Daniel’s 70-week prophecy
There are so many days in the end of days that are mentioned in the books of Daniel, Revelation, and other books that it can get quite confusing knowing how all these numbers fit into the last 7-year period known as the Tribulation. So in this article, I want to throw a bit of light on this subject. First of all Daniel 9:24-27 and its timeline of 70 weeks is the ultimate end-times reference point and is the baseline upon which everything rests for the very last days. Basically, 69 weeks have passed since King Cyrus’ decree to rebuild Jerusalem and there really is only one more week or one more period of 7 years left in which God will once again deal with Israel. This is after a period of 1960 years of punishment after 70 A.D. which I explained in my blog, “Why 2030 is an important year.”
1260 days
So, this future last 7-year period can be divided into two 3 ½ year segments which are where we get 1260 days, 1290 days, 42 months, and Daniel’s “time, times and half a time.” These seem to be variations of either the first half or second half of the tribulation period with the 1260 days referring to the first half in relation to the period when the Two Witnesses prophesy.1 The additional reference to 1260 days in Revelation 12 also refers to the first half because it is the time when God is preparing the place for the woman concurrent with the time that the Two Witnesses are prophesying. “Time, times, and half a time”2 usually refers to the second half and was first mentioned in Daniel 7:25. No English translations make this clear except for Tim Warner’s Last Generations Version3 and my own EDV translation which translates verse 6 as follows…
6The woman fled into the desert to a place, having been prepared for 1260 days for her by God. This is so that they can take care of her there.
One of the Two Witnesses seems to be either Elijah or a type of Elijah. They re-institute the Jewish sacrificial system, prophesy, bring down plagues, and more than likely reveal God’s plan of escape for the church.4 The first half is also known as the “beginning of sorrows/birth pains.”5 This includes the first 4 horsemen seal judgments in which we see a dramatic rise in tensions on the earth. These first 4 horsemen seal judgments described in Revelation6 closely parallel the first four signs that Jesus told the disciples to watch out for in Matthew.7
Many Bible scholars erroneously believe that there will be a peace agreement at the beginning of the 7-year time period between the Antichrist and Israel but a careful reading of Revelation chapters 12 and 13 show that the beast or Antichrist does not rise from the sea (the nations) until the dragon (Satan) is waiting for him on the shore of the sea.8 The dragon is not cast down to the earth until the halfway mark9 so in effect, the beast cannot rise until the halfway point either. The beast rises from the dead and is none other than a historical figure who once was alive, being resurrected from one of the 7 previous kingdoms.10 The seventh kingdom was the evil Nazi Empire from 1933-1945 and the beast that rises is, I believe, an updated Adolf Hitler. The YouTube “7 Signs of CHRIST’S Return” which I had watched a few years before, makes an astounding analysis on the Antichrist making many references to Hitler. It’s an old movie and a bit outdated but the Hitler part is worth watching. They repeatedly call the future Antichrist “the dictator” and make an astonishing reference to the Antichrist as being an “updated Hitler” (26:17 min mark). At the time “Heil Hitler” replaced “God be with you” as a greeting. It is worth watching in full as it has a lot of history too.
1290 days
So where do the 1290 and 1335-day references come into the scheme of things on the timeline? These two are mentioned in Daniel 12:11-12 and are a lot more difficult to understand. My current understanding is that clearly, the starting point for the 1290 days is at the midpoint from when the Antichrist begins his reign of terror, exactly at the point where the abomination of desolation is set up. This occurs at the 5th trumpet judgment when the beast arises from the abyss exactly 1260 days after the Two Witnesses start preaching and 1290 days before the resurrection of the saints–at the seven-year midpoint. See my latest tribulation timeline to examine this visually and to see that this is exactly on the eve of Purim 2033. Further evidence of this date that the beast arises on the eve of Purim is that Purim is a time of gift-giving celebrating the victory of the Jews over the evil Haman.11 In a huge hint that this event does take place at Purim, Rev. 11:9-12 describes that people celebrate the death of the Two Witnesses by sending each other gifts. Purim is celebrated over a period of two days on the 14th and 15th of Adar.
So, 1290 days later we arrive at the first resurrection which Daniel describes as those who awake to everlasting life.12 This makes total sense because resurrection is the subject of this chapter. This is exactly the same day that the rapture of the church occurs on the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Ha Shanah ten days before the Lord’s glorious appearing on the Day of Atonement.13 So in summary, 1290 days refers to the exact and total number of days that the woman of Revelation 12 is in the safe place in southern Jordan before Christ returns.
