So, what was the point of the 2300 prophecy as you see its interpretation of 6 1/3 years ? I ask because Daniel 8:26 tells us the vision of the evenings and mornings pertains to the distant future. Not the future which is discernible (70 weeks) of which a detailed breakdown was given.....its import being the Messiah, his centrality and Israel's relationship to him.
Incidentally, the three wise men who visited at Jesus birth where able to calculate time of his birth from the 70 weeks prophecy. I would say that's pretty precise. It was a long trip for them, not one undertaken on mere guesswork.
Regarding the 70 weeks again. Daniel was asking about his people and it is clear from the text that Daniel could see the Babylonian captivity was coming to an end from reading Jeremiah and wants to know what now. The angel tells him 70 weeks are determined for your people. In other words, you's guys have just about tried Gods patience as a chosen nation to the limit and this (70 weeks) is it...no more Mr nice guy! so to speak.
Do you understand what I'm saying here?
Remember Daniel is still in Babylon when he gets this vision. They haven't even been captured by the Medes and Persians yet, let alone Greece. So for him it was far in the future, outside his lifetime.
This is only on the 2300 day (evening and morning) prophecy.
First Phoneman has pointed out some times in the Old Testament where a day is to be interpreted as a year. That's fine. But they you'all want to go ahead and do that to the 2300 mornings and evenings. They are merely 24 hour days.
Genesis 1:
5...So the
evening and the morning were the first day.
8...So the
evening and the morning were the second day.
13.. So the
evening and the morning were the third day.
etc.
Daniel 8:
14 He said to me, “For 2,300
evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be properly restored.”
There is a difference in the prophetic significance in the writing of the words "70 weeks," and the "2300 evenings and mornings." They don't both refer to day/year. You are correct on the 490 years of
Daniel 9. But the adding of the "evenings and mornings" signifies those are actual days, not prophetic years.
The 2300 days are actually 6.39 years, a time during his 11 year reign that Antiochus Epiphanes IV, the little horn of
Daniel 8, ruled and desecrated the temple. It was Maccabees that cleansed the temple.
Daniel 8:
In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar (last king of Babylon) a vision appeared
to me—to me, Daniel—after the one that appeared to me the first time. 2 I saw in the vision, and it so happened while I was looking, that I
was in Shushan, the citadel, which
is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision that I was by the River Ulai. 3 Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and there, standing beside the river, was a
ram which had two horns, (Medo-Persia) and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other (Persia), and the higher one came up last. 4 I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so that no animal could withstand him; nor
was there any that could deliver from his hand, but he did according to his will and became great.
5 And as I was considering, suddenly
a male goat (Greece) came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground; and the goat
had a
notable horn between his eyes.
(Alexander the Great of Greece) 6 Then he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power. 7 And I saw him confronting the ram; he was moved with rage against him,
attacked the ram, and broke his two horns. There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him; and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand. (the end of Medo-Persia).
8 Therefore the male goat grew very great; but when he became strong,
the large horn was broken (the death of Alexander the Great), and in place of it
four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven (the four generals of Alexander the Great divided the land between the four of them). 9 And
out of one of the four came a
little horn (Antiochus Ephiphanes IV) which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the
Glorious Land. (Jerusalem)10 And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it
cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them.
(they slaughtered many Jews) 11
He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. (Antiochus Epiphanes IV slaughtered a pig on the altar and made the Jews watch)12 Because of transgression, an army was given over
to the horn to oppose the daily
sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground. He did
all this and prospered.
(Read Maccabees if you can stomach it for the history of this madman.)
13 Then I heard a holy one speaking; and
another holy one said to that certain
one who was speaking,
“How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?” (Antiochus Ephiphes IV rule over Jerusalem was from 175 BC to 164 BC; but the Jewish revolt started in 167 BC to 160 BC when they ceremoniously cleansed the second temple, called Herod's Temple which was where Jesus went. The Temple itself was from 516 BC to 70 AD.
14 And he said to me, “For
two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”
(6 1/3 years - 2300 days - from 167 to 160 BC)
From Daniel's point of view it would be far away but would still be fulfilled
before the 70 weeks prophecy by close to two hundred years, but what was coming to an end was the First Covenant they were in.
The 2300 days are actually 6.39 years, a time during his 11 year reign that Antiochus Epiphanes IV, the little horn of
Daniel 8, ruled and desecrated the temple. It was Maccabees that cleansed the temple.