Thus in the 3rd year of Jehoiakim, the Lord sent bands of peoples to remove the Jews out of the land. And we may assume God directed these bands in coordination with Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s defeat of Jerusalem,\u00a0even to the very day, if in the Divine mind this were necessary to firmly establish the beginning date of the exile.<\/p>\n
\u00a0(b) H<\/strong>ARMONIZING THE <\/strong>B<\/strong>I<\/strong>BLE WITH <\/strong>J<\/strong>OS<\/strong>EPHUS<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0Now, a second and less complex line of evidence for a 69-year exile is a statement by Josephus, who says the 1st year of Cyrus\u2019 reign was the 70th of the captivity [Antiquities of the Jews<\/em>, Book 11, Chapter 1]<\/p>\n In the first year of the reign of Cyrus which was the seventieth from the day that our people were removed out of their own land into Babylon, God commiserated the captivity and calamity of these poor people, according as he had foretold to them by Jeremiah the prophet, before the destruction of the City, that after they had served Nebuchadnezzar\u00a0and his posterity, and after they had undergone that servitude seventy years, he would restore them again to the land of their fathers, and they should build their temple, and enjoy their ancient prosperity.<\/p>\n Thus Josephus seems to contradictorily indicate that the Jews returned before <\/em>70 full solar years had passed\u2014and we note that the end of the 1st year of Cyrus was technically in <\/em>the 70th year of captivity\u2014yet Josephus also says it happened after <\/em>70 years\u2014which in my opinion is his concession to the traditional way of understanding the text. This \u2018whipsaw\u2019 way of expressing the length of the exile as this, yet that <\/em>shows\u00a0the type of confusion still often characterizing the question. I think that with Josephus the natural explanation is that two \u2018readings\u2019 are colliding to form his opinion about the length of the exile: (1) the statement of the Bible isolated unto itself<\/em>, that the exile would last 70 years; and (2) the same statement of the Bible but with the attempt to harmonize other biblical statements (showing the exile ran from the 3rd year of Jehoiakim to the 1st year of Cyrus, the latter year inferred from II Chron. 36:22), to show that the 70 years were shorter than 70 normal solar years. All this to say, Josephus cannot be inferred to absolutely\u00a0<\/em>affirm or deny that the exile lasted 69 full solar years, but is neutral in regard to this point. But Josephus\u2019 statement is not, as some might think, an evidence against <\/em>the Bible, even despite his error elsewhere about a four-year difference between the reigning years of Jehoiakim and Nebuchadnezzar. For Josephus never cites this alleged four-year difference as a basis to calculate the length of the exile. And so, if Josephus\u2019 statement above does not unqualifiedly harmonize with the biblical and Babylonian records, neither can it be said that it is un<\/em>harmonious.<\/p>\n \u00a0(c) E<\/strong>VIDENCE OF THE <\/strong>N<\/strong>A<\/strong>BONIDUS <\/strong>C<\/strong>HRONICLE<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0A third evidence, this one circumstantial, comes from the Nabonidus Chronicle, a Babylonian record mainly about certain events of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon whom Cyrus defeated. It shows Cyrus\u2019 policy of return<\/em>, which ultimately included the Jews. It states that Cyrus, after defeating the Babylonians, began to return Babylonian city gods back to their respective cities instead of keeping them in Babylon. Arguably, Cyrus did not worship these gods nor wanted their pagan influence in his kingdom.2<\/strong>5 <\/strong>For as Ezra records, Cyrus knew that the God of Heaven had given him the kingdoms of the earth, and that God now wanted him to build a house for Him in Jerusalem. That individual cities in Babylonia would have had gods was a common practice of that culture, as it was of the ancients. For Jeremiah likewise records God\u2019s complaint that \u201caccording to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah\u201d (Jer. 2:28), and here, too, one recalls the Apostle Paul in danger of the Ephesian crowd who shouted, \u201cGreat is Diana of the Ephesians.