I recently commented on Bill Heroman’s blog New Testament/History. It was a rather lengthy comment, so I decided to place it here as well, because it adds information to a short series of blogs I did earlier involving Stephen’s death and the first few chapters of Acts. Below is my comment. Changes to the comment for clarity sake appear in brackets.
"In my opinion studying God’s word, is a lot like studying his works (creation). We know we are onto something when things in different areas begin to fall into place, and this just encourages more and more investigation—but all things must agree, nothing can contradict, if it is true.
"For example, most, in not all, Christians agree that Daniel’s 70 Weeks Prophecy points to Jesus. Interpreting prophecy that refers to future events is guess-work. However, if prophecy is fulfilled, one ought to be able to use some kind of tangible evidence to show it is fulfilled. In essence Daniel had only one prophecy—everything he was given magnified his first prophecy in some way. In Daniel 12 we are given a breakdown of the last week of the 70 Weeks Prophecy (Daniel 9). We have 1260 days (when we compare his “times, time and half a time” with Revelation 12), 1290 days and 1335 days. These days, if the prophecy is fulfilled, ought to [point to God-events and] fit into the calendar—the Jewish calendar—really well, like a glove. And, they do if one uses the Jewish Holy Days as a kind of map for their beginning and ending days.
"There are exactly 1260 days between the Last Great Day of the Feast of Tabernacles and the Passover (3 ½ years later). If we can assume the Sabbaths in Luke 4, 5 & 6 are in the 7th month [at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry]and include the Holy Days during that month, Jesus is asked for a sign on the Last Great Day and Jesus’ only sign offered points to his death on the Passover.
"There are exactly 1335 days between the Feast of Trumpets, which we can assume to be the time Jesus says in Nazareth “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me…,” and the Feast of Pentecost when the Spirit of the Lord fell upon the Apostles and the other disciples a little more than 3 ½ years later.
"The 1290 days is a little trickier and refers to the time of the Wave-Sheaf Offering (on Resurrection Sunday) and from there to 3 ½ years later which falls on the Day of Atonement, upon which day I believe Stephen was stoned. This day is also connected to the time when the Abomination of Desolation is set up. Both configurations end on the same day.
"This also fits in very well with the two seasons of safety allotted to the disciples in Revelation 12, first the 1260 days and the “times, time and half a time” (defined in Daniel as 1290 days). Also, in the Gospels the Lord speaks of seeing Satan fall from the heavens, if we can assume that this occurs only once, then Revelation 12 must occur during Christ’s ministry, and Michael is Jesus. I am not implying Jesus is an angelic being, but I am saying that the Angel of the Lord (also called YHWH and God) is both Michael and Jesus.
"Sorry of the long response but I could not have shortened this any further and still convey how important the chronology of the first few chapters of Acts is. If there are not 1290 days between the time Jesus resurrected and Stephen’s death, then my understanding of not only the chronology of Acts is down the drain, but so too is my understanding of Daniel and Revelation and how they fit into Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel accounts, showing he is the long awaited Messiah.
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