The Book of Job: Chronological, Historical and Archaeological Evidence

The Book of Job Chronological, Historical and

Archaeological Evidence

Gérard GERTOUX PhD candidate in Archaeology and history of Ancient World

EDITION 2015

2 THE BOOK OF JOB: HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

Jacket photograph: Contest of a god with a 7-headed monster called MUŠ.MAḪ “Distinguished

serpent” in Sumerian (mušmaḫḫu in Akkadian), on shell plaque dated around 2500-2400 BCE. Collection Elie Borowski, Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

The 7-headed dragon is called Leviathan “encircling [serpent]” in the Book of Job, or “gliding serpent” (Is 27:1), and he is pictured as the master of calamity (Job 3:2-8, 41:1-34). In the Book of Revelation he is called Devil and Satan “opponent” (Rv 12:3-12) who was the original serpent who will be seized and destroyed by Behemoth “the beginning of the ways of God” (Job 40:15-19; Rv 3:14, 20:1-2).

Bozrah (photo above) was the capital city of Edom. According to the Old Testament, the city was the homeland of Jacob's twin brother, Esau and probably Job’s homeland as well (Job 29:7). Bozrah means "sheepfold" and was a pastoral city in Edom southeast of the Dead Sea (30°42′50″ N, 35°39′29″ E).

The Book of Job: When, Where and Why?

Abstract. The Book of Job is full of fascinating paradoxes: despite it’s being the oldest book of the Bible (Job 19:23), it is very badly known. Despite the fact that many details, even insignificant, about the life of Job are known this character is merely regarded like the Good Samaritan (a parable), despite the main question all over the book being "why evil prevails?" the answer would be: "please, look at the hippopotamus and the crocodile" (Job 40:-42:6), which is poetic but quite absurd. However, as Maimonides had already understood a long time ago the Book of Job includes profound ideas and great mysteries, removes great doubts, and reveals the most important truths (The Guide for the Perplexed III:22). Indeed Job lived (1710-1500) near Bozra in Idumea and received a deep and detailed answer, when the Israelites were suffering in Egypt (the Hyksos), in order to know when and how the evil angel, Leviathan a.k.a. Satan, would be defeated by Behemoth the first creature of God (Job 40:19). In a surprising manner, archaeology has shown that all the geographical and historical details in the Book of Job are accurate and reliable.

The Book of Job is the only one written in Old Hebrew among all the biblical scrolls found at Qumran, beside the books of Moses, and it is also the only one translated into Aramaic before our common era (Targum of Job), beside the Book of Leviticus1. According to the Talmud: Moses wrote his book and the section of Balaam and Job (Baba Bathra 15a) and as it is written: After this Job lived for 140 years, and he saw his children and his grandchildren —4 generations. Finally Job died, after a long and satisfying life (Job 42:16-17), Job must have lived at least 140 years before Moses wrote his book. As Job made the following request: If only my words were written down, if only they could be inscribed in a book (Job 19:23) and as seen the outcome Jehovah gave (Ja 5:11), it is likely that his request was granted. Consequently the Book of Job is the oldest book of the Bible. Many people who think themselves wise assume that Job was a fictional character like the Good Samaritan, a parable to teach morals. This assumption is illogical and even absurd. Indeed, what is the importance of knowing many insignificant details such as: So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what Jehovah had told them to do (...) So Jehovah blessed the last part of Job’s life more than the beginning, and Job came to have 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 pairs of cattle, and 1,000 female donkeys. He also came to have 7 more sons and 3 more daughters. He named the first daughter Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch (Job 42:9-14). If the Book of Job was a parable Satan would have persecuted a fictional character. Those who suppose that Satan must be the principle of evil lead to an absurdity because in that case God would have discussed with "it": Jehovah said to Satan: Have you taken note of my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth. He is an upright man of integrity, fearing God and shunning what is bad. At that Satan answered Jehovah: Is it for nothing that Job has feared God? Have you not put up a protective hedge around him and his house and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock has spread out in the land” (Job 1:8-10). Some claim that God is itself a concept, but in that case one must be a convinced atheist to believe in such a nonsense (Rm 1:20), actually if Daniel, Job and Noah (Ezk 14:14, 20) are fictional all ancient characters of history, including Jesus, would be fictional. The suspicion toward the Bible comes mainly from archaeologists who claim frequently, because of the lack of data, that historical evidence is wrong. For example, most archaeologists believed that major trade trips between Mesopotamia and Canaan were mythical despite the fact that a trip of 1620 km between Uruk and Lebanon (c. 2500 BCE) is mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh (III:9-12), however several archaeological2 surveys

1 E. TOV – Textual Criticism of the Bible Minneapolis 2012 Ed. Fortress Press pp. 96-97, 148-149. 2 P. BUTTERLIN – Les temps proto-urbain de Mésopotamie Paris 2003 Éd. CNRS Editions pp. 15-18, 196-198.


since 1990 have shown that these trips were quite frequent. Many academics refer again and again to Albright's statements of 1940, for whom camels in the Bible were anachronistic, persisting to ignore archaeological evidence of a domestication around 2000 BCE3. Professor Edward Lipiński, in contrast, states4: Camel seems to have been domesticated in Arabia since the 3rd millennium BCE. Several studies mention relics, texts and animal remains which support domestication of the camel in Arabia5 starting prior to 2000 BCE. Many petroglyphs6 occurring on rocks in Saudi confirm this, showing the presence of camel bones dating to late 3rd millennium7. Some petroglyphs are accompanied by text containing the names of people who can be located in time, like the one found in the desert east of Edfu with the name Imai which is uncommon and appears only during the reign of Pepi II and situated the inscription 2150-21008. Archaeologists claim that at that time the majority of people were illiterate and only professional scribes knew writing, however the analysis of correspondence of the Assyrian merchants, around 1850 BCE, in Kanesh9 (Hittite capital in Anatolia) have shown that many of them were sending letters to their family, including their wives, and they got written responses through letters. For archaeologists Moses, if he ever existed (!), could not have written the Pentateuch because paleo-Hebrew only appeared after 1050 BCE10 and scribal schools in Palestine only began to exist after 800 BCE11. These statements and dates are historically grotesque since those authors are well aware that the Semites who came from Egypt and lived in Palestine knew the old writing called proto-Canaanite12, the ancestor of Old Hebrew. Moreover the oldest epigraphs in paleo-Hebrew, dated 1550-1480 BCE13 are close to those much later still (c. 950 BCE) found at Tel Zayit, coming from a professional scribe who inscribed his name in cuneiform: Ali-dîn-ili of Kup[patu?] (a-lí-di-in-ì-lí ša ku-up-[pa-tu? "high building"]) and engraved it in paleo-Hebrew as: ’LDN’L GB‘ (Alidinel of Gaba "hill?") on the edge of the tablet14. As chronology is the backbone of history, at which epoch did Job live (see "Dating the Biblical Chronology")? Job's genealogy is not known, probably because he was not an Israelite, but the genealogy of Elihu, one of his youngest comforters, is partly given: So Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite began to speak, saying: “I am young and you men are aged” (Job 32:6). The genealogy of Buz is given: After this it was reported to Abraham: “Here Milcah has also borne sons to Nahor your brother: Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, Chesed,

3 S.A. ROSEN, B.A. SAIDEL – The Camel and the Tent: An Exploration of Technological Change among Early Pastoralists in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 69:1 (2010) pp. 74-76. 4 E. LIPINSKI – Itineraria Phoenicia in: Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 127 (2004) Éd. Peeters pp. 205-212. 5 S. AD SAUD ABDULLAH - The Domestication of Camels and Inland Trading Routes in Arabia in: Atlas. The Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology Vol. 14, Riyadh 1996 pp. 129-131. 6 E. ANATI - Rock-Art in Central Arabia Louvain Ed. Institut Orientaliste Vol. 1 (1968) pp. 109-111; Vol. 4 (1974) pp. 128,234.. 7 J. ZARINS – Camel in: The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York 1992 Ed. Doubleday pp. 824-826. 8 ZBYNEK ZABA - The Rock Inscriptions of Lower Nubia Prague 1974 Ed. Tzechoslovak Institute of Egyptology pp. 237, 238, Fig. 409 CCXXIX. R.D. ROTHE, W.K. MILLER, G.R. RAPP - Pharaonic Inscriptions from the Southern Eastern Desert of Egypt USA 2008 Ed. Eisenbrauns, p. 132. 9 C. MICHEL – La correspondance des marchands assyriens du XIXe siècle av. J.-C.: de l’archivage des lettres commerciales et privées, in: ΤΟΠΟΙ Supplément 9 (2008, IFAO) pp. 117-140. 10 J.F. HEALEY – Consolidation de l'alphabet et extension vers l'Ouest in: La naissance des écritures du cunéiforme à l'alphabet (Seuil, 1994), pp. 281-284. 11 D.W. JAMIESON-DRAKE – Scribes and Schools in Monarchic Judah: A Socio-Archeological Approach Sheffiel 1991, Ed. Sheffield University Press pp. 11-47. 12 A. LEMAIRE – Les «Hyksos» et les débuts de l'écriture alphabétique au Proche-Orient in: Des signes pictographiques à l'alphabet (Karthala, 2000) pp.103-133. 13 S. DALLEY – Babylonian Tablets from the First Sealand Dynasty in the Schøyen Collection in: Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology Vol. 9 (CDL Press, 2009) pp. 1-16, 112, plates LIII, CLIIV. 14 L. COLONNA D'ISTRIA – Babylonian Tablets from the First Sealand Dynasty in the Schøyen Collection in: Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires N°3 (2012) pp. 61-63.

THE BOOK OF JOB: WHEN, WHERE AND WHY? 5

Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight to Nahor the brother of Abraham (Gn 22:20-23). Given that Job received exactly the double of all he had before his trial15 (Job 42:10), he was likely 70 years old (i.e. an aged man) at that time since he received a supplement of 140 years: After this Job lived for 140 years, and he saw his children and his grandchildren —four generations (Job 42:10,16). A generation at Job's time was lasting around 35 years (= 140/4). As it is written: There is no one like him on the earth, he is an upright man of integrity, fearing God and shunning what is bad (Job 1:8), Job was put to the test, after Joseph (a man of integrity) was alive. Consequently Job had to be born some years after 1748 BCE (= 1678 + 70), however as Moses (1613-1493) was also a man of integrity, Job had to have been born before 1703 BCE (= 1493 + 140 + 70). The genealogy of Eliphaz II gives another clue because Sheik Teman in Edom was a descendant of Esau through his firstborn Eliphaz I (Gn 36:10-11,15). Given that Abraham's genealogy can be precisely dated, Job was likely a contemporary of Manasseh (Gn 50:23):

Abraham (2038- Nahor II (2098-1963?) -1863) Uz Uz Uz Isaac (1938-1758) Esau (1938-1760?) (Keturah) [-] [-] Rebekah Laban Jacob (1878-

-1731) Eliphaz I (1900?-1800?) Shuah [-] [-] Rachel Teman (1860?-1770?) [-] [-] [-]

Joseph (1788-1678) [-] [-] [-] Barakel Manasseh (1753-1650?) Eliphaz II Bildad (Job) Elihu

The precision "Eliphaz the Temanite" means literally "Eliphaz the one of Teman", which can be understood as either "Eliphaz the descendant of Teman" or "Eliphaz the man of Teman (city)", which is the meaning suggested by the text of Jeremiah 49:7, in addition, the normal genealogy would have been "Eliphaz the Edomite". Consequently, Eliphaz the Temanite had to have lived in Teman. It was usual in the past to give names to cities or regions from their founder or from a famous ancestor. For example Nahor II, Abraham's brother, who died before his arriving in Harran (Gn 11:29-31) gave his name to the city of Naḫur (Til-Naḫiri), mentioned in the Cappadocian tablets (1800-1750) and in the letters of governor Itur-Asdu to King Zimri-Lim16 (1680-1667). Teman city (Tawilan)17 is near Petra, in the south of Bozra (Buseirah), between Sela (es-Sela‘) and Punon (Faynan). Given that Eliphaz was a close friend of Job, one can assume that they were living not very far from each other, besides Teman and Bozra were probably the two main cities of Edom (Am 1:12). Furthermore, Job lived in the land of Uz (Job 1:1) and as it is written: O daughter of Edom, living as you do in the land of Uz (Lm 4:21); starting with Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, her kings and her princes, to make them a ruin, an object of horror, something to whistle at and a curse, as it is today; then Pharaoh king of Egypt and his servants, his princes, and all his people, and all their mixed populations; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and those remaining of Ashdod; Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the island in the sea; Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all those with hair clipped at the temples; all the kings of the Arabians and all the kings of the mixed populations who reside in the wilderness (Jr 25:18-24), one can deduce that the land of Uz encompassed the land of Edom and also that Uz (which means “counsel”) was the forefather of Job rather than Edom

15 Job came to have 7 sons and 3 daughters (Job 42:13) as many as before his trial (Job 1:2) it is because the resurrection is implied. The targum of Job translated "7 sons and 3 daughters" into "14 sons and 3 daughters" (for the Jews only the sons are a blessing!). According to the Talmud, when Gamaliel I (25-50 CE) found a targum of Job he immediately requested it to be immured (Shabbat 115a). 16 A. PARROT – Abraham et son temps in: Cahiers d'Archéologie Biblique N°14 (Delachaux & Niestlé, 1962) pp. 48-49. R. DE VAUX – Histoire ancienne d'Israël Paris 1986 Éd. J. Gabalda pp. 189-190. 17 Y. AHARONI – Land of the Bible Pennsylvania 1979 Ed. The Westminster Press pp. 40-45.


(Esau). Job was likely dwelling in a city not far from the wilderness situated on the King's Road between Bozra and Elath because it is written: a messenger came to Job and said: The cattle were plowing and the donkeys were grazing beside them when the Sabaeans [from Sheba] attacked and took them, and they killed the servants with the sword. I am the only one who escaped to tell you (...) While he was still speaking, another one came and said: The Chaldeans [coming from Shinar] formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them, and they killed the servants with the sword (...) Suddenly a great wind came from the wilderness, and it struck the four corners of the house (Job 1:14-19). In addition, the text of Job 6:19 mentions the caravans of Tema (Arabian city south of Teman) and Job 22:24 mentions the gold of Ophir (or Sheba, Psalms 72:15). The language of Job was presumably Old Canaanite, language of the region at that time, although heavily influenced by Arabic as the names he gave to his daughters are of Arabic origin, such as Jemimah (Job 42:14) "dove" in Arabic rather than Jonah "dove" in Hebrew (he also used 26 times the Arabic form Eloah "God", which became Allah, instead of the Hebrew El).

Several clues converge to locate Job's city or residency near Bozrah. Job was "as a king" a leading figure in the area at the time and as he possessed large herds and slaves (Job 1:3; 19:15; 29:25) he needed large pastures which were to be located in an area eastward of Teman because of the climate18. Second clue: the routes taken by caravans coming from the north of Palestine to go into Egypt were either the road of the Sea (Via Maris), the road to Shur or the road to the Arabah but never the part of the King's Road reaching the Gulf of Aqaba. First example (the road to Shur): Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan (...) When they looked up, there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying labdanum gum, balsam, and resinous bark, and they were on their way down to Egypt (Gn 37:17,25). Second example (the road to the Arabah): Now in the days of Amraphel

18 J.J. BIMSON, J.P. KANE – New Bible Atlas Leicester 1985 Ed. Inter-Varsity Press pp. 14-15.


[Chaldean] king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, these made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar. All of these joined forces at the Valley of Siddim, that is, the Salt Sea. They had served Chedorlaomer for 12 years, but they rebelled in the 13th year. So in the 14th year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, and the Horites in their mountain of Seir down to El-paran, which is at the wilderness. Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat, that is, Kadesh, and conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazon-tamar (Gn 14:1-7). The route for the return trip taken by Chedorlaomer (1990-1954) and his allies is well described in the Bible. The places visited are: Kadesh-[barnea]; the mountain of Seir, down to Elparan, which is at the wilderness; the Low Plain of Siddim (Salt Valley, LXX) and Ḥôbah, which is north of Damascus (Gn 14:6-8,15). This road was known as the King's Road. The name Ḥobah is mentioned as an area north of Damascus in the Execration Texts (2000-1800), but its spelling fluctuates: Apu (’i-p-w-m) or Aupa’ (’i-w-p3-3) in hieroglyph19, Api or Ubi in syllabic cuneiform (El-Amarna letter 189) and Ḫbt in alphabetic cuneiform20. The Canaanite cities of Sharuhen (Tell el-Far‘ah), which appeared later (c. 1750 BCE), and Kadesh-barnea (‘Ain Qadeis) marked the southern boundaries with Egypt (Jos 15:1-4; 19:6). Damascus, dimašqa/i or dumašqa in Akkadian, was often called URU/KUR ša-imêrišu "place of donkey driver", which alludes to its role as a caravaneer relay.

The Chedorlaomer's route (in green; Abraham's route is in red) and the description of his actions show that this king came to an area near Egypt in order to maintain control over a new land trade route. The same way that main cities on the path from Ur to Ugarit or Byblos were vassals of Šulgi and paid him taxes, Chedorlaomer had made vassals some major cities on the King's Road. The revolt which occurred in the 13th year of his rule (Gn 14:4) was likely caused by an excessive withdrawal. During this year (1955 BCE) Šulgi's archives report an exceptional booty that the king got from Šimaški (Elam). Chedorlaomer's trip was therefore a police operation to force rebel kings to pay, but as they refused their cities were looted. Those cities drew their wealth from exports to Egypt of precious materials such as silver (the ratio silver/gold was 2/1 in Egypt), resins, spices, malachite and

19 S. AHITUV – Canaanite toponyms in ancient Egyptian documents Jerusalem 1984 Ed. Magnes Press, Hebrew University p. 193. 20 R. DUSSAUD – Nouvelles archéologiques in: Syria 16:2 (1935) p. 228.


galena21. Although Job was a cattle farmer he was not a nomad since he and his sons lived in houses of clay (Job 1:4,19; 4:19) near a public square: I used to go out to the city gate and take my seat in the public square (Job 29:7). Job also knew of the existence of copper mines (Job 28:2), which must be those of Punon (Faynan), near Bozrah, the only ones known at that period22 in this area23. Thus Job and his sons probably lived in Bozrah, but only a tiny part of this old city24 has been excavated and the oldest remnants are dated around 9th century BCE25. Given that for most archaeologists an absence of evidence is an evidence of absence, the land of Edom never existed before. However, even if archaeological remnants no longer remain, there are a few Egyptian documents which confirm the biblical account. The former name of the land of Edom was Mount Seir: the Horites in their mountain of Seir down to Elparan, which is at the wilderness (...) So Esau took up dwelling in the mountainous region of Seir. Esau is Edom. And this is the history of Esau the father of Edom in the mountainous region of Seir (...) These are the sons of Esau, and these are their sheikhs. He is Edom. These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the sheikhs of the Horites, the sons of Seir, in the land of Edom (Gn 14:6; 36:8-21). The land of Seir (Śeîr) is mentioned26 (š-‘-r-r) in the Thutmosis III's Syrian list27 dated around 1450 BCE. Then, in some El-Amarna letters28 dated around 1350 BCE several names quoted in the book of Genesis appear such as: Mount Seir (KUR.ḪA še-e-riki, EA 288:26) and city of Zoar (zu-uḫ-raki, EA 334:3) located at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea29 (Genesis 13:8-10) and Ayyab, ruler of Ashtartu a city in the land of Ammon (EA 256:6,13, EA 364:2), a name close to Iyyob (Job). The land of Seir also appears on a stele and an obelisk (s-‘-ÿ-r) of Ramses II (1283-1216). Ramses III (1192-1161) claimed to have smitten the Seirites, clans of Bedouins (Shasu), referring to the same nomads mentioned in the ‘Amara-West list, and the land of Edom (i-d-w-m-‘), instead of the land of Seir, is mentioned as the provenance of nomadic (Shasu) clans, who were granted permission during the reign of Sethy II (1207-1202) to enter the vicinity of Sile with their herds in order to pasture upon the water-meadows. Egyptian documents confirm 3 biblical pieces of information: Edom existed long before the 9th century BCE, its former name was "the land of Seir" and its inhabitants were mostly Bedouin livestock (consequently the cities of Edom would have been small). These name changes highlight the need of knowing when and in which language the document is quoted before comparing information. For example, according to the biblical text, Moses finished his book (Torah) just before he died (in 1493 BCE) and after entering the Promised Land: As soon as Moses had completed writing the words of this Law in a book in their entirety (...) For this is no empty word for you, but it means your life, and by this word you may live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. Jehovah spoke to Moses on this same day, saying: Go up into this mountain of Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which faces toward Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as a possession. Then you will die on the mountain you are about to ascend, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people (Dt 31:24, 32:47-50).

21 B. MANLEY – Historical Atlas of Ancient Egypt London 1996 Ed. Penguin Books pp. 48-49. 22 E. BEN-YOSEF, T.E. LEVY, & ALS – The beginning of Iron Age copper production in the southern Levant (...) Faynan, Jordan in: Antiquity 84 (2010) pp. 724–746. 23 B. MANLEY – Historical Atlas of Ancient Egypt pp. 18-19. 24 Today called Buseirah (30°43' N 35°39' E). 25 E.M. BLAIKLOCK, R.K. HARRISON – The New International Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology Michigan 1983 Ed. Zondervan Publishing House p. 107. 26 S. AHITUV – Canaanite toponyms in ancient Egyptian documents Jerusalem 1984 Ed. Magnes Press, Hebrew University pp. 90, 169. 27 Egyptian Topographical Lists Relating to Western Asia I:337. 28 W.L. MORAN - Les lettres d'El Amarna in: LIPO n°13 Paris 1987 Éd. Cerf pp. 483-484, 515, 559, 577, 602, 604. 29 Yohanan Aharoni identifies Zoar with es-Safi, situated on the delta of the torrent valley of Zered (Wadi el-Hasa’).


The numerous information about the dynasties and genealogies of Edomite kings, mentioned in chapter 36 of the book of Genesis, must have been collected by Moses during his stay to Bozrah. The book of Job was probably written at the same time as the book of Genesis for the following reasons: both books mention the same Edomite genealogies, the same archaic unit: the qesitah (Job 42:11, Gn 33:19) and the same place (Bozrah) from where the information was collected. Although Moses may have heard about the misadventures of Job when he stayed in Midian (Ex 3:1), he must have been written his book of Job shortly after Job’s death because many insignificant details (such as the number of heads of cattle for example) were still known. As insignificant details disappear very quickly after the death of protagonists, we can assume that Job died shortly (c. 1500 BCE?) before the account of Moses (1493 BCE). Did Moses meet Job? That is unlikely because as he was afraid to be killed by Egyptian soldiers (Ex 2:15) he had taken refuge in remote locations (and not near cities). In addition, he had not yet been appointed for reporting God's words (Ex 4:1,10). Job's life should be around 1710-1500. The Septuagint gives an amazing detail at the end of the book of Job: Now Job lived after his calamity 170 years, and all the years he lived were 248 years. And it has been written that he will rise again with those whom Jehovah raises up. This [man] is described


from the Syriac book as residing in the land of Ausitis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia. And formerly his name was Jobab (...)30. This late comment (c. 160-150) has many errors31: he did not receive an amount of years in double (170 ≠ 2x78) and Jobab died many years before Job's death. If one supposes an average of 30 years per generation (Gn 50:23, Job 42:16-17):

Abraham 2038-1863 Horite Esau (Edom) 1938-1760 Seir Isaac (1938-1758) Eliphaz I 1898?-1800? SHEIK OF THE HORITE Genesis 36:19-20 Teman 1860?-1770? Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, etc. Jacob (1878-1731) SHEIK OF EDOM reign Teman 1800-1770

(Beor father of Bela) 1770-1740 Joseph (1788- KING OF EDOM reign City of dwelling Bela (Zerah) 1740-1710 Dinhabah (Bozrah) Jobab 1710-1680 Bozrah Job (1710- -1678) Husham (Bedad) 1680-1650 Teman Hadad I 1650-1620 Avith -1640 Moses in: Samlah 1620-1590 Masrekah Egypt (1613-1573) Shaul (Achbor) 1590-1560 Rehoboth Midian (1573- Baal-hanan 1560-1530 -1533) Hadad II 1530-1500 Pau -1500) Sinai (1533- Numbers 20:14-21 -1493)

According to the reconstruction above, Jobab died c. 1680 BCE, or 180 years before Job's death, and Job's trial occurred around 1640 BCE when Hadad I was king of Edom. As Job was an eminent character at that time he was probably considered as a sheik [of Bozrah]. However he was not an Edomite because he lived in the land of Uz, not Edom, and he was accomplishing faithfully several points of Jehovah's worship (Job 1:5, 31:26-28) like his forefather Nahor II (Gn 31:53), contrary to Esau (Gn 26:34-35). However, his name likely might have been changed because ’iyyôb (אּיֹוב) doesn’t mean anything but it is close to the words ’ôyeb (אֹויב) "being enemy" (1Sa 18:29) or ’eybah (איבה) "enmity" (Gn 3:15) and it is strange as a birth name. It seems likely that his birth name was Ayyab (אּיאב) "where is Father" and this name became Iyyob after his persecution in the same way that Abram "Father of loftiness" became Abraham once he had proved his faith, a name which doesn’t mean anything but is close to Abhamon "Father of a crowd" (Gn 17:5).

WHAT HAPPENED AROUND 1640 BCE?

The misfortunes of Job would have occurred around 1640 BCE, but archaeologists argue that the Chaldeans and Sabaeans left traces only after the 10th century BCE. Once more, archaeologists turn their lack of evidence into an evidence of lack. Were there nomads coming from Sheba or from Chaldea in 1640 BCE? First of all, one should be aware that geographical, linguistic and ethnic areas overlap only partially and that they were defined mainly by Babylonian scribes. For example, Mesopotamia is an area which was defined by Greeks (mesopotamia is a Greek translation of the Babylonian area called "[land] between the [two] rivers") but the Mesopotamians (the inhabitants of Mesopotamia) are never

30 After taking an Arabian wife, he became father to a son whose name was Ennon. But he himself was the son of his father Zare, a son of the sons of Esau, but [was the son] of his mother Bosorra [Bozra], so that he was the 5th [in line] from Abraham. And these are the kings that reigned in Edom, of which country he also was ruler: first, Balak, the son of Beor, and the name of his city was Dennaba; but after Balak, Jobab, the one called Job; but after this one Hasom, who happened to be governor out of the country of Thaimanite; but after this one Hadad, the son of Barad, who cut off Madiam in the plain of Moab, and the name of his city was Gethaim. But the friends that came to him [were] Eliphaz, of the sons of Esau, king of the Thaimanites; Bildad the tyrant of the Sauchites; Sophar the king of the Minites (Job 42:16-17, LXX). 31 A. YOSHIKO REED -Job as Jobab: The Interpretation of Job LXX Job 42:17b–e in: Journal of Biblical Literature 120:1 (2001) pp. 31-55.


mentioned in Babylonian tablets (which would be a new anachronism according to archaeologists!) because the Babylonian scribes were using other definitions for their country. The northern part of their country has been called the "land of Akkad" and the southern part, the "land of Sumer". In time, the land of Akkad became Assyria (north) and Babylonia (south) and the land of Sumer was encompassed inside the Babylonian empire, which was ruled by the Kassites to the north and by people of Sea-land to the south:

LAND OF AKKAD LAND OF SUMER Biblical character AWAN I Reign BABYLON Reign UR III [-]-lu 2015-1990 Ur-Nammu 2020-2002 (UR) 2038 - Abram Kudur-Lagamar 1990-1954 Šulgi 2002-1954 -1963 (CANAAN) 1963 -

(ELAM) Amar-Sîn 1954-1945 Šu-Sîn 1945-1936 ISIN Reign Ibbi-Sîn 1936-1912 Išbi-Erra 1923 - -1890 Šû-ilîšu 1890-1880 Iddin-Dagân 1880-1859 -1863 Išme-Dagân 1859-1839 Early sheiks Lipit-Eštar 1839-1828 (EDOM) Ur-Ninurta 1828-1800 Sûmû-abum 1799-1785 Bûr-Sîn 1800-1779 Sûmû-la-Il 1785 - Lipit-Enlil 1779-1774 Erra-imittî 1774-1767 -1749 Enlil-Bâni 1767-1743 Sâbium 1749 - Zambîya 1743-1740 Iter-piša 1740-1736 -1735 Ur-dukuga 1736-1732 Apil-Sîn 1735-1717 Sîn-mâgir 1732-1721 Job Sîn-muballiṭ 1717-1697 Damiq-ilîšu I 1721-1698 (EDOM) 1710 - KASSITE Reign Hammurabi 1697-1654 SEALAND Reign Gandaš 1661-1635 Samsu-iluna 1654 - Ilum-maz-ilî 1654 - -1640 Agum I 1635-1613 -1616 Moses Kaštiliaš I 1613-1591 Abi-ešuḫ 1616-1588 -1594 (EGYPT) 1613 - Ušši 1591-1583 Ammiditana 1588 - Itti-ili-nîbî 1594-1578 -1573 Abirattaš 1583-1567 Damqi-ilišu II 1578-1562 (MIDIAN) 1573 - Kaštiliaš II 1567-1551 -1551 Iškibal 1562-1546 Urzigurumaš 1551-1535 Ammiṣaduqa 1551-1530 Šušši 1546-1530 -1533 Harbašihu 1535-1519 Samsuditana 1530 - Gulkišar 1530-1514 (SINAI) 1533 - Tiptakzi 1519-1503 -1499 Pešgaldarameš 1514-1498 Agum II 1503-1487 Ayadaragalama 1498-1482 -1493 Burna-Buriaš I 1487-1471 Akurulana 1482-1466 (CANAAN) Kaštiliaš III 1471 - Melamkukurra 1466-1459 -1455 Ea-gam[il] 1459 - Ulam-Buriaš 1455-1439 -1450 Agum III 1439-1423

When Abraham left Ur (1963 BCE), which was in the land of Sumer, his city was ruled by Babylonian kings. However he was not a Sumerian nor a Babylonian but a Hebrew (Gn 14:13). Actually most of the inhabitants of Sumer were not Sumerians and their language and ethnic background collapsed in 1912 BCE. Actually the relationship between ethnicity and geographical area have changed. The precision "Ur of the Chaldeans" (Gn 11:28,31; 15:7) at the time of Abraham, for example, is considered anachronistic because the Chaldeans appear only 1000 years later. Chaldea refers to a region in the south of Babylonia. The Septuagint translated the phrase "Ur of the Chaldeans" as "country of the Chaldeans," which refers to a geographical area, not to an ethnic area. According to Strabo, a Greek geographer: In Babylonia a settlement is set apart for the local philosophers, the Chaldaeans, as they are called, who are concerned mostly with astronomy; but some of these, who are not approved of by the


others, profess to be astrologers. There is also a tribe of the Chaldaeans, and a territory inhabited by them, in the neighbourhood of the Arabians and of the Persian Sea, as it is called. There are also several tribes of the Chaldaean astronomers. For example, some are called Urukeans, others Borsippeans, and several others by different names (Geography XVI:1:6). The location of the Chaldeans is related to a profession not an ethnic group. Herodotus also described the Chaldeans as priests-astronomers and not as an ethnic group apart (The Histories I:181,183). The Greek word kaldaiôn "Chaldeans" comes from the Assyrian kaldu which comes from the Old Babylonian kašdu32 prior to 1400 BCE33. However, the Hebrew word "Chaldeans" in the Bible is not kaldu but kašdim which corresponds to kašdu[m]. This word comes from the Sumerian kiššatu[m], which meant both "Totality [of the world]" and "[those of] Kiš". The Chaldeans are relatively poorly known. It is in an inscription of Ashurbanipal II they appear for the first time in 872 BCE. If Chaldeans are found in some major Babylonian cities (Sippar, Kuta, Kiš, Nippur, Uruk), their privileged dwelling place seems to have been southern Babylonia and the land of marshes (Sealand), where they established permanent settlements, that the Assyrian kings had to conquer. In the same way that the term Akkad refers both to the capital and its country, the name Kiš designated several centuries earlier and in the same region both the namesake city and all the geographical set formed between the Euphrates and Tigris at their entry into lower Mesopotamia34. The expression "Ur of the Chaldeans" therefore derives from an older "Ur Kašdim" very close to the ancient "Ur Kiššatum". Kiš was the first city to receive the kingdom, according to the Sumerian King List35. Chaldea and Sumer (Shinar) are merely geographical designations because despite the land of his birth being Chaldea, Abraham was not a Chaldean. Similarly, although he lived in the land of Sumer he was not a Sumerian. When Abraham resided in Canaan, then in Egypt, he was qualified as Aramean (A’amu) because he was a nomad of Aramaic language (close to Hebrew at that time). He was in fact a son of Eber, or a Hebrew36 (Gn 10:21;14:13). The word ‘eber means "to pass-over" in Hebrew37 or "to cross over (eberum)/ migrant" in Babylonian38. Shinar was a region south of Mesopotamia composed of at least three major cities39: Babylon (Babel), Uruk (Erech) and Aggad (Akkad), according to Genesis 10:10. In time the name Babylon came to mean the whole of Babylonia (Dn 1:2) whose etymology is complex. During the 3rd millennium BCE the Sumerians designated their country as KI.EN.GI, which was pronounced kenger in a Babylonian dialect, then in the 2nd millennium BCE this name evolved into šanḫar and was translated šumeru into Akkadian (meaning unknown)40 from which derives the name Sumer. Egyptians (of the time of Thutmose IV) pronounced this name šanger (s3-n-g-r) which confirms the Canaanite pronunciation šan‘ar or Akkadian šanḫar. Thus Hebrew transcription of the name Sumer is quite close to its pronunciation in the early 2nd millennium BCE (Shinar). Transcription and translation of a few Sumerian names of the 3rd millennium BCE:

32 J. BLACK, A. GEORGE, N. POSTGATE – A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian Wiesbaden 2000 Ed.Harrassowitz Verlag pp. 152, 162. 33 A.F. RAINEY – Canaanite in the Amarna Tablets Atlanta 1996 Ed. Society of Biblical Literature pp. 41-42. 34 F. JOANNÈS – Dictionnaire de la civilisation mésopotamienne Paris 2001 Éd. Robet Laffont pp. 175-176, 448-449. 35 The corpus of this ancient civilization is still very low compared to that of Sumer (E. LIPINSKI - Semitic Languages Outline of a Comparative Grammar in: Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 80. Leuven 2001 Ed. Peeters pp. 51-52). 36 The Septuagint reads: when he arrived, told Abram the emigrant (Gn 14:13), he has brought among us a Hebrew servant (Gn 39:14). 37 Abraham "passed over" the Euphrates, Moses "passed over" the Red Sea and Jesus "passed over" the Jordan River. 38 J.M. DURAND - Documents épistolaires du palais de Mari in: LIPO n°18 (Paris 2000 Éd. Cerf) p. 205. 39 Some translations add a fourth unknown city "and Kalneh", but the Hebrew word should rather be vocalized wekullanah and therefore be translated as "all of which are [in the land of Shinar]". 40 E. LIPINSKI – Shinéar in: Dictionnaire encyclopédique de la Bible, Brepols, 1987, p. 1201.


Name Sumerian Akk. transcription Akk. translation Hebrew (MT) Greek (LXX) Reference Shinar KI.EN.GI(R) Šanḫar41 Šumeru (?) Šin‘ar Sennaar Gn 10:10 Chaldeans ŠÚ Kiššatum Entirety Kašdim Kaldaiôn Gn 11:28 Ur URI Ur ? ’Ur - Gn 11:28 Babylon KA.DINGIR.RA Babilla Gate of god Babel Babulôn Gn 10:10 Akkad UR.RA Akkad ? Akad Arkad Gn 10:10 Uruk UNUG Uruk ? Erek Orek Gn 10:10 Euphrate BURANUN Purattu ? Perat Euphrates Gn 2:14 Tigris HAL.HAL Idiglat ? Hiddeqel Tigris Gn 2:14 king/ viceroy LU.GAL/ MAN lugal/ man šarru/ šanu melek basileus Gn 14:1

The term "Ur of the Chaldeans" therefore means "Ur in Chaldea," the Chaldeans (Kašdim) being the inhabitants south of Shinar (Sumer). At the time of Job (in 1640 BCE) the Chaldeans, whose king was Ilum-maz-ilî (1654-1594), were called the "people of Sealand" by Babylonian scribes. These kings constantly claimed their connection to the ancient kingdom of Kiš, as did Ayadaragalama (1498-1482) calling himself42: šanu (MAN) kiššati (ŠÚ) "viceroy of the Kiššatum (entirety)" in Old Babylonian which can be translated "king of the Kašdim" in Hebrew. From the year 9 of Samsu-iluna the huge Babylonian empire began to crumble, then from the year 12 (1642 BCE) the entire southern part (with the cities of Ur, Uruk and Larsa) came under the control of the Sealand dynasty and the northern part began to be attacked by Kassites43 (Kiššû). These political upheavals caused serious economic difficulties which pushed some Chaldean groups to perform raids on countries still having some wealth (like the region of Sodom). Archaeologists claim that the area south of Canaan was insignificant at that time and therefore devoid of wealth. According to the Bible, there were many goods in the region of Sodom (Gn 14:11-12, 21-23) and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed around 1940 BCE, a few years before Abraham was 100 years old (Gn 19:28-29;21:5). The exact meaning of these old names is uncertain but presumably they are of Semitic origin44. The region of Sodom is called Šutu[m] in execration texts45 (c. 1950 BCE). This old megalopolis must have been important at that time because there were several princes of Upper and Lower Šutu[m] as Ayyabum (Ayyab!), Kušar, Zabulanu and Šumuabu whose names are Semitic46. As the word sodom doesn’t mean anything in Akkadian (sudum / sadam), Egyptian transcripts in the Execration Texts šutu[m] are probably more reliable and could correspond to the Old Babylonian word sûtum47 which means "tenant farming". The historical existence of Sodom and Gomorrah is still in dispute by archaeologists, as little archaeological evidence has ever been found in the regions where they were supposedly situated. Among scholars who locate the cities of the Plain in the southern area of the Dead Sea, there are some who posit that Sodom, Gomorrah, and other cities were submerged by rising waters. Egyptian trade in

41 The letter ayn does not exist in Sumerian it was vocalized either "g" or "ḫ" in Akkadian. Likewise the Sumerian word E.GAL "house-great" has been transcribed hêkal "palace" into Hebrew. For Sumerians, NAM.TAR "destiny" (namtarru in Akkadian) was the god of death for evil gods (demons) and the Sumerian word TAR.TAR "cut off/fate" has been transcribed "Tartarus" into Greek (Iliad 8:13-16; Job 41:24; 2Pe 2:4). For an unknown reason, the letters "t" and "d" are interchanged regularly in Egyptian Execration texts, as Me-ke-ta for Megiddo, Me-ak-tel for Migdol and Šu-tu-[me] for Suduma (?). 42 S. DALLEY – Gods from north-eastern and north-western Arabia in cuneiform texts from the First Sealand Dynasty (...) c. 1500 BC, in: Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 24:2 (2013) pp. 177-185 43 F. JOANNÈS – Dictionnaire de la civilisation mésopotamienne Paris 2001 Éd. Robet Laffont pp. 468-469, 752-753. 44 B. MACDONALD –“East of the Jordan” Territories and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures Boston 2000 Ed. American Schools of Oriental Research p.52. 45 J. BRIEND, M.-J. SEUX – Textes du Proche-Orient ancien et histoire d'Israël Paris 1977 Éd. Cerf pp. 30-36. 46 R. DUSSAUD – Nouveaux renseignements sur la Palestine et la Syrie vers 2000 avant notre ère in: Syria 8:3 (1927) pp. 213-233. 47 In Numbers 24:17 (LXX) the chiefs of Moab are compared to Seth's sons but it is likely a wordplay (buttock's sons) because Moab's father was Lot and the word seth (שת) means "buttock" in Hebrew (Is 20:4) or "setting" (Gn 4:25).


Canaan48 over the period 2000-1850 BCE:

The name Šutu[m] appears for the last time in the form "Šu[tum]" in Tomb N°3 at Beni Hasan. One of the inscriptions that accompanies the painting describes the arrival of

48 B. MANLEY – Atlas historique de l'Égypte ancienne Paris 1998 Éd. Autrement pp. 48-49.


the “Asiatics”, led by Abša[r]49 (i-b-š3), a “ruler of a foreign land (ḥq3 ḫ3st)” or a sheik, who are bringing black eye-paint to the nomarch Khnumhotep50, here designated as the “Administrator of the Eastern Desert” in the 6th year of Senwosret II's reign51 (1863-1855). Abša[r]'s name is Semitic and means maybe "Father [of] prince". These Asiatics (‘3mw) coming from Shutu52 (Sudu[m] then Moab) to bring galena (msdmt) into Egypt were Canaanites. Galena, the material for the black eye-paint, was likely produced in this region53, which would then be called Moab (Mw-i-b-w) by Egyptians from Ramses II54. This name change is consistent with the biblical text since the former region of Sodom (Gn 10:19) became the "field of Moab" (Gn 36:35). Moab was Lot's firstborn who dwelt near Sodom (Gn 19:23-38).

The Beni Hasan tomb painting may represent an official contact between Egypt and a sheik of the Horite dwelling in the land of Edom (Gn 36:21), and one which points to a relatively peaceful style of interaction, the same depicted in the Tale of Sinuhe. According to the famous geographer Strabo (-64 24): Many other evidences are produced to show that the country is fiery; for near Masada are to be seen rugged rocks that have been scorched, as also, in many places, fissures and ashy soil, and drops of pitch that emit foul odours to a great distance, and ruined settlements here and there; and therefore people believe the oft-repeated assertions of the local inhabitants, that there were once 13 inhabited cities in that region of which Sodom was the metropolis, but that a circuit of about 60 stadia of that city escaped unharmed; and that by reason of earthquakes and of eruptions of fire and of hot waters containing asphalt and sulphur, the lake burst its bounds, and rocks were enveloped with fire; and, as for the cities, some were swallowed up and others were abandoned by such as were able to escape (Geography XVI:2:44). Among the 650 place names appearing in the (partial) geographical atlas found at Ebla (c. 2300-2200), there is a trade route from Ebla to Seir, which was

49 The sound r is rendered by an Egyptian 3 at this time, but the reading Absha[y] "Father of gift" (2Sa 10:10) is also possible. 50 The Tomb belongs to the nomarch Khnumhotep III, who is also an “Overseer of the Eastern Hill Countries”. Besides illustrating the presentation of various types of “cattle” to the nomarch, the painting depicts the arrival of a group of 37 Asiatics who are being led by an Egyptian with the title “Overseer of hunters”. The Asiatics are bearded, and wear the traditional dress of Semites as depicted in Egyptian artwork; they carry weapons typical of Middle Bronze Age Canaan, including what appear to be composite bows and a “duckbilled” axe. 51 S.L. COHEN - Canaanites, Chronologies, and Connections Indiana 2002, Ed. Eisenbrauns pp. 33-50. 52 J. KAMRIN – The procession of “Asiatics” at Beni Hasan in: Cultures in Contact: From Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C. (Metropolitan Museum of Art 2013) pp. 156-169. 53 The 3rd daughter of Job (c. -1650), who dwelled near Punon in Edom, was called “Horn of the black-(eye)-paint” (Job 42:14). 54 S. AHITUV – Canaanite toponyms in ancient Egyptian documents Jerusalem 1984 Ed. Magnes Press, Hebrew University pp. 143, 184.


important at that time as archaeology has confirmed55. The names of a few cities are recognizable56 on this ancient path (from north to south)57 such as Sodom, Admah and Zeboiim (Gn 14:2), which also appear on some tablets58, however the transcriptions of Canaanite names in the Ebla geographical atlas are approximate. The major disagreement between archaeologists and historians, concerning the old periods of history before 1000 BCE, is about what can really be considered a proof. It is particularly evident with nomadic or semi-nomadic kingdoms because they have left no archaeological trace, except some pottery, although the population of these nomadic kingdoms was of the same order of magnitude as that of the great empires of the time (Babylonian, Assyrian, Elamite, etc.). Actually we know only the nomadic kingdoms that had contact with old empires through wars or commercial contracts such as those of the Haneans, Benjaminites, Suteans (c. 1800 BCE) mainly thanks to the kings of Mari59 or to contracts with the Babylonian kings60. With the nomadic kingdoms (Aramean, Chaldean, Edomite, etc.) it is far more difficult because they became semi-nomadic only around 1000 BCE, which leads to an important bias with historians: the Aramean and Chaldean presence in southern Mesopotamia is currently dated by carbon-14 only from 1000 BCE61. We know that Aramean kingdoms in Syria were founded by Aramean tribes which came from Lower Mesopotamia62. The term Aḫlamû "Arameans" was used to designate nomadic enemies of Assyria63 under Aššur-rêš-iši I (1133-1115), Tukultî-Ninurta I (1242-1206), Salmaneser I (1271-1242), Adad-nêrârî I (1302-1271) and Arik-dên-ili (1313-1302). Around 1350 BCE, the term Aḫlamû (letter EA 200) was used to designate some disruptive ones in the Nippur area64 under Burna-Buriaš II (1360-1333). According to the Bible, the Arameans had settled mainly in Lower Mesopotamia prior to 1800 BCE: Joshua then said to all the people: Yahweh, the God of Israel, says this, "From time immemorial, your ancestors, Terah, father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates, and served other gods. I then brought your ancestor Abraham from beyond the Euphrates and led him through the length and breadth of Canaan. I increased his descendants and I gave him Isaac (Jos 24:1-2); In the presence of Yahweh your God, you will then pronounce these words: My father was a wandering Aramean, who went down to Egypt with a small group of men, and stayed there, until he there became a great, powerful and numerous nation (Dt 26:5); The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham, while he was in Mesopotamia before settling in Haran, and said to him, "Leave your country, your kindred and your father's house for this country which I shall show you" (Ac 7:2-3); Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and Jacob went to Paddan-Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean and

55 M.M. IBRAHIM – The Jordan Valley during the Early Bronze Age in: A Timeless Vale (Archaeological Studies Leiden University 19, 2009) pp. 81-95. 56 W.H. SHEA – Two Palestinian Segments from the Eblaite Geographical Atlas in: The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth (Eisenbrauns, 1983) pp. 589-608. 57 n°199 LÚ-a-bi-ra-umki (Ibleam), n°202 BABBARki (Lebona), n°210 ad-mu-utki (Admah), n°211 sa-damki (Sodom), n°214 ì-ṭi-ruki (Ataroth), n°215 ’à-wu-ruki (Aroer), n°217 sa-rí-atki (Seir) and n°219 aq-qá-bùki (Aqabah). 58 Tablets TM.76.G.524 si-da-muki, TM.75.G.2231, obv. X 4 sa-damki, TM.75.G.2231, obv. I 7 ad-mu-utki, sa-bí-imki (G. PETTINATO, M. DAHOOD -The Archives of Ebla: An Empire Inscribed in Clay. New York, 1981 Ed. Doubleday & Company, Inc. p 287). 59 J.-R. KUPPER -Les nomades en Mésopotamie au temps des rois de Mari in: Syria 35:1 (1958) pp. 117-120 60 S. YAMADA – An Adoption Contract from Tell Taban, the Kings of the Land of Hana, and the Hana-style Scribal Tradition in: Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale volume CV (2011) pp. 61-84. 61 F.M. FALES -Moving around Babylon: On the Aramean and Chaldean Presence in Southern Mesopotamia, in: Babylon. Wissenskultur in Orient und Okzident/ Science Culture Between Orient and Occident, de Gruyter, 2011, pp. 91-111. 62 F. JOANNÈS - Dictionnaire de la civilisation mésopotamienne Paris 2001 Éd. Robert Laffont pp. 63-68. 63 D.D. LUCKENBILL – Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia I Chicago 1926 Ed. University of Chicago Press §§ 73, 116, 166, 209. 64 R. DE VAUX - Histoire ancienne d'Israël des origines à l'installation en Canaan Paris 1986 Éd. Gabalda pp.194-198. A.T. CLAY – Documents from the Temple Archives of Nippur dated in the reigns of Cassite rulers in: Babylonian Expedition (1906) Vol XIV p. 16; Vol XV pp. 44, 168.


brother of Rebekah the mother of Jacob and Esau (Gn 28:5); Jacob fled to the countryside of Aram, Israel slaved to win a wife, to win a wife he looked after sheep (Hosea 12:13). The term Aram designated the country of the Arameans at that time: 2200-1800. This country is therefore very ancient65. It appears as a toponym (A-ra-muki) in an inscription at Ebla listing geographical names (c. -2200), in some inscriptions of Naram-Sin (2163-2126): the ruler of Simurrum [near Diyala river] (and) Dubul, the ruler of Aram (ENSI Si-mu-ur Dub-ul ENSI A-ra-meki ik-mi-ù) and in a Sumerian administrative document, from the Ur-III period (c. -2000), which lists animal brought to the central-park at Puzriš-Dagan (near Nippur) a city A-ra-miki is mentioned after Ešnuna. Archaeological and biblical data are consistent: the Aramean cattle breeders were originally installed in Lower Mesopotamia (2200-1800) and later moved westward, first to Upper Mesopotamia (1800-1500) and finally to Syria (after 1200 BCE). The long journey of Abraham from Ur to Egypt occurs at the time of Sinuhe where Orientals were called Aamu in Egyptian. For example, a text associated with Amenemhet I (1975-1946) called “The Prophecy of Neferti”, makes mention of Asiatics: He (Neferti) was concerned for what would happen in the land. He thinks about the condition of the east. Asiatics (‘3mw) travel with their swords, terrorizing those who are harvesting, seizing the oxen from the plow (...) All happiness has gone away, the land is cast down in trouble because of those feeders, Asiatics (Styw) who are throughout the land. Enemies have arisen in the east, Asiatics (‘3mw) have come down to Egypt. A fortress is deprived of another beside it, the guards do not pay attention of it (...) Asiatics (‘3mw) will fall to his sword, Libyans will fall to this flame, rebels to his wrath, traitors to his might, as the serpent on his brow subdues the rebels to him. One will build the “Wall of the Ruler”, life prosperity and health, to prevent Asiatics (‘3mw) from going down into Egypt66. The Egyptian words Aamu (‘3mw) and Retenu (Rtnw) are usually translated as "Asiatics" and "Syria-Palestine", they fit well to the biblical terms "people of Canaan" and "Canaan". As the Execration Texts67 transcribe the names Ascalon and Jerusalem by ’Isq3nw (Ašqalun)68 and 3wš3mm ([U]rusalimum), the Egyptian letter ‘ (3) being used for sound r/l (at least up to 1800 BCE), the word ‘3mw, could be read Aramu "those of Aram". The Egyptian word Setiu (Styw) "those of Seth" is also translated as "Asiatics", but refers more specifically to Suteans [of Moab], called "sons of Seth" in the Bible (Nb 24:17). When Idrimi (1500-1470) fled to the south of Syria, he met the Sutu [Suteans], and then lived 7 years with the Habiru [Hebrews] in the country of Ki-in-a-nimki [Canaan]69. This term Canaan, which is Semitic, does not appear in Egyptian texts (except perhaps as 'Sand Dwellers')70, moreover, because of migration, it has designated different areas according to the time: Lebanon at the time of Ebla71, c. 2300 BCE (the name Canaan appears in the sentences: kù nig-ba dBE(lum) Ga-na-na-im "gift (for) the lord of Canaan"; é dGa-na-na-im "temple of divine Canaan"), Upper Mesopotamia at the time of Mari c. 1800 BCE (written Ki-na-aḫ-nu)72, Syria-Palestine at the time of Idrimi (c. 1500 BCE) and Philistia at the time of Merenptah (c. 1200 BCE). Although the Aramean tribes began

65 E. LIPINSKI – The Aramaeans in: Analecta 100, 2000, pp. 26-31. 66 J.K. HOFFMEIER – Israel in Egypt. The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition New York 1996 Ed. Oxford University Press pp. 58-59. 67 R. DUSSAUD – Nouveaux textes égyptiens d'exécration contre les peuples syriens in: Syria 21:2 (1940) pp. 170-182. 68 Ascalon is written ’Isq3rwnw (instead of ’Isq3nw) during Amenhotep II's reign. 69 P. GARELLI, J.M. DURAND, H. GONNET, C. BRENIQUET - Le Proche-Orient Asiatique Paris 1997 Éd. P.U.F. pp. 139-140. 70 Y. AHARONI, A.F. RAINEY – Land of the Bible. A historical geography Philadelphia 1979 Ed. The Westminste Press pp. 67-77. 71 J.N. TUBB – Peoples of the Past. Canaanites London 1998 Ed. British Museum p. 15. A. ARCHI –The Head of Kura-The Head of ’Adabal in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 64:2 (2005) pp. 81-100. 72 G. DOSSIN – Une mention des Cananéens dans une lettre de Mari in: Syria n°50 1973, pp. 277-282.


to migrate from Lower Mesopotamia to Lower Egypt from the late 3rd millennium BCE (as was the case of Abraham), the first archaeological remains of the Aramaic kingdoms are not earlier than early 1st millennium BCE. There is the same problem with Edomite kingdoms73 because Edomite remains are constituted only from pottery which is not datable, except occasionally by stratigraphy combined with the carbon-14 dating (c. 1100 BCE)74. According to the archaeological excavations of 2008 in southern Jordan, the kingdom of Edom would have appeared (suddenly from nowhere!)75 around 1100 BCE76.

