Daniel 1-12

The Calendar Systems in the Book of Daniel

Am I simply cherry-picking dates and shifting calendar systems to fit history?

At first glance, mixing 360-day calendar years, 354-day Islamic lunar years, and standard solar years can look like an arbitrary system designed to hit specific historical targets. However, the historicist approach presented on this site endeavors to take its cues from the precise wording of the text of Scripture the Holy Spirit inspired through the pen of the prophet Daniel. So when a time period is predicted, the starting point from which to measure that period must be arrived at by careful exegesis of the text, rather than cherry-picked from a list of attractive events in history. This is what I've attempted to do in the articles, sermons, and podcasts offered on this site. The same is true when it comes to the particular calendar I use to measure prophetic periods in the book of Daniel: the starting point is to ask what Daniel intended and why he uses the words he does, and let that guide how I calculate the time periods mentioned in these prophecies.

How I explain the use of various calendars

• Why a 360-Day Calendar? In Daniel 8:14, the prophecy specifies "2,300 evenings and mornings" rather than simple "days." By way of allusion, Daniel anchors this specific wording to the Creation account in Genesis 1 (where "evening and morning" marks days governed by both the sun and moon). This 360-day soli-lunar cycle (twelve 30-day months) is also explicitly supported by Revelation, where 42 months equal 1,260 days, confirming that the Holy Spirit intended 360-day years as the standard prophetic year in use in the book of Daniel.

• Dual themes in Daniel's prophecies: Daniel is written in two languages. From Daniel 1:1-2:4a it is written in Hebrew because Daniel is focused on what happened to the Kingdom of Judah and to the Jewish exiles like himself and his three friends. From Daniel 2:4b-7:28, the text is in Aramaic--a Gentile Babylonian language, because the focus shifts to Gentile dominion over the land of Israel from King Nebuchadnezzar's conquest through to the end times. From Daniel 8:1-12:13, the text is again Hebrew, and the focus shifts to the fate of the Jewish people and the fate of the Jewish homeland, from Daniel's lifetime until the end times. 

• Three Calendars in Daniel's prophecies: The standard prophetic calendar assumed in Scripture reflects a year of 360 days. I am suggesting that is the calendar intended in the "time, times, and half a time" statements and in the 2300 years' prophecy (see the first point above). Another calendar that comes into play in Daniel is the lunar calendar. This is the standard calendar reflecting Islamic lunar years (354.37 days). Because the focus of Daniel 8 is the conquest and trampling of the Holy Land under Islam from the time of the 7th Century A.D., it is not surprising that prophetic periods measured from events that happen under Islamic dominion reflect an Islamic calendar. This is analagous to the way Daniel's Aramaic portion focuses on Gentile themes, while the Hebrew portion focuses on Jewish themes. For the same reason, prophecies focused on the Gentile empires and the tribulation of mainly Gentile Christianity (e.g. Daniel 7), should then be calculated using the standard and natural solar calendar (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds) in use in most countries today.

Why the Time Periods in Daniel 12 Are Asymmetrical

The periods predicted in Daniel 12:7–12 are not written in a uniform way. 

• Daniel 12:7 compared to 12:11 and 12 - Verse 7 uses the phrase "a time, times, and half a time"—a figure defined centuries later in Revelation as 1,260 days. Verses 11 and 12 explicitly state "1,290 days" and "1,335 days."

• Deliberate Non-Uniformity: The text itself presents these periods differently, signaling to the reader that they represent distinct periods. I suggest that Daniel 12:7's "time, times, and half a time" (or 1260 years / 3.5 x 360) should be measured from the date mentioned in Daniel 1:1, 605 B.C. I then also suggest that Daniel 12:11 and 12 summarize what Daniel has already prophesied earlier in Daniel 8, about periods of time measured from the trampling of the Holy Land by Islamic forces, which Daniel in 12:7 refers to as "the shattering of the power of the holy people." That "shattering" was completed when Islam was established in the Levant, having replaced Byzantine Christianity as the dominant religion of the region. Therefore I suggest that the periods 1290 years and 1335 years are to be calculated using Islamic lunar years (see the third point above). 

Retrospective Recognition vs. Forward Prediction

It's important to mention that historicism does not interpret Bible prophecy as a fortune-telling device to predict the exact dates of future events before they happen. Following Jesus' principle in Matthew 24 and John 14:29 ("I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it does come to pass, you may believe"), the purpose of these timelines is retrospective validation.

The alignment of these distinct calculations with key historical milestones (such as the fall of Jerusalem in 638 A.D., the completion of the Umayyad Mosque in 715 A.D., or the Six-Day War in 1967 A.D.) is meant to allow believers to look back and recognize God's overarching providence in history after the events have unfolded.