Daniel 9:25 “So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.”
The thought of a Messiah, a deliverer, for the Jewish people developed with a contextual backdrop of foreign captivity and occupancy. Thousands of years ago, the Jewish nation began with a man called Abraham. Because Abraham was a good man, who loved God, and was faithful to God, God made a covenant, or an agreement, with Abraham and promised that Abraham and his descendants would become a great nation. Twelve tribes sprang up from Abraham’s descendants. These tribes became Israel. God gave Abraham and Israel the promise of a land that would be their own and that God would bless them if they kept the covenant—if they followed God’s ways and were a beacon to the world, a representative of God’s character to the world.
Sometime after the Israelite people entered the land God promised them, their descendants began to stray from the covenant God made with Abraham and their ancestors. Eventually, Israel was split into two kingdoms, a northern kingdom keeping the name Israel, who’s capital was in Samaria, and the southern kingdom, known as Judah, who’s capital remained in Jerusalem. As a result of straying from the covenant, the northern kingdom, Israel, fell to the Assyrians around 722 BC, and was lost to history. The ten tribes of the northern kingdom were dispersed and assimilated into various cultures over time. The southern kingdom, with the tribes of Benjamin and Judah remained and continued as the steadfast remnant of God’s people, serving as representative of God to the world.
However, the kingdom of Judah itself was on a collision course for occupancy as well; as this is the context we find ourselves in this study. As a result of their breaking of God’s covenant, Judah found itself facing threats both from external enemies and internal strife. This tumultuous period set the stage for a profound hope of deliverance.
Despite all of Israel straying from God, God remained faithful to His covenant with Abraham. But there was also a covenant God made with a man named David several hundred years before these events. David, the second king of Israel, was a descendant of Abraham and member of the tribe of Judah. It was said David was a man after God’s own heart.
In 2 Samual, chapter 7, starting in verse 8, we see the covenant God made with David. God tells Nathan, a court prophet to David, “Now then, this is what you shall say to My servant David: ‘This is what the Lord of armies says: “I Myself took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be leader over My people Israel. 9And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have eliminated all your enemies from you; I will also make a great name for you, like the names of the great men who are on the earth. 10And I will establish a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will malicious people oppress them anymore as previously, 11even from the day that I appointed judges over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. 12When your days are finished and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and with strokes of sons of mankind, 15but My favor shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from you. 16Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” ’
https://www.bible.com/bible/2692/2SA.7.NASB2020
The faithful people that remained in Judah held steadfastly to this covenant God made with David, seeing it as a promise that a deliverer would arise and rescue them from the nations. And, indeed, God confirmed such a deliverer. In Isaiah 9, starting in verse 6, we read about this deliverer:
“For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace. On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness, from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this.
https://www.bible.com/bible/2692/ISA.9.NASB2020
The Messiah refers to this deliverer. And this deliverer is Jesus Christ, as said Himself. In John chapter four, Jesus meets a woman at a well. Starting in verse 25, “The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am He, the One speaking to you.””
Jesus affirms Peter in Matthew 16:16-17: “Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
And in Luke 4:14-21 Jesus tells the people in the synagogue, “And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding region. 15And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. 16And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” 20And He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all the people in the synagogue were intently directed at Him. 21Now He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.””
Jesus is descended from David. Matthew traces the genealogy of Jesus to David through Joseph, his earthly father. Luke traces Jesus’ linage to David through Mary. In Revelation 22:16 Jesus himself declares ““I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you of these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.””
Jesus Begins Ministry
The Gospel writer, Luke, uses the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Ceasar to note the starting point of John the Baptist’s ministry. The context seems to indicate Jesus was baptized by John shorty thereafter. The text also seems to indicate that Jesus’ ministry began in context with his baptism, or it is at least in proximity in time to his baptism.
Luke 3:1 “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, 2in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. 3And he came into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;
Luke 3:21 “Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.” 23 When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years old”
The Year To Count From
If we can find the starting point of Tiberius Ceasar’s reign we can then deduce what the fifteenth year of his reign is. He was formally recognized as Ceasar in 15 AD. However, his predecessor, and step father, Augustus, died in 14 AD. At the time of the death of Augustus, for all intents and purposes, Tiberius became Ceasar. Besides this, it was a foregone conclusion Tiberius was being made to be Ceasar since his adoption by Augustus in 4 AD. Most historians mark the beginning of Tiberius’ reign at 14AD.
What is overlooked as it relates to Christ and in Luke’s Gospel, however, is that Tiberius was a co regent ruler with Augustus for a time.
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, a Roman historian and biographer who lived from 69 AD to 122 AD, in his work
“De vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars)”
records, after Tiberius had a two-year stint in Germania, which lasted from 10−12 AD, “Tiberius’ returned and celebrated the triumph which he had postponed, accompanied also by his generals, for whom he had obtained the triumphal regalia. And before turning to enter the Capitol, he dismounted from his chariot and fell at the knees of his father, who was presiding over the ceremonies.” “Since the consuls caused a law to be passed soon after this that he should govern the provinces jointly with Augustus and hold the census with him, he set out for Illyricum on the conclusion of the lustral ceremonies.”
Thus, according to Suetonius, these ceremonies and the declaration of his “co-princeps” took place in the year 12 AD, after Tiberius return from Germania.
We are not concerned with how modern historians mark the beginning of Tiberius’ reign as Ceasar. We are concerned with how Luke viewed the beginning of Tiberius’ reign as Ceasar. The information given by Suetonius provides us with enough evidence that Luke, and probably many of his contemporaries, plausibly viewed the beginning of Tiberius’ reign with the consuls’ causing of the law that Tiberius should govern the provinces jointly with Augustus.
If we count from 12 AD forward fifteen years, we know when Jesus’ ministry begins. We arrive at 27AD, which is the conclusion of the sixty nine weeks in Daniel 9:25 “So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.”
The issuing of the decree is covered here:
https://www.countderek.com/from-the-going-forth-of-the-commandment/
In John chapters one and two, we find further evidence that 27 AD marks the appearance of Messiah the Prince spoken of in Daniel. In chapter one, John records the baptism of Jesus and the calling of the first disciples. In chapter two, John records Jesus and the disciples’ subsequent movements. Jesus went to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover and cleared the temple area of money changers because they were personally capitalizing by selling the objects of sacrifice within the Temple area. The “Jews,” presumably Jews in leadership positions, asked Jesus on what authority he is driving the money changers out and what sign would demonstrate such authority. In verse 19, “Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and yet You will raise it up in three days?” 21But He was speaking about the temple of His body. 22So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.”
https://www.bible.com/bible/2692/JHN.1.NASB2020
History records that Herod the Great, ruler of Judea under the authority of the Roman Empire, indeed began a sort of remodel on the Temple forty-six years prior to this conversation. The date of this construction began in 20 BC. If we add 46 years to 20 BC, we arrive at 27 AD. There is no year zero and we count the year 1 twice because there is a 1 BC and a 1 AD.