The Reckoning of 1335 Days in Daniel
Traditional commentators offer various interpretations of the cryptic reckoning of the 1335 days in the Book of Daniel. In this second work on the subject of the reckoning of time, we will offer a different view on the 1335 days in Daniel, as we will explain in this work. It is therefore the object of this work to seek the answers to the questions we set in the preceding article, The Abomination of Desolation as Reckoned in Daniel. This work has also a second object to find a reasonable explanation of certain obscure passages in Daniel concerning the reckoning of the 1335 days. With that said, we do not ask the reader to substitute our judgment for his or her own. The reader has therefore to expect that the matters discussed in the continuation of this work are subject to interpretation based on logical thinking.
The messenger speaks
Throughout the prophetic part of the book, Daniel mourns the destruction of the Temple and grieves over all the suffering of YHVH’s people. In the last chapter of the book, a word was revealed to Daniel through a certain man in an awesome appearance. The man was dressed in linen, girded with gold, his body was like of a precious stone, and his face was like the appearance of lightning. He spoke to Daniel, but the sound of his words was like the sound of a crowd. He told Daniel that there will be a time of great distress, such as never seen before. And at that time, every one of the people of Israel, who is found written in the book, will be delivered from the great distress. But he also told Daniel to hide the words of the revelation he was about to hear, and seal the book he was told to write, for the time when knowledge would increase, and many would diligently search for the truth.
Then through the messenger of Elohim, the man with the awesome appearance revealed to Daniel the last prophecy of the book: the prophecy of the 1290 and 1335 days, which we began to research in the preceding article. Then the revelations ceased with the assurance in the resurrection of the dead at the end of the days. The messenger said to Daniel,
And from the time that which is continual shall be removed, and the abomination that devastates is placed, shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who longs for and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. (Dan 12:11-12)
According to the Sages (The Kuzari), prophecy can only be received in the Land of Israel. Daniel, however, was able to receive the prophetic visions even though he was in exile in Babylonia, because the visions were about and for the sake of the Land. These visions foretold the return of Israel to the homeland, when the second Temple was built, but also the ultimate return and resurrection at the end of days.
“That which is continual”: the sacrifices or the Temple
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the most set-apart place in the Scripture, as this site draws its sanctity from the two Temples that once stood there. As we explained in the preceding article, there are two variants of interpreting the reckonings of the 1290 and 1335 days in the Book of Daniel, with relation to their commencement and according to the literal translation we made.
According to the first variant of the reckoning of time, the periods of 1290 and 1335 days, may begin from a single event. This single event will be the removing of “that which is continual” in Jerusalem and is no more, and the abomination of desolation is placed. The other way of the reckoning, which we too explained in the article, is to see the 1290 and 1335 days ending together in the fulfilment of one event. In both variants of reckoning of time, as we explained, the terminal points are not named, but we came to agreement that the event that will end both will be the expected coming of the Messiah. These two variants, however, appear to express two contradictory views on how we reckon time. And where there is a contradiction, it tends to make people take sides, as we will do hereafter.
Before we advance in our work, we need to clarify certain ideas we introduced in the translation of Dan 12:11-12, which have not been touched upon, nor written on, and for this reason we will give our clarification in this introduction. In Time of Reckoning Ministry, we took the liberty to translate the commonly known words in KJV: “from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up … “, as we did above. Two things, however, which are very important in our study, we need to clarify here: (1) the word “sacrifice” is not in the Hebrew text but assumed by the translators; (2) from this follows that “that which is continual”, Hebrew תָּמִיד tamid, will be removed from its place [that is Jerusalem].
The Hebrew word for “burnt offering” is עֹלָה olah. It comes from the verb עָלָה alah, which literally means to ascend, bring up. Hence, the idea for burnt offerings is that they ascend in smoke. (For a similar mistranslation of this word, refer to the article Did YHVH tell Avraham to sacrifice Yitschak?) But עוֹלָה olah is not the word we find in the Hebrew text here. It is תָּמִיד tamid, which JPS renders in Daniel 12:11 as “burnt offering”, and KJV: “daily sacrifice”. Note that the KJV translators use italic which is the way of KJV to inform the reader that the word in question is not in the Hebrew text. When תָּמִיד tamid is used in the phrase עֹלַת olat תָּמִיד tamid, it means a continual ascending offering, as found in Num 28:3 and Num 28:6. Nowhere in the Scripture is tamid used alone to denote the noun “burnt offering”; when tamid is used alone, it means “continually”, “perpetually”, “always”, or “daily”. However, only in Daniel, tamid is used as a noun but always with the prefix “the”, הַתָּמִיד ha-tamid, “the continual” (see Dan 8:11-13, Dan 11:31, and our verse Dan 12:11). In fact, we have a verse which testifies to the truth of this perception,
And forces shall arise from him and dissolve the Sanctuary, the stronghold, and shall remove the continual (ha-tamid) and establish the abomination that desolates. (Dan 11:31)
By his troops (military forces) the hostile king will destroy the Sanctuary, the Temple, which has been like a firm fortress of Israel, and he by flatteries he will corrupt those from the people who have sinned against the Covenant (see Dan 11:32). The first clause in verse 31 states that it is the Sanctuary that will be destroyed, that is, the Temple, and the second clause states that the Sanctuary is the continual. In its place the evil king will place the abomination of desolation, i.e., his own place of worship, and that will be considered as evil as an abomination.
