Appendix E
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Ezekiel’s
experience
In Appendix D, we
examined the operation of the Jubilee
Calendar as it pertained to the 70
years of Babylonian captivity. We
found that Ezekiel had to lay on his
left and right sides for a total of
430 days. The Lord said to Ezekiel,
“Then lie on your left side and
put the sin of the house of Israel
upon yourself. You are to bear their
sin for the number of days you lie on
your side. {5} I have assigned you
the same number of days as the years
of their sin. So for 390 days you
will bear the sin for the house of
Israel. {6} ‘After you have
finished this, lie down again, this
time on your right side, and bear the
sin of the house of Judah. I have
assigned you 40 days, a day for each
year.’” (Ezekiel 4:4-6)
Again, the point is
made that a number of scholars try to
demonstrate from these verses that in
apocalyptic prophecy, a day always
equals a year. Again, I say, this
event has nothing to do with
apocalyptic prophecies of Daniel and
Revelation! Rather, this text reveals
that God is punishing Judah and
Israel with 70 years of Babylonian
captivity because they violated 70
sabbatical years. Thus, the 70 years
of captivity in Babylon is not a
random number of years. It is a
fulfillment of His covenant with
them. Notice what the covenant says:
“I will scatter you among the
nations and will draw out my sword
and pursue you. Your land will be
laid waste, and your cities will lie
in ruins. {34} Then the land will
enjoy its Sabbath years all the time
that it lies desolate and you are in
the country of your enemies; then the
land will rest and enjoy its
Sabbaths.”
(Leviticus 26:33,34)
The Jews knew why they were in
Babylonian captivity. God made sure
of the fact. Notice how the Bible
confirms the relationship between the
covenant and its fulfillment:
“The land enjoyed its Sabbath
rests; all the time of its desolation
it rested, until the seventy years
were completed in fulfillment of the
word of the Lord spoken by
Jeremiah.” (2 Chronicles 36:21)
The little horn power
In Daniel 7:25 we
read, “He will speak against the
Most High and oppress his saints and
try to change the set times and the
laws. The saints will be handed over
to him for a time, times and a half a
time.” The time period in this
prophecy refers to three and a half
times “around the sun.”
This time period is given in literal
units, but it is to be interpreted in
Jubilee units, that is, a day equals
a year. In other words, this time
period satisfies both elements of the
rule. First. It occurs during the
operation of the Jubilee cycles and
secondly, it is located within the 17
apocalyptic prophecies. Furthermore,
this prophecy can be historically
verified as having been fulfilled!
An important point
must be brought up. The Chaldean word
‘iddan is used both in Daniel
4:16 and in Daniel 7:25. In the first
case it represents literal time
(seven years) and in the second, it
represents Jubilee time (1,260
years). How can the same word have
two different applications? Simple.
It depends on the action of the rule
of interpretation. This should not be
too hard to understand. Think of it
this way. The word “yes”
can have many different applications.
Its application depends on the
questions.
Lunar months-solar
years
The ancients used the
sun and moon for timing cycles. This
works well for days and weeks, but
the monthly and yearly cycles cannot
be measured in full days or weeks. A
lunar month (one complete orbit of
the moon around the earth) is 29.53
days and a solar year (one complete
orbit of the earth around the sun) is
365.242 days. The ancients must have
recognized that a lunar month is a
little less than 30 days, but they
apparently regarded the monthly cycle
as having 30 days anyway and marked
the passage of the month by new
moons. The point here can be
demonstrated from Genesis 7 & 8.
In verse 3, we learn that the waters
of the flood dissipated after 150
days after the rain began. In verse
4, the ark rests on mountains of
Ararat on the 17th day of
the seventh month. In Genesis 7:11 we
learned that the flood began on the
17th day of the second
month and the 17th day of
the second month and the 17th
day of the seventh month is five
months. Therefore, each month has 30
days. This calculation agrees with
verse 3 that says the total elapsed
time is 150 days.
