Here's another clue for the Ezra 6:14 Challenge.
What is with the first 7 Weeks anyway? What is the purpose behind carving out that period of 7 Weeks of years? 7 x 7. 49 years.
Every interpretation put forward must explain the reason for this period. Very few do. I have yet to see a Scriptural reason given for this period. Except for the correct interpretation, of course.
The only reason that I've seen given when someone is honest enough to tackle this inconvenient sticking point, is it took 49 years in order for Jerusalem to be restored. Really? Really! That's the best they can come up with?
So hypothetically 457 BC - 49 years = 408 BC
or hypothetically 444 BC - 49 years = 395 BC
or hypothetically 445 BC - 49 * 360 day years = 397 BC
Will someone ever make the case of where there is evidence that Jerusalem was completely rebuilt by any one of these choices: 408 BC, 395 BC or 397 BC? It's actually really shocking that some expert Biblical scholars propose this theory with a straight face (ahem, Tommy Ice) and quickly move past this hoping that no one will notice. But some of us DO notice these things.
Jerusalem faced multiple periods of destruction; it was truly a time of hardship. This period included the conquest by Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabean revolt. Josephus chronicled this period. Here are some passages relating how Jerusalem fared during this period with emphasis added.
“And when he [Antiochus] had pillaged the whole
city[Jerusalem], some of the inhabitants he slew, and
some he carried captive, together with their wives and
children, so that the multitude of those captives that
were taken alive amounted to about ten thousand. He
also burnt down the finest buildings; and when he had
overthrown the city walls, he built a citadel in the lower
part of the city, for the place was high and overlooked
the temple, on which account he fortified it with high
walls, and towers, and put into it a garrison of Macedonians.”
[Josephus] Antiquities XII, 5, 4
There were threats of annihilation against the people.
“When King Antiochus heard of these things, he was
very angry at what had happened: ...and that he should
conquer Judea, and take its inhabitants for slaves, and
utterly destroy Jerusalem, and abolish the whole nation.”
[Josephus] Antiquities XII, 7, 2
“Judas also rebuilt the walls round about the city; and
reared towers of great height against the incursions of
enemies, and set guards therein.”
[Josephus] Antiquities XII, 7, 7
“...they went out of the temple. But when Antiochus
came into it, and saw how strong the place was, he
broke his oaths, and ordered his army that was there to
pluck down the walls to the ground; and when he had so
done, he returned to Antioch.”
[Josephus] Antiquities XII, 9, 7
“I [Alexander, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes] also
give you leave to repair and rebuild your temple, and
that all be done at my expences. I also allow you to
build the walls of your city, and to erect high towers,
and that they be erected at my charge. And if there be
any fortified town that would be convenient for the
Jewish country to have very strong, let it be so built at
my expences.”
[Josephus] Antiquities XIII, 2, 3
“When Simon and Jonathan had finished these affairs,
they returned to Jerusalem, where Jonathan gathered
all the people together, and took counsel to restore the
walls of Jerusalem, and to rebuild the wall that encompassed
the temple, which had been thrown down, and to
make the places adjoining stronger by very high towers;
and besides that, to build another wall in the midst of
the city, in order to exclude the market-place from the
garrison which was in the citadel, and by that means to
hinder them from any plenty of provisions; and moreover,
to make the fortresses that were in the country
much stronger, and more defensible, than they were before.”
[Josephus] Antiquities XIII, 5,11
“Some time after this, when Alexander, the son of Aristobulus,
made an incursion into Judea, Gabinius came
from Rome into Syria, as commander of the Roman
forces. He did many considerable actions: and particularly
made war with Alexander, since Hyrcanus was
not yet able to oppose his power, but was already attempting
to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, which Pompey
had overthrown although the Romans, which were
there, restrained him from that his design.”
[Josephus] Antiquities XIV, 5, 2
“And now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign,
and after the acts already mentioned, undertook a very
great work, that is, to build of himself the temple of God,
and make it larger in compass, and to raise it to a most
magnificent altitude, as esteeming it to be the most glorious
of all his actions, as it really was, to bring it to perfection.”
[Josephus] Antiquities XV, 11, 1
Jerusalem, the walls and the temple faced multiple times of destruction and rebuilding over the centuries. Yes, "in times of distress". This claim that 7 Weeks of years was how long the construction took is just not accurate to history. Is there some other alternate explanation? At this point, any interpretation that combines the 7 Weeks with the 62 Weeks can not be defended.
This is all part of the Ezra 6:14 Challenge.
