The interpretation,
Day-years are not the only duration of prophetic time in the Bible. Twice in Daniel, and once in Revelation, there is the expression “time, times, and half a time.” So how long is a time? Look at these times in Daniel:
Dan 7:25 “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”
Dan 12:7 “And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”
Is a time a year like the day-years? One thing for sure, a time is not a year. Here is how we know. The Hebrew word for day is yom. The Hebrew and High Syriac words for time (as used in Dan
7:25 and 12:7) are iddan and moadah. Surely, the Creator of the universe knows the difference between iddan, moadah and yom.
Of course, and He gave us a yom for a year, not an iddan or a moadah for a year. So iddan (time), and moadah (time), must mean something else. Lets call them time durations “X.”1
And what about the cryptic way in which those words were used, “time, times, and the dividing of a time?” How many “times” do we have here? As is true of English, Hebrew is full of idiomatic language. For instance, the Hebrew idiom “cut off” means to kill. “Ate the pieces of” means to bring malicious accusations against, and so on. Is “time, times, and the dividing of a time” also an idiom? Let’s see if there is Scripture to support that hypothesis:
Job 33:14 “For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.”
Job 40:5 “Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.”
Psalm 62:11 “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.”
In the above, once is one, and twice is only one more, for a total of two: 1+1=2. A singular one followed by a plural twice is only two. In the same way, a singular time followed by a plural times might be only two. Only two! The words are different, but the idiomatic form is the same. If the Lord had said, “time, yea times” we might have seen it instantly.
Now let’s employ the same idiomatic language to interpret time, times, and half a time. Time = one; times = one more, for a total of two times. Add a half a time and we have two and a half times, or 1+1+½=2½. That is pretty simple, isn’t it?2 So why have people been saying that “time, times, and half a time” are three
1 Day: Strong’s Nos. H3117, yom, from an unused root means to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether lit. (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next). Time (Dan 7:25): H5732, iddan, (Chaldean), from a root corresponding. to H5708; a set time. Time (Dan 12:7): H4150, moade (feminine) mow’adah: from H3259; prop. an appointment, i.e. a fixed bad time or season.
2 Sorry about this 1+1 stuff. I know I’m down on the kindergarten level, but it seemed the easiest way to explain the concept.
and a half years? Probably because it fits the Seven-Year tribulation scheme. However, Hebrew scholars, plus the Jewish Tanach itself, do not support 3½ as a correct rendering.
All right, so “time, times, and half a time” are actually two and a half times. But if a time isn’t a year, how long is it? Daniel understood day-years, but he didn’t understand time. Why? Because day-years were defined for him in Old Testament scriptures while time was not. In fact, time was not defined until late in the New Testament epistles:
2Pet 3:8 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [Greek word, hemera] is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
On the surface that doesn’t look like much of a definition for time, does it? It certainly doesn’t work in English. But something is wrong here. God has already given us the definition for day. He gave us a day for a year. Is the Lord changing His definition of prophetic days here? Not at all. We can prove that the correct interpretation for prophetic days is still years by the 42 months and 1260 days of Revelation that we have already studied.
What we have here is an “X with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as an X.” So how do we solve for “X”? By doing a word study in Greek, the original language of the New Testament. The Greek word translated “day” in 2Pet 3:8 is hemera, (ήμ¦ρα).1 Hemera is an ambiguous word sometimes translated: period, moment, season, year, and, guess what ... Time. So what is the correct translation here? In Greek, context often determines translation, but in the above verse, the correct translation cannot be established with certainty because context
1 Strong’s No. G2520. hemera, hay-mer’-ah: feminine. (with G5610 implied) of a derivative of hemai (to sit; akin to the base of G1476) several days were usually reckoned by the Jews as inclusive of the parts of both extremes; figuratively a period (always defined more or less clearly by the context): age,
+ always, forever, judgment, (day) time, while, years.
does not suggest the correct concept. Understandably, translators went with “day,” the most common usage, but that may not reflect the intent of the author. Hemera is translated time in four verses in the KJV, and twelve verses in the NAS. So time is a very accep- table translation. So is it possible that duration of “X” is a thousand years?
