Crucifixion week

FINDING DANIEL'S PROPHESIED FULFILLMENT OF THE MEDO-PERSIAN
DECREE TO RESTORE JERUSALEM MARKING THE DATE TO BEGIN
THE COUNTDOWN TO JESUS CHRIST'S LAST PASSOVER & RESURRECTION!
Compiled by John Henry
April 11, 2017​

(The dates in green on the Chart of the Crucifixion Week at the bottom can be verified at links in the NOTES at the bottom of this article)

The Bible scholar and Biblical chronologist, Floyd Nolen Jones has come to the same conclusion as the 16th Century Bible chronologist, James Ussher. Jones indicates the following in his Chronology:

There were 4 decrees issued by 3 Medo-Persian kings for the Jews to return to Jerusalem to restore the City and Temple after the 70 year captivity in Babylon. One of the 4 was the starting point for the first 69 weeks of years (69 x 7 = 483 years) of Daniel's Prophecy of 70 Weeks that ran out at the Triumphant entry of the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem on March 31, 30 AD fulfilling Zachariah 9:9. It was the day the Passover lambs were selected in accordance with Exodus 12:3-6. Messiah was "cut off" during a miraculous 3 hour period of darkness on the day of Passover on Thursday, the 14th of Nisan.

1. The decree to rebuild the Temple in the first year of Cyrus, BC 536 (2 Chron. 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-6, 5:13-17).
2. The decree to complete the Temple in the second year of Darius I, Hystaspis, BC 519 (Ezra 4:24, 6:1-12).
3. The decree to beautify the Temple in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, BC 467 (Ezra 7:7-28).
4. The decree to build the city of Jerusalem and its wall in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, BC 454 (Nehemiah 2:1-8, 13, 17).

Only the last fits Daniel 9; it is the correct decree. Artaxerxes' decree to Nehemiah (Chap. 2) is the only one of the 4 that fits Daniel's Prophecy of Seventy Weeks (Dan. 9). It is the only decree that specifies "the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem." The decree to build the wall was issued in the 20th year on Artaxerxes which was the Biblical month of Nisan 454 BC.

Daniel 9:24-26: "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."

Jones continues in his book, Chronology of the Old Testament: A Return to the Basics, saying:

"One of these [four commands] must be identified as being the specific decree which included 'the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem ... the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.' As may be seen and verified, the first three have only to do with the Temple proper; nothing was said concerning the rebuilding of the city, the street in the plaza area and its walls. Indeed, the reconstruction of the Temple was stopped because the Jews were rebuilding the city without authorization (Ezra 4:1-4). Thus, the conditions of Daniel 9:25 were not met in any of the first three decrees." (Floyd Nolen Jones; Chronology of the Old Testament: A Return to the Basics, 2002; p. 218)

"James Ussher (1581-1656), learned Archbishop of Armagh, the highest position in the Irish Anglican Church; scholar and historian of the first rank. Entering Trinity College at 13, he prepared a detailed work on Hebrew chronology in Latin at 15 and received a Master's degree when 18. At 19 he engaged in controversy [with] the Jesuit scholar Henry Fitzsimons. Overthrowing him, none could thereafter match him in debate. An expert in Semitic languages and history, at 20 he was ordained. At 26, he earned a doctorate and became Professor of Divinity at Dublin. ... Oliver Cromwell greatly esteemed Ussher and awarded him a magnificent state funeral in Westminster Abbey. His epitaph reads: Among scholars he was the most saintly, among saints the most scholarly." (Jones, p. iii)

"Ussher prepared a chronology of Biblical events based on his study of the Holy Scriptures, deriving 4004 BC as the year of the creation of the universe. His dates were almost universally accepted until the mid-nineteenth century when the satanic three pronged attack against the Word of God in the areas of evolution, textual criticism and Bible chronology was launched. This assault has resulted in clouding the minds of the human race against the veracity and accuracy of the Holy Writ and, subsequently, to God's claims on the lives of all mankind. (Jones, p. iii)

"Ussher had set aside Ptolemy's 465 BC date for the commencement of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus in favor of BC 473. This latter year was based on much older historic data which Ussher considered more reliable than that of the Canon. It places the twentieth year of Artaxerxes at BC 454 and brings the 483 years [of Daniel 9:25: 69 x 7 = 483 years] to an auspicious 30 AD fulfillment." (Jones, p. 241)