1335 days
Those who make it to the end of 1335 days will be blessed according to Daniel and this is somewhat difficult to interpret. It appears that the starting point of the 1335 days has the same starting point as the 1290 days–the midpoint of the seven-year 70th week, which is the day the abyss is opened and the beast is revealed. I have calculated this as being the eve of Purim 2033. It is impossible to know what this time period really refers to as Dan. 12:12 is the only mention of the 1335 days. One possibility is that the blessing here is entry into the millennial kingdom. What will take place during those extra 45 days? Maybe this is when the judgment of the Gentile nations, described in Matthew 25:31–46, will take place. In this judgment, also called the judgment of the sheep and the goats, the Gentiles are judged for their treatment of Israel during the tribulation.14
2300 days
So what about the 2300 days? This also fits into the last 3-year period because 2300 day prophecy is actually 2300 mornings and evenings equating to only 1150 days.15 At the end of the second half of the Great Tribulation, starting on the Day of Atonement (the day that Christ returns) and ending after 14 days, the sanctuary will be reconsecrated or made holy again just as in the days of King Solomon when he consecrated the newly built 1st temple of the Jews with 22,000 head of cattle and 120,000 goats and sheep.16 For a more complete analysis see my article, “What is the 2300 day prophecy?“
Daniel’s scroll is being unsealed
So as you can see there are many numbers to consider at the end and it is a challenge to make them all fit in but the point is that they have to somehow! This is all becoming so much clearer as it must be nearing the time for Daniel’s scroll to become unsealed. And that means, my friends, that we are getting very close. All these numbers were a mystery to Daniel because it was just so far off. But for us in these end times, events are slowly coming into focus and the numbers are slowly coming into focus as well.
See my latest tribulation timeline for more information.
- Rev. 11:3 [↩]
- Rev. 12:14 [↩]
- https://4windsfellowships.net/LGV/LGV_Revelation.pdf [↩]
- Isaiah 26:20 [↩]
- Matt. 24:8 [↩]
- Rev. 6:1-8 [↩]
- Matt. 24:4-8 [↩]
- Rev.13:1 [↩]
- Rev. 12:6-9 [↩]
- Rev. 17:11 [↩]
- Esther 9:18-19 [↩]
- Dan. 12:2 [↩]
- Titus 2:13 [↩]
- https://www.gotquestions.org/tribulation-1260-1290-1335-days.html [↩]
- Dan. 8:14 [↩]
- 2 Chronicles 5-7 [↩]
3 Responses
I can’t understand why many end-time theological studies justify a seven-year tribulation period based on the final week of Daniel 9:27, the only reference that seemingly isn’t referring to the Antichrist, but to Christ.
The normal, natural exegetical assumption is that the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24-27 are an unbreakable unity. They are presented as a unit, just like the seventy years of Babylonian exile in Daniel 9:2. Edward J. Young states, “If there is no warrant for inserting a gap in Jeremiah’s prophecy, what warrant is there for doing so in the prophecy of the seventy sevens? Had there been a gap in Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jer. 25:10) Daniel could never have understood the years of the captivity.”
Only the Messiah Himself could legitimately abolish once and forever the system of symbols that pointed forward to the atoning self-sacrifice of the spotless Lamb of God. “He sets aside the first (Leviticus sacrifices and offerings) to establish the second (the perfect order of Melchizedek)” (Hebrews 10:9).
The fulfillment of Daniel’s prediction that” ‘in the middle of that seven he (the Anointed One of Daniel 9:25-26) will put an end to sacrifice and offering'” (9:27), was strikingly confirmed by an act of God Himself. When Jesus died, “at that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51; cf. Mark 15:38). The death of Christ signified the end of Israel’s sacrificial temple ritual by an unmistakable act from heaven. The legitimacy of the temple sacrifices had come to their end before God.
The only references I see of a three-and-a-half year Great Tribulation in the end times are mentioned in Daniel 12:7 and Revelation 13:5 (42 months).
Hi Timothy,
Thanks for your comment. The 70 weeks are broken up for us into 3 sections: seven sevens; 62 sevens; and the last seven. So they are not really a unit.
I think where your exegesis is faulty is in verse 27 where all English versions have the pronoun “He” However in Dan. 9:27 there are no pronouns in the Greek or Hebrew. Also “a covenant” should read “the covenant.” So it’s not just any old covenant or peace treaty but the one and only Old Covenant or we know it as the Old Testament.
►So what does that really mean? It should read like this: “(Someone) will confirm the covenant with the people for 1 week.” In other words one would think that the “He” refers back to the prince or the ruler (Little Horn) in 9:26 but it doesn’t necessarily so. So my take on this is that the OT covenant will be re-established by a person (masculine) and it may very well be Elijah because in Malachi 4:6 it says that he will restore the hearts of the fathers to the children and vice versa. Furthermore in the extra Biblical book Sirach 48:10 (RSV) it says “Elijah…will…restore the tribes of Jacob.” Matthew 17:11 confirms this restoration ministry of Elijah in the final days when Jesus says, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things.” Jacob and Israel will be joined together again, the Old Testament Law will be restored. Basically Elijah or this type of end times Elijah will be the “someone” in 9:26 who will be at the forefront of this restoration ministry.
What this means is that the OT sacrificial system will be restored under a seven year contract but in the middle of the 7 year period, the Antichrist will put a stop to this and set himself up as God. On the wing or pinnacle of the new reconstructed temple during the Tribulation period, an abomination will be set up and it will remain there until the end. This is just like what Antiochus Epiphanes did in 168 BC. This abomination is a horrible detestable thing to the Jews and it may even be a statue of the beast himself that needs to be worshiped. Then there will be great fear in the world.
We also know that there will be two 3 1/2 year periods because the Two Witnesses minister for 1260 days which is in the 1st half of the 7 years. When the beast comes up out of the abyss and revealed at the halfway point which coincides with Satan being thrown down to the earth, the first thing that he does is to kill the Two Witnesses in preparation for the Great Trib (last 3 1/2 years).
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