If time is a thousand years, and we have 2½ of them, then “time, times, and half times” could be 2500 years. Thus far, we have only a supposition and a weak one at that. But that is all we had for day-years until we started plugging them into history. Let’s see if there is an exact 2500 year historic fit that fulfills the Bible’s description of these times right to the year.
After Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon died in 562BC. Each of his three sons only ruled for a couple of years so the empire must have been really unstable.1 King Labashi-Marduk was murdered as a mere child. Though the archives don’t give us a lot of details, reading about those ancient Middle Eastern empires from secular sources gives us a picture of what must have been going on back then. Daniel must have been walking on eggs to avoid the plots and political intrigue in the Babylonian court. Many of his fellow rulers in Babylon hated him and some even plotted his death (Dan 6:4-13). However, the Lord protected Daniel in that harrowing environment.
Then in 555BC, a nephew of Nebuchadnezzar named Nabonidus seized the throne. He proved to be a very able ruler. However, he couldn’t stomach the Babylonian court life, so three years later, in 552, he chose a close relative, Belshazzar, to rule the empire for him. Then Nabonidus spent the rest of his life wandering around Arabia, doing archeological digs and writing
lots of poetry.
1 Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his eldest son Awel-Marduk, the Evil- Merodach of 2 Kings 25:27-30 (561-560BC) who was followed by Neriglissar (560-558 BC), who was succeeded by Labashi-Marduk (557BC).
During these turbulent times, the Lord gave Daniel the vision of four great beasts coming up out of the sea.1 Scripture tells us when this was, right to the year, “In the 1st year of Belshazzar” (Dan 7:1).2 In pictorial language, the vision then describes the four great kingdoms that were to rule in the Holy Land during the time of the Gentiles. At the end of that prophecy, the Lord tells Daniel about times:
Dan 7:25 “And he shall speak great words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”
Our doctrines get messed up because we don’t think about who the Lord is speaking to, or when. In this instance, the Lord is speaking to Daniel in 552BC.
So in Daniel’s day, who spoke out against God? Then, as now, Satan speaks out against God. Who were the saints in Daniel’s time? The Jews, of course. So from 552BC, when this prophecy was given, the Lord is telling Daniel that the Jews would be under satanically controlled Gentile powers for two and a half times, or possibly 2500 years. That the Holy Land would be ruled by Gentile strangers far into the future. Now let’s run that up and down the framework of history and see what it fits. Since the definition for time was given in the New Testament, we don’t need to convert from Hebrew to solar years to fit our calendar. A simple subtraction will do just fine:
2500 - 552BC = 1948AD, and new Israel!
1 The sea is the peoples of the Earth (Rev 17:15): “The waters which thou sawest. . . are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”
2 To date, there is no direct archeological evidence for 552BC being the 1st year of the Belshazzar’s regency. However, that date can be supported by correlating evidence about the reign of Nabonidus. John Walvoord, The Key to Prophetic Revelation (Chicago, Moody Press, 1971) p. 115 accepts a 553BC Belshazzar dating, and most authorities recognize a one to three year ambiguity in Old Testament dating.
Just a lucky hit? If that is not the correct interpretation, then it has to be one of the most remarkable coincidences in all of recorded history. It fits Scripture and our records right to the year. But remarkable as that fulfillment of prophecy may be, we would still have only a theory if this was the only 2500 year time period that fit antiquity.
1st Time, Times & ½ a Time
Dan 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the
most High, and think to change times and laws:
and they shall be given into his hand until
a time and times and the dividing of time.