\u201d Arguably, then, Cyrus\u2019 return of the gods to their respective Babylonian cities, and his solicitation of volunteer Jews to return to Israel to build the house of God, shows a tolerant and even Semitic-friendly king. As for the return of the city gods, the Nabonidus Chronicle states:\u00a0<\/p>\n In the month of Arahsamna, the third day [29 October<\/em>], Cyrus entered Babylon, [unidentified objects<\/em>] were filled before him – the state of peace was imposed upon the City.\u00a0Cyrus sent greetings to all Babylon. Gobryas, his governor, installed subgovernors in Babylon. From the month of Kisl\u00eemu to the month of Addaru, the gods of Akkad [Babylonia] which Nabonidus had made come down to Babylon, were returned to their sacred cities.26<\/strong><\/p>\n The Nabonidus Chronicle, obverse and reverse; [tablet] BM 35382.<\/p><\/div><\/strong><\/p>\n The Babylonian month Kisl\u00eemu approximates the Jews\u2019 Kislev, or ninth month, being December\/January; and Addaru approximates the Jews\u2019 Adar, or 12th month, being March\/April. Again, the significance of this is that this four month period most likely served as a precursor to when Cyrus would eventually return not just idols to their places of origin, but foreign peoples, as well. The Hebrews had no idols to carry back to Jerusalem, but they were given the special vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar had taken away in his conquest (Ezra 1:9ff). Also, of some importance is that the Nabonidus Chronicle records the death of Cyrus\u2019 wife toward the end of these four months, since the Chronicle tells us that the official mourning for her took place from March 20\u201326 (538 BC). Under such loss men are often prone toward introspection about the mortality of life. This may help explain Ezra\u2019s statement that in Cyrus\u2019 1st year \u201cGod stirred <\/em>(Heb. lit. roused<\/em>) the spirit of Cyrus,\u201d to realize what God had done for him in obtaining his kingdom, and what was now his present obligation.<\/p>\n \u00a0C<\/strong>ON<\/strong>CLUSION OF <\/strong>P<\/strong>O<\/strong>I<\/strong>N<\/strong>T<\/strong>S <\/strong>(a), (b), & (c)<\/strong><\/p>\n Taking these various historical records above into account, it is certainly possible that exactly 69 years less 2 days\u2014that is, 70 years of 360 days each\u2014took place from the beginning of the Jewish deportation in the fall of 606 BC, to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, where they offered up daily sacrifice to God beginning on the 1st of Tishri, 537. Furthermore, the timeline does not allow for an exile lasting 70\u00a0\u2018normal\u2019 solar years. But granting our hypothesis of an exile of 69 years less 2 days, the point here is that\u00a0the Jews could <\/em>have observed that their captivity was almost exactly a full year shy of 70 standard solar\u00a0years, which should <\/em>have sparked some inquiry about why this was so. And upon this reflection they should <\/em>have realized that it equaled 70 years according to the calendar in use from the Creation to just a few centuries before their present era. Additionally, since they knew Daniel\u2019s prophecy was in the context of his meditation on Jeremiah\u2019s prophecy about the length of years of the exile (Dan. 9:2), i.e., that the Jews would be captives for 70 years, which proved to be in solar years but 69 in number, the Jews should <\/em>have concluded Daniel\u2019s prophecy, too, might also be counting its \u201csevens\u201d [translated weeks <\/em>in the KJV] as seven years of 360 days each, to emphasize the Creation-like restoration which the Messiah was naturally intent upon. Again, the 360-day year should have been known by the Jews to have been the actual length of the year just a few centuries earlier. At least Daniel and his compatriots who had been specially trained\u00a0in the Babylonian language, culture, and sciences would certainly have known this fact. We will address the\u00a0360-day year more fully in Chapter 6 (The Black Sun). Again, then, the Divine purpose urging such counting was to build anticipation among Jews year by year of the coming of their Messiah, so that when he came he might restore his people\u2019s hearts and even the earth to where they should be. But, sadly, the would have\/could have\/should have <\/em>never became a reality for the Hebrew people.