If we are to understand the meaning of the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14, we need to visualize the days in the context of the Jewish calendar. In the beginning of their history, before the Jews complicated the calculations of the days of the month after the first century AD, the Jews used a lunar calendar of alternating 30-day and 29-day months. The first month always contained 30 days, as did each odd month of the year. The even months (2nd and 4th etc.) always had 29 days. An intercalary month was added between the 12th and the 1st months about every 3 years. Moreover, the intercalary month also alternated with 30 days the first time it was used in a 19-year time cycle, and 29 days the next time it was used and so on. There were seven intercalary months in a 19-year time cycle.[1]
After we understand this, the next thing we need to consider is how long was the so-called 2300 days to last. Were they literally 2300, 24-hour, days, or should they be calculated in another manner? Literally, the text translates the Aramaic, “unto two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings. That is 1150 literal 24-hour days, but 2300 evening and morning sacrifices. The phrase is used in connection with the daily sacrifice (Daniel 8:11-13), so the literal “evenings and mornings” refer to the two daily sacrifices each day, one at dusk and the other at dawn.
The next thing to consider is when do these 2300 daily sacrifices begin and where do they end. They must begin at some point in time, but where? In an earlier study on the 1260 days mentioned in Daniel that I had discovered by toying with the days and the Hebrew calendar, that there were exactly 1260 days from a specific point in the annual holy days at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry and his crucifixion. By counting from the Last Great Day of the Feast of Tabernacles (the 22nd of the 7th month) at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, when he was rejected by the local authorities, when they sought a sign, counting from then to the crucifixion was 1260 days.
If we accept this context as a viable means of finding out the beginning and ending of the days mentioned in Daniel, we may be able to use Daniel’s vision of the 2300 daily sacrifices to identify something about Jesus’ ministry, for the interpretation of those days would be a mystery until the time of the end, which we discovered in a previous study[2] pointed to Jesus’ ministry and that of the Apostles during the first century AD.
For the sake of argument, let’s allow the first of the 2300 daily sacrifices to begin in the evening of the 10th of Nisan 28 AD, or about the time the Passover lamb would be chosen that year. Once chosen, the lamb would be inspected continually until it was sacrificed on the day of the Passover, commemorating the blood that saved Israel from death as the Lord was bringing them out of Egypt. For the sake of calculating the 2300 daily sacrifices, let’s say they begin with the time of Jesus’ first Passover, on the 10th of the first month, when the authorities would begin to inspect the lamb for blemishes. Remember, Jesus went up to Jerusalem and cast out the money changers and those who bought and sold in the Temple, thus pronouncing the Temple unclean (John 2:13-16). This answers to Daniel 8:14, so the “Temple” would remain unclean during Jesus’ ministry or for another 2299 sacrifices or 1149 ½ days.
To conclude, from the evening and the beginning of the 10th day of Nisan, AD 28, which was Jesus’ first Passover season of his public ministry, Jesus pronounced the Temple unclean, by virtue of the things that were done withing its walls. Throughout the next 3 Passovers the Temple remained unclean, and the Jewish authorities continually sought without success to find sin or any uncleanness in Jesus. 1150 days later in the ancient Jewish calendar would take us to the time of the morning sacrifice on Pentecost day AD 31. This was the time when the Temple would be cleansed, the Temple being Jesus’ disciples!
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[1] See one of my earlier studies: The Ancient Hebrew Calendar.
[2] See my earlier study: An Explanation of The Time of the End!
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5 responses to “The 2300 Days of Daniel Chapter Eight”
Hi Eddie,
You posed the question above concerning when the 2,300 mornings and evenings of Daniel 8:14 began. The context of Daniel 8 demands that this 2,300 mornings and evenings (a literal 1,500, 24-hour days) of the sanctuary and the host being trodden underfoot is being done by the instigation of the Daniel 8:9 “little horn”. Actually, in the LXX, this is not a “little” (mikros) horn, but a “strong” (ischuros) horn.
This time period of 2,300 mornings and evenings (1,500 literal 24-hour days) cannot be transplanted forward in time to Christ’s earthly ministry. It must stay in the Daniel 8 context as being done by the one “strong horn” which arose out of one of the “four notable ones” of the Greek empire in Daniel 8:8-9. In other words, this Daniel 8:9 “strong horn” was still part of the divided Greek empire, (“in the latter time of their kingdom”) before that divided Greek empire was taken over by the Roman empire of Christ’s days.
Antiochus Epiphanes IV and his army were recorded by Josephus as having oppressive control over Jerusalem and the people of Israel for 3 years and 3 months (Preface to Wars -19) “For example, I shall relate how Antiochus, who was named Epiphanes, took Jerusalem by force, and held it three years and three months, and was then ejected out of the country by the sons of Asamoneus: after that, how their posterity quarreled about the government, and brought upon their settlement the Romans and Pompey…”.
I maintain that this “three years and three months” of Antiochus Epiphanes IV and his Greek army forcefully controlling Jerusalem and the host of the Israelite people was the actual historical fulfillment of Daniel 8:14’s period of 1,500 literal 24-hour days. After that, Jerusalem’s temple sanctuary was cleansed, once the Maccabees achieved victory over Antiochus E’s Greek army.
And I should think this interpretation above would still match your emphasis on the earlier method of Jewish calendar computations with its intercalary month added every 3 years or so, and an alternating 30 / 29 days per month ordinarily.
Patricia, greetings and thank you for reading and for your comment.