Distribution of different styles of pottery in the Southern Levant

Although archaeologists are very critical about ancient writings which place the biblical Edomite kingdom six centuries earlier, all their "scientific" conclusions are in fact only scholarly guesses or conjectures:

73 C.M. WHITING -Complexity and diversity in the late iron age southern Levant: the investigation of 'Edomite' archaeology and scholarly discourse in: PhD theses Department of Archaeology, Durham University (2002) Vol 2 pp. 9-11. 74 T.E. LEVY & ALS -Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom: new excavations and 14C dates from Khirbat en-Nahas (Jordan) in: Antiquity 78:302 (2004) pp. 865-879. 75 Ø.S. LABIANCA, R.W. YOUNGER –The Kingdoms of Ammon, Moab and Edom: (..) in Late Bronze/Iron Age (ca. 1400-500 BCE) in: The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land (Leicester University Press, 1995) pp. 399-415. 76 N.G. SMITH, T.E. LEVY -The Iron Age Pottery from Khirbat en-Nahas, Jordan: A Preliminary Study in: BASOR 352 (2008) pp. 41-91.


Ø All datings are based on stratigraphy combined with 14C, but actually it is not possible to know if a piece of charcoal next to pottery is from the same period or not, which alters the conclusions by one or several centuries depending on hypotheses77.

Ø The extent of the former Edomite kingdom is determined by the distribution of Edomite style pottery which is considered Edomite if it is found in Idumea, the former Edomite territory. The reasoning is therefore fully circular.

Ø The identification of the ruins of an old city is determined by using historical data which is often imprecise, thus the choice for identifying is often speculative and controversial even with a well-known city such as Bozra (= Buseirah ?).

Ø The identification of a seal of the ancient kings of Edom is determined by using historical data but these inscriptions are frequently hard to read, for example, lqwsg[br] mlk ’[dm] "belonging to Qos-Ga[br], king of E[dom]"78, is probably the same Qaush-gabri, king of Edom mentioned on the Prism of Esarhaddon79.

Ø Archaeologists have difficulty to admit it, but many past events have left no archaeological trace (even the capital of the famous empire of Akkad has not yet been found). For example, Kushu is generally taken to be south of Shutu[m] (later Moab), in what became Edom, between the eventual Moab and Midiam80, despite there being no archaeological evidence, but when Pepi I (2237-2195) led a military expedition to southern Palestine during his 18th census (year 30) he recruited a few hundred fighters81 as can be inferred from a relief at Deshasheh showing an unidentifiable walled city82 in Kushu or Shutu[m]?

Similarly a scene in the Tomb of Inyotef83 (at Thebes), who was Overseer of the audience chamber in the reign of Senwosret I (1946-1901) shows several representations of Asiatic women wearing their multi-coloured dress (see following), who were dwelling in a walled city located in the south of Canaan84 (Kushu or Shutu?)

77 I. FINKELSTEIN, L. SINGER-AVITZ -The Pottery of Khirbet en-Nahas: a Rejoinder in: Palestine Exploration Quarterly 141:3 (2009), pp. 207-218. 78 P. VAN DER VEEN - The Seal Material in: Umm al-Biyara: Excavations by Crystal-M. Bennett in Petra 1960-1965 (P. Bienkowski, 2011) pp. 79-84. 79 J.B. PRITCHARD - Ancient Near Eastern Texts Princeton 1969 Ed. Princeton University Press pp. 291,294. 80 C.M. WHITING -Complexity and diversity in the late iron age southern Levant: the investigation of 'Edomite' archaeology and scholarly discourse in: PhD theses Department of Archaeology, Durham University (2002) Vol 1 p. 108. 81 J. VERCOUTTER – L'Égypte et la vallée du Nil Paris 1992 Éd. Presses Universitaires de France pp. 324-326. 82 A. MAZAR – Archaeology of the Land of the Bible New York 1990 Ed. Doubleday 141-144. 83 B. JAROS-DECKERT - Das Grab des Jnj-jtj.f in: Die Wandmalereien der XI. Dynastie (= Grabung im Asasif 1963-1960), Ed. Zabern 1984, p. 5. 84 A. SCHULMAN – The Battle Scenes of the Middle Kingdom in: Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 12 (1982), pp. 165-183.


Given the above remarks, if an archaeologist wants to be absolutely rigorous, the only thing he can conclude is that we cannot conclude anything safely. Even doubts are not sure! The safest conclusion about the ancient nomadic kingdoms before 1000 BCE is by relying on historical documents, including the Bible because it has proven its reliability85:

Sheik of Edom Reign Event Reference Abishar 1870-1860 Abishar, a "ruler of the foreign countries" came into Egypt Beni Hasan tomb Lotan 1860-1830 Lotan, son of Seir the Horite, was the first sheik Gn 36:20 King of Edom Bela 1740-1710 Bela, son of Beor, was dwelling in Dinhabah (?) Gn 36:31-32 Jobab 1710-1680 Jobab, son of Zerah, was dwelling in Bozrah Gn36:33 Hadad I 1650-1640 The Sabaeans and Chaldeans made a raid in Edom Job 1:15-17 1640-1620 Hadad I defeated the Madianites in the field of Moab Gn 36:35 Hadad II 1530-1500 Moses asked Hadad II for crossing Edom but he refused Nb 20:14-21 [Unnamed] 1450-1440 Seir is mentioned on Thutmosis III's Syrian list Thutmosis III list [Unnamed] 1360-1340 Abdi-Heba, Jerusalem Mayor, was at war with Seir Letter EA 288:26 [Unnamed] 1280-1220 Seir is mentioned on an obelisk of Ramses II Obelisk [Unnamed] 1220-1200 Bedouin tribes of Edom came into Egypt Pap. Anastasi VI [Unnamed] 1090-1030 Saul went warring against Edom 1Sa 14:47-48 [Unnamed] 1030-1040 David struck down 18,000 Edomites and defeated Edom 2Sa 8:13-14 Hadad III 1040-1000 Hadad III was a resister to Solomon 1Ki 11:14-22 [Unnamed] 900-880 Jehoram struck down the Edomites 2Ki 8:20-22 [Unnamed] 840-800 Amaziah struck down 10,000 Edomites 2Ki 14:7,22 [Unnamed] 800-780 Mention of the towers of Bozrah and city of Teman Am 1:11-13 Qaush-malaku 750-730 Tribute to Tiglath-pileser III 2Ki 16:6 Aia-rammu 730-710 Tribute to Sennacherib Assyrian annals Qaush-gabri 680-660 Tribute to Esarhaddon, then to Ashurbanipal Assyrian annals [Unnamed] 600-575 Edom associated with Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Israel Jr 27:1-8 [Unnamed] 575-550 Edom is incorporated in the Kingdom of Arabia by Nabonidus

The disagreement of about 700 years between archaeology and history concerning the kingdom of Edom (beginning in 1740 BCE instead of 1040 BCE) is easily explained. The first kings of Edom were tribal leaders who had neither capital nor palace according to the Bible (Gn 36:31-39), they were nomads residing in tents and living from breeding and raiding (Gn 49:19). After the kings Saul and David defeated the Edomite kings during the 11th century BCE, the town of Bozrah was fortified with towers and these nomads became sedentary, living in houses instead of tents. Thus, when the Bible says: The cattle were plowing and the donkeys were grazing beside them when the Sabaeans attacked and took them, and they killed the servants with the sword (...) The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took

85 E. LIPINSKI -Edom in: Dictionnaire encyclopédique de la Bible (Brepols, 1987) pp. 379-380.


them, and they killed the servants with the sword (Job 1:15,17), this is consistent with the context of the time when (c. 1640 BCE) some bands of Chaldeans came from a land called Sealand (Chaldea), according to Babylonian scribes under King Ilum-maz-ilî (1654-1594), to make a raid into Edom for plundering during the reign of Hadad I (1650-1620). The Bible explains when and why the kingdom of Edom disappeared, in addition, without hardly a trace. When Tiglath-pileser III annexed the regions of Galilee and Gilead (2Ki 15:29), which previously had been recaptured in part by Jeroboam II (2Ki 14:25), he received the support of [Qa'ushmalaka] King of Edom (Am 1:13-15), [Sanip] King of Ammon86 and Shalman King of Moab, devastating the Gileadite city of Beth-Arbel (Ho 10:14), the modern Irbid. This powerful coalition (Edom, Moab, Ammon, Philistia, Tyre, Assyria) left a painful memory87 (Ps 83:4-8). When Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and destroyed Jerusalem in 587 BCE, Edomite hatred was clearly revealed as they urged on the devastators of Jerusalem (Ps 137:7-8). Because of its wickedness, Edom was to become like Sodom and Gomorrah, uninhabited for all time (Jr 49:7-22). The history of Edom and Ammon is very poorly known but biblical data are extremely accurate thus a seal dated c. 600 BCE bears the inscription: Baalyisha‘ the king of the sons of Ammon88:

BCE Events that occurred just before and after the end of the kingdom of Edom Reference 605 Nebuchadnezzar II defeated Egypt and created a new satrapy called “the countries

by the Sea” (7th in Behistun inscription), which included Phoenicia and Palestinian Syria (Herodotus III:91).

Jr 46:2,13

587 Baalis the king of the sons of Ammon had murdered Gedaliah the governor of Judah appointed by Nebuchadnezzar II, which was a treacherous action.

Jr 40:11,14 Ezk 25:12-14

561 Amel-Marduk released Jehoiakin the king of Judah. Jr 52:31-32 553 Nabonidus defeated Ammon (and likely Moab) just before Edom89. 551 Nabonidus defeated Edom and destroyed the main buildings in Bozrah90. Edom

was then embedded in the satrapy of Arabia (5th in Behistun inscription).

539 Cyrus crushed the Babylonian empire and released some western peoples. The satrapy of Arabia (including Edom) turned into an ally kingdom, which remained an independent ally when Darius I became king in 521 BCE (Herodotus III:88).

Ezr 1:1-4

518 Though Edom says: We have been shattered, but we will return and rebuild the ruins, this is what Jehovah of armies says: They will build, but I will tear down, and they will be called “the territory of wickedness” and “the people whom Jehovah has forever condemned”.

Ml 1:4,6-12 Zc 7:1-12

450 The Edomite region was inhabited by the Nabataean Arabs (Herodotus III:4-5).

Archaeological investigations made in order to reconstruct the past of the Edomite kingdom are illusory because, according to the remaining historical testimonies91, there is almost nothing left. Indeed, the rare large buildings that existed at Bozrah were destroyed by Nabonidus (551 BCE). The city was gradually abandoned and probably looted by the

86 C.W. TYSON –The Ammonites: Elites, Empires, and Sociopolitical Change (1000-500 BCE) New York 2014 Ed. Bloomsbury T&T Clark, pp. 251-252. 87 The chronological agreement among all these characters is remarkable: Ahaz king of Judah (742-726), Jeroboam II King of Israel (823-782), Hosea governor (738-729) then king of Israel (729-720), Pekah king of Israel (758-738), Qa'ushmalaka king of Edom (760-732), Rezin king of Syria (750-732), Shalman king of Moab (740-720), Sanip king of Ammon (750-730), Tiglath-pileser III king of Assyria (745-727) and Babylon (729-727). All these historical, geographical and chronological details regarding many kingdoms, whose situations were extremely complex and changing, prove that the writing of the biblical text had to be done at the time of the facts. In addition, their complexity involved a long report (1Ch 9:1; 2Ch 16:11), which excluded limited supports as clay tablets. 88 A.J. LERNER, F. LOEWE –Seal of an assassin. Ammonite King Plotted Murder of Judah’s Governor in Biblical Archaeology Review 25:2 (March/April 1999), pp. 46-49, 66. 89 A. LEMAIRE –Nabonidus, in Arabia and Judah in the Neo-Babylonian Period in: Judah and The Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period (Eisenbrauns, 2003), pp. 285-300. 90 B.L. CROWELL –Nabonidus, as-Sila‘, and the Beginning of the End of Edom in: The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 348 (2007), pp. 75-88. 91 P. LECOQ – Les inscriptions de la Perse achéménide Paris 1997, Ed. Gallimard pp. 14-15,130-138.


Arabs who founded Petra, the new capital of the Nabataean kingdom. Given the paucity of historical evidence, the history of the Nabataean kingdom remains controversial92. If the dating of Edomite and Chaldean kingdoms is controversial it is the same for the Sabaean kingdom. According to the Bible: Shem was the father of Arpachshad who was the father of Kainan who was the father of Shelah who was the father of Eber who was the father of Joktan who [lived c. 2600 BCE] was the father of Sheba and Ophir and Havilah (Gn 10:21-31); Havilah city was near Shur, which is in front of Egypt (Gn 25:18). In the beginning of our common era the kingdom of Sheba still existed93 and according to Strabo, a Greek geographer, philosopher and historian (c. 20 CE): The extreme part of the country above-mentioned [Yemen] is occupied by the four largest tribes; by the Minaeans, on the side towards the Red Sea, whose largest city is Carna or Carnana; next to these, by the Sabaeans, whose metropolis is Mariaba [Marib]; third, by Cattabanians, whose territory extends down to the straits and the passage across the Arabian Gulf, and whose royal seat is called Tamna; and, farthest toward the east, the Chatramotitae, whose city is Sabata. All these cities are ruled by monarchs and are prosperous, being beautifully adorned with both temples and royal palaces. And the houses are like those of the Egyptians in respect to the manner in which the timbers are joined together (...) Cattabania produces frankincense, and Chatramotitis produces myrrh; and both these and the other aromatics are bartered to merchants. These arrive there in 70 days from Aelana [Aqaba], Aelana is a city on the other recess of the Arabian Gulf, the recess near Gaza called Aelanites, as I have said before, but the Gerrhaeans arrive at Chatramotitis in 40 days (Geography 16:4:2-3). The kingdom of Sheba was located at the far south of Arabia (Yemen), the "ends of the earth" for the Jews at that time, that's why Jesus said: On Judgement Day the Queen of the South will appear against this generation and be its condemnation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon (Mt 12:42). Assyrians knew the kingdom of Sheba (Saba’) and the names of some of its queens94. For example, Tiglath-pileser III (736 BCE) wrote: Samsi, the queen of Arabia who had acted against the oath by Shamash (...) Arabia in the country of Sa[ba’ ...] The inhabitants of Mas’a, Tema (and) the inhabitants of Saba’ (...) their tribute: gold, silver, [male and female ca]mels and all kinds of spices, and Sargon II (720 BCE): I received tribute from Pharaoh of Egypt, from Samsi, queen of Arabia (and) It’amar the Sabaean. Although the Kingdom of Sheba already appeared in Assyrian sources in the 8th century BCE, this benchmark was not considered sufficient for archaeologists to date the early history of ancient South Arabia, because the first absolutely reliable dating starts with the military campaign of Aelius Gallus in 25 BCE, and the mention of the king Ilasaros. For earlier times the chronology had to be established on the basis of a comparison of the Old South Arabian finds with those from other regions, through palaeography, on the basis of the reconstructed sequence of kings and by Carbon-14 dating. Here two schools of thought have essentially evolved: the “Short Chronology” and the “Long Chronology”. At the end of the 19th century E. Glaser and F. Hommel dated the beginning of the Old South Arabian Civilisation to the late 2nd century BCE, a dating that persisted for many years. In 1955 J. Pirenne published a comparison of Old South Arabian and Greek art and came to the conclusion that the South Arabian Civilisation first developed in the 5th century BCE under Greek influence. She also supported this new "Short Chronology" by means of paleaeographic analysis of the forms of Old South Arabian letters. Based on the American excavations in Timnah and Marib in 1951–52 another “Intermediary Chronology” came into being at about the same time, which merely set the beginning of Qatabān and Ma'īn at a later time than in the “Long Chronology”. On

92 P. BRIANT – Histoire de l’empire perse Paris 1996, Ed. Fayad pp. 736-738. 93 Diodorus Siculus (Historical Library III:46:1-2) ca. 40 BCE Pline the Elder (Natural History VI:32:36-40) ca. 70 CE. 94 J.B. PRITCHARD - Ancient Near Eastern Texts Princeton 1969, Ed. Princeton University Press pp. 283-285, 663-664.


the basis of the study of a rock inscription at Marib, A. G. Lundin and H. von Wissmann dated the beginning of Saba’ back into the 12th or 8th century BCE95. Thus the “Short Chronology” was wrong and in more recent times many more arguments have been brought against it. Recent excavations have thus shown that the ancient South Arabian script (primary endpoint of civilization) should in fact go back to 1200 BCE96, 8 centuries earlier than archaeologists believed before 1970! In addition, some temples in the region, like that of Almaqah, Lord of Bar'an (near Marib, west of Hadramawt), or that of Raybun97 (east of Hadramawt), were founded from the 10th century BCE98. Thus, the first assertions of archaeologists were only the result of their ignorance. The history of this region is still poorly known, for example, more than 10,000 graves dated 3rd millennium BCE99 were recently inventoried in Yemen100. As the story of Job is located in the 17th century BCE, Sabaeans nomads who came into Edom (Job 1:15) therefore must have existed at least since that time. We know that Queen Hatshepsut during her exceptional expedition to the kingdom of Punt (1474 BCE) brought numerous myrrh trees and frankincense101. Several details of her narrative enable the identifying of the kingdom of Punt to the kingdom of Sheba: 1) aromatic resins (myrrh and frankincense) brought back into Egypt came from Punt in the south of Arabia, 2) the only known country at this time farther than Nubia (Cush) is Yemen 3) navigation on the Red Sea began with a course to port (on left) or along the coast to the south of Arabia (ancient navigation is coastal shipping), 4) the Kingdom of Punt was ruled by the prince Parahu and his wife Ity and the only kingdom known historically in this region is the ancient kingdom of Sheba. In addition, gold from Punt is mentioned in the time of king Khufu102 (2479-2456) and it is noteworthy that the artificial harbour of Khufu has been recently discovered at Wadi el-Jarf on the Red Sea (119 km south of Suez). Furthermore, a south-eastern track going from northern Egypt to Saudi Arabia through the Sinai, dating back to the reign of Ramses III, is a good clue proving that Punt was somewhere in the south of Saudi Arabia103 (Yemen). As seen, Egyptian documents confirm the biblical data about the area occupied by the Edomites, first of all called Shutu[m] (Sodom), then Seir, Edom and finally Idumea, and in addition contradict the statements of the archaeologists who claim that there was nothing (especially in Bozrah) before 1100 BCE. Ancient trade routes104 in the 17th century BCE from Chaldea (Sealand) or Sheba (Punt) to Egypt (Shur) though Edom (Seir).

95 Above all because of the results of new archaeological research, such as that carried out by the Italians in Yala / Hafari and by the French in Shabwah the "Long Chronology" attracts more and more supporters. Meanwhile the majority of experts in Sabaean studies adhere to Wissman’s Long Chronology. 96 E. LIPINSKI - Semitic Languages Outline of a Comparative Grammar in: Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 80. Leuven 2001 Ed. Peeters pp. 81-83. A. LEMAIRE – La diffusion de l'alphabet dans le bassin méditerranéen in: Langues et écritures de la Méditerranée (Éd. Khartala, 2006) pp. 204-206. 97 J.F. BRETON – Le Yemen du royaume de Saba à l'islam. Les sanctuaires de la capitale de Saba, Mârib in: Dossiers d'Archéologie n°263 mai 2001 pp. 2, 15, 48. A.V. SEDOV – Temples of Ancient Hadramawt Pisa 2005 Ed. Edizioni Plus pp. 1, 187-191. 98 J. SCHIETTECATTE – Villes et urbanisation de l'Arabie du Sud à l'époque préislamique Paris 13 mars 2006 Thèse à l'Université Paris 1 –Panthéon-Sorbonne pp. 30-37. 99 Dating on carbonate-hydroxylapatite, mineral component of bone datable by C14. 100 T. STEIMER-HERBET – Des milliers de tombes préhistoriques in: Archéologia n°382 octobre 2001 pp. 38-45. 101 M. DESSOUDEIX – Lettres égyptiennes II Paris 2012 Éd. Actes Sud pp. 81-128. 102 The earliest recorded Egyptian expedition to Punt was organized by Pharaoh Sahure (2378-2364). 103 P. TALLET – Deux notes sur les expéditions au pays de Pount à la lumière de nouvelles données archéologiques in: Revue d'Egyptologie 64 (2013) pp. 189-203. 104 H.G. MAY, G.N.S HUNT – Oxford Bible Edition 1993 New York Ed. Oxford University Press, pp. 66-67..


The ancient trade routes between Egypt and Sheba (Punt) or Chaldea are poorly documented because they involved a highly valuable freight traffic such as gold and incense105 (coveted items), hence the confidentiality of trade. The merchants of Sheba were

105 K.A. KITCHEN - On the Reliability of the Old Testament


traders of incense, myrrh and other aromatics with Egypt, through Edom, since ancient times: The caravans of Tema [Tayma] look to them, and on them Sheba's convoys build their hopes (Job 6:19). The kingdom of Sheba could also be reached by the Red Sea: King Solomon also made a fleet of ships in Ezion-geber, which is by Elath, on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. Hiram sent his own servants with the fleet of ships, experienced seamen, to serve along with the servants of Solomon. They went to Ophir and took from there 420 talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon. Now the queen of Sheba heard the report about Solomon in connection with the name of Jehovah, so she came to test him with perplexing questions. She arrived in Jerusalem with a very impressive entourage, with camels carrying balsam oil and great quantities of gold and precious stones (1Ki 9:26-10:2). Two products of Sheba were particularly appreciated: the gold [coloured alloy?] of Ophir and incense (Is 60:6). If the gold of Ophir was abundant, only until the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE (Is 13:11-12), the trade of incense lasted until the end of the Kingdom (Ezk 27:22, Jr 6:20). Herodotus specified (c. 450 BCE) that incense was coming solely from this region of Arabia (The Histories II:8, III:107). Most archaeologists before 1985 believed that Ophir was a fairy tale land, but an ostracon (opposite figure) with "gold of Ophir" (c. 700 BCE) was found in Tell Qasile106. Most archaeologists believed that major trade trips between Mesopotamia and Canaan were mythical despite the fact that around 2500 BCE a trip of 1620 km between Uruk and Lebanon is already mentioned (Epic of Gilgamesh III:9-12). However, several archaeological surveys since 1990 have shown that these trips were quite frequent107.

JOB: WHEN AND WHERE: RESULT OF INVESTIGATIONS

Although Job's biography is allusive it contains no inconsistency or anachronism. The patriarch (Ayyab) is mostly presented as a man of integrity, rich and respected. His hometown (Bozrah would become the capital of Edom after 1000 BCE) was at the crossroads of trade routes at his time (c. 1640 BCE) between northern Egypt (Shur) and Mesopotamia (Shinar) or southern Arabia (Sheba called Punt by Egyptians) involving a highly valuable freight traffic of gold of Ophir (Job 28:16) and incense coming from Tema (Job 6:19). This region (formerly known as Shutum by Egyptians in the execration texts) was rich and led by sheiks (called Hyksos "ruler of the foreign lands"). The term Chaldean (Job 1:17) refers to the inhabitants of Chaldea, a region also known as Shinar (Sumer), which was inhabited by Sumerian aristocrats and Semitic nomadic peoples at the time of Abraham like Arameans or Amorites, but mainly by descendants of Sumerians (people of Sealand "from Kish", a mythic capital) at the time of Job. Job spoke Old Canaanite, like Moses, but strongly influenced by Arabic (Job 42:14) and he also knew of the existence of Egyptian books108 or stelae through his contacts with northern Egypt (Job 8:11; 19:23-24). Given that the biography of Job is very brief, we know neither his genealogy (but Uz was likely his forefather), nor the name of his wife (but it's the same with Noah's wife), his exact age is not specified (but he received a bonus of 140 years, the double that he had), it was quickly completed and distorted, firstly by the Septuagint109 (c. 150 BCE), then by the Cambridge 2003 Ed. W.B. Eerdmans pp. 116-121, 603. 106 A. LEMAIRE, B. HALPERN, M.L. ADAMS - The Books of Kings: Sources, Composition, Historiography and Reception Leiden 2010, Ed. Brill, pp. 265-266. 107 P. BUTTERLIN – Les temps proto-urbain de Mésopotamie Paris 2003 Éd. CNRS Editions pp. 15-18, 196-198. 108 Job had to know writing because it reads: If only my accuser had written out the charges in a document (Job 31:35). 109 M. GOREA – Job repensé ou trahi? Omissions et raccourcis de la Septante Paris 2007 Éd. J. Gabalda et Cie Éditeurs pp. 223-228.


Testament of Job (c. 50 CE). In consequence, Rabbi Simeon ben Laqish (c. 200 CE) claimed that Job never existed (Midrash Genesis Rabbah LXVII). In his view, Job was a literary creation by a prophet who used this form of writing to convey a divine message. This absurd conclusion echoed today by many biblical scholars had been prophesied in the very text of Job 5:13: For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it is written: He catches the wise in their own cunning. And again: Jehovah knows that the reasonings of the wise men are futile (1Co 3:19-20). Studies on the Book of Job, generally of an impressive erudition, usually claim that whereas it includes ancient elements of badly defined origin, it was written later probably around the 6th century BCE. For example, a recent comprehensive study which concluded that Job is "unfinalizable" approximates the name of Job (A-ia-ab in cuneiform) to the Egyptian ‘Ayabi-ilu110 "Where is my father, O God?". Actually this approximation is very conjectural. The name ‘Ayabi-ilu is found in an Egyptian writing (Brooklyn papyrus 35.1446)111 dated from year 10 of Amenemhet III (c. 1830 BCE) to year 2 of Sobekhotep III (c. 1700 BCE), which is a record of the Bureau of labour112. Almost 2/3 of one household's staff (95 names) have Asiatic names, while other documents contain titles such as “officer in charge of Asiatic troops” and “scribe of the Asiatics”. This document shows that at this time (when the Hebrews were working in Egypt, according to the Bible) there were many Asiatics from Canaan who were working for Egyptian masters. The document further indicates that these Asiatic names were systematically changed into Egyptian names, which is consistent with the Egyptian custom of that time, as stated in the biblical text in the case of Joseph (Gn 41:45). However the transcription of the name H-j-í-b-í-r(?)-w as well as its vocalization Heiabiru (= Ayyab-Ilu?) are speculative113. Another comprehensive study which claim also that Job is above all "a theological poem" written around the mid 5th century BCE, concluded that Job had to have lived in Hauran instead of Edom through an in-depth etymological analysis of names, like the name Bildad which would come from an ancient Apil-dHadad found in Nuzu114. Once more this conclusion, based on an uncertain etymological analysis, is speculative because of the very few documents of that time. As the name Eldad (Nb 11:26) means "God is beloved," the probable meaning of Bildad would be "my Lord is beloved (Baal-dodi)" identical to the Akkadian name Be-lí-da-dì115 (Ur III, c. 2000 BCE). The only plausible conclusion regarding names is their great antiquity, like Eliphaz (Job 2:11) which means "My God is refined [gold?]" which is close to gu-ba-zuki/gu-pazu/ "The Voice is refined [gold?]", an Eblaite toponym116 (c. 2000-1800). To determine the period to which Job belongs, academics frequently perform comparative analysis of the literature devoted to the 'Righteous Sufferer'. These studies ignore two essential points that distinguished the Book of Job from all other wisdom books: Job was not polytheistic and he never implore God to heal him but he only asked: Why do the wicked live on, grow old, and become wealthy? (...) and God does not punish them with his rod (Job 21:7,10). For example, The Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi is a Sumerian poem which chronicles

110 S.W.T. HYUN – Job the Unfinalizable: a Bakhtinian Reading of Job 1-11 Leiden 2013 Ed. Brill p. 34. 111 J.B. PRITCHARD - Ancient Near Eastern Texts Princeton 1969 Ed. Princeton University Press pp. 553-554. 112 B. MENU – Le papyrus du Brooklyn Museum n° 35.1446 et l'immigration syro-palestinienne sous le Moyen Empire in: Égypte NIlotique et Méditerranéenne 5 (2012) pp. 19-30. 113 G. POSENER – Les asiatiques en Egypte sous les XIIe et XIIIe dynasties in: Syria 34:1-2 (1957) p. 150. 114 J. LÉVÊQUE – Job et son Dieu. Essai d'exégèse et de théologie biblique Paris 1970 Éd. J. Gabalda et Cie pp. 86-90. 115 R. A. DI VITO – Studies in Third Millenium Sumerian and Akkadian Personal Names in: Studia Pohl Series Maior 16 (Roma, 1993 Ed. Pontificio, Istituto Biblico) pp. 199, 266, 308. 116 G.F.P. PETTINATO – Materiali epigrafici di Ebla Vol 2 Napoli 1980 Ed. Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli 1980/1 p. 41 obv. IV 4


the lament of a good man suffering undeservedly. Also known as "The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer", the title translates as "I will praise the Lord of Wisdom". In the poem, Tabu-utul-Bel, age 52, an official of the city of Nippur, cries out that he has been afflicted with various pains and injustices and, asserting his own righteous behaviour, asks why the gods should allow him to suffer so. In this, the poem treats the age old question of 'why do bad things happen to good people' and the poem has thus been linked to The Book of Job. No scholarly consensus exists on a date for the writing of Job while Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi dates to c. 1700 BCE. Because of the similarity of the themes addressed, so many have compared the two works, even referring to Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi as "The Sumerian Job", that there exists today the oft-repeated claim that The Book of Job was taken from the earlier work117. While there is, obviously, some merit to this claim, it is not necessarily so. The Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi could as easily be compared to other books in the Bible such as Ecclesiastes or the third chapter of The Lamentations of Jeremiah. The speaker in Ecclesiastes asks the same questions as Tabu-utul-Bel and Lamentations chapter 3 has very similar imagery to Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi. While it is certainly possible that the later work drew on the earlier, it is just as probable that the two works simply treat the same theme. People in the modern day are still wrestling with the question of why good people suffer. Why, then, must a modern reader insist that The Book of Job derives from Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi? There are more significant differences between The Book of Job and the Sumerian work than there are similarities and, while it may be that the earlier work was drawn on as source material for the later, to read Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi as simply a 'rough draft' of Biblical narrative (or to dismiss Job as 'derivative') is to demean the works as well as miss the point of the pieces. The question 'why do bad things happen to good people' is as old as human beings themselves. Tabu-utul-Bel, like Job, endured terrible suffering even though he had been very religious, observed all the rites and prayers. He says: But I myself thought of prayers and supplications —Prayer was my wisdom, sacrifice my dignity and yet still he suffers. Job says likewise: My feet have closely followed his footsteps; I have kept to his way without deviating. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up his sayings even more than what was required of me (Job 23:11-12). Both works ask how a human being is supposed to understand the will of God and, in the end, both protagonists are healed of their afflictions through divine intervention. The differences, however, are in the details of the two works and the culture from which they spring. The most obvious difference in the two is that the Sumerian work is a monologue while the Hebrew composition is a drama. That aside, however, and also granting the obvious difference of Job's deliverance by God himself and Tabu-utul-Bel's salvation through a necromancer, the most significant difference is in what the suffering consists of and the depiction of the deities. Tabu-utul-Bel suffers in his person and extrapolates from this suffering to consider the sufferings of others and the futility of existence: Where may human beings learn the ways of God? He who lives at evening is dead in the morning (...) At one moment he sings and plays; In the twinkiling of an eye he howls like a funeral-mourner. Job suffers in his person but also must endure the deaths of his children and the loss of all he has worked for in his life. He, also, considers others' suffering and wonders how one may learn the reason for it: Let someone arbitrate between a man and God, as one would between a man and his fellow (Job 16:21). The deities themselves, however, reveal the greatest difference in the two works. In ancient Mesopotamian religion there were between 300 - 1000 deities at work at any given time and, this being so, the good which a god such as Marduk might wish for an individual could be thwarted by another such as Erra. Tabu-utul-Bel's complaint is that he should not suffer because he has done right by his god and, while

117 The phrase "They wept for 7 days and 7 nights (Job 2:12-13)" is typically Sumerian (Epic of Gilgamesh X:3).


no one would fault him for complaining about the many afflictions he lists, he would have had to know that it was not Marduk's fault he was suffering so, nor his own fault; suffering could come from any one of many deities and for any reason. The Penitential Prayer to Every God tablet (dating from mid-7th century Sumer) makes this clear in that the penitent in that prayer begs for mercy and forgiveness from whichever god he has offended unknowingly. Tabu-utul-Bel is cured at the end of the piece by a necromancer (conjurer) who Marduk sends to him and the title of the poem praises Marduk for the healing. In the Sumerian piece, then, the problem of suffering is dealt with through one god (of many) working through an intermediary to deliver justice. An ancient audience to the poem's recitation would have understood that, however undeserved they felt their own suffering to be, the gods would deal justly with them in the same way. As human beings were created to be co-labourers with the gods, the god who wished them well would, in time, redress their wrongs and cure their afflictions. In The Book of Job, however, the one supreme deity handles the situation differently. God appears himself toward the conclusion, speaking out of a whirlwind, and asks: Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you think you understand. Who set its measurements, in case you know, or who stretched a measuring line across it? (Job 38:4-5) asking, in other words: Who are you to question my ways? There is a 'happy ending' to The Book of Job, the righteous sufferer is rewarded with new children and a new life and the question: Why do the wicked live on, grow old, and become wealthy? (...) and God does not punish them with his rod (Job 21:7,10), is answered but in a cryptic way that Job understood: My ears have heard about you, but now I do see you with my eyes. That is why I take back what I said, and I repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6). Given the context of the misfortunes of Job is fully misunderstood, it implies also a misunderstanding of the answer to the question: Why does God allow evil?, the scholarly answer generally is the following: So why did God put Job through all of his suffering? Primarily it was to reveal Himself to Job. Through this interrogation, God has taught Job that He alone created everything —the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them— and He alone controls all that He created. He alone has the right to do with His own as He pleases. He is under no obligation to explain His actions to His creation. He alone is sovereign and unaccountable to anyone118. So, God would have had written a book to answer that he did not want to answer! Which logical mind can accept such a nonsense, except to assume an authoritarian God, even a little sadistic? Fortunately, the period of time 1640-1500 and the message recipients are known, they are God's servants who were in Egypt under the 15th Dynasty:

13th Dynasty Reference Reign 1778 - Asiatics

14th Dynasty Israelite ruler 1753-1741 Joseph co-regent Gn 41:40-45 1758-1744 1741-1690 Cattle princes Gn 47:6 1744 - 1690-1682 Death of Joseph Gn 47:28 -1678 15th Dynasty Great Hyksos 1682-1613 Foolish princes of Tanis Is 19:11-13 1678-1613

-1573 1613-1573 Pharaoh Apopi (Moses) Ex 11:3 1613-1573 17th Dynasty 16th Dynasty Theban kings 1573 - 1573-1533 Moses alien resident in Madian Ac 7:21-42 1573 - -1530 1533-1530 then come back into Egypt (Apopi) -1533

18th Dynasty 1530 - (in Sinai) Exodus Ex 16:35 1533-1493 -1295

118 L.J. WATERS – Reflections on Suffering from the Book of Job in: Bibliotheca Sacra 154 (October–December 1997) pp. 436-451.


Job lived in the 17th century BCE. According to the dating of Middle Bronze Age strata, the first part of the 13th Dynasty could be dated in 1750-1660 (+/- 30 years), the 15th Dynasty in 1660-1540 (+/- 20 years) and the beginning of the 18th Dynasty in 1540 BCE (+/- 10 years). The material culture of the Canaanite settlers119 in the eastern Delta displays a distinct similarity to the material culture found at Middle Bronze Age sites in Palestine120 and studies of scarabs of the Middle Bronze period from both region argue for the southern Levant as the place of origin of the Second Intermediate Period foreign rulers in Egypt121. The site of Tell el-Dab‘a, identified with ancient Avaris, was recently identified with the New Kingdom port of Peru-Nefer, where two possible harbours were found122.

13th Dynasty Memphis 1778-1686 14th Dynasty Tanis Thebes 1750-1680

Sobekhotep IV 1686-1677 15th Dynasty Avaris Job 1710 - Sobekhotep V 1677-1672 ?? (Great Hyksos) 1680 - (Edom) Sobekhotep VI 1672-1670 -1668 Ibia 1670-1659 [Šamqenu?] 1668-1656 Aÿ 1659 - [‘Aper-‘Anati?] 1656-1644 -1635 [Sakir-Har?] 1644 - -1640 Ani 1635-1633 -1632 1640-1500 Sewadjtu 1633-1630 [Khyan?] 1632 - Neferhotep II Ined 1630-1627 Hori 1627-1622 Sobekhotep VII 1622-1620 ?? 1620 - [Jannes] -1613 -1576 Apopi 1613-1573 Moses 1613-1573 ?? 1576-1573 Khamudi 1573-1572 (Midian) 1573 -

17th Dynasty Thebes 16th Dynasty Edfu Rahotep 1573 - ? (Theban kings) 1572-1571 -1569 Djehuty 1571-1568 Sobekemsaf I 1569-1567 Neferhotep III 1568-1567 Sobekemsaf II 1567-1557 Mentuhotepi 1567-1566 Antef VI 1557-1555 Nebiriau I 1566-1550 Antef VII 1555 - Nebiriau II 1550-1550 -1545 [-] 1550-1549 Antef VIII 1545-1545 Bebiankh 1549 - Ahmose (Iahmes) 1545-1544 Taa (Seqenenre) 1544 - -1537 Dedumose I 1537-1534 (met Apopi) -1533 Dedumose II 1534-1533 (return into Egypt) -1533 Kamose 1533 - Mentuemsaf 1533-1532 (Exodus in Sinai) 1533 - Mentuhotep VI 1532-1531 -1530 Senwosret IV 1531-1530

18th Dynasty Thebes Ahmose 1530-1505 -1493

In 1640 BCE, the situation of the Israelites in Egypt (Aÿ was likely the pharaoh of Upper Egypt and Sakir-Har? the vassal ruler of Lower Egypt) was turning particularly dramatic because not only they were in a pagan country, but more importantly they were enslaved by some Hebrew princes (Great Hyksos) who were their own brothers: The princes of Zoan (Tanis) are foolish. The wisest advisers of Pharaoh give unreasonable advice. How can you say to

119 M. BIETAK – Egypt and Canaan During the Middle Bronze Age in: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 281 (1991) pp. 27-72. 120 D. BEN-TOR – Scarabs, Chronology, and Interconnections: Egypt and Palestine in the Second Intermediate Period in: Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 27 (2007) pp. 1-3. 121 D. BEN-TOR – Can Scarabs Argue for the Origin of the Hyksos in: Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 1:1 (2009) pp. 1-7. 122 B. BADER – Traces of Foreign Settlers in the Archaeological Record of Tell el-Dab‘a in: Intercultural Contacts in the Ancient Mediterranean (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 202, 2011) pp. 137-158.


Pharaoh: I am a descendant of wise ones, a descendant of ancient kings? Where, then, are your wise men? Let them tell you if they know what Jehovah of armies has decided concerning Egypt. The princes of Zoan have acted foolishly; The princes of Noph (Memphis) have been deceived; The chiefs of her tribes (the Hyksos) have led Egypt astray (Is 19:11-13). Although Moses was established Pharaoh (Apopi) from his childhood (Ex 2:8-10, 11:3, Ac 7:21-22, Heb 11:24-26), some Hebrew princes refused to cooperate with him: Now in those days, after Moses had become an adult (he was 40), he went out to his brothers to look at the burdens they were bearing, and he caught sight of an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers. So he looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. But he went out on the following day, and there were two Hebrew men fighting with each other. So he said to the one in the wrong: Why do you strike your companion? At this he said: Who appointed you as a prince and a judge over us? Are you planning to kill me just as you killed the Egyptian? Moses now was afraid and said: Surely the matter has become known! Then Pharaoh heard about it, and he attempted to kill Moses; but Moses ran away from Pharaoh and went to dwell in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well (Ex 2:11-15); Now in the way that Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also go on opposing the truth. Such men are completely corrupted in mind, disapproved as regards the faith (2Ti 3:8). The precision: disapproved as regards the faith proves that they were Jewish rulers, not Egyptian priests. According to the Jewish literature of the first century, Jannes and his brother Jambres opposed Moses under the influence of Belial (Damascus Document 5:18-19). According to Manetho, Jannas ruled as king (16th Dynasty) after Apopi. The name Jannes appears on an inscription at Avaris123 indicating he was the son of Khyan, the Hyksos king (15th Dynasty) just before Apopi.

lifespan character fathered died reference 1788-1678 Joseph 37 years 110 years - Gn 41:46-50; 50:22 1758-1678 [generation lifespan] 25-30 years [75-90 years] Gn 50:23

[1710-1500] Job ? 210 years 1640 BCE Job 42:12-17 [1640-1500] [generation lifespan] 35-40 years ? Job 42:16-17 [1683-1550] Qehat [40 years] 133 years Ex 6:18 [1643-1506] Amram [20 years] 137 years - Ex 6:20 1623-1493 Miriam ? 130 years - Nb 20:1,29 Ex 2:1-4 1616-1493 Aaron ? 123 years - Nb 33:39 1613-1493 Moses 40 years 120 years Dt 34:7 1573-1513 [generation lifespan] 20 years 60 years Nb 32:11-13 1573-1463 Joshua ? 110 years Jg 2:8 1573-1493 [generation longevity] ? 80 years - Ps 90:1,10

Given that context, a man like Qehat who was 43 in 1640 BCE, grandfather of Moses, could logically ask, as Job did: Why do the wicked live on, grow old, and become wealthy? (...) and God does not punish them with his rod (Job 21:7,10), especially since they knew the prophecy sworn to Abraham (2038-1863): Then He (God) said to Abram: Know for certain that your offspring will be foreigners in a land not theirs and that the people there will enslave them and afflict them for 400 years (Gn 15:13). Strangely the Egyptian prophecy of Neferty124 stated under Amenemhat I (1975-1946) is similar to the 400 years' prophecy of Genesis 15:13. While Job has received a long answer to his question, it does not seem to have been well understood since it was raised again several times in the Bible: They say: How does God know? Does the Most High really have knowledge? Yes, these are the wicked, who always have it easy. They keep increasing their wealth.

123 M. BIETAK - Avaris the Capital of the Hyksos London 1996 Ed. British Museum Press pp. 64-67. 124 He (Neferti) was concerned for what would happen in the land. He thinks about the condition of the east. Asiatics (‘3mw) travel with their swords, terrorizing those who are harvesting, seizing the oxen from the plow (...) All happiness has gone away, the land is cast down in trouble because of those feeders, Asiatics (Styw) who are throughout the land. Enemies have arisen in the east, Asiatics (‘3mw) have come down to Egypt. A fortress is deprived of another beside it, the guards do not pay attention of it (...) Asiatics (‘3mw) will fall to his sword, Libyans will fall to this flame, rebels to his wrath, traitors to his might, as the serpent on his brow subdues the rebels to him. One will build the “Wall of the Ruler”, life prosperity and health, to prevent Asiatics (‘3mw) from going down into Egypt.


Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence (Ps 73:11-13); How long, O Jehovah, must I cry for help, but you do not hear? How long must I ask for help from violence, but you do not intervene? Why do you make me witness wrongdoing? And why do you tolerate oppression? Why are destruction and violence before me? And why do quarrelling and conflict abound? So law is paralyzed, and justice is never carried out. For the wicked surround the righteous; That is why justice is perverted (Hab 1:2-4)125. Why does the answer that Job received seem so incomprehensible?

THE BOOK OF JOB: WHY?

The book of Job was written to answer two crucial questions: one asked by Satan at the beginning of the narrative: Is it for nothing that Job has feared God? Have you not put up a protective hedge around him and his house and everything he has? (Job 1:9-10) and a second by Job towards the end of his misfortunes: Why do the wicked live on, grow old, and become wealthy? (...) and God does not punish them with his rod (Job 21:7,10). The first question did not involve only Job but also all men who serve God: Satan answered Jehovah: Skin for skin. A man will give everything that he has for his life. But, for a change, stretch out your hand and strike his bone and flesh, and he will surely curse you to your very face (Job 2:4-5). The exemplary behaviour of Job facing hardships clearly showed that upright men do what is right by principle rather than by interest (such as the Epicureans). The answer to the question of Job is given in two steps: Jehovah continued to answer Job: Should a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let the one who wants to reprove God answer (...) Brace yourself, please, like a man; I will question you, and you inform me. Will you call into question my justice? Will you condemn me so that you may be right? Do you have an arm as powerful as the true God’s, or can your voice thunder like his? Adorn yourself, please, with glory and majesty; Clothe yourself with dignity and splendour. Release the fury of your anger; Look at everyone who is haughty, and bring him low. Look at everyone who is haughty, and humble him, and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust; Bind them in the hidden place, then even I would acknowledge to you that your right hand can save you (Job 40:1-14). This preliminary basically points out that for justice prevails, one must have the means to enforce it, that is to say be more powerful than the aggressor. After all, Job who was complaining only had to act himself. Thus Job realized how he was unable to eradicate the evil, unlike God. The chief Adversary of God is clearly identified: it's Satan (Job 1:6-2:7), the Resister126. Satan's power exceeds human power, he is able to encourage looters stealing (Job 1:15,17), he is able to produce storms (Job 1:16,19), diseases (Job 2:7) and generate bad influence upon intimate friends of Job by means of spiritualism (Job 4:15). The answer to the first question is simple: the righteous one serves God by principle, not by interest. The first part of the answer to the second question is also simple: Satan is responsible for evil and is more powerful than men (1Ch 21:1; Zc 3:1-2), however the second part is quite confusing indeed: consider Behemoth and Leviathan (Job 40:15; 41:1). What does this gibberish mean? The two words behemoth “the Beast” and leviathan “encircling”, close to the name Lotan (Gn 36:29), are enigmatic. The more puzzling regarding the answer about Behemoth and Leviathan is that it was understood by Job (Job 42:1-6) but not by most of his successors since God would be regularly charged by senseless ones either of slowness (2Pe 3:9), or impotence (Ezk 8:12), or even to be inexistent (Ps 14:1). However one reads: the wicked ones will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand; but those having insight will understand (Dn 12:9-10). The Book of Job gave a warning (Job 5:13) quoted by Paul to the Corinthians influenced by philosophers: For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it is written: He catches the wise in their own cunning. And again: Jehovah knows that the reasonings of the wise men are futile (1Co 3:18-20), consequently the true insight about the origin and end of evil comes from the Bible itself, not from the

125 The answer given to Habakkuk (Hab 1:5-6) and Asaph (Ps 79:1-3) was concerning Temple's destruction by the Chaldeans. 126 The word satan means "resister/ opponent" in Hebrew (see 1Sa 29:4; 2S 19:21-22; 1Ki 5:4-25).


wise men of this world. When the Bible says that the wisdom of this world is foolishness, is this warning baseless or not? Currently most translations of the Bible indicate in their notes that Behemoth and Leviathan are two encrypted names in Hebrew for hippopotamus (sûs-ye’or) and crocodile (tannin) “sea monster” in Job 7:12, some translations replace these two names of mammals inside the very text127 (some even suggest to translate as “dinosaurs”)128. This bewildering explanation is straightforwardly absurd for the following reasons: Ø The translators of the Septuagint who knew Hebrew and were living in Alexandria and

thus well knew hippopotamus and crocodiles129, did not translate130 Behemoth and Leviathan into "hippopotamus (ỉππο-πόταμος)" and "crocodile (κροκοδείλια)" but "wild beasts (θηρία)" and "dragon (δράκος)".

Ø The crocodile has an immovable tongue as already noted by Herodotus (The Histories II:68), this is not the case of Leviathan (Job 41:1), who has also several heads (Ps 74:14), that is obviously not the case of a real animal. Likewise the hippopotamus bends its tail like a cedar tree (Job 40:17), that is obviously not possible for a real animal because its tail is tiny (opposite figure). In fact, the tail of Behemoth is straight unlike the one of the tortuous dragon (Rv 12:4).

Ø The text of Job 40:19 about Behemoth: It is the beginning of the ways of God, has puzzled many Jewish commentators from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE131. If Behemoth was a literal domestic animal (hippopotamus, elephant, water buffalo, etc.), it should be classified among mammals however, according to Genesis, they appeared at the 5th day of creation, that is to say, a day after and not before the great sea animals (Gn 1:20-25). Jewish commentators logically concluded that Behemoth and Leviathan were to be fantastically powerful animals that were to appear in messianic times for killing each other. One can read in a book written around 150 BCE: the Holy Michael said to me (...) when the Day, and the Power, and the Punishment, and the Judgment come that the Lord of Spirits has prepared for those who worship the Righteous Judgment, and for those who deny the Righteous Judgment, and for those who take His name in vain —and that Day has been prepared. For the chosen a covenant, but for the sinners a visitation. And on that day two monsters will be separated from one another, a female monster whose name is Leviathan, to dwell in the depths of the sea, above the springs of the waters. And the name of the male is Behemoth who occupies with his breast an immense desert named Dendayn on the east of the Garden where the chosen and the righteous dwell. And I asked that other Angel to show me the power of those monsters, how they were separated on one day, and thrown, one into the depths of the sea and the other on to the dry ground of the desert (...) These two monsters, prepared in accordance with the greatness of the Lord, will feed them that Punishment of the Lord. And children will be killed with their mothers and sons with their fathers. When the punishment of the Lord of Spirits rests upon them it will remain resting so that the punishment of the Lord of Spirits may not come in vain upon these (The Book of Enoch LX:4-9,24-25). The Babylonian Talmud offers the fanciful explanation (c. 190-220 CE): All that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in his world he created male and female. Likewise, Leviathan the slant serpent and Leviathan the tortuous serpent he created male and female; and had they mated with one another they would have destroyed the whole world. What [then] did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He castrated the male and killed the female preserving it in salt for the righteous

127 Living Bible; Contemporary English Version; New Life Version; Orthodox Jewish Bible. 128 The crocodile and the hippopotamus were depicted by Herodotus around 450 BCE (The Histories II:68,71). 129 E. LYONS -Behemoth and Leviathan—Creatures of Controversy in: Reason & Revelation n°21 (January 2001), pp. 1-7. 130 The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English (Hendrickson Publishers, 1999), p. 696. 131 A. CAQUOT – Léviathan et Behémoth in: Semitica XXV (1975) pp.111-122.


in the world to come; for it is written: And he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. And also Behemoth on a thousand hills were created male and female, and had they mated with one another they would have destroyed the whole world. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He castrated the male and cooled the female and preserved it for the righteous for the world to come (Baba Batra 74b).