<\/p>\n And so, when we consider all the evidences above, it is hard to understand the confidence Chris Sandoval expresses in his calculations that the exile could only have been of 67 or 72 years. Sandoval, assuming wrong \u2018bookend\u2019 dates for the exile which he then imagines disproves Daniel\u2019s prophecy, believes the book of Daniel is a 2nd century BC work. Thus he states:<\/p>\n \u00a0the author\u2019s tidy but artificial scheme of seventy sevens is too long to fit the messy facts of\u00a0real history.<\/p>\n \u00a0Thus ignorant of the above historical records we have given, Sandoval makes an apples to oranges comparison and proposes that real history is found in some 2nd century BC writer working in the genre of inspirational fiction a la <\/em>the Left Behind <\/em>series, featuring Daniel, a prophet of 400 years past. Why Sandoval thinks such ipso facto \u2018<\/em>predictive\u2019 prophecy would inspire the believer toward a greater faith in God, any more than a fictional Job (as some would have it) should inspire the believer to persevere under trial on the grounds that a novelized character had done so, is never addressed. Continuing the implausibility, Sandoval proceeds to claim that \u2018Daniel\u2019s\u2019 message was that the 7 weeks and 62 weeks ran concurrently<\/em>, and that the \u201cgovernor\u201d mentioned twice in Daniel 9:25-26a is not Messiah the Prince but rather two<\/u> priests<\/em>, one active shortly after the exile, the other at the end of 434 years (62 weeks), and <\/em>that the beginning of Daniel\u2019s 69 weeks began with a decree by Cyrus in 538 BC, not by Artaxerxes in 444 BC. That Cyrus\u2019 decree, Darius\u2019 decree, and Artaxerxes\u2019 decree (the last of these in 457 BC) all pertain only <\/em>to the rebuilding of the temple<\/em>, not the restoring and building of the City <\/em>(which is what Daniel\u2019s prophecy specifies) should be overlooked by Sandoval, is remarkable, except, perhaps, for Sandoval\u2019s passing reference to Ezra 9:9 and the mention\u00a0of a wall. <\/em>Says Ezra:<\/p>\n For we are slaves; yet in our bondage God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins and to give us a wall <\/em>in Judah and Jerusalem (emphasis mine).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But the immediate context of this verse and especially the decree itself by Artaxerxes (Ezra 7) concern\u00a0themselves only <\/em>with the temple and the sacrifices to be made, especially on behalf of the king and his sons. Moreover, it was 13 years later <\/em>that Artaxerxes specifically allowed Nehemiah to restore and to build Jerusalem, activity which Nehemiah profusely details when describing the reconstruction of the wall(s) of Jerusalem. This shows that the wall in Ezra 9:9 is merely the temple wall or the outer wall of the temple Complex, which was not synonymous with the wall(s) of the City. It was, as Ezra states, \u201ca wall in<\/em>\u2026Jerusalem,\u201d not of <\/em>Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Nehemiah Rebuilding the Wall. An engraving from 1886.<\/p><\/div>\n And so, when Sandoval chides theologians for not facing up to the \u201cmessy facts of history,\u201d one wonders what facts he is talking about? Is it the \u2018facts\u2019 of assuming the wrong monarchial decree\u00a090 years too early because of mistaking the temple for the City, and from there\u00a0insisting on a two-fold concurrent\u00a0<\/em>timeline of two\u00a0<\/em>persons that defies the natural reading of the text, and then ignoring more than 30 verses in Nehemiah 3 which detail the building of the wall(s) and gates of Jerusalem<\/em>\u2014in order to suggest that Ezra\u2019s passing mention of a \u201cwall\u201d 13 years earlier was something other than that of the temple? If so, one can only imagine what other \u201cfacts\u201d Sandoval\u2019s assertions might reveal, if one had the strength to trudge through them all.