13.
“Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks” (Daniel viii, 25).
It is claimed that “week” here means a period of seven years, and assumed, of course, that by Messiah is meant Christ. Seven weeks and three score and two weeks are sixty-nine weeks, or 483 years, the time that was to elapse from the command to rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of Christ, if the prophecy was fulfilled.
The decree of Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple was made 536 B.C. According to the accepted chronology, Christ was born 4 B.C. From the decree of Cyrus, then, to the coming of Christ was 532 years instead of 483, a period of seven weeks, or forty-nine years, longer than that named by Daniel.
Ezra, the priest, went to Jerusalem 457 B.C. This event, however, had nothing whatever to do with the decree for rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple. It occurred 79 years after the decree was issued, and 58 years after the temple was finished. But a searcher for Messianic prophecies found that from the time of Ezra to the beginning of Christ’s ministry was about 483 years, or 69 prophetic weeks; and notwithstanding there was a deficiency of 79 years at one end of the period, and an excess of 30 years at the other, it was declared to fit exactly.