It is therefore evident that Behemoth and Leviathan are two symbolic animals132 and not mammals (including dinosaurs)133. How did skilled specialists succeeded in twisting and turning such an explanation so elementary? Actually, the changes occurred gradually. Jerome (347-420), who translated the Hebrew Bible into Latin, came to the conclusion that Behemoth was an evil force because the description of its fantastic strength looked like the one of Leviathan, while noting that the text of Job 40:19 usually applied to Jesus because of Colossians 1:15, was strange. He deduced, to remain consistent with his interpretation that Good and Evil had been created together at the beginning134. The few commentators who would follow would develop especially the interpretation of a diabolical Behemoth and would seek to identify it either to the Antichrist described as an angel of light (2Co 11:14) in the writings135 of Olympiodorus (500-565) or an allegorical representation of human passions considered as evil. Then, unexpectedly in the late 12th century, two commentators, a Jew and a Christian, will stand out from the previous interpretations. Maimonides, connoisseur of the Talmud, stated that the book of Job was connected to deep thoughts and from the context the evil and good inclination, contrary to what Jewish tradition usually said, could not be inherent tendencies of man, but rather two angels (Talmud Shabbat 119b). Satan was the evil inclination and another angel being the good inclination (not elucidated by Maimonides). At about the same time (c. 1190) Martin of Leon136, a Roman Catholic, had reached a more surprising conclusion, he thought that if Leviathan was the Dragon, Behemoth which was depicted in parallel should represent a resurrected Jesus. Although very revolutionary, the contribution of these two scholars did not change the works that followed, they marked rather the end of allegorical researching about those two powerful creatures. The remarks of two theologians, Albert the Great (1206-1280), and Thomas Aquinas (1227-1274), were decisive. Their interpretation, mostly accepted today directed subsequent research toward the literal meaning. Whereas the allegorical interpretations were "rantings" and too complicated, they finally opted for a literal interpretation of the two animals, Behemoth was identified as an elephant (despite Job 40:19!) and Leviathan as a whale (Job 41:18-19!). After the 13th century, some researchers would be directed back to a symbolic identification, but their works remained anecdotal. Archaeological discoveries in the 19th century revealed that Mesopotamian and Egyptian myths already were describing from long ago evil forces under the form of monstrous animals. These findings have convinced theologians and biblists that Leviathan and Behemoth were in fact mythological animals and that ancient myths must have inspired the biblical narratives137. Although there has been a debate138 for choosing between the

132 Behemoth (7 occurrences): Dt 32:24; Jr 12:4; Ha 2:17; Ps 50:10; 73:22; Jb 12:7; 40:15; Leviathan (6 occurrences): Is 27:1; 27:1; Ps 74:14; 104:26; Jb 3:8; 40:25. 133 Collectively, dinosaurs as a clade are divided into two primary branches, Saurischia and Ornithischia. Saurischia includes those taxa sharing a common ancestor with birds and Ornithischia a common ancestor with Triceratops (a giant lizard). 134 HIERONYMI - Commentarii in librum Job XL in: Patrologiæ Latina XXVI Éd. (1845, JP. Migne) pp.781-790. 135 OLYMPIODORI ALEXANDRINI - In beatum Job in: Patrologiæ Graecæ XCIII, Turholt (1966 Ed. Brepols) pp. 419-435. 136 Martini Legionensis - Sermo XXVI in ressur. domini in: Patrologiæ Latina CCVIII (1855, Éd. JP. Migne) pp. 934-940. 137 J. V. KINNIER WILSON -A Return to the Problems of Behemoth and Leviathan in: Vetus Testamentum 25:1 (January, 1975), pp. 1-14. 138 J. VERMEYLEN - Behémot in: Dictionnaire encyclopédique de la Bible (Brepols, 1987), p. 192.


Mesopotamian myth, representing evil forces in the form of a bull and a snake, and the Egyptian myth representing these forms as a hippopotamus and a crocodile, a consensus has emerged in favour of the Egyptian myth for the following reasons: Ø The Egyptian myth that describes some ambivalent evil forces139 in the form of a

hippopotamus associated with a crocodile is very old. The evil form is represented by Seth (male)/ Sobek against Horus, the beneficial form by Thueris (female)/ Sobek140.

Ø The Egyptian myth of the hippopotamus associated with the crocodile (Dragon) is shown in several ancient zodiacal astronomical ceilings like the one of Senenmut's tomb dated year 9 of Thutmose III (1463 BCE) or Seti I's tomb (figure below), the two mythological monsters being in the midst of star constellations represented by cosmological goddesses and gods141. This coincidence was considered crucial because the text of Job in the Septuagint describes several constellations of stars, including the stars of Pleiades and Orion, just before the description of Behemoth and Leviathan: Did you understand the bond of Pleiades and did you open the barrier of Orion (Job 38:31-32).

Ø A coincidence of sonority between the Egyptian word pa-ìḥ-mu "the water ox" and the Hebrew word behema (singular of behemoth) was considered as a final argument.

The above arguments are really of great learning, but what is the most impressive is that they are all wrong. The word pa-ih-mu is a modern invention that has never existed. The hippopotamus was well known in Egypt and there are indeed several Egyptian words to describe it (db, ḫ3b) including the very colourful term "bull of marshes" (k3 mhy), but the fanciful word ìḥ-mu "water ox" was never used to refer to the hippopotamus. Regarding the Septuagint translation, Pleiades and Orion constellations are also inventions because the word "constellation" does not appear in the Hebrew text and the translation of Hebrew words kimah "herd" and kesil "fool" into Pleiades and Orion is pure speculation. Lastly the fact to assume that the symbolism of biblical animals was inspired by Egyptian cosmogony shows a profound ignorance of the Bible because there has always been a conflict between the Egyptian and Israelite concepts about interpretations from the divine (Gn 40:8; 41:8). Moreover there is a powerful biblical warning against myths: For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the wholesome teaching, but according to their own desires, they will surround themselves with teachers to have their ears tickled. They will turn away from listening to the truth and give

139 The giant snake Apophis is the more common. 140 N. GUILHOU, J. PEYRÉ – La mythologie égyptienne Paris 2005 Éd. Marabout pp. 320-323. 141 M. CAZENAVE – Encyclopédie des symboles Paris 1996 Éd. Le livre de poche pp. 174-176, 308.


attention to myths (2Ti 4:3-4). Theological speculations have favoured cataclysmic or spooky interpretations: Behemoth and Leviathan could be symbols of frightening dictatorships142 like the one of Nazis143, for others they are allegories of absurdity of the world as for Kafka144 or dreamlike madness145 like "The Wonderful Wizard (Satan) of Oz (Uz)".

BEHEMOTH AND LEVIATHAN: WHAT DOES IT MEAN THIS GIBBERISH?

It must be remembered that Behemoth and Leviathan are the final answer to the nagging question of Job: Why do the wicked live on, grow old, and become wealthy? (...) and God does not punish them with his rod (Job 21:7,10) and he was able to understand it (Job 42:1-6). First of all Job knew the Leviathan and understood what Behemoth meant. We read: Job said: Let the day perish on which I was born also the night when someone said: A man has been conceived! (...) Let those who curse the day put a curse on it, those who are able to awaken Leviathan. Let the stars of its twilight grow dark (Job 3:2,8-9); And those who provoke God are secure, those who have their god in their hands. However, ask, please, Behemoth, and it will instruct you; Also the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you. Or give consideration to the earth, and it will instruct you; And the fish of the sea will declare it to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of Jehovah has done this? (Job 12:6-9). Job viewed very differently these two symbolic creatures; indeed the behaviour of Leviathan is depicted as malefic whereas that of Behemoth is beneficial. Similarly the presentation of Behemoth is positive: Here, now, is Behemoth, which I made as I made you (Job 40:15); unlike the Leviathan, which is ironic: Can you catch Leviathan with a fishhook or hold down its tongue with a rope? Can you put a rope through its nostrils or pierce its jaws with a hook? (...) Will you play with it as with a bird or tie it on a leash for your little girls? (Job 41:1-2,5). It must be remembered that Job was speaking Old Canaanite and was able to understand it so the words Behemoth and Leviathan had meaning for him. Behemoth is the plural of behemah which means "domestic animal" (Gn 1:24) consequently it means "domestic animals" or "beasts" (Dt 32:24). However, when a plural is used with a singular verb it becomes a plural of abstraction or majesty, for example hokhmoth means "wisdom" or "wise ones" depending on the verb, singular or plural. As the translation of behemoth into "beasts" in Job 12:7 and 40:15 does not make clear sense: ask, please, the beasts, and it will instruct you, it must be considered rather as a prestigious name146 which was understood by Job as "the Creature". The meaning of Leviathan ("dragon" LXX) is not as clear, some scholars link this name to Levi "adherence" (Gn 29:34) or to first sheik called Lotan "wrapping up" (Gn 36:29). Anyway, Job was aware of Leviathan long before his misfortunes and knew that it was an evil creature, a gliding serpent (Job 3:8-9; 26:13), a resister ("Satan"). What did Job know exactly about the dragon Leviathan? One can read in a text dated c. 2000 BCE: He brought forth the Warrior dragon from the great fortress of the mountains (...) He brought forth the Seven-headed serpent from the ... of the mountains (...) He hung the Seven-headed serpent on the shining (Ninurta's return to Nippur §§ 33,39,62). On a Sumerian seal147 dated under Sargon of Akkad (2243-2187) there is a 7-headed dragon which is attacked from the front by a god (Ninurta?) with an attendant, and from behind by another god with a smaller follower (below left). Three of the heads of the dragon are alive and fighting, while four

142 T. HOBBES - Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil (published in 1651). 143 F.L. NEUMANN – The Nazi Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism. 1942-1944 Reprint 1983, Ed. Octagon. 144 S. LASINE – The Trials of Job and Kafka's Josef K. in: The German Quarterly 63:2 (Spring, 1990), pp. 187-198. 145 T. LINAFELT - The Wizard of Uz: Job, Dorothy, and the Limits of the Sublime in: Biblical Interpretation A Journal of Contemporary Approaches (01/2006) 14:1-2 pp. 94-109. 146 P. JOÜON, T. MURAOKA – A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. Part Three: Syntax Roma 1993 Ed. Pontificio Istituto Biblica pp. 499-504. 147 J.B. PRITCHARD -The Ancient Near East in Pictures 1969, Princeton University Press pp. 218,221,332.


heads hang limp and defeated. Flames are seen arising from the back of the dragon. On a small shell plaque dated c. 2500-2400, six of the heads of the dragon are alive and fighting, while one head hangs limp and defeated (below right):

The name of the 7-headed dragon was Lotan “wrapping up” (Gn 36:29) or Leviathan “encircling” as some epics found in Ugarit show (dated 1350-1200). For example, one reads: Serves Puis[sant] Baal, ministers to the Prince, Lord of Earth (...) What enemy's ris[en] against Baal, what foe against the Rider of Clouds? (...) Did I not, pray, muzzle the Dragon? I did crush the crooked serpent, tyrant148 of the seven-headed (...) If thou smite Lotan, gliding serpent, destroy the crooked serpent, tyrant of the seven-heads149. The identification of Satan, an evil god (1Jo 5:19) and gliding serpent (Job 26:12-13), with the monstrous animal called Leviathan, a 7-headed dragon, is confirmed by other biblical texts: In that day Jehovah, with his hard and great and strong sword, will turn his attention to Leviathan, the gliding serpent, even to Leviathan, the crooked serpent, and he will certainly kill the sea monster that is in the sea (Is 27:1); You yourself stirred up the sea with your own strength; You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. You yourself crushed to pieces the [7] heads of Leviathan (Ps 74:13-14); And another sign was seen in heaven, and, look! a great fiery-coloured dragon, with 7 heads and 10 horns and upon its heads seven diadems; and its tail drags a third of the stars of heaven, and it hurled them down to the earth. And the dragon kept standing before the woman who was about to give birth, that, when she did give birth, it might devour her child (...) And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him (Re 12:3-9). The final answer of God enabled Job to understand that his misfortunes were coming not from God as he believed (Job 1:21) but from Satan, known at that time under the name Leviathan (Job 3:8). Despite the tremendous power of Satan (Job 41:29-34), Job learned that there was an even more powerful creature, Behemoth: Its bones are tubes of copper; its strong bones are like wrought-iron rods. It is the beginning of the ways of God; its Maker can bring near his sword (...) If the river acts violently, it does not run in panic. It is confident, although the Jordan should burst forth against its mouth (Job 40:18-23). Some translators have suggested that the divine sword (חרב) was symbolizing a tusk150 (no comment!). Consequently this divine sword gave hope to Job that in the future Behemoth would receive the power of beheading the Leviathan since he stated: Be frightened for yourselves because of a sword, for the sword means a raging against errors, in order that you men may know there is a judge (Job 19:29). The final outcome was different from that which Job wished: O that in the Grave you would conceal me, that you would hide me until your anger passes by, that you would set a time limit for me and remember me! If a man dies, can he live again? I will wait all the days of my compulsory service until my relief comes. You will call, and I will answer you. You will long for the work of your hands (Job 14:13-15). In order not to suffer any longer Job wanted to die waiting for a resurrection, he was convinced he had earned his

148 The word šlyṭ (which gave "sultan") means "domineering one" (see Genesis 42:6) or "tyrant" (W.M. SCHNIEDEWIND, J.H. HUNT – A Primer on Ugaritic. Language, Culture and Literature. 2007 Cambridge University Press p. 207). 149 J.B. PRITCHARD - Ancient Near Eastern Texts Princeton 1969 Ed. Princeton University Press pp. 135-138. 150 P. DHORME - Le livre de Job Paris 1926 Éd. J. Gabalda pp. 566-567.


resurrection and that he had a redeemer with God: For I well know that my redeemer is alive; He will come later and rise up over the dust. After my skin has thus been destroyed, while yet in my flesh, I will see God, whom I will see for myself, whom my own eyes will see, not someone else’s (Job 19:25-27). The identity of this redeemer is not clear151 but Job was convinced that he had to exist on account of his concept of justice (Job 29:14-25). Job's hope (mentioned in Job 19:26) was unanimously understood by readers152 as the resurrection to come153. Elihu would correct Job's point of view about the redeemer's identity. This redeemer exists but not independently of God (as Job believed), it is an angel, a mediator from God: Then, if there is an Angel near him, a Mediator, one in a thousand, to remind him where his duty lies, to take pity on him and to say, 'Spare him from going down to the abyss: I have found the ransom for his life, his flesh will recover its childhood freshness, he will return to the days of his youth. He will pray to God who has restored him to favour, and will come into his presence with joy. He will tell others how he has received saving justice and sing this hymn before his companions, 'I sinned and left the path of right, but God has not punished me as my sin deserved. He has spared my soul from going down to the abyss and is making my life see the light. All this is what God keeps doing again and yet again for human beings, to snatch souls back from the abyss and to make the light of the living still shine (Job 33:24-31). Thus Job was able to understand that Satan, an evil heavenly creature (a snake with 7 heads) at the origin of his misfortunes would be soon destroyed in the future by his redeemer (with a sword) who was actually the first creature of God. These explanations enabled Job to understand that the final conflict between Behemoth and Leviathan also involves other angels (depicted by stars): Now the day came when the sons of the true God entered to take their station before Jehovah, and Satan also entered among them (...) When the morning stars joyfully cried out together, and all the sons of God began shouting in applause? (Job 1:6; 38:7). In the past, stars were usually regarded as celestial beings (Nb 24:17; Jg 5:20), but star worship was condemned (Dt 4:19). Once more, translators have been puzzled by the literal meaning of God's response which seems to be incomprehensible: Then Jehovah answered Job (...) Can you tie the ropes of Kimah* or untie the cords of Kesil*? Can you lead out Mazaroth* in its season or guide Ash* along with its sons? Do you know the laws governing the heavens, or can you impose their authority on the earth? (Job 38:1,31-33). Although the four un-translated words with asterisk have a meaning in Hebrew, all translators have thought it was an encryption of some constellations of the zodiac. That is absolutely absurd for the following reasons: Ø The word constellation (mazal in Hebrew) appears nowhere in the verse. The very notion

of "group of stars" is not even referred to. Ø The translation of certain words is problematic such as: "Mazaroth [plural form] in its

season [singular]" or "Ash along with its sons [constellation's sons?]". Ø The description of constellations (mazaloth) has no bearing on the question about the

destruction of the wicked (it would have been a real gibberish). Ø Job was not an astronomer and would therefore not have understood technical terms (as

us today), which remain unknown, used by ancient astrologers (Is 47:13)! Ø Constellations are associated with false worship and have always a negative meaning in

the Bible: So he put out of business the foreign-god priests, whom the kings of Judah had appointed to make sacrificial smoke on the high places in the cities of Judah and the surroundings of Jerusalem, as well as those making sacrificial smoke to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations [of the zodiac], and to all the army of the heavens (2Ki 23:5), as well as astrologers (Dn 2:7).

151 F.R. MAGDALENE – Who Is Job's Redeemer?: Job 19:25 in Light of Neo-Babylonian Law in: Zeitschrift für Altorientalische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte 10 (2004) pp. 292-316. 152 Quoted (c. 90 CE) by Clement of Rome (Epistle to Corinthians 26:3) and a Jewish apocryphal (Testament of Job 39:12-13; 40:3). 153 H. TREMBLAY – Job 19,25-27 dans la Septante et chez les pères grecs. Unanimité d'une tradition in: Études Bibliques (Nouvelles série) N°47 (Gabalda, 2002) pp. 9-21.


The literal translation of Job 38:31-33 is strange but not meaningless. If one uses the literal meaning154 of kimah "herd [of camels]", kesil "stupid one" (Pr 1:32), mazaroth "scatterers" (Job 37:9) and ash "moth" (Job 4:19), the verse reads: Can you tie the ropes of a herd or untie the cords of a stupid? Can you lead out a scattering155 in its season or guide a moth along with its sons? Do you know the laws governing the heavens, or can you impose their authority on the earth? Job likely understood that the stars mentioned in God's answer were representing angels and in the same way that he had inferred there was two powerful creatures, a beneficial Behemoth and a malevolent Leviathan, he had to infer that there were beneficial stars (angels) and also some malevolent stars (demons) whose names were ironic (herd, stupid, scattering, moth) like the one of Leviathan (crooked snake). Before God's final answer, Job had stated some mundane truths: He is making the earth go quaking from its place, so that its very pillars shudder. He is saying to the sun that it should not shine forth, and around stars he puts a seal, stretching out the heavens by himself and treading upon the high waves of the sea; Making moth stupid and herd [of camels] and the interior rooms of Teman; Doing great things unsearchable, and wonderful things without number (Job 9:6-10), but after God's answer, his statement gained a new sense: Can you tie the "evil" stars (Job 38:7) and guide them, as God will do with Leviathan (Job 41:1-5)? Do you know the laws governing the heavens (Job 1:6), if you can impose their authority on the earth (Job 1:12; 2:6)? The response to Job was not esoteric (or dreamlike as some would like to believe) but rather an eschatological prophecy similar to the one of the New Testament: I want to remind you that Jehovah, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those not showing faith. And the angels who did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place, he has reserved with eternal bonds in dense darkness for the judgment of the great day (...) when Michael the archangel had a difference with the Devil and was disputing about Moses’ body, he did not dare to bring a judgment against him in abusive terms, but said: May Jehovah rebuke you (...) stars with no set course, for which the blackest darkness stands reserved forever (Jd 5-6,9,13). The question of the origin and end of evil, first arisen in the book of Job, would occur again at the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Babylonians. It is noteworthy that the same symbols were used when a descendant of Asaph asked God: They say: How does God know? Does the Most High really have knowledge? Yes, these are the wicked, who always have it easy. They keep increasing their wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence. And I was troubled all day long (...) They have given the dead bodies of your servants as food to the birds of the heavens and the flesh of your loyal ones to the wild beasts of the earth. They have poured out their blood like water around Jerusalem, and no one is left to bury them. We have become an object of reproach to our neighbours; Those around us ridicule and jeer us. How long, O Jehovah, will you be furious? Forever? (Ps 73:11-13; 79:2-5). Asaph's statement is quite similar to Job's response, including Behemoth and Leviathan: How long, O God, will the adversary keep taunting? Will the enemy treat your name with disrespect forever? Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Draw it out of your bosom and put an end to them. But God is my King from long ago, the one performing acts of salvation on the earth. You stirred up the sea with your strength; You smashed the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. You crushed the [seven] heads of Leviathan; You gave it as food to the people, to those inhabiting the deserts (Ps 74:10-14). The last point about the "food" is further developed in the Book of Revelation: Write: Happy are those invited to the evening meal of the Lamb’s marriage (...) I saw also an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice and said to all the birds that fly in midheaven: Come here, be gathered together to the great evening meal of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of military commanders and the flesh of strong men and the flesh of horses and of

154 F. BROWN, S.R. DRIVER, C.A. BRIGGS – A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament Oxford 1951 Ed. Clarendon Press, pp. 465,799. 155 The word mazaroth (feminine plural) is close to mazarim "scatterers" (masculine plural) and given that the pronoun "its season" is singular, mazaroth may be understood as a plural of generalisation "scattering".


those seated on them, and the flesh of all, of freemen as well as of slaves and of small ones and great. And I saw the wild beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the one seated on the horse and against his army. And the wild beast was caught, and along with it the false prophet that performed in front of it the signs with which he misled those who received the mark of the wild beast and those who worship its image (Re 19:9,17-21). It is noteworthy that if Leviathan's heads are crushed (prophetic past!), Behemoth is also mentioned in Asaph's response: Until I proceeded to come into the grand sanctuary of God. I wanted to discern their future. Surely on slippery ground is where you place them. You have made them fall to ruins. O how they have become an object of astonishment as in a moment! [How] they have reached their end, have been brought to their finish through sudden terrors! Like a dream after awaking, O Jehovah, [So] when arousing [yourself] you will despise their very image. For my heart was soured and in my kidneys I was sharply pained, and I was unreasoning and I did not know Behemoth, I was with you156, I am constantly with you; You have taken hold of my right hand. With your counsel you will lead me, and afterward you will take me even to glory. Whom do I have in the heavens? And besides you I do have no other delight on the earth (Ps 73:17-25). Most translators, who did not understand the role of Behemoth in the final resolution of the conflict with Leviathan, have invented a translation of Behemoth more or less understandable like "brutish" in the Jerusalem Bible! In the same way that in the book of Job the final outcome about wickedness is related to the final fight between Behemoth and Leviathan and to the fall of evil stars like kesil "stupid one" or kimah "herd": A pronouncement against Babylon (...) Look! The day of Jehovah is coming, cruel both with fury and with burning anger, to make the land an object of horror, and to annihilate the land’s sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their stupid [kesil] ones will not give off their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light. I will call the inhabited earth to account for its badness, and the wicked for their error. I will put an end to the pride of the presumptuous, and I will humble the haughtiness of tyrants (...) How you have fallen from heaven, o shining one [Lucifer in the Vulgate], son of the dawn! How you have been cut down to the earth, you who vanquished nations! You said in your heart :I will ascend to the heavens. Above the stars of God I will lift up my throne, and I will sit down on the mountain of meeting, in the remotest parts of the north. I will go up above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself resemble the Most High. Instead, you will be brought down to the Grave, to the remotest parts of the pit (...) In that day Jehovah will turn his attention to the army of the heights above and to the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they will be gathered together like prisoners gathered into a pit, and they will be shut up in the dungeon; after many days they will be given attention. The full moon will be abashed, and the shining sun will be ashamed, for Jehovah of armies has become King in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem (Is 13:1,9-10; 14:12-15; 24:21-23). Most translators, influenced by the Septuagint, changed the surprising word "their stupid ones" by "their constellations", but this choice is just a guess because the literal meaning is quite clear, the "stupid stars" are demons (Re 12:3,7-9; 20:1-4). Similarly, one reads: The virgin, Israel, has fallen (...) The One who made a herd (kimah) and stupid one (kesil), the One who turns deep shadow into morning, the One who makes day as dark as night (...) Jehovah is his name. He will cause destruction to burst out against the strong, bringing destruction on fortified places (...) Now you will have to carry away Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan, your images, the star of your god, whom you made for yourselves (Am 5:2,7-8,26). The literal meaning is surprising but not absurd: God created the stars that have become stupid but they will be destroyed by Him. Moreover Satan is also presented as the leader of the opposition to God: And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Jehovah, and Satan was standing at his right hand to resist him. Then the angel of Jehovah said to Satan: May Jehovah rebuke you, O Satan, yes, may Jehovah, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this one a burning log snatched out of the fire? (Zc 3:1-2).

.and I [singular] did not know beasts [plural]/ the Beast [plural of majesty], I was with you :ולא אדע בהמֹות הייתי עמך 156


The question of the end of wickedness is dealt with only twice in all the Old Testament, first during the slavery in Egypt (Book of Job), then during the destruction of Jerusalem. Both times God's response was the same: the seven-headed serpent, Leviathan (Satan), and the herd of stupid stars will be destroyed in the future. The Bible describes the Leviathan only at these two dramatic events and also once when David made an illegal census (around 1025 BCE) in order to clarify that Satan, or Leviathan (Ps 104:26), was the real instigator of this evil (1Chronicles 21:1). The Seven-headed Serpent (from Sumerian muš-saĝ-7: snake with 7 heads), one of the oldest dragons belongs both to the Bible and Sumerian mythology157, but contrary to the Bible which kept the original model, the following mythologies, as the Babylonian mythology158 (c. 1100 BCE), turned the dragon into a multitude of infernal monsters: [Tiamat] gave birth to giant serpents (...) She clothed the fearful monsters with dread, she loaded them with an aura and made them godlike (...) She created the Hydra, the Dragon, the Hairy Hero. The Great Demon, the Savage Dog, and the Scorpion-man (Enuma Elish 134-142). In the same way Homer wrote (c. 850 BCE): he first commanded Bellerophon to kill that savage monster, the Chimaera, who was not a human being, but a goddess, for she had the head of a lion and the tail of a serpent, while her body was that of a goat, and she breathed forth flames of fire; but Bellerophon slew her, for he was guided by signs from heaven (Iliad VI:181-182). Hesiod wrote (c. 700 BCE): So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bare Orthus the hound of Geryones, and then again she bare a second, a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, 50-headed, relentless and strong. And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with the mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house of Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the unpitying sword through the plans of Athene the spoil-driver. She was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had 3 heads, one of a grim-eyed lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay (Theogony 306-325). Consequently these mythological monsters do not have much to do with the snake with 7 heads of the Bible, since neither its origin (a fallen angel) nor its appearance are known (the number of heads for the Hydra or Cerberus is very varying):

Cerberus (c. 525 BCE) Hydra (c. 345 BCE) Naga Snake (c. 1100 CE)

The 7-headed serpent is therefore a biblical innovation that has not been influenced by various and fanciful mythologies. However, the 1st-century Jewish literature was partly influenced since it describes Satan as the ruler of demons with a multitude of names: Beelzebub (Mt 12:24-28), Belial (2Co 6:15), Azazel (Lv 16:8), etc. Satan appears little in the writings of Qumran except in certain treaties of demonology or in worship of the angels (Col 2:18). As noted in the answer to Job, the end of wickedness will occur when Leviathan will have its 7 heads severed. It is a prophecy and according to the Talmud: all the prophecies are relating to the days of the Messiah (Talmud Shabbat 63a); and according to the New

157 Some parts of the Epic of Gilgamesh are close to Noah's narrative (Ziusudra) in Genesis 6. 158 J. BOTTÉRO, S.N. KRAMER – Lorsque les dieux faisaient l'homme Paris 1993 Éd. Gallimard pp. 602-679.


Testament: For no matter how many the promises of God are, they have become “yes” by means of him. Therefore, also through him is the “Amen” said to God, which brings him glory through us. But the one who guarantees that you and we belong to Christ (Messiah) and the one who anointed us is God (2Co 1:20-21); Worship God! For the witness concerning Jesus is what inspires prophecy (Rv 19:10). Consequently the response to Job gives a deep insight into the origin and the end of evil.

THE FIRST CREATURE VERSUS THE 7-HEADED SERPENT: THE END

The last book of the Christian Bible, the Book of Revelation, reveals clearly who were behind the first creature and the 7-headed serpent: A revelation by Jesus Christ, which God gave him (...) write: These are the things that the Amen says, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation by God (...) Another sign was seen in heaven. Look! A great fiery-coloured dragon, with 7 heads and 10 horns and on its heads 7 diadems; and its tail drags a third of the stars of heaven, and it hurled them down to the earth (...) And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ (...) On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing that he has a short period of time (Rv 1:1; 3:14; 12:3-12). This chapter 12 reveals several crucial points about Jesus and Satan. Jesus was actually God's first creature (Col 1:15; Pr 8:22) and Satan "resister" the Devil "slanderer" was behind the original serpent (Gn 3:1-15), he is still the ruler of the world (2Co 4:4; Ep 2:2; 1Jo 5:19) but he will soon be defeated by Christ "the messiah" (Lk 10:18, Jo 12:31, Heb 2:14). The struggle between Satan and Jesus is announced at the very outset of the Gospels: Then Jesus was led by the spirit up into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil (...) the Devil took him along to an unusually high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him: All these things I will give you if you fall down and do an act of worship to me. Then Jesus said to him: Go away, Satan! For it is written: It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service. Then the Devil left him, and look! angels came and began to minister to him (Mt 4:1-11; Lk 4:1-8). The Book of Revelation also explains the meaning of the 7 heads: And it [the dragon] stood still on the sand of the sea. And I saw a wild beast ascending out of the sea, with 10 horns and 7 heads, and on its horns 10 diadems, but on its heads blasphemous names. Now the wild beast that I saw was like a leopard, but its feet were like those of a bear, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave to the beast its power and its throne and great authority. I saw that one of its heads seemed to have been fatally wounded, but its mortal wound had been healed, and all the earth followed the wild beast with admiration. And they worshipped the dragon because it gave the authority to the wild beast, and they worshipped the wild beast (...) and it was given authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. And all those who dwell on the earth will worship it. From the founding of the world, not one of their names has been written in the scroll of life of the Lamb (Jesus) who was slaughtered (...) So the angel said to me: Why is it that you were amazed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the wild beast that is carrying her and that has the 7 heads and the 10 horns (Leviathan): The wild beast that you saw was, but is not, and yet is about to ascend out of the abyss, and it is to go off into destruction. And the inhabitants of the earth —those whose names have not been written in the scroll of life from the founding of the world— will be amazed when they see how the wild beast was, but is not, and yet will be present. This calls for a mind that has wisdom: The 7 heads mean 7 mountains, where the woman sits on top. And there are 7 kings: 5 have fallen, one is [Roman Empire in the 1st century], and the other [7th] has not yet arrived; but when he does arrive, he must remain a short while. And the wild beast that was but is not, it is also an


8th king, but it springs from the 7, and it goes off into destruction. The 10 horns that you saw mean 10 kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they do receive authority as kings for 1 hour with the wild beast. These have one thought, so they give their power and authority to the wild beast. These will battle with the Lamb, but because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, the Lamb will conquer them. Also, those with him who are called and chosen and faithful will do so. He said to me: The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is sitting, mean peoples and crowds and nations and tongues. And the 10 horns that you saw and the wild beast, these will hate the prostitute and will make her devastated and naked, and they will eat up her flesh and completely burn her with fire. For God put it into their hearts to carry out his thought, yes, to carry out their one thought by giving their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God will have been accomplished. And the woman whom you saw means the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth (...) And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for 1,000 years. And he hurled him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not mislead the nations anymore until the 1,000 years were ended. After this he must be released for a little while (Rv 13:1-8; 17:7-18; 20:1-3). Consequently the 7 heads of Leviathan mean 7 kings159 spread over time. The 5th head (1st century) is the Roman Empire and the 7th head is associated with 10 small kings "10 toes" (Dn 2:40-44; 12:1-2) which rule at the end:

HEAD KING Key events during the period of domination period 1st

Job Egyptian The dominion began when Jacob enter into Egypt (Gn 45:11; 46:5-7). Is was

oppressive (Ex 5:6-23) during the 16th and 17th Dynasties (1573-1533). 1748-1533

2nd Assyrian Assyrian oppression began with Pul (781-745) an Assyrian coregent, then Tiglath-

pileser III (1Ch 5:26) and ceased when Assur-uballit II (612-609) died. 781-609

3rd Asaph

Babylonian (1st beast)

Babylonian oppression began when Josiah died and lasted 70 years (Jr 25:9-12). It was also the 1st beast (Dn 2:38-40; 7:1-4,17).

609-539

4th Medo-Persian (2nd beast)

The dominion began with Darius the Mede and Cyrus when Belshazzar the son of Nabonidus (556-539) was killed (Dn 1:21; 5:30-31). This head with 2 horns was the kings of Media and Persia (Dn 8:20). The king of Persia was replaced by the King of Greece, who was replaced by a [6th] mighty king (Dn 11:2-3).

539-331

5th Greek (3rd beast)

The dominion began when Darius III (336-331) was shot by Alexander the Great who was the next head with the great horn (Dn 8:21), when he died his generals began ruling 4 Greek kingdoms (Dn 8:22; 11:4).

331-63

6th John

Roman (4th beast)

The oppression began when Roman General Pompey seized Jerusalem. This king was the 6th (Rv 17:10) and also the 4th beast (Dn 7:7-10). The Roman empire was extended in the form of the Holy Roman Empire which gave birth in time to four European empires, but one (the British Empire) will prevail over the three others (Spanish, French and Dutch) empires (Dn 7:8).

-63+1783

7th Anglo-American (dragon-lamb)

On 3 September 1783 the 13 British colonies became American which entailed the birth of the Anglo-American empire which lasts until the birth of God's kingdom in heaven (Dn 7:19-27). It is a dragon which looks like a lamb (Rv 13:11).

1783-1912

cut off Last Days (World War)

God's kingdom begins its rule on heaven and expels Satan on earth, which causes great woes (Rv 12:7-12) like the Balkan wars (October 1912) which degenerated into a World War entailing some famines and plagues (Rv 6:2-8).

1912-1919

[8th] United Nations (10 toes)

World War I officially ended with the Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919), which also created the League of Nations. All kings (10 toes) are crushed (Dn 2:44). The generation of the "great crowd" will see the end (Mt 24:34; Rv 7:9-10).

1919-[xxx]

One noticed that the Book of Revelation refers frequently to the Book of Daniel but it focused mainly on the 7th and last head of the dragon because it is the time when Jesus is enthroned in the heavens and expels Satan (Rv 6:1-17; 12:10-12) then crushes the last head of Leviathan a short while later (Rv 20:1-4,7-10). As the king at the time of apostle John was the 6th (Roman empire), the Leviathan was getting its 6th head. The number of heads of

159 The 7 kings (heads) over time are those who have dominated over God's people


Leviathan has changed over time, there was only 1 at the time of Job (Job 41:7) then 3 at the time of Asaph (Ps 74:14). Surprisingly the 7th head is cut off for a short time during the first World War (Rv 13:3-5,14-15), but Satan has managed not only to regenerate it but also to create an 8th king (Rv 17:8-14), with no real power (no crown) but to give the illusion of a world order. God's kingdom, which was symbolized by the Judean kingdom of Shiloh "It is to him" (Gn 49:10), was in the desert for 7 times (2x3.5 times = 2x1260 days = 2520 years160, from October 609 BCE until October 1912 CE). This period without any legal Judean king is called the "times of the nations" (Lk 21:24). Thus the depiction of Satan as a dragon in the Book of Job fits perfectly:

LEVIATHAN SATAN DEPICTED AS A 7-HEADED SERPENT Reference Job 41:1-2 No man can catch Leviathan with a fishhook or put a hook in its jaws. Ezk 38:3-4 Job 41:7 No man can fill its head with fishing spears in order to bruise it. Gn 3:15 Job 41:12 Grace of its proportions, model of perfection and perfect in beauty. Ezk 28:12,17 Job 41:15-16 Furrows of scales are its haughtiness. Ezk 29:3,4 Job 41:18-19 Its snorting flashes out light. Flashes of lightning go out of its mouth. Ezk 32:2; Rv 12:3 Job 41:22 Before it destruction runs (LXX). Ezk 38:10 Job 41:24 Its heart is hard as stone and corrupted. Ezk 28:17 Job 41:30 Underneath, it is like sharp fragments of pottery, filled with violence. Ezk 28:16 Job 41:32 Behind itself it makes a pathway shine, “Tartarus of the abyss” (LXX) 2Co 11:14 Job 41:33 Upon the dust there is not the like of it. Gn 3:14 Job 41:34 It glares at everything that is haughty, it is king over all dignity. Ep 2:2; 2Co 4:4

Most translators who liken the Leviathan to a crocodile have changed the last verse "it is king over all dignity" into "it is king over all majestic wild beasts". The word "sons of pride" must be translated by "dignity" because the verb is singular: No dignity (plural) has (singular) trodden on it; the young lion has not prowled there (Job 28:8). The ambiguity is probably desired between the "sons of pride" and the "young lion", a symbol of invincibility and great authority for humans (1Pe 5:8; Rv 13:2). As we saw, before God's response, Job believed in a redemptive and a destructive which proved to be Behemoth and Leviathan: For I well know that my redeemer is alive; He will come later and rise up over the dust. After my skin has thus been destroyed (Job 19:25-27; 33:21-28). According to the New Testament, Jesus is the Redeemer (Rv 5:9-10) designed to crush Satan under his feet (Rm 16:20), he is also the Lion of Judah mentioned in Genesis 49:10 and the morning star of Numbers 24:17 (Rv 5:5; 22:16). The conclusion of the matter: Behemoth is described similarly to Jesus161.

BEHEMOTH JESUS DEPICTED AS A LION OF JUDAH Reference Job 40:15 Behemoth that I have made as well as you. Rv 3:14 Job 40:15 Green grass it eats just as the bull does. Is 11:7-8; 65:25 Job 40:16 Its power is in its hips, and its dynamic energy in the tendons of its belly Na 2:1; Ho 12:3 Job 40:17 It bends down its tail like a cedar. Gn 49:9; Ho 5:14 Job 40:18 Its bones are tubes of copper. Rv 2:18 Job 40:19 It is the beginning (Gn 1:1) of the ways of God. Pr 8:22; Col 1:15 Job 40:19 Its Maker can bring near his sword. Is 49:2-25; Rv 2:16 Job 40:23 It does not run in panic. Pr 30:30; Is 31:4 Job 40:23 It is confident, although the Jordan should burst forth against its mouth. Jr 49:19; Pr 28:1

160 The "appointed times" of the nations during which Jerusalem be trampled on by the [beasts of] nations (Lk 21:24) must refer to Daniel 4:13-14: Let it cease to have a human heart, and be given the heart of a beast, and 7 times shall pass over him! Such is the sentence proclaimed by the Watchers, the verdict announced by the holy ones —so that every living thing may learn that the Most High rules over human sovereignty; he confers it on whom he pleases, and raises the lowest of humankind [the Messiah]. The Messiah is the "one who has the legal right" (Ezk 21:27). The "legal right" means to be of Judah, anointed and buried in the city of David. Since 3.5 times (Dn 7:25; 12:7) are 42 months or 1260 days (Rv 11:2-3; 12:6,14) and given that "1 day is for 1 year" (Nb 14:34; Ezk 4:6-7), 1260 days are for 1260 years of judgement. 161 INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION – The New World Brooklyn 1942 Ed. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc. pp.314-320.


The dragon in the Book of Job, called Leviathan, has a few similarities with the 7-headed Serpent in Mesopotamian accounts, but this monstrous serpent is different on two fundamental points: he is responsible for present evil and not only from the original chaos, and he is still not dead but will be destroyed in the future by a mighty angel of God. For example, the 7-headed Serpent in Sumerian mythology was one of the Heroes slain by Ninurta, patron god of Lagash. His body was hung on the "shining cross-beam" of Ninurta's chariot (Ninurta's return to Nibru, line 63). He was created by Tiamat (Epic of Creation) under several names: Mušmaḫḫū “Exalted Serpent”; Bašmu “Venomous Snake”; Ušumgallu “Great Dragon” or Mušḫuššu “Furious Snake”. There are also a few similarities with the Egyptian snake called Apep (right). In Egyptian mythology, Apep (Apophis in Greek) was an evil demon, the deification of darkness and chaos (isfet in Egyptian), and thus opponent of light and Maat (order/truth) and the god Seth in order to protect the sun god Ra, who was traveling in his boat, would slay the serpent Apep whose blood coloured in red each sunrise and sunset. In addition, the goddess Taweret (Thoueris in Greek), whose name means “(one) who is great” is represented as a hippopotamus (right). When paired with another deity, she became the demon-wife of Apep, the original god of evil. Since Apep was viewed as residing below the horizon, and only present at night, evil during the day then was envisaged as being a result of Taweret’s maleficence. As the counterpart of Apep, who was always below the horizon, Taweret was seen as being the northern sky, the constellation roughly covering the area of present-day Draco (Dragon), which always lies above the horizon.

Unlike the Mesopotamian and Egyptian mythology the 7-headed serpent is the god of evil, past and present (1Jn 5:19), that will be destroyed at the end of time: Then Jehovah God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are the cursed one out of all the domestic animals and out of all the wild animals of the field (...) And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He will crush your head, and you will strike him in the heel (Gn 3:14-15); For his part, the God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. May the undeserved kindness of our Lord Jesus be with you (Rm 16:20); I saw an angel coming down out of heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for 1,000 years (...) Now as soon as the 1,000 years have ended, Satan will be released from his prison (...) the Devil who was misleading them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur (Rv 20:1-2,7,10). The book of Job introduced a new concept162: the Redeemer will operate at the end of time simultaneously with the end of evil (Job 14:13-15; 19:25). This was in fact a messianic concept which would become dateable with Daniel’s prophecies: In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. And this kingdom will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it alone will stand forever (...) During that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of your people. And there will occur a time of distress such as has not occurred since there came to be a nation until that time. And during that time your people will escape, everyone who is found written down in the book. And many of those asleep in the dust of the earth will wake up, some to everlasting life and others to reproach and to everlasting contempt (Dn 2:44; 12:1-2). A new question would arise: when would the messianic paradise come at the end of time?

162 Given that suffering for mythology is due to pure chance or bad luck its end is meaningless.

Job's answer concerning the end of evil: when and how?

Abstract. Although the book of Job was written to answer the crucial question of the end of evil, when and how, Bible commentators have started to become interested to that book only after the persecutions provoked by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. They tried to identify the messianic era that would end their woes (172-167) and would establish the Paradise on earth. This messianic era must have appeared after the final fight between Behemoth and Leviathan, two monstrous creatures that must have torn apart one each other. After this apocalyptic fight the righteous will be invited to come and eat the flesh of these fantastic animals at the "banquet of the righteous". The Jews also began to speculate from the Book of Daniel about the time when the Messiah was to appear for ruling the world to come. After Bar Kokhba's death in 135 CE most of them ceased to calculate the time when the world to come would appear but the Christians took again this apocalyptical concept. Why did this Jewish concept become so popular today, even among scientists (IPCC) who foretell the end of world around 2100 with the collapse of climate, and on which basis is it designed?

The prophecies describing the end of the world are called eschatological prophecies but more frequently apocalyptic prophecies. An "Apocalypse," in the terminology of early Jewish and Christian literature, is a revelation of hidden things given by God to some one of his prophets. The word is derived from the Greek ἀποκάλυψις "uncovering, disclosure, revelation". In the typical compositions of this class the chief concern of the writer is with the Future. The Apocalypse is primarily a Prophecy usually with a distinctly religious aim, intended to show God's way of dealing with men, and His ultimate purposes. The writer presents, sometimes very vividly, a picture of coming events, especially those connected with the end of the present age and the beginning of a New Age. Thus, in certain of these writings the subject-matter is described as "that which shall come to pass in the latter days" (Dn 2:28-29; 10:14); or "to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days (Dn 10:14)"; So, too, in Revelation 1:1,7. The apocalyptic calculations began to spread in Jewish circles from 150 BCE (Enoch I:1-2; X:2) then in Christian circles from 30 CE (Ac 1:7-8; 1Th 5:1-4). Why so many disagreements? The first eschatological calculations163 to know when the anointed or messianic164 king would restore the “world to come (or Paradise)” began after Judah Maccabee purified on 25th of Kislev (14th December 164 BCE) the defiled Temple of Jerusalem and restored the service in the Temple165. Indeed, the Maccabean Revolt, from 167 to 160 BCE, between a Judean rebel group known as the Maccabees and the Seleucid Empire, was viewed by many pious Jews as the beginning of a messianic era (cf. Is 61:1-2) because King Antiochus IV Epiphanes was seen as the one who fulfilled the prophecy mentioned in Daniel 9:27 and 11:31 about “the disgusting thing causing the desolation” which is “until the time of the end” (Dn 9:26; 11:35) and, consequently, the passages in Daniel: casting down some of the host and stars... the prince of the host (Dn 8:10-11); shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself (Dn 9:26); and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant (Dn 11:22), were generally referred to as the murder (c. 172 BCE) of the former High Priest Onias III166 (2M 4:30-38). This Jewish interpretation of Daniel’s prophecies is described in the Book of Maccabees: Many of the people —that is, every apostate from the Law— rallied to them, and so committed evil in the country, forcing Israel into hiding in all their places of refuge. On the 15th day of Chislev in the year 145 (8th December 167 BCE) the king erected the abomination of desolation above the altar; and altars were built in the surrounding towns of Judah and incense offered at the doors of houses and in the streets. Any books of the Law that came to light

163 ABBA HILLEL SILVER – A History of Messianic Speculation in Israel Boston 1959, Ed. Beacon Press, pp. 4-7. 164 The word “Messiah” in Hebrew means “anointed”, translated into Greek as Christ. 165 The Jewish feast of Hanukkah ("Dedication") commemorates the restoration of Jewish worship at the temple in 164 BCE. 166 Onias III (185-175) is perhaps the one referred to as the "Teacher of Righteousness" in the Dead Sea Scrolls.


were torn up and burned. Whenever anyone was discovered possessing a copy of the covenant or practising the Law, the king’s decree sentenced him to death. Having might on their side they took action month after month against any offenders they discovered in the towns of Israel. On the 25th day of the month sacrifice was offered on the altar erected over the altar of holocaust (...) On the 25th of the 9th month, Chislev, in the year 148 (14th December 164 BCE), they rose at dawn and offered a lawful sacrifice on the new altar of holocausts which they had made (1M 1:53-59; 4:52-53). The historian Josephus also explains: Now it is fitting to relate certain things about this man (Daniel) which one may greatly wonder at hearing, namely that all things happened to him in a marvellously fortunate way as to one of the greatest prophets and during his lifetime he received honour and esteem from kings and people, and, since his death, his memory lives on eternally. For the books which he wrote and left behind are still read by us even now, and we are convinced by them that Daniel spoke with God, for he was not only wont to prophesy future things, as did the other prophets, but he also fixed the time at which these would come to pass. And, whereas the other prophets foretold disasters and were for that reason in disfavour with kings and people, Daniel was a prophet of good tidings to them, so that through the auspiciousness of his predictions he attracted the goodwill of all, while from their realization he gained credit among the multitude for his truthfulness and at the same time won their esteem for his divine power. And he left behind writings in which he has made plain to us the accuracy and faithfulness to truth of his prophecies (...) And there would arise from their number a certain king who would make war on the Jewish nation and their laws, deprive them of the form of government based on these laws, spoil the temple and prevent the sacrifices from being offered for 3 years. And these misfortunes our nation did in fact come to experience under Antiochus Epiphanes, just as Daniel many years before saw and wrote that they would happen. In the same manner Daniel also wrote about the empire of the Romans and that Jerusalem would be taken by them and the temple laid waste. All these things, as God revealed them to him, he left behind in his writings, so that those who read them and observe how they have come to pass must wonder at Daniel's having been so honoured by God, and learn from these facts how mistaken are the Epicureans, who exclude Providence from human life and refuse to believe that God governs its affairs (Jewish Antiquities X:266-276). According to the comments on Daniel 9:26 found at Qumran167, the Messiah suppressed after the 62 weeks is the messenger announcing the good news, described in Isaiah 61:2 and David's Messiah had also to fulfil the prophecy of Genesis 49:10, announcing that he would be a king from the tribe of Judah. The Targums of Onkelos and Jerusalem confirm that Shilo ("It is to him") would be a king identical to the liberating messiah. In order to support this interpretation, the translator of the book of Daniel168 modified (c. 160 BCE) the Greek text to fit it to these events as well as the translator of the Book of Job regarding Behemoth and Leviathan. Antagonism between a good god and an evil god is not noticeable in the polytheistic context of ancient religions, it was not until the 7th century BCE, with Zarathustra (time of the prophet Daniel) to see appearing the notion of a god of good against an evil god, then the 2nd century BCE, to discover the concept of "sons of light" against "sons of darkness" in the texts of Qumran. It is noted that the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE, Jewish literature was of particular interest to Behemoth and Leviathan169. The Jews of that time did not understand these two beasts literally, but regarded them as ancient and symbolic monsters which had to reappear just before the Messiah at the Judgment Day. Moreover, the Septuagint had translated into "dragon" the name Leviathan because it is written: the

167 M. WISE, M. ABEGG JR., E. COOK - Les manuscrits de la mer morte Paris 2001 Éd. Plon p. 171, 340, 600. 168 H. COUSIN - La Bible grecque in: supplément aux Cahiers Évangile 74 St. Étienne 1990 Éd. Cerf pp.105-111. S. PACE JEANSONNE - The Old Greek Translation of Daniel 7-12 Washington 1988 Ed The Catholic Biblical Association of America pp. 29,125. 169 A. CAQUOT - Léviathan et Behémoth in: Semitica XXV (1975) pp.111-122.

JOB'S ANSWER CONCERNING THE END OF EVIL 49

heads of Leviathan, not the head of Leviathan. This translation took account of Psalm 74:14 announcing that Leviathan would serve as food to the people. They concluded that this event was to occur at the "banquet of the righteous", scheduled under the reign of the Messiah. They had even imagined that since Leviathan was a fantastic strength, its death would have resulted from a fight with another as powerful creature like Behemoth. The final battle between these two powerful creatures would cause their mutual extermination in an apocalyptic chaos. The text of Job 40:19 about Behemoth “It is the beginning of the ways of God” has puzzled many Jewish commentators. Indeed, if Behemoth were a literal animal, it would rank among the earthly creatures that are usually mammals. Now, according to Genesis, the latter appeared at the 5th day of creation that is to say one day after (not before) aquatic creatures (Gn 1:20-25). Consequently, if Behemoth were mammals (whale, elephant, hippopotamus, etc.) there would be a major contradiction between the texts. However, their identification is yet easy because the expression of Job 40:19 “the beginning of the ways of God”, is identical in Proverbs 8:22. This text describes Wisdom personified as a prototype of the Messiah, the beginning of the ways of God (Col 1:15; Rv 3:14).

