The nugget as you call it is detailed in this long post, I have read your long posts I pray that you will do the same.
Historians know of at least four decrees made by the Persian emperors "to restore and build Jerusalem." Cyrus made one in 538 BC, Darius I made one in 520 BC and Artaxerxes I made two, one in 457 BC and one in 444 BC. Which one is the correct command?
All of them could fit the description in verse 25. All of them are concerned with restoring Jerusalem to its former function as the Jewish religious capital and trade center. But only one of them fits the time constraints, and this becomes clear when we work out the puzzle of the seventy weeks.
We have to do a little arithmetic to find the terminus for each of these decrees. The expression "seventy weeks" literally means "seventy sevens," and the year-for-a-day principle applies here (
Numbers 14:34;
Ezekiel 4:4-6). We must multiply seventy weeks times the seven years in a week of years, which equals 490 years. Gabriel, however, says it is only sixty-nine sevens "until Messiah the Prince." Thus, 69 x 7 = 483 years.
If we add 483 years to each of the dates of the decrees, what do we find? (Remember to add one year for crossing the non-existent year 0.)
- 538 BC + 483 years = 55 BC. No significant biblical event.
- 520 BC + 483 years = 37 BC. No significant biblical event.
- 457 BC + 483 years = AD 27. Jesus is baptized and begins His ministry.
- 444 BC + 483 years = AD 40. No significant biblical event.
God made it easy! We have only one choice!
Verses 26-27 are very specific that the Messiah would work for three and a half years, half of a week, before being "cut off." When we add three and a half years to AD 27, we find that Christ's ministry ended in AD 31, the year of His crucifixion and resurrection.
Rebuilding Jerusalem (Forerunner Commentary)
In the fall of
AD 27, the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar,
Jesus was
baptized, and at His
baptism God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit proclaiming, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Just recently I've been studying one of the historical 'markers' in the "70 week" prophecy. Perhaps this will be of interest to some of you.
__________________________________
In the 3rd chapter of Luke, the Bible gives us a time marker. The 15th year of the Roman Emperor, Tiberius, is specified as the year of Jesus’ baptism, and of His anointing with the Holy Spirit.
The 15th year of Tiberius is important to us as a people. It is one of the key dates relating to our understanding of the 2300 day prophecy.
Generally, we teach that “
history says” that the 15th year of Tiberius was AD 27, but the reality is not nearly this convenient. History does not “say” as explicitly as we might hope, that the 15th year of Tiberius was AD 27. It is just not that easy to pin-point.
Now I do not doubt the correctness of the AD 27 date, and yet many historians [today it is “most” historians] do not believe that “the 15th year” was AD 27. There ARE reasonable objections to some of our prophetic teachings, and it worth being aware of these, so that when such objections are raised we don’t simply resort to contempt because we have no rational answers to give.
Let’s consider a few details.
Tiberius was adopted by Caesar Augustus when Augustus’ two surviving heirs (Lucius and Gaius) died within 18 months of each other.
Augustus, suddenly finding himself bereft of an heir, adopted Tiberius in A.D. 4 when Tiberius was 46 years old. Ten years after this, Augustus died (A.D. 14) and Tiberius became Ceasar.
The year of Augustus’ death and Tiberius’ succession is indisputably fixed at AD 14. (This AD 14 date is doubly confirmed by a Lunar eclipse which was recorded by various Roman historians, Tacitus (Annals, Bk 1, para.28), and Cassius Dio, etc., and the eclipse occurred shortly after Tiberius’ succession. (Lunar eclipses can be dated very accurately.))
If Tiberius’ ‘year-count’ began in AD 14 (the year in which his step-father Augustus died,) then his 15th year would be AD 29. We teach, however, that the 15th year of Tiberius was two years earlier, namely, A.D. 27.
Why the difference?
If the 15th year of Tiberius was indeed AD 29, then our explanation of the 2300 days, and the “70 weeks”, begins to fall apart – in the end it does not work.
So again, what reason do we have for placing Tiberius’ 15th year at the earlier point, i.e., in AD27?
A brief explanation is offered as follows:
The historian Gibbon explains that, prior to his death, Augustus “dictated a law by which the future prince [Tiberius] was invested with an authority equal to his own, over the provinces and the armies.” (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1. p.30.)
In “the provinces”, Tiberius had equal standing and authority with Ceasar Augustus. But it is worth pointing out, I think, that even while Augustus was still alive and technically holding superiority in Rome, “
all Rome, which hated [Tiberius]
for his stern puritanism, resigned itself to the fact that though Augustus was still prince [i.e. living Emperor]
, Tiberius had begun to rule.” (Durant vol.3 p.231.)
Judea was one of the Roman provinces in which Tiberius’ authority was equal to Ceasar Augustus’, and of course it was in Judea that Luke wrote his account – dating the baptism of Jesus in the 15th year of Tiberius.
Another relevant point is that Augustus’ health had been failing for some years, and he was “an invalid at sixty [2 B.C.]” (See, Durant vol.3, p.231)). Augustus made Tiberius his co-regent, and in Judea, the reign of Tiberius was dated – not from the death of Augustus (as would normally have been the case) – but from that time, two years prior to the death of Augustus (AD 12), when Tiberius was given legal equality with Augustus .
Legally, and for all practical purposes, Tiberius was Emperor over the province of Judea, even while Augustus was still living. His reign began in AD 12, and so the 15th year of Tiberius was indeed AD 27.
One of the "70 Weeks" marker-posts -- A.D. 27