What Do the Prophets Say? ii
Revelation, Chapter 12
At the turn of the millennium, something remarkable happened: nations of all peoples and races came together to celebrate the dawn of the third millennium. For one day, the passage of time managed to unite all people on Earth. It became a day of peace and reconciliation. Via satellite, everyone could follow each other’s transition into the new millennium, 2,000 years after the year zero.
However, no great attention was paid to the originator of this calendar. Nor was any great interest shown in Jesus of Nazareth, in whose name this calendar actually originated. He who, in the Book of Revelation, claims to be the beginning and the end of time— A&O.
Astonishingly enough, this idea could be the key to a deeper understanding of the Bible and a gateway to the upcoming and difficult-to-interpret chapters of the Book of Revelation. The year zero as a fixed point, a starting point for “bringing order to biblical chronology.” In other words, this zero point in time would have been predetermined and prophesied by the prophets. A challenging and provocative idea, but—as will be shown here—a possible path to follow for those who wish to delve deeper into Christian theology and mysticism. The reading of the Book of Revelation begins here in chapter twelve, to which the reader is first directed! In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says that in the last days there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars—which is precisely what this chapter seems to be about.
“…And a great sign appeared in the sky…”
The powerful vision that John receives in chapter 12 concerns the eternal struggle between good and evil. These are fragments and images from a seemingly timeless perspective. Nevertheless, connections can be drawn to both Jewish and Christian “reality.” Many of the images in the prophecy point to Christ, but they also contain a parallel narrative. Like a puzzle and a mirror image, Israel also stands at the center.
The woman was clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet. Her dignity is of cosmic proportions. She is one with time and eternity, with cosmic evolution. When she is made “flesh and blood,” she becomes the Virgin Mary, daughter of Israel, but also the Mother of God, the Mother of Jesus, and the Mother of all peoples. Chosen from the beginning of time, she wears a crown of twelve stars, often interpreted as the twelve apostles of Jesus or the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob. These twelve sons laid the foundation for the nation of Israel, the twelve tribes. From their ranks emerged the generations that became the people whom the Egyptian pharaoh was forced to “let go.” God compelled him to finally allow his enslaved people to leave the land of Egypt and return to their homeland. In this reading, the woman in John’s vision becomes the foremother of Israel, and as a consequence, also the Mother of Jesus.
She wears a wreath of twelve stars, but is also clothed in the sun and the moon. There is a biblical story (Genesis 37:9) about a dream in which the sun and the moon, as well as twelve stars, are the central themes. The dream is interpreted to mean that the sun and the moon represent the father and mother—that is, the patriarch Jacob and his wife. The twelve stars are his twelve sons. The son Joseph is the one who dreams, and before whom all the others will be compelled to bow, according to his own interpretation of the dream. This Joseph, in many ways a foreshadowing of Jesus, later went to Egypt under dramatic circumstances recounted in the Bible. There he is eventually elevated to become Pharaoh’s right-hand man. At God’s command, he then summoned his brothers and parents, offering them both sustenance and a place to settle in Egypt. An initial period of security and prosperity under Joseph’s protection followed. One of Joseph’s own sons, Ephraim, eventually became the progenitor of the future nation of Israel.
400 years later, the Israelites were allowed to leave Egypt and return to where they had come from, now as a new nation. God called to them and compelled the Egyptian pharaoh to let them go out into the wilderness (Exodus 12). God had Moses tell Pharaoh that Israel was God’s firstborn son and must be set free. Another Joseph—Jesus’ father—would much later make the same journey from mighty Egypt after an angel spoke to him. The angel told him that King Herod and those who sought to kill Jesus were now themselves dead. Joseph and his family had, after all, been forced to flee because King Herod the Great sought to kill the infant son that he and Mary had been given. Like Israel, the infant Jesus is finally allowed to return to freedom and to the land that was theirs. A symbolic return from Egypt, a confirmation of the kinship and historical continuity that binds God’s Son, Jesus, to Israel and its history.
