עברית
Faith
The Prophecy of the Messiah in Daniel
Question
Hello.
I wanted to ask you about a prophecy in the book of Daniel that I saw the Christians present as conclusive evidence that Jesus is the Messiah.
It goes like this:
In Daniel chapter nine, the angel Gabriel reveals to him that after seventy weeks (490 years), the iniquity of the people of Israel will be forgiven and everlasting righteousness will come, and the vision of the prophets will be fulfilled (Daniel 9:24).
Then he tells him that from the time the decree is issued to rebuild Jerusalem, seven weeks (49 years) and sixty-two weeks (434 years) will pass (a total of 483 years) until the Messiah is revealed and Jerusalem will be rebuilt with its walls (Daniel 9:25) (he divides the times into periods of 49 years and 434 because the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem took 49 years due to delays). Then it says that after 434 years, the Messiah will be killed.
That decree that Daniel spoke about must be the decree of Artaxerxes in 445 BCE because previous decrees were not for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem since it was still in ruins (Nehemiah 1-2).
It should be noted that in biblical times, the year was 360 days (Genesis 7:11, 24; 8:4 – five months contained 150 days).
So that means that from 445 BCE we count 173,880 days (483 years times 360 days)
and that brings us to 31-32 CE, which is the date of Jesus' crucifixion.
And indeed, about 40 years later, the Temple was destroyed.
If Jesus is not the Messiah, then that means Daniel was a false prophet because it is written that the Messiah must come at that date.
I heard an explanation that it was a conditional prophecy, but from where does someone who says this derive it? It is not stated at all in the text, and whenever there are conditional prophecies, it is written 'if'.
Here’s the article I read that explains better and substantiates the claims I made here:
https://igod.co.il/%D7%A0%D7%91%D7%95%D7%90%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%97%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%A0%D7%91%D7%95%D7%90%D7%AA-%D7%96%D7%9E%D7%9F-%D7%91%D7%95%D7%90%D7%95-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%97-%D7%93%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%90%D7%9C-%D7%98/
Answer
With G-d's help
Hello and blessings,
The Messianic Jews are a group that was formed less than fifty years ago. In our country, missionary groups in their name have emerged. You can read about all the falsehoods of the Messianic Jews in my article "10 Things Messianic Jews Don’t Want Jews to Know":
https://www.hidabroot.org/he/article/78994
In this article, you will find an extensive reference to the topic of prophecies!
And here is a video response to their falsehoods:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owg2XPUg32c
I will copy from my article:
The prophecy of Daniel: Our Sages taught us that in every generation there is a person worthy of being the Messiah, and he may be revealed, as redemption depends on the spiritual state of the Jewish people. When the true Messiah comes, he will save us from the nations of the world, and he will build the Temple in Jerusalem; we will know for certain that he is indeed the Messiah chosen by Hashem. This fact alone should prove to us that all prophecies regarding the coming of the Messiah have not yet been fulfilled. Daniel, for example, prophesied that with the coming of redemption, the resurrection of the dead will also come (chapter 12, verse 2): "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake." Daniel also described a prophecy whereby the Jewish people will merit a redemption in which the Messiah will come from the clouds of heaven (chapter 7), and not a poor man riding on a donkey (the description of the two Messiahs in the Prophets is meant to denote two states of redemption, depending on the choice of the Jewish people). However, it is known that the prophecies in the book of Daniel are not simple to read and analyze, and the Messianic Jews exploit this to set a date for the coming of the Messiah according to the book of Daniel (chapter 9). To do this, they hide the fact that the word "Messiah" in biblical language denotes a king, and only very rarely refers to the Messiah king of redemption. In fact, in biblical language, even the kings of the Gentiles are called messiahs (1 Kings 19:15 and Isaiah 45:1). Therefore, all biblical commentators understood that this does not refer to the "Messiah King" but to one of the later kings who reigned and died in later generations. Moreover, the Messiah mentioned in Daniel chapter 9 is called "Messiah the Prince" (meaning a great minister or king. See examples in 1 Samuel 9:16 or 1 Chronicles 13:1), while according to Christian belief, Jesus was merely a wanderer and not a king or minister in Israel. It is a well-known fact that even Christian commentators have struggled with various conflicting interpretations of the book of Daniel, and even concerning the discussed prophecy because the words are written in cryptic language that is very difficult to decipher. I have no idea how one can extract from these words a belief in a Messiah who was revealed and died without bringing any redemption to the world. It is interesting to note that throughout the New Testament, the prophecy in Daniel is not mentioned, nor is it by the early Christians, who never saw this prophecy as evidence for Jesus.
With blessings,
Daniel Bles
