The Book of Daniel: Unsealed . . . and Sealed Again

Recently, I received an email asking me if I would be interested in reviewing a new book on Daniel. The title of the book was intriguing: Daniel Unsealed: An explanation of the Chrono-Specific Prophecies in the Book of Daniel, Chapters 7-12 as Understood by Daniel (ISBN 13 978-0-9816912-0-6). So, I decided I would review the book in my blog.

I read the book and was very intrigued by the first chapter which, as it turned out, was the key to unlocking the prophecies of Daniel and understanding the remainder of the book. I wrote a post on Chapter 1. My post, “The Book of Daniel and the Restoration of the Sanctuary,” was published on June 7, the same day the people of Israel in 1967 celebrated the transfer of the Temple Mount to Israeli control.

Before I review the book, let me emphasize two things that I did not like in this book. First, the book is anonymous. Nowhere in the book is the name of the author mentioned. Here is an author who desires to reveal the secrets of the book of Daniel and yet chooses to keep his name secret. The decision to omit the name of the author will diminish the influence of the book.

Second, the book does not include a place of publication. It is evident that the book was self-published. The book was published by The Prophecy Society, but the book does not reveal where the society is located. To libraries and people who are interested in the complete bibliographical information of the book, the lack of a place of publication is disappointing. This also diminishes the value of the book. I hope these deficiencies will be corrected in future editions of the book.

Notwithstanding these two deficiencies, one typo, a heavy reliance on the King James Version, and a presence of Strongnosticism, Daniel Unsealed is a remarkable book. The book is remarkable because the author has developed a system that explains all the chrono-specific prophecies in the book of Daniel.

As I mentioned in my first post on the book, the author believes that the key to unlocking the secrets of Daniel is the proper understanding of the prophecy in Daniel 8:1-27, especially the prophecy in Daniel 8:13-14.

According to the author, the expression “two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings” in 8:14 should not be understood as 2300 days nor as 1150 evenings and mornings. Rather, the “evening-morning” of Daniel 8:14 should be identified with the Passover, an “evening-morning” event (Exodus 12: 6-10, 14).

Thus, counting 2300 Passover celebrations after the Battle of Granicus in 334 B.C. mentioned in Daniel 8:6, the 2300th Passover culminates with the transfer of the Temple Mount to Israeli control in 1967, what Daniel called “the restoration of the sanctuary to its rightful state” (Daniel 8:14).

Next, the author tackles the 1290 days of Daniel 12:11 and the 1335 days of Daniel 12:12. According to the author, there are three keys that unlock the meaning of these two dates. The first key is to discover the starting point for counting these days. Since the capture of the Temple Mount in 1967 marks the end of Daniel’s prophecy, the author concludes that the starting point for counting these days is 1967 and that the days should be counted in reverse to reveal the meaning of the prophecy.

The second key is the meaning of the word “day.” Since the expression “evening-morning” in 8:14 was a reference to the Passover, the author believes that the meaning of the word “day” in Daniel 12:11-12 is a reference to the Day of Atonement. The third key is how to count the days mentioned in verses 11 and 12. His conclusion is that there are not two separate time periods but one day period of 1290 days and an extension of 45 days.

Thus, counting 45 Days of Atonement from 1967, the 45th Day of Atonement comes to 1922, the year the League of Nations ratified the Palestine Mandate, an act that established a national home for Israel. Then counting 1290 Days of Atonement from 1922, the 1290th Day of Atonement comes to 632 A.D., the year Mohammed died.

Next, the author deals with the expression “a time, two times, and half a time” in Daniel 12:7. According to the author, the expression refers to the gap between the time Antiochus IV desecrated the temple in 167 B.C. and the death of Mohammed in 632 A.D., a period of 798 years. Thus, “a time” is 228 years. This number is crucial for the interpretation of Chapter 7.

Chapter 7:25 speaks of “a time, two times, and half a time.” This period begins in 161 B.C. and ends in 637 A.D. The first date, 161 B.C., was the year of the Battle of Nicanor when the Maccabeans scored a victory against the Seleucids. The second date, 637 A.D., was the year when the last Passover occurred before Caliph Omar captured the Temple Mount.

The reference to “a season and a time” in Daniel 7:12 begins with the first Passover celebrated in the rededicated Temple in 162 B.C. and ends in 66 A.D., the start of the Jewish-Roman war and the events that led to the destruction of the Temple by the Romans.

I do not have the time nor the space to describe how the author interprets the events in Daniel 10:1-11:45. I am more interested in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks in Daniel 9:1-27.

