Insight, Volume 1, p. 463
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200000970#h=243:0-244:0
Traditions and Interpretations
How Accurate Is the Jewish Calendar?
In accord with rabbinic tradition, Yose ben Halafta calculated that the second temple in Jerusalem lasted a total of 420 years. This was based on the rabbinic interpretation of Daniel’s prophecy of “seventy weeks,” or 490 years. (Daniel 9:24) This time period was applied to the interval between the destruction of the first temple and the devastation of the second. Allowing 70 years for the Babylonian exile, Yose ben Halafta came to the conclusion that the second temple lasted 420 years.
This interpretation, however, runs into a serious problem. Both the year of Babylon’s overthrow (539 B.C.E.) and that of the second temple’s destruction (70 C.E.) are known historical dates. Hence, the period of the second temple would have to be 605 years rather than 420 years. By assigning only 420 years to this period, Jewish chronology falls short by 185 years.
Daniel’s prophecy is not about how long the temple in Jerusalem would remain standing. Rather, it foretold the time when the Messiah would appear. The prophecy clearly indicates that “from the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Leader, there [would] be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks.” (Daniel 9:25, 26) While the temple foundation was laid in the second year of the Jews’ return from exile (536 B.C.E.), “the word” to rebuild the city of Jerusalem did not go forth until “the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king.” (Nehemiah 2:1-8) Accurate secular history establishes 455 B.C.E. as that year. Counting forward 69 “weeks,” or 483 years, brings us to 29 C.E. That was the time of the Messiah’s appearance, at Jesus’ baptism.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1994529#h=14:0-18:0
Daniel—An Authentic Book of Prophecy
Messiah’s Coming and Death
A prophecy that definitely shows Daniel to be an authentic prophet is known as the 70 prophetic weeks.
It reads, in part: “There are seventy weeks that have been determined upon your people and upon your holy city, in order to terminate the transgression, and to finish off sin, and to make atonement for error . . . And you should know and have the insight that from the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks [making 69 in all]. . . . And after the sixty-two weeks [that is, 7 + 62, or after the 69th week] Messiah will be cut off . . . And he must keep the covenant in force for the many for one week [the 70th]; and at the half of the week he will cause sacrifice and gift offering to cease.”—Daniel 9:24-27.
Many Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Bible scholars agree that the “weeks” of this prophecy are weeks of years. The Revised Standard Version, Ecumenical Edition, reads: “Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people.” Those 490 years began in 455 B.C.E. when Nehemiah was authorized by Persian king Artaxerxes “to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2:1-8) Sixty-nine weeks.
Many Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Bible scholars agree that the “weeks” of this prophecy are weeks of years. The Revised Standard Version, Ecumenical Edition, reads: “Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people.” Those 490 years began in 455 B.C.E. when Nehemiah was authorized by Persian king Artaxerxes “to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2:1-8) Sixty-nine weeks of years later, that is, in 29 C.E., Jesus was baptized and anointed, becoming the Christ, or the Anointed One, the Messiah. “At the half of the [70th] week,” in 33 C.E., he was “cut off.” His sacrificial death made atonement for the sins of mankind, thus causing the animal sacrifices under the Law of Moses “to cease.”
Because of this reliable prophecy, first-century Jewish people “knew that the seventy weeks of years fixed by Daniel were drawing to a close; nobody was surprised to hear John the Baptist announce that the kingdom of God had drawn near.”—Manuel Biblique, by Bacuez and Vigouroux.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1986721
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