This past Sunday was Palm Sunday, the day celebrated for when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. But what and when is this all about?
Consider the following about fulfilling the prophecy of 70 Weeks in Daniel 9.24-27 (read that first).

First, let’s back up a few hundred years before Christ was born.

  • In Nehemiah 2:1-8 Artaxerxes decrees that Nehemiah may go and rebuild the city. This is the beginning of the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. The specific time is even given as the 20th year of Artaxerxes in the month of Nisan. The reign of Artaxerxes is documented in secular history as beginning in 465 B.C. So, the 20th year of his reign would be 445 B.C. The 1st of Nisan is March 14th on our Julian calendar.
  • According to Sir Robert Anderson (“The Coming Prince”):
    69 “weeks” x 7 years (on 360-day Jewish year) = 173,880 days. Now, March 14, 445 B.C., added to 173,880 days comes out to be April 6, 32 A.D. This is the day Christ rode into Jerusalem as Messiah. To do this conversion from the Jewish calendar to our Julian calendar, we must change some things. From 445 B.C. to 32 A.D. is 476 years, not 483. So, first of all, 1 B.C. and 1 A.D. are the same year, so 476 x 365 days (on our calendar) = 173, 740 days, still short a bit. But we must add 116 days for each Leap Year. Then, March 14 to April 6 is 24 days. This adds up to the 173,880 days, as the Bible says.
  • According to Harold Hohner (Dallas Theological Seminary):
    Artaxerxes did not give the decree in 445 B.C. because in Old Testament times the first year of a king’s reign was called an Accession Year and was not counted when they counted the years of the king. Mr. Hohner then took all available information that he could find concerning dates and times and fed it all into a computer. He even took into account that every so many years there is no Leap Year to account for. His calculations in the computer came up to be 476 years x 365.24219879 = 173,855…, still short of the right date. So, he calculated that March 5 to March 30 was the difference, 25 days, which adds up to 173,880 days, the right amount.
  • Daniel was told that from the first day the decree went forth to rebuild the city to the official day Messiah the Prince would be presented would be 173,880 days. April 6, 32 A.D., was the 10th of Nisan of the Jewish calendar, the day Christ rode into Jerusalem, recorded in Luke 19:28-44.
  • Zechariah 9:9 says Messiah the Prince would come riding on a donkey and a colt, the foal of a donkey. That is what Jesus Christ did. The people began to shout praises because they recognized this sign that Messiah had come. This was the first time Christ allowed His disciples to proclaim Him as Messiah. Christ wept over Jerusalem in Luke 19:42-44 because they missed the time of their visitation. This was the fulfillment of the first 69 “weeks” of Daniel 9, on April 6, 32 A.D.
  • Then, just as the prophecy said, Messiah was cut off, crucified by His own people, “but not for Himself” (Daniel 9:26). The last “week,” the last seven years of the prophecy, will be fulfilled when the Antichrist “shall confirm the covenant with many for one week [seven years]: and in the midst of the week [three and a half years] he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Daniel 9:27). Then Christ, the Messiah, will return to earth at the Battle of Armageddon and reign for all eternity.
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