Starting with Abraham, we find a remarkable pattern of five-hundred-year periods in the biblical chronology. The word “chronology” literally means the reckoning of time. The Bible does not merely describe events; it also provides various details regarding when these events occurred and the amount of time that elapsed between them.
For instance, Genesis records the precise ages of Adam and his descendants. Later, periods of — for example — 400, 430, 450, and 480 years are mentioned. The lengths of the kings’ reigns are also recorded. By piecing this data together, a continuous timeline emerges.
It would go beyond the scope of this article to discuss the entire biblical chronology here. For our topic, the pattern beginning with Abraham is of particular importance.
Four periods of five hundred years
From Abraham to Christ, we find four consecutive periods of five hundred years. This constitutes a total span of two thousand years, which can be divided into four equal blocks of time. The first three periods can be derived directly from the chronological data found in Scripture. The fourth period consists of Daniel’s “seventy weeks of years” and will be the subject of this series.
From Abraham to the Exodus
The first period extends from the birth of Abraham to the Exodus from Egypt. We can calculate this five-hundred-year period in two ways.
God foretold to Abraham that his descendants would be sojourners for four hundred years (Gen. 15:13). We count these four hundred years starting from Isaac — the promised offspring — who was born when Abraham was one hundred years old (Gen. 21:5). Calculating from Abraham’s birth to the Exodus, we arrive at:
100 + 400 = 500 years
However, we can also calculate this same period in another way. Paul states that 430 years elapsed between the promise made to Abraham and the giving of the Law (Gal. 3:17). That is thirty years longer than the four hundred years counted from the time of Isaac. The promise was therefore given thirty years before Isaac was born. Abraham was seventy years old at that time:
70 + 430 = 500 years
Thus, through two different calculations, we arrive at the same period of five hundred years from the birth of Abraham to the Exodus.
From the Exodus to Solomon
The second period extends from the Exodus to the completion of Solomon’s building projects. Solomon began building the temple in the 480th year after the Exodus (1 Kings 6:1). The temple and the royal palace were built over a total period of twenty years (1 Kings 9:10).
480 + 20 = 500 years
From Solomon to Cyrus
The third period extends from Solomon to Cyrus. When we add up the regnal years of the kings recorded in Kings and Chronicles, we arrive at a total of 430 years from Solomon to the destruction of Jerusalem. We will not perform that entire calculation here, as this figure is also confirmed elsewhere in Scripture.
A day for a year
God instructs Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel, and then on his right side for 40 days to bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. In doing so, God says: “I have assigned you a day for a year” (Ezek. 4:5–6). Together, this amounts to 390 + 40 = 430 years.
Following these 430 years come the seventy years of desolation foretold by Jeremiah, which conclude in the first year of Cyrus (2 Chron. 36:21–22).
430 + 70 = 500 years
We thus find three consecutive periods of exactly five hundred years here:
from Abraham to the Exodus: 500 years
from the Exodus to Solomon: 500 years
from Solomon to Cyrus: 500 years
That brings us to the fourth and final period.
from Cyrus to Christ
Cyrus holds a special place in biblical history. Long before he was born, he was already mentioned by name by Isaiah. God would use him to have Jerusalem rebuilt and the temple’s foundations relaid:
Isaiah 44 (based on ISA)
28 Who says of Cyrus, “He is My shepherd,” and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” and to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”
In the first year of Cyrus, the seventy years of desolation come to an end, and the restoration of Jerusalem and the temple begins (2 Chron. 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-3).
Daniel
And it is precisely here that we arrive at Daniel 9.
Daniel finds himself at the end of the seventy years about which Jeremiah had prophesied. He had understood from the writings that YAHWEH had determined a period of seventy years for the desolation of Jerusalem (Dan. 9:2; Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10). Now that this period is drawing to a close, Daniel turns to God in prayer. He confesses the sins of his people and pleads for the restoration of Jerusalem and the sanctuary (Dan. 9:3-19). While Daniel is still praying, Gabriel appears to give him insight (vv. 20–23). Daniel had been occupied with a period of seventy years and is then informed of a new time period: seventy weeks:
Daniel 9 (based on ISA)
24 Seventy weeks is decreed concerning your people and your holy city…
Shortly thereafter, the starting point of this period is also mentioned:
Daniel 9 (based on ISA)
25 From the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem…
These seventy weeks lead us from the restoration of Jerusalem to the Messiah (Dan. 9:24–25). And this brings us to something remarkable. The three preceding periods each span exactly five hundred years. As we shall see in this series, the same applies to this fourth period:
from Cyrus to Christ: 500 years
four time blocks
From the birth of Abraham to Christ, we thus observe a remarkable pattern:
from Abraham to the Exodus: 500 years
from the Exodus to Solomon: 500 years
from Solomon to Cyrus: 500 years
from Cyrus to Christ: 500 years
total: 2,000 years
a period of five hundred years
The fact that the final period spans five hundred years naturally requires substantiation. After all, at first glance, “seventy weeks of years” appears to mean seventy times seven — or 490 years. Moreover, there is a difference of opinion regarding the starting point of this prophecy.
To understand how to calculate this period, we must first go back to the seventy years Daniel reads about at the beginning of Daniel 9. Why were precisely seventy years ordained for the desolation of Jerusalem? We will look at that in the next blog post.