Job 40:19 Bible It is the beginning of the ways of God; Its Maker can bring near his sword Hebrew Torah This is the chief of the creation of the Lord; made to be played with by his angels Greek Septuagint He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him

King James Bible

He is the grandest of God's undertakings, yet his creator is approaching him with his sword

International Standard Version

It ranks first among the works of God, yet its Maker can approach it with his sword

New International Version

It is a prime example of God's handiwork, and only its Creator can threaten it New Living Translation He is a beginning of the ways of God, His Maker bringeth nigh his sword Young's Literal

Translation He is the beginning of the ways of God; he that made him shall make his sword draw near unto him

Jubilee Bible 2000

Proverbs 8:22 Bible

Jehovah produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago

Hebrew Torah

The Lord made me the beginning of his ways for his works Greek Septuagint The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old King James Bible The LORD made me as he began his planning, before his ancient activity commenced

International Standard Version

The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old New International Version

The LORD formed me from the beginning, before he created anything else New Living Translation Jehovah possessed me -the beginning of His way, Before His works since then Young's Literal

Translation The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old Jubilee Bible 2000

The Septuagint gives a good translation of Job 40:19, that is not always the case of contemporary translations which sometimes have changed the phrase "It is the beginning of God's ways" into "It ranks first among God’s works". The translators who have altered the biblical text of Job did so because they adopted the explanations of Thomas Aquinas170 (1227-1274) who claimed that Behemoth could not be symbolic but represented an

170 He was an Italian Dominican friar and Catholic priest who was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism.


elephant (later replaced by a hippopotamus) as explained Catholic translators171. However the Bible of French Rabbinate which literally translated this verse by: the One who bestowed to him a sword, found this term "sword" very obscure in the case of a hippopotamus; other prominent Catholic translators bothered by this strange term altered the verse as: He was created tyrant of his companions172. In fact, very soon in Jewish word it was obvious that Behemoth and Leviathan were both of them symbolic animals, not beasts belonging to the animal world. For example, one can read in a well-known Jewish book written around 150 BCE: And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters. But the male is named Behemoth, who occupied with his breast a waste wilderness named Dûidâin, on the east of the garden where the elect and righteous dwell, where my grandfather was taken up, the seventh from Adam, the first man whom the Lord of Spirits created. And I besought the other angel that he should show me the might of those monsters, how they were parted on one day and cast, the one into the abysses of the sea, and the other unto the dry land of the wilderness. And he said to me: Thou son of man, herein thou dost seek to know what is hidden (The Book of Enoch LX:7-10). At the beginning of our era, Behemoth and Leviathan were associated to the “banquet of the righteous” which will be consumed at the beginning of the coming messianic age. For example, one can read in two Jewish books written around 95 CE: And it shall come to pass when all is accomplished that was to come to pass in those parts, that the Messiah shall then begin to be revealed. And Behemoth shall be revealed from his place and Leviathan shall ascend from the sea, those two great monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation, and shall have kept until that time; and then they shall be for food for all that are left (Apocalypse of Baruch 29:3-4). Then thou didst keep in existence two living creatures; the name of one thou didst call Behemoth and the name of the other Leviathan. And thou didst separate one from the other, for the seventh part where the water had been gathered together could not hold them both. And thou didst give Behemoth one of the parts which had been dried up on the third day, to live in it, where there are a thousand mountains; but to Leviathan thou didst give the seventh part, the watery part; and thou hast kept them to be eaten by whom thou wilt, and when thou wilt. On the sixth day thou didst command the earth to bring forth before thee cattle, beasts, and creeping things (2 Esdras 6:49-53). According to the Talmud (c. 190-220 CE): And God created the great sea-monsters. Here they explained: The sea-gazelles. R. Johanan said: This refers to Leviathan the slant serpent, and to Leviathan the tortuous serpent, for it is written: In that day the Lord with his sore [and great and strong] sword will punish [Leviathan the slant serpent, and Leviathan the tortuous serpent]. Rab Judah said in the name of Rab: All that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in his world he created male and female. Likewise, Leviathan the slant serpent and Leviathan the tortuous serpent he created male and female; and had they mated with one another they would have destroyed the whole world. What [then] did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He castrated the male and killed the female preserving it in salt for the righteous in the world to come; for it is written: And he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. And also Behemoth on a thousand hills were created male and female, and had they mated with one another they would have destroyed the whole world. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He castrated the male and cooled the female and preserved it for the righteous for the world to come; for it is written: Lo now his strength is in his loins —this refers to the male; and his force is in the stays of his body —this refers to the female. There also, [in the case of Leviathan], he should have castrated the male and cooled the female [why then did he kill the female]? —Fishes are dissolute. Why did he not reverse the process? —If you wish, say: [It is because a] female [fish] preserved in salt is tastier. If you prefer, say: Because it is written: There is Leviathan whom Thou hast formed to sport with, and with a female this is not proper. Then here also [in

171 abbé H. LESETRE - Le livre de Job Paris 1886 Éd. P. Lethielleux pp. 248-250. 172 P. DHORME - Le livre de Job Paris 1926 Éd. J. Gabalda p. 567. L. PIROT, A. CLAMERT - La Sainte Bible Paris 1949 Éd. Letouzey et Ané p. 860.


the case of Behemoth] he should have preserved the female in salt? —Salted fish is palatable, salted flesh is not. Rab Judah in the name of Rab further said: At the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to create the world, he said to the angel of the sea: Open thy mouth and swallow all the waters of the world. He said unto him: Lord of the Universe, it is enough that I remain with my own. Thereupon, He struck him with His foot and killed him; for it is written: He stirred up the sea with his power and by his understanding he smote through Rahab. R. Isaac said: From this it may be inferred that the name of the angel of the sea was Rahab. And had not the waters covered him no creature could have stood his [foul] odour; for it is written: They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My Holy mountain etc. as the waters cover the sea. Do not read: They cover the sea, but [in the sense]: They cover the angel of the sea. Rab Judah further stated in the name of Rab: The Jordan issues from the cavern of Paneas. It has been taught likewise: The Jordan issues from the cavern of Paneas and passes through the Lake of Sibkay and the Lake of Tiberias and rolls down into the great sea from whence it rolls on until it rushes into the mouth of Leviathan; for it is said: He is confident because the Jordan rushes forth to his mouth. Raba b. Ulla objected: This [verse] is written of Behemoth on a thousand hills! —But, said R. Abba b. Ulla: When is Behemoth on a thousand hills confident? —When the Jordan rushes into the mouth of Leviathan (Baba Bathra 74b). Very soon the "banquet of the righteous", in which the righteous will eat the flesh of Behemoth and Leviathan, was viewed as an eschatological and messianic meal similar to the one described in the book of Isaiah: In this mountain Jehovah of armies will make for all the peoples, a banquet of rich dishes, a banquet of fine wine, of rich dishes filled with marrow, of fine, filtered wine. In this mountain he will do away with the shroud that is enveloping all the peoples and the covering that is woven over all the nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will wipe away the tears from all faces. The reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for Jehovah himself has spoken it (Is 25:6-8). The main question that arose about the Messianic meal was who will be the Messiah and, obviously, when. One reads: After Jesus had been born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king (2 BCE), look! astrologers from the East came to Jerusalem, saying: Where is the one born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when we were in the East, and we have come to do obeisance to him. At hearing this, King Herod was agitated, and all Jerusalem with him. On gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him: In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is how it has been written through the prophet (Micah 5:2): And you, O Bethlehem of the land of Judah, are by no means the most insignificant city among the governors of Judah, for out of you will come a governing one, who will shepherd my people Israel (Mt 2:1-6); Now (29 CE) the people were in expectation and all of them were reasoning in their hearts about John: May he perhaps be the Christ/Messiah? (Lk 3:15). Similarly during the First Jewish-Roman War of 66-73 CE the Jewish commander Josephus was captured by the Roman commander Vespasian who intended to soon send him to Nero, but this is how Josephus responded: O Vespasian, although you suppose you have taken captive a forsaken Josephus, I have come as a messenger of great tidings. Had I not been sent by God to you, I know the law of the Jews, and how it is fitting for generals to die. Do you send me to Nero? For what? Will any successors of Nero endure —until you? You are to be Caesar, O Vespasian, and Emperor (Daniel 9:26), you, and this your son. Bind me now still more securely, and keep me for yourself, for thou, O Caesar, are not only lord over me, but over the land, and the sea, and all the human race; and certainly I deserve to be punished by closer custody than now, if I fabricate anything concerning God. Vespasian at that time did not believe him, supposing that Josephus came up with this as a cunning trick to save himself (The Jewish War III:399-408). But on 9 June 68 CE Emperor Nero committed suicide and Vespasian became the new Emperor and founded the Flavian dynasty. In 69 CE Josephus was released and was granted Roman citizenship. The prophecy of Josephus greatly impressed Roman historians like Tacitus: Flavius Vespasian, a general of Nero's appointment, was carrying on the war in Judaea with three legions, and he had no wish or feeling adverse to Galba. He had in fact sent his


son Titus to acknowledge his authority and bespeak his favour, as in its proper place I shall relate. As for the hidden decrees of fate, the omens and the oracles that marked out Vespasian and his sons for imperial power, we believed in them only after his success (...) The majority [of the Jews] were convinced that the ancient scriptures of their priests alluded to the present as the very time when the Orient would triumph and from Judaea would go forth men destined to rule the world. This mysterious prophecy really referred to Vespasian and Titus, but the common people, true to the selfish ambitions of mankind, thought that this exalted destiny was reserved for them, and not even their calamities opened their eyes to the truth (History 1:10; 5:3) and Suetonius: There had spread over all the Orient an old and established belief, that it was fated at that time for men coming from Judaea to rule the world. This prediction, referring to the emperor of Rome, as afterwards appeared from the event, the people of Judaea took to themselves (The Life of Vespasian IV:5). According to Dio Cassius: This prophecy about the tooth became a reality on the following day; and Nero himself in his dreams once thought that he had brought the car of Jupiter to Vespasian's house. These portents needed interpretation; but not so the saying of a Jew named Josephus: he, having earlier been captured by Vespasian and imprisoned, laughed and said: You may imprison me now [in 68 BCE], but a year from now, when you have become emperor, you will release me (Roman History LXV:1). According to Josephus: But now, what did the most elevate them in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle that was also found in their sacred writings, how about that time, one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth. The Jews took this prediction to belong to themselves in particular, and many of the wise men were thereby deceived in their determination. Now this oracle certainly denoted the government of Vespasian, who was appointed emperor in Judea. However, it is not possible for men to avoid fate, although they see it beforehand. But these men interpreted some of these signals according to their own pleasure, and some of them they utterly despised, until their madness was demonstrated, both by the taking of their city and their own destruction (The Jewish War VI:312-315). The text of Daniel was well known at that time, but if Josephus was able to apply the prophecy of the "Son of man" to Vespasian it is because he read and interpreted the Hebrew text (MT): And it will destroy the city and the sanctuary along with the leader who is to come [Roman ruler?], rather than the Greek text of the Septuagint: And a king of nations will demolish the city and the sanctuary along with the anointed one [Messiah]. Regarding prophecies about the last days, the Bible is explicit, this period of time can be known but not the specific day: So we have the prophetic word made more sure (...) For you know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were moved by holy spirit (...) that you should remember the sayings previously spoken by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles. First of all know this, that in the last days ridiculers will come with their ridicule, proceeding according to their own desires and saying: Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep in death, all things are continuing exactly as they were from creation’s beginning. For they deliberately ignore this fact, that long ago there were heavens and an earth standing firmly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God; and that by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was flooded with water. But by the same word the heavens and the earth that now exist are reserved for fire and are being kept until the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly people (1Pe 2:19-21; 3:2-7). Jesus gave a few chronological details: While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately, saying: Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things? In answer Jesus said to them (...) this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come (...) Then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (...) Likewise also you, when you see all these things, know that he is near at the doors. Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things


happen. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be (Mt 24:3-37). Best known for his advancements in scientific thought Sir Isaac Newton was also very involved in apocalyptic prophecies. Largely unknown and unpublished documents, evidently written by Newton, indicate that he believed the world could end in 2060. Despite the dramatic nature of a prediction of the end of the world, Newton may not have been referring to the 2060 date as a destructive act resulting in the annihilation of the earth and its inhabitants, but rather one in which he believed the world was to be replaced with a new one based upon a transition to an era of divinely inspired peace. In Christian theology, this concept is often referred to as The Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of Paradise by The Kingdom of God on Earth. In his posthumously-published (in 1733) Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John, Newton (1643-1727) expressed his belief that Bible prophecy would not be understood “until the time of the end”, and that even then “none of the wicked shall understand”. Referring to that as a future time (“the last age, the age of opening these things, be now approaching”), Newton also anticipated “the general preaching of the Gospel be approaching” and “the Gospel must first be preached in all nations before the great tribulation, and end of the world”. Newton believed both in God and that the Bible was a revelation from God. He also believed that God was not bound by time as are humans, allowing Him to see the “end from the beginning”. Thus, to use Newton’s own words, he was convinced that “the holy Prophecies” of the Scripture are nothing else than “histories of things to come” (Yahuda MS 1.1, folio 16 recto). At the same time, biblical prophecy is written in highly symbolic language that requires skilled interpretation. Newton rose to this challenge as he attempted to discover the future of the world in the words of the prophets. Because he was wary of prophetic date-setting. Newton was worried that the failure of fallible human predictions based on divine prophecy would bring the Bible into disrepute. Ironically, in one of the two times Newton wrote down the 2060 date, he complained against date-setters. Newton may have been aghast if he had known his prediction would be broadcast around the world in the 21st century. His calculations about the 2060 date were private musings made on a scrap of paper not meant for the public. Ironically, the media coverage of the 2060 date has made Newton look like a date-setter. Newton, like many historicist prophetic commentators of his age, believed that the prophetic time periods 1260, 1290, 1335 and 2300 days173 actually represent 1260, 1290, 1335 and 2300 years using the “day-for-a-year principle”. For Newton these time periods (especially the 1260 years) represent the time span of the apostasy of the Church (for Newton this meant the Trinitarian Church, chiefly the Catholics). Thus, he looked in history for the likely date when the apostasy formally began (one sign of this for him was the date when the papal church obtained temporal power). From there it was a simple matter of adding the time period to the beginning date. However, things are rarely so simple with Newton. As already mentioned, Newton looked askance at “date-setting”, and for this reason he rarely wrote out the end date for a time period once he had settled on a beginning date. There are a small number of exceptions, and the date 2060, found twice in the Yahuda MSS at Jerusalem, is one of them. The date 2060 is also significant because in addition to the rarity of end dates in Newton’s writings, the calculation giving the 2060 date comes from fairly late in his life and is asserted with uncharacteristic vigour. Finding the

173 The time period 1260 days appears in Daniel 7:25 (as “a time and times and the dividing of time” [=a year, two years and a half year]), Daniel 12:7 (as “a time, times, and an half” [=a year, two years and a half year]), Revelation 11:3 (1260 days), Revelation 12:6 (1260 days) and Revelation 13:5 (42 months). The time period 1290 days appears in Daniel 12:11. The time period 1335 days appears in Daniel 12:12. The time period 2300 days occurs in Daniel 8:14.


commencement date was of great importance to Newton, since once he added the prophetic time periods to this date, he was able to determine when the great apocalyptic events of the end of the world were going to occur. Although Newton believed there would be wars and cataclysms around the time of the end, for him this period was also the storm before the calm. Newton’s prophetic faith therefore has a positive element. How did Newton arrive at the date 2060? This did not involve the use of anything as complicated as calculus, which he invented, but rather simple arithmetic that could be performed by a child. Beginning in the 1670s and continuing to the end of his life in 1727, Newton considered several commencement dates for the formal institution of the apostate, imperial Church. Earlier commencement dates include 607 and 609 CE. As Newton grew older, he pushed the time of the end further and further into the future. In Yahuda MS 7 Newton twice gives 800 CE for the beginning of “the Pope’s supremacy”. The year 800 is a significant one in history, as it is the year Charlemagne was crowned emperor of Rome in the west by Pope Leo III at St. Peter’s in Rome. Since Newton believed that the 1260 years corresponded to the duration of the corruption of the Church, he added 1260 to 800 CE and arrived at the date 2060 for the “fall of Babylon” or cessation of the apostate Church. He wrote174: So then the time times & half a time are 42 months or 1260 days or three years & an half, reckoning twelve months to a year & 30 days to a month as was done in the Calendar of the primitive year. And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of lived [sic] kingdoms, the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings A.C. 800, will end A.C. 2060. It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner. This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, & by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail. Christ comes as a thief in the night, & it is not for us to know the times & seasons which God hath put into his own breast. It seems that Newton believed the fall could perhaps begin somewhat before the end of the 1260-year period and continue for a short time afterward. Whatever the precise chronology, Newton believed that sometime shortly after the fall of the corrupt (Trinitarian, Catholic) Church, Christ would return and set up a 1000-year Kingdom of God on earth. On page 144 of his Observations, Newton cited Daniel 7:26-27 as evidence of this: But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Newton espoused a pre-millenarian eschatology and thus held that Christ would return to earth to establish the Millennium. Although he recognized disciplinary distinctions, Newton believed that truth was one175, like Galileo! Daniel's prophecy played a big role in the eschatological expectations of the Messianic era, but this prophecy was baffling because the translator of the book of Daniel modified the Greek text (c. 160 BCE) in order to fit the cutting off of the Messiah in Daniel 9:26 to the murder of High Priest Onias III (c. 172 BCE). Consequently, according to the Greek text of the Septuagint the “disgusting thing, which destroys the temple” was the army of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. That reading has two drawbacks: first, Antiochus did not destroy the temple of Jerusalem but desecrated it, second, the destruction of the Temple has to occur in the future, according to the Masoretic text in Hebrew. There is therefore a difficulty, which of the two Jewish texts was original: the one from the Hebrew Torah or the one from the Greek Septuagint? The original text of Daniel 9:24-27; 12:11 is the one from the Jewish translation of Theodotion (highlighted in green) rather than the translation into Old Greek of the Septuagint (corrections in orange):

174 Yahuda MS 7.3g, folio 13 verso. 175 Newton’s study of Nature and Scripture were in a certain sense two halves of a whole: the discovery of the mind of God.


Old Greek LXX (c. 160 BCE) Theodotion LXX (c. 175 CE) 70 weeks have been decided for your people and for the city, Sion: for sin to be consummated and to make iniquities scarce and to blot out iniquities and to comprehend the vision and for everlasting righteousness to be given and for the vision to be consummated and to gladden a holy of holies. And you shall understand and will rejoice and will discover ordinances to respond, and you [Daniel] will build Ierousalem as a city for the Lord. And after 7 and 70 and 62 weeks, an anointing will be removed and will not be. And a king of nations will demolish the city and the sanctuary along with the anointed one [Messiah], and his consummation will come with wrath even until the time of consummation. He will be attacked through war. And the covenant will prevail for many, and it will return again and be rebuilt broad and long and at the consummation of times and in half of the week the sacrifice and the libation will cease, and in the temple there will be an abomination of desolations until the consummation of a season, and a consummation will be given for the desolation.

70 weeks have been cut short for your people and for the holy city: for sin to be consummated and to seal sins and to atone for iniquities and to bring everlasting righteousness and to seal vision and prophet and to anoint a holy of holies. And you shall know and shall understand: from the going forth of the word to respond to and to rebuild Ierousalem until an anointed [Messiah] leader, there will be 7 weeks and 62 weeks, and it [Ierousalem] will return, and streets and a wall will be built, and the seasons will be emptied out. And after the 62 weeks, an anointing will be destroyed, and there is no judgment in it. And it will destroy the city and the sanctuary along with the leader who is to come. And they will be cut off by a flood, and there will be annihilations to the finish of a shortened war. And it will strengthen a covenant with many, 1 week, and by half of the week sacrifice and libation will cease, and in the temple there will be an abomination of desolations even until a consummation, and a consummation will be given for the desolation.

From the time that the [perpetual] sacrifice was taken away and the abomination of desolation was prepared to be given, there are 1290 days.

From the time of the removal of the regular offering and the abomination of desolation will be given —1290 days.

The first translator of the Septuagint (Old Greek) corrected the Hebrew text to match the desecration of the Temple of Jerusalem by Antiochus IV176 that lasted 3 years or “half of the week (of 7 years)177”. It is noteworthy that Jesus did not adhere to this identification because, unlike some Hellenized Jews of his time who saw these events in the past, he announced them for the future: When you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place, let the reader use discernment (Mt 24:15). As one can see the text of Daniel 9:24-27 is translated differently, several indicators show that the Hebrew text of reference was indeed the Masoretic text. A Qumran manuscript in Hebrew (11Q13), dated around 100 BCE, explains the text of Daniel 9:26178: He will proclaim to them the Jubilee, thereby releasing them from the debt of all their sins. He shall proclaim this decree in the 1st week of the jubilee period that follows 9 jubilee periods. Then the "Day of Atonement" shall follow after the 10th jubilee period, when he shall atone for all the Sons of Light, and the people who are predestined to Melchizedek (...) "The messengers" is the Anointed [Messiah] of the spirit, of whom Daniel spoke; "After the 62 weeks, an Anointed [Messiah] shall be cut off" (Daniel 9:26). The "messenger who brings good news, who announces Salvation" is the one of whom it is written; "to proclaim the year of YHWH's favour, the day of the vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn" (Isaiah 61:2). The quoted text is strictly that of the Masoretic text, while that of the Septuagint is (incomprehensible): And after 7 and 70 and 62 weeks, an anointing will be removed. The word Messiah has disappeared and the durations have been changed (those of the Masoretic text are logical since the total duration of 70 weeks is equal to the sum of the intermediary durations: 7 + 62 + 1 = 70). The book of Daniel is little quoted in Qumran manuscripts179 with two exceptions: when it is the case the Book of Jubilees serves as a

176 M. HADAS-LEBEL – La révolte des Maccabées Clermont-Ferrand 2012 Éd. LEMME edit pp. 41-46. 177 In fact the “desolation” lasted exactly 1100 days from 15 Kislev in 167 BCE (8 December) to 25 Kislev in 164 BCE (14 December), and “half of the week (of 7 years)” is 3/2 years or 1278 days. 178 M. WISE, M. ABEGG JR, E. COOK – Les manuscrits de la mer Morte Pari 2001 Éd. Plon pp. 257-260, 598-600. 179 For example the text of 4Q174 2:3 reads: [whi]ch is written in the book of Daniel the prophet ([’š]r ktwb bspr dny’l hnby’).


reference and the "Son of man, chosen by God himself, who has to become the king of the coming world" (Dn 7:9-14) is widely quoted and commented on in the Book of Enoch (1 Enoch XLVI:1-4, XLVIII:2-7; LXII:6-16). According to the text of Micah 5:1-2, the Messiah would come out of the city called Bethlehem Ephratah, implying an individual messiah. This understanding is confirmed by the text of Matthew 2:2-6 and the Targum of Mika which says: unto thee [Bethlehem] Messiah will come out before me. Moreover, in the two major Jewish prayers Messiah is invoked. In the 14th blessing of the Tephilla it is said: Be merciful, Y., our God (...) to your people Israel (...) and the reign of the house of David, Messiah of righteousness. The Kaddish says: May he introduce his Messiah and may he redeem his people180. This proves that most Jewish scholars, at the beginning of our common era, were waiting for a messianic king, son of David, who would become king of the world, but when. According to Luke's text: In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea (...) Now as the people were in expectation and all were reasoning in their hearts about John: May he perhaps be the Christ? (...) Jesus himself, when he commenced [his work], was about 30 years old (Lk 3:1,15,23). According to this text, Jesus appeared as Messiah at his baptism in the 15th year of Tiberius (from 19 August 28 to 18 August 29 CE) when he was about 30 years old181. He also indicates182 that at his time the people were waiting for the Messiah, but there were also some doubts: perhaps John, Jesus or somebody else (Mt 11:2-3), which prove that the calculations were not fully trustworthy. The Qumran manuscript 11Q13 says: Then the "Day of Atonement" shall follow after the 10th jubilee period, when he shall atone for all the Sons of Light, and the people who are predestined to Melchizedek. From where comes this period of 10 jubilees? As we saw, Messianic expectations were high mainly because of the text of Daniel183. The messiah of Daniel 9:25 is special because he is called “guide” or “Prince” and is associated with the “removal of sin” (verse 24): So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be 7 weeks and 62 weeks (Dn 9:25; New American Standard Bible). It is possible that this highly controversial text underwent some changes from the Jewish copyists, as evidenced by the pro-Maccabean translation of the Septuagint. However, the Jewish translation of Theodotion (c. 175 CE) written in an anti-Christian context is still very close to the Masoretic Text, it reads: Therefore consider the matter, understand the vision. 70 weeks have been determined upon thy people, and upon the holy city, for sin to be ended, and to seal up transgressions, and to blot out the iniquities, and to make atonement for iniquities, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal the vision and the prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy. And thou shalt know and understand, that from the going forth of the command for the answer and for the building of Jerusalem until Christ the prince [there shall be] 7 weeks, and 62 weeks; and then [the time] shall return, and the street shall be built, and the wall, and the times shall be exhausted. And after the 62 weeks, the anointed one shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in him: and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the prince that is coming: they shall be cut off with a flood, and to the end of the war which is rapidly completed he shall appoint [the city] to desolations. And one week shall establish the covenant with many: and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and drink-offering shall be taken away: and on the temple [shall be] the abomination of desolations; and at the end of time an end shall be put to the desolation (Dn 9:23-27). The text is clearly messianic and evokes an individual messiah whose chronological frame is perfectly defined. The whole period is 70 weeks (of 7

180 J. BONSIRVEN - Textes rabbiniques des deux premiers siècles Roma 1985 Ed. Pontifico Istituto Biblico pp.2,3. 181 As he was born on 29 September 2 BCE, he was exactly 30 years old on 29 September 29 CE, which involves attaching his baptism at the end of the 15th year of Tiberius. Luke's text makes it possible to date Jesus' baptism around August 29 CE. 182 A. PAUL - Le concept de prophétie biblique Flavius Josèphe et Daniel in: Recherches de Sciences Religieuses Tome 63 Paris 1975 pp. 367-384. 183 P. GRELOT – L'espérance juive à l'heure de Jésus Paris 1994, Éd. Desclée, pp. 31-60.


years = 490 years)184 and is divided into 3 parts: 7+62+1 = 70. The starting point for calculating the appearance of the messiah is specified by the expression: from the going forth of the command for the answer and for the building of Jerusalem until Christ the prince [there shall be] 7 weeks, and 62 weeks (= 69 weeks = 483 years). This order to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes I in Nisan the 20th year of his reign (Ne 2:1-8). Chronological calculations are possible only in relation to a universal calendar (like the Gregorian calendar today), which did not exist at the beginning of our common era, that's why Josephus used several national calendars. The only solution was to convert the duration into a jubilees calendar. Ezra's text tells about a tax exemption on Artaxerxes' 7th year (Ezr 7:1-8,24), the year captives were released (Ezr 8:35). On this ground, Jewish authorities agree that Jubilees must be counted185 again from that date. Maimonides wrote in a treaty on this question: With Ezra remissions (shemitah) started being counted and after 7 of them the 50th year was sanctified. Even if the Jubilee was not observed [in the economical field, not in the liturgical one], those years were nevertheless counted for the remission to be sanctified186. According to the biblical text, the 7th year is a sabbatical year (Ex 23:10-11) and the 50th year is a Jubilee year (Lv 25:8-11). Therefore the length of a Jubilee was 50 years and the date of the first Jubilee was in Artaxerxes I's 7th year. Consequently the Messiah was to appear 483 years after Artaxerxes' 20th year or 496 years (= 483 + [20 – 7]) after the 1st Jubilee or 4 years before the end of the 10th Jubilee (496 = 50x10 – 4). Eusebius already noticed this coincidence in his Chronicle. He wrote that Jesus began his ministry in Olympiad 202:1 (29 CE) corresponding to the 81st Jubilee in Hebrews' tradition187. Eusebius dated Artaxerxes' 7th year to 472/471, which was corresponding to the 71st Jubilee and remarked that between those two dates there was exactly a 500-year span equivalent to 10 Jubilees188. The 10th jubilee had to end in 33/34 CE which explains why some Jews were waiting for the Messiah at that time (Lk 3:1,15), however this date was controversial because: 1) jubilees were unobserved but only numbered by some Jewish scholars and 2) many zealous Jews (Hassidim) were more confident in a theological calendar based on the Book of Jubilees (c. 160-150 BCE) rather than on the usual liturgical calendar based on observation. In effect, the Jews from the Maccabean revolt believed that the events of their time were part of a divine plan of ages. We read, for example, in the Book of Jubilees that a jubilee should last 49 years189 (instead of 50 years) and a year 364 days (Book of Jubilees VI:30-38). The Book of Enoch (c. 100-50 BCE) divides the year into 4 regular seasons of 3 months respectively 30, 30 and 31 days, indicating that this year was 10 days longer than the lunar year of 354 days (Book of Enoch LXXIV:10-LXXII:6). These mystical calendars, unrelated to observation, influenced the Essenes of Qumran190. However, in the 1st century CE, the majority opinion saw the jubilee as a period of 50 years. Philo (De specialibus legibus II:110-117) for example explained (c. 30 CE) the reasons a Jubilee lasts 50 years and

184 Based on the following texts: You shall count 7 weeks of years, 7 times 7 years, that is to say, the time of 7 weeks of years, 49 years (Lv 25:8) You have recognized the country 40 days. Every day is a year: 40 years you carry the weight of your sins (Nu 14:34) I'll have time to set a day for a year (Ezk 4:6). 185 Some evidence shows that the system of sabbatical and jubilee years was partially observed (as exemption of certain payments) which enables to reconstruct this calendar. 186 MAIMONIDES - Hilchot Shemita VeYovel 10:47 (Hebrew). Sive R. Mosis filii Maimon Tractatus de juribus anni septimi et jubilaei Frankfurt 1708 Ed. Henricus Maius 187 Eusebius probably used the Hebrew text, which dated the beginning of the world around 4024 BCE. 188 EUSÈBE - S. Hieronymi interpretatio chronicæ Eusebii pamphili Paris 1846 Éd. Migne Patrologiæ Latina XXVII pp. 438-442, 570-574. 189 Many Jews believed that the dedication of the Temple in 164 BCE was to coincide with a jubilee because the 1st jubilee in Artaxerxes' 7th year was dated 458 BCE according to Greek historians and between the two events there was a gap of 294 years (= 458 - 164) or 6 jubilees of 49 years (294 = 49x6). In addition the 70 weeks of Daniel (490 years) could be understood as 10 jubilees of 49 years. 190 U. GLESSMER – Calendars in the Qumran Scrolls in: The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty years Vol. II. 1999 Leiden pp. 213-237.


Josephus wrote (c. 95 CE): He ordained, that they should do the same after 7 times 7 years, which in all are 50 years; and that 50th year is called by the Hebrews The Jubilee, wherein debtors are freed from their debts, and slaves are set at liberty; which slaves became such, though they were of the same stock, by transgressing some of those laws the punishment of which was not capital, but they were punished by this method of slavery. This year also restores the land to its former possessors in the manner following: —When the Jubilee is come, which name denotes liberty (Jewish Antiquities III:281-283). When Jesus was accepted as Messiah by some Jews, who were called Christians “Messianic (Ac 11:26)”, the eschatological calculations, to know when the messianic king would restore the “world to come (or Paradise), changed their meaning: While he (Jesus) was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately, saying: Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things? In answer Jesus said to them: (...) And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Therefore, when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken about by Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place (let the reader use discernment), then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains (...) Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look! Here is the Christ,’ or, ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will perform great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the chosen ones (...) Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (...) Likewise also you, when you see all these things, know that he is near at the doors. Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things happen (Mt 24:3-34). As this generation was that of Jesus (born 2 BCE) and a generation was living between 70 and 80 years (Ps 90:10), the Christians of the years 50 were expecting see the end of the world and the beginning of the kingdom (Ac 1:6): Now as for the times and the seasons, brothers, you need nothing to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that Jehovah’s day is coming exactly as a thief in the night. Whenever it is that they are saying, “Peace and security!” then sudden destruction is to be instantly on them, just like birth pains on a pregnant woman, and they will by no means escape. But you, brothers, you are not in darkness, so that the day should overtake you as it would thieves (1Th 5:1-4). According to Josephus, Cestius Gallus (7-67) was legate of Syria from 63 CE (but in Judea from 65 CE). He marched into Judea with a force of over 30,000 men in September 66 CE in an attempt to restore order at the outset of the Great Jewish Revolt but unexpectedly he was defeated by a small Jewish army191. The Jews of Jerusalem believed they had been miraculously protected and thus they shouted “Peace and security”, in contrast, the Jewish Christians fled to Pella a town of Perea, according to Eusebius (History of the Church 3:5:3). As Jesus had prophesied (Lk 19:43-44; 21:20-24), they waited until the Roman armies destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem and without pity killed its inhabitants (in August 70 CE). At the end of the first century it was clear that the end of the Jewish world in 70 CE was not the end of the world that the Christians were expecting, that’s why the apostle John wrote: By inspiration I came to be in the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a strong voice like that of a

191 As assembled at Antioch, Gallus's army comprised legio XII Fulminata, detachments from the 3 other legions based in Syria, 6 cohorts of auxiliary infantry and four alae of cavalry. These regular troops were supported by 14,000 allies provided by Agrippa II, Antiochus II and other client rulers. Gallus succeeded in conquering Beit She'arim in the Lower Galilee, seat of the Great Sanhedrin (Jewish supreme religious court) in later times. With his force reduced by detachments sent to occupy Galilee and the Judean coast, Gallus turned inland to subdue Jerusalem. After suffering losses amongst his baggage train and rearguard, Gallus reached Mount Scopus and penetrated the outer city, but was unable to take The Temple Mount. After a siege of 9 days, Gallus decided to fall back to the coast. His decision appears to have been based on the loss of siege equipment by ambush and the threatened cutting of his supply lines as the October rains began. During Gallus's withdrawal his column was ambushed near Beth Horon, suffering very heavy losses. He only succeeded in making good his escape to Antipatris with the loss of about 6,000 men and a large amount of war material. Judea was now almost entirely lost to Roman control.


trumpet, saying: What you see, write in a scroll and send it to the seven congregations (...) And I saw, and look! a white horse, and the one seated on it had a bow; and a crown was given him, and he went out conquering and to complete his conquest. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say: Come! Another came out, a fiery-coloured horse, and it was granted to the one seated on it to take peace away from the earth (World War I) so that they should slaughter one another, and he was given a great sword (...) When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness they had given. They shouted with a loud voice, saying: Until when, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, are you refraining from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And a white robe was given to each of them, and they were told to rest a little while longer, until the number was filled of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were about to be killed as they had been (...) The seventh angel blew his trumpet. And there were loud voices in heaven, saying: The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will rule as king forever and ever. And the 24 elders who were seated before God on their thrones fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying: We thank you, Jehovah God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun ruling as king. But the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time came for the dead to be judged and to reward your slaves the prophets and the holy ones and those fearing your name, the small and the great, and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth (...) And war broke out in heaven: Michael (Daniel 12:1-2) and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! And they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death. On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing that he has a short period of time (Rv 1:10-11; 6:2-4,9-11; 11:15-18; 12:7-12). At the end of the first century, the coming of the kingdom of God was thus associated to the second coming of Jesus, which would be preceded by a short and apocalyptic period of time. This is the famous ride of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse before the end of the world. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Jews continued to wait for the Messiah but their calculations ceased to be based on the prophecies of Daniel as we can see in the Talmud: The Targum of the Pentateuch was made by Unkelas the Proselyte under the supervision of R. Eliezer and R. Joshua; the Targum of the Prophets by Jonathan b. Uziel under the supervision of the three prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Then the ground of Palestine trembled (as if shaken by an earthquake) 400 Parsaoth square, and a heavenly voice was heard: Who are these who have revealed My Mystery to man? Then Jonathan b. Uziel arose and said: I am the one who hath revealed Thy Mystery to man, but it is known unto Thee that not to my honour, nor in honour of the house of my father I did this, but for Thy glory, to prevent controversies in Israel. He intended to do the same with the Hagiographa, when (c. 70-90 CE) a heavenly voice was heard: Refrain from doing this. Why, so? Because in the Hagiographa (including the Book of Daniel) the time of Messiah's arrival would be known if it should be translated (and this must be hidden) (Megillah 3a). New calculations appear to determine when the Messiah will come: It has been taught: R. Nehorai said: in the generation when Messiah comes, young men will insult the old, and old men will stand before the young [to give them honour]; daughters will rise up against their mothers, and daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law. The people shall be dog-faced, and a son will not be abashed in his father's presence. It has been taught, R. Nehemiah said: in the generation of Messiah's coming impudence will increase, esteem be perverted, the vine yield its fruit, yet shall wine be dear,


and the Kingdom will be converted to heresy with none to rebuke them. This supports R. Isaac, who said: The son of David will not come until the whole world is converted to the belief of the heretics (the Christians). Raba said: What verse [proves this]? it is all turned white: he is clean. Our Rabbis taught: For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself of his servants, when he saw that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left: the son of David will not come until denunciators are in abundance. Another interpretation [of their power is gone]: until scholars are few. Another interpretation: until the [last] perutah has gone from the purse. Yet another interpretation: until the redemption is despaired of, for it is written, there is none shut up or left, as —were it possible [to say so]— Israel had neither Supporter nor Helper. Even as R. Zera, who, whenever he chanced upon scholars engaged thereon [I.e., in calculating the time of the Messiah's coming], would say to them: I beg of you, do not postpone it, for it has been taught: Three come unawares: Messiah, a found article and a scorpion. R. Kattina said: 6000 years shall the world exist, and one [1000, the 7th], it shall be desolate, as it is written, And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Abaye said: it will be desolate two [1000], as it is said, After 2 days will he revive us: in the 3rd day, he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. It has been taught in accordance with R. Kattina: Just as the 7th year is one year of release in 7, so is the world: 1000 years out of 7[000] shall be fallow, as it is written, And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, and it is further said, A Psalm and song for the Sabbath day, meaning the day that is altogether Sabbath — and it is also said: For a 1000 years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past (Ps 90:4). The Tanna debe Eliyyahu teaches: The world is to exist 6000 years. In the first 2000 there was desolation; 2000 years the Torah flourished; and the next 2000 years is the Messianic era, but through our many iniquities all these years have been lost. Elijah said to Rab Judah, the brother of R. Salia the pious: The world shall exist not less than 85 jubilees (4250 years), and in the last jubilee the son of David will come. He asked him: At the beginning or at the end? —He replied: I do not know. Shall [this period] be completed or not? —I do not know, he answered. R. Ashi said: He spoke thus to him: Before that, do not expect him; afterwards thou mayest await him. R. Hanan b. Tahlifa sent [word] to R. Joseph: I once met a man who possessed a scroll written in Hebrew in Assyrian characters. I said to him: Whence has this come to thee? He replied, I hired myself as a mercenary in the Roman army, and found it amongst the Roman archives. In it is stated that 4231 years after the creation the world will be orphaned. [As to the years following,] some of them will be spent in the war of the great sea monsters, and some in the war of Gog and Magog, and the remaining [period] will be the Messianic era, whilst the Holy One, blessed be He, will renew his world only after 7000 years. R. Abba the son of Raba said: The statement was after 5000 years. It has been taught; R. Nathan said: This verse pierces and descends to the very abyss: For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though he tarry, wait for him; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Not as our Masters, who interpreted the verse, until a time and times and the dividing of time (Daniel 7:25); nor as R. Simlai who expounded, Thou fed them with the bread of tears; and gave them tears to drink a third time; nor as R. Akiba who expounded: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth: but the first dynasty [sc. the Hasmonean] shall last 70 years, the second [the Herodian], 52, and the reign of Bar Koziba 2.5 years (Sanhedrin 97a,b). After the destruction of the temple, Jewish messianic expectation was transformed to awaiting a Messiah who would come at some point (not known) in a messianic age of 2000 years “the days of the Messiah”, which began from 30 CE with the advent of Christians and their heresy. So that the Rabbis, immediately following the destruction, believing themselves to be in the final cycle of the fifth millennium, thought that the “days of the Messiah” would last 40, 60 or 70 years, and expected the Messiah to come during the second century; to be more exact, within the first half of the second century; for it is very likely that the destruction of the Temple was soon regarded by them as the beginning of this Messianic age —the terminus a quo. The Messianic age was to begin at a time when the fortunes of the people were at their lowest ebb. It was quite natural, therefore, for them to assume that


“on the day when the Temple was destroyed the Messiah was born”. If this is correct, the Messianic age, beginning with the destruction of the Temple and lasting 40, 60 or 70 years, would culminate in the years 110, 130 or 140 CE192. For example, we read in a document written around 100 CE: In the 30th year after the destruction of our city, I Salathiel, who am also called Ezra, was in Babylon. I was troubled as I lay on my bed, and my thoughts welled up in my heart, because I saw the desolation of Zion and the wealth of those who lived in Babylon (...) For my son the Messiah shall be revealed with those who are with him, and those who remain shall rejoice 400 years. And after these years my son the Messiah shall die, and all who draw human breath (...) For the sword of one shall devour him who was with him; but he also shall fall by the sword in the last days (...) as for all his words that you have heard, this is the Messiah whom the Most High has kept until the end of days, who will arise from the posterity of David, and will come and speak to them; he will denounce them for their ungodliness and for their wickedness, and will cast up before them their contemptuous dealings (IV Ezra 3:1-2; 7:28-29; 12:28-32). The famous Rabbi Aqiba ben Joseph (40-137) had believed that Bar Kokhba (died in 135 CE) would be the awaited Messiah (Talmud Ta'anit 68d). We do not know how Aqiba had assessed the coming of the Messiah but given that Bar Kokhba minted a lot of coins to celebrate a sabbatical year in 133 CE, then a Jubilee year in 134 CE, it is likely that Aqiba believed the Messiah had to occur at the end of the 12th jubilee instead of the 10th jubilee mentioned previously (Qumran manuscript 11Q13). While the Jews continued to calculate the date of the coming of the Messiah from 70 to 135 CE the Christians began to calculate the date of the second coming of the Messiah and the end of the world. For example, in a document probably written between the years 70 – 131 and addressed to Christian Gentiles, one reads: Further, also, it is written concerning the Sabbath in the Decalogue which [the Lord] spoke, face to face, to Moses on Mount Sinai: And sanctify ye the Sabbath of the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart. And He says in another place: If my sons keep the Sabbath, then will I cause my mercy to rest upon them. The Sabbath is mentioned at the beginning of the creation [thus]: And God made in 6 days the works of His hands, and made an end on the 7th day, and rested on it, and sanctified it. Attend, my children, to the meaning of this expression: He finished in 6 days. This implied that the Lord will finish all things in 6000 years, for a day is with Him a 1000 years. And He Himself testified, saying: Behold, to-day will be as a 1000 years. Therefore, my children, in 6 days, that is, in 6000 years, all things will be finished. And He rested on the 7th day. This meant: when His Son, coming [again], shall destroy the time of the wicked man, and judge the ungodly, and change the-sun, and the moon, and the stars, then shall He truly rest on the 7th day. Moreover, He says: Thou shalt sanctify it with pure hands and a pure heart. If, therefore, any one can now sanctify the day, which God hath sanctified, except he is pure in heart in all things, we are deceived. Behold, therefore: certainly then one properly resting sanctifies it, when we ourselves, having received the promise, wickedness no longer existing, and all things having been made new by the Lord, shall be able to work righteousness. Then we shall be able to sanctify it, having been first sanctified ourselves. Further, He says to them: Your new moons and your Sabbath I cannot endure. Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this,] when, giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the 8th day, that is, a beginning of another world. Wherefore, also, we keep the 8th day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. And when He had manifested Himself, He ascended into the heavens (The Epistle of Barnabas XV). Thus, the Messiah who had to establish the new world (or paradise) was now coming at the end of a period of 6000 years for Christians (second coming) as well as for Jews (first coming). After Bar Kokhba’s death (in 135 CE), Messianic expectations became puzzling for most Jews. They were still waiting a glorious messianic king who might put an end to an apocalyptic period called “the last days” but when, in addition, how to reconcile the

192 ABBA HILLEL SILVER – A History of Messianic Speculation in Israel Boston 1959, Ed. Beacon Press, pp. 13-25.


"suffering Messiah” of Isaiah in chapter 53 and the "glorious Messiah” of the following chapters (60 and 61). They came to imagine two messiahs193. The Essenes had already arrived at this conclusion, but for different reasons. Having found that the "glorious Messiah" was also a "royal Messiah," they concluded logically that he had to come from the tribe of Judah (Gn 49:10). This "royal Messiah" being known to lead a kingdom of priests (Ex 19:6), they concluded that he would be also a priest. However, there was an unsolvable problem since a Jew could not simultaneously belong to the tribe of Levi, associated with priesthood, and the tribe of Judah, associated with royalty. The Essenes therefore assumed the simultaneous existence of two messiahs: one from Levi and another from Judah194. In the Talmud (Sukka 52a), there are also discussions about a messiah son of Joseph killed before the coming of another messiah son of David from Judah. Judah and Joseph being representative of the two parts of Israel together, according to Ezekiel 37:16. It is noteworthy that the Book of Daniel no longer played any role for dating the Messiah. For example, Justin Martyr, an early Christian apologist, debated around 140 CE the meaning of “time, times and half a time” in Daniel 7:25 with Trypho, the Jew: And it shall be delivered into his hands for a time, and times, and half a time. And the judgment sat, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom, and the power, and the great places of the kingdoms under the heavens, were given to the holy people of the Most High, to reign in an everlasting kingdom: and all powers shall be subject to Him, and shall obey Him. Hitherto is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was possessed with a very great astonishment, and my speech was changed in me; yet I kept the matter in my heart. And when I had ceased, Trypho said: These and such like Scriptures, sir, compel us to wait for Him who, as Son of man, receives from the Ancient of days the everlasting kingdom. But this so-called Christ of yours was dishonourable and inglorious, so much so that the last curse contained in the law of God fell on him, for he was crucified. Then I replied to him: If, sirs, it were not said by the Scriptures which I have already quoted, that His form was inglorious, and His generation not declared, and that for His death the rich would suffer death, and with His stripes we should be healed, and that He would be led away like a sheep; and if I had not explained that there would be two advents of His, —one in which He was pierced by you; a second, when you shall know Him whom you have pierced, and your tribes shall mourn, each tribe by itself, the women apart, and the men apart, —then I must have been speaking dubious and obscure things (...) But you, being ignorant of how long he will have dominion, hold another opinion. For you interpret the 'time' as being 100 years. But if this is so, the man of sin must, at the shortest, reign 350 years, in order that we may compute that which is said by the holy Daniel —'and times'— to be two times only (Dialogue with Trypho XXXI-XXXII). Following the frustration of the Messianic hope in the second century, the next Messianic date seems to have been progressively placed 400 years after the destruction (that is in 470 CE). The Rabbis no longer pointed to a date in a near future, but projected it into a relatively distant future. The Bar Kokhba disaster taught them a bitter lesson. The figure 400 was quite naturally fixed upon as it corresponded with the number of years of the first exile —the Egyptian (Gn 15:13). According to the Babylonian Talmud: And thus a Min (Jewish Christian) said to R. Abbahu: When will the Messiah come? He replied: When darkness covers those people. You curse me, he exclaimed. He retorted: it is but a verse, For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall shine upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee (Is 50:2). It has been taught, R. Eliezer said: The days of the Messiah will last 40 years, as it is written, 40 years long shall I take hold of the generation (Ps 95:10). R. Eleazar b. Azariah said: 70 years, as it is written: And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten 70 years (Is

193 C. CHALIER, M. FAESSLER - Deux messies : fils de Juda, fils de Joseph in: Judaïsme et christianisme l'écoute en partage, Paris 2001 Éd. Cerf pp. 307-345. 194 M. WISE, M. ABEGG JR., E. COOK - Les manuscrits de la mer Morte Paris 2001, Éd. Plon pp.171,340.


23:15), according to the days of one king. (...) The days of the Messiah will be 40 years. Here it is written, And he afflicted thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna; whilst elsewhere it is written, Make us glad, according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us. R. Dosa said (c. 200 CE): 400 years. It is here written: And they shall serve them, and they shall afflict them 400 years (Gn 15:13); whilst elsewhere it is written, Make us glad, according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us. Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (135-220 CE) said: 365 years, even as the days of the solar year, as it is written, For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redemption is come (Is 63:4). What is meant by ‘the day of vengeance is in mine heart’? —R. Johanan said: I have [so to speak] revealed it to my heart, but not to my [outer] limbs. Abimi the son of R. Abbahu learned: The days of Israel's Messiah shall be 7000 years, as it is written, And as the bridegroom rejoiced over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. Rab Judah said in Samuel's name: The days of the Messiah shall endure as long as from the Creation until now, as it is written, [That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give to them,] as the days of heaven upon the earth. R. Nahman b. Isaac said: As long as from Noah's days until our own, as it is written, For this is as the waters of Noah, which are mine, so I have sworn, etc (Sanhedrin 99a). When Christianity became a state religion under Constantine, in 325 CE, the Jews ceased their eschatological calculations based on the Book of Daniel in order to determine at what time the messianic era would begin, for the following reasons: 1) the temple of Jerusalem having disappeared it was useless to expect a messiah who would come before the destruction of that temple and given that the archives had been destroyed, it was impossible to identify the genealogy of a Messiah having Judah as forefather; 2) the “banquet of the righteous”, which had played an important role in the Jewish expectations of the Messianic era, was very similar to the “Lord's supper” in which Jesus is depicted as the king of that Messianic era. The Jews of that time had understood that Leviathan was a symbolic animal whose flesh would be eaten be cause it was written: You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You gave it as food to the people, to those inhabiting the deserts (Ps 74:14), which is very similar to the description of the wild beast representing Satan, killed by Jesus, in the Book of Revelation: On his outer garment, yes, on his thigh, he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. I saw also an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice and said to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven: Come here, be gathered together to the great evening meal of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of military commanders and the flesh of strong men and the flesh of horses and of those seated on them, and the flesh of all, of freemen as well as of slaves and of small ones and great. And I saw the wild beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the one seated on the horse and against his army (Rv 19:16-19). Similarly, Behemoth was as well a symbolic creature whose flesh would be eaten as Jesus explained in a provocative manner: Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them: Most truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I will resurrect him on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in union with me, and I in union with him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. It is not as when your forefathers ate and yet died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever (Jn 6:52-58). Obviously, identifying Jesus with the Messiah had became shocking for the Jews of that time and consequently his identifying with Behemoth became impossible. The Jews ceased to be interested in Leviathan and Behemoth and preferred to develop eschatological calculations based on new rabbinical exegeses. In order to calculate dates, the Jews created their own universal calendar around 160 CE, called the Seder Olam Rabbah (still used until today), in which events are dated from


the creation of the world195 (with Adam). For example: Said R. Hanina: From the year 400 after the destruction onwards, if one says unto you. Buy a field that is worth 1000 denarii for 1 dinar —do not buy it. In a Baraitha it is taught: From the year 4231 of the Creation of the World onward, if one says unto you. Buy thee a field that is worth a 1000 denarii for 1 dinar, do not buy it. What difference is there between these two [given periods]? —There is a difference of 3 years between them, the one of the Baraitha being 3 years longer (Aboda Zarah 9b). Consequently the Temple was destroyed in the year 3828 of the Creation of the World (= 4231 – 400 – 3), thus Adam was created in Year 0, or 3760 BCE (= 3828 – 70 + 3 – 1. According to the Seder Olam196 there was a total of 1656 years from Adam to the Deluge (like the Masoretic text which became the standard text after 90 CE), but according to the first Jewish chronograph197 as Demetrius (c. 220 BCE), who had already dated major biblical events from the creation of Adam, or by the age of the world (AM), there was a total of 2264 years (2242 years in the LXX) close to the sum of 2156 years from the text of Josephus (c. 95 CE). These huge differences in the total of years (1656 instead of 2264) prove that the Jewish chronological data coming from the Hebrew text were different before 100 CE198. Paradoxically, if some Jews hoped to see the coming of the Messiah toward 470 CE, 400 years after the destruction (in 70 CE), some Christians hoped to see his second coming, and consequently the end of the world, toward 500. For example, Hippolytus of Rome (170-235), who was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome gave his interpretation of Bible prophecies in his On Christ and the Antichrist and Commentary on the Prophet Daniel (written c. 202). He assumed, like Irenaeus his teacher, that inasmuch as God made all things in 6 days, and these days symbolize 1000 years each, in 6000 years from the creation the end would come. He apparently based his calculation on the Septuagint which had the world beginning about 5500 BCE. He computed the time of the return of Christ and based his calculation on Exodus 25:10 —the dimensions of the ark in the Tabernacle (Christ): The length of the ark is 2.5 cubits, its breadth 1.5 cubits, its height 1.5 cubits, a total of 5.5 cubits. These are equal to the 5.5 millenia from Creation to the birth of Christ. From the birth of Christ, then, we must reckon the 500 years that remain to make up the 6000 (years) and then the end shall be. Hippolytus, then, like many of his contemporaries and followers, looked forward to the return of Christ in c. 500 CE. However, two great theologians, Augustine and Jerome, expressed serious doubts about the literal interpretation of the millennium (1000-year reign) and therefore about eschatological speculations. Then, in 431, the Council of Ephesus spoke regarding millennialism as being some "ramblings and fabulous dogmas" which would lead in the end of the 5th century to the Decree of Gelasius warning against the literal interpretation of chapter 20 of the book of the Apocalypse, taken from the millenarian writings of Tertullian, Lactantius, Commodian of Gaza and Victorinus of Pettau199, who therefore became by the same token "heretics".

195 J. FINEGAN – Handbook of Biblical Chronology Princeton 1998, Ed. Hendrickson Publishers, pp. 108-113. 196 According to the Seder Olam, Nebuchadnezzar becomes ruler 44 years over Judea 3320-3364 AM (440-396 BCE); Exile of Jeconiah in 3327 AM (433 BCE); Destruction of First Temple in 3338 AM ( 422 BCE); Evil-Merodach ruled 23 years 3364-3387 AM (396-373 BCE); Belshazzar ruled 3 years 3387-3389 AM (373-371 BCE); Darius the Mede ruled 1 year 3389-3390 AM (371-369 BCE); Cyrus ruled 3 years 3389-3393 AM (371-367 BCE); Ahasuerus ruled 14 years 3394-3407 AM (366-353 BCE); Darius the Persian ruled 35 years 3407-3442 AM (353-318 BCE); Completion of Second Temple in 3408 AM ( 352 BCE); Alexander ruled 6 years 3442-3448 AM (317-311 BCE); Destruction of Second Temple in 3828 AM (69 CE). 197 J. FINEGAN - Handbook of Biblical Chronology Massachusetts 1999 Ed. Hendrickson Publishers pp. 140-145. 198 According to the Septuagint (c. 280 BCE) Adam fathered a son when he was 230 years old, then he lived 700 years before dying; 130/800 according to the Book of Jubilees (c. 160 BCE); 130/800 according to the Samaritan Pentateuch (c. 130 BCE); 130/800 according to the Masoretic Text (c. 90 CE); 230/700 according to Josephus (c. 95 CE), 130/800 according to the Seder Olam (160 CE). 199 J. DELUMEAU - Mille ans de bonheur Paris 1995, Éd. Fayard, pp.21-32.