But when God really does open prophecy, He gives us enough proof to know that we are headed in the right direction. At the end of Daniel’s prophetic ministry, God gave Daniel another vision containing times (This prophecy also includes the 1290 days that led us to understand the Dome of the Rock as the Abomination that makes Desolate). This last vision can be dated at the third year of Cyrus the Persian, or 533BC:
Dan 10:1 “In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar.”
Daniel is now a very old man. He knows he is going to die soon. The temple mount had been abandoned and sacrifices abolished during his own lifetime. He knows that an Abomination of Desolation was going to stand on that beloved site in less than 1300 years. Would the Jews ever control Jerusalem again? Of
course. Many Old Testament Scriptures tell him so including Isa11:11. But when? The Lord told him that as well, right to the year, but then hid it so that no one would know when that time would be,until it happened:
Dan 12:7 “And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”
Three years earlier, Cyrus had given a decree that would permit the Jews to return to their homeland. They had begun their trek back to the Holy land, and soon they would begin to build the 2nd temple. That temple stood until 70AD, when the Jews were driven from the land again. But God knew the end of this second dispersion, as well. He knew at the end of it, that the Jews would return to the Holy Land one more time and again control Jerusalem. When was the vision given? In 533BC, the third year of Cyrus. So this “time, times, and half a time” should begin in the third year of Cyrus:
2500 - 533BC = 1967AD Jerusalem freed of Gentile control!
The Lord even worded the last phrase of that prophecy in such a way that it would be difficult to miss His intent: “... and when he shall have accomplished to scatter [or shatter, NAS] the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”
As of 1967AD, His holy people, the Jews, were no longer scattered among the Gentiles. They have their nation again, and their power is shattered no longer. But please look at that last phrase again: “and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.” Since that was fulfilled by 1967, then all of Daniel’s last vision, and perhaps his whole book was fulfilled by 1967, closing the door on those end-time views based on this vision.
2nd Time, Times & ½ a Time
|
Note: When the Jews again took control of Jerusalem in 1967, the “scattering of the power of the holy people” was over. Daniel was a prophet to the time of the Gentiles. Daniel’s prophecies were, in the main, fulfilled in 1967AD. This does not include the last half of Dan 8, which directly states that it is a vision of “the ultimate time of the end.”
A SEASON AND A TIME
There is a third time in Daniel that proves a prophetic “time” to be a thousand years. The four beasts of Daniel 7 are under- stood by most conservative theologians to be figurative pictures of the great Gentile empires that would rule in the Holy Land during the time of the Gentiles. The first three beasts were Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece. The fourth beast, Rome, fell in 476AD (more on these empires in a later chapter). The Moslems came on the scene soon after Rome fell, but the Moslems were not granted world dominion like the empires that came before them; however, the Lord did permit the Islamic states to rule in the Holy Land for a “season and a time”: Dan 7:11-12 “I beheld even till the [4th] beast [Rome] was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning
flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts [the Islamic nations controlling Jerusalem], they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives [in the holy Land] were pro- longed for a season and time.”
If time is 1000 years and there are four seasons, then a season would be one fourth of a time, or 250 years. 1000+250=1250. A season is not defined by a certain number of days and could fluctuate a week or two in either direction so this “season and time” fits history well, indeed.
New Israel became a nation a “Season and Time,” (1260 years) after the Dome of the Rock was built.
So now we have seen three examples, from Daniel alone, of time fitting history, when time is understood to be a thousand years. Consequently, it is unrealistic to hold that prophetic times mean anything else. Folks, I’m gullible so I could accept time equaling 1000 years as a coincidence one time, but three times? Not a chance! These solutions span thousands of years – from historic events that took place in antiquity to historic events that have taken place in our own lifetimes. That is a statistical impossibility, so we no longer have a hypothesis; we have a sound biblical and historically supportable doctrine1.
In these times and day-years, we have a solid empirical
argument, a prophetic jigsaw
puzzle in which
all the pieces
interlock
with each other. We can argue about the placement,
color, or shape of any one piece,
but when the whole puzzle is put together, we can stand back and view a completed picture.
