Most scholarship, I believe, puts the stoning of Stephen in 34 or 35 AD. Is there reason within the Scriptures to substantiate this claim? Yes, I believe there is! However, such substantiation comes from prophecy in both Old and New Testaments, but the understanding of these very prophecies is clouded by the interpretation of most scholarship, which puts the fulfillment of them at the second coming of Jesus.
I have written similar posts which had to do with Stephen’s death back in November of 2009. However, I think I should be clearer on this matter in order to have a better understanding of the timeline of early Acts with a particular interest in the placement of the High Priests for Stephen’s death, Paul’s persecution of the Jewish believers in Jesus in Acts 9:1, and when the “peace” occurred in Acts 9:31.
The Seventy Weeks Prophecy of Daniel 9 was supposed to offer the believer the identity of the Messiah by showing the exact time in which he would appear. The 70 Weeks Prophecy begins with the first sacrifice offered on the rebuilt altar on the Temple mount when Joshua, the High Priest, and Zerubbabel returned from the captivity. The Jews began to make daily offerings to God from the first day of the seventh month upon their return from captivity (Ezra 3:6). This is a very important date, as it represents the first time in decades that worship of the God of Israel was offered from the Temple mount, and it represents the “firstfruits” of the decree of the emperor, which I believe is implied in the prophecy. So, the date of the decree itself is not important, but date of the firstfruits of that decree is the important part of the prophecy in terms of when it begins. The Messiah was to come at the beginning of the 70th week or 483 years after the first sacrifice was offered by the returning captives.
No matter which year one chooses to begin the 70 Weeks Prophecy, the 484th year must begin in the fall and on the Feast of Trumpets. I submit that from Luke 4:16 and up to Luke 6:49 Luke shows Jesus beginning his ministry on the Feast of Trumpets (Luke 4:16) and each Sabbath mentioned thereafter is either an annual Holy Day or a seventh day Sabbath. The odd “second Sabbath after the first” in Luke 6:1 is the seventh day Sabbath which occurred in that year back to back with the annual Day of Atonement, a fast day, which is why the Apostles were hungry and began to take some grain from the fields on the Sabbath day, rubbing it in their hands and eating the kernels.
Anyway, long-story-short, 3 ½ years later Jesus was crucified, and the 70 Weeks prophecy foretold the Messiah would be ‘cut’ (offered for the covenant) in the midst or the middle of the prophetic week (Daniel 9:26-27). The 70th week comprises 7 years, 3 ½ of which represented Jesus public ministry culminating in his crucifixion and resurrection. Notice in Luke 10:18 that Jesus said he beheld Satan like lightning fall from heaven. This is shown in Revelation 12:7-10 where Michael/Jesus makes war with Satan. Now I am not saying Jesus is an angelic being, but I am saying Michel is Jesus—the Angel of the LORD who is God in the Old Testament. Anyway, Jesus with his disciples were waging spiritual warfare against Satan’s kingdom (cf. Luke 10:17). The angels in Revelation 12 represent the messengers of Jesus and Satan respectively. In the Gospels they are Jesus’ disciples waging war against Satan or the Pharisees and high priests who fought against Jesus and his disciples. The woman (the Jewish believers) had a place of safety for 1260 days (Revelation 12:6). This is the first part of the 70th prophetic week and represents Jesus care for his disciples—they were safe, and he lost no one.
In the second part of the week the disciples were also safe according to Revelation 12:14. The believers were spiritually nourished for a time (1) + times (2) and half a time (1/2) or 3 ½ years. Daniel refers to this time as the 1290 days.
Formerly, I had believed the 1290 days began on the day of Jesus’ resurrection, which if it did, the days would have culminated on the Day of Atonement in 34 AD. However, had they done this, it would have indicated national repentance, which didn’t occur, and the proof of this is Stephen’s death, which occurred on that day. Thus, the 1260 days ended in blood (the crucifixion), but the 1290 days were intended to end in repentance, but instead Stephen was stoned. Therefore the fulfillment of the 1290 days were delayed. There is a gap between the 1260 days and the 1290 days of nearly 40 years due to unbelief, and is typified by Israel’s wandering in the wilderness for 40 year due to their unbelief. The 1290 days begin when the Roman general, Cestius, surrounded Jerusalem with his armies (cf. Luke 21:20), tore down the northern wall of Jerusalem, but for no good reason retreated, allowing Jesus’ disciples to flee (Luke 21:21). They end, when Titus, the Roman general and son of the Emperor, surrounded Jerusalem with his armies, broke down the northern wall (that was repaired) and encamped inside the walls of Jerusalem. Thus the city fell.[1]
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[1] See my study, The Seventy Weeks Prophecy and the 1290 Days, which details this.