<\/p>\n T<\/strong>HE <\/strong>490 Y<\/strong>EARS<\/strong>, <\/strong>AND THE <\/strong>360-D<\/strong>AY <\/strong>S<\/strong>T<\/strong>ANDARD<\/strong><\/p>\n Two more things should be observed before we consider the NASA moon phase charts in point 4. As Thomas Ice in his article \u201cThe Seventy Weeks of Daniel\u201d points out, there is a recurrent theme in the number 490 years. For note that each year of the 70-year exile was imposed because the Jews had not allowed the land to rest for one year in seven, implying there were a total of 490 years in play during this law (not contiguously).27 <\/strong>Therefore when Gabriel gives Daniel the vision, he implicitly makes him understand that the Messiah should not be expected to come into his earthly kingdom at the end of the current 70 year exile, but that in fact another 490 years ( i.e., 70 weeks) would be determined upon the Jews. Therefore Messiah\u2019s rule would not be imminent after the 70 years of exile Daniel was witnessing, as\u00a0perhaps he had supposed. Incidentally, this implicit theme of two sets of 490 years refutes the kind of Islamic and other criticisms of Daniel\u2019s prophecy that interpret any or all of the \u201cweeks\u201d according to some unit of measurement other than years.28<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, notice that on the Day of Triumphal Entry, when Christ declared the house of Jerusalem desolate, it was because the Jews neglected to recognize the 360-day standard (and thus his Coming). This meant the loss of Messiah\u2019s kingdom until a much later (and still yet future) time. But one day that kingdom will <\/em>come, when one who dies at 100 will nevertheless be called a \u201cchild\u201d (Is. 65:20). This implicitly means the earth will be returned to its original, Edenic-like, terrestrial environment\u2014when men lived over 900 years long\u2014to best serve man\u2019s physical needs.<\/p>\n \u00a04. NASA\u2019<\/strong>S <\/strong>M<\/strong>OO<\/strong>N AND <\/strong>E<\/strong>CLIPSE <\/strong>C<\/strong>HART<\/strong><\/p>\n Before I was assured by an astronomy professor that the online NASA charts were reliable, I had stupidly busied myself with fruitless attempts at establishing possible crucifixion dates based on (1) calculating backwards multiple new moons with an average of 29.530589 days, and (2) extrapolating what time the new moon would have occurred on a given month in a given year in the 1st century AD. Thus I tried to determine when the Jews would have first seen the beginning crescent following the new moon which designated the first \u201cevening\u201d of their first \u201cevening\/morning\u201d day of the month. From this I counted off 14 days inclusively to when the Passover Lamb would have been slain, to see whether a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday crucifixion was possible in the year I thought the crucifixion should have taken place. As for the year, I eventually came to the proper conclusion that any year prior to 33 AD did not allow enough time for Daniel\u2019s prophecy to be fulfilled. This is why, in light of Luke\u2019s statement that Jesus was \u201cabout 30 years old,\u201d a 1 BC, not a 4 BC, date for Herod\u2019s death becomes desirable if the prophecy is to be proved. I\u2019ll discuss the reasons for a 1 BC date in greater detail in the next point.<\/p>\n Now, the problem with moon and earth orbits is that although they align nearly <\/em>perfectly after a certain number of years constituting specific cycles known to astronomers, these cycles are only nearly <\/em>so. They are never exact repeats, since the elliptical nature and slight wobble of the moon and the earth in their respective orbits make for incredibly sophisticated mathematical calculations quite beyond anyone but the mathematical\/astronomical specialist (and, without computers, perhaps beyond even him or her).\u00a0Therefore I was mistaken to assume I could figure out when a particular new moon took place 2,000 years ago, especially since I was ignorant at that time that lunar months themselves vary in length. At the beginning of my research I faced a learning curve the length of which I had no idea.<\/p>\n![\"nabonidus](\"https:\/\/danielgracely.com\/rockpapershivers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/nabonidus-chronicle-300x151.jpg\")
![\"Nehemiah](\"https:\/\/danielgracely.com\/rockpapershivers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Nehemiah-rebuilding-300x206.jpg\")
![\"pope](\"https:\/\/danielgracely.com\/rockpapershivers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/pope-gregory-13-300x190.jpg\")