Bethlehem Star , Daniel 70x7

[thrombomodulin]

This past week I saw a DVD documentary made by Frederick A. Larson on the star of Bethlehem. Larson identifies nine criteria from the biblical account that the star must satisfy. He says that the magi recognized the birth of a Jewish king did so by observing the motion of planetary bodies - in particular Jupiter. Among many other observations, he observes that in 2 or 3 B.C. (1) Jupiter (the King planet) has a conjunction with Venus (Mother) to yield an object with magnitude of brightness never seen by any living man in the night sky. The two would be so close as to be indistinguishable with the naked eye, but yet not co-linear with the observer so Venus does not block light from Jupiter (2) Due to retrograde motion Jupiter's makes a triple-pass over the star Regulus (the word king in several languages), (3) Due to retrograde motion Jupiter "stops" relative to an observer on earth relative to the celestial sphere. An observer in Jerusalem looking towards Jupiter would be looking in the direction of Bethlehem. Coincidentally this occurs on December 25.

I find Larson's explanation of the star of Bethlehem quite compelling. He goes on to argue that astronomical signs also occurred during the crucifixion which appear to require a dispensational understanding of Daniels 70 weeks. Namely, 69 weeks are completed at the moment of Christ's death and one still remains.

Larson says there are only two viable dates for the crucifixion given that: (1) the day of the week on which the passover occurred, and (2) the fact of Jesus being crucified on Friday. He says:

During those years, Nisan 14 fell on a Friday, Preparation Day, twice: on April 7 of 30 AD and April 3 of 33 AD (11).

He then cites Acts 2

will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'" 22 "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know[/i]."

He notes that a lunar eclipse occurred on April 3, 33 A.D. which would have caused the moon to appear red. The beginning of the eclipse would not have been visible from an observer in Jerusalem, however, an observer in Jerusalem would have seen the middle and latter portions of the eclipse as it rose above the horizon near sunset. He notes also that Phlegon Trallianus records a darkening of the Sun in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad which was in 32 or 33 A.D.

As per this thread, my understanding of Daniel's seventy weeks has been to to start with the decree of 457 or 458 B.C. and proceed assuming units of solar years to arrive at the middle of the week 70 at 30 A.D. The end of the seventy weeks would then be in 33 A.D. (Perhaps even April 3, 33 A.D.?) This, however, would imply neither the event recorded by Phlegon Trallianus, nor the lunar eclipse coincide with Christ's death.

Larson, on the other hand, starts with the 444 B.C. decree, and counts of 69*7 periods of 360 Days (prophetic years as per Revelation 11). This, very nicely for the dispensationalist perspective, yeilds the 33 A.D. date. If the interval between decree and Christ's death is indeed 69.0 weeks instead of 69.5 weeks as per Larson's dating, then Anochria's understanding of Daniel 9:27 as a reference to the Messiah is in error.

I did not exhaustively reproduce all of Larson's argument. There is more on this page. I would like to ask if anyone has encountered Larson's dating and also attempted to reconcile it with the notion that the Messiah's crucifixion is referenced by Daniel 9:27 in the middle of week 70 as per Anochria's understanding.

Thanks
Pete

[anochria]

I'm thinking out loud here:

Should Larson's version be accurate, then I'd say that one would have to fall back on the notion that "in the middle of" need only mean at some time during the 70th week- even if it is technically very early on. We are clearly told that the Messiah will be cut off after the 69 sevens.

This, however, would then would beg the question, what meaningful bookends could we give to the final 7, if not the ones I suggested.

Here's a suggestion, though. What if the first 3 1/2 years were from Messiah's death to Paul's conversion (which according to my preferred scheme, is actually the second half of the 70th 7), and then we were to go to a pseudo-futurist gap theory about the last 3 1/2 years postulating that the final 3 1/2 years was the Jewish war. The idea would then be that the 7 year covenanat would be 7 years after Jesus' death in which God would still focus on the people of Israel- 3 1/2 years of reaching them with the gospel from AD 33-37 and 3 1/2 years of judgment on Israel from AD 66-70.

If one were to propose such a gap, it would certainly have more merit than the futurist's 2,000 year gap between the 69th and 70th 7, because Daniel 9 can be read to imply a small generation-long gap. Still, it's not as neat or preferable as having the 69th run directly into the 70th imo.

Still, I'm not sure all of this is worth it just to reconcile with astronomical anomalies. Plus it messes up the wonderfully nice exact span of 40 years from Jesus' death to the destruction of Jerusalem

I'm not editing this, and it's very likely I've made an error here, so if anyone notices something, let me have it