It’s not so easy to discredit a prophetic picture
in which all the elements
fit perfectly. If it is not of God, it will crumble back into its original
1 There is a further message in Dan 12:7: “all these things shall be finished” shows that all events predicted in Daniel’s last vision, including “Michael standing up,” were fulfilled by 1967.This brings to an end the contention that Dan 11:36-45 is about some period in our future or about a coming antichrist. These verses are all fulfilled.
pieces all on its own; but if it is of God, it will remain and flourish, no matter who comes against it (Act 5:35-39).
NOTE: A season is generally considered to be a fourth of a year, but it is an indefinite time that can vary by a week or so. Consequently, this “season and a time” from the Dome of the Rock to new Israel is a dead hit, and it proves from Daniel itself that a prophetic “time” should be understood 1000 years.
These day-year and time prophecies are truly remarkable. They show the sovereignty of a timeless God over the affairs of men in a way that is difficult to dispute, and they do so over eons of time. Despite the best efforts of the enemy and the complexity of 2500 years of history, God not only foreknew what was going to happen in the Holy Land, but managed history in such a way that what His prophets foretold took place in God’s chosen location at God’s chosen time, right to the year. Humanly impossible? Of course. This has to be either the correct view of Daniel 7:11-12, or we need to totally disregard everything we thought we knew about probability and statistics.
NEWS BRIEF
Israel National News, 7/24/2007: Syrian Official: War with
Israel will be Ballistic, by Gil Ronen
Syria sees the next war with Israel as involving missile attacks on civilian infrastructure and front-line guerilla warfare, an anonymous senior official in the Syrian Ministry of Defense told Defense News Weekly, in an interview appearing Monday. Syria prefers to avoid a direct, "classic" confrontation with Israel, he said. Instead, the next war will involve Katyusha rocket and ballistic missiles that will target strategic points in Israel, especially civilian infrastructure.
The official said that the war will not be limited to a single strike, but will be protracted in nature. "This will be a war of attrition, which the Israelis are not good at," he explained. The conflict, he said, "will be more like a war between cities than a war on the battlefield."
Quoting from the above: “the next war will involve Katyusha rocket and ballistic missiles.” In the “final plagues to come upon the earth,” in the bowls of wrath, there is a figurative description of those rockets and the war Israel is fighting even now:
Rev 16:21 “And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent [100 pounds]: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.”
The prophet John had no idea what a rocket would be like, that the weight of the warhead would be “about the weight of a talent” or 100 pounds . . . but the God of the Bible knew!
The Time, Times and Half Time of Dan 7:25, fulfilled in 1948AD by the new nation of Israel (and) the Time, Times and Half Time of Dan 12:7, fulfilled in 1967AD by the freeing of Jerusalem!
These prophecies fulfilled to the year. It is a statistical impossibility for the above seven prophecies to exactly fit Scripture and history to the year, as they do, unless those are the correct interpretations. Looking back at the rest of the Bible through the prophetic microscope the Great Detective has given us, we now know that Gentile control of the Holy Land is over. We can also identify the Two Witnesses so we now know God has never forgotten the Jews. We further know that the Abomination of Desolation is not an anti-Christ in our future, but a building that’s been on Mount Moriah for over 1300 years. And because of those fulfilled prophecies , it appears that most of Revelation is not about events still in our future, but about things that have taken place in our era. These fulfilments of prophecy are real. Prophecies thought to be about a future Seven-Year Tribulation were actually about something else entirely.
Since it is evident that this “time, times and half a time” was fulfilled in
1948AD, regardless of who we wish to claim as the “Little Horn” of Dan 7, that
person would have to be placed before 1948. Looking at history, it appears that
Adolph Hitler and the German Third Reich accurately fulfill this 4th beast.
Best regards,
Tom