Daniel 9:25 “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto Messiah The Prince (shall be) seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”
In a previous entry,
What it says, and what it doesn’t say – Derek’s Shifting Shadows
I wrote about what the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem might entail. The text states the commandment will both restore and rebuild Jerusalem and that it will mark the beginning of the counting of the seventy sevens.
Important is that the text doesn’t necessarily say the commandment is one singular decree. This matters because a lot of confusion in the efforts to understand these passages arises in relation to which decree, specifically, is being referred to by the angel, Gabriel.
There are up two four decrees that teachers, students and scholars cite that may fulfill this commandment. They are as follows:
- 538 BC: Cyrus allowed Jews to return to Judah and to rebuild the temple Ezra 1:1-4
“1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying:
2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to rebuild for Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And every survivor, at whatever place he may live, the people of that place are to support him with silver and gold, with equipment and cattle, together with a voluntary offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.’””
2. 520 BC: Darius I reaffirmed and expedited the order of Cyrus (Ezra 6:1-5).
“6 Then King Darius issued a decree, and a search was conducted in the archives, where the treasures were stored in Babylon. 2 And in Ecbatana, in the fortress which is in the province of Media, a scroll was found; and the following was written in it: “Memorandum— 3 In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king issued a decree: ‘Concerning the house of God in Jerusalem, let the temple, the place where sacrifices are offered, be rebuilt, and let its foundations be repaired, its height being sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits, 4 with three layers of large stones and one layer of timber. And the cost is to be paid from the royal treasury. 5 Also the gold and silver utensils of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned and brought to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; and you shall put them in the house of God.’”
3. 457 BC: Artaxerxes I gave a decree to Ezra (Ezra 7:11-26) to establish the autonomy of Judah.
“11 Now this is the copy of the letter which King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, learned in the words of the commandments of the LORD and His statutes to Israel: 12 “Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, perfect peace. And now 13 I have issued a decree that any of the people of Israel and their priests and the Levites in my kingdom who are willing to go to Jerusalem, may go with you. 14 Since you are sent on the part of the king and his seven advisers to inquire about Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God which is in your hand, 15 and to bring the silver and gold, which the king and his advisers have voluntarily given to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, 16 with all the silver and gold which you find in the entire province of Babylon, along with the voluntary offering of the people and of the priests, who offered willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem; 17 with this money, therefore, you shall diligently buy bulls, rams, and lambs, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them on the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem. 18 And whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold, you may do according to the will of your God. 19 Also the utensils which are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver in full before the God of Jerusalem. 20 And the rest of the needs of the house of your God, for which it may be incumbent upon you to provide, provide for them from the royal treasury.
21 “I myself, King Artaxerxes, issue a decree to all the treasurers who are in the provinces beyond the Euphrates River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, may require of you, it shall be done diligently, 22 up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred kors of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of anointing oil, and salt as needed. 23 Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, it shall be done with zeal for the house of the God of heaven, so that there will not be wrath against the kingdom of the king and his sons. 24 We also inform you that it is not allowed to impose tax, tribute, or toll on any of the priests, Levites, singers, doorkeepers, temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.
25 “And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God which is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges so that they may judge all the people who are in the province beyond the Euphrates River, that is, all those who know the laws of your God; and you may teach anyone who is ignorant of them. 26 And whoever does not comply with the Law of your God and the law of the king, judgment is to be executed upon him strictly, whether for death or for banishment, or for confiscation of property or for imprisonment.””
4. 444 BC: Artaxerxes I gave permission to Nehemiah to repair Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:1-8).
“2 And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I picked up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, though you are not ill? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3 And I said to the king, “May the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the site of my fathers’ tombs, is desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What would you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, I request that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” 6 Then the king said to me, with the queen sitting beside him, “How long will your journey be, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time. 7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, so that they will allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, 8 and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, so that he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which is by the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house to which I will go.” And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me.”
The rebuilding Gabriel cites concerns the physical structure, the walls, the buildings, the streets, etc. of Jerusalem. They will be built in troubled times. In other words, there will be stress in the land during this construction.
The restoration, however, concerns returning Jerusalem and its people to their religious and governing autonomy. In other words, Persia, the kingdom that was ruling the land of Israel at the time, will allow the Jewish people to restore their laws and religious customs.
These are two separate ideas, the rebuilding and the restoring. When we examine the four decrees cited by most scholarship, there are two of those four decrees that check the requirements given by Gabriel to Daniel. The first decree by Cyrus of Persia in 538 BC to rebuild the Temple and the third decree given by Artaxerxes I in 457 BC to restore religious and governing autonomy to the Jewish people. The second decree reaffirms the first decree, and the fourth decree is a furtherment of the first and second decrees, which illustrates the walls being rebuilt –”the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”
Of note is the way the twenty-fifth verse of Daniel is constructed. It is divided in two parts, “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto Messiah The Prince (shall be) seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks”—and, “the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”
It is not necessarily saying the street and walls shall be rebuilt again as a condition explicitly stated in the decree(s). It is simply acknowledging the fact these things will happen as a result of them. It seems that it is logically implied by Cyrus’ decree that for the Jewish people to return to Judah and rebuild their temple, the construction of the city of Jerusalem, the city where the temple is to be located, will too, also need to be rebuilt. We also notice that Nehemiah, upon arriving in Jerusalem, after the blessing given to him by Artaxerxes, examines walls that are presumably already there. The further context of the situation is that the Jewish people had already been working on the city since Cyrus’ first decree decades prior to Nehemiah arriving and they had encountered a myriad of problems and roadblocks (even in troublous times) by wayward Jewish leadership and the surrounding peoples that occupied the region. It took Nehemiah and his crew only fifty-two days to “rebuild the wall,” implying the wall was already standing and they were merely finishing it.
This parsing of the decree language is necessary to establish the correct date from which to begin the seventy sevens. We see in Ezra chapter 9, Ezra himself affirms that the decrees spoken of by Gabriel are confirmed by the kings of Persia allowing for the rebuilding of the city by constructing their Temple, rebuilding their city walls, and restoring their religious and legal autonomy:
Ezra 9 “For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our God has not abandoned us but has extended favor to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to erect the house of our God, to restore its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.”
It appears the decrees given Ezra chapter 1 by Cyrus in 538 BC and in Ezra in chapter 7 in 457 BC fulfill the totality of all of the decrees cited and will complete the overarching narrative to both rebuild and restore Jerusalem.
Thus, “the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem,” refers to the year 457 BC and until “Messiah The Prince” appears will be “seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks.” Seven weeks, plus threescore and two weeks is a total of sixty-nine weeks.
Remember from a previous entry,
What it says, and what it doesn’t say – Derek’s Shifting Shadows
Seventy weeks equals 490 years. Therefore, sixty-nine weeks equals 483 years. We count the year 1BC and the year 1AD. There is no year zero. -457 + 483 +1 (to account for two year ones) = 27.
457 BC + 483 years = 27 AD.
We will explore the significance of the year 27 AD in a future entry.