As a student of Biblical history and ancient chronology there are few subjects more elusive and intriguing to me than the Sabbath and Jubilee cycles in the Bible. The following article is part of my research into the Jubilee and Sabbath cycles. It might surprise some of you to learn that the 1st Jubilee mentioned in the Scripture was a jubilee of days.
As with other of my articles which have graphics and charts I have reproduced this in a series of pictures. If you need it larger for reading you can use (Ctrl +) or just click on each image. I hope you enjoy the article. – William Struse
Finally! Someone else who is interested and researches Biblical History.
Have bookmarked this and will be back often.
Thanks Susan! Look forward to discussing it with you in the future. Regards, WS
Hi,
I am preparing a series of Bible lessons to teach women on history and the Bible. I have been spending many hours studying & researching, and as you know better than anyone–the work has only just begun. I am thrilled to have found your site as it is a treasure trove of information. I do find though that you frequently present a great deal of info, charts & Scripture but then don’t sum it all up with your conclusions. This has been a bit frustrating, especially with regard to the 69 weeks of Daniel’s 70 weeks prophesies. You do cause me to dig ever deeper though and for that I’m grateful.
My question at the moment has to do with your thoughts on an article called “Daniel’s 70 weeks–On Second Thought” by Tim Warner. In this article, Mr.Warner builds a case for a proper time table for Daniel’s 70 weeks to be compiled based on taking into account the jubilee years. He states that the wording of Daniel 9:25 when it says, “there will be seven ‘sevens’ and sixty-two ‘sevens’ indicates two things. One is that the word “seven” refers to the Sabbatical week and second is that the first “seven sevens” is clearly referencing the jubilee cycle of 49 years. It makes so much sense that the year of jubilee, which is freedom, would occur the first year of King Cyrus’ decree when the Israelites were allowed to return and rebuild their homeland, but the Bible doesn’t explicitly state, from what I can tell when the jubilee cycle began or ended with regards to their captivity. It is also interesting that they celebrate the feast of tabernacles shortly after their return to Jerusalem. The problem is, according to his interpretation, the historical dates for the Persian kings (in particular King Cyrus’ reign) and Christ’s arrival don’t line up with 490 years + 10 jubilee years. His answer is simply that frequently details from secular sources on history don’t always match up with the Bible. What are your thoughts and have you considered Mr.Warner’s thoughts on how the year of jubilee fits into understanding Daniel’s prophecy?
Thank you again for your web-site. I’ll continue wading through.
In Christ,
Marci
Hi Marci,
I’m out of town right now. I will give you an in-depth reply when I get back home. Talk to you in a couple of days.
Warm Regards,
William Struse
Hi Marci!
Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Thank you for your comments. Regarding the summarizing of my articles, you are correct. I often leave it open. Part of that is for the very reason you mentioned: “You cause me to dig even deeper”. I know I don’t have all the answers and I hope this journey through the Scriptures can be done together. Each of us as Bereans challenging and refining our personal interpretations based upon the Scripture.
In answer to your question about the 70 weeks of Daniel: I have purposely left that open for now because I want to lay the prophecy on an accurate Biblical/chronological foundation. For too long teachers and scholars have made assumption about the 2nd temple era which cannot be reconciled with the Biblical account. When the prophecy of Daniel 9 is laid upon a rock solid foundation it proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Yeshua was and is the Messiah promised in the Scripture.
In answer to your question about Tim Warner’s interpretation of Daniel 9: I believe he is on the right track regarding his belief that the Jubilee cycle shows the hand of YHWH in history. We disagree regarding the means of calculating the Jubilee cycle. He asserts the Jubilee cycle is independent of the yearly Sabbath cycle. I believe the Jubilee and Sabbath cycles are synchronized, just like the daily/weeks Sabbath cycles. Ironically, we get to about the say time frame as to the termination of the cycles.
Regarding Tim’s disregard for the chronology of Persia as it relates to the prophecy of Seventy Weeks – This is the weakest part of his entire theory. We have existing eclipse records (in museums) which give the precise dating of several Persian kings. When we run the lunar/solar cycles backwards from today these eclipse records are proven amazingly accurate. Isaac Newton said himself concerning Ptolemy’s chronology of Cambyses and Darius that the years were: “determined by three eclipses of the moon recorded by Ptolemy, so that they cannot be disputed.” (as quoted by Dr. Jones in his Chronology of the Old Testament p.234) Modern astronomical data backs this up. If we run the cycles backwards we see the three eclipses as described by Ptolemy.
If you would like to “dig deeper” into this I would recommend the book Historical Eclipses and the Earth’s Rotation. This book is one of the most detail modern accounts of the ancient astronomical records. The author is not trying to prove any specific chronology he is simply trying to determine the variation in the rotation of the earth based upon all of the available eclipse records. (It’s very expensive but I am sure your local library can get it for you.)
Ironically, it was likely Daniel who was responsible for some of the records with which we date the Babylonian and Persian era. He was the chief “Magi”. The bottom line is that the Persian era as given by Ptolemy is impressively accurate. Some of his dates may be off by a year or two but by and large the existing astronomical records verify his Cannon. All reasonable evidence shows that Darius Hystaspes did in fact rule from 521-486 BC. This fixes the Persian chronology and is fatal to any theory which is dependent on a shortened Persian era.
Regarding my own thoughts on the Jubilee cycles and the prophecy of Seventy Weeks, I can provide reasonable Biblical evidence which links the Jubilee cycles and Daniel’s Seventy Weeks without a shortened Persian chronology. That information is the subject of my upcoming book The 13th Prime: Deciphering the Jubilee Code. Over the coming weeks and months I will also be writing articles about the subject here at my blog.