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105 responses to “When Was Stephen Stoned?”
I like your observations. All of Daniel’s prophecies are fulfilled and verified through Josephus. Daniel stated seventy weeks, and that fulfillment is in exact detail to the very second. Though the death of Christ marks the end of 69th week, there is no event to mark the end of the 70th. It may have been when the last Jewish believer was executed at the hands of evil Jews, when the last drop of innocent blood was shed. The reason I think this is because of the amount of attention given to martyrs in Revelation, and crying of souls under the altar.
Greetings Keith, and thank you for reading and for taking time to comment.
Of course you are free to agree or disagree with anything I have posted. They are simply my studies, and I’ve offered them for the consideration of folks like you.
According to my understanding of the 70 Weeks Prophecy, it is only a matter of opinion, and unsubstantiated, that scholars try to separate the 70th week from the other 69. There is no proof of this in Daniel for any of his prophecies, and there is nothing in any prophecy elsewhere, whereby a prophecy begins and is almost fulfilled, but then stops until a later date to be completely fulfilled.
The prophecy is divided into three: 7 weeks or 49 years for the Temple and wall to be built; plus 62 weeks or 434 years waiting for the Messiah to come (a total of 483 years from the time the first stone was placed with another to build the Temple); plus one week which is the week of the Messiah or 7 years. Jesus personally fulfilled the first 3 1/2 years during his public ministry, and the final 3 1/2 years were fulfilled by Jesus through his disciples until the first blood was shed in the killing of Stephen.
As far as the blood of the martyrs is concerned, Jesus testified that all the innocent blood that was shed from Able to Zechariah (in other words Genesis to 2Chronicles — the entire Bible as it was known at that time) would be accounted for by the generation that rejected Jesus as their Messiah. That judgment occurred in 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem, so the martyrs of Revelation are satisfied–and by the way, there is absolutely no good reason to place the writing of Revelation at the end of the first century. I place it during the reign of King Herod Agrippa in the early 40s AD.
Lord bless you Keith.
Eddie, are or were you a Seveth Day Adventist? What you say sounds very SDA-like.
Greetings Andries and thanks for reading my blog and for your question.
No, I am not, nor have I ever been an SDA, but you’re not the first person who asked. Would you mind pointing out what in my post or post that would lead you to think I am / was?
Lord bless you in your walk with him.
It is your interpretation of the 70 weeks of Daniel 9 that made me think you are a SDA. Dispensationalists put the last seven years in our future. Critical scholars interpret it as the time of Antiochus. I think it is only a small minority of people that still hold to your interpretation, and I thought it was essentially only the SDA. I did a study of Daniel 9 some years ago. If I remember correctly, your interpretation of that prophecy was the traditional interpretation before Dispensationalism and Critical Scholars came on the scene, over the last 100 or so years.
I am currently studying the first 30 years of the church. What I want to show is that, for the first 3 or 4 years, the church was limited to Jerusalem and Jews. The gospel was preached to Jews only, and the church obeyed the Law of Moses and the Jewish Traditions. I believe one has to appreciate this history to read Paul’s letters correctly. Many people seem to think the church fell out of sky, complete with the New Testament. But that is not true. It started off as a sect of Judaism, and it was Paul’s job to extract it out of Judaism. That happened progressively over many decades. For that reason I am trying to understand when Stephen died, because that was a turning point in history.
The next turning point in church history, in my view, was Peter’s vision in Acts 10. That allowed the church, for the very first time, to take the gospel to Gentiles. I believe that that was about 10 years after Christ died, but I need some hard facts. Most Bible Timelines on internet simply indicate a date, without saying how they came to that date. I need more.
Andries