According to exegetes, the text’s allusions to the desert, to the great eagle’s two wings, and to the water in verses 14–17 are linked specifically to the time of the desert journey and to its beginning, when the Israelites crossed the sea on dry ground, pursued by Pharaoh’s armies. For Pharaoh had changed his mind. He wanted his slave people back. He wanted to “devour the child who was about to be born” in the desert. The great Dragon, Satan, thus intended to “devour the child that the woman was about to give birth to,” according to John’s text.
Later, in a new guise—now as King Herod—the Dragon tried to kill the infant boys of Bethlehem to prevent Jesus from becoming the King whose coming had been foretold. This was the specific reason why Joseph and Mary had to flee to Egypt. They had to wait until Herod had died and the Lord, under His protection, called them back through the desert. Christ became the leader of a new people, a “new Israel,” just as Moses was chosen to lead the old Israel.
When Moses was born, the newborns were also killed at the same time. Pharaoh had ordered that the newborns of the Israelites be thrown into the Nile. He greatly feared this growing population in Egypt. Already here, the “Dragon” appears in the guise of Pharaoh to “devour” the child who had been born. Moses survived and would later ride into Egypt on a donkey with his family to lead his people to freedom. An angel urged Moses to leave the land of Midian, where he had been hiding from those who sought to kill him. Now he was to liberate his people. When Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem, he does so as the liberator of all peoples in a “new Israel,” in a “new” era.
The death of the Lamb, Christ, is proclaimed in chapter 12 as a great victory. God hardened the hearts of the people, Pilate, and Herod Antipas (Acts 4) when they refused to release Jesus. God’s will was to be done. Perhaps this is a parallel to God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart when he refused to set the Israelites free.
But when did the Exodus from Egypt take place? The traditional date is usually given as around 1440 B.C. This is based on the Bible’s own account that construction of Solomon’s Temple began in the fourth year of his reign, 480 years after the Exodus. According to the lists of kings in the Bible 2,000, this brings us to the year 1440 B.C. It is often pointed out, however, that this number should be interpreted symbolically or allegorically—understood as twelve times the 40 years of the wilderness wanderings, where twelve symbolizes, for example, the twelve tribes of Israel. Strangely enough, in relation to the year zero, this allows for a biblical interpretation featuring several deeply symbolic numbers.
For example, 1440 is equal to three times 480, or four times 360, ten times 144, or 40 times six times six. Many remarkable connections between biblical events and the symbolism of numbers can be discovered if one believes that the Bible’s chronology and numerical symbolism truly have something to tell us.
According to historical research, a more realistic date for the exodus is said to be around 1260 B.C. The so-called “classic 360 years” of the period of the Judges should be halved, according to both theologians and historians. This provides reason to study more closely the mythical expression “a time, times, and half a time,” which appears not only in chapter 12 but also in several other places in the Book of Daniel. If one compares verses 6 and 14, one sees that the expression can be interpreted as 360 + 360 × 2 + 360/2, which amounts to 1,260 days. In terms of years, this fits into Israel’s biblical history—360 years under leaders such as Moses, Saul, David, and other kings; 720 years of Israel’s dissolution and exile up to the year zero; and finally, 180 years of the period of the Judges.
In the Bible, the prophets’ “days” are often counted as years. The number 360 symbolized eternity and the concept of the heavenly “perfect” year, in which each month had 30 days. Today, Jews celebrate a religious/symbolic New Year in the spring and a civil one in the fall. In other words, two seasonal calendars. Only during the period of the Judges were dual New Years celebrated in the same manner, in accordance with God’s original instructions to Moses. In the spring, this occurs in connection with Passover. It was not until the 6th century B.C. that the celebration of Passover was revived in the Kingdom of Judah by the tribe of Judah, which God had left behind after the fall of Israel (the Northern Kingdom). If the year of the Exodus is calculated as 1260 B.C.—a period of “two times and a half a time” before the year zero—rather than 1440 B.C., the difference can be “explained” by the additional 180 years of the period of the Judges.
Herod Dies, and the Lord Calls
Herod, the Dragon, failed to kill the child. His wrath was then directed instead at the child’s mother. She who is connected to time, clothed in the sun and the moon. God grants her His protection until the zero point of the predetermined time, the beginning of our calendar.
The Son of God is “the Son who will rule all nations with a rod of iron” (verses 5–6). He grows up and fulfills his mission, and is then taken up to God and His throne.
