The Decrees of Artaxerxes I and the Seventy-Weeks Prophecy–Part Two
Can the beginning date for the seventy-weeks prophecy be determined from the historical narrative presented in Scripture? Can the seventy-weeks prophecy be explained by a day-for-a-year principle based on a supposed decree issued by Artaxerxes I? With the fall of Babylon came the end of seventy years of Babylonian domination, and with Babylon’s demise came the beginning of the Achaemenid era as the Persian Empire continued to expand throughout Central Asia, the Middle East, and into Asia Minor. Notably then this transition of empires was witnessed by the prophet Daniel who was able to conclude—by reason of the “books”—that some years remained until seventy years of desolation would be accomplished upon the city of Jerusalem. And so Daniel was moved to pray about the sanctuary at Jerusalem, and while Daniel was praying the angel Gabriel informed him that a coming period of trouble—lasting for “seventy weeks”—was “determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city” (Dan. 9:24, Webster). However, this didn’t mean that Jerusalem was expected to have only seventy weeks of troubles throughout its history as the capital city of the former Commonwealth of Israel. But in the context of a “people” and a related “prince” who “will destroy the city and the sanctuary,” it was made known to Daniel that a specific period of time was set aside to accomplish certain things leading up to and including the return of Jesus (Dan. 9:26, LEB). Which brings us then to reexamine what the angel Gabriel said to Daniel. Now after Babylon was overthrown by the Medo-Persian Empire, Daniel was moved to pray about the national circumstances of his people and all of the tribes of Israel and the situation of the sanctuary at Jerusalem. And while Daniel was speaking in prayer: “even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision” (Dan. 9:21-23). [Author’s emphasis throughout.] Which brings us to ask this. What “vision” was the angel Gabriel referring to when he spoke to Daniel? Interestingly, Daniel had seen the angel Gabriel in a vision at an earlier time, in the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, and in that particular vision Daniel saw a confrontation between a ram and a he-goat, and in regard to this vision Daniel was told that: “The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king” (Dan. 8:20-21). And so from an historical perspective, the vision that Daniel received in the third year of Belshazzar’s reign was—at that time—symbolically depicting a future conflict between the then rising Persian Empire and a yet to rise Greco-Macedonian Empire. Giving us something to consider in regard to the visions and prophecies that were seen by Daniel during the reign of King Belshazzar of Babylon. For we find in Babylonian history that King Nabonidus of Babylon had entrusted the governance of the kingdom to his son Belshazzar in the third year of his reign. Being understood as the same year Daniel was given the vision of four great beasts that rose from the churning sea, which was also the year that marked the beginning of Cyrus’ struggle to overthrow the power of the Medes. And indeed the Medes were overthrown about three years later with the defeat of Astyages in the sixth year of Nabonidus’ reign, when Cyrus assumed the Median throne at Ecbatana in c. 550 BCE. Thus, Cyrus’ conquest of the Medes, and the acquisition of Ecbatana’s wealth, assured the continuing rise of the Persian Empire, even though the collapse of the Babylonian Empire was still more than a decade away, which may well explain why Daniel—in the third year of Belshazzar’s reign—was “astonished at the vision” of the ram and he-goat, and why “none understood it” (Dan. 8:27, RV). Implying then that the interpretation of the vision was without a context or explanation in the third year of Belshazzar’s reign, which meant that the “skill and understanding” was not yet given to the prophet Daniel. Which brings us to the third year of Cyrus the Great (c. 536/535 BCE). For in that year, in the first month of Cyrus’ third regnal year, Daniel was given a vision while he stood by the great river Hiddekel (Tigris), and in this vision he received a prophecy that confirmed the throne of the Persian kings until the beginning of those events that would usher in the Hellenistic Age. And in the context of this particular prophecy—regarding the kings of the north and south—we find a similar context in the prophecy associated with the vision of the ram and he-goat that was given to Daniel in the third year of King Belshazzar (Dan. 8:1-8; 10:1; 11:1-4). (LXX reads “Cyrus” instead of “Darius” in Daniel 11:1.) Notably then the prophecy associated with the vision of the ram and he-goat—summarized as the “vision of the evening and morning”—has a parallel in the prophecy concerning the kings of the “north,” and kings of the “south,” which typologically represent two globally-impacting and divergent political spheres that will eventually engulf the Middle East and the city of Jerusalem. And we can confirm this prophetic parallel by comparing the language of these two prophecies, which project a typology forward to the “time of the end” when “transgressors are come to the full,” and a ruler of “fierce countenance” who understands “dark sentences” comes to power, who has with him the “abomination that maketh desolate,” and he will continue until the “transgression of desolation” and the “indignation”