According to the writer, there are several things that must be considered in interpreting Daniel’s prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. First, “the decree to restore Jerusalem” mentioned in 9:25 refers to Julius Caesar’s decree allowing Hyrcanus II to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Second, the mention of “weeks” in v. 25 does not refer to “weeks of years,” that is, 490 years. The word “weeks” refers to the “Festival of Weeks,” or Pentecost. Thus, the sixty-nine weeks of v. 25 refers to sixty-nine Pentecosts. This period begins in 44 B.C. with Julius Caesar’s decree and ends in 27 A.D. with the death of Christ.

The system developed by the author explains every chrono-specific prophecy in the book of Daniel. Time and space do not allow me to explain in detail his interpretation of the Seventy Weeks nor of the events of the last week that culminated with the death and resurrection of Christ.

The book concludes with several supplementary materials to aid the study of the book of Daniel and other issues related to chronology. The writer provides a study of the Hebrew calendar, several tables listing sabbatical years and Jubilee years, a chronology of the reign of Hezekiah (since there is a reference to a Passover and a Jubilee year in his reign), and a chronology of Ezekiel’s prophecies.

The author has developed a system that he has applied throughout the book of Daniel to explain all the prophecies in the book that contain references to dates, what he calls, “chrono-specific prophecies.” One important question must be asked about this book: Did the author of Daniel Unsealed explain and clarify the chrono-specific prophecies of Daniel?

After the author applied his system to the book of Daniel, it becomes very clear that he accomplished the goals he set for his book: to explain all the chrono-specific prophecies of the book. Can you, the reader of the book, accept his conclusions? Yes, you can, provided,

1. Provided that you accept the conclusion that the expression “evening-morning” is a reference to the Passover.

2. Provided that the 1290 days and the 1345 days are counted backwards from 1967 and not forward as it is done by most scholars.

3. Provided that “a time” is interpreted to be 228 years.

4. Provided that the mention of “weeks” is a reference to the Feast of Tabernacles.

5. Provided that the “decree” of Daniel 9:27 is a reference to Julius Caesar’s decree.

6. Provided that the date of the Exodus is 1441 B.C.

7. Provided that Hezekiah became king in 729 B.C.

8. Provided that the book of Daniel was written in the 6th century B.C.

The system that explains the chrono-specific prophecies in Daniel is based on too many presuppositions that are difficult to accept. Some of the presuppositions of the author could be possible, others are not.

I doubt that Daniel was worried about the death of Mohammed, Muslim history, or the decree of Julius Caesar. There is no archaeological evidence that the Exodus occurred in 1441 B.C. and a 729 B.C. date for Hezekiah is almost impossible.

When I began reading the book, I followed the argument of the writer and unsealed the book of Daniel to seek to understand the hidden meanings behind Daniel’s visions and his chrono-specific oracles.

After I finished reading the book and after I evaluated the author’s argument, I decided to seal the book again (Daniel 8:26) and concluded with Daniel himself that the vision “was beyond understanding” (Daniel 8:27).

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Daniel 8, Prophet Daniel, Six-Day War

The Book of Daniel and the Restoration of the Sanctuary

On this day, June 7, 1967, three days after the Six-Day War began, the Israel Defense Forces entered the Old City of Jerusalem and took control of the Temple Mount:

In the early morning hours of June 7, the third day of the war, soldiers from Israel Defense Forces 55th Paratroopers Brigade were poised to fight their way through the Lion’s Gate into the Old City of Jerusalem. Their commander, Colonel Mordechai “Motta” Gur, exhorted his troops with these words: ‘Soon we will enter the city, the Old City of Jerusalem, about which countless generations of Jews have dreamed, to which all living Jews aspire. To our brigade has been granted the privilege of being the first to enter it . . . Now, on to the gate.”

According to a book recently published, from which the quote above was taken, the capture of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount during the Six-Day War was the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy found in Daniel 8:13-14.

The book, Daniel Unsealed: An Explanation of the Chrono-Specific Prophecies in the Book of Daniel, Chapters 7-12, as Understood by Daniel, is a study of the chrono-specific prophecies found in the book of Daniel. In my next post, I will present a detailed review of the book and explain how the author of the book has developed a system that explains every chrono-specific prophecy in the book of Daniel. Today, I want to emphasize the prophecy of Daniel 8:13-14 and how it is related to the conquest of the Temple Mount during the Six-Day War.

