, and so they would not have left any earlier than the month of Nisan, the first month of the following year, that is, the spring of 537
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B .C. Then the text tells us that they came to the house of God in Jerusalem, the house, of course, being completely gone, and made some donations to the work of the temple as well as some donations of priestly garments, according to Ezra 2 -68, and then everyone left and went to their cities, that is, as the text says, all
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Israel in their cities, according to Ezra 2 -70. Then they gathered together again as one man in Jerusalem on the first day of the seventh month of Tishri, which answers to about mid -September on our calendar, to build an altar unto the
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Lord and to offer sacrifices to him and donate even more money toward the construction of the temple, according to Ezra 3 -1 -7.
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And then in the second month of the following year, which corresponds to the April -May time frame, they laid the foundation.
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From this we ought to be able to construct a timeline to determine what year the foundation was laid, and this is the meat of our discussion today.
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The reason the different journeys matter to us is that we will need to construct a reasonable timeline to determine when the
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Jews would have arrived in Jerusalem and thus, when they would have returned in the seventh month and thus, when they would have returned the following year in order to lay the foundation.
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So let's construct what we would call the baseline compressed timeline, one that assumes everything happens in rapid fashion as quickly as reasonably possible, and we will go from there.
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We have provided a visual depiction of the compressed timeline in the show notes, and it goes something like this.
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Cyrus comes to power, that is, he topples Babylon on October 12, 538
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B .C. Sometime in his first year, he decrees that the foundation of the temple should be laid in Jerusalem.
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Even if he did that on his very first day, there is no way the Jews would embark on a journey that puts them halfway between Babylon and Jerusalem in the dead of winter, so let's assume they leave for Jerusalem on the first day of the first month of Nisan, which is the spring of the next year, or 537
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B .C. Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that they travel at the same pace as Ezra and arrive in Jerusalem four months later on the first day of the fifth month, which would be mid -July of 537
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B .C. They make donations of silver and gold and priestly garments, and then retire to their cities.
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They return two months later, and on the first of the seventh month, which would be mid -September of 537
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B .C., they build an altar and donate more money and food and drink for carpenters, masons, and for procuring timber from Tyre and Sidon for the construction of the temple.
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And then, they return again in the second month of the next calendar year, which would be April to May of 536
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B .C., to lay the foundation of the temple. In this timeline, they lay the foundation only nine months after their arrival, so let's ask ourselves, is that baseline compressed timeline reasonable?
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The answer is no. It is not reasonable, and for a very simple reason. It actually creates a paradox in the narrative.
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The foundation was laid in the second month of the second year of their coming to the house of God, which would be
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April to May of 536 B .C. Keep in mind, according to this hypothetical timeline that we proposed, the
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Jews would have arrived in Jerusalem in the summer of 537 B .C., and then laid the foundation in the spring of 536
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B .C., only nine months later. But Ezra said that they laid the foundation in the second month of the second year of their arrival at the house of God.
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There is no way Ezra would have written that the foundation was laid in the second year of their arrival, only nine months after their arrival.
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That would place it in the first year of their arrival. The way the Old Testament describes ordinal years, that is, first, second, and third, and so on, is only after each full year has elapsed since they started counting.
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And remember, Ezra does not say in the second year since their departure from Babylon, or in the second year of Cyrus king of Persia.
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He says, in the second year of their coming to the house of the Lord, which refers to their first arrival in Jerusalem, the only point in the preceding narrative when they came to the house of the
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Lord. So, let's look at what the Scripture says about ordinal years. The first example is in Genesis 47, when the
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Egyptians brought their livestock to Joseph to exchange them for bread. It says, He fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.
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And when that year was ended, they came to him in the second year. That's Genesis 47, 17 -18.
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The significant point here is that the second year is after the first year had ended.
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The second year is only invoked once the first year has elapsed. The next example is in Exodus 12 -2, when the
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Lord established Passover on the 14th day of the first month of the year. He said, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months.
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It shall be the first month of the year to you. Then, Numbers 9, 1 -2 says,
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And the Lord spoke unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
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Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at his appointed season. The Hebrews left
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Egypt in the first month of the preceding year, and now it is the first month of the second year after leaving.
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In other words, a full year had elapsed and it was time to celebrate Passover again. The second year is after the first year had elapsed.
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In both of these examples, the first year begins with a specific event, and the second year is only after a full year had elapsed since that event.