The failure of the Messiah to appear in the fifth century, according to some Jewish calculations, dampened the ardour of Messianic speculations for a considerable period of time. In fact, such speculations are not in evidence until after the meteoric rise of Islam and its phenomenal sweep through Asia and Africa. The Revelations of Simeon ben Yoḥai, an apocalypse written in Palestine after the year 750 CE, clearly expresses the thought that the Mohammedans were God’s instrument whereby the downfall of Rome would be effected, and definitely places the hour of the Redemption in the period immediately following the fall of the Omayyad dynasty, which took place in the year 750 CE. Once again this speculation produced a new disappointment. Saadia Gaon (882-942), probably the first among the Gaonim to attempt to sift the vast Rabbinic opinion on the subject of the Messiah, and whose formulation remained, with slight modification, the accredited and accepted view, devotes the eighth chapter of his Emunot we-De‘ot to the Final Redemption and dwells at length upon the Messianic predictions in the Book of Daniel. In his book he endeavours to explain and to harmonize the various figures given in Daniel. He first discusses the expression “a time, times and a half” in Daniel 12:6-7. This period, Saadia argues, is further explained to Daniel to be 1335 days. The days are here to be reckoned as years. The “times” refer to the two periods during which the kingdom of Israel existed. The first period is that of the 480 years up to the building of the first Temple; the second period is that of the 410 years of the duration of this Temple, giving a total of 890 years; half of this is 445 years; hence “times and a half” is 1335 years. The second figure, 1290 days, is given in chapter 12, verse 11. Saadia argues that this refers to some event which occurred during the second Temple, 45 years after the first prophecy to Daniel. This, then, also gives us the figure 1335. He does state when this period of 1335 years is to begin but Albiruni the Persian astronomer and chronologer, who lived a century after Saadia, and who was acquainted with Jewish Messianic movements and speculations, states that the Jews counted the 1335 years from the time of Alexander (whose era began in 331 BCE). This would place the ultimate Messianic year in 1005 (= 1335 – 331 + 1), 45 years after the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which would begin in 960 (= 1005 – 45). Ḥasdai ibn Shaprut (c. 915-970), the Spanish statesman and patron of letters, addressed a letter to Joseph, king of the Chazars, about the year 960 CE, asking, among other things, concerning any possible information which the king may have touching the time of the Redemption. Once again this speculation produced a new disappointment. The hordes of the First Crusade in 1096 swept over the Jewish settlements between the Rhine and the Moselle and laid them waste. The terrible tragedies which came upon the Jewish communities of Northern Europe in the wake of the successive crusades —the most devastating in the millennium which followed the destruction of the Temple— find their reflex in the intensified Messianic expectations of the time. Three new speculations to calculate the Messianic era began to appear: 1) astrology or 2) Gematria200 as an appropriate means for calculations and 3) the Messiah could be Israel as a whole. For example Solomon ibn Gabirol (c. 1020-1058) is mentioned by Abraham ibn Ezra (c. 1092-1167) in his commentary on Daniel 11:30 as having calculated the end on the basis of astrological computations: also the words of Solomon ibn Gabirol, who sought to make the Redemption contingent upon the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. The great figure of Judaism Rabbi Shlomo Yitshaqi called Rashi of Troyes (1040-1105) changed his understanding about Isaiah 53 at

200 Gematria is an Assyro-Babylonian system of numerology later adopted by Jews that assigns numerical value to a word or phrase in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like. The best-known example of Gematria is the Hebrew word Ḥay ("alive"), which is composed of two letters (Ḥ = 8, y = 10) that add up to 18. This has made 18 a "lucky number" among Jews, and gifts in multiples of 18 are very popular.


the end of his life. He believed, like all Jews before him, that the text had to apply to an individual messiah, but struck by the terrible massacres among the Jewish community in the Rhineland as a result of the First Crusade in 1096 CE, he saw in this terrible suffering the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 53 that he applied to Israel considered as a collective messiah201, according to Hosea 11:1. However this original explanation contradicted the teachings of all the rabbis before him (without exception) who always taught the coming of an individual Messiah. Even the great Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) reminds one in his 13 principles founding the Jewish faith that he who does not believe in the Messiah as a future king from the house of David has denied God202. Rashi finds that Daniel 8:14 and 12:11-12 clearly point to the year 1352 as the Messianic year (when Israel will rule the world to come) because verse 14 of chapter 8 reads: And he said unto me, Unto evening and morning 2300 years, then shall the sanctuary be victorious, and “evening (ערב) and morning (בקר)” must be taken in their numerical value203 = 574, then adding 2,300 we have the figure 2,874. The terminus a quo is the beginning of the Egyptian captivity. The Jews were 210 years in Egypt; 480 years elapsed from the time of their deliverance to the building of the first Temple; the Temple stood 410 years; the Babylonian captivity lasted 70 years, and the second Temple stood 420 years. This gives you a total of 1590 years from Egypt to the second destruction. Daniel 12:11-12 says that 1290 years must elapse from the time that the continual burnt offering shall be taken away until the time of the Redemption. The offering ceased, according to Rashi, 6 years before the destruction, i.e. in the 1584th since the Egyptian captivity; add 1584 and 1290 and you get the figure 2874, the figure of Daniel 8:14. According to Rashi, as the Temple was destroyed in 68 CE, the Messiah was to appear 1290 years after the cessation of the burnt offering, which took place 6 years before the destruction204 (i.e. 62 CE). Rashi therefore expected the Messiah to come in the year 1352 CE. Maimonides (1138-1204), too, in spite of his repeated attempts at rationalizing the Messianic idea and at discouraging apocalyptic speculation, fell victim to the fascination of calculating when the Yemenite Jews were, in the year 1172 CE, sorely beset by religious persecutions at the hands of the fanatic Shi‘ite rulers. They were threatened with forced conversion, apostasy and the menace of a pseudo-Messiah. In their perplexity their leader, Rabbi Jacob ibn Alfayumi, turned to Maimonides for counsel and guidance. In his reply Maimonides begins with a sharp warning against calculating the end. The end cannot be fathomed. There is even doubt concerning the exact duration of the Egyptian captivity, of which we have clear Biblical data. Maimonides apologizes for Saadia’s attempt to fix the end by saying that, in the troubled times in which Saadia lived, he endeavoured by these means to strengthen the faith of the people. Maimonides vigorously denounces any attempt at prognosticating the end by means of astrology. And then Maimonides continues: The exact time (when the Messiah comes) is not known for a certainty, but there exists among us a great and wonderful tradition which I received from my father, and he in turn from his father, and his grandfather, who likewise received it, and so through a continuous chain to the beginning of the exile from Jerusalem that in Balaam’s statement, Numbers 23:23 “Now, is it said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God Wrought?” is found the key to the mystery. From the time of this prophecy one should count the numbers of years which precede it from creation. Prophecy will at time return to Israel, and then the prophets will say, “Behold what God Hath wrought”. This prophecy of Balaam was delivered 40 years after the Exodus, i.e.

201 The idea also appears in Isaiah 43:10: You are my witnesses, (...) even my servant. 202 M. MAÏMONIDE – Epitres (traduit de l'hébreu par Jean de Hulster) Paris 1983 Éd. Gallimard (Verdier) pp. 193-195. 203 “evening” = 272 = (2) ב + (200) ר + (70) ע; “morning” = 302 = (200) ר + (100) ק + (2) ב. 204 According to the Talmud, the cessation of the burnt offering ceased on 17 Tammuz because of a total lack of sheep (Mishnah 4:6 Taanit 28b), 22 days before the destruction the Temple on 9 Ab (3 August 70 CE).


in the year 2488 AM. The return of prophecy, which is the sign heralding the coming of the Messiah, will therefore transpire in the year 4976 AM (= 2x2488), i.e. 1216 CE. The same calculation (1216 CE), based on Numbers 23:23, was also known to Abraham bar Ḥiyya (c. 1065-1136). Despite repeated failures and disappointments in Jewish circles, the years 1216-1358 saw no abatement Messianic speculation. Among Christian circles, the writings of Joachim of Fiore (1130-1202), a mystic and esoteric theologian, greatly revived hopes of a messianic return. The mystical basis of his teaching is his doctrine205 of the "Eternal Gospel", founded on an interpretation of the text in Apocalypse (“Revelation”) 14:6. His theories can be considered millenarian; he believed that history, by analogy with the Trinity, was divided into 3 fundamental epochs. He concluded that this age would begin in 1260 CE based on the Book of Revelation (verses 11:3 and 12:6, which mention "1260 days"). In this year, instead of the parousia (second Advent of Christ), a new Epoch of peace and concord would begin, thus making the hierarchy of the Church unnecessary. In order to settle endless controversies about the Messianic era the Jewish and Christian authorities decided in 1263 to put an end to this question. The Disputation of Barcelona (July 20–24, 1263) was a formal medieval debate between representatives of Christianity and Judaism regarding whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. It was held at the royal palace of King James I of Aragon in the presence of the King, his court, and many prominent ecclesiastical dignitaries and knights, between Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and Rabbi Nahmanides (Ramban), a leading medieval Jewish scholar, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator. The disputation was organized by Raymond de Penyafort, the superior of Christiani and the confessor of King James. Christiani had been preaching to Jews of Provence. Relying upon the reserve his adversary would be forced to maintain through fear of wounding the feelings of the Christian dignitaries, Christiani assured the King that he could prove the truth of Christianity from the Talmud and other rabbinical writings. Nahmanides (1194-1268) complied with the order of the King, but stipulated that complete freedom of speech should be granted. The debate turned on the following questions: whether the Messiah had appeared or not; whether, according to Scripture, the Messiah is a divine or a human being; whether the Jews or the Christians held the true faith. Just after the disputation, Ramban devoted a special work to the nature of the belief in Redemption, the Sefer ha-Ge’ula, in which he applies himself zealously to the task of discovering the exact year of Redemption. Consequently the disputation of Barcelona in 1263 was a climax for the rational calculation of the year when the Messiah is to appear (no astrology, no Gematria and no cabbalistic speculations) and when he would rule the world to come. The first question of the disputation focused on Jesus in order to know if he was the Messiah of Daniel 9:22-27 which gives the following chronology206:

-----<--7 weeks---><-------------------------62 weeks-----------------------><-1 week-> -----I--(49 years)---I-------------------------(483 years)------------------------I--(7 years)-I ----(1)---------------(2)-(3)------------------------------------------------(4)----(5)------------(6)

205 According to Joachim of Fiore there are 3 Ages (IE-EU-UE): 1) The Age of the Father (called IE), corresponding to the Old Testament, characterized by obedience of mankind to the Rules of God; 2) The Age of the Son (called EU), between the advent of Christ and 1260, represented by the New Testament, when Man became the son of God; 3) The Age of the Holy Spirit (called UE), impending (in 1260), when mankind was to come in direct contact with God (called IEUE in Greek or YHWH in Hebrew), reaching the total freedom preached by the Christian message. The Kingdom of the Holy Spirit, a new dispensation of universal love, would proceed from the Gospel of Christ, but transcend the letter of it. In this new Age the ecclesiastical organization would be replaced and the Order of the Just would rule the Church. This Order of the Just was later identified with the Franciscan order by his follower Gerardo of Borgo San Donnino. According to Joachim, only in this third Age would it be possible to really understand the words of God in the deepest meanings, and not merely literally. Joachim distinguished between the "reign of justice" or of "law", in an imperfect society, and the "reign of freedom" in a perfect society. 206 NAHMANIDE - La dispute de Barcelone in: collection «Les Dix Paroles» 1984 Éd. Verdier pp.45-47.


According to Ramban: point (1) —emergence of word to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile (433 BCE* according to the Seder Olam); point (2) —anointment of the prince Zerubbabel (352 BCE*); point (3) —Temple is completed; point (4) —Jesus is killed (33 CE); point (4) —anointed one cut off, Sanctuary destroyed by the people of the prince (70 CE); point (6) —abolishes sacrifices and meal offerings (77 CE). The interpretation of Ramban is different on two essential points from Christian interpretation given that he puts the anointing of the Messiah after the 7 weeks, not after the 62 weeks, then he places the cutting off of a second Messiah (anonymous) when the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. Paradoxically the Christian authorities did not refer to chronology for refuting this absurd interpretation (who was the anonymous Messiah born around 70 CE?) but rather they quoted some passages of the Talmud, which says that the Messiah was born just after the destruction of the Temple. Nahmanides believed that the anointed prince of Daniel 9:25 was Zerubbabel, the first governor of Judah, because he quoted the passage from Psalms 105:15 where God says: Do not touch my messiahs [or anointed ones] to indicate that Zerubbabel could be considered a messiah because this term refers to those who are anointed and appointed for a mission. Anyway chronology, the only scientific way to separate the historical interpretations, was not used. It would have been easy to show that the precise two time periods of 49 years, from (1) to (2), then 483 years, from (2) to (5), corresponded in no way to the supposed events. Nahmanides sets about to prove that Gematria is a legitimate and traditionally sanctioned method of discovering the date of the final Redemption; that the Messianic passages of Daniel refer to the final Redemption and that the Rabbinic injunction against calculating the end is no longer binding because we are near the end now (in 1263 CE), and the injunction was made at a time (in 135 CE) when the end was far off, in order to save the people from heart-breaking disappointments. According to him, Daniel 12:11: And from the time that the continual burnt offering that causeth appalment set up, there shall be 1290 days, means that 1290 years after the destruction of the Temple the 1st Messiah, the Messiah ben Joseph would appear (i.e. in 1358 CE). In his public disputation with Pablo Christiani, Nahmanides stated explicitly: It is now (in 1263 CE) 1195 years since the destruction (i.e. 68 CE), or 95 (= 1358 – 1263) years less than the Messianic figure of Daniel. We believe that the Messiah will come. Nahmanides maintains that the burnt offering was taken away the day of the destruction, differing in this regard from Saadia (68 CE instead of 62 CE), then 45 years later (in 1403 CE) the Messiah ben David would come, hence the second figure of 1335 days found in Daniel 12:13. The “time and times and half a time” yield the figure 1540; for the “time” refers to the length of the Egyptian bondage, which was 440 years; hence 1540 = 440 +2x440 + 440/2. This figure (1540) represents the numbers of years which Israel would be under the rule of the 4th kingdom, i.e. Rome, whose rule began with her victory over Greece in 138 BCE (= 1540 – 1403 + 1), instead of 146 BCE. In his book Sefer Hadar Zekenim (c. 1300), Asher ben Jehiel (1250-1327), a Tosafist commentator, gives additional calculations: If the period of the exile (1290 years plus 45 years) is to counted from the expulsion (in 68 CE), then the Messiah will come in the year 5163 AM (i.e. 1403 CE). The world, according to the Rabbis, is to last 6,000 years, and then it will be destroyed. The 6,000 years include the millennium or the universal Sabbath. The 6,000 years correspond to the 6 days of Creation plus the 7th day of the rest. In other words, the 6,000 years equal the 7 days. In the eyes of God 1000 years equal to 1 day, plus a watch in the night (Ps 90:4). A day is then equal to 8571/7 years, and 6 days to 5,1426/7 years. The 7th day, or Sabbath —the Messianic day— will then begin in the year 5143 AM, or 1383 CE (instead of 1358 CE). The disputation of Barcelona marked a turning point in calculating Messianic dates of the end of the world, because from that time, cabbalistic speculations were used instead


of biblical quotations, both by Jews and Christians. The Sefer ha-Zohar “Book of Splendour”, written by Moshe ben Shem Tov de León between 1270 and 1280 (mostly in Aramaic) is the classic text of esoteric Jewish mysticism, or Kabbala. Though esoteric mysticism was taught by Jews as early as the 1st century CE, the Zohar gave new life and impetus to mystical speculations based on the mystic value of the letters of the Tetragrammaton (for example the letter Y is 10, the H is 5 and means 5000, the W is 6 and means 6000, which implies a date in 5060 AM or 1300 CE because 5060 = H + YxW). Arnaldus de Villa Nova (c. 1235-1313), a Spanish alchemist, astrologer and physician, who was a former student of Raymond Martini, exposed the cabalistic meaning of the letters of God's Name in his book Allocutio super Tetragramaton published in 1292 CE. Intellectually, the 13th century marked the beginning of the decline which was continue for centuries. Maimonides was furiously attacked, and rationalism was generally discredited. This tendency culminated in the edict of excommunication pronounced (26 July 1305 CE) by 15 Rabbis, headed by Solomon ben Adret (1235-1310), also called the Rashba, against all men under the age of 25 who studied philosophy. The Rashba's response also illustrate his opposition to Messianism and prophetic pretensions as a general phenomenon, with examples against Nissim ben Abraham (c. 1250-1295) and Abraham Abulafia (1240-1291). In fact, under the influence of Isaac the Blind (1160-1235) who promoted the Sefer ha-Bahir “Book of the Brightness” (published c. 1174 CE), Kabbala began its ascendency in the realm of Jewish thought. It invaded rapidly the whole realm of Jewish literature. Biblical commentary took a sharp turn away from the rational in the direction of the mystic, the allegoric and the fantastic. After 1260 CE the followers of Joachim of Fiore (Joachimites) rescheduled the End to 1290 CE and then 1335 CE when his 1260 prophecy failed. They came to believe that the beginning of this New Age would be ushered in by the coming of a virtuous Pope from the Franciscan order. They considered Celestine V to be this Pope. His resignation, and death in 1296 in the dungeons of the next Pope, was considered a sign of the coming of the Anti-Christ. Around this time, or somewhat before, they further decided Joachim's own writings were the Eternal Gospel or the road to it. The failure of Messianic calculations, 1335 CE for the Franciscans (Christian), 1358 CE for the Kabbalists (Jewish), was a terrible blow to the Messianic speculators and discouraged for a long time to come further essays in the field. Furthermore, the failure of these messianic expectations modified greatly the understanding of the two Messianic creatures: Behemoth and Leviathan. As we have seen previously, from the 4th century CE, Jews completely had stopped their investigations on Behemoth and Leviathan. A few Christian commentators like Olympiodorus (500-565) or Pope Gregory (540-604), liken Behemoth and Leviathan to some allegories of diabolical human passions. According to Pope Gregory's writings, there was even a link between Satan and Leviathan as well as Behemoth and Jesus: This Behemoth always discerns in the minds of the proud his own desires, he finds, as it were, grass on the mountains, with which he replenishes and swells the belly of his malice (...) this Behemoth slumbers therein, because he watches anxiously against hearts glowing with charity, but lies securely in minds benumbed with cold. For he cannot slumber in the minds of Saints (...) But who are signified by the expression ‘Jordan,’ except those who have been already imbued with the sacrament of Baptism? For since our Redeemer deigned to be baptized in this river, all who have been baptized must needs be expressed by the name of that stream, in which this very sacrament of Baptism happened to be begun. Because, therefore, this Behemoth has drawn to himself like a river the human race flowing downward from the beginning of the world, even to the times of redemption, but a few Elect ones escaping him, it is now well said; He will drink up a river, and will not wonder. But since even after the coming of the Mediator he seizes some even of the faithful, who neglect to live righteously, it is rightly subjoined; And trusted that Jordan can flow into his mouth. As if it were plainly


said, Before the coming of the Redeemer of the world, he drank up the world without wondering, but, which is far worse, even after the coming of the Redeemer, he trusts that he is able to swallow up some, who have been sealed with the sacrament of Baptism. For he devours some who have been placed in the profession of Christians, because he supplants them by causing error in their faith itself. But others he does not turn aside from the uprightness of the faith, but inclines to the practice of wicked works (...) For when He had pointed out in manifold expressions the cunning crafts, and the unrestrained strength of Behemoth, He immediately sets forth the coming of His Only-begotten Son our Redeemer, and teaches in what way this Behemoth is to be destroyed; in order that, having oppressed our heart by recounting his might, He might speedily alleviate our sorrow by pointing out his destruction. Therefore, after He had said, He will drink up a river, and will not wonder, and trusted that Jordan can flow into his mouth, He immediately announces the coming of the Lord’s Incarnation, saying, In his eyes He will take him as with a hook. Who can be ignorant that in a ‘hook’ a bait is shewn, a point is concealed? For the bait tempts, that the point may wound. Our Lord therefore, when coming for the redemption of mankind, made, as it were, a kind of hook of Himself for the death of the devil; for He assumed a body, in order that this Behemoth might seek therein the death of the flesh, as if it were his bait. But while he is unjustly aiming at that death in His person, he lost us, whom he was, as it were, justly holding. He was caught, therefore, in the ‘hook’ of His Incarnation, because while he sought in Him the bait of His Body, he was pierced with the sharp point of His Divinity. For there was within Him His Humanity, to attract to Him the devourer, there was there His Divinity to wound; there was there His open infirmity to excite, His hidden virtue to pierce through the jaw of the spoiler. He was, therefore, taken by a hook, because he perished by means of that which he swallowed. And this Behemoth knew indeed the Incarnate Son of God, but knew not the plan of our redemption (...) But every false doctrine has now been silenced, because the Lord has bound the tongue of Leviathan by the cord of His Incarnation (...) But perhaps that man, whom this Leviathan in the end of the world makes his peculiar vessel, whom, as Paul attests, the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming (...) The ‘gates of his face’ are wicked teachers, who are called the gates of his face for this reason, because, every one enters through them, in order that this Leviathan may be seen, as it were, in the princedom of his power (...) In this body therefore of Leviathan, that is, in either malignant spirits, or reprobate men, who have adhered to him through resemblance in their guilt, a breath rises, as it were, from the breast, when pride exalts itself through the power of the present world (The Books of the Morals XXXIII). Martin of Leon (1130-1203), who had used Gregory’s writings, thought that Leviathan was the Dragon and Behemoth represented resurrected Jesus. However the remarks of two theologians, Albert the Great (1206-1280), and Thomas Aquinas (1227-1274), were decisive for dismissing this kind of allegory and replacing by a literal depiction of two mighty mammals: an elephant and a whale. Assuming a connection between Behemoth and Leviathan with Jesus and Satan had a major drawback for Catholic theologians, in fact it implied a coming messianic era similar to the 1000-year reign (an earthly paradise), while the Messianic Kingdom was likened to the Church "the City of God", according to Augustine of Hippo (354-430), and paradise to a heavenly reward. The sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 left Romans in a deep state of shock, and many Romans saw it as punishment for abandoning traditional Roman religion for Christianity. In response to these accusations, and in order to console Christians, Augustine wrote The City of God, arguing for the truth of Christianity over competing religions and philosophies and that Christianity is not only not responsible for the Sack of Rome, but also was responsible for the success of Rome. He attempted to console Christians, writing that, even if the earthly rule of the Empire was imperilled, it was the City of God that would ultimately triumph. Augustine's eyes were fixed on Heaven, a theme of many Christian works of Late Antiquity, and despite Christianity's designation as the official religion of the Empire, Augustine declared its message to be spiritual rather than political.


Augustine’s thesis depicts the history of the world as universal warfare between God and the Devil. This metaphysical war is not limited by time but only by geography as it takes place on planet Earth. In this war, God moves (by divine intervention/ Providence) those governments, political /ideological movements and military forces aligned (or aligned the most) with the Catholic Church (the City of God) in order to oppose by all means —including military— those governments, political/ideological movements and military forces aligned (or aligned the most) with the Devil (the City of Devil). For example, Thomas of Aquinas wrote in his Commentary on the Book of Job: Consider that just as the angels who remain in their dignity have a certain excellence above the dignity of men, and so they appear to men in a very brilliant light, so also the demons have a certain excellence and primacy in evil over men, and so they are described using the figures of certain extraordinary and almost monstrous animals. Among all land animals, the elephant excels in size and strength, and among aquatic animals the whale. So the Lord describes the devil using the metaphor of an elephant and a whale. Thus the name Behemoth, which means “animal,” is referred to the elephant, which among other land animals, who are more commonly called animals, has a certain pre-eminence because of the size of his body. The name Leviathan, which means “their addition,” is referred to the large whales which have an increase in size over every other genus of animal (...) First, he begins to describe Satan using the analogy of Behemoth, and he describes his resemblance to man saying: Behold Behemoth which I made with you. If, indeed, this should refer to the time of the beginning of both as a metaphor, the truth is apparent: For man and the earthly animals were created together on the 6th day. (Gen.1:24) If it should refer to the devil, about whom these things are said figuratively or metaphorically, the devil does not seem to have been created at the same time as man. For man, we read, was created on the 6th day. Satan, however, is believed to have been created with the angels in the beginning in which God created the heaven and the earth. But if the enumeration of days does not designate a succession of time but rather the different genera of the things created, according to the opinion of Augustine, there is no inconsistency in the text. If, however, as others say, the creation of the angels preceded the production of man in time, the word “with” can be understood in two ways. In one way the sense is, “which I made with you,” that is, whom I made just as I made you, and he says this to exclude the error of those, who considering the evil of the devil, thought that he was not a creature of the good God. In another way the sense is, “whom I made with you,” because the devil is like you in intellectual nature. One finds some trace of this likeness in the elephant (...) These things cannot be literally referred to the devil, as if demons themselves have carnal intercourse like animals, as though taking pleasure in intercourse itself. For although as Augustine says in Book XV of The City of God, “The evil spirits often are said to have appeared with women, lusted after them and consummated intercourse with them.” Yet they did not do this from enjoyment of intercourse themselves, but they do enjoy leading men into these kind of sins to which they are especially prone to. So Augustine says in Book II of The City of God, “Who does not understand what efforts these malignant spirits use to give authority and an example for criminal acts?” and because of this as he says in the same book in another place, “Spirits of this kind delight in the obscenities of lust;” and their delight is metaphorically expressed in the passages cited above (...) This indicates both the obstinacy of the devil who cannot renounce his malicious designs and his cruelty by which he does not cease from the exterior harm of men. The Lord explains these things which have been said figuratively continuing, “He,” that is, Satan about whom these metaphors are used, “is as the first of the ways of God,” of his works. If this refers to the works or creation, it is because Satan was created among the first creatures, or also because according to some commentators he was more excellent than the other creatures. The explanation of Thomas Aquinas, despite its obvious inconsistencies, becomes the norm among theologians! Two catastrophic events, the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 CE and the expulsions from Spain in 1492 CE as well as Portugal in 1498 CE, revived eschatological speculations. From the conquest of Constantinople to the conquest of Hungary in 1547 CE, the power of the Turk in Europe had been steadily increasing. It was the age of


Muhammad the Conquerer (570-632) and Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566) who has been called by Muslims "messiah of the last age" (Mahdi-yi âhir-i zamân) because his reign began in the millennium of the Hegira (622-1622). The Turk was crashing at the battlements of Europe, and Christendom stood in awe of him. This condition could not but kindle the apocalyptic dreams of a harassed and suffering people. Many Jews, especially those living in Christian lands, had long regarded the downfall of Rome as preliminary to their deliverance. The Rabbis had declared that one of the signs of “the latter end” would be the conquest of Rome by Persia (BT Yoma 10a), and it was generally accepted at this time that Persia was Turkey. Moses ben Joseph di Trani (1505d) states that the date of the fall of Constantinople (the daughter of Edom) was indicated in Lamentations 4:21. The rift in Christendom, too, fed these Messianic illusions. For example, Petr Chelčický (c. 1390-1460) called the Pope and the emperor (the church and the state) "whales who have torn the net of true faith", because they established the church as the head of a secular empire. The Reformation cleft the heart of Christendom in twain. Wars and confusion set in. Vast millennial hopes swept over the Christian world. The “enthusiastic” tendencies which predominated in the primitive Church now made their appearance in the new reformed Church. There was the same emphasis on the freedom of the soul in Christ, on the gift of illumination and prophecy as within reach of the faithful, on pacifism and communism, and the same intense expectation of the Second Coming. The Anabaptist movement, which spread through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Holland immediately after the rise of Protestantism, aimed at the reestablishment of primitive Christianity in doctrine and practice, and was steeped in mysticism and in millenarian dreams. The Protestant communities were anticipating the fall of Papal Rome —the 4th Beast—Babylon— as the prelude to the drama of the Second Coming and the Thousand Years’ Reign of Christ (Rv 20:1-7). The leaders of the Reformation in the 16th century —Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox, Tyndale and numerous others— regarded the Pope as the Antichrist (1Jo 4:3), the “man of sin” (2Th 2:3) and the Roman Church as Babylon the Great (Rv 18:1-24). The overthrow of Papacy and the Catholic Church, which they regarded as imminent, would usher in the glorious millennium. In order to stop criticism from Protestant preachers depicting the Church as Babylon the Great convincingly, Pope Leo X published in his “On how to preach” the following decree: We decree and ordain, with the approval of the sacred council, that nobody —whether a secular cleric or a member of any of the mendicant orders or someone with the right to preach by law or custom or privilege or otherwise (...) They are in no way to presume to preach or declare a fixed time for future evils, the coming of antichrist or the precise day of judgment; for Truth says, it is not for us to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. Let it be known that those who have hitherto dared to declare such things are liars, and that because of them not a little authority has been taken away from those who preach the truth207. In addition, the millennial reign of Christ in the Book of Apocalypse was no longer literal but it was symbolizing the City of God. Despite its not being clearly explained, the Church was now considered by many Catholics as the Kingdom of God. However, over time, this new concept of the Kingdom of God (from 1516 CE) was understood more in a individual way rather than collective (the Church being God's people as a whole) as it is explained in The Kingdom of God Is Within You, a philosophical treatise208

207 Fifth Lateran Council Session 11, dated on 19 December 1516 CE. 208 Mohandas Gandhi wrote in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Part II, Chapter 15) that this book "overwhelmed" him and "left an abiding impression." Gandhi listed Tolstoy's book, as well as John Ruskin's Unto This Last and the poet Shrimad Rajchandra (Raychandbhai), as the three most important modern influences in his life. Reading this book opened up the mind of the world-famous Tolstoy to Gandhi, who was still a young protester living in South Africa at the time. In 1908 Tolstoy wrote, and Gandhi read, A Letter to a Hindu, which outlines the notion that only by using love as a weapon through passive resistance could the native Indian people overthrow the colonial British Empire.


written by Leo Tolstoy (in 1894). This book was the culmination of thirty years of Tolstoy's thinking, and lays out a new organization for society based on a literal Christian interpretation drawn from Luke 17:21. However, given that his audience was the wicked Pharisees (Lk 17:20), the kingdom could not be within them. In fact, Jesus was in their midst or among them as messianic king. At that time Jesus was the only member of this kingdom (Lk 22:29-30, Mt 19:28, Rv 5:10). At the end of the 15th century more and more Jews did not believe anymore in the Book of Daniel because it contained apparently no precise prophecies about the Messiah and expressed doubts that he would ever come and, worse, others began to believe like Christians that he had already come. That’s why Isaac Abarbanel (1447-1508), an outstanding Messianic writer of this period, whose works had a far-reaching influence on the Messianic movement of the 16th century, composed three books on this theme: The Wells of Salvation (1496), The Salvation of his Anointed (1497) and Announcing Salvation (1498). They are, respectively: a discussion of the prophecies in the Book of Daniel, a compendium of all Talmudic Messianic passages, and a compendium of all Biblical Messianic prophecies (other than those of Daniel). It is in “Well 8”, discussing Daniel’s first dream (Dn 7:3-18) that Abarbanel sets out upon his calculations. He claimed that the 1st beast, which is likened to a lion, is Babylon, the 2nd beast, likened to a bear, is Persia, the 3rd beast, likened to a leopard, is Greece and the 4th beast, is Rome. Its “feet” are the kings of Rome and the “horns” are the emperors who ruled over Rome up to the destruction of the Temple. The “little horn” is the papacy, which was established in Rome after the Destruction. Rome would be destroyed because of the teachings of the “little horn (papacy)” then the Messiah would come. He would come after a period of great suffering, humbly, through the will and favour of God. Israel will then have the three things of which the exile deprived it: power, honour and independence, Israel’s kingdom would endure forever. Finally Abarbanel supposed that the duration of the 4th kingdom would be for "a time and times a half a time" (Dn 7:25) and rejected ibn Ezra’s interpretation of this chapter and pointed out that the calculations of Saadia, Rashi, Nahmanides and others have been historically proved false (ironically this last remark would apply to his own interpretations). According to Abarbanel “a time” was the period of duration of the first Temple, which was 410 years (according to Jewish tradition), consequently 3.5 times were 1435 years. Add this to the year 68 CE, the year of the Destruction, and you get the year 1503 CE (= 68 + 1435) as the Messianic year. In addition, the 2,300 evenings and mornings, which are the duration of the Exile, are 2,300 years to be counted from the division of the kingdom which took place in the year 2964 AM according the Seder Olam, or 796 BCE. Add these two figures and you have 5264 AM (= 2300 + 2964) or 1503 CE. In the final Well, Abarbanel endeavours to adduce corroborations for his calculations from astrology. When his date of 1503 CE failed, Abarbanel explained that 1503 CE actually marked the beginning of the age during which the Messiah could come. The period when he must come is indicated in the story of the mysterious scroll found in the archives of Rome, which declared that the world would come to an end in the year 4291 AM, or 530 CE. Abarbanel accepted as an emendation the reading of Rabbi Aha son of Raba, “after 5,000 years (instead of 4,000 years)”. This gave 5291 AM, or 1530 CE, which was Abarbanel’s ultimate Messianic year. The death of Abarbanel in 1508 CE marked a turning point in Messianic calculations because after this date they would no longer be made only from the Book of Daniel but through the Gematria, an esoteric science which was spread by Kabbalists. For example Abraham ben Eliezer ha-Levi (1460-1529), Spanish exile and Kabbalist, calculated the Messianic year to be 1530 CE. Solomon Molko (1500-1532), the Marano Kabbalist, mystic


and pseudo-Messiah applied himself, in some of his sermons, which were published in 1529 under the title Sefer ha-Mefoar, to Messianic calculations. According to Molko, Job was the prototype of Israel. The Gematria of איוב is equal to ישראל in its minor value (19 = 19), and his three friends were Edom, Ishmael and Amon. The phrase “And the Lord returned the captivity of Job (42:10)” really refers to the captivity of Israel. In Job, 38:1 and 40:6, the letter Nun in the word מנ is written short and not final (מן). This is intended to inform us that the proclamation which the Lord would make out of the storm of the exile would concern the inverted letters of the Nun in the Torah (Nb 10:34,36). These Nuns are found in connection with two sentences which concern the coming of the Messiah (Talmud Yadaim 3.5). When the two short Nuns (נ) of Job are combined with the two inverted Nuns ([) of Numbers, thus [] and [], they form two final Mems (ם). These Mems really belong at the end of the word בחיין (Job 24:23, should be read בחיים) and הימין (Dn 12:13, should be Just as these Nuns .םנ The final Nuns of these two words belong to the above two .(הימיםwere torn from their rightful place, so Israel was torn from its home, and just as these return to their proper place, so Israel would return to its home, when Elijah would announce the blessed Redemption. Just as Elihu, in the story of Job, appeared suddenly, just so suddenly would Elijah appear in Rome. Elihu, whose name has the same letters as that of Elijah (אליהו), is mentioned 7 times in Job referring to the 7,000 years of the world’s duration. In addition, 5 times the name Elihu is written with an aleph at the end (אליהוא), pointing the 5th millennium, at the close of which Elijah would appear. When you take the value of the two small Nuns of םנ plus the two Nuns of Numbers, which are out of their place, which together equal 300 (= 5x60), and add the sum to 5,000 AM, you will have discovered the Messianic year (= 5300 AM or 1539 CE). Molko ends his calculations by saying: I have no permission to reveal that which is hidden, but our deliverance is near at hand and will be revealed to all soon in our days. Molcho who declared himself the Messiah, was convicted of apostasy by the Inquisition and was ordered to be burned at the stake. Ironically, Molko who was able to predict the end of the world was unable to predict his own end. Mordecai ben Judah Dato (1527-1585), Italian rabbi and Kabbalist, expressed the conviction that the Messiah would appear in the year 1575 CE. His prognostications were based on the Messianic prophecy found in the Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer (written c. 850 CE)209: The rule of these four kingdoms will only last one day according to the day of the Holy One... except for two-thirds of an hour (of God). Dato reasoned that inasmuch as a day of God is equal to 2000 years, two-thirds of an hour would equal 55 years, 6 months and 20 days (= 2/3x2000/24). In other words, the rule of the four kingdoms would last 1944 years, 5 months and 10 days. The rule of Persia began in the year 3390 AM (370 BCE), according to the Seder Olam; the rule of the last kingdom would therefore end on the 10th of Adar, 1575 CE (= 1945 – 370). Naphtali Herz ben Jacob Elhanan, German Kabbalist and disciple of Isaac Luria (1534-1572), stated that Luria was in fact the Messiah ben Joseph because if he had lived 3 years longer (i.e. to 1575) he would have brought about the deliverance. The repeated failures of messianic calculations led most Jews to expect a messianic age established by God himself when Israel would deserve it (“next year in Jerusalem”), rather than the coming of a messianic king. During the 16th century the Protestant communities were anticipating the fall of Papal Rome —the 4th Beast “Babylon”— as the prelude to the drama of the Second Coming and the Thousand-year Reign of Christ. The leaders of the Reformation —Luther (1483-1546), Zwingli (1484-1531), Tyndale (1494-1536), Calvin (1509-1564) and numerous others— regarded the Pope as the Antichrist, the “man of sin” of the Apocalypse, and the

209 The work is ascribed to R. Eliezer (80-118 CE) but the 30th chapter distinctly alludes to the three stages of the Muslim conquest, that of Arabia, of Spain, and of Rome (830 CE).


Roman Church as Babylon. The overthrow of Papacy and the Catholic Church, which they regarded as imminent, would usher in the glorious millennium. The Catholic Church therefore put a damper on her apocalyptic discourses that some were beginning to use against her. From the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the Catholic Church was recovering and emphasized more on individual judgment (with the fear of hell) rather than the Last Judgment, too associated with eschatological prophecies. Thus Nicholas of Cusa210 (1401-1464) was the last Catholic scholar who made messianic calculations about the Second Coming and the end of the world. In his book211 Conjectura de novissimis diebus (Conjecture concerning the Last Time) he explained that the number 7 controls the flow of time and 7 times 7 years (= 49 years) end with a jubilee year: the 50th, which is the year of the Lord. In addition, 50-year life of the Church equal 1 year of Jesus' life (who lived 34 years). Relying on the Commentary on Genesis of Philo of Alexandria, he calculates that 34 jubilees separated Adam from the Deluge (5100-3400 BCE), 34 jubilees between the Deluge and Moses (3400-1700 BCE), then 34 jubilees between Moses and the Christ (1700-0 BCE). He deduced that there would be 34 jubilees between Jesus and the end of time (0-1700 CE). He wrote in conclusion: after the year of grace 1700 and before 1750, the Church will be transferred from this perishable world to heaven. In fact, the eschatological fears related to the apocalyptic events preceding the end of the world, disappeared with the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) and the glorious reign of Louis XIV (1638-1715), which was relatively peaceful. This impelled the French philosopher Isaac La Peyrère (1594-1676) to replace the apocalyptic period before the end of the world by a final period of conversion of Jews to Christianity. In his Du Rappel des Juifs (1643) he summoned the king of France and the French people to take the initiative in the conversion of the Jews to Christianity as the step to their restoration to Palestine. During the first half of the 17th century, millenarian ideas of the approach of the Messianic time were popular. They included ideas of the redemption of the Jews and their return to the land of Israel, with independent sovereignty. The apocalyptic year was identified by Christian authors as 1666 CE (= 1000 + 666 which is the number of the wild beast according to Revelation 13:18) and millenarianism was widespread in England. This belief was so prevalent that Manasseh ben Israel, in his letter to Oliver Cromwell and the Rump Parliament, appealed to it as a reason to readmit Jews into England, saying: The opinions of many Christians and mine do concur herein, that we both believe that the restoring time of our Nation into their native country is very near at hand. Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676) was a Sephardic Rabbi and Kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Apart from this general Messianic theory, there was another computation, based on an interpreted passage in the Zohar212 (a famous Jewish mystical text written around 1280 CE), and particularly popular among the Jews, according to which the year 1648 CE was to be the year of Israel's redemption by their long-awaited Jewish Messiah. At age 22 in 1648, Sabbatai started declaring to his followers in Smyrna that he was the true Messianic redeemer. In order to prove this claim he started to pronounce the Tetragrammaton, an act which Judaism emphatically prohibited to all but the Jewish high priest in the Temple in Jerusalem on the Day of Atonement. For scholars acquainted with rabbinical, and kabbalistic literature, the act was highly symbolic. He revealed his Messiahship early on to Isaac Silveyra and Moses

210 He was a Papal legate to Germany from 1446 and was appointed cardinal for his merits by Pope Nicholas V in 1448. In 1459 he became vicar general in the Papal States. 211 NICOLAS DE CUSA -Conjecture touchant les Derniers temps écrite en l’an 1452, Amsterdam 1700, Ed. Daniel Pain, pp. 35-46. 212 In the year 408 of the 6th millennium [5408 AM = 1648 CE] they that lie in the dust will arise... Scripture refers to them as the ‘sons of Ḥeth (which numerical value is 408)’ because they will wake in the year 408. As it is written [Lv 25:13]: In this year of jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession (Zohar I, 139b). Coincidentally 300,000 Jews were massacred in 1648 by Cossack hordes, which was obviously a cataclysm.


Pinheiro, the latter a brother-in-law of the Italian rabbi and Kabbalist Joseph Ergas. Some Protestant scholars continued eschatological calculations, but they insisted on two new interpretations: the second coming of Christ would be preceded by the destruction of the Antichrist (the papacy) and would be followed by an eternal happiness symbolized by the 1,000-year kingdom. For example, John Napier (1550-1617) explains in his book A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John (1593) that the 7th and last trumpet of the Apocalypse began to sound in 1541 and consequently the end of the world was expected to occur in 1786 CE, because each trumpet call was spaced 5 jubilees of 49 years (= 245 = 1786 – 1541). According to the Augustinian interpretation, he placed the millennium in the past, not in the future. Cotton Mather (1663-1728) explains in his book Magnalia Christi Americana (1702) that the reign of the Antichrist is 1260 years, because of Apocalypse 12:14, and given that this reign started after the destruction of Rome in 456 BCE it would end in 1716 CE (= 456 + 1260). Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588-1638), a German chiliast, dedicated a book De Mille Annis (1627), to Messianic calculations. On astrological evidence and on the text of Daniel he computed the Messianic year to be 1694 CE: The twelfth chapter of Daniel ought to be our polestar in explaining prophetic numbers, for there we are led, as by the hand, from the building of the second Temple to its destruction; and from the destruction thereof, which was Anno Chisti 69, by a term of days he numbers first 1290, and then 1335; that is, in all (with the 69 years which were elapsed from Christ’s birth, to the overthrow of the Temple) 2694 years; from which, if we deduct the 1000 years, Rev. XX.2, we shall be brought to the year of our Lord 1694, whence we may gather that the seven vials are to be poured forth at or before that time, or their significations to continue no longer. As we can see all these calculations relying on the Book of Daniel were fanciful. Because of endless failures in Messianic calculations a new interpretation of the Millennial Reign of Christ was demanded. This interpretation was furnished by the Rev. Daniel Whitby (1638-1726), a clergyman of the Church of England, who claimed in his book A Paraphrase and Commentary on the New Testament (1706) that in reading the promises made to the Jews in the Old Testament of their restoration as a nation, and the re-establishment of the Throne of David, he was led to see that these promises were spiritual and applied to the Church. His 'New Hypothesis' (called now postmillennialism) was that by the preaching of the Gospel Mohammedanism would be overthrown, the Jews converted, the Papal Church with the Pope (Antichrist) would be destroyed, and there would follow a 1000 years of righteousness and peace known as the Millennium; at the close of which there would be a short period of Apostasy, ending in the return of Christ. It is noteworthy that Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) played a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening, and oversaw some of the first revivals in 1733-35 at his church in Northampton, Massachusetts. The Great Awakening made Christianity intensely personal to the average person by fostering a deep sense of spiritual conviction and redemption, and by encouraging introspection and a commitment to a new standard of personal morality. This new concept was popularized by Joseph Bellamy (1719-1750) mainly in his book True Religion Delineated (1750) in which he explains that the Millennium to come would occur without a preliminary advent of Christ. It was actually an opening toward a secularized millenarianism whose realization depended on men and not of God. This concept has paved the way to modern States ruled by "messianic" guides (father of the people, Supreme Leader) based on a code of universal laws which rely on human rights. The Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen of 1789 as well as The Constitution of the United States were seen by many as the beginning of a messianic eras213 of progress and prosperity carrying "bright tomorrows (Millenium)". This new vision of ‘messianic’ governments would lead to

213 Ironically, Pierre d'Ailly (1351-1420), a French theologian, astrologer, and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, had predicted that the Antichrist should appear in 1789 CE relying on the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Aries every 300 years.


destructive utopias of the 20th century such as Stalinism, Nazism, Maoism, US imperialism, etc. Pierre d'Ailly (1351-1420), a French theologian, astrologer, and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, relying on the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Aries every 300 years predicted that the Antichrist should appear in 1789 CE. The sinking in 1912 of the famous Titanic, which was believed to be unsinkable, then the incomprehensible collapse of world peace in 1914, completely shook the beliefs in a ‘messianic’ future of earthly happiness. To restore hope, the League of Nations was founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace, but World War II destroyed the illusory hope. In order to replace the ineffective League of Nations, the United Nations was created following the Second World War to prevent another such conflict. This intergovernmental organization was established on 24 October 1945 to promote international co-operation. Despite its low efficiency in preventing wars, the United Nations was seen by most as a ‘messianic’ hope. Pope John Paul II addressed the 50th General Assembly of the United Nations (5 October 1995) the following message: My words are meant as a sign of the interest and esteem of the Apostolic See and of the Catholic Church for this Institution. They echo the voices of all those who see in the United Nations the hope of a better future for human society. However, after World War I more and more critical minds expressed serious doubts about the coming of a bright and glorious future. For example We is a dystopian214 novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937) completed in 1921. The dystopian society depicted in We is presided over by the Benefactor and is surrounded by a giant Green Wall to separate the citizens from primitive untamed nature. All citizens are known as "numbers". Every hour in one's life is directed by "The Table". The action of We is set at some time after the Two Hundred Years' War, which has wiped out all but "0.2 of the earth's population". The war was over a rare substance never mentioned in the book, but it could be about petroleum, as all knowledge of the war comes from biblical metaphors; the substance was called "bread" as the "Christians gladiated over it" —as in countries fighting conventional wars. However, it is also revealed that the war only ended after the use of weapons of mass destruction, so that the One State is surrounded with a post-apocalyptic landscape. Similarly, Brave New World is a novel written in 1931 by Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) and published in 1932, which anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning that combine profoundly to change society. Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) is also a dystopian novel215 by Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), who used the pen name George Orwell. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism. These warnings against the downfall of humankind because of a lethal logic (called now Apocalypticism) were perceived by some as for preventing a 'disaster scenario' like the prophets of doom mentioned in the Bible. For example the Russian philosopher Berdiaev (1874-1948), quoted in the epigraph to Huxley's

214 Dystopia, etymologically 'a bad place,' which makes it a kind of mirror image of utopia, can thereby serve to characterize those anticipations which seek to warn their readers that the world is evolving dangerously closer to utopia, the latter being then no more a solution but the problem. 215 The novel is set in Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain), a province of the super-state Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation, dictated by a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (or Ingsoc in the government's invented language, Newspeak) under the control of a privileged Inner Party elite, that persecutes individualism and independent thinking as "thought-crimes". The tyranny is epitomised by Big Brother, the quasi-divine Party leader who enjoys an intense cult of personality but who may not even exist. The Party "seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power." The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, is a member of the Outer Party, who works for the Ministry of Truth (or Minitrue), which is responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism. His job is to rewrite past newspaper articles, so that the historical record always supports the party line. Smith is a diligent and skilful worker but he secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion against Big Brother.


