Daniel's Prophecy on Suspension of 2300 Evening-Morning Burnt Offerings

In the third year of king Belshazzar's reign, Daniel recorded a prophecy in Daniel 8:13-14:

This prophecy was fulfilled in the events related to the institution of the Festival of Hanukkah by Judas Maccabeus and his brothers in the second century BC. The temple was trampled down on October 29 (Saturday) of 168 BC by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and then the continual burnt offerings were taken away. After 1,150 days (2,300 evening or morning burnt offerings were suspended), the temple was cleansed by Judas Maccabeus on 22 December 165 BC and the daily burnt offerings were restored.

From Daniel 8 we understand that the ram represented the kingdom of Persia, and the goat, the kingdom of Greece. In prophecy, beasts often represent kingdoms (Daniel 7:23) and horns represent kings (Revelation 17:12). After Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, the kingdom of Greece was divided into four parts by Alexander's four top generals: Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lycemicus, and Cassander. Ptolemy began a dynasty in Egypt (south) while Seleucus did the same in Syria (north). Lycemicus took over Asia Minor (east) and Cassander took Greece (west).

Now, another character comes to view in the vision of Daniel (Daniel 8:9), "And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land." Daniel saw that a little horn would rise from one of the four horns (kings). Then Daniel 8:23 says, "And in the latter time of their kingdoms, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up." This verse tells us that this 'horn' would fight against God's people, cause the sacrifices to cease, and make a wreck of the holy place or temple.

Daniel prophesized the vision concerning the daily sacrifices being taken away by the little horn. Daniel 8:26 writes, "And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: therefore shut up the vision; for it shall be many days hence." The evening and the morning in this verse should have referred to the evening and morning offerings because the vision was about the continual burnt offerings (that is, the daily evening and morning offerings), that would have been stopped temporarily many years later. Therefore, Daniel 8:14 foretold that the sanctuary would be cleansed after a total of 2,300 continual evening or morning burning offerings was suspended (or after 1,150 days). The prophecy was made in the third year of king Belshazzar's reign just before Babylon was taken by Cyrus in the eighth month of 538 BC (see Chapter 8).

Has this prophecy been fulfilled? If yes, when was it fulfilled? The story recorded in the first book of Maccabees is consistent with this prophecy. So far, no one seems to have found the exact match of 1,150 days with the story told in 1 Maccabees. The reason for this is that no one has figured out the correct lunisolar calendars for these years. After we have constructed the correct lunisolar calendars for these years based on the astronomical moon-phase data (see Appendix D), we find that the prophecy on the period of 1,150 days was fulfilled.

In the book of Daniel, the little horn clearly refers to the Seleucid kingdom, one of four kingdoms derived from the kingdom of Alexander the Great. The Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes captured Jerusalem, removed the sacred objects from the temple, and slaughtered many Jews. He imposed a tax and established a fortress in Jerusalem. Antiochus tried to suppress public observance of the Jewish laws to secure control over the Jews. In 168 BC, he desecrated the temple by setting up an "abomination of desolation." He forbade the observance of the Sabbaths and the offering of sacrifices in the holy temple. He also required Jewish leaders to make sacrifices to his idols.

Mattathias called upon the people loyal to the traditions of Israel to oppose the Gentile king, and his three sons (Judas Maccabeus and his brothers) began a military campaign against them (during the Maccabean Revolt). There was a loss of one thousand Jews (men, women, and children) when the Jewish defenders refused to fight on the Sabbaths. In 165 BC the temple was freed and re-consecrated, so that the continual daily sacrifices may begin again. The Festival of Hanukkah was instituted by Judas Maccabeus and his brothers to celebrate this event (1 Maccabees 4:59).

When did the daily sacrifices start to be taken away? The answer can be found in 2 Maccabees 5:23-26 (slightly modified for better reading), "And at Garizim, Andronicus; and besides, Menelaus, who worse than all the rest bare a heavy hand over the citizens, having a malicious mind against his countrymen the Jews. He sent also that detestable ringleader Apollonius with an army of two and twenty thousands, commanding them to slay all those that were in their best age, and to sell the women and the younger sort. He came to Jerusalem pretending peace, till the holy day of the Sabbaths when he commanded his men to arm themselves and to slew all of them that were gone to the celebrating of the Sabbaths. He also searched the city with weapons and slewed great multitudes."

This passage tells us that an army of twenty-two thousand was sent to Jerusalem by Andronicus and Menelaus, and they pretended to be peaceful until the holy Sabbath day. During the Sabbaths, they slewed all the Jews who came to observe the Sabbaths. The evening sacrifice was first taken away on that Sabbaths. Not long after this brutal massacre, they polluted the temple in Jerusalem, called it the temple of Jupiter Olympius, and even erected a desolating sacrilege upon the altar of burnt offerings. This event took place on the fifteenth day of Chislev (Kislev, the 9^th lunar month) in the one hundred and forty-fifth year (2 Maccabees 6:1-2; 1 Maccabees 1:54). This day was on 17 November 168 BC according to our lunisolar calendar (see the calendar of 168 BC in Appendix D). Since the brutal massacre and the trample of the temple took place on a Sabbaths (Saturday), not long before erection of a desolating sacrilege on 17 November 168 BC, the Saturday day on October 29 of 168 BC, which is 19 days before 17 November 168 BC, may be the starting time of the prophetic period. Any adjacient Saturday around October 29 of 168 BC could also agree with the events recorded in the two books of Maccabees, but we will show that only the day of October 29 of 168 BC can make the prophecy be fulfilled exactly.

When was the sanctuary (temple) cleansed (consecrated)? The first book of Maccabee (1 Maccabees 4:52-53;59) also tells us that in the one hundred and forty-eighth year (165 BC), Judas and his brothers freed the temple. They re-consecrated it and restored daily burnt offerings in the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month (Kislev). According to the lunisolar calendar of 165 BC (see Appendix D), Kislev 25 was on December 22, which was the end time of the prophetic period. From the time that daily sacrifices were taken away on October 29 of 168 BC (JD 1660362) to the time that the sanctuary was cleansed and daily burnt offerings were restored on December 22 of 165 BC (JD 1661512), there were exactly 1,150 days (or exactly 39 lunar months).

Since this prophecy of Daniel was fulfilled in the story recorded in the books of Maccabees, these books should be the inspired Word of God and be included in the Hebrew Bible. Interestingly, Yeshua also celebrated the Festival of Hanukkah in John 10:22-23, "Now it was the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch."