Rev 12:14– (Excursus on Year-Day Principle 5) Proponents of the year-day principle have often pointed to Daniel 9 as a clear statement of the principle. Nevertheless, from an exegetical perspective, it falls short of such a universal statement. The 70 weeks of Daniel 9:24-27 seem intended to be understood as years because they are based on the seventy years of captivity in Babylon (Dan 9:2). The 70 years of Babylonian captivity were sabbatical years (Lev 26:33-35; 2 Chr 36:20-21), representing 420 years of disobedience to God (roughly the period of the monarchy, see 1 Sam 8:5-20). Thus the 70 weeks of Daniel 9 offers Israel a new probationary period of 490 years, roughly the same length as the period from Saul (1025-30 BC) to Cyrus (539 BC). Unfortunately, from an exegetical perspective, no New Testament text clearly quotes or alludes to Daniel 9 with the purpose of telling us it was fulfilled in Jesus. That would give us an unequivocal and detailed biblical fulfillment of a lengthy time prophecy. The NT does refer to Daniel 9, but not in relation to its time significance (abomination of desolation texts). It also makes time references like “the time is fulfilled” but does not allude to Daniel 9 at those points. So from an exegetical perspective, we don’t have absolute biblical confirmation that Daniel 9 was understood in the first Christian century as a prophecy of Christ’s ministry and death. But does Daniel 9 at least offer an illustration of year-day thinking? That all depends on the meaning of the Hebrew word translated as “weeks” or “sevens” (shabuim or shivim). I am not a Hebrew linguist and there is dispute among Hebrew scholars, even among Seventh-day Adventist scholars, on the matter. If Daniel 9:24-27 used the normal Hebrew word for “weeks” there would be the strong implication of days in that terminology. Thus a “day-year correspondence” could be established. And the implication of a prophecy expressed in days, but understood in years would come close to an illustration of the year-day principle, though falling short as a statement of it. Unfortunately for proponents of the year-day principle, such a reading of the Hebrew is not firmly established. It can be argued that instead of “weeks” the best translation is simply “sevens,” a more general unit of seven, with its meaning determined by the context. In Daniel 9 the term refers to years, as noted above. But in Daniel 10:3, Daniel himself uses it in the phrase “weeks (or “sevens”) of days” to define it in contrast to the weeks of years in the previous chapter (Dan 9:24-27). So I approach this issue in Daniel 9 with caution. In conclusion, Daniel 9 may be an illustration of year-day thinking in ancient times, but the evidence falls short of certainty. At the least, the use of the same Hebrew term for both days and weeks (Dan 9:24-27; 10:3) is consistent with year-day thinking.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Jul 2013 15:17:49 +0000
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