"[Ptolemy] was an astronomer, astrologer and geographer. [He} recorded astronomical observations at Alexandria from AD 127 to 151, compiling the results into a system in which he placed the earth at rest at the center of the universe. He envisioned the planets and other heavenly bodies as encircling the earth in fixed orbits on a daily rotation about a celestial axis." (Jones, p. 243)

[A]s far back as the days of Julius Africanus (c.200-245 AD), it has been widely accepted by historians, chronologers and Biblical commentators (i.e., Africanus, Petavius, Ussher ... and most present day students of Daniel's prophecy) that only the decree issued in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes I granted permission for the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, along with its plaza street and walls, and thus fulfilled the conditions of the prophecy. With regard to this, Africanus wrote: "And the beginning of the numbers, that is, of the seventy weeks which make 490 years, the angel instructs us to take from the going forth of the commandment to answer and to build Jerusalem. And this happened in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia." [Jones quoting: Julius Africanus, Chronographies, Anti-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI, Roberts and Donaldson, eds., (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1885), chapter xvi., para. 3.]. The present author's [Floyd Nolen Jones'] study has led him to the same conclusion, thus establishing the date of the twentieth year of Artaxerxes becomes paramount." (Jones, p. 219)

"[If] we take BC 473 as the year in which Xerxes installed Artaxerxes I Longimanus beside him on the throne ..., the Jews would quite naturally begin to reference the dates associated with him from that year as that would have been the point from which they began to have dealings with him as their sovereign. Numbering from that date would place his twentieth year over the Jews as BC 454 (or AM 3550 inclusive, exactly as Ussher) 484 and the 483 years of the Daniel 9:25 prophecy brings us to 30 AD for its fulfillment (454 BC + 30 AD = 484 less 1 for going from BC to AD = 483). ... Jesus came into the city to be declared Prince (or King) on the 10th day of Nisan in the year 30 AD. On the 14th of Nisan He was crucified. On the 17th of Nisan He resurrected. Daniel had prophesied the beginning and the end of a 483 year period of time at least 80 years before it started!!" (Jones, pp. 251, 267).

Daniel's prophecy of 70 weeks ran out during Nisan of 30 AD. It was the 1st day of the week on the 10th of Nisan (March 31, 30 AD). This was the day that the Passover lambs were being selected (Exodus 12:1-3), and the day Jesus, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) rode into Jerusalem "... riding upon an ass ..." (Zach. 9:9)

Zachariah 9:9: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." (cf. Luke 19:28-44; Mark 11:7-10; John 12:12-34; Matt. 21:5)

Daniel 9:25-26: "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself ..."

The Lord Jesus Christ was "cut off" or crucified for our sins during the day of Passover; this was after having eaten the Passover the prior evening at the specified time (Exodus 12:5-6), and then instituting the Lord's Supper for the church (Matt. 26:26-29), all just after sun down the evening before the Lord gave His life for us on the cross (John 19:28-30; Matt 27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46). Jesus was our Passover Lamb, the fulfillment of the first of the 7 Feasts of Israel, and He likewise fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which symbolized the burial of His sinless body, and the Feast of Firstfruits, which pictured the Lord's victorious resurrection from the dead (cf. Lev. 23; John 1:29, 36; Mark 8:15; 1 Pet. 3:22-24; 1 Cor. 5:6-7, 15:20-23).

PICS & NOTES BELOW​

 

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NOTES & LINKS:

Thursday, April 6, 30 AD on the Julian Calender was the night of the full moon which marks Passover (see U.S. Naval Observatory website below).

This Julian date converts to our Gregorian Calender as April 4, 30 AD as seen in the above Resurrection Week Chart (see Calendar Home below).

1. Astronomical Applications Department, U.S. Naval Observatory website:
Spring Phenomena

2. Calendar Home dot com:
Convert a date

3. Chronology of the Old Testament: A Return to the Basics, 2002 by Floyd Nolen Jones available free at:
Writings of Floyd Nolen Jones or
Answers in Genesis

 

I suspect that those who teach that Jesus was crucified on Friday far outnumber those who think otherwise. Yet in the Baptist circles in which I move, most everyone believes that a Friday crucifixion is contradictory to the prophecy of 3 days and 3 nights.