Brave New World said: Utopias seem much more realizable than once was thought. We find ourselves faced today with a problem distressing in a very different way: how can we prevent their realization? Utopias are realizable, and towards utopias we are moving. But it is possible that a new age is already beginning, in which cultured and intelligent people will dream of ways to avoid ideal states and to get back to a non utopian society, less 'perfect' and more free. Retrospectively, 1914 is comparable to the explosion of a supernova in the field of messianic beliefs, from afar it appears uniform, but nearby myriads of stars may be observed. Globally, messianic and eschatological beliefs summarize a diffused hope for the future that must be individually built. So, one only has to do good around him (according to his own criteria) to deserve this messianic hope (paradise or heaven for believers, reincarnation or whatever you want for unbelievers). The 20th century would remain fond of eschatological speculations but the predictions about the end of the world would be predominantly based on esoteric, astrological (New Age) or even spiritistic interpretations. For example, Alice Ann Bailey (1880-1949), a writer in esoteric, theosophical, astrological, philosophical and religious themes, considered as the founder of the New Age movement, writes in her book: The Reappearance of the Christ (1947): Christ came to bring to an end the Jewish dispensation which should have climaxed and passed away as a religion with the movement of the sun out of Aries into Pisces (...) The coming in of the Aquarian Age, Christ foresaw and reduced to pictorial form for us, thus preserving for us —down the centuries— a prophetic episode, the interpretation of which is possible of demonstration only in our time and age. Astronomically, we are not yet functioning fully within the influence of Aquarius; we are only just emerging from the Piscean influence (...) During the war (1914-1945), the Christ and the Hierarchy looked on at a dying world; men and forms were dying on every hand; old ideals, organisations and groups were passing away and the spectre of death stalked on every hand (...) Following this inflow, at the time of the Full Moon of the Buddha in May 1945, the forces of enlightenment became active, and light began to stream into the minds of men. Today, Catholicism adheres to the amillennial school of thought, promoted by Augustine of Hippo who argued in his work The City of God for a non-literal fulfilment of prophecy and in the other hand most Jews no longer expect a human messiah, they hope rather in the coming of a collective Messiah (the State of Israel). For example we read in the preface of the Bible written by the French rabbinate Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan of France: But of all the prophecies contained in the Book, it is one that is often mentioned. It refers to the resurrection of the State of Israel. When, in November 1947, the United Nations decided to create a Jewish state, event, for many believers, appeared in a supra-terrestrial perspective. Many predictions announced —and for millennia— this back from Israel on the ancestral land that they could not help perceiving the historic vote in a striking demonstration of divine action in the world. In addition, after the proclamation of independence of Israel (14 May 1948), which was a Sabbath, the liturgical cycle, by a coincidence which deserves to be remembered, as stated the Haphtara text of Amos where could read: Behold, the days come, said the Lord, when ... I restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they will restore their destroyed cities and established there, shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, cultivate gardens and eat their fruit. Some Christian Zionists believe that the "ingathering" of Jews in Israel is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus. The idea that Christians should actively support a Jewish return to the Land of Israel, along with the parallel idea that the Jews ought to be encouraged to become Christian, as a means of fulfilling a Biblical prophecy has been common in Protestant circles since the Reformation. Christian Zionism is a belief among some Christians that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, is in accordance with Biblical prophecy. Among the myriads of evangelical groups some of them, like the Dispensationalists, keep on waiting the Millenium. The theology of dispensationalism consists of a distinctive


eschatological end times perspective, as all dispensationalists hold to pre-millennialism and most hold to a pre-tribulation rapture. As a system, dispensationalism is expounded in the writings of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) and the Plymouth Brethren movement, and propagated through works such as Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Dispensationalists believe that the nation of Israel is distinct from the Christian Church, and that God has yet to fulfil his promises to national Israel. These promises include the land promises, which in the future world to come result in a millennial kingdom and Third Temple where Christ, upon his return, will rule the world from Jerusalem for a thousand years. In other areas of theology, dispensationalists hold to a wide range of beliefs within the evangelical and fundamentalist spectrum. The Millerites were the followers of the teachings of William Miller (1782-1849) who, in 1833, first shared publicly his belief in the coming Second Advent of Jesus Christ in roughly the year 1843. Miller spent years of intensive study of the symbolic meaning of the prophecies of Daniel, especially Daniel 8:14 (Unto 2300 days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed). Miller believed that the cleansing of the sanctuary represented the Earth's destruction by fire at Christ's Second Coming. Using the year-day method of prophetic interpretation, Miller became convinced that the 2,300 day period started in 457 BCE with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, which occurred in the 7th year of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:8,20). Simple calculation then indicated that this period would end about 1843 (= 2300 – 457). In September 1822, Miller formally stated his conclusions in a twenty-point document, including article 15: I believe that the second coming of Jesus Christ is near, even at the door, even within twenty-one years, —on or before 1843 (1844 later). A number of followers concluded that the 1844 CE date in fact was correct, but that it coincided with the coming of Christ in his sanctuary and the beginning of the Judgment Hour. The following are a few of the sects born from this: “The Advent Church, The Seventh-Day Adventists, and The Bible Students (Russellites). Nelson Barbour (1824-1905) published in 1871 a small book Evidences for the Coming of the Lord in 1873 in which he wrote: it seems clear the papacy was not supported by the Catholic powers prior to 538 A.D. when the Goths raised the siege of Rome, March, 538, and the Gothic army, lately so strong, was now reduced to the walls of Ravenna, and some fortresses destitute of mutual support, and the provinces of Italy embraced the part of the emperor. From A.D. 538, where "the abomination was set up" the 1290 days (Dn 12:11) end in 1828 (= 538 + 1290) and the period "Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the 1335 days (Dn 12:12)" end in 1873 (= 538 + 1335). The belief, in all ages of the Church, that the 7th thousand of this world’s history will be a millennium of rest, is so firmly fixed in the minds of Christians, that when we clearly show the ending of the 6000 years at 1873 (= 6000 – 4127) we shall have adduced an argument more weighty on the minds of Christendom in favour of the near coming of our Lord, than any other proof in all the Bible. After that the date 1873 CE failed he published new calculations in the issue of The Herald of the Morning dated January 1874 in which he explained that the end would occur in 1874 CE (instead of 1873). In the issue of March 1876 he offered again a new explanation (page 25): The empire of these beasts over God’s people, had a beginning, and is to have an end; for Christ said, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24). Gentile rule began when Zedekiah, the last prince of the house of David was dethroned at the beginning of the 70 years desolation of Jerusalem (2 Chron. 36:20). It was the diadem was “removed, to be no more until He come whose right it is” (Ezek. 21:25,27); and in the meantime, these four great beasts fulfil their time. If you will add up the figures on the chart in the next column; beginning at the 70, then the 536 B.C. you will see that 70 years desolation began B.C. 606. And that is the date of the beginning of the “the times of the Gentiles.” Add 606 to 1874 and it makes 2480; and that many years have already passed, and the times of the Gentiles are not yet fulfilled. But according to Dan 12; they end with a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation (...) And there is clear evidence that 40 years is the length of this time of


trouble. Add the 40, and the total is 2520, or 7 prophetic times. Three and a half “times,” a day for a year], measure 1260 years, in Daniel and Revelation; and 7 times is twice 1260, or 2520. And in Lev. 26; 17,18, we learn that those that hated God’s people should rule over them “seven times.” That time is nearly fulfilled, 40 years more will complete it. Consequently he concluded that the date of the end had to be now: 1914 CE (= 1874 + 40). Nelson Barbour and Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916) began their association in 1877 but one year later they each wrote conflicting views on Ransom and Atonement doctrine. It is noteworthy that in the Herald of the Morning dated July 1878, one can see at the bottom of the front page the following sentence: “Times of the Gentiles” end in 1914. In a May 22, 1879 letter to Barbour, Russell explicitly resigned. In July 1879, Russell began publishing Zion's Watch Tower, the principal journal of the Bible Student movement. By 1883 Barbour abandoned belief in an invisible presence and returned to more standard Adventist doctrine. In 1889, Russell wrote in his book: Millennial Dawn volume II The Time is at Hand (pages 79-80,90), in order to prove that the second coming of Jesus and the end of the world would occur in 1914: The Bible evidence is clear and strong that the “Times of the Gentiles” is a period of 2520 years, from the year B.C. 606 to and including A.D. 1914 (...) The date for the beginning of the Gentiles Times, is therefore, definitely marked as at the time of the removal of the crown of God’s typical kingdom (...) With these facts before us, we readily find the date for he beginning of the Gentiles Times of dominion; for the first year of the reign of Cyrus is very clearly fixed date216 —both secular and religious histories with marked unanimity agreeing with Ptolemy’s Canon, with places it B.C. 536. And if B.C. 536 was the year in which the 70 years of Jerusalem desolation ended and the restoration of the Jews began, it follows that their kingdom was overthrown just 70 years before B.C. 536, i.e. 536 plus 70, B.C. 606. This gives us the date of the beginning of the Times of the Gentiles —B.C. 606 (...) The “seven times” of Nebuchadnezzar’s degradation (Dan. 4:16,23-26) proved to be 7 literal years, when actually so fulfilled; and so the humiliation of Israel and the world under the “powers that be” has proved to be seven symbolic times —2520 literal years. This period now lacks but 26 years of being fulfilled, and agencies are at work on every hand pointing to a termination of Gentile domination, and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness and all the blessings of the New Covenant to Israel and to all groaning creation. This long period (“seven times” or 2520 years) of Israel’s punishment is the period of Gentile dominion —the “Times of the Gentiles”. Since, as we have already shown, the “Gentile Times” began B.C. 606, and were to continue 2520 years, they will end A.D. 1914 (2520 – 606 = 1914). Then the blessings recorded in the latter part of the same chapter (Lev. 26:44-45) will be fulfilled. Despite “The Bible evidence is clear and strong about 1914” the date failed. In order to explain the failure, Russell wrote in the Watch Tower article of November 1, 1914: Studying God’s Word, we have measured the 2520 years, the seven symbolic times, from that year 606 B.C. and have found that it reached down to October 1914, as nearly as we were able to reckon (...) Many of us concluded that as far as we could see, October of this year [1914] would show the end of the Gentile lease of power; for when October comes we are getting down to the end of the Jewish year (...) Some one may ask (...) may it not be that the kingdom will not be ushered in for 5, 10 or even 25 years? Our reply is, we are not a prophet; we merely believe that we have come to the place where the Gentile times have ended. The explanation of the failure was therefore the end of the “Times of Gentiles” in 1914 was in fact the beginning, not the end, of the “Last days”. This led to new research and new calculations: When would the “Last days” end, which began in 1914. However, since 1995, Jehovah’s Witnesses ceased to calculate the date of the end of the Last Days: Eager to see the end of this evil system, Jehovah's people have at times speculated about the time when the "great tribulation" would break out, even tying this to calculations of what is the lifetime of a generation since 1914. However, we "bring a heart of wisdom in," not by speculating about how many years or days make up a generation, but by thinking about how we "count our days" in bringing joyful praise to Jehovah (Psalm 90:12). Rather

216 It's a fanciful statement, the first year of Cyrus' reign is dated 538 BCE (not 536), in addition, according to history, the fall of Jerusalem occurred in 587 BCE (not 606).


than provide a rule for measuring time, the term "generation" as used by Jesus refers principally to contemporary people of a certain historical period, with their identifying characteristics. In line with the above, professor of history Robert Wohl wrote in his book The Generation of 1914: "A historical generation is not defined by its chronological limits. It is not a zone of dates" (Watchtower 1995 December 15 page 30). The “Bible evidence” regarding 1914, which had been “clear and strong” for a long time, were in fact speculations. In addition, concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father (Mt 24:15-16,29-34). The last sentence is crucial for those who want to predict exactly the end of the system of things: Jesus himself was not able to predict it despite he knew the Bible perfectly. However he gave signs to observe in order to determine that period of time, but he did not suggest fixing a date. To sum up, the period of “the time of the end” can be identified in the Bible, however, if its beginning can be calculated precisely thanks to biblical prophecies, the end of that period can only be known thanks to specific signs to observe. For example, in the first century the Messiah would have to appear in 29 CE (70-week prophecy of Daniel) but the end of the Jewish system of things was going to occur only after the Roman armies were standing in Jerusalem in 66 CE. Similarly the Kingdom of God would have to appear just before the World War I (Rv 6:1-4; 12:5-12) in 1914 CE, but the end of the world system of things was going to occur only after the armies of nations destroy “Babylon the Great” (Rv 18:4-10), the empire of false religions (Rv 17:5-18). Whoever takes stock of all the previous eschatological speculations (from 164 BCE to 2014 CE) must conclude that, either the biblical texts are not clear, or they are only allegorical217, or maybe they have been misunderstood. According to some modern Jewish translators of the Book of Daniel: The Messiah will arrive when all will be righteous, he will arrive when all will be sinners. He will come with great pomp and glory, he will come in the utmost discretion and destitute. He will come at a fixed date and can come at any time (...) Conflicting and confusing texts are dealing in this long-awaited climax of history218. Jimmy Jack McBee Roberts, Professor of Old Testament Literature (Emeritus) at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, and also member of the Churches of Christ, said in a major interfaith conference: In the original context, none of the thirty-nine occurrences of messiah in the Hebrew canon refers to an expected figure of the future whose coming will coincide with the inauguration of an era of salvation219. Martin J. Selman, lecturer in Old Testament in London, adds: Though the eternal nature of the kingdom is sometimes emphasized, its present aspect is much more prominent than the future. An eschatological dimension is present in Daniel and the prophets, but it is often not clearly defined, and is rarely spoken of explicitly as a kingdom. The Old Testament writer's believed essentially that the kingdom of God was among them, though some certainly anticipated its greater revelation in the fullness of time220. For most Jews today, the biblical text about the Messiah are viewed as an allegory of future peace and happiness. In Judaism, the day of judgment happens every year on Rosh HaShana; therefore, the belief in a last day of judgment for all mankind is disputed. Some rabbis hold that there will be such a day following the resurrection of the dead. Others hold that there is no need for that because of Rosh HaShana. Yet others hold that this accounting and judgment happens when one dies. Other rabbis hold that the last judgment only applies to the gentile nations and not the Jewish people. Although Catholics recognize Jesus as the Messiah he is

217 M. HADAS-LEBEL – Une histoire du Messie Paris 2014, Ed. Albin Michel, pp. 9-15,267-269. 218 H. GOLDWURM, N. SCHERMAN - Daniel, traduction et commentaires Paris 2001 Éd. du Sceptre p. XLVIII. 219 J.H. CHARLESWORTH - The Messiah: Developments in Earliest Judaism and Christianity Minneapolis 1992, Ed. Fortress Press, p. 39. 220 M.J. SELMAN – The Kingdom of God in the Old Testament in: Tyndale Bulletin 40:2 (1989), pp. 161-183.


not involved in the eschatological expectation of salvation because the request: Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth (Mt 6:10) is only viewed as an allegory of peace and happiness for the future. According to Christian scholars221: The Revelation’s language of imminence is not employed with the goal of providing temporal statements, measurable by human categories of time, but that it makes sense if read against its background in Jewish apocalyptic literature and evaluated from a salvation-historical viewpoint. It has been demonstrated that the purpose of the employment of such language is above all exhortative, since time appears short in the context of urgency, and it appears never ending if something is irrelevant or boring. It's easy to make fun of failures on all the previous eschatological predictions but, unlike the scholarly conclusions from theologians of Jewish or Christian denominations, several texts of the Bible clearly announce a messianic king who will establish a world of peace and justice. The question "When will it come?" is not futile because it is asked numerous times in the Bible and each time some answers were given, moreover this investigation is legitimate: Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the undeserved kindness meant for you made a diligent inquiry and a careful search. They kept on investigating what particular time or what season the spirit within them was indicating concerning Christ as it testified beforehand about the sufferings meant for Christ and about the glory that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were ministering, not to themselves, but to you, regarding what has now been announced to you by those who declared the good news to you with holy spirit sent from heaven. Into these very things, angels are desiring to peer (1Pe 1:10-12). However, according to the Book of Daniel, which gave many chronological detail to calculate the time of the end, only those who are pure of heart will understand his prophecy just before its fulfilment: During that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of your people. And there will occur a time of distress such as has not occurred since there came to be a nation until that time. And during that time your people will escape, everyone who is found written down in the book. And many of those asleep in the dust of the earth will wake up, some to everlasting life and others to reproach and to everlasting contempt. And those having insight will shine as brightly as the expanse of heaven, and those bringing the many to righteousness like the stars, forever and ever. As for you, Daniel, keep the words secret, and seal up the book until the time of the end. Many will rove about, and the true knowledge will become abundant (...) Then he said: Go, Daniel, because the words are to be kept secret and sealed up until the time of the end. Many will cleanse themselves and whiten themselves and will be refined. And the wicked ones will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand; but those having insight will understand (Dn 12:1-4,9-10). Jesus emphasized the point: But I say to you, it will be more endurable for the land of Sodom on Judgment Day than for you. At that time Jesus said in response: I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to young children (Mt 11:24-25). Consequently, the correct explanation of Bible prophecies must be clearly understandable by everyone and it must be based only on the Bible itself222. However, according to the Book of Daniel, this clear understanding will ultimately be achieved, but by an erratic research process (“they will rove about”). In addition, one reads: Faith is the assured expectation of what is hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities that are not seen (Heb 11:1). As the Bible has been discredited by many misinterpretations, it is imperative to start from the beginning by answering the following questions: First question: Is there in the Bible a messiah who will rule the world? Most textual requirements concerning the Messiah and his reign are in the Book of Isaiah, although aspects are mentioned in other prophets as well: I will restore your judges as in the beginning and

221 R. BRUISMA - Faith in Search of Depth and Relevancy UK 2014, Ed. Trans-European Division of Seventh-day Adventists, p. 144. 222 For example, the “he-goat with a conspicuous horn between its eyes” in Daniel 8:5 was the “king of Greece” (Dn 8:21). The “disgusting things” of Daniel 9:27 were the “Roman armies” in 66CE (Mt 24:15-16; Lk 21:20-21) and so on.


your advisers as at the start. After this you will be called City of Righteousness, Faithful Town (1:26); He will render judgment among the nations and set matters straight respecting many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore (2:4); Man’s haughtiness will be brought down, and the arrogance of men will bow low. Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day (2:17); And the rulership will rest on his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. To the increase of his rulership and to peace, there will be no end, on the throne of David and on his kingdom in order to establish it firmly and to sustain it through justice and righteousness, from now on and forever. The zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this (9:6-7); A twig will grow out of the stump of Jesse, and a sprout from his roots will bear fruit. And the spirit of Jehovah will settle upon him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of mightiness, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah. And he will find delight in the fear of Jehovah. He will not judge by what appears to his eyes, nor reprove simply according to what his ears hear (11:1-3); The wolf will reside for a while with the lamb, and with the young goat the leopard will lie down, and the calf and the lion and the fattened animal will all be together; and a little boy will lead them. The cow and the bear will feed together, and their young will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the bull. The nursing child will play over the lair of a cobra, and a weaned child will put his hand over the den of a poisonous snake. They will not cause any harm or any ruin in all my holy mountain, because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse will stand up as a signal for the peoples. To him the nations will turn for guidance, and his resting-place will become glorious (11:6-10); He will swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will wipe away the tears from all faces. The reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for Jehovah himself has spoken it (25:8); Your dead will live. My corpses will rise up. Awake and shout joyfully, you residents in the dust! For your dew is as the dew of the morning, and the earth will let those powerless in death come to life (26:19); Look! My servant will act with insight. He will be raised up high, he will be elevated and greatly exalted. Just as there were many who stared at him in amazement —For his appearance was disfigured more than that of any other man and his stately form more than that of mankind —So he will startle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths before him, because they will see what they had not been told and give consideration to what they had not heard. Who has put faith in the thing heard from us? And as for the arm of Jehovah, to whom has it been revealed? He will come up like a twig before him, like a root out of parched land. No stately form does he have, nor any splendour; and when we see him, his appearance does not draw us to him. He was despised and was avoided by men, a man who was meant for pains and was familiar with sickness. It was as if his face were hidden from us. He was despised, and we held him as of no account. Truly he himself carried our sicknesses, and he bore our pains. But we considered him as plagued, stricken by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgression; He was crushed for our errors. He bore the punishment for our peace, and because of his wounds we were healed (52:13–53:5); The spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah is upon me, because Jehovah anointed me to declare good news to the meek. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the wide opening of the eyes to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of Jehovah’s goodwill and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those mourning over Zion, to give them a headdress instead of ashes, the oil of exultation instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a despondent spirit. And they will be called big trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, in order to glorify him (61:1-3). Second question: the Messiah, is he literal (human) or symbolic (Israel)? It is noteworthy that biblical texts gradually reveal the identity and role of the Messiah: By myself I swear, declares Jehovah, that because you have done this and you have not withheld your son, your only one, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring like the stars of the heavens and like the grains of sand on the seashore, and your offspring will take possession of the gate of his enemies. And by means of your offspring all nations of the earth will obtain a blessing for themselves because you have listened


to my voice (Gn 22:16-18); The sceptre will not depart from Judah, neither the commander’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh ("it is for him") comes, and to him the obedience of the peoples will belong (Gn 49:10); Jehovah declared to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies as a stool for your feet. Jehovah will extend the sceptre of your power out of Zion, saying: Go subduing in the midst of your enemies (Ps 110:1-2); In the final part of the days, the mountain of the house of Jehovah will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, and it will be raised up above the hills, and to it peoples will stream. And many nations will go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah and to the house of the God of Jacob. He will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For law will go out of Zion, and the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem. He will render judgment among many peoples and set matters straight respecting mighty nations far away. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore. They will sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the mouth of Jehovah of armies has spoken (...) And you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, the one too little to be among the thousands of Judah, from you will come out for me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from ancient times, from the days of long ago (Mi 4:1-4; 5:2); In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. And this kingdom will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it alone will stand forever, just as you saw that out of the mountain a stone was cut not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the copper, the clay, the silver, and the gold. The Grand God has made known to the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy (...) I kept watching in the visions of the night, and look! with the clouds of the heavens, someone like a son of man was coming; and he gained access to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him up close before that One. And to him there were given rulership, honour, and a kingdom, that the peoples, nations, and language groups should all serve him. His rulership is an everlasting rulership that will not pass away, and his kingdom will not be destroyed (Dn 2:44-45; 7:13-14). The previous texts depict a Messianic king (known later as son of David) who would rule the whole world and would set an everlasting peace. According to the text of Micah 5:1-2, the Messiah would come out of the city called Bethlehem Ephratah, implying an individual messiah. This understanding is confirmed by the Targum of Micah which says: unto thee [Bethlehem] Messiah will come out before me. Moreover, in the two major Jewish prayers Messiah is invoked. In the 14th blessing of the Tephilla it is said: Be merciful, Y., our God (...) to your people Israel (...) and the reign of the house of David, Messiah of righteousness. The Kaddish says: May he introduce his Messiah and may he redeem his people. This understanding of an individual messiah has led many Jews to calculate the time of his coming, especially at the beginning of our era. Third question: the Messiah, when does he appear? A first answer comes from the Messianic title "son of David" which is universally accepted by Jews223 as well as early Christians224 and which is found in the famous Jewish prayers such as the "18 blessings" or the Kaddish225. Consequently, the Messiah was to appear before the destruction of the Temple, according to the text of Daniel 9:25-26, because to verify a Davidic ancestry and therefore a messianic legitimacy (1Tm 1:4), it was necessary to have access to genealogies stored in the archives of the temple, as it is mentioned in the Mishna (Kiddushin 4:4). Since the archives were burnt during the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, the audit was not possible anymore after that date. The Jews who have failed to recognize Jesus, the "son of David (Mt 1:1)" born in Bethlehem (Mt 2:1-6), cannot know when the Messiah will begin to reign. These Jews are inexcusable because the book of Daniel contains a very accurate

223 M. HADAS-LEBEL – Une histoire du Messie Paris 2014, Ed. Albin Michel, pp. 95-111. 224 P. GRELOT – L'espérance juive à l'heure de Jésus Paris 1994, Éd. Desclée, pp. 167-190. 225 J. BONSIRVEN – Textes rabbiniques des deux premiers siècles Roma 1955, Ed. Pontificio Istituto Biblico, pp. 2-3.


prophecy concerning at what date the Messiah would appear. According to a Jewish comment on the Messiah of Daniel 9:26, found at Qumran the Messiah suppressed after the 62 weeks is the messenger announcing the good news, described in Isaiah 61:2. According to other comments226, David's Messiah had to fulfil the prophecy of Genesis 49:10, announcing that he would be a king from the tribe of Judah, that the Targums of Onkelos and Jerusalem confirm that Shilo ("It is to him") would be a king identical to the liberating messiah. Influenced by nationalism, some Jews assimilated the Messiah to the high priest Onias III (1M 1:54) murdered in 172 BCE by Antiochus IV Epiphanes227, to the extent that the translators of the Septuagint modified the Book of Daniel228 to make it stick to these events. Jesus did not adhere to this identification (Mt 24:15) because, unlike some Hellenized Jews of his time who saw this event in the past, he announced it for the future: When you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place, let the reader use discernment. In the first century Messianic expectations were high mainly because of the text of Daniel. This original explanation contradicts the teachings of all the rabbis (without exception) who always taught the coming of an individual Messiah and refuses Biblical chronology about the coming of the Messiah. Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) also recalls in his 13 principles founding the Jewish faith that he who does not believe in the Messiah as a future king from the house of David has denied God229. The Talmud (Megillah 3a) states that when the Targum of the Prophets (containing Daniel) was composed by Yonatan ben Uzziel, a bat qol (heavenly voice) was heard saying: Who is the one who revealed my secrets to men? The author replied that he had not done it for his honour, but God's honour, in order that divisions do not multiply in Israel. He wanted to publish the Targum of hagiographers, but the bat qol said: Enough is revealed because here is the term (date of arrival) of the Messiah. For rationalist atheists, the presence of specific chronological prophecies in the book of Daniel is unacceptable, in principle. However, to deny prophecies a priori is to deny the distinctive element of the Bible in relation to other religious books: At the same time, we must recognise that the interpretation of scriptural prophecy is never a matter for the individual. For no prophecy ever came from human initiative. When people spoke for God it was the Holy Spirit that moved them (2Pe 1:20-21). To resolve without appeal the chronic objection of prophecies, it is advantageous to examine the one from the 70 weeks of years. Qumran discoveries have established beyond any doubt that the book of Daniel existed before 100 BCE (Hebrew manuscript 4Q114 is dated 115 BCE and Greek manuscript230 4QDanc between 100 and 50 BCE). However, if the chronology of the Messiah announced in Daniel 9:25 is exactly the appearance of Jesus as the Messiah, the affirmation of a writing afterwards (rational explanation) becomes unsustainable. The messiah of Daniel 9:25 is special because he is called "guide" and is associated with the "removal of sin" (verse 24). The Messiah must appear before the destruction of the Second Temple (in 70 CE) as the prophecy indicates that the period before the Messiah

226 M. WISE, M. ABEGG JR., E. COOK - Les manuscrits de la mer Morte Paris 2001 Éd. Plon p. 171, 340, 600. 227 M. SARTRE - D'Alexandrie à Zénobie. Histoire du Levant antique Paris 2001 Éd. Fayard p. 344 228 H. COUSIN - La Bible grecque in: supplément aux Cahiers Évangile 74 St. Étienne 1990 Éd. Cerf pp.105-111 S. PACE JEANSONNE - The Old Greek Translation of Daniel 7-12 Washington 1988 Ed The Catholic Biblical Association of America pp. 29,125 229 M. MAÏMONIDE – Epitres (traduit de l'hébreu par Jean de Hulster) Paris 1983, Éd. Gallimard (Verdier) pp. 193-195. 230 S. PACE JEANSONNE - The Old Greek Translation of Daniel 7-12 in : The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 19 Washington 1988 p. 7.


would begin with the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple, and that once the Messiah came the sanctuary would be destroyed (verse 26). Aware of the difficulty in identifying the high priest Onias III to a Prince, the Bible French rabbinate guide assumes that the Messiah (or prince) here means another messiah and proposes that Cyrus was actually a qualified King Messiah (or anointed) in Isaiah 45:1. Jewish commentators, unable to clearly identify the prince of Daniel 9:25, offer (optional): Cyrus, Zerubbabel231 or Jesus son of Jozadaq, although none of these characters corresponds to the chronology of the Book of Daniel. To support their choice these commentators prefer to read: until the anointing of the prince, despite the grammar, instead of: until Messiah the prince. Regarding chronological inconsistencies produced, they dare say that Daniel made a mistake! The different identifications proposed are unlikely because they do not explain how sin is removed by the death of a prince, whose life is in general poorly known, and how justice is restored, and the chronological identification is impossible while according to Daniel 9:2 and 9:22, this prophecy was given for performing accurate chronology and not vague speculation. The Bible of the French rabbinate translates paradoxically the text of Daniel 9:25 by: Know therefore and well understand that from the moment the order was given to start rebuilding Jerusalem until an anointed prince (Cyrus) there is 7 weeks, and for 62 weeks [Jerusalem] shall be rebuilt again. This translation contradicts the Hebrew text which reads232: Know this and understand it: from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Ruler, there will be 7 weeks plus 62 weeks. Meanwhile both square and decision-making will be restored and rebuilt, even in troubled times. A note states that the weeks mean weeks of years, on which all translators agree. This choice is based on the following texts: You shall count 7 weeks of years, 7 times 7 years, that is to say, the time of 7 weeks of years, 49 years (Lv 25:8) You have recognized the country 40 days. Every day is a year: 40 years you carry the weight of your sins (Nb 14:34) I'll have time to set a day for a year (Ezk 4:6). The translation of the French rabbinate defies common sense for 2 reasons: it implies that: Ø Jerusalem would be rebuilt over a period of 434 years (= 62x7 years = 62 “weeks”),

contradicting the text of Ezra 6:14-15 fixing the end of the rebuilding of the Temple in the 6th year of Darius I, in 515 BCE, followed by the end of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in the 20th year of Artaxerxes I (Ne 2:1; 6:15), in 455 BCE.

Ø The most important event would no longer be the Messiah to come (as Daniel knew Cyrus the "messiah") but the announcement of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Once again this interpretation is contradicted by chronology since Cyrus freed the Jews from Babylon, in 538 BCE. The order of reconstruction in 455 BCE would have been given 7 weeks later, in 489 BCE (= 538 – 7x7). However there is an unbridgeable gap of 34 years (= 489 - 455). With the replacing of Cyrus by Zerubbabel, who began to govern in 537 BCE (Ezra 3:1-8), the gain is only 2 years, there are still about 32 years to fill. Worse, the book of Daniel states that the Messiah is cut off after 62 weeks, or 434 years (= 62x7). However, if this Messiah was the high priest Onias III (murdered in 172 BCE), the order to rebuild Jerusalem (beginning of the 62 weeks, according to the Bible of the French rabbinate) would have been given in 606 BCE (= 434 + 172), new impossibility, since there would be this time about 161 years (= 606 – 445) to fill.

Chronology eliminates all these candidates, but what about Jesus? Jews do not accept obviously identifying Jesus to the Messiah for at least three reasons: 1) having been persecuted for nearly 2000 years by people who called themselves Christians, they took for

231 For example, Nahmanides believed that the Messiah prince meant Zerubbabel, who was the first governor of Judah, and he quoted the passage from Psalms 105:15: Do not touch my messiahs [or anointed ones] to indicate that Zerubbabel could be considered a messiah because this term refers to those who are anointed or appointed for a mission. 232 F. GL LAIU – An Exegetical Study of Daniel 7-9 in: Old Testament (Master of Theology, November 1999), University of South Africa, p. 102.


a long time the name of Jesus in horror; 2) the recognizing of Jesus would imply a total questioning of the foundations of Judaism; 3) if Jesus was the Messiah promised, why are there still wars, diseases and misfortunes, when the Messiah would bring a reign of peace and happiness? These three objections, absolutely legitimate, are refutable: 1) Jesus himself announced that God would reject anyone who murders on his behalf, Jews

(Jo 8:40,44) or Christians: It is not anyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name? Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, all evil doers! (Mt 7:21-23; 1Jo 3:10,11). Genuine Christians cannot fight and hurt their neighbours (2Co 10:3,4; Jo 13:35, Mt 5:44,45).

2) If the text of Daniel is ignored it is not possible to determine at what time the Messiah would be revealed. Furthermore, on what criteria should a biblical text be ignored?

3) The 3rd objection is based on an anachronistic amalgam of messianic prophecies. The Jews noticed that the chapter 53 of Isaiah describes a "suffering messiah" while the following chapters (60-61) of the same book describes a "glorious messiah." How can one reconcile these seemingly contradictory descriptions? To solve this puzzle, some Jews suppose, as we have seen, a "suffering messiah" representing the Jewish people, and expect a "glorious Messiah" (unidentified). They came to think of 2 messiahs233. Jews of Qumran had already arrived at this conclusion, but for completely different reasons. Having found that the "glorious Messiah" was also a "royal Messiah," they concluded logically that he had to come from the tribe of Judah. This "royal messiah" being known to lead a kingdom of priests (Ex 19:6), they concluded that he would be also a priest. However, there was an unsolvable problem since a Jew could not simultaneously belong to the tribe of Levi (associated with the priesthood) and the tribe of Judah (associated with royalty). The Essenes therefore assumed the simultaneous existence of two messiahs: one from Levi and another from Judah234. In the Talmud (Sukka 52a), there are also discussions about a messiah who was the son of Joseph, killed before the appearance of another messiah son of David, coming from Judah. Judah and Joseph being representative of the two parts of Israel together, according to Ezekiel 37:16. The solution to resort to 2 messiahs, rather than the one with 2 achievements is complicated, but more importantly, contrary to common sense because it requires (as recognize some Jewish commentators today) this implausible conclusion: The Messiah will arrive when all will be righteous, he will arrive when all will be sinners. He will come with great pomp and glory, he will come in the utmost discretion and destitute. He will come at a fixed date and can come at any time (...) Conflicting and confusing texts are dealing in this long-awaited climax of history235. The inconsistency is obvious. In fact, the solution proposed by the Gospels solves this apparent paradox. The right to the priesthood was hereditary (Nb 3:6-9), just as the right to the throne, however, the right to the priesthood could also be of divine right (exceptional case), as was the case for Aaron and Melchizedek (Heb 5:6; Ps 110:4). If the Bible announced that the Messiah would appear in the tribe of Judah (Gn 49:10) no prophecy mentions that he should appear in the tribe of Levi. According to the Kaddish: May His great name be exalted and sanctified in the world which He created according to His will! May He establish His kingdom and may His salvation blossom and His messiah be near.

233 C. CHALIER, M. FAESSLER - Deux messies : fils de Juda, fils de Joseph in: Judaïsme et christianisme l'écoute en partage (Paris 2001), Éd. Cerf pp. 307-345. 234 M. WISE, M. ABEGG JR., E. COOK - Les manuscrits de la mer Morte Paris 2001, Éd. Plon pp.171,340. 235 H. GOLDWURM, N. SCHERMAN - Daniel, traduction et commentaires Paris 2001 Éd. du Sceptre p. XLVIII.


CALCULATIONS FOR KNOWING WHEN THE MESSIAH MUST APPEAR

Before performing chronological calculations, there must be a literal translation free of pro or anti-Messianic influences (the messianic era was a controversial matter) because, given the stakes, translators have often been tempted to influence their translation. Some have speculated, for example, that since the Messiah and period are mentioned twice in verses 24 to 27, it would imply the existence of two messiahs or two distinct periods! If this were the case, we could find some perversity in Daniel since he would have written: I have come forth to make you insight with understanding (Dn 9:22-23), whereas it finally would apply to anyone in a clear manner! This is not reasonable, especially since it is easy to see that the first period of 70 weeks is identical to the second count (7 + 62 + 1, a total of 70 weeks). Therefore this period regards the same messiah or anointed one. Textual criticism now considers that the Masoretic text of Daniel is reliable and differences with the text of the Septuagint are generally in favour of the Hebrew text but with some exceptions236 like the books of Daniel and Jeremiah. Several Hebrew manuscripts of Daniel, dated around 100 BCE, are close to the Masoretic text but not identical to it237. In addition, the Greek translation of the book of Daniel (Old Greek Septuagint) is not literal and contains errors or corrections, but it is unclear whether it would not be the case of the Hebrew text as well238. The only way to know is to do a chronological analysis of historical data inside the two texts239. Correct text of Daniel is highlighted in green and “corrections (modifications)” or additions are in orange:

Old Greek LXX (c. 165 BCE) Theodotion LXX (c. 175 CE) Daniel O King, you made a feast for your friends, and you were drinking wine, and the vessels of the house of the living God were brought to you, and you were drinking with them, you and your nobles

and you have exalted yourself against the Lord God of heaven, and the vessels of his house they brought before you, and you and your nobles and your concubines and your consorts were drinking wine with them

5:23

Then Baltasar the king clothed Daniel in purple, and he put a gold torque on him, and he gave him authority over a 3rd part of his kingdom. And the meaning came upon Baltasar the king, and the rule was taken away from the Chaldeans and was given to the Medes and to the Persians, and Xerxes who was king of the Medes, received the kingdom.

And Baltasar spoke and they clothed Daniel in purple, and the gold torque they put around his neck, and he proclaimed concerning him that he was 3rd in the kingdom. In that very night Baltasar the Chaldean king, was killed and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being 62 years old.

5:29-30

(...) and shattered their bones, and Daniel was appointed over the whole kingdom of Darius.

(...) and pulverized all their bones. 6:24

And King Darius was added to his fathers, and Cyrus the Persian received the kingdom

And Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian

6:28

During the 3rd year, when Baltasar was king, there was a vision, which I, Daniel, saw (...) The ram that you saw, which had the horns, is the king of the Medes and Persians.

In the 3rd year of the reign of King Baltasar a vision appeared to me —I, Daniel (...) The ram that you saw, which had the horns, is the king of the Medes and Persians.

7:1, 20

236 D. BARTHÉLEMY – Critique textuelle de l'Ancien Testament Tome 3 Göttingen 1992 Éd. Universitaires Fribourg pp. 435-496. 237 J.J. COLLINS, P.W. FLINT, C. VAN EPPS – The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception, Volume 2 Leiden 2002 Ed. Brill pp. 573-607. 238 S. PACE JEANSONNE - The Old Greek Translation of Daniel 7-12 in: The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 19 Washington 1988 pp. 103-133. 239 R.T. MCLAY – Daniel. Old Greek / Theodotion in: New English Translation of the Septuagint (2007) Ed. Oxford University Press pp. 991-1022.


70 weeks have been decided for your people and for the city, Sion: for sin to be consummated and to make iniquities scarce and to blot out iniquities and to comprehend the vision and for everlasting righteousness to be given and for the vision to be consummated and to gladden a holy of holies. And you shall understand and will rejoice and will discover ordinances to respond, and you [Daniel] will build Ierousalem as a city for the Lord. And after 7 and 70 and 62 weeks, an anointing will be removed and will not be. And a king of nations will demolish the city and the sanctuary along with the anointed one [Messiah], and his consummation will come with wrath even until the time of consummation. He will be attacked through war. And the covenant will prevail for many, and it will return again and be rebuilt broad and long and at the consummation of times and in half of the week the sacrifice and the libation will cease, and in the temple there will be an abomination of desolations until the consummation of a season, and a consummation will be given for the desolation.

70 weeks have been cut short for your people and for the holy city: for sin to be consummated and to seal sins and to atone for iniquities and to bring everlasting righteousness and to seal vision and prophet and to anoint a holy of holies. And you shall know and shall understand: from the going forth of the word to respond to and to rebuild Ierousalem until an anointed [Messiah] leader, there will be 7 weeks and 62 weeks, and it [Ierousalem] will return, and streets and a wall will be built, and the seasons will be emptied out. And after the 62 weeks, an anointing will be destroyed, and there is no judgment in it. And it will destroy the city and the sanctuary along with the leader who is to come. And they will be cut off by a flood, and there will be annihilations to the finish of a shortened war. And it will strengthen a covenant with many, 1 week, and by half of the week sacrifice and libation will cease, and in the temple there will be an abomination of desolations even until a consummation, and a consummation will be given for the desolation.

9:24-27

at a set time. And he will enter into Egypt, and as the first so the last will be. And the Romans will come and will expel him and rebuke him [the king of Egypt]. And he will back [and will be angered] against the covenant of the holy one

At the appointed time he will return and will come into the south, and as the first even so the last will not be. And the Kitians who go forth will come against him [the king of the north], and he will be humbled, and he will return and will be enraged against the holy covenant

11:29-30

From the time that the [perpetual] sacrifice was taken away and the abomination of desolation was prepared to be given, there are 1290 days.

From the time of the removal of the regular offering and the abomination of desolation will be given —1290 days.

12:11

The two Greek translations are similar, but the original Hebrew text used (H*) had to be very close to the Masoretic text (MT). The first translator corrected the Hebrew text to match the desecration of the Temple of Jerusalem by Antiochus IV240 that lasted about 3 years (from 15 Kislev in 167 BCE to 25 Kislev in 164 BCE). The name Kittim was formerly understood by the Jews as representing the Greeks, from Alexander to Antiochus IV (1 Maccabees 1:1, 8:5), then from Antiochus IV (not before), according to the Pesher Nahum (4Q169)241, the Kittim were representing the Romans. As one can see the text of Daniel 9:24-27 is translated differently, several indicators show that the Hebrew text of reference was indeed the Masoretic text. A Qumran manuscript in Hebrew (11Q13), dated around 100 BCE, explains the text of Daniel 9:26242: He will proclaim to them the Jubilee, thereby releasing

240 M. HADAS-LEBEL – La révolte des Maccabées Clermont-Ferrand 2012, Éd. LEMME edit, pp. 41-46. 241 [The interpretation of it concerns Jerusalem, which has become] a dwelling for the wicked ones of the nations. "Where the lion went to enter, the lion's cub [and no one to disturb". The interpretation of it concern Deme]trius, King of Greece, who sought to enter Jerusalem on the advice of the Seeker-After-Smooth-Things, [but God did not give Jerusalem] into the power of the kings of Greece from Antiochus until the rise of the rulers of the Kittim; but afterwards [the city] will be trampled [by the Gentiles ...] 242 M. WISE, M. ABEGG JR, E. COOK – Les manuscrits de la mer Morte Paris 2001, Éd. Plon pp. 257-260, 598-600.


them from the debt of all their sins. He shall proclaim this decree in the 1st week of the jubilee period that follows 9 jubilee periods. Then the "Day of Atonement" shall follow after the 10th jubilee period, when he shall atone for all the Sons of Light, and the people who are predestined to Melchizedek (...) "The messengers" is the Anointed [Messiah] of the spirit, of whom Daniel spoke; "After the 62 weeks, an Anointed [Messiah] shall be cut off" (Dn 9:26). The "messenger who brings good news, who announces Salvation" is the one of whom it is written; "to proclaim the year of YHWH's favour, the day of the vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn" (Is 61:2). The quoted text is strictly that of the Masoretic text, while that of the Septuagint is (incomprehensible): And after 7 and 70 and 62 weeks, an anointing will be removed. The word Messiah has disappeared and the durations have been changed (those of the Masoretic text are logical since the total duration of 70 weeks is equal to the sum of the intermediary durations: 7 + 62 + 1 = 70). The book of Daniel is little commented on in the Qumran manuscripts with two exceptions: when it is commented on the Book of Jubilees serves as a reference and the "son of man, chosen by God himself, who has to become the king of the coming world" (Dn 7:9-14) is widely quoted and commented on in the Book of Enoch (1Enoch XLVI:1-4, XLVIII:2-7; LXII:6-16). These texts show that most of the first-century Jews were expecting a messianic king (rather than a messiah for salvation). For example, according to Tacitus: The majority [of the Jews] were convinced that the ancient scriptures of their priests alluded to the present as the very time when the Orient would triumph and from Judaea would go forth men destined to rule the world. This mysterious prophecy really referred to Vespasian and Titus, but the common people, true to the selfish ambitions of mankind, thought that this exalted destiny was reserved for them, and not even their calamities opened their eyes to the truth (Histories 5:13). According to Suetonius: There had spread over all the Orient an old and established belief, that it was fated at that time for men coming from Judaea to rule the world. This prediction, referring to the emperor of Rome, as afterwards appeared from the event, the people of Judaea took to themselves (The Life of Vespasian IV:5). According to Dio Cassius: This prophecy about the tooth became a reality on the following day; and Nero himself in his dreams once thought that he had brought the car of Jupiter to Vespasian's house. These portents needed interpretation; but not so the saying of a Jew named Josephus: he, having earlier been captured by Vespasian and imprisoned, laughed and said: You may imprison me now [in 68 BCE], but a year from now, when you have become emperor, you will release me (Roman History LXV:1). According to Josephus: But now, what did the most elevate them in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle that was also found in their sacred writings, how about that time, one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth. The Jews took this prediction to belong to themselves in particular, and many of the wise men were thereby deceived in their determination. Now this oracle certainly denoted the government of Vespasian, who was appointed emperor in Judea. However, it is not possible for men to avoid fate, although they see it beforehand. But these men interpreted some of these signals according to their own pleasure, and some of them they utterly despised, until their madness was demonstrated, both by the taking of their city and their own destruction (Jewish War VI:312-315). The text of Daniel 7 was well known at that time, but if Josephus was able to apply the prophecy of the "Son of man" to Vespasian it is because he read and interpreted the Hebrew text (MT): And it will destroy the city and the sanctuary along with the leader who is to come [Roman ruler?], rather than the Greek text of the Septuagint: And a king of nations will demolish the city and the sanctuary along with the anointed one [Messiah]. What proves that the text of Daniel was actually written in 535 BCE rather than 165 BCE? In fact, several very precise pieces of information inside could only be known prior to 535 BCE, which have been known only from the 19th century through archaeological discoveries: Ø The inscriptions of Nabonidus243 show that in his 3rd year of reign (in 553 BCE) he

entrusted the kingdom to his eldest son, Belshazzar (Baltasar), and retired to Teima, thus,

243 J. BRIEND M.J. SEUX Les textes du Proche-Orient ancien et l'histoire d'Israël Paris 1977 Éd. Cerf pp. 147-150.


the actual king of Babylon in 539 BCE was therefore Belshazzar, (in his 14th year of reign), not Nabonidus. Prior to 1854, Belshazzar had been an enigma for historians and archaeologists who knew nothing of him outside the book of Daniel.

Ø Babylonian kings were in the habit of drinking wine with their concubines and their consorts at royal banquets. Former historians did not know of this strange custom.

Ø According to Daniel 8:1-6,20 a ram with two horns appeared in the 3rd year of Belshazzar, in 550 BCE, representing the kings of Media and Persia. Indeed in 550 BCE Cyrus II became king of Persia and Harpagus, his coregent, was king of Media.

Ø According to the Nabonidus Chronicle, Ugbaru (Gobryas) was the governor of Gutium, the Darius the Mede of Daniel.

Even if the authenticity of the book was sometimes disputed, the great Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed 2:45) acknowledged it as an inspiration of divine origin and placed Daniel on a par with David and Solomon. Literal translation of Daniel 9:23-27's text:

Hebrew Literal translation Comment and understand in the word and make

understand The phrase "make understand" is found in Daniel 8:16 where the angel Gabriel make understand to Daniel who had in turn to make understand to the people.

in the matter seen weeks [of years] The word "week" is usually feminine in Hebrew whereas is

masculine in Daniel's text. To keep this variant, translators use either the term "weeks [of years]" or the word "sevens".

seventy was determined upon people of you and upon city sanctuary of you The word "sanctuary" could also be translated as "holy" but as in

verse 26 it clearly refers to the holy [place] the word "sanctuary" is required.

to make cease the transgression and to finish the sin and to absolve fault and to make come justice

of durations

and to seal The meaning of "seal" is both "accomplish" and "put an end". vision The word "vision" has the meaning of prophecy. and prophet and to anoint sanctuary The word qodesh means "holy" / "sacred". The holy of holies

generally refers to the Most Holy of sanctuaries And you will know and you will be

insightful

since output of word to make return


and to build Jerusalem until messiah The word "messiah" could be translated as "anointed one" but the

whole revelation of Gabriel relates this particular messiah, qualified as guide or remarkable. It is therefore the Messiah and not a messiah of some sort.

remarkable The word "remarkable" has a literal meaning "to be in front" in Hebrew, it means "chief" in Jeremiah 20:1 or "important" in Proverbs 8:6 when it describes another word (which is the case here). This qualification therefore draws attention to a remarkable anointed one: the Messiah. Used alone it means "leader" or "guide". Theodotion, for example, translated it into Greek as "until an anointed leader / Christ prince".

weeks [of years] seven and weeks [of years] The word "and" has also the meaning of "then". sixty and two she will return "she" refers to the city of Jerusalem.

and been built

public square and moat in the straits of the times and after the weeks [of years] sixty and two will be cut off Messiah and nothing for himself And the city and the sanctuary he will destroy "he" refers to the people remarkable. people remarkable Remarkable*(see above) people are described in Daniel 2, first the

Babylonians, then the Medo-Persians, the Greeks and other peoples to come with a link to the servants of God. The remarkable people after the Greeks were the Romans.

coming And end of him The word "him" seems to refer to the sanctuary. in the flood The word "flood" is used in a metaphorical sense describing a

military force, like in Daniel 11:26. And until [the] end war It has been decreed some desolations He will make prevail The word "he" seems to refer to the Messiah. covenant for the multitude Multitudes, multitude. Some Jewish translators translate it as "grand

ones", retaining its usual meaning elsewhere as in Daniel 11:44. Week [of years] one and the half of the week [of years] he will make cease


sacrifice and offering Upon [the] wing of disgusting things "Disgusting things" refer to pagan idols (Jr 7:30-31), here the

ensigns of the Roman armies represented by eagle wings. a desolator This desolator will stand up after the king of Greece (Dn 8:20-25). And until extinction It has been decreed will pouring out upon [that is]

desolate "[that is] desolate" could refer to the sanctuary (Dn 9:17).

Taking into account the previous remarks, the literal translation becomes: Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. 70 weeks [of years] are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. And you should know and have the insight [that] from the going forth of [the] word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah [the] Leader, there will be 7 weeks [of years], and 62 weeks [of years]. She will return and be actually rebuilt, with a public square and moat, but in the straits of the times. And after the 62 weeks [of years] Messiah will be cut off, with nothing for himself. And the city and the holy place the people of a leader that is coming will bring to their ruin. And the end of it will be by the flood. And until [the] end there will be war; what is decided upon is desolations. And he must keep [the] covenant in force for the many for 1 week [of years]; and at the half of the week [of years] he will cause sacrifice and gift offering to cease. And upon the wing of disgusting things there will be the one causing desolation; and until an extermination, the very thing decided upon will go pouring out also upon the one lying desolate (Dn 9:23-27). It is possible that this highly controversial text has undergone some changes by the Jewish copyists, as evidenced by the pro-Maccabean translation of the Septuagint244. However, the Jewish translation of Theodotion (c. 175 CE) written in an anti-Christian context is still very close to the Masoretic Text, it reads: Therefore consider the matter, understand the vision. 70 weeks have been determined upon thy people, and upon the holy city, for sin to be ended, and to seal up transgressions, and to blot out the iniquities, and to make atonement for iniquities, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal the vision and the prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy. And thou shalt know and understand, that from the going forth of the command for the answer and for the building of Jerusalem until Christ the prince [there shall be] 7 weeks, and 62 weeks; and then [the time] shall return, and the street shall be built, and the wall, and the times shall be exhausted. And after the 62 weeks, the anointed one shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in him: and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the prince that is coming: they shall be cut off with a flood, and to the end of the war which is rapidly completed he shall appoint [the city] to desolations. And one week shall establish the covenant with many: and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and drink-offering shall be taken away: and on the temple [shall be] the abomination of desolations; and a the end of time an end shall be put to the desolation. Paradoxically, the accurate Jewish translation of Theodotion (which is a revised Septuagint) is even more favourable to Christian interpretation than the Masoretic text which provides the basis for current translations (the current Jewish translations also derived from the Masoretic text). These remarks may remove some erroneous propositions and focus on what really the problem in the identification of the Messiah. The text of Daniel 9:24-27 is clearly messianic and evokes an individual messiah whose chronological frame is perfectly defined. The whole period is 490 (= 70x7) years and is divided into 3 parts: 7+62+1 = 70. The starting point for calculating the appearance of

244 Some modern commentators have tried to link the book of Daniel to the Poem of Danel unearthed at Ugarit (c. -1350), but excluding the name of the character, and even without the "i", there is clearly no point of contact between the two accounts.


this particular messiah is specified by the expression: from the going forth of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Leader. This messiah chief is killed with nothing for himself, then the holy city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary are destroyed. The text states that during the 70th and last week, after the appearance of the Messiah, sin is removed and justice is restored, resulting de facto in the abolition of the offering and sacrifice. The translation highlights the following chronological points: Ø After the starting point there is a period of 49 years (= 7x7) and 434 years (= 62x7) or

483 years in all. This period ends with the appearance of the Messiah. The text also states that the period of reconstruction (49 years) will be in the "distress of the times" and after a period of 434 years the Messiah shall be cut into destitution.

Ø After the period of 490 years a new world power (the Romans) will come to destroy the city and the sanctuary. Afterwards the covenant will continue, but only up to half of the last week (7/2 = 3.5 years) and then offering and sacrifice are no longer needed.

The starting point of the 490 years is set: from the going forth of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. This order to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes I in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of his reign (Ne 2:1,5,8). As Nehemiah said that the city wall was completed in 52 days on 25 Elul (22 September), he therefore pronounced this word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem on 3 Ab (2 August) to the Jewish deputy rulers who returned to the city (Ne 2:16-18). Thus Ezra and Nehemiah gave a precise chronology: Cyrus issued a decree releasing the Jews in his 1st year of reign (Ezr 1:1-2), thus the Jews arrived in Jerusalem around October 538 BCE. In the 2nd month of the 2nd year of their arrival (May 537 BCE) they began rebuilding the Temple, which was completed at the end of the 6th year of Darius I (in 515 BCE). In the 7th year of his reign, Artaxerxes I requested Ezra to go to Jerusalem to beautify the Temple then, in his 20th year, he gave the order to Nehemiah to rebuild the city and not only the Temple. The city was finally inaugurated in 406 BCE (= 455 – 7x7) towards the end of the reign of Darius II (Ne 12:22). The starting point of Daniel's prophecy was therefore the 20th year of Artaxerxes I, which was dated 465 BCE according to Greek historians at that time, however the Jews used their own calendar which was based on the Jubilee cycle from the Bible. According to Maimonides245: With Ezra the Shemitah (Sabbatical year dated 7th year of Artaxerxes I) began to be counted and after seven of them they sanctified the 50th year; for even though the Jubilee year was not observed, these years were nevertheless counted in order to be able to sanctify the Shemitah. Consequently, the 20th year of Artaxerxes I was dated 455 BCE (instead of 445) and the Messiah had to appear at the end of the 10th Jubilee during the 70th week from 29 CE to 36 CE:

468 455 406 29 33 36 70 7 20 i j 13 483 (=69x7) 49 434 (= 62x7) 7

9x50 50

Today most scholars believe that the Jubilees were sanctified the 49th year instead the 50th as the Bible says. According to Leviticus 25:8-54, a jubilee lasted 50 years and was ended with a release of the captives, regarded as a "jubilant" year. This system was codified after the Exodus, but as Maimonides says, even if the Sabbatical cycles (every 7 years) and Jubilee (every 50 years) were not observed, however, they were counted. The letters (a, b, c) in the table below refer to key dates marking the beginning or end of an event. The greyed areas mark periods of reigns or events in the life of a character, the dark grey areas indicate anchored periods and those coloured in blue refer to periods of 50 years of Jubilee cycle.