The woman in the Book of Revelation is pregnant with Israel and then with Jesus, the child whom the Dragon wants to destroy. But his plans come to nothing. The 1,260 years from the exodus from Egypt can now be viewed side by side with the final 1,260 days—the 3.5 years that begin in the middle of the year 4 B.C., shortly after King Herod’s death. Then, according to the Gospel of Matthew, an angel calls to Joseph, Jesus’ father, and his family. They are then in a foreign land, in Egypt, fleeing from Herod. The angel urges them to return safely to Israel, since Herod has now died. Through the desert, they are led under God’s continued protection for 1,260 days until a new era, a new time with Him who is the beginning and the end— A&O.
The prophecies of the Bible were to be fulfilled, for “from Egypt he would call his son.” So it was said through the prophet (Matthew 2). This is also happening now—1,260 days, 3.5 years before the zero point of time. When read as 1,260 years, this also parallels the story beginning with Israel’s exodus from Egypt up to the year zero, when “the time had come, and God sent his Son” (Gal. 4:4).
Just as he called upon “his son” —the Israelites—when they were to flee from Pharaoh, so now he calls upon Jesus as his son. Moses was instructed to say to Pharaoh: “Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son, and I have told you to let my son go… (Exodus 4:22). In Jeremiah 31:10, the Lord says: “I am a father to Israel; Ephraim is my firstborn son.”
Jesus’ return to Israel from Egypt took place so that the prophecies and “the Word” might be fulfilled, according to Matthew 2:15. This, in turn, is a quotation from Hosea (11:1 and elsewhere in the text), which states that Israel’s punishment for its sins would be to return to the very Egypt from which God had once delivered them. It is Jesus who fulfills this judgment. Just as the Lord once called upon His firstborn son, Israel, He now calls upon His Son, Jesus, when the time has come. Everything is repeated. He now personifies Israel and their promise of a land of milk and honey, the land of Canaan—a land the Israelites never got to experience because of their sins.
The woman who is with child can thus be interpreted as a symbol of the birth of both Jesus and Israel. The 1,260 days complete the 1,260 years that God had determined would mark the duration of the Old Covenant, up to the zero point in time, until the fulfillment of the prophecies’ promises. A new covenant would now be established with the Gentiles, with the nations outside of Israel.
We can therefore turn our attention to Daniel’s book to see if this interpretation can be applied to the phrase “a time, two times, and half a time.” It appears there, for example, in chapter twelve.
Daniel and time, two times and a half a time
The prophets foretold Jesus, but did they foretell the year zero?
The interpretation of the twelfth chapter of Revelation stands on its own only if it can be viewed in the light of the Bible’s other texts and prophecies. After all, everything should fit together! Therefore, the phrase “a time, times, and half a time” must once again be examined.
Among the most wondrous texts in the Bible are the prophecies of Daniel and John. They have often been subject to attempts at interpretation by priests and seers. With their almost feverish undertones, these texts have inspired both fear and respect in people. But also hope! Persecuted and desperate Christians have turned to John, and especially to his vision of the New Jerusalem, which has brought people comfort and solace. For the Jewish people, Daniel has served the same function.
In the Book of Daniel, Chapter 12, verses 7–12, we read about Daniel, who has just been told by the Lord that his secrets are to be kept until the end times, “when knowledge will increase.” He then has a vision in which he sees a man asking thequestion… “How long will it be before the end comes…?” The following quote seems to refer to“the end” as the final days of the Jewish people and the Temple.
And I heard the man who was dressed in linen and standing above the waters of the river. And he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by the One who lives forever: “It will be for a time, two times, and half a time. When the power of the holy people is completely crushed, all this will be fulfilled....
In accordance with what John reveals in Revelation chapter 12 , the expression “a time, times, and half a time” should also be interpreted here as the 1,260 days/years that begin with the Exodus from Egypt and lead up to Herod’s death and the year zero. The power of the Jews—the power of the holy people—is broken by Jesus’s appearance around the year 30, that is, 1,290 years after the Exodus. Forty years later, the Temple is destroyed. That is the year 70. The final Jewish resistance against the Romans is then sealed by collective suicide. This takes place in the spring of 73/74 at the fortress of Masada. The entire kingdom of Judah is occupied…the power of the holy people is completely crushed.