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That is the point we are making when we say Ezra never would have written in the second year of their coming to the house of the
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Lord only nine months after they had come to the house of the Lord. Now, someone might object, saying,
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Well, that may be true, but they had come to the house of the Lord in the fifth month of one calendar year, and they laid the foundation in the second month of the next calendar year.
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So even though only nine months had elapsed, it is still the next calendar year, and therefore, it makes sense for Ezra to say in the second year of their coming to the house of the
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Lord only nine months after coming to the house of the Lord. The problem with that objection is very simple.
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That is simply not how they marked anniversaries in the Old Testament. An anniversary was marked by elapsed time since an event, even if the
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Hebrew New Year occurred between the event and its anniversary. By way of example,
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Nehemiah, when he described the arrival of the messengers from Jerusalem in Nehemiah 1 .1, says that they arrived in the ninth month of the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, and then goes on in Nehemiah 2 .1
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to describe his conversation with the king in the first month of the following calendar year. But he still describes his conversation as occurring in the first month of the twentieth year of Artaxerxes.
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The messengers arrived in the ninth month of the twentieth year, and then Nehemiah approaches the king in the first month of the next year, but he still calls it the twentieth year of Artaxerxes.
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This is because the time is being measured by the anniversary of the reign of Artaxerxes. The point here is that when we read of ordinal years in the scriptures like first, second, third, and in this case twentieth, they are measured from a specific event and increment as each full year passes and do not follow of necessity the passing of the
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Hebrew calendar into the new year. Otherwise, the first month of the calendar year following the messengers' arrival from Jerusalem would have been the twenty -first year of Artaxerxes according to Nehemiah rather than still being the twentieth.
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And that is why it makes very little sense to have Ezra saying the Jews came to the house of the Lord in the second month of the second year since their arrival only nine months after they arrived.
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Ezra simply would not have written that to refer to an event that had occurred at most only nine months prior.
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And even that is assuming that the Jews on their first trip left on the same day Ezra did and traveled just as fast as he did.
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If you account for even more time for Sheshbazar's and Zerubbabel's trip, Ezra's comment makes even less sense because he would be referring to the second year of coming to the house of the
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Lord less than eight months later. And the fact is that Sheshbazar and Zerubbabel absolutely would not have been traveling as fast as Ezra had.
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And the reason for this is very simple. On his four -month journey Ezra departed from Babylon with about 8 ,000 people and was traveling with silver and gold to purchase animals and goods for sacrifices upon his arrival in Jerusalem.
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But Sheshbazar and Zerubbabel were traveling with nearly 50 ,000 people and 8 ,000 animals and more than 5 ,000
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Jews from the Temple. Is it reasonable to assume that they made the same trip in four months?
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Of course not. We have already seen that an individual traveling with an armed escort can make an 1 ,100 -mile trip from Susa to Jerusalem in four months and possibly as few as three months.
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We have also seen that a group of 8 ,000 can make a 900 -mile trip from Babylon to Jerusalem in exactly four months.
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But Sheshbazar and Zerubbabel would have taken longer than Ezra did for that 900 -mile trip. It is just a lot of people animals and holy vessels to mobilize every day for months on end.
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If we suppose it took, more realistically, perhaps five months to travel to Jerusalem and assume that they left on the first day of the first month of the year, we have them arriving in the sixth month, which makes the timeline even worse because now we have
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Ezra describing the laying of the foundation in the second year since their arrival, only eight months after their arrival, which again is simply not the second year.
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What it comes down to is that to meet the compressed baseline timeline, 50 ,000
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Jews with 8 ,000 animals and 5 ,000 sacred vessels would have to leave Babylon sometime within the first 30 days of spring, travel just as fast as a much smaller group would have traveled without all those animals and sacred vessels, arrive in Jerusalem, donate to the priests, go to their cities, turn right back around and bring even more money to pay for carpenters, bricklayers, and lumberjacks in Tyre and Sidon, and then come back again in what was ostensibly the second year since their arrival, but in reality only eight or nine months later and lay the foundation.
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It is an unreasonable timeline even if they left on the first of Nisan and made the trip in record time.
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So where does that leave us? Well, there is a more realistic timeline we could construct, and it takes into account the vast amount of planning necessary to prepare for their first trip home, accounts for a slower rate of travel, makes
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Ezra's description of the laying of the foundation much more consistent with what we know from scripture, and, importantly, places the laying of the foundation of the temple in the spring of 535
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BC, exactly 70 years after Nebuchadnezzar came to power. The more realistic timeline is built around a later departure date, which is why we focused on the journey of the messengers from Jerusalem who traveled to Susa and arrived in the ninth month.