245 J. FINEGAN – Handbook of Biblical Chronology Princeton 1998, Ed. Hendrickson Publishers, pp. 130-131.


609 598 588 587 539 538 518 517 468 455 406 -18 29 33 36 133 a b c d e f g h i j k 31 11 10 1 70 49 13 483 7 70 49 46 4 18x50 50 50 9x50 50 2x50

a) Beginning of the 70-year Babylonian domination (609 BCE) which ended with the seizure of Babylon (Jr 25:11-12) by Cyrus (539 BCE). The death of King Josiah (2Ki 23:29), 4 years before the battle of Carchemish (Jr 46:2) in 605 BCE, marked the end of the Judean kingdom legitimately established. Jehoahaz was enthroned by the people and reigned 3 months (2Ki 23:31). Pharaoh Necho II, satrap of Nebuchadnezzar from 609 BCE (Against Apion I:133-137), enthroned Jehoiakim who reigned 11 years (2Ki 23:34-36). Nebuchadnezzar then enthroned Zedekiah who reigned 11 years (2Ki 24:17-18) until the destruction of the Temple (587 BCE). Josiah's death marked the beginning of a period of 70 years of Babylonian domination (Jr 25:11-12) beginning with the reign of Jehoiakim (Jr 27:1-7) after the Battle of Harran (609 BCE) and ending with the destruction of Babylon (539 BCE). It is noteworthy that the text of Matthew sets the beginning of the captivity of Babylon (Βαβυλῶνος), not at Babylon, after the reign of Josiah246 (Mt 1:11,17).

b) During the 10th year of Zedekiah a jubilee "to proclaim liberty" was deliberately violated (Jr 32:1), resulting in the destruction of the Temple and deportation to Babylon. The release associated with this jubilee occurred 50 years later (Jr 34:8-11,13-22).

c) Destruction of the Temple dated 10/V/18 of Nebuchadnezzar (Jr 52:12,13) according to the Babylonian reckoning (October 587 BCE). This "devastation of the temple" would last 70 years (Dn 9:2).

d) Destruction of Babylon (539 BCE) and liberation of exiles in Babylon on Cyrus' 1st year (Ezr 1:1-4) in 538 BCE.

e) End of the 70-year desolation period and of the exile (517 BCE); beginning of a new 50-year Jubilee cycle, from the 4th year of Darius (Zk 7:1-5) in 518 BCE.

f) First Jubilee celebrated, dated to Artaxerxes' 7th year, because Ezra's text mentions that on this year there was a tax exemption (Ezr 7:1,8,24) and a liberation of captives (Ezra 8:35). Jewish authorities agree that the count of Jubilees must start in this year247.

g) Start of the 483-year period leading to the appearance of the Messiah, according to Daniel 9:25. Nehemiah adds that the command to re-establish and to rebuild Jerusalem was issued by Artaxerxes I in the 20th year of his rule (Ne 2:1,5,8). According to this calendar, the Messiah was to come 483 years after Artaxerxes' 1st year, i.e. on the 13th year (= 20 - 7) after the first Jubilee of Ezra dated to Artaxerxes' 7th year. The appearance of the Messiah foretold by Daniel then was to occur 4 years before the end of the 11th Jubilee. Eusebius had already noted this point in his Chronicle, where he said that Jesus started preaching on Olympiad 202:1 (29 CE), which corresponded to the 81st Jubilee according to Hebrew tradition. Eusebius248 dated the 71st Jubilee to 472/471 and noticed that 500 years (equivalent to 10 Jubilees) elapsed between 483 and 472 BCE.

h) The sanctuary (naos) of the temple was completed in 46 years on the 1st Passover on April 30 CE (Jn 2:20), in agreement with Josephus (Jewish Antiquities XV:354,380,421).

i) Appearance of the Messiah. According to Luke 3:1,23, Jesus the Messiah came in Tiberius' 15th year (29 CE).

j) Messiah was cut off with nothing for himself at the half of the last week (Dn 9:26-27) [of

246 In addition, Jesus said: Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the appointed times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (Lk 21:24). 247 A. STROBEL - Ursprung und Geschichte des frühchristlichen Osterkalenders in: Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 121 (1977) pp. 92-95. 248 EUSÈBE - S. Hieronymi interpretatio chronicæ Eusebii pamphili Paris 1846 Éd. Migne Patrologiæ Latina XXVII pp. 438-442, 570-574


years], i.e. 3,5 years (7/2) after his appearance around October 29 CE. k) Some coins dated during the revolt of Bar Korkhba were minted for a jubilee dated 133

CE, because the Bar Kokhba revolt took place over a period249 from December 131 to September 135 during which the Jews minted two coins250 dated: one of year 1 for the redemption of Israel (132 CE) and another one: year 2 for the freedom of Israel (133 CE).

The dates of Artaxerxes' reign and of the 70-year desolation period are controversial. According to the Jubilee calendar, Artaxerxes' reign would have started in 475 BCE and not in 465. This gap is of no consequence for biblical chronology. The biblical text makes a distinction between two 70-year periods: one of slavery: the "70 years for Babylon", and another one: the "70 years of desolation and exile". Let us check: Ø Isaiah relates how this slavery period was to end (Is 44:28-45:13). He points out 5

features: The future conqueror of Babylon was 1) to be called Cyrus; 2) to submit the nations; 3) to rebuild Jerusalem; 4) to lay the foundations of the temple; 5) and to free the Jews from their exile in Babylon. The One saying of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and all that I delight in he will completely carry out'; even in [my] saying of Jerusalem, 'She will be rebuilt,' and of the temple, 'You will have your foundation laid. This is what Jehovah has said to his anointed one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue before him nations (...) For the sake of my servant Jacob and of Israel my chosen one, I even proceeded to call you by your name; I proceeded to give you a name of honour, although you did not know me (...) I myself have roused up someone in righteousness, and all his ways I shall straighten out. He is the one that will build my city, and those of mine in exile he will let go. Babylonian domination began in 609 and ended in 539. Those "70 years for Babylon" were succeeded by a period that would close with the end of the exile and the rebuilding of the temple.

Ø And in the 1st year of Cyrus [in 538] the king of Persia, that Jehovah's word from the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah roused the spirit of Cyrus the king of Persia so that he caused a cry to pass through all his realm, and also in writing, saying: This is what Cyrus the king of Persia has said: All the kingdoms of the earth Jehovah the God of the heavens has given me, and he himself has commissioned me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God prove to be with him. So let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of Jehovah the God of Israel (Ezr 1:1-3). A passage of the Chronicles explains that if the 70 years of slavery in Babylon ended at Cyrus time, the main reason for the desolation (that was still lasting at Cyrus time) was the breaking of the Sabbaths.

Ø So he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who (...) proceeded to burn the house of the [true] God and pull down the wall of Jerusalem (...) Furthermore, he carried off those remaining from the sword captive to Babylon (...) until the royalty of Persia began to reign [in 539]; to fulfil Jehovah's word by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had paid off its Sabbaths. All the days of lying desolated it kept Sabbath, to fulfil 70 years. And in the 1st year of Cyrus the king of Persia, that Jehovah's word by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished (...) This is what Cyrus the king of Persia has said, 'All the kingdoms of the earth Jehovah the God of the heavens has given me, and he himself has commissioned me to build him a house in Jerusalem (2Ch 36:17-23). This explanation about the reason for the desolation already appeared in the first books of the Bible.

Ø I shall indeed give your cities to the sword and lay your sanctuaries desolate (...) And I, for my part, will lay the land desolate (...) And you I shall scatter among the nations (...) At that time the land will pay off its sabbaths [during] all the days of its lying desolated, while you are in the land of your enemies. At

249 M. SARTRE – D'Alexandre à Zénobie Paris 2001 Éd. Fayard pp. 601-607. G. GOYAU – Chronologie de l'Empire romain Paris 2007 Éd. Errances pp. 114-116. 250 D. HENDIN – Guide to Biblical Coins New York 2001 Ed. Amphora pp. 273-302.


that time the land will keep sabbath, as it must repay its sabbaths. [During all] the days of its lying desolated it will keep sabbath, for the reason that it did not keep sabbath during your sabbaths when you were dwelling upon it (...) Yet I, for my part, proceeded to walk in opposition to them, and I had to bring them into the land of their enemies. Perhaps at that time their uncircumcised heart will be humbled, and at that time they will pay off their error. And I shall indeed remember my covenant (...) and the land I shall remember. All the while the land was left abandoned by them and was paying off its sabbaths while it was lying desolated without them and they themselves were paying for their error (...) And yet for all this, while they continue in the land of their enemies, I shall certainly not reject them (Lv 26:31-44). According to this text, the desolation period starts with the destruction of the city and of its sanctuary. The land and its temple must stay desolated for 70 years, and this period includes a time of humiliation or of deportation in an enemy country. The exile is included in the 70 years, but its length is not stipulated. It is linked to the desolation, but it differs from it. The beginning of the exile at Babylon is dated to Jehoiachin's 1st year (Ezk 40:1), that is 11 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and the last exile is dated to Nebuchadnezzar's 23rd year (Jr 52:30), that is 4 years after the destruction of Jerusalem. However, the exile is at it maximum in 587, the year of the destruction of the temple (Jr 52:28-30). According to the adopted chronology, the exile at Babylon ended in the 50th year of a Jubilee [588-538]. This is what Josephus says: [Berosus] comes down to Nabolassar, who was king of Babylon, and of the Chaldeans. And when he was relating the acts of this king, he describes to us how he sent his son Nabuchodonosor against Egypt, and against our land, with a great army, upon his being informed that they had revolted from him; and how, by that means, he subdued them all, and set our temple that was at Jerusalem on fire; nay, and removed our people entirely out of their own country, and transferred them to Babylon; when it so happened that our city was desolate during the interval of seventy years, until the days of Cyrus king of Persia (...) These [Berosus] accounts agree with the true histories in our books; for in them it is written that Nebuchadnezzar, in the eighteenth year of his reign, laid our temple desolate, and so it lay in that state of obscurity for 50 years (Against Apion I:131,132;154). Josephus makes a distinction between two periods: one [of slavery] of 70 years which starts at the end of Nabopolassar's reign and which ends at the beginning of Cyrus' reign, and another period of 50 years which starts at the destruction of the temple and ends with the liberation by Cyrus and his command to rebuild the temple (Ezr 1:1,2). Eusebius (Preparatio evangelica IX:40:11; X:9:3-5; X:10:3-6) also distinguishes between several periods: two periods of 70 years and another one lasting 50 years. There are the "70 years for Babylon" from 609 to 539 and the "70 years of desolation" when there was no cult rendered in the temple at Jerusalem from 587 to 537. Although Mordecai (Est 2:6) was still called a son of the exile under Xerxes' reign around 470 BCE, the bulk of the exiles had gone back to Jerusalem between 537 and 517.

Ø Zechariah's book throws some light on the link between the "70 years for Babylon" which end with the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE and the "70 years of desolation" which begin with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 587 BCE.

Ø On the 24th day of the 11th month, that is, the month Shebat, in the 2nd year of Darius (...) the angel of Jehovah answered and said: O Jehovah of armies, how long will you yourself not show mercy to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, whom you have denounced these 70 years? (...) I shall certainly return to Jerusalem with mercies. My own house will be built in her (…) and a measuring line itself will be stretched out over Jerusalem (Zk 1:7,12,16). This message (dated to January/February 520 BCE) announced the near end of the 70 years of desolation and the oncoming completion of the temple and rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Ø And it came to pass in the 4th year of king Darius, that the word of Jehovah came unto Zechariah in the 4th day of the 9th month, even in Chislev. (…) Should I weep in the 5th month, separating myself, as I


have done these so many years? (...) Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the 5th and in the 7th month, even these 70 years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? (Zk 7:1-5, 1901 American Standard Version). The words "these 70 years" in Zechariah 7:5 are the same as in Zechariah 1:12. They may be understood in two ways: "[in relation with] those 70 years", or "[during] those 70 years". The first meaning goes better with the context of Zechariah 1:12, the declaration being dated to Darius' 4th year [518 BCE], soon before the end of the 70-year desolation. Moreover, the fast of the 5th month that marked the destruction of the temple in 587 BCE (beginning of the desolation) was still observed in 518 BCE, since we read: "Shall I weep in the fifth month?" and not "Had I to weep in the 5th month?" This 70-years span was to end with the liberation of the captives (end of the Jubilee) and with the rebuilding of the temple, an expression of God's mercy according to Jeremiah. The temple was inaugurated soon thereafter, in Darius' 6th year in 515 BCE (Ezr 6:15,16). The twofold period of 70 years is confirmed by a passage from Daniel.

Ø In the 1st year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes (...) I myself, Daniel, discerned by the books the number of the years concerning which the word of Jehovah had occurred to Jeremiah the prophet, for fulfilling the devastations of Jerusalem, [namely,] 70 years (...) And now listen, O our God, to the prayer of your servant and to his entreaties, and cause your face to shine upon your sanctuary that is desolated (...) Do open your eyes and see our desolated conditions and the city that has been called by your name (Dn 9:1,2,17-24). Let us say first that Darius the Mede is called Ugbaru in a Babylonian tablet; he ruled over Babylon and appointed governors (Dn 6:1) during the 5 last months of his reign and died at the end of his 1st year of reign, on the 11 Arahsammu (November 538 BCE). So, one year after the destruction of Babylon, Daniel explains that the 70 years would also be the length of the desolation (which was to end in 517 BCE, since the temple was destroyed in 587 BCE).

The words "desolated and devastated land" are controversial, for they can mean either a "land deserted and without inhabitants" (literal meaning) or a "land without worshippers" (religious meaning). The biblical text favours the second meaning. Indeed, the start (as well as the end) of the literal exile cannot be dated accurately, since it expands between Nebuchadnezzar's 7th and 23rd year (Jr 52:28-30) and the exile was still going on at Esther's time around 470 BCE (Est 2:6). However, the length of the religious exile (the period when there were "no worshippers") is easier to settle, since it runs from the destruction of the temple to the "liberation of the captives" in the 50th year of the Jubilee (religious meaning). The words "causing desolation (Dn 9:27)" was understood by the Jews as the disappearance of the sacrifices in the temple (and consequently of the worshippers) and not as the disappearance of the inhabitants. When we read: by reason of my house that is waste, while you are on the run, each one in behalf of his own house (Hg 1:1,9), text written in Darius' 2nd year (520 BCE), we may understand also that the temple was waste of worshippers, not of people. This religious meaning is used in Ezekiel, where it is said that Egypt would be: desolate waste (...) for 40 years (Ezk 29:10-12. This could not be understood in a literal way (a deporting of all Egyptian people in a foreign land would have left some traces). But the religious meaning "without worshippers" (Ezk 30:7,13) is appropriate, since Jeremiah states that the sign (the 40-year period was beginning) would be pharaoh Hophra's death (Jr 44:29,30; Ezk 30:20-22), exactly as Zedekiah's death marked the end of worship in the temple. Pharaoh Hophra (whom Egyptian were viewing as a living god) was replaced in 570 BCE by Amasis, a mere general, who ruled from 569 to 526. Pharaoh Hophra (Apries) died a few years after the beginning of Amasis' reign251, probably in 566 BCE, his death being

251 G. DARESSY - Stèle de l'an III d'Amasis in: Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie Paris 1900 pp. 1-9.


reported as occurring soon after Amasis' 3rd year [in 567 BCE]. Egypt then had no visible god (Pharaoh) between 566 and 526. Herodotus wrote: It is said however that Amasis, even when he was in a private station, was a lover of drinking and of jesting, and not at all seriously disposed (...) when finally he became king he did as follows: -as many of the gods as had absolved him and pronounced him not to be a thief, to their temples he paid no regard, nor gave anything for the further adornment of them, nor even visited them to offer sacrifice, considering them to be worth nothing and to possess lying Oracles (The Histories II:174). The role of the Jubilee to mark the end of a captivity is a recurrent theme in the Bible. When Zerubbabel was appointed: in the 1st year of Cyrus [538 BCE] (...) Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God prove to be with him. So let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of Jehovah the God of Israel-he is the [true] God-which was in Jerusalem (Ezr 1:1-3). Zerubbabel's mission was twofold: To gather the Jews (Ne 1:8,9; 7:5) and to rebuild the temple (Ezr 3:1,2): And it must occur in that day that there will be the root of Jesse [Zerubbabel] that will be standing up as a signal for the peoples [in 538]. To him even the nations will turn inquiringly, and his resting-place must become glorious [the temple will be rebuilt] (...) to acquire the remnant of his people who will remain over from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shinear and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. And he will certainly raise up a signal for the nations and gather the dispersed ones of Israel; and the scattered ones of Judah he will collect together from the four extremities of the earth (Is 11:10-12). The gathering of the dispersed ones would end by a Jubilee: The spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah is upon me [Zerubbabel, according to Zechariah 4:6-14], for the reason that Jehovah has anointed me to tell good news to the meek ones. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to those taken captive [in 518/517 a Jubilee will put an end to the desolation] and the wide opening [of the eyes] even to the prisoners (...) And they must rebuild the long-standing devastated places; they will raise up even the desolated places of former times, and they will certainly make anew the devastated cities, the places desolate (Is 61:1-4). According to the Gospels, Zerubbabel's mission foretold in details Jesus' one. We read in Luke that Jesus proclaimed a year of liberation to come (Lk 4:18), and John reports that this liberation (Jubilee year) was to exceed a traditional Jubilee (Jn 8:36). This year of liberation is linked to Jesus' death in 33 CE (Rm 8:2), which marked a Jubilee252. The Biblical chronology, based on Jubilee cycles, then is independent from other chronologies. The Bible has a "messianic calendar253" which relies on the regular succession of sabbatical and Jubilee years. Though this system was very old (Lv 26:33-35), it was but scarcely observed. The very reason for the 70-year deportation was precisely the breaking of the sabbatical years (2Ch 36:21). And the liberation that happened after Babylon's destruction in 539 BCE, when the 70-year Babylonian domination [609-539] was over, is associated with Daniel's 70 weeks messianic prophecy. Some testimonies attest that the sabbatical years system was partly observed, as well as the exemption from certain debts. Some scholars have tried to reconstitute this calendar254. According to the biblical text, the 7th year is a sabbatical one (Ex 23:10,11), and the 50th year (Lv 25:8-11) is a Jubilee year. Some recent Jewish authorities include the Jubilee in the 49th year, but the Talmud255 and the biblical text show that the Jubilee was the 50th year. Though they were not observed, Jubilees were counted. However, in the 2nd century before C.E. some Jewish mystics suggested that the liturgical calendar based on observation be replaced by a theological calendar based on computation. For example, we read in the

252 The jubilee of 133 CE is well attested (J. FINEGAN - Handbook of Biblical Chronology, 1999 Hendrickson pp. 125-126). 253 J.-F. LEFEBVRE - Le jubilé biblique Göttingen 2003 Éd. Universitaires Fribourg pp. 77,85. 254 J. FINEGAN - Handbook of Biblical Chronology pp. 126-130 255 R. SAMUEL – Le livre des 613 commandements Paris 1974 Éd. C.L.K.H 253-256.


Book of Jubilees (written c. 160 BCE) that Jubilees were to last 49 years and that the year was to be 364-day long (Book of Jubilees VI:30-38). The Book of Enoch (c. 100-50 BCE) divides each year into four 3-month seasons, the 3 months being respectively 30, 30 and 31 days long; and it specifies that such year was 10 days longer than the 354-day lunar year (Book of Henoch LXXIV:10-LXXII:6). These mystic calendars256, dissociated from observation, influenced Qumran Essenes. Anyway, in the 1st century, the Jubilee was generally considered as a 50-year period. Philo of Alexandria (De specialibus legibus II:110-117) explained (c. 30 CE) the reasons for a 50-year Jubilee, and Josephus wrote (c. 95 CE): They should do the same after 7 times 7 years, which in all are 50 years; and that 50th year is called by the Hebrews The Jubilee, wherein debtors are freed from their debts, and slaves are set at liberty; which slaves became such, though they were of the same stock, by transgressing some of those laws the punishment of which was not capital, but they were punished by this method of slavery. This year also restores the land to its former possessors in the manner following: When the Jubilee is come, which name denotes liberty (Jewish antiquities III:281-283). The counting of Jubilees became controversial in 130 CE, when a Talmud commentary (Nedarim 61a) related two different ways of counting the Jubilees: either every 49 or every 50 years. The Jews were influenced by Babylonian chronology, since, according to tradition, the counting of Jubilees started again in Ezra time, in Artaxerxes' 7th year (458/457). The "freedom" year celebrated by Bar Kokhba thus fell in 131/132 if we go by 49-year Jubilees, but in 143/144 if we go by 50-year Jubilees. Indeed, if Artaxerxes' 7th year is dated to 468/467, Bar Kokhba's Jubilee did fall in 133/134. The year of debts "remission" (shemitah in Hebrew) might point to the sabbatical year (Dt 15:1), but its exceptional "release (Dt 15:12)" aspect makes it apply only to the Jubilee year, also called a "year of liberty" for captives (Lv 25:10). In actual practice, regarding fallowing land and debts remission (returning of land possessions does not seem to have ever been applied), the Jubilee year looked the same as a second sabbatical year. It is possible to reconstitute this calendar from historical and archaeological evidence. As a religious calendar, it starts on 1st Nisan. Only after the exile we can find a civil year beginning on 1st Tishri, like surrounding nations, year ending with the harvest (Ex 23:16); but the biblical calendar was still beginning on 1st Nisan (Ex 12:2). Even if the passages of Nehemiah 1:1 and 2:1 caused much ink to flow, the beginning of the year still was Nisan, since Nehemiah first mentioned Kislev of the 20th year (after he came in Susa), then Nisan of Artaxerxes' 20th year. He further mentioned a 7th month (Ne 7:73) duly counted from Nisan (Ne 8:17,18). Sabbatical years and Jubilees also began in Nisan. The Talmud is less clear on this point, as this question was a theoretical rather than practical matter257. According to Jerome, the Bar Kokhba revolt took place over a period which may be dated from December 131 to September 135 CE: 3 years and 6 months are accounted for in Hadrian's reign, when Jerusalem was completely destroyed and the Jewish nation was massacred in large groups at a time, with the result that they were even expelled from the borders of Judaea (Commentary on Daniel 9:27). During this period the Jews minted coins258, the first one dated year 1 for the redemption of Israel (132 CE) then, year 2 for the freedom of Israel (133 CE):

256 U. GLESSMER – Calendars in the Qumran Scrolls in: The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty years Vol. II (1999 Leiden), pp. 213-237. 257 The Jerusalem Talmud (Rosh Hashana III:4) notes that Tishri is spoken of as the 7th month of the Jubilee (Lv 25:9), which means that the first month was Nisan. Moreover, if the Jubilee year had begun in Tishri, it would have been on the 10th day, and so the 9 first days would not belong to any year. According to Leviticus, the day chosen for sanctifying the Jubilee year was the day of the liberation of slaves, the Yom Kippur (Lv 23:27). The problem of knowing whether a debt could be cancelled in the case of a cow that had been bought at the end of the sabbatical year on a doubled month (necessarily Adar) and had been cut up early the next year show that the sabbatical year ended in Adar and began in Nisan (Shebiith X:2). The Jubilee year began on 1st Nisan but was celebrated on 10th Tishri. 258 D. HENDIN – Guide to Biblical Coins New York 2001 Ed. Amphora pp. 273-302.


Jerusalem Year 1 for the redemption of Israel Jerusalem Year 2 for the freedom of Israel

According to Dio Cassius (Roman History LXIX:12-15), the Jews revolted shortly after Hadrian passing on his second visit (August 131), when he decided to transform the city of Jerusalem into Colonia Aelia Capitolina. Eusebius, in his Chronicle, dated the suppression of the revolt in the 16th year of Hadrian (which started on 8 August), in agreement with the archives of the house of Babatha which stop on 19 August 132 (last document dated consuls Gaius Serrius Augurinus and Publius Trebius Sergianus 14 days before the Kalends of September)259. The war reached its climax the 18th year of Hadrian in 134 (Ecclesiastical History IV:6:3). The last document from the revolt260 is dated 21 Tishri, 4th year of the liberation of Israel (October 135). The 1st year of redemption ( ) therefore began around April 132 and the 2nd year of freedom ( ) around April 133. The Bar Kokhba war was conducted primarily to achieve a religious release rather than a political revolt for at least three reasons: 1) the coins minted during the revolt were not dated to his reign, there are no coins of year 3 and 4 of Simon261, 2) the Jerusalem Talmud (Taanit 68d) reports that the famous Rabbi Akiba applied to Bar Kokhba the messianic prophecy of the Star rising from Jacob (Nb 24:17), the name of Bar Kosiba was also been changed to Bar Kokhba "son of the star" to match the prophecy and 3) the first coin was minted commemorating the "redemption of Israel", characterizing the buyout of the sabbatical year. A receipt also evokes this religious year: On the 20th of Shebat, Year 2 of the redemption of Israel by Simeon ben Kosiba, Prince of Israel, in the encampment situated at Herodium, Judah ben Baba said to Hillel ben Garis, "I of my own free will have subleased over to your jurisdiction on a sharecropping basis, this day, the land that is in my landholding which I leased on a sharecropping basis from Simeon Prince of Israel. This land have I subleased over to your jurisdiction from this day until the end of the eve of the release, which are full years, fiscal years 5. (This is) the rent which I shall pay to you at Herodium262. The 20th of Shebat (month X) Year 2 (February 134 CE) matches the end of the Jubilee year. The normal sabbatical cycle of 7 years has 6 fiscal years but the 7th cycle (Jubilee) has only 5 fiscal years (= 7 years of the cycle - [1 sabbatical year + 1 jubilee year]). Some evidence shows that the system of sabbatical and jubilee years was partially observed (as exemption of certain payments) which enables to reconstruct this calendar. According to the biblical text, the 7th year is a sabbatical year (Ex 23:10-11) and the 50th year is a Jubilee year (Lv 25:8-11). Some recent Jewish authorities include the Jubilee in the 49th year, but the Talmud263 and the Bible show that the jubilee year was the 50th. Even unobserved, jubilees were numbered. However, from the 2nd century BCE, some mystical Jews proposed to replace the liturgical calendar based on observations by a theological

259 Y. YADIN – Guide to Biblical Coins Jerusalem 1989, Ed. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem pp. 28-29,116-117. 260 E. SCHÜRER – The History of the Jewish people in the age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.-A.D. 135) Edinburgh 1987 Ed. T. & T. Clark LTD pp. 535-557. 261 J. MALTIEL-GERSTENFELD – 260 Years of Ancient Jewish Coins Tel Aviv 1982, Ed. Kol Printing Service Ltd pp. 200-227. 262 J. FINEGAN - Handbook of Biblical Chronology Massachusetts 1999, Ed. Hendrickson Publishers pp. 125-130. J.A. FITZMYER – The Semitic Background of the New Testament Michigan 1997, Ed. Eerdmans Publishing pp. 325-330. 263 R. SAMUEL – le livre des 613 commandements Paris 1974 Éd. C.L.K.H 253-256.


calendar based on calculations264. We read, for example, in the Book of Jubilees (c. 160 BCE) that the jubilee should be 49 years and a year had to last 364 days (Book of Jubilees VI:30-38). The Book of Enoch (c. 100-50 BCE) divides the year into 4 regular seasons of 3 months respectively of 30, 30 and 31 days, indicating that this year was 10 days longer than the lunar year of 354 days (Book of Enoch LXXIV:10-LXXII:6). These mystical calendars, unrelated to observation, influenced the Essenes of Qumran265. However, in the 1st century, the majority opinion saw the jubilee as a period of 50 years. Philo (De specialibus legibus II:110-117) for example explained (c. 30 CE) the reasons a Jubilee lasts 50 years and Josephus wrote (c. 95 CE): He ordained, that they should do the same after 7 times 7 years, which in all are 50 years; and that 50th year is called by the Hebrews The Jubilee, wherein debtors are freed from their debts, and slaves are set at liberty; which slaves became such, though they were of the same stock, by transgressing some of those laws the punishment of which was not capital, but they were punished by this method of slavery. This year also restores the land to its former possessors in the manner following: - When the Jubilee is come, which name denotes liberty (Jewish Antiquities III:281-283). Consequently, the Year 1 of Bar Kokhba revolt was a sabbatical year (from April 132 to March 133 CE) and Year 2 was a Jubilee year (from April 133 to March 134 CE):

year month [A] [B] [C] 131 8 V 15 [48] [A] reign of Hadrian

[C] No of year within the Sabbatical cycle 9 VI 10 VII 11 VIII 12 IX 0 [B] Bar-Kokhba revolt

132 1 X 2 XI 3 XII 4 I 1 [49] Year 1 for the redemption of Israel

[C] Sabbatical year Quintus Tineius Rufus governor of Judaea G. Q. Certus Publicius Marcellus governor of Syria

5 II 6 III 7 IV 8 V 16 9 VI 10 VII 11 VIII 12 IX

133 1 X 2 XI 3 XII 4 I 2 [50] Year 2 for the freedom of Israel

[C] Jubilee year 5 II 6 III 7 IV 8 V 17 9 VI Eleutheropolis reconquered by the Romans 10 VII 11 VIII 12 IX

134 1 X 2 XI Jerusalem reconquered by the Romans 3 XII 4 I 3 [1] For the Freedom of Israel 5 II 6 III 7 IV 8 V 18 9 VI 10 VII 11 VIII 12 IX

135 1 X 2 XI 3 XII

264 The Jewish calendar remained based on the observation of the new moon until at least 358 CE (early cycle of Hillel II). 265 U. GLESSMER – Calendars in the Qumran Scrolls in: The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty years Vol. II. 1999 Leiden pp. 213-237.


4 I 4 [2] For the Freedom of Israel G. M. F. Sextus Iulius Severus governor of Palestine

5 II 6 III 7 IV 8 V 19 Death of Bar Kochba in Bethar 9 VI 10 VII Papyrus Mur 30,8 dated 21 Tishri year 4 of the freedom of Israel 11 VIII 12 IX

Counting the jubilees became controversial, however, from 135 CE. According to a comment from the Talmud (Nedarim 61a), the 50th year of Jubilee was to be counted as the first of the next cycle. It is possible that Babylonian chronology influenced the Jews because, according to tradition, the count of jubilees started with Ezra at the 7th year of Artaxerxes (dated 458/457 in the Babylonian king lists). The year of "freedom" celebrated by Bar Kokhba fell therefore in 131/132, according to the reckoning with jubilees of 49 years, but 143/144 with biblical jubilees of 50 years. In fact, if the 7th year of Artaxerxes is correctly dated in 468/467 the jubilee of Bar Kokhba fell actually 133/134. The year of "release (shemitah in Hebrew)" of debts may designate a sabbatical year, but with its unique aspect of "liberation" this term applies only to the Jubilee Year which is also described as "year of liberation" of captives (Dt 15:1,12, Lv 25:10). In practice, the set-aside of land and the release of debts (restitution of properties was never applied), the jubilee year was like a doubled sabbatical year. In fact, jubilee year began on 1st Nisan, but was celebrated on 10 Tishri that year. Sabbatical and Jubilee years attested historically: Ø After the Bar Kokhba revolt, sabbatical years (release) were counted but no a longer year

of liberation (Jubilee) as can be seen from the dates on some tombstones: 10 of month Shebat, the 3rd year of the sabbatical cycle, year 346 of the destruction of the Temple (415/416), 1st of month of Marheshwan, the 1st year of the release, year 364 of the destruction of the Temple (433/434), 3 of Adar, 7th year of the release, year 385 of the destruction of the Temple (454/455), 3 of Kislev, the 5th year of the sabbatical cycle, year 390 the destruction of the Temple (459/460)266. The destruction of the Temple in 70 CE being dated 9 Ab (5th month), year 1 of the destruction of the Temple is from 1 Tishri (7th month) 69 CE to 1 Tishri 70 CE, and year 346 ran from 1 Tishri 415 to 1 Tishri 416. As year 433 is not mentioned as a Jubilee, counting jubilees (of 50 years) seems to have ceased after 134 CE.

Ø 132/133, 133/134 CE -A contract dated to Bar Kokhba time (papyrus Mur 24 E) mentions a Jubilee year: 20th Shevat year 2 of the redemption of Israel by Shimeon ben Kosba, prince of Israel (...) This land I rented it to you from this day until the end of the eve of the release, which are full years, fiscal years five. The 20th Shevat of year 2 corresponds to February 134 CE. The Jubilee year then ended in March/April (Nisan) 134 CE. The contract was to expire at the next sabbatical year, 5 years later, that is in 139/140. Then year 132/133, which preceded the Jubilee year, was indeed a sabbatical year267.

Ø 68/69 CE -According to the Talmud (Taanith 29a), Jerusalem’s temple was destroyed the year after a sabbatical year. The reckoning of years after the destruction of the temple is peculiar because this "one year after the destruction [of the Temple]" was from 9 Ab (5 August 70) to 1 Tishri (25 September 70), Year 2 was up to the next 1 Tishri (13 October 71). This "year 1" corresponding to the year 69/70 with a beginning on 1st Nisan, the previous year was therefore 68/69 CE.

266 Y. WILFAND – Aramaic Tomstones from Zoar and Jewish Conceptions of the Afterlife in: Journal for the Study of Judaism 40 (2009) pp. 510-539. B.Z. WATCHOLDER - The Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles During the Second Temple and the Early Rabbinic Period in: Hebrew Union College Annual 44 (1973) pp. 169-171, 182-183. 267 J. FINEGAN - Handbook of Biblical Chronology Massachusetts 1999 Ed. Hendrickson Publishers pp. 116-130


Ø 54/55 CE -A papyrus from Murabbaat, dated to Nero's 2nd year (13 October 55 to 12 October 56 CE) mentions a sabbatical year268 that was in progress in 55, it was then year 54/55 CE (if counted from Tishri to Tishri).

Ø 40/41 CE -The Mishna (Sotah 7:8) relates that King Agrippa I read passages of Deuteronomy in the synagogue on the 1st day of Sukkoth festival, on the 8th year, at the end of the sabbatical year. This event could only have occurred when Agrippa began to rule over Judea after having been appointed by emperor Claudius (41-54), that is in 41. The 8th year being 41/42, the preceding sabbatical year was 40/41 CE.

Ø 33/34 CE -At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus preached a year of release to come (Lk 4:18), and he specified that it (Jubilee year) would be greater than that of a traditional Jubilee (Jn 8:36). This year of release is linked to his death (Rm 8:2) on 14th Nisan 33 CE which then marked the start of a Jubilee. As the Jews no longer observed sabbatical and Jubilee years, the New Testament does not mention it. However it can be noted that Jesus began preaching to large crowds only on 1st Nisan 32, which marked the start of the sabbatical year (Jn 6:1-10), and that the colt borrowed in Nisan 33 (Mk 11:3) was not paid for according to buying practices of the Jubilee year (Lv 25:13-16).

Ø 40/39 BCE -According to Josephus (Jewish antiquities 14:16:2-4), Herod was appointed as king by Rome (around winter 40/39)269 and began besieging Jerusalem during the spring of a sabbatical year. Herod conquered the city in 37, but the spring in question refers to the beginning of the campaign, that is 40/39 and not 37 BCE.

Ø 133/132 -According to the Book of Maccabees, Simon went to Jericho in 177 SE, in the 11th month (Shebat), and was killed with his two sons by Ptolemy (1M 16:14-16). Josephus specifies that this happened during a sabbatical year (Jewish Antiquities 13:8:1,2) which he dated to the 162nd Olympiad (132 BCE). Since the Seleucid Era started in April 311 BCE, the year 177 SE corresponds to 133 BCE, and the sabbatical year was 133/132.

Ø 161/160 -According to the Book of Maccabees (1M 6:20,49), the siege of Bethsur began in 150 SE during a sabbatical year. The year 150 SE ended April 161 BCE, and the sabbatical year was 161/160 (if counted from Tishri to Tishri).

Ø 331/332 -Josephus (Jewish Antiquities 11:8:4-5) says that when Alexander besieged Tyre, he requested the high-priest Yaddus to pay him the tribute formerly paid to Darius III. Because Yaddus explained it was then the 7th year (sabbatical year), the Jews were exempted. As the siege of Tyre ended approximately in June/July 332270 BCE and since it began 7 months earlier according to Josephus (i.e. in November/December 333), the 7th year should have begun toward March/April (Nisan) 333 BCE.

Ø 454/453 -Nehemia's text (Ne 10:31) mentions a 7th sabbatical year that would have taken place after Artaxerxes' 20th year (Ne 2:1), when Jerusalem walls were rebuilt and the Festival of Booths on the 7th month was celebrated (Ne 8:14). This sabbatical year would be dated to Artaxerxes' 21st year.

Ø 468/467 -Ezra's text (Ezr 7:24) tells about a tax exemption on Artaxerxes' 7th year (Ezr 7:1-8), the year captives were released (Ezr 8:35). On this ground, Jewish authorities agree that Jubilees must be counted again from that date.

Ø 518/517 -Since the Jubilee cycle was in relation with the worship organized from the temple, it seems logical to have this calendar begin with the dedication of the temple.

268 B.Z. WATCHOLDER - The Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles During the Second Temple and the Early Rabbinic Period in: Hebrew Union College Annual 44 (1973) pp. 169-171. 269 C. SAULNIER - Histoire d'Israël Paris 1985 Éd. cerf p. 195 270 M. SARTRE - D'Alexandrie à Zénobie. Histoire du Levant antique Paris 2001 Éd. Fayard pp. 74-79


Zechariah's text specifies that God approved the temple in Darius I's 4th year (Zk 7:1,5,14, 8:9-19), that is in 518/517.

Ø 588/587 -Jubilee (not celebrated), dated the 10th year of Zedekiah (Jr 32:1). It was a jubilee (violated) because it referred to "proclaim liberty" and was preceded by a sabbatical year (Jr 34:8,14-17)" in the 9th year of Zedekiah (Jr 39:1, 34:7).

Though Jubilees were not observed, they are attested in two ways: either by the specific phrase "to proclaim liberty" which was not used in relation with the sabbatical year, or by the indication of two successive sabbatical years. For example, in the Murabbaat papyrus, the year of redemption ( ), i.e. the sabbatical year, is followed by the year of liberty ( ), i.e. the Jubilee year271.

Cycle Year Year of the rebellion Theme of the coin Biblical year name 49 132/133 1 Year of redemption Sabbatical year 50 133/134 2 Year of liberty Jubilee year

The length of a Jubilee can be estimated from biblical periods: The 1st Jubilee cycle began after the entrance in the Promised Land (1488 BCE) and ended in Zedekiah's 10th year (588 BCE). This period lasted exactly 900 years, i.e. 18 x 50-year Jubilees. Between the sabbatical year of 133 BCE and the one of 161 BCE, there are 28 years, that is 4 sabbatical years (4 x 7-year periods). Between the sabbatical year of 333 BCE and the one of 133 BCE, there are 200 years, that is 4 x 50-year Jubilees. A 49-year Jubilee cycle (even with a maximum error of 2 years when the beginning at Tishri or Nisan is unknown) makes no sense, since the 200-year span = 28 x 7-year periods + 4 years. Along the same lines, there are 172 years (= 4x50 - 4x7) between the sabbatical year of 40 BCE and the one of 133 CE Given that 172 years = 24 x 7-year periods + 4 years, this 4-year gap exceeds the possible 2-year error. The dates of the Jubilees then can be fixed as follows:

X = (Jubilee number) 0 1 11 13 Y = (date) -517* -467* 33 133

These dates can be calculated with the equation Y = aX + b, where a = 50 and b = -517* (=518 BCE). The length of a Jubilee then is 50 years and the date of the first one in Artaxerxes I's 7th year is 468 BCE and not 458 BCE. According to this calendar, since the first Jubilee started in Artaxerxes' 7th year and the Messiah was to appear 483 years after Artaxerxes' 20th year (20 - 7 = 13th year of his reign), the Messiah announced by Daniel was to appear 4 years before the end of the 11th Jubilee. Eusebius already noticed this coincidence in his Chronicle. He wrote that Jesus began his ministry in Olympiad 202:1 (29 CE), this year corresponding to the 81st Jubilee in Hebrews' tradition. Eusebius also dated the 71st Jubilee to 472/471 and remarked that between those two dates there was a 500-year span equivalent to 10 Jubilees272. Even if historical testimonies about Jubilees are not numerous, they confirm that the Jubilee cycle was 50-year long. Biblical testimonies on Jubilees also are scarce (because Jubilees were only counted), but they give some important chronological markers. The words "on the 7th year" indicates a sabbatical year, and the words "year to proclaim liberty" indicates a Jubilee year. Ø 1488 BCE Beginning of the Jubilee cycle, according to the Leviticus text: When you

eventually come into the land that I am giving you, then the land must observe a sabbath (Lv 25:2). The Israelites were given the land by Joshua after a 5-year conquest (Jos 11:23; 14:7,10). Scholars273 noticed that the biblical Jubilee is associated to a process: "God brings out to

271 D. HENDIN - Guide to Biblical Coins New York 2001 Ed. Amphora pp. 283-302. 272 EUSÈBE - S. Hieronymi interpretatio chronicæ Eusebii pamphili Paris 1846 Éd. Migne Patrologiæ Latina XXVII pp. 438-442, 570-574. 273 J.-F. LEFEBVRE - Le jubilé biblique Göttingen 2003 Éd. Universitaires Fribourg pp. 369,370.


give something." God brought the Israelites out of Egypt to give them a land, in the same manner that He brought Abraham out of Ur to give him an heir (Isaac) who was to take possession of the gate of his enemies (Gn 22:17).

Ø 588 BCE Non-celebrated Jubilee dated to Zedekiah's 10th year (Jr 32:1). It was a true Jubilee since the very Jubilee prescription to "proclaim liberty" had been broken. This Jubilee had been preceded by a sabbatical year the 7th year (Jr 34:8,14-17) in Zedekiah's 9th year (Jr 39;1; 34:7).

Ø 538 BCE Liberation (in a political sense) from Babylon under the leadership of Zerubbabel, who was appointed as governor in Cyrus' 1st year (Ezr 1:1,4) to restore the temple and gather other captives disseminated in Egypt, Assyria, etc. End of the first Jubilee cycle.

Ø 518 BCE Liberation (in a religious sense) under the leadership of high-priest Joshua in Darius' 4th year (Zk 7:1), after a 70-year period without worship (Zk 7:4; 8:9,15). Joshua seemingly accomplished Isaiah's promise to "proclaim liberty (Is 61:2)". This release inaugurated a new Jubilee cycle.

Ø 468 BCE Ezra's text mentions a tax exemption (Ezr 7:24) and a release of captives (Ezr 8:35) in Artaxerxes' 7th year (Ezr 7:1-8).

Ø 33 CE Jesus applies to himself Isaiah's promise to "preach a release to the captives (Lk 4:18)". This Jubilee release is associated with Jesus' death (Gal 5:1) and is told to be greater than the release of a traditional Jubilee (Jn 8:36).

According to the present chronology, Artaxerxes I would have begun to reign from 465 BCE and 20 years later (in 445 BCE) Nehemiah was authorized to begin work (Ne 2:1-8), the starting point of the prophecy. In fact, the current Achaemenid chronology is wrong because Artaxerxes I began to reign from 475 BCE and not 465 (see Dating the Reign of Xerxes and Artaxerxes). This chronological error is the cause of countless debates about this famous prophecy274. Chronology of events275:

Julian date (BCE) Event and dating Reference May? 538 Order to rebuild the Temple by Cyrus the 1st year of his reign. Ezr 1:1-2

October 538 All the people gathered in Jerusalem on the 7th month of the year. Ezr 3:1 May 537 Beginning of the rebuilding of the Temple, the 2nd year of arrival. Ezr 3:8-10

March-November 522 Samaritans' opposition who write to Artaxerxes [Bardiya]. Ezr 4:7-23 12 March 515 Temple completed (outside) at the end of the year 6 of Darius I. Ezr 6:15

485/484 Attempted genocide against the Jews shortly after the death of Darius I, dated in year 12 of Xerxes (Esther 3:7).

Ezr 4:5-6

April 468 An order to beautify the Temple (inside) in the year 7 of Artaxerxes I. Ezr 7:8,20 April 455 The order to rebuild Jerusalem is read to Nehemiah in the year 20. Neh 2:1-8

2 August 455 The order to rebuild Jerusalem is read to the Jewish leaders (3 Ab). Ne 2:16-18 22 September 455 Walls of Jerusalem completed in 52 days on 25 Elul. Ne 6:15 28 September 455 The Law of Moses is read to the people likely on 1st Tishri. Ne 8:1-2

[26 September] 406 City of Jerusalem completed (inauguration) at the end of Darius II. Ne 12:22-43

According to this chronological reconstruction, the people, or the multitude of Jews at the time, heard the order to rebuild Jerusalem on the 1st Tishri 455 BCE, the starting point of the Messianic prophecy of the 70 weeks of years. By adding the 69 weeks of years, or 483 years, the last week of years of the alliance (the 70th) covers a period from the 1st Tishri 29 CE (= 483 – 455 + 1) to the 1st Tishri 36 CE (= 490 – 455 + 1), and half of that last week (7/2 = 3.5 years) therefore falls on April 33 CE (= 29 + 3.5). It is possible to determine

274 L. BIGOT - Les 70 semaines de Daniel Paris 1911 Éd. Letouzey & Ané in: Dictionnaire de théologie catholique tome VI.1 pp. 75-103. 275 L. PIROT, A. CLAMER – La Sainte Bible Tome IV Paris 1949 Éd. Letouzey et Ané pp. 305-310.


exact matching dates thanks to astronomy, knowing that the 1st Tishri corresponds to the 1st visible crescent (new moon = + 1) after the autumnal equinox276:

Year Jewish calendar Astronomical event Julian calendar Day number 29 CE Spring equinox Sunday 25 September

New moon Monday 26 September 0000 1st Tishri 1st crescent Tuesday 27 September 0001

33 CE [14 Nisan] [Full moon] Friday 3 April 1284 36 CE Autumn equinox Monday 24 September 2554

New moon Monday 8 October 2568 1st Tishri 1st crescent Tuesday 9 October 2569

Since the Messiah was cut off the middle of the last week which lasted 7 years (= 7x12 + 3 lunar months = 87x29.530588 days = 2569 days), the date indicating when he was cut off is the 1284th day (= 2569/2) because that day is half of this week. The date is therefore Friday 3 April 33 CE, which corresponds to the death of Jesus (14 Nisan 33). Was Jesus baptized on 1st Tishri 29 CE? The answer is no for the three following reasons: Ø If Jesus had been baptized on 1 Tishri, he could not have attended the feast of Yom

Kippur on 10 Tishri and the Feast of Tabernacles from 15 to 21 Tishri (Nb 29:12) since he spent 40 days in the desert immediately after his baptism (Mt 3:16-4:2). Because Jesus is presented as a devout Jew (who was observing Jewish law strictly) so it would be illogical to accept that he could violate an obligation so paramount of the Jewish law.

Ø The 1st Tishri 29, Jesus was exactly 30 years old. But as Luke chose to write "about 30 years", that implied that Jesus was not exactly this age (Lk 3:23). Luke is usually more accurate than the other evangelists277.

Ø The Messiah would had to appear exactly when the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was pronounced, yet this word had not been issued on 1st Tishri but almost two months earlier when this order to rebuild Jerusalem was read by Nehemiah to the Jewish leaders on 3 Ab. The Messiah therefore had to appear on 3 Ab 29 CE (Monday 1er August) which is the baptism date of Jesus. At that time Jesus' age was 29 years and 10 months and it was in the 15th year of Tiberius rule (from 19 August 28 CE to 18 August 29 CE).

Ø The duration of 52 days (Ne 6:15) is not accidental because the sanctuary “the Most Holy of the temple” had to be rebuilt in 3 days according to John 2:19-22 and the Temple, represented by the church anointed by the Holy Spirit, according to Ephesians 2:20-22, had to appear at Pentecost (Ac 2:1-4) 52 days after the 14th of Nisan (Lv 23:15-16), the day when occurred the “demolition of the sanctuary” represented by the body of Jesus. Pentecost of 33 CE is dated 6 Siwan (Sunday 24 May 33 CE). The text of Daniel thus heralded the appearance of the Messiah on Monday 1st August 29 CE and his death on Friday 3 April 33 CE. The 70th week of years started on Tuesday 27 September 29 CE when Jesus was exactly 30. This coincidence is not accidental because the Gospel texts give Jesus a role of high priest (Hb 3:1, 7:26, 8:1) and this important character began to officiate as a priest only from 30 years old (Nb 4:3, 1 Ch 23:3). The alliance with the multitude of Jews ended on 1st Tishri 36 CE (Tuesday 9 October) marked by the conversion of the centurion Cornelius (Ac 10:30). All these prophetic events occurred at exactly 3:00 p.m., the hour of prayer (Ac 3:1). Chronological details

276 http://www.imcce.fr/fr/grandpublic/temps/saisons.php http://www.imcce.fr/fr/grandpublic/phenomenes/phases_lune/index.php http://pagesperso-orange.fr/pgj/julien.htm 277 He uses 14 times the term ὡσεί "about" in his writings, but only 6 times for all the other writers of the New Testament: about the 6th hour (Luke 23:44), whereas it is only the 6th hour in Marc. This difference is not systematic, as Marc says: about 4000 men (Mark 15:33; 8:9), while Matthew mentions merely a simple: 4000 men (Matthew 15:38). Luke writes: about the 6th hour in Acts when he implies the word "about" in another place (Acts 10:3, 3:1).


are frequent in the Bible and those concerning the conversion of Cornelius may be used to verify the date of the 1st Tishri 36 CE. As the 1st Tishri 36 CE matches on Tuesday 9 October 36 CE, the day of the conversion of Cornelius278, the 4th day earlier (not 3rd)279 when this officer was praying had to be a Saturday (the Sabbath) at the hour of the prayer (Ac 3:1).

The messianic prophecy of Daniel gives a precise chronology that exactly matches the important events of Jesus' life. Furthermore this prophecy makes a strong link between the destruction of the Messiah, the sanctuary (Most Holy), the Temple and Jerusalem. Likewise the Gospels quote the prophecy of Daniel announcing the destruction of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem (Mt 24:15-22) by the Roman armies (Lk 19:43-44, 21:20-24). Chronological parallel between the rebuilt Jerusalem by Nehemiah and the Jerusalem above of Messianic Christians (Ga 4:24-26) during the 70th week (29-36 CE):

Julian date (CE) Event and dating Reference 3 April 29 Beginning of the religious year on 1st Nisan

1st August 29 The order to build “the Jerusalem above” is read to Messiah the Leader on 3 Ab. The sanctuary of sanctuaries is anointed (Lk 3:1,21-23; 4:1-2).

Dn 9:24-25

22 September 29 The Jerusalem above (Gal 4:24-26) is completed in 52 days on 25 Elul. 27 September 29 The order to build “the Jerusalem above” is read to the multitude of Jews

on 1st Tishri, who entered into the covenant of the Kingdom (Heb. 8:6). Dn 9:27

3 April 33 The Messiah is cut off with nothing for himself in half of the last week of 7 years, on 14 Nisan (Jesus death). Sacrifices cease (Heb. 10:2-14).

Dn 9:26-27

9 October 36 The covenant is kept for the multitude for 7 years (until 1st Tishri). Dn 9:27 30 August 70 The wing of disgusting things (Roman armies) had to cause desolation

burning the Temple, on 9 ab (War of the Jews VI:249-250). Dn 9:27

28 September 70 Extermination upon Jerusalem, on 7 Elul (War of the Jews VI:435). Dn 9:27

As we can see Daniel's prophecy was fulfilled to the letter by Jesus' life: his ministry began exactly on 1st Tishri of the “70th week” (22 September 29 CE) and he died exactly in “half of that year” (Friday 3 April 33 CE), so why were the Jews of the first century not able to recognize it? There were at least four main reasons: Ø The Jubilees every 50 years were not observed anymore by the priests of the Temple

(ruled by the Sadducees) but just counted (by the Pharisees). Ø The 20th year of Artaxerxes I's reign was dated 465 BCE by all Greek historians of that

time, instead of 475 according to the Jubilee calendar initialized by Ezra in 468 BCE. Ø At that time the Messiah was believed to appear in order to perform the Messianic era in

restoring the kingdom (Ac 1:6), consequently the expression “And after the 62 weeks [of years] Messiah will be cut off, with nothing for himself” was absolutely incomprehensible.

Ø In the first century the Jews were expecting two messiahs (Lk 7:19): a royal messiah "son of David (tribe of Judah)" and a priestly messiah (tribe of Levi).