…I listened, but I did not understand; so I said, “Lord, what will be the outcome of all this?” He replied, “Go, Daniel. These words are kept secret and sealed until the end of time.” Many will be purged, purified, and refined, while the sinners continue to sin, without understanding this—but those who are discerning will understand it. From the time the daily sacrifice is abolished and the desolating abomination is set up , there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits 1,335 days.
To even begin to understand the meaning of this classic prophecy, the reader must be clear on a couple of fundamental themes in the Old Testament. First, one must understand the meaning of the expression that “the daily sacrifice” would be abolished. For the Lord had grown weary of humanity’s offerings in the temple. Their hypocrisy and inability to follow God’s commandments could no longer be atoned for through meaningless rituals. The daily sacrifice that the Jewish priesthood performed in the temple as a collective atonement for people’s sins no longer served any purpose in the Lord’s eyes. Time and again, the Old Testament prophets warned the Jewish people, “the holy people,” as Daniel says above. Here is what another prophet, Isaiah, wrote in the 700s B.C.:
“What do I care about all your sacrifices?” says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened calves. I do not want the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean!
Stop doing evil and learn to do good. Seek justice, defend the oppressed. Speak up for the fatherless, and uphold the rights of the widow.” (Isaiah 1)
Jesus’ life and work would prove to lead to the path of true sacrifice—not through human deeds, but through faith in him and his sacrifice on the cross. There, a new foundation was laid for the forgiveness of sins. This is how his followers interpreted the words of the ancient prophets that the sacrifices would come to an end. For the Christians who were contemporaries of Jesus and professed their faith in him, it became clear that the “age of sacrifice” was now over. God no longer dwelt in the temple but in the hearts of people.
As for the Jews, it would be many more years before the words of the prophets were fulfilled. In the year 70, Jerusalem and the Holy Temple were destroyed by the Romans. It was an unimaginable catastrophe for Judaism. At that point, any possibility of offering sacrifices to God effectively ceased. Contemporary rabbis explained at the time that the destruction of the Temple had indeed been foretold by the prophets; it was God’s punishment and God’s signal for a new era, a new order. For Christians, this served as further confirmation that Jesus truly was who he claimed to be. For he, too, had foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Indeed, he had even said that he himself was the model for the Jewish Temple.
From the time the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits 1,335 days.
In most Bible translations, the last sentence is rendered slightly differently. Here is the translation from the Svenska Folkbibeln: “Blessed is the one who endures and reaches 1,335 days,” or , as in the 1917 translation: “Blessed is the one who endures and reaches 1,335 days.”
Around the year 30, Jesus appears and dies. 1,290 years have passed since the Exodus in the spring of 1260 B.C. The desecrating abomination here refers to the execution of Jesus, but also to the year 70, when the Temple was destroyed. When Jesus died, the Temple’s fate was also sealed; it no longer served any purpose. Seventy years after the year zero, seventy lunar cycles had also passed since the Exodus. The end times had arrived; a new era was dawning. Admittedly, part of the Jewish population continued to resist the Romans for a few more years before all defenses were broken and the Roman troops left the country. The last fighters surrendered around the years 73/74 at the famous fortress of Masada, which King Herod had once built. The 1,335th year after the exodus began in the spring of 74, when all resistance throughout Judea had been crushed.
When the Romans captured the fortress, the 960 inhabitants committed collective suicide. In modern times, Israeli officers have been required to take their oath of allegiance at Masada, as a reminder of resistance and bravery. From a historical perspective, it can be said that Masada marked the definitive end of Israel as an independent nation until 1948.
Another prophecy of Daniel can be interpreted as referring to Herod and the Year Zero, and thus also to the expression “a time, two times, and a half.” But before that, we must return to Hilma, the Year Zero, and the symbols of humanity. We will continue to assume that the traditional date for Israel’s exodus from Egypt, 1440 B.C., can be understood symbolically, though this need not rule out the more accurate historical date that John and Daniel may be pointing to here—1260 B.C.