For the record it is 1150 literal days not 1500, but this was merely a typo on your part the rest of your figures are correct. Concerning Josephus’ record (Wars 1.7.6), I am aware of this interpretation, and I was once satisfied with it. However, even if the calculations are correct (and Josephus for the record is very much against Christianity), but even if the calculations are correct, just as Josephus puts it, Matthew has Jesus fulfilling all things that occurred to the nation: their and his coming out of Egypt; Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness, so Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness (a day for a year) etc. I don’t have a great problem with Josephus’ calculations, but even if he was accurate, I find it very interesting that once Jesus pronounces the Temple “unclean” in John 2, it remained unclean for 1150 days later or 2300 evening and morning sacrifices later, the Presence of God came majestically to his Temple (dwelling in believers) pronouncing His Temple clean for him to dwell in.
On the other hand even if Josephus is correct, even he admits that the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s Presence was not in the 2nd Temple. He writes that there was “nothing at all” behind the curtain (Wars 5.5.5).
So, which is the correct interpretation? Josephus gives a good talk, but was the Lord’s Presence there? The symbol of his Presence was not, so… was it therefore clean? According to what I believe we can count for ourselves from the 10th day of the first month AD 28 to the 9th of the 3rd month AD 31 and know that the Presence of God coming to believers on that Pentecost proved they were clean (by the blood of Christ), and we have since then been his Temple.
Nevertheless, neither can I prove that the 1150 days (2300 sacrifices) begin on the 10th of Nisan 28 AD, So, we’re left with which interpretation seems to be correct. I have to believe mine is the better one, because we know of a certainty that the Presence of God is within the believer. We are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.
Lord bless you, Patricia, and thanks again for reading my studies and for participating in them with your point of view.
Hi Eddie,
Yes, careless typo of mine there concerning the 1,150 literal days – thank you for catching it.
The second temple – even without the ark of the covenant within the holy of holies – can still be considered “cleansed” by the Maccabees after those 1,150 days of Antiochus’ army defiling the temple grounds.
We have the description of the second temple to be built according to God’s plans given in Ezekiel 43:12 (the same temple completed by Zerubbabel in the post-exilic return). “This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.”
This “most holy” description is given in spite of the fact that there were no instructions given for rituals concerning an absent ark of the covenant at that point in history for the post-exilic temple. That designated area which measured 20 cubits square was still called “the most holy place” (Ez. 41:4). And God still limited the high priesthood service in that temple to only the members of the Zadok family who had remained faithful while in Babylonian exile. They were the only Levitical family which God was going to allow to “come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place...” (Ez. 44:13).
This post-exilic temple built from Ezekiel’s “blueprints” that Zerubbabel’s own hands had finished was the same temple which Antiochus came against and trod underfoot for those 1,150 literal days, after which time it was “cleansed” from that defilement.
I don’t think we get to interject the time of Christ’s earthly ministry into the middle of this Greek episode of abomination caused by the “strong horn”. This “strong horn” coming out of one of those “four notable ones” (4 of Alexander’s commanders) arose to power “at the latter time of their kingdom”, in the waning days of the Greek kingdom’s power, prior to the rise of the Roman empire.
Greetings Patricia, I love your fire and sincerity, and back in the day I would welcome a debate with you. I lived for such things — to pour over the word of God the strengthen my stronghold and pull down another’s. No longer, I’m too old to enjoy such things now. I’ve witnessed my desire for the fire burn until all that is left is glowing embers. :-)
Your interpretation fits fairly well. I’ll give you that, but to what end? What is the meaning of it all, and why was this so important that it made it into God’s word? Sorry, but I don’t see its value in the relationship of man with his God. No matter what occurred in the days of the Hasmonians, the fact remains, they were Jews and Daniel 11 is all about the gentiles oppression of the Jews. Moreover, as I mentioned earlier, even if Josephus is correct, and we have no proof of his calculations, but as far as I’m concerned, let him be correct, as accurate as any historian can be. The fact still remains there are 1150 literal days or 2300 literal evening and morning sacrifices between the 10th of Nisan AD 28 and the 9th of the 3rd month in AD 31. If I am correct we have a beautiful reference to the Lord’s work in making believers a Temple for him to dwell in. If you are correct, what do you have? What have you proved and what lasting meaning is there in that, so that it made it into the word of God?
Evening Eddie,
I too am gaining in years and have only so much energy to go around. I salute you for your continued ability to post so regularly on your website here. I am more or less riding on your coat-tails as I make comments, so thank you for providing the venue.
I have no argument against the fact that Daniel’s focus was on the Gentiles’ oppression of the Jews. It’s true that every one of those empires in Daniel’s statue was Gentile in origin, as well as all the different beasts (the lion, bear, leopard, ram, he-goat) As of John’s days when he was writing Revelation, this historical record of Gentile oppression of the Jews amounted to 666 continuous years of control over the nation of Israel.
The sad fact was that the “clay” of the Jewish nation and its people became aligned with the “iron” of the pagan Roman empire in the feet of Daniel’s statue of Gentile world empires. For monetary gain and the security of their position, the religious and governmental leadership had developed a pattern of pandering to Rome to preserve “our place and our nation”, as Caiphas once said. The Jews were their own worst enemies in this respect, because it made their leaders willing to commit acts of disobedience to their God in order to preserve their standing.
That also applied to Israel’s Hasmonean kings who broke God’s laws by also claiming the high priest title. Alexander Jannaeus may have been a Jew, but he was just as oppressive to his own people as the pagan Gentile nations had been. He wanted to curry the favor of the Roman Republic as a sort of alliance that would bolster his own power over the rebels in his own country. Because of this, his actions were no different than the pagan Gentiles.
God wanted the mindset of His people to be separate from the idol-worshipping nations of the Gentile world, but with the Jewish rulers choosing to align themselves with Rome for protection and personal advancement, this only contributed to their own nation’s eventual demise.
This separation from the mindset of the unbelieving world (“In the world but not of it”) is still a principle which should govern the Christian’s life.