It is noteworthy that the first disciples of Jesus, who recognized him as the Messiah (Jn 1:41), understood very poorly the messianic prophecies, especially their chronological calculations (Lk 3:15). However Daniel's prophecy of chapter 9 which is very precise chronologically was supplemented by some additional time information: I then said, My lord, what is to be the outcome? (...) those who are wise will understand. From the moment that the perpetual sacrifice is abolished and the appalling abomination set up: 1290 days. Blessed is he who perseveres and

278 Now in Caesarea there was a certain man named Cornelius, an army officer of the Italian band, as it was called, a devout man and one fearing God together with all his household, and he made many gifts of mercy to the people and made supplication to God continually. Just about the 9th hour of the day he saw plainly in a vision an angel of God come in to him and say to him: Cornelius! (...) Cornelius said: 4 days ago counting from this hour I was praying in my house at the 9th hour, when, look! a man in bright raiment stood before me and said: Cornelius, your prayer has been favourably heard and your gifts of mercy have been remembered before God (Ac 10:1-3,30). 279 B.M. METZGER – A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament Stuttgart 1989, Ed. United Bible Societies pp. 375-377.


attains 1335 days (Dn 12:8-12). Both durations are extremely accurate. Although Daniel's prophecy announces the destruction of the Temple by the Roman armies, it mainly concerns the chronology of the Messiah (Talmud Megillah 3a), because the witness of the Messiah is the spirit of prophecy (Talmud Shabbat 63a, Revelation 19:10). The vision in Daniel 8:11-14 concerns only the time of the End: How long is this vision to be -- of perpetual [sacrifice], of horrifying iniquity, of sanctuary and army trampled underfoot? The first replied: Until 2300 evenings and mornings have gone by: then the sanctuary will have its rights restored, but this vision shows the time of the End (Dn 8:17) the vision of the evenings and the mornings (...) for there are still many days to go (Dn 8:26). The first duration of 1290 days lasts between the moment that the perpetual sacrifice is abolished and the moment the appalling abomination is set up. The perpetual sacrifice had to be abolished when Jesus died (Heb 10:1-14), on Friday 3 April 33 CE. If the wing of the appalling abomination (Dn 9:27) was the Romans armies in 70 CE the appalling abomination alone was in fact a powerful wicked spirit in heavens (Dn 10:13) called Satan (Job 1:6). Immediately after the completion of the Jerusalem above, on 25 Elul 29 CE (Thursday 22 September), Satan was set up to destroy it (Lk 4:1-13). Thus between Thursday 22 September 29 CE and Friday 3 April 33 CE there are exactly 1290 days. Likewise, between the beginning of the covenant of the Kingdom, on 1st Tishri 29 CE (Tuesday 27 September), and its validation by God (Heb 9:23-28) at Pentecost (Ac 2:1-18), on 6 Siwan 33 CE (Sunday 24 May). Thus between Tuesday 27 September 29 CE and Sunday 24 May 33 CE there are 1335 days. Chronology of main prophetical events over the period 29-33:

Jul. 29 30 1 Ab Saturday 31 2 Sunday

Aug. 29 1 3 Monday 1 Baptism of Jesus as Messiah [the] Leader (Lk 3:1,21-23; 4:1-2). 2 4 Tuesday 2 The order to build [the] Jerusalem [above] is read to him (Ne 2:16-18). 3 5 Wednesday 3 4 6 Thursday 4 5 7 Friday 5 6 8 Saturday 6 7 9 Sunday 7 8 10 Monday 8 9 11 Tuesday 9

10 12 Wednesday 10 11 13 Thursday 11 12 14 Friday 12 13 15 Saturday 13 14 16 Sunday 14 15 17 Monday 15 16 18 Tuesday 16 17 19 Wednesday 17 18 20 Thursday 18 19 21 Friday 19 20 22 Saturday 20 21 23 Sunday 21 22 24 Monday 22 23 25 Tuesday 23 24 26 Wednesday 24 25 27 Thursday 25 26 28 Friday 26 27 29 Saturday 27 28 30 Sunday 28 29 1 Elul Monday 29 30 2 Tuesday 30 31 3 Wednesday 31

Sep. 29 1 4 Thursday 32 2 5 Friday 33 3 6 Saturday 34 4 7 Sunday 35 5 8 Monday 36 6 9 Tuesday 37 7 10 Wednesday 38 8 11 Thursday 39 9 12 Friday 40

10 13 Saturday 41 End of Jesus' temptation by the Devil (Lk 4:1-2).


11 14 Sunday 42 12 15 Monday 43 13 16 Tuesday 44 14 17 Wednesday 45 15 18 Thursday 46 16 19 Friday 47 17 20 Saturday 48 18 21 Sunday 49 19 22 Monday 50 20 23 Tuesday 51 21 24 Wednesday 52 Completion of the walls of the Temple (Ne 6:15). 22 25 Thursday 1 Abomination (Satan) that desolates is set up (Dn 12:11). 23 26 Friday 2 24 27 Saturday 3 Wedding at Cana? (Jn 2:1-2). 25 28 Sunday 4 Spring equinox. 26 29 Monday 5 New moon. 27 1 Tishri Tuesday 6 0 Jesus was 30 years old. Beginning of the 70th and final week of Daniel. 28 2 Wednesday 7 1 Multitude enters into the covenant of the Kingdom (Heb 8:6). 29 3 Thursday 8 2 30 4 Friday 9 3

Oct. 29 1 5 Saturday 10 4 Jesus read the text of Isaiah 61:1 about the Jubilee (Lk 4:16-21). 2 6 Sunday 11 5 3 7 Monday 12 6 4 8 Tuesday 13 7 5 9 Wednesday 14 8 6 10 Thursday 15 9 Yom Kippur (Lv 23:27) 7 11 Friday 16 10 8 12 Saturday 17 11 9 13 Sunday 18 12

10 14 Monday 19 13 11 15 Tuesday 20 14 Festival of Booths (Lv 23:39) 12 16 Wednesday 21 15 13 17 Thursday 22 17 14 18 Friday 23 18 15 19 Saturday 24 19 16 20 Sunday 25 20 17 21 Monday 26 21

Mar. 33 19 28 Adar Thursday 1275 1269

20 29 Friday 1276 1270 21 1 Nisan Saturday 1277 1271 Beginning of Jubilee year 22 2 Sunday 1278 1272 23 3 Monday 1279 1273 24 4 Tuesday 1280 1274 25 5 Wednesday 1281 1275 26 6 Thursday 1283 1276 27 7 Friday 1282 1277 28 8 Saturday 1284 1278 29 9 Sunday 1285 1279 30 10 Monday 1286 1280 31 11 Tuesday 1287 1281

Apr. 33 1 12 Wednesday 1288 1282 2 13 Thursday 1289 1283 3 14 Friday 1 1290 1 1284 The continual [sacrifice] has been removed (Dn 12:11; Heb 10:1-14) 4 15 Saturday 2 2 1285 (Great) Sabbath (Jn 19:31) 5 16 Sunday 3 1 3 1286 Beginning of Pentecost (Lv 23:15-16). 6 17 Monday 2 4 1287 7 18 Tuesday 3 5 1288 8 19 Wednesday 4 6 1289 9 20 Thursday 5 7 1290

10 21 Friday 6 8 1291 11 22 Saturday 7 9 1292 12 23 Sunday 8 10 1293 13 24 Monday 9 11 1294 14 25 Tuesday 10 12 1295 15 26 Wednesday 11 13 1296 16 27 Thursday 12 14 1297 17 28 Friday 13 15 1298 18 29 Saturday 14 16 1299 19 30 Sunday 15 17 1300 20 1 Iyyar Monday 16 18 1301 21 2 Tuesday 17 19 1302 22 3 Wednesday 18 20 1303 23 4 Thursday 19 21 1304


24 5 Friday 20 22 1305 25 6 Saturday 21 23 1306 26 7 Sunday 22 24 1307 27 8 Monday 23 25 1308 28 9 Tuesday 24 26 1309 29 10 Wednesday 25 27 1310 30 11 Thursday 26 28 1311

May 33 1 12 Friday 27 29 1312 2 13 Saturday 28 30 1313 3 14 Sunday 29 31 1314 4 15 Monday 30 32 1315 5 16 Tuesday 31 33 1316 6 17 Wednesday 32 34 1317 7 18 Thursday 33 35 1318 8 19 Friday 34 36 1319 9 20 Saturday 35 37 1320

10 21 Sunday 36 38 1321 11 22 Monday 37 39 1322 12 23 Tuesday 38 40 1323 13 24 Wednesday 39 41 1324 14 25 Thursday 40 42 1325 15 26 Friday 41 43 1326 16 27 Saturday 42 44 1327 17 28 Sunday 43 45 1328 18 29 Monday 44 46 1329 19 1 Sivan Tuesday 45 47 1330 20 2 Wednesday 46 48 1331 21 3 Thursday 47 49 1332 22 4 Friday 48 50 1333 23 5 Saturday 49 51 1334 24 6 Sunday 50 52 1335 The Jerusalem above (Gal 4:24-27) begins at the Pentecost (Ac 2:1,15). 25 7 Monday Happiness of the multitude of Messianic Jews (Dn 12:12). 26 8 Tuesday 27 9 Wednesday 28 10 Thursday 29 11 Friday 30 12 Saturday 31 13 Sunday

Year 33 CE plays therefore an important role in messianic prophecies. As the first prophecy quoted by Jesus was about the "liberty of captives" (Lk 4:1-21), which relied on a Jubilee of 50 years (Lv 25:10), Jubilees calendar allows us to check Bible chronology. The great liberty of captives must be occurring at the end of the last days, the great day of God.

CALCULATION FOR KNOWING WHEN THE LAST DAYS MUST START

The Jews who recognized Jesus as the Messiah were expecting that he was going to reign soon (Jn 6:15), but when he said to them that God's temple was going to be destroyed, they were dumbfounded: In response he said to them: Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, by no means will a stone be left here upon a stone and not be thrown down. While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately, saying: Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things? (Mt 24:1-3). In their mind its three events: the destruction of the Temple, the coming back of Jesus and the end of the Jewish system of things were concomitant, that’s why Jesus' answer focuses obviously on the end of the Jewish system of things, but at the end of his answer he gave some details regarding the end of the world system of things: And when he got nearby, he viewed the city and wept over it, saying: If you, even you, had discerned on this day the things having to do with peace —but now they have been hidden from your eyes. Because the days will come upon you when your enemies will build around you a fortification of pointed stakes and will encircle you and besiege you from every side. They will dash you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave a stone upon a stone in you, because you did not discern the time of your being inspected (...) Then he said to them: Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another food shortages and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs.


But before all these things happen, people will lay their hands on you and persecute you, handing you over to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and governors for the sake of my name. It will result in your giving a witness (...) However, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies, then know that the desolating of her has drawn near. Then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains, let those in the midst of her leave, and let those in the countryside not enter into her, because these are days for meting out justice in order that all the things written may be fulfilled. Woe to the pregnant women and those nursing a baby in those days! For there will be great distress on the land and wrath against this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled. Also, there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish of nations not knowing the way out because of the roaring of the sea and its agitation. People will become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But as these things start to occur, stand up straight and lift up your heads, because your deliverance is getting near. With that he told them an illustration: Notice the fig tree and all the other trees. When they are budding, you see it for yourselves and know that now the summer is near. Likewise also you, when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all things happen. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away (Lk 19:41-44,21:7,10-13,20-33). Jesus' prophecy was simple and clear, when his followers (in 33 CE) would see Roman armies surrounding Jerusalem, the end of the Jewish system of things would be near. The Christians received a new prophecy about the end of the system of things: In those days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and foretold through the spirit that a great famine was about to come on the entire inhabited earth, which, in fact, did take place in the time of Claudius (Ac 11:27-28). Several famines occurred during the reign of Claudius, according to Dion Cassius (Roman History LX:11), Tacitus (Annals XII:13) and Josephus (Jewish Antiquities XX:2:5;5:2), which took place probably about 45 or 46 CE. Thus, when Claudius ordered all the Jews to leave Rome (Ac 18:2), in January 50 CE, many Christians believed that the end was at hand. However, the apostle Paul immediately (in 50 CE) warned them: Now as for the times and the seasons, brothers, you need nothing to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that Jehovah’s day is coming exactly as a thief in the night. Whenever it is that they are saying, “Peace and security!” then sudden destruction is to be instantly on them, just like birth pains on a pregnant woman, and they will by no means escape. But you, brothers, you are not in darkness, so that the day should overtake you as it would thieves (1Th 5:1-4). One year later (in 51 CE) Paul warned them again: However, brothers, concerning the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you not to be quickly shaken from your reason nor to be alarmed either by an inspired statement or by a spoken message or by a letter appearing to be from us, to the effect that the day of Jehovah is here. Let no one lead you astray in any way, because it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction. He stands in opposition and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits down in the temple of God, publicly showing himself to be a god. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is acting as a restraint, so that he will be revealed in his own due time. True, the mystery of this lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who is right now acting as a restraint is out of the way. Then, indeed, the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will do away with by the spirit of his mouth and bring to nothing by the manifestation of his presence (2Th 2:1-8). Roman armies commanded by Cestius Gallus, legate of Syria, came to put down a Jewish rebellion. He marched into Judea with a force of over 30,000 men in September 66 CE in an attempt to restore order at the outset of the Great Jewish Revolt. As assembled at Antioch, Gallus's army comprised legio XII Fulminata, detachments from the 3 other legions


based in Syria, 6 cohorts of auxiliary infantry and 4 alae of cavalry. These regular troops were supported by 14,000 allies provided by Agrippa II, Antiochus II and other client rulers. After surrounding Jerusalem, they began their siege, but for no apparent reason Cestius withdrew his troops and left in retreat. Josephus writes the following about the retreat of Cestius (22 November 66 CE): recalled his soldiers from the place [Jerusalem], and by despairing of any expectation of taking it, without having received any disgrace, he retired from the city, without any reason in the world (The Jewish War II:19:7). The Jews pursued the Romans slaughtering many and capturing their abandoned war machinery. This facet of the retreat by Cestius is also a topic written on by Josephus: while they [the Jews] had themselves lost a few only, but had slain of the Romans 5300 footmen, and 380 horsemen (The Jewish War II:19:9). Speaking of the retreat by Cestius, Josephus states: That therefore he [Cestius] might fly [retreat] the faster, he gave orders to cast away what might hinder his army's march (...) left behind them their engines for sieges, and for throwing of stones, and a great part of the instruments of war (The Jewish War II:546-555); This reverse of Cestius proved disastrous to our whole nation; for those who were bent on war were thereby still more elated and, having once defeated the Romans, hoped to continue victorious to the end (Life §§5-6 22-24). This humiliating withdrawal by the Romans gave the Jews a false sense of being unconquerable and created an atmosphere of "Peace and security". Eusebius says that as the Romans approached the city: The people belonging to the church at Jerusalem had been ordered by an oracle revealed to approved men on the spot before the war broke out, to leave the city and dwell in a town of Peraea called Pella (Ecclesiastical History III:5). The destruction of the city came only after the Jerusalem Christians had made their escape. The mid-second century Christian apologist, Aristo, came from Pella (Ecclesiastical History IV:6:3). Later, Epiphanius makes reference to the same tradition as Eusebius and says there were both orthodox and heretical Jewish Christians in the Pella and other Decapolis areas centuries later (de Mens. et Pond. §15) It is clear from the Scriptures that Jesus had adequately taught on the subject of the signs that would precede the coming judgment and destruction of Jerusalem along with His "presence and coming" and that this teaching had been spread to the Christian community so that they were well informed and watchful for these events. When the events began to unfold the Christians took note, left Jerusalem, thereby escaping the destruction that followed (in August 70 CE) during the Roman siege when the Roman army built around Jerusalem a fortification of pointed stakes and encircled and besiege the city from every side (The Jewish War V:12:2), as Jesus prophesied (Lk 19:43). As the city was being destroyed the Christians were safe and sound in the distant city of Pella! Thus, the "Last Days" were the last days of Messiah's generation (2 BCE to 70 CE) and the "end of the system of things" was the end of the Jewish system of things in 70 CE and not the end of the world system of things. On August 1, 29 CE, according to Daniel’s prophecy, the Messiah had to appear and when Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem (November 66 CE), according Jesus sign, the end of the Jewish system of things had to be near.

-2 29 33 66 70 80 S L Sign of the last days

Last days of Messiah’s generation

After 70, several points of the Messianic prophecies had not yet been accomplished such as: This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father and he will rule as King over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end to his Kingdom (Lk 1:32-33); they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory (Lk 21:27); it (the day of Jehovah) will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction (...) he will be revealed in his own due time. True, the mystery


of this lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who is right now acting as a restraint is out of the way. Then, indeed, the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will do away with by the spirit of his mouth and bring to nothing by the manifestation of his presence (2Th 2:6-8). As a result the issue of Messiah's return and his enthronement was still a burning issue that’s why the apostle John gave (in 96 CE)280 new details in the Book of Apocalypse about this crucial matter. His information dealt first with the seven congregations in Asia and then in a more distant future, the congregations, which would be there at the Lord's day: A revelation (apocalypse) by Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his slaves the things that must shortly take place. And he sent his angel and presented it in signs through him to his slave John (...) to the seven congregations that are in the province of Asia (...) Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief because of him (...) By inspiration I came to be in the Lord’s day (...) Come up here, and I will show you the things that must take place. After this I immediately came to be in the power of the spirit, and look! a throne was in its position in heaven, and someone was seated on the throne (...) Look! The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so as to open the scroll and its seven seals (...) you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth (...) And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder: Come! And I saw, and look! a white horse, and the one seated on it had a bow; and a crown was given him, and he went out conquering and to complete his conquest (...) And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! And they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death. On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing that he has a short period of time (...) These will battle with the Lamb, but because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, the Lamb will conquer them. Also, those with him who are called and chosen and faithful will do so. He said to me: The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is sitting, mean peoples and crowds and nations and tongues. And the ten horns that you saw and the wild beast, these will hate the prostitute and will make her devastated and naked, and they will eat up her flesh and completely burn her with fire. For God put it into their hearts to carry out his thought, yes, to carry out their one thought by giving their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God will have been accomplished. And the woman whom you saw means the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth (Jn 1:1-10; 4:1-2; 5:5-10; 6:1-2; 12:7-12; 17:14-18). The Book of Apocalypse focuses on what will happen during of the “Lord's day” or “Last days of the system of things” which would end with the “End of the world”. There is very little chronological information for the dating of these "Last days", however two elements are particularly emphasized: “an apocalyptic period” and the “destruction of the mysterious prostitute called Babylon the Great”. Many Biblical scholars believed that "Babylon" was a metaphor for the pagan Roman Empire at the time it persecuted Christians, before the Edict of Milan in 313: perhaps specifically referencing some aspect of Rome's rule (brutality, greed, paganism) but this

280 Irenaeus says (c. 180 CE) of the Apocalypse: For that was seen no very long time since, but almost in our day, towards the en of Domitian’s reign (Against Heresies V:30). Eusebius and Jerome both agree with this testimony. Toward the close of Domitian’s rule (81-96), severe persecution came upon the Christians. It is thought that John was exiled to Patmos by Domitian. When Domitian was assassinated in 96 CE, he was succeeded by the more tolerant emperor Nerva, who evidently released John. It was during this imprisonment on Patmos that John received the visions he wrote down (Rv 1:9).


interpretation does not agree with the fact that "Babylon" is destroyed during the Lord's day. Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) equated the corruption and simony in the office of the Papacy with the Whore of Babylon in Canto 19 of his Inferno. Historicist interpreters commonly used the phrase Whore of Babylon to refer to the Roman Catholic Church. Reformation writers from Martin Luther (On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church), John Calvin, and John Knox (who wrote The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women) taught this association. The identification of the Roman Catholic Church with the Whore of Babylon remains in the Scofield Reference Bible281. The second element of identification, the “apocalyptic period”, was more difficult to identify because human history was full of wars, famines and catastrophic epidemics. However two elements of the Book of Apocalypse were easy to identify: the Last Days begin with a “World War” and during this period the “earth is ruined”. And I saw, and look! a white horse, and the one seated on it had a bow; and a crown was given him, and he went out conquering and to complete his conquest. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say: Come! Another came out, a fiery-coloured horse, and it was granted to the one seated on it to take peace away from the earth so that they should slaughter one another, and he was given a great sword. When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say: Come! And I saw, and look! a black horse, and the one seated on it had a pair of scales in his hand. I heard what sounded like a voice in the midst of the four living creatures say: A quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the olive oil and the wine. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say: Come! And I saw, and look! a pale horse, and the one seated on it had the name Death. And the Grave was closely following him. And authority was given them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with a long sword and with food shortage and with deadly plague and by the wild beasts of the earth (...) But the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time came for the dead to be judged and to reward your slaves the prophets and the holy ones and those fearing your name, the small and the great, and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth (...) I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! And they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death. On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing that he has a short period of time (Rv 6:1-8;11:18;12:10-12). According to historians, there were two world wars: World War I (1914-18) and World War II (1939-1945), and scientists who have looked closely at the world situation and, because of the nuclear arsenal built over the last decade and climate change, found it so threatening that the hands of the Doomsday Clock282 must once again be set at three minutes to midnight. According to historians and scientists, Doomsday “Last days” began officially on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11

281 Whose 1917 edition identified "ecclesiastical Babylon" with "apostate Christendom headed by the Papacy" because of the following verses: However, brothers, concerning the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you not to be quickly shaken from your reason nor to be alarmed either by an inspired statement or by a spoken message or by a letter appearing to be from us, to the effect that the day of Jehovah is here. Let no one lead you astray in any way, because it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction. He stands in opposition and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits down in the temple of God, publicly showing himself to be a god (2Th 2:1-4); And he cried out with a strong voice, saying: She has fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen, and she has become a dwelling place of demons and a place where every unclean spirit and every unclean and hated bird lurks! For because of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, all the nations have fallen victim, and the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth became rich owing to the power of her shameless luxury. And I heard another voice out of heaven say: Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues. For her sins have massed together clear up to heaven, and God has called her acts of injustice to mind (...) And the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality with her and lived with her in shameless luxury will weep and beat themselves in grief over her when they see the smoke from her burning. They will stand at a distance because of their fear of her torment and say: Too bad, too bad, you great city, Babylon you strong city, because in one hour your judgment has arrived! (Rv 18:2-5,9-10). The pope is called “His Holiness (like God)”, “Most Holy Father (like God)”, "Supreme Pontiff (“Chief of all religions”)" and “Vicar of Christ (God's representative on earth)”. 282 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science 19 January 2015.


November 1918283 and will end soon (“in less 3 minutes before midnight”). It seems legitimate to compare the famous prophecy of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse with the catastrophic events caused by the First World War. It seems there are four horsemen because there are only four horses (white, red, black and pale).

According to the Book of Revelation the 1st horseman on his white horse, who received a crown, is God’s Kingdom when Jesus is enthroned (Rv 19:11-13); the 2nd horseman on his fiery-coloured (red) horse, who received a great sword and took peace away from the earth so that they should slaughter one another, is the World War I; the 3rd horseman on his black horse, who received a pair of scales in order to weigh wheat and barley, is the Famine284 and the 4th horseman on his pale (greenish) horse, followed by the grave, who killed with a long sword and with food shortage and with deadly plague and by the wild beasts of the earth285, is the Death caused by war, famine, disease286 and massacre of civilians. The apocalyptic description of the last days fits well with the period beginning with World War I. That's why, when C.T. Russell, first president of the Watch Tower Society, appeared for morning worship with the Brooklyn, New York, Bethel family on the morning of October 2, 1914, he made the following dramatic announcement: The Gentiles Times have ended; their kings have had their day. Although the calculations for knowing the end of times had regularly failed, in contrast the terrible events related to World War I in 1914 have undeniably impressed most people and many have linked with the famous prophecy of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, mainly for two reasons: the prophecy had been foreseen for the Lord’s Day and its fulfilment should be worldwide: A revelation by Jesus Christ, which God gave him, to show his slaves the things that must take place in a short time. And he sent his angel and presented it in signs through him to his slave John, who bore witness to the word God gave and to the witness Jesus Christ gave, yes, to all the things he saw. Happy is the one who reads aloud and those who hear the words of this prophecy and who observe the things written in it, for the appointed time is near (...) Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief because of him. Yes, Amen (Rv 1:1-7).

283 More than 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians died as a result of the war. 284 Mount Lebanon famine during World War I which killed about a third of the population (1914-1918); Famine caused by the British blockade of Germany in WWI and Winter famine in Russia (1916-1917); Famine caused by the Turks which killed about 400,000 Armenians (1915-1916); Famine in Persia. As much as 1/4 of the population living in the north of Iran died in the famine (1917-1919). 285 When there are massacre of civilians, governments are compared to wild beasts, pictured as dragons (Rv 13:1-2), and men are pictured as dangerous wolves (Ac 20:29) or dogs (Rv 22:15). It is noteworthy that today on many national flags several symbols of wild beasts are used like eagles, leopards, bears or even dragons 286 Following the ravages of World War I, the Spanish flu reaped over 20 million human lives in just a few months of 1918-19.


The end of the Gentiles Times in 1914 was well known in the U.S. For example, one reads in a New York newspaper “The World Magazine” dated August 30, 1914: According to the Calculations of Rev. Russell's "International Bible Students," This Is the "Time of Trouble" Spoken of by the Prophet Daniel, the Year 1914 Predicted in the Book "The Time Is at Hand," of Which Four Million Copies Have Been Sold, as the Date of the Downfall of the Kingdoms of Earth. The terrific war outbreak in Europe has fulfilled an extraordinary prophecy. For a quarter of a century past, through preachers and through press, the "International Bible Students," best known as "Millennial Dawners," have been proclaiming to the world that the Day of Wrath prophesied in the Bible would dawn in 1914. "Look out for 1914!" has been the cry of the hundreds of traveling evangelists who, representing this strange creed, have gone up and down the country enunciating the doctrine that "the Kingdom of God is at hand." The calculations of Russell were based on “the times of the Gentiles” mentioned in Luke 21:24 which were "seven times", according to Daniel 4:24-25, and consequently would last 2520 years (= 7x12x30). The original calculations were mostly based on dates from John Aquila Brown, who in 1823 published “The Even-Tide (Vol 2 pp. 130-152)” in which he claimed that the "seven times" of Daniel 4 were a period of 2520 years running from the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign in 604 BCE to 1917 CE. While Brown never equated the 2520 years with the "Gentile Times," other writers soon did. Eventually Nelson H. Barbour picked up the torch and put the finishing touches on what became Charles Taze Russell’s chronology. Barbour published his final calculation of the Gentile Times in the September, 1875 issue of his monthly paper “Herald of the Morning”, starting them in 606 BCE and ending them in 1914 CE. The 1914 prophecy, marking the end the Times of the Gentiles, is it reliable? Yes from an historical point of view, but calculations are highly controversial. According to Jesus’ prophecy: and they (the Jews) will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (Lk 21:24, New American Standard Bible). When began and how long lasted “the times of the Gentiles” during which Jerusalem was trampled. The Book of Daniel answers these two questions. First, regarding the Gentiles kingdoms which trampled Jerusalem: This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king. You, O king (Nebuchadnezzar), are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom (of Babylon), the power, the strength and the glory; and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another 3rd kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth. Then there will be a 4th kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces (...) He said: Behold, I am going to let you know what will occur at the final period of the indignation, for it pertains to the appointed time of the end. The ram which you saw with the 2 horns represents the kings of Media and Persia. The shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king. The broken horn and the four horns that arose in its place represent four kingdoms which will arise from his nation,


although not with his power (Dn 2:36-40; 8:19-22). Consequently the four kingdoms of Daniel’s prophecy which would trample Jerusalem are: 1) Babylon, then 2) Media and Persia, then 3) Greece and then (Rome) strong as iron. Daniel also gives the duration of the first kingdom: in the 1st year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, 70 years (Dn 9:2). Jeremiah the prophet explains when began and finished the first kingdom of the Gentiles: The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the 4th year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying (...) This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Then after 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation (in October 539 BCE), the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares Jehovah, making the land an everlasting waste (Jr 25:1-2,11-12). Consequently, Daniel's prophecy is extremely accurate from an historical point of view.

781 609 539 331 63 BCE a b c d 1) Egypt 2) Assyria 3) Babylon 4) Media/Persia 5) Greece 6) Rome The (7) times of the Gentiles

The Book of Revelation confirms that the kingdom after Greece is Rome (Rv 17:10). The kingdom of Assyria disappeared in October 609 BCE when its last king, Aššur-uballit II died (a). The kingdom of Babylon collapsed in October 539 BCE when its last king, Belshazzar died (b). The kingdom of Media/Persia collapsed in October 331 BCE when its last king, Darius III died (c). The kingdom of Greece ceased in October 63 BCE when the Roman general Pompey took Jerusalem and Palestine (d). According to the Book of Daniel, the times of the Gentiles began in October 539 BCE and finish when the Messianic king, the Son of Man, is enthroned (Dn 2:44; 7:13-14). According to the Book of Revelation, Jesus is enthroned just before World War I (Rv 6:2-4; 12:10-12). The book of Daniel gives the following remark: This sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the decision by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will, and sets up over it the lowliest of men (...) this is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the king: That they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you eat grass like oxen, and they shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you, till you know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will (...) And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make you to eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will (Dn 4:17,24-25,32 King James 2000 Bible). Flavius Josephus gives historical details about this prophecy: Now none of the others could discover the import of the dream or make it known to the king, but Daniel alone interpreted it, and as he foretold to him so it came to pass. For the king spent the aforementioned period of time in the wilderness, none venturing to seize the government during these seven years, and, after praying to God that he might recover his kingdom, he was again restored to it (...) Now King Nebuchadnezzar’s life came to an end after a reign of 43 years (605-562); he was a man of bold action and more fortunate than the kings before him. His deeds are also mentioned by Berosus in the third book of his History of Chaldaea, where he writes as follows: “When his father Nabopalasaros heard that the satrap appointed over Egypt and the districts of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia (in 609 BCE) had revolted from him, being no longer himself able to endure hardships, he placed a part of his force at the disposal of his son Nebuchadnezzar, who was in his prime, and sent him out against this satrap. Then Nebuchadnezzar engaged the rebel, defeated him in a pitched battle (in 605 BCE) and brought the country which was under the other’s rule into his own realm. As it happened, his father Nabopalasaros fell ill at


about this time in the city of Babylon and departed this life after reigning 21 years (626-605). Being informed, not long after, of his father’s death, Nebuchadnezzar settled the affairs of Egypt and the other countries and also gave orders to some of his friends to conduct to Babylon the captives taken among the Jews, Phoenicians, Syrians and peoples of Egypt with the bulk of his force and the rest of the booty, while he himself set out with a few men and reached Babylon through the desert (Jewish Antiquities X:217-222). Daniel's prophecy regarding Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled when he suffered from lycanthropy and during these 7 years (583-577) the kingdom of Babylon was symbolically trampled by wild beasts. However two points of the prophecy show that the main fulfilment was about the messianic kingdom: the 7 years of Nebuchadnezzar's madness have left no historical witness and the expression: the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will, and sets up over it the lowliest of men, this amazing expression can be applied only to the messiah. In the Old Testament, only Moses is regarded as very meek: Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men who were upon the face of the earth (Nb 12:3). In the New Testament, only Jesus is regarded as very meek: Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart (Mt 11:29). Jewish commentators explain that "the lowliest of men" applies to Nebuchadnezzar because he was a king of small size287. One can reasonably argue that this assumption is absurd. The Book of Revelation gives numerous details which enlighten the Book of Daniel. In spite of the intensive presence of the language of imminence, it cannot be concluded that the author of Revelation was advocating the idea of Christ’s return in his own generation or soon after his death288. In addition this specific knowledge is reserved for, neither the angels, nor the Son (Jesus), but only the Father (Mt 24:36; Mk 13:32). Depending on the context, the word "soon" applies to Christians living in the time of the Apostle John (c. 96 CE), or those living in the "last days" of the "Lord's day" (c. 1914 CE). The calculation for knowing when start and how long last the “Last Days” is controversial because the little information from the Book of Apocalypse is given in a coded way, however it systematically refers to the same symbols as those of the Book of Daniel. For example: And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God and where they would feed her for 1,260 days. And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled (...) I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! (...) Now when the dragon saw that it had been hurled down to the earth, it persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is to be fed for a time and times and half a time away from the face of the serpent (Rv 12:6-7,10,13-14), is close to: During that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of your people. And there will occur a time of distress such as has not occurred since there came to be a nation until that time. And during that time your people will escape, everyone who is found written down in the book. And many of those asleep in the dust of the earth will wake up, some to everlasting life and others to reproach and to everlasting contempt. And those having insight will shine as brightly as the expanse of heaven, and those bringing the many to righteousness like the stars, forever and ever. As for you, Daniel, keep the words secret, and seal up the book until the time of the end. Many will rove about, and the true knowledge will become abundant (...) It will be for an appointed time, appointed times, and half a time. As soon as the dashing to pieces of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things will come to their finish (Dn 12:1-4,7). The two prophecies depict the same event: Michael will defeat Satan during the time of

287 H. GOLDWURM, N. SCHERMAN – Daniel. Traduction et commentaires fondés sur les sources talmudiques, midrachiques et rabbiniques. Paris 2001, Ed. Du Sceptre, pp. 142-143. 288 R. BRUINSMA – Faith in Search of Depth and Relevancy United Kingdom 2014, Ed. Trans-European Division of Seventh-day Adventists, p. 144.


the end (the Last Days") and will be king of the new world. The very strange expression "a time and times and half a time (or 3.5 times)" is found in the two text, but the text of Revelation gives the explanation 3.5 times = 1,260 days, as a result: 1 time = 1 year of 360 days (= 1260/3.5 and 3.5 times = 1 + 2 + 0.5). According to the Jerusalem Bible: a year and twice a year and half a year (Rv 12:14), which is misleading because the word “time” is used as a symbolic year of 360 days not a real year of 365 days. Daniel’s prophecy must be understood as: seven times (of the Gentiles or 2,520 days) shall pass over you, until you know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will, and sets up over it the lowliest of men (Jesus). As this period of time is prophetic, the key for converting into a real period of time is to use the biblical equivalence “a year for a day”: According to the number of the days that you spied out the land, 40 days, a day for a year, a day for a year, you will answer for your errors 40 years (1533-1493), for you will know what it means to oppose me (Nb 14:34). You will carry their guilt for the number of days that you lie on your side. And I will impose on you 390 days, corresponding to the years of their guilt (977-587), and you will carry the guilt of the house of Israel. And you must complete them. Then for a second time you will lie down, on your right side, and you will carry the guilt of the house of Judah for 40 days. A day for a year, a day for a year, is what I have given you. And you will turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and you must prophesy against it (Ezk 4:4-7). Consequently the 7 times of the Gentiles lasting 2,520 days (= 2x1,260) equal 2,520 years, from 609 BCE to 1912 CE (= 2520 – 609 +1):

609 539 331 63 BCE 1783 1912 CE a b d e f

2) 3) Babylon 4) 5) 6) Rome 7) Great Britain/USA The 7 times of the Gentiles (2,520 years) Last Days

The historical timeline of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse (from October 1912 to June 1919) is as follows: God's kingdom begins to reign in heaven on October 1912 and expels Satan on earth, which is not visible but causes great woes (Rv 12:7-12) like the Balkan wars (dated October 1912) which degenerated into a World War (1914-1918) entailing some famines and plagues (Rv 6:2-8). World War I officially ended with the Treaty of Versailles (dated 28 June 1919), which also created the League of Nations. The timeline of World War I is as follows: 28 June 1914: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, who was killed in Sarajevo along with his wife Duchess Sophie by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip. July 5: Austria-Hungary sought German support for a war against Serbia in case of Russian militarism. Germany gave assurances of support. July 23: Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum to Serbia. The Serbian response was seen as unsatisfactory. July 28: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia mobilized. July 28: The Netherlands declared neutrality. July 31: Germany warned Russia to stop mobilizing. Russia said mobilization was against Austria-Hungary only. August 1: Germany declared war on Russia. Italy declared its neutrality. Germany and the Ottoman Empire signed a secret alliance treaty. August 2: Germany invades Luxembourg. Skirmish at Joncherey, first military action on the Western Front. August 2–26 Germany besieged and captured fortified Longwy "the iron gate to Paris" near the Luxembourg border, opening France to mass German invasion. August 3: Germany declared war on France. Belgium denied permission for German forces to pass through to the French border. August 4: Germany invaded Belgium to outflank the French army. Britain protested the violation of Belgian neutrality, guaranteed by a treaty; German Chancellor replied that the treaty was just “a scrap of paper”. The United Kingdom declared war on Germany. The United States declares neutrality. The first declaration of war is dated officially on 24 July 1914 but the real beginning of the war occurred a little before.


The German historian Fritz Fischer289 put forward the thesis that responsibility for the outbreak of the war from December 1912 was based solely on Imperial Germany because of the following: In November 1912, Russia, which had been humiliated because of its inability to support Serbia during the Bosnian crisis of 1908 or the First Balkan War, announced a major reconstruction of its military. On November 29, German Foreign Secretary Gottlieb von Jagow told the Reichstag (the German parliament), that "If Austria is forced, for whatever reason, to fight for its position as a Great Power, then we must stand by her." As a result, British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey responded by warning Prince Karl Lichnowsky, the German Ambassador in London, that if Germany offered Austria a "blank cheque" for war in the Balkans, then "the consequences of such a policy would be incalculable." To reinforce this point, R. B. Haldane, the Lord Chancellor, met with Prince Lichnowsky to offer an explicit warning that if Germany were to attack France, Britain would intervene in France's favour. With the recently announced Russian military reconstruction and certain British communications, the possibility of war was a leading topic at the German Imperial War Council of 8 December 1912 in Berlin, an informal meeting of some of Germany's top military leadership called on short notice by Kaiser Wilhelm II. The presence of the leaders290 of both the German Army and Navy at this War Council attests to its importance. Wilhelm II called British balance of power principles "idiocy," but agreed that Haldane's statement was a "desirable clarification" of British policy. His opinion was that Austria should attack Serbia that December, and if "Russia supports the Serbs, which she evidently does then war would be unavoidable for us, too," and that would be better than going to war after Russia completed the massive modernization and expansion of their army that they had just begun. Moltke agreed. In his professional military opinion "a war is unavoidable and the sooner the better". Consequently, the duration of the "last days" in the Book of Revelation are marked by two apocalyptic worldwide events that are absolutely indisputable, one at the beginning: the First World War in 1914 and the other at the end, an unthinkable event: the ruin of the earth. For a long time, Bible readers thought the description of this apocalyptic end of the earth was the hyperbole of a corrupted world, but from the beginning of the 21st century, that event could happen. For example one reads: The nations were in uproar and now the time has come for your retribution, and for the dead to be judged, and for your servants the prophets, for the saints and for those who fear your name, small and great alike, to be rewarded. The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth (Rv 11:18). It is written “those who are destroying the earth”, not “those who destroyed the earth (by means of nuclear weapons for example)”. Three indices may be used to measure the level of destruction (or ruining) of the earth and consequently to predict its collapse (end of the world): 1) the number of living species, 2) the global warming of the planet and 3) the shortage of food. The Living Planet Report is the world's leading, science-based analysis on the health of our planet and the impact of human activity. In the edition of 2014, one key point that jumps out is that the Living Planet Index (LPI), which measures more than 10,000 representative populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, has declined by 52 per cent between 1970 and 2010. Put another way, in less than two human generations, population sizes of vertebrate species have dropped by half. These are the living forms that constitute the fabric of the ecosystems which sustain life on Earth – and the barometer of what we are doing to our own planet, our only home. We ignore their decline at our peril.

289 In his book Griff nach der Weltmacht: Die Kriegszielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland 1914-1918 (Droste-Verlag, 1961) translated into English as War of illusions: German Policies from 1911 to 1914 (Norton, 1975). 290 Attending the conference were the Kaiser, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz – the Naval State Secretary, Admiral Georg Alexander von Müller, the Chief of the German Imperial Naval Cabinet (Marinekabinett), General Helmuth von Moltke – the Army's Chief of Staff, Admiral August von Heeringen – the Chief of the Naval General Staff and General Moriz von Lyncker, the Chief of the German Imperial Military Cabinet.


According to this measurement graph291 (above) there will be a total extinction of living species around 2050 CE (= 2010 + 40) since their number halved between 1970 and 2010. However, measurements and consequences of an extinction are difficult to assess, as shown in the report entitled: Honey Bee Colony Losses in the United States, 2013-2014, nevertheless it is easy to understand that a total collapse of living species would be a disaster for mankind. Another sign of the ruin of the earth is the collapse of the climate, a highly controversial topic. For example, in the film An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore gives an illustrated talk on climate in order to alert the public to an increasing “planetary emergency” due to global warming, in which he explains that there is an unanimous consensus among scientists on climate change unlike mass media, funded by lobbies such as those related to oil, which systematically question global warming to protect oil industries causing pollution by carbon dioxide. The Associated Press contacted more than 100 climate researchers and questioned them about the film's veracity. All 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie or had read the homonymous book said that Gore accurately conveyed the science, with few errors. On the other hand some journalists regularly propose to their audience fond of sensational news, disaster scenarios about global warming, which are often fanciful, solely to increase the sales of their newspapers. Once again where is the truth? Simple, to find the truth you have to look for it. For example, in the Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report (IPCC) there are hundreds of charts and tables of measurements but very few syntheses such as (page 74): There is low confidence in assessing the evolution of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning

291 Biodiversity is declining in both temperate and tropical regions, but the decline is greater in the tropics. The tropical LPI shows a 56 per cent reduction in 3,811 populations of 1,638 species from 1970 to 2010. The 6,569 populations of 1,606 species in the temperate LPI declined by 36 per cent over the same period. Latin America shows the most dramatic decline – a fall of 83 per cent. Terrestrial species declined by 39 per cent between 1970 and 2010, a trend that shows no sign of slowing down. The loss of habitat to make way for human land use – particularly for agriculture, urban development and energy production – continues to be a major threat, compounded by hunting. Marine species declined 39 per cent between 1970 and 2010. The period from 1970 through to the mid-1980s experienced the steepest decline, after which there was some stability, before another recent period of decline. The steepest declines can be seen in the tropics and the Southern Ocean – species in decline include marine turtles, many sharks, and large migratory seabirds like the wandering albatross.


Circulation beyond the 21st century because of the limited number of analyses and equivocal results. However, a collapse beyond the 21st century sustained warming cannot be excluded. Sustained mass loss by ice sheets would cause larger sea level rise, and part of the mass loss might be irreversible. This amazing interpretation is it right? Climatic phenomena are extremely complex and very difficult to predict (as weather forecast regularly show), however, the climate balance is based on (90%) a crucial phenomenon: thermal regulation of the planet thanks to great ocean streams like the Gulf Stream, which conveys more water than all the rivers of the world together. The Gulf Stream is an ocean current of deep cold water produced by the melting of the polar cap which warms afterwards at the equator and rises to the surface before returning to the North Pole. It is easy to understand that if the ice sheet of the poles disappears, that entails the disappearance of the great ocean currents like the Gulf Stream. For example, the Sea ice extent (page 41 of the report), which had been around 10 million km2 in September since 1880, began decreasing from 1970 and is now (2010) half that surface around 5 million km2. A simplistic mind might conclude that the ice sheet will be gone by 2050 (= 2010 + 40) but obviously climate phenomena are not linear. Consequently, projections of the sea ice extent are based on theoretical models, which take into account all the past measurements. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offers four scenarios of future climate change, called the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP): RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0 and RCP8.5. All that data look very impressive and gives us a feeling of scientific high confidence and when you see the figure 2.1 (c) on page 59 you feel completely reassured because all the projections are beyond 2100. Unfortunately all these projections are falsely reassuring because they use models which are obsolete as one can see on page 49 of the report (2014). Only the last model (RCP8.5) is in agreement with the last measurements over the period 1990-2010, the three others give results, even more pessimistic, which are above of the average of measured points after 1970. Consequently, according to the only reliable model (in 2014), the Sea ice extent will be around 0 km2 in 2050 and consequently there will be a collapse of the Gulf Stream (shutdown of thermohaline circulation) as well as the earth climate. Unfortunately again, the latest scenario from the measurements made during May-June 2014 is still worse. A new study by Rahmstorf et al (2015) published in Nature Climate Change has found evidence for a slowdown of the overturning circulation. This is based upon multiple lines of observation suggesting that over recent decades the current system has been weaker than ever before in the last century, or even in the last millennium. With warming and melting of the Greenland Ice sheet we are seeing a substantial freshening of the water south east of Greernland. Now freshwater coming off the melting Greenland ice sheet is likely disturbing the circulation, says Jason Box of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland based on observations over the period January 1880-2014:


As one can see on the chart of annual temperature anomalies, there is a global warming from 1970 (0.0 °C), which is beyond the maximum variations292 (+/- 0.4 °C)

292 The latest measurements made in May-June 2014 show that the Sea surface anomaly temperature was around +1.4 °C in northern hemisphere instead of +0.8 °C in 2013 and published in 2014 (below). This change proves that now the variation of temperature is exponential and no longer linear.


Consequently the projection of temperature is now as follows (below):

Guy R. McPherson, Professor Emeritus in Biological Sciences at the University of Arizona, explains in his Monster Climate-Change why this exponential change in temperature is catastrophic for the climate of our planet because the global warming promotes the degassing of methane from permafrost as well as methane hydrates in the ocean floor and one must know that methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas worse than carbon dioxide (CO2).


What does it mean? If one takes into account the greenhouse gas coming from carbon dioxide, as well as from methane, the increase in temperature will be at least doubled. Consequently the temperature anomaly in 2030 will be around 4°C293, not 2°C. It is noteworthy to know that the 19th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 19), held in November 2013 in Warsaw, Poland, was warned by professor of climatology Mark Maslin: We are already planning for a 4°C world because that is where we are heading. I do not know of any scientists who do not believe that. Among well-regarded climate scientists who think a 4°C world is unavoidable, based solely on atmospheric carbon dioxide, is Cambridge University’s Professor of Ocean Physics and Head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group in the Department of Applied Mathematics, Dr. Peter Wadhams, who says: the carbon dioxide that we put into the atmosphere, which now exceeded 400 parts per million, is sufficient, if you don’t add any more, to actually raise global temperatures in the end by about 4°C. Adding to planetary misery is a paper in the 16 December 2013 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluding that 4°C terminates the ability of Earth’s vegetation to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide. According to these scientists forecast, there will no longer life on Earth after 2030. A third sign of the ruin of the earth is the collapse of food production. Indeed, since 1970 the world food consumption is superior to the renewal of natural resources. That means that we are going to exhaust the earth, in the same way that anyone who spends more than he earned will be, sooner or later, ruined. How much time to be in bankruptcy, that is the question. A study partly-sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center, made by Dr Nafeez Ahmed, executive director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development, has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution. Although the study based on HANDY (Human And Nature DYnamical) is largely theoretical —a ‘thought-experiment’— a number of other more empirically-focused studies —by KPMG and the UK Government Office of Science for instance— have warned that the convergence of food, water and energy crises could create a ‘perfect storm' within about 15 years (that is to say in 2030). To sum up, the three previous indices showing the collapse of the number of living species, of the climate and the shortage of food, all predict the “ruin of the earth” around 2030. We saw that in the first century the sign (S) which marked the end the Jewish system of things occurred in 66 CE when the Roman armies surrounded the Temple, centre of the Jewish religion, 14 years before the maximum limit in 80 CE (Mt 24:34; Ps 90:10). Similarly, the kings of nations will surround Babylon the Great, the world religious harlot, just before its eternal destruction (Rv 17:1-17). The armies of these kings are called the “disgusting thing” (Mt 24:15) or “wild beast” (Rv 17:12-13) because they fight under idolized banners depicting some wild beasts, which are usually eagles (Dt 28:49-51). Given that the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE, 10 years before the maximum limit, one can suppose that it could be same for the end of the world system of things, but obviously only God knows (Mt 24:36). The end of evil will occur when the Son of the woman will bruise the head of the Serpent (Gn 3:14-15) that is when the archangel Michael will seize the 7-headed dragon (Rv 12:3-9; 20:1-3). It is the theme of the Bible.

When Job asked: Why does God allow evil?, he got the same answer: when Behemoth, the beginning of the ways of God who is also the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah and the root of David, according to the Book of Revelation (Rv 5:5), will use his sword (Job 40:19; Pr 8:22; Rv 2:16) to fight against Leviathan, the gliding serpent (Is 27:1).

293 A shift of 4°C is as huge as a body temperature of 41.5°C instead of 37.5°C.


Satan was not alone: Let cursers of the day execrate it, those ready to stir up Leviathan. Let be dark the stars (angels) of its twilight (Job 3:8-9; 38:7), he is also the chief of his wicked stars (Rv 12:4,7-9) and gives power to the “beast” (Rv 13:2). God asked Job: Can you bind the bands of Herd (kîmâ) or can you loosen the cords of Fool (kesîl)? Can you bring forth Scattering (mazzarôth) in his appointed time? And as for Moth (‘aish) with his sons, can you guide them? Have you come to know the statutes of heavens or can you establish their rule on the earth? Indeed, the day of Jehovah is near for the stars of the heavens and their “fools” (Is 13:6-10).

Why does the Bible specify that God gave 140 years of extra life to Job? Only the context allows us to answer this question. According to the Talmud, Moses wrote the Book of Job (Baba Bathra 15a) and this information is very likely true for the following reasons: the writer of the Book of Job knew him intimately because he was able to give the names of his three daughters (Job 42:12-14) as well as the exact assessment of his cattle and herds, it can be assumed that he must have met him after his trial around 1640 BCE. When Moses (1613-1493) came in Midian (from 1573 to 1533) he had to have met Job (1710-1500) who was around 137 years old at that time. Job probably heard through Moses that the Israelites were under the yoke of Egypt (since 1748 BCE) and that he had tried to stop their oppression, but without success. In the same manner that Job saw the end his suffering, he also saw the end of suffering for the Israelites, 33 years before his death. If God had given him only 100 additional years, Job would not have been able to see this extraordinary deliverance. Similarly, Moses saw the Promised Land before he died (Dt 32:48-52). The book of Job is therefore doubly paradoxical regarding its historicity as well as its meaning. Indeed, although the character of Job is clearly presented as a real, historical person, rabbis and bishops preferred to see it as a moral tale. For example, Simeon ben Lakish wrote (c. 200 CE): Job probably never existed, and if he did exist, the events recorded concerning him never took place. The whole narrative is intended as a moral lesson (Gen. Rabba 57); one reads in the Babylonian Talmud: A certain Rabbi was sitting before R. Samuel bar Nahmani [c. 250 CE] and in the course of his expositions remarked, Job never was and never existed, but is only a typical figure.


He replied: To confute such as you the text says: There was a man in the land of Uz, Job was his name. But, he retorted, if that is so, what of the verse, the poor man had nothing save one poor ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up etc. Is that anything but a parable? So this too is a parable (Baba Bathra 15a). According to the Jewish Encyclopedia (1906): The poem which is contained in Job iii. 1-xlii. 6, exclusive of later interpolations, discusses a religious problem which could scarcely have been formulated in the early period of the Israelitic people; for it presupposes a high spiritual development and a maturity of judgment which are acquired by a people only after great trials and sore tribulations (...) The doom of the evil-doer (xv. 20 et seq.) is described in terms which seem to allude to the fate of Alexander Jannæus. According to the United States Conference of Bishops (1966): The Book of Job, named after its protagonist, is an exquisite dramatic treatment of the problem of the suffering of the innocent (...) This is a literary composition, and not a transcript of historical events and conversations (...) The author or authors of the book are unknown; it was probably composed some time between the seventh and fifth centuries B.C. Its literary pattern, with speeches, prologue and epilogue disposed according to a studied plan, indicates that the purpose of the writing is didactic. But the lessons that the book teaches are not transparent, and different interpretations of the divine speeches and of the final chapter are possible. The Book of Job does not definitively answer the problem of the suffering of the innocent, but challenges readers to come to their own understanding. The last sentence proves that those religious leaders are blind guides (Mt 15:14) because the book of Job was written to answer this fundamental question. Unlike the book of Daniel, which was sealed and would therefore be really understood only at the time of the end (Dn 12:4,9), the book of Job was written to answer the question of the origin of evil as well as its end: Then Job said in reply to Jehovah: Now I know that you are able to do all things and that nothing you have in mind to do is impossible for you. You said: Who is this who is obscuring my counsel without knowledge? Therefore I spoke, but without understanding about things too wonderful for me, which I do not know. You said: Please listen, and I will speak. I will question you, and you inform me. My ears have heard about you, but now I do see you with my eyes [I get insight]. That is why I take back what I said, and I repent in dust and ashes. After Jehovah had spoken these words to Job, Jehovah said to Eliphaz the Temanite: My anger burns against you and your two companions, for you have not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has (Job 42:1-7). Jehovah gave Job deeper insight on his trial “Satan has been the origin of evil [1Jn 5:19]”. Job understood better the first prophecy of the Bible: Jehovah God said to the serpent [Leviathan]: Because you have done this294, you are the cursed one out of all the domestic animals [behemah] and out of all the wild animals of the field (...) I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He [Behemoth, the beginning of the ways of God] will crush your head, and you [Satan] will strike him in the heel (Gn 3:14-15). That is why the New Testament says: I want you to be wise as to what is good, but innocent as to what is evil. For his part, the God who gives peace will crush Satan [by means of Jesus] under your feet shortly (Rm 16:19-20); Brothers, take as a pattern of the suffering of evil and the exercising of patience the prophets who spoke in the name of Jehovah. Look! We consider happy those who have endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome Jehovah gave, that Jehovah is very tender in affection and merciful (Job 5:10-11).

294 You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a murderer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie (Jn 8:44).

The Book of Job: Chronological, Historical and Archaeological Evidence

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