I hope I answer some of you questions. If I can be of a further help please don’t hesitate to ask.
Warm Regards,
William Struse
For more on the chronology of Ezra and Nehemiah see my articles below:
The “Artaxerxes” Assumption – The best kept secret of Old Testament chronology.
The Fifth Command – Why do prophecy teachers ignore it?
Ezra: Priest & Scribe – Part I – Defining “Artaxerxes” in the context of Ezra.
Ezra: Priest & Scribe – Part II – Ezra, Darius even “Artaxerxes”.
Marci,
Chapter 10 in my book, “The Time of the End,” deals with the reasons why the Persian period, as recorded by Ptolemy, is much too long. The alignments of eclipses etc. for this period is believed by some scholars to have been fabricated by Ptolemy. He was an astronomer. And he had tables showing the eclipses. But, some scholars believe he fabricated his historical account to match the eclipses. He gave no sources for his historical data, much of which cannot be verified by any other source.
Here is an article by Dr. Charles Taylor (creation scientist), which points out some of the problems with the secular dating based on Ptolemy’s canon.
http://www.answersinrevelation.org/Persian_Kings_Taylor.pdf
Tim
Thank you for taking the time to reply Tim.
I would agree with you that many of Ptolemy’s Persian synchronisms are without corresponding eclipse records but that is not the case for the Babylonian period. Thankfully we do not have to depend entirely on Ptolemy for our rendering of the Persian era.
One of best confirmations of the accuracy of Ptolemy’s chronology is a series of 5 tablets in the British Museum. (BM45640, 35335, 35789, 32238 & 32234) Mr. Stephenson in his book Historical Eclipses and the Earths Rotation he examines many of these records in great detail. Here is an excerpt from page 149:
“(i) All of the surviving observation (and predictions) of lunar eclipses from earliest times (731 BC) to 609 BC – as well as many later observations down to 317 BC – are recorded on a series of five British Museum tablets……
(ii) BM 38462 (= LBAT 1420) reports lunar eclipses for almost every year from the beginning of the reign of Nebuchadrezzar II (604/3BC) to his 29th year (576/5 BC)……
(iii) Between them, BM 34787 (= LBYT 1426) and BM 34684 (= LBT 1427) cover the period from the 22nd year of Artaxerxes I (4443/2 BC) to the 18th year of his successor Darius II (406/5 BC) Eclipses are mentioned in most years….. His accession (‘Ochos, whose name is Darius’) is noted in column II of tablet BM 34787)”
In answer to the article you posted from Charles Taylor I totally agree with his evidence which shows Darius Hystaspes is also known historically and Biblically as “Artaxerxes”. Many of my articles in this blog make that very point. I disagree with his argument that this is grounds for shifting the Persian period. The Persian period is not as tenuous as Mr. Taylor, Mauro and Anstey would have us believe. There is plenty of reasonable hard evidence to show that in fact Ptolemy was relatively accurate regarding the Persian period.
Regards,
William Struse
Dear Tim & William,
I feel incredibly blessed to have had both of you take the time to dialogue regarding my questions. Thank you both so much! I will continue to read and search and pray as I prepare to teach this study.
William,
I ordered your book the 13th Enumeration, and it came a couple days ago. I’m well into it. Honestly, I am pleasantly surprised at the quality–great plot, characters, style, and content! I love to read and Christian authors who know how to write a complex novel are in short supply. Keep up the good work, and I can’t wait to read your next one. In the meantime, I sure hope you have the time to write those articles on the Jubilees before my study begins in December. I’ve almost run out of stuff to read on your site. I’m learning a lot.
Thanks!
-Marci
Good evening Marci,
Happy to hear you are enjoying The 13th Enumeration. My hope was the book might reach a wider audience with some of the incredible truths found in the Bible. I look forward to hearing your final thoughts on the book when your are finished.
Warm Regards,
William Struse
P.S. I too appreciate that Tim took the time to reply and that he did so with good will. It is my hope that this blog will continue to encourage dialog among believers.
Hi William,
Thanks for the interesting article. I wanted to mention the critical important of these cycles to modern societies. You no doubt know that Japan’s economy has been stuck for over 20 years and counting. Now some are thinking the same thing is happening to the US. Europe will be joining the group. So will China. It won’t be too long before the entire developed world will be joining Japan. What’s going on?
The Shmita year and Jubilee year perform a critical function to every society – the release of stress. Without this release there is a slow build up of bad ideas, bad decisions and corruption. Eventually there is big crash. The crash might be delayed through massive debt, but it can’t be stopped. In essence, these years are like a controlled burn in a forest. They burn out the bad stuff in order to eliminate the unstoppable fire that wipes out everything.
The bad ideas, bad decisions and corruption are now strangling much of the developed world. The only fix is a big crash. Too bad we didn’t listen to God.
You can dig into these concepts more deeply here: A System Collapse Framework for Societies – http://goo.gl/ndnsR
Hi Matt,
Thank you for your comments. We are thinking along the same lines. I don’t know if you’ve read my article on The Jubilee Code but I think we are heading in the direction of that final reset. Thank you for the link.
Warm Regards,
William
Wow you have done a lot of research in many areas. Do you feel that the sounding of the first trumpet in Revelations could fall on Jubilee? I’m thinking you might have answered this question, but I’m just getting started reading some of your articles.
You have sooooo much material and references to other pages. Where would you recommend I should start?
Hi Robert,
Tell me what you are most interested in and I will tell you which articles may be most helpful.
Warm regards,
William Struse
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