DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF THE MESSIAH
Part II (Daniel 9)
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Determining the Year to Begin the First Advent
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Continuing as referenced in the previous Blog #34, Daniel 9, verses 20 through 27 presents his prophecy of the Messiah, giving the year he was to begin his ministry and the year he was to be “cut off,” or crucified.
In the fourth century, Augustine* noted in his The City of God:
Daniel [9:24-27] even defined the time when Christ was to come [A.D. 27] and suffer [A.D. 31] by the exact date. It would take too long to show this computation, and it has been done often by others before us. (490)
… and as in this book with twenty pages of discourse on this subject.
Montgomery*: … It is true that the actual Christian calculations are not found in the New Testament, but at least three non-mathematical indications are found in the Gospels:
Jesus began his ministry with these words: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). What “time is fulfilled”? The only Old Testament prophecy indicating the date of the Messiah’s arrival is Daniel 9:27.
According to Daniel 9, it is Gabriel himself (verses 21-23) who gives Daniel the understanding of the “seventy-weeks” prophecy pointing to “the Messiah the Prince” and his arrival (verses 24-27). Then Gabriel appears in the New Testament, first to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist (Luke 1:18-20), and second to the virgin Mary (Luke 1:26-38), about thirty years before the very year that Gabriel had given to Daniel for the Messiah’s arrival.
*Augustine. The Confessions; The City of God; On Christian Doctrine. Trans. Edward B. Pusey [1800-1882]. Chicago: William Benton, 1952. [See The City of God, book XVIII, chap. 34.]
*Montgomery, James A. The Book of Daniel: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary. Skokie, IL: Varda Books, 2016. [reprinted from the edition published in Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark, 1927]