The book of Daniel is a controversial book because the prophecies in the book have defied explanation. Because of the apocalyptic language of the book and because of the use of numerology to communicate the message Daniel received in visions, the book also has attracted a variety of interpreters who have proposed exotic theories in order to explain the prophecies and the visions of Daniel.

The author of Daniel Unsealed has developed a cogent system that explains and clarifies all the chrono-specific prophecies found in the book of Daniel. According to the author, the key for the proper interpretation of the book of Daniel must begin with the interpretation of the prophecy found in chapter 8:1-27, especially the prophecy in verses 13-14. As the author wrote: “The correct interpretation of that epoch-spanning prophecy is fundamental to understanding the chronology of everything else” in the book of Daniel.

The book emphasizes several times that the key to the proper understanding of the prophecies found in the book of Daniel is found in Daniel 8:13-14, the prophecy of the two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings and the cleansing of the sanctuary.

Most modern interpreters of Daniel 8:13-14 do not believe that this prophecy has a modern-day fulfillment. Most commentaries understand this prophecy to be a reference to the restoration of the sanctuary that occurred during the Maccabean revolt, in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes.

The focal point of the prophecy is the proper understanding of the “two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings” in Daniel 8:14. Most commentators believe that the two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings refer to the 2300 days that elapsed from the time that the Temple was desecrated and Antiochus slaughtered a pig upon the altar until the time the Temple was restored in the days of Judas Maccabeus.

Other commentators believe that the two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings refer to the 1150 evening and the 1150 morning sacrifices which would not be offered in the Temple. This method of calculation implies that the two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings refer to 1150 actual days.

The author of Daniel Unsealed takes a different approach to the prophecy of the 2300 evenings and mornings. Instead of interpreting the expression “evening-morning” as 2300 days as does the King James Version, or as 1150 days as interpreted by several commentators, the author understands the use of the expression “evening-morning” in Daniel 8:13-14 to be identical to the same expression used in Exodus 12:6-10, 14, where the celebration of the Passover is presented as an “evening-morning” event.

Thus, the author believes the reference to “evening-morning” in Daniel 8:14 does not refer to 2300 days but to 2300 Passover celebrations. The starting point for calculating the events related in Daniel 8:13-14 and in his vision is found in Daniel 8:6, a passage that refers to the conflict between the ram that had two horns, that is, the conflict between the king of Persia and the king of Greece.

The conflict between Alexander the Great of Greece and Darius III of Persia took place at the Battle of Granicus in Asia Minor in 334 B.C. This event then becomes the key that unlocks all the chrono-specific prophecies in the book of Daniel.

Using the Battle of Granicus referred to in Daniel 8:6, the author begins to study the chrono-specific prophecies in the book of Daniel. Since the Passover of 334 B.C. happened before the Battle of Granicus, the author counted 2300 Passovers from 333 B.C. and the 2300th Passover occurred on April 25, 1967, a few months before Israel took control of the Temple Mount.

Although his approach to the prophecies of Daniel is unique, the conclusion of the author was anticipated by Adam Clark almost 200 years ago in his commentary on Daniel. Discussing Daniel 8:14, Adam Clark wrote:

Unto two thousand and three hundred days— Though literally it be two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings. Yet I think the prophetic day should be understood here, as in other parts of this prophet, and must signify so many years. If we date these years from the vision of the he-goat, (Alexander’s invading Asia,) this was A.M. 3670, B.C. 334; and two thousand three hundred years from that time will reach to A.D. 1966, or one hundred and forty-one years from the present A.D. 1825.

Adam Clark calculated the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy to occur in 1966 not because Clark counted a year zero, as the author of Daniel Unsealed seems to imply, but because he counted the events from the Battle of Granicus in 334 while the author of Daniel Unsealed calculated the events from 333, the first Passover after the battle.

I have to give a lot of credit to Adam Clark. It is easy to look at the Six-Day War and the capture of the Temple Mount and then look back and relate these events to the book of Daniel and the Battle of Granicus but it takes a perceptive mind in 1825 to look at an event in 334 B.C. and relate that event to something that would happen in 1966 (or 1967), one hundred and forty-one years into the future.

In my next post I will provide a more detailed review of the book, Daniel Unsealed: An Explanation of the Chrono-Specific Prophecies in the Book of Daniel, Chapters 7-12, as Understood by Daniel. I will also evaluate the system the author has developed to analyze the chrono-specific prophecies of Daniel.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Daniel 8, Prophet Daniel, Six-Day War