Q&A: Daniel’s Prophecy 10\
Daniel’s Prophecy 10\
Question
Hello Rabbi, I came across a verse in Daniel 12 and an interesting interpretation occurred to me. They ask there in the chapter when the end will be, etc., and in these verses there seems to be a kind of hint: “And from the time that the regular offering is removed and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.” (verse 11)
From the day of the destruction of the First Temple (586 BCE according to scholarship) until the commonly accepted date for the building of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, exactly that number of years passed. In terms of the historical and grammatical context, is there room for an interpretation that attributes the prophecy to those events? I am aware that the traditional interpretation speaks of “the abomination of desolation” as an event that happened adjacent to “the time that the regular offering was removed,” and not as an event that happened at the end of the period, but it seems that there may be an opening here for a new interpretation.
“Happy is the one who waits and reaches one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.” (verse 12)
By the way, if you add the 1335 mentioned in the next verse, you get to 2040 (again, I’m aware that the traditional interpretation treats this as 45 additional years and not as a separate count).
My question is whether such an interpretation makes sense in terms of the linguistic and historical context.
Or should we wait 15 years and find out 😉
Answer
I don’t deal in biblical interpretation. It doesn’t interest me, and in my opinion nothing can be learned from it.