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As we saw from their journey from Jerusalem to Susa in Nehemiah 1, the Jews really could have departed from Babylon any time in the first three or four months of the year and still arrived at Jerusalem before winter.
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Nothing in the text requires that the Jews depart from Babylon in the first month of the year. So, what if they left
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Babylon in the third or fourth month and took a five -month journey to Jerusalem and arrived in the eighth or ninth month?
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What would that timeline look like? We call this a realistic hypothetical timeline and provide a visual depiction of it in the show notes.
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It would go something like this. Cyrus conquers Babylon on October 12, 538
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BC. Sometime in his first year, he decrees that the foundation of the Temple of the Lord should be laid.
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There is a lot of planning for their first trip home, not to mention the return of and inventory of the sacred vessels from the
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Temple in Babylon as depicted in Ezra 1, verses 7 to 11. And then perform an inspection of the registries to determine who actually is of Israel as depicted in Ezra 2 .59
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and assemble a qualified priesthood to bear the sacred vessels as depicted in Ezra 2 .62 and time to collect donations for the trip as depicted in Ezra 1 .6.
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Let's assume in this timeline that they leave for Jerusalem in the fourth month and arrive five months later in the ninth month.
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The Jews make donations of silver, gold, and priestly garments and retire to their cities for the winter.
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They then return on the first day of the seventh month, which would be mid -September of 536 BC, build an altar, and donate more money and food and drink for carpenters, masons, and for procuring timber from Tyre and Sidon.
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They return again in the second month of the next calendar year, which would be April or May of 535
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BC, to lay the foundation of the temple. In this timeline, they lay the foundation in the second month, about 17 months after their arrival at the house of God, or literally, in the second year of their arrival.
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Now, let's ask ourselves, is that baseline timeline reasonable? Well, we obviously believe that it is.
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But what does this timeline have to offer that the other timeline did not? Well, there are three very significant things that it offers.
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First, it eliminates a paradox. When Ezra says that they laid the foundation in the second month of the year, in the second year since they arrived, about a year and a half has elapsed since their arrival.
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Thus, Ezra's statement that they are already in the second year since their arrival makes sense. Second, this timeline accounts for a longer journey and a later start date for Sheshbazar and Zerubbabel to account for the preparation for the journey, the large number of travelers, 8 ,000 animals, and 5 ,000 holy vessels.
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Third, and most importantly, it has the laying of the foundation taking place in mid -spring of 535
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B .C., exactly 70 years after Nebuchadnezzar had ridden out to conquer the
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Egyptians. Ultimately, the 70 -year prophecy is completely fulfilled, and it is fulfilled literally in 70 literal years without making
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Ezra say something paradoxical. So, let's review the prophecies. Jeremiah's prophecy that these nations shall serve the king of Babylon for 70 years in Jeremiah 25 -11 is fulfilled because the
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Lord identified Nebuchadnezzar as king of Babylon when he marched out to conquer Theronico of Egypt in the spring of 605
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B .C., as shown in Jeremiah 46 -2. The Lord said,
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I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in Jeremiah 28 -14.
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And the Lord calls Cyrus, the king of Babylon, immediately upon his conquest of Babylon in Ezra 5 -13.
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Thus, even though Cyrus issued his decree in the 67th year since Nebuchadnezzar, the
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Jews continued serving the king of Babylon, that is, Cyrus, for another three years until the foundation was laid.
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Significantly, Jeremiah 25 -11 does not say that the land shall be a desolation for 70 years or an astonishment for 70 years, but rather that these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years, which, in fact, came to pass.
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Jeremiah also prophesied that the Lord would punish the king of Babylon and that nation and the land of the
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Chaldeans when 70 years are accomplished and will make it perpetual desolations. That's Jeremiah 25 -12.
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In the end, Nebuchadnezzar and the 70 -year punishment were just the beginning of a series of empires that would see
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God's people preserved and their enemies destroyed. And by the time Greek geographer Strabo recorded his great work
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Strabo's Geography, the greater part of Babylon is so deserted that one would not hesitate to say the great city is a desert.
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That's from Strabo's Geography, Book 16, Chapter 1, Paragraph 5. The succession of empires did indeed reduce
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Babylon to perpetual desolation. Jeremiah's prophecy that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you that is
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Jeremiah 29 -10 is satisfied because the Lord completed 70 years of servitude to the king of Babylon and the
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Jews were returned to Jerusalem and the surrounding nations took note of it when the foundation of the temple was laid. Daniel's observation in Daniel 9 -2 is shown to be true because the
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Lord did ultimately accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Thus, the angel's observation in Zechariah 1 -12 is satisfied because the
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Lord had indignation against the Jews for all those 70 years but he did restore them to Jerusalem as promised and in fact he identifies in Zechariah 8 -9 that the laying of the foundation quote that the temple might be built unquote is the conclusion of the initial 70 year phase of the indignation and a turning point for the returning captives.
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And importantly as we discussed in our analysis of the prophecy of the 70 weeks while it is true that the
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Lord kept his promise to restore the Jews after 70 years we see in Daniel 9 -13 and Zechariah 7 -5 that the
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Jews did not repent in captivity and this is how we realize why Gabriel came to Daniel with an answer of seven times 70 years when
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Daniel was only asking about 70 years. The punishment of desolations was in accordance with the law of Leviticus 26 which requires desolations for Jewish disobedience and sevenfold punishments for continued disobedience even under punishment.
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Thus, Gabriel's warning in Daniel 9 that even though the Lord would keep his promise to return them to Jerusalem and rebuild them that is
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Daniel 9 -25 the Jews had failed to repent of their disobedience while in exile and so according to Leviticus 26 even more desolations were required and as Gabriel informed
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Daniel even more desolations are determined as Daniel 9 -26. And that brings us to our final point in this episode a very obscure matter from the 10th chapter of Daniel In chapter 10
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Daniel says that he was mourning three full weeks in the first month of the third year of Cyrus king of Persia and received a vision on the 24th day of the month.
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Cyrus came to power in October of 538 B .C. The first month of the third year of Cyrus would be
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March -April time frame in 535 B .C. According to the prophecy of Jeremiah the
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Jews would be punished for 70 years and Nebuchadnezzar came to power in the spring of 605 B .C.
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Spring of 535 B .C. is exactly 70 years later and instead of celebrating
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Daniel is mourning. Only one chapter earlier in the first year of Darius of the
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Medes Daniel had been searching out the scriptures to understand the completion of the 70 year prophecy.
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He was anticipating it eagerly and of course longed for it to be over. So why on the eve of its conclusion instead of rejoicing is
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Daniel mourning? The scriptures make it clear why. When Daniel prayed about the 70 years in Daniel 9
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Gabriel appeared and told him that the punishment of the Jews had been multiplied and was far from over.
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From that point Gabriel unveiled a long arduous punishment that would encompass not 70 years but 70 times 7 years letting him know that even though the
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Lord would rebuild Jerusalem as promised even more desolations are determined. As we pointed out in our previous analysis on the 70 weeks of Daniel the
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Lord would keep his promise to bring them back to Jerusalem but he would also keep his law that required a 7 -fold multiplication of punishments due to their failure to repent.
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It was not good news to Daniel. The scripture does not say why Daniel was mourning but we do know that he was mourning on the eve of the conclusion of the 70 years literally in the last month of the 70 year period.
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The next month the foundation would be laid in Jerusalem and the 70 years would be over and instead of rejoicing
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Daniel is mourning a full 3 weeks. When we understand Gabriel's news in Daniel 9 it becomes clear why
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Daniel was mourning only a few weeks before the foundation was going to be laid in Jerusalem. We covered the 490 years in another episode and won't revisit it here but understanding this timeline from Ezra has the added benefit of helping us understand why
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Daniel was mourning instead of rejoicing as the 70th anniversary of their punishment arrived.
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We will conclude our episode there and we hope our listeners enjoyed hearing our interpretation of those 70 years and how we can find from the scriptures exactly when those 70 years took place when they began and when they ended according to the scriptures.
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In our next episode we will pick up on the Danielic timeline and we will focus on one of the most confusing aspects of Danielic eschatology and that is what happened to the progress of kingdoms after the period of iron in Daniel chapter 2.
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Eschatological timelines are largely clear and precise as Nebuchadnezzar's statue in chapter 2 progresses from gold to silver to bronze to iron but things get a little fuzzy in the period of the feet.
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The period of feet is of great eschatological consequence because two important kingdoms arise at that time the heavenly kingdom of God as well as the kingdom of Antichrist.
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In our next episode we will discuss why those two kingdoms are so easily confused and why a clear understanding of the
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Danielic timeline is the solution to that confusion. Many unfortunate people have mistaken the kingdom of Antichrist for the kingdom of God and have departed from the true apostolic faith of Christ in order to join the wrong kingdom.
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We will examine the cause for the confusion and the simple solution to it in our next episode. Again, this is your host