The ancients
approximated the length of a solar
year by dividing the year into twelve
months. In fact we find mention of
the 12th month both in 2
Kings 25:27 and Esther 2:12. But, a
problem still remains. A lunar year
(12 orbits of the moon) is about 10
days shorter than a solar year. So,
the cycles of the moon rarely
synchronize with the beginning of a
new year. To compensate for this
problem, the Jews, after their
Babylonian captivity, apparently
inserted a 13th month into
the cycles of years to keep the solar
year and the lunar year reasonably
synchronized This adjustment amounted
to seven intercalary months every 19
years so that spring harvest
synchronized with Pentecost.)
Where did the 360-day
year come from?
How does the three and
half times equal 1,260 years? Where
does the 360-day year come from? Some
scholars speculate that it came from
the ancient Egyptians. But, the
Egyptian calendar contained 12 months
of 30 days and a 13th
month of 5 days called Epagomenae.
Others believe that the Babylonians
may have maintained a
“business” calendar of 360
days that they used for the sake of
consistent dating. And, since Daniel
was in Babylon when this vision was
given, God may have used such a
calendar in the vision. But, no such
calendar has been found. In fact, no
360-day calendar from the ancient
civilization has even been found. So,
there must be another reason why God
used the term that reckoned a year as
having 360 days even though He
created a year to have 365.242 days.
The Jews, Egyptians
and Babylonians have calendars of
slightly different lengths because no
one knew that the length of a solar
year was 365 days, 5 hours, 48
minutes and 46 seconds. In fact,
archeology shows that prior to the
time of Julius Caesar, there were
many different calendars. Some
started in the fall. Others started
in the spring. And, Julius Caesar
tried to eliminate the never-ending
confusion between calendars by
installing his own on January 1, 45
B.C. But, God knew that when
the time period predicted in Daniel 7
would become important, intimate
knowledge of ancient calendars would
be lost or at best, very obscure. So,
why did He use a 360-day year?
The answer may be very
simple. In fact, God may have used a
measurement that was as true then as
it is today. And the neat thing about
this measurement is that the
Egyptians, Babylonians and Jews knew
this truth long before Daniel
received the vision. The truth is
that a circle contains exactly 360
degrees.
Ancient mathematicians
believed the orbit of the sun about
the earth was circular instead of
elliptical. (Remember, they believed
the sun circled the earth.) So, the
word translated, “a time,”
refers to one time around the
earth. Indeed, this is the root
meaning of the Chaldean word
‘iddan from which we get the
word “time.”
So, the representation
of time by geometry may solve the
problem. In other words, since a
circle has 360 degrees, a truth that
was well known, then the orbit of the
sun about the earth must also be 360
degrees. Thus, the word, ‘iddan
represents one orbit of the sun (a
solar year) and not the number of
literal days in a year. Evidence has
been found showing that the ancients
knew the length of a solar year was
one complete time around the sun. So,
a common, although inaccurate 360 day
year is not far fetched when you
consider that traders of the ancient
world did not have to keep up with
the idiosyncrasies of each
nation’s calendar as they
traveled between countries. One
“time” was one year. Just
like one moon represented one month,
more or less, to American Indians.
Before the reader
think the use of 360 days to
represent a year is quite strange,
consider that we do the same thing
today. When someone asks how far you
live from the grocery store, do you
say “4.172 miles” or would
you say, “about 4 miles?”
Whatever the reason
that God chose to represent these
things to Daniel, this fact is known:
The time period of a time, times and
half a time represents 1,260 days.
This point is proven in Revelation
12:6 and 12:14 where John
interchanges the two terms. Knowing
that 1,260 days and three and a half
are interchangeable, we conclude that
the three and a half times of Daniel
7:25 represent 1,260 years because
the rule says it must be interpreted
in Jubilee time units.
Other time periods
The book of Daniel
mentions six time periods that have
to do with apocalyptic prophecy. They
are:
1,260 days Daniel 7:25
2,300 days Daniel 8:14
70 weeks Daniel 9:24
1,260 days Daniel 12:7
1,290 days Daniel
12:12
1,335 days Daniel
12:13
For reasons covered in
Appendix D, this author understands
the first three time periods to fall
within the operation of the rule.
Therefore, the first three time
periods are interpreted in day/year
units. The last three units of time
are literal because they occur after
1994.
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