We should note that the above statement in Dan 11:31 is almost identical with that in Dan 12:11: “the continual (ha-tamid) shall be removed, and the abomination that devastates is placed”. In verse 12 of Chapter 12, the messenger did not have to tell Daniel again what “the continual” was, because he already said in previously. With that said, this is how this verse should be understood,
And from the time the continual (ha-tamid), the Sanctuary, shall be removed, and the abomination that devastates is placed, shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. (Dan 12:11)
Indeed, the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes did exactly that and the Romans after him; both the Greeks and the Romans removed “the continual, the Sanctuary” and set up their abominations. But the prophecy in the last Chapter 12 clearly speaks of the end of days, and this is where we will focus our efforts to cover all the prophetic material in Daniel.
The abomination that devastates
Jerusalem. Aerial view of the Temple Mount and the Muslim shrine the Dome of the Rock. What is the difference between “Dome of the Rock”, “Templum Domini”, and the Temple? The attitude.
Rabbi Isser Weisberg of Machon Mishne Torah in Lakewood, New Jersey, the U.S., states that the “appalling abomination” spoken of in the Book of Daniel is the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This is the place where the Temple of the Eternal once stood. The Dome of the Rock was built in the year 692.
In the seventh century, the Caliph Abd al-Malik ordered the Dome of the Rock built to show the “superiority” of Islam over Judaism and Christianity. According to Islam, Judaism and Christianity were superseded by the superior religion Islam, as much as Christianity teaches that it superseded Judaism. The Caliph Abd al-Maliks saw ruins and assumed they were of Israel’s Second Temple. But in fact, they were of the temple of Jupiter that was built by Roman Emperor Hadrian after the second Bar Kochba Revolt in the second century.
Note: Hadrian also renamed Judea to “Palestina” after the name of Israel’s enemy Philistia. The temple of Jupiter was later destroyed by Constantine, when he established Christianity as the new religion of the Roman Empire.
To mock the religion of the Jews, the Caliph Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock on the place where the Temple stood. The Dome of the Rock is not just a religious relic but a symbol of Islam and its violent conquest of the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe. Also, the Dome of the Rock is not like any other place of worship in Islam, in which there are no object of worship or inscriptions. The Dome of the Rock is a special building with its inscriptions on the walls saying that Islam is a superior religion that has replaced all other religions and prophets; this basically makes the Dome of the Rock an idol, not just a building for worship. Therefore, a solid foundation is thus established for the conclusion that as Hadrian set up an abomination on the Temple Mount to desolate the Sanctuary in the second century, so did Caliph Abd al-Malik in 692. Both wanted to eradicate even the slightest trace of the Temple, the sacrifices, and the Torah of the Jews.
The significant difference though is that while the temple of Jupiter was long gone, the abomination the Caliph built is still on the Temple Mount. This fact alone qualifies the Dome of the Rock as a strong contender for the abomination that desolates and for the reckoning of the 1335 days in Daniel. On the supposition, which is a very probable one, that the abomination that desolates the most set-apart place is the Dome of the Rock, Rabbi Weisberg in his video built his case to unlock the last prophecy in Daniel quoting Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Rebbe. The Rebbe was perhaps the most influential and respected Jewish leader in the twentieth century. On this supposition that the Dome of the Rock is the abomination in Daniel, Rabbi Weisberg counted 1290 years from year 692 (the year of the completion of the Dome of the Rock) and ended in year 1982—the starting point of the time-window of the coming of the Messiah. His calculations are based on the last prophecy in the Book of Daniel, as we read it anew,
And from the time the continual [the Sanctuary] shall be removed, and the abomination [the Dome of the Rock] that devastates is placed, shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who longs for and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. (Dan 12:11-12)
Note: We found another interesting correlation between the 1335 days in Daniel and Islam. Islam conquered the City of Jerusalem in 638. The Yom Kippur War, in which the Islamic states invaded Israel, broke out in 1973: exactly 1335 years from the conquest of Jerusalem by Islam.
Thus, it will be clear to the reader that when a sanctuary is taken away, the ascending offerings are taken away as well. It is for this reason that the sacrifices are not specifically mentioned here, because the focus in Dan 12:11 is the destruction of the Sanctuary and the establishment by the hostile king of another (different) sanctuary in its place. We derive this also from the plain meaning of the text. And the plain text indeed says that not only will the continual (the Temple) be removed, but also the abomination of a foreign sanctuary will be placed in its place. In other words, both conditions must be fulfilled for the reckonings of time to begin, not just the destruction of the Temple. For the second Temple was indeed destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, but the abomination was set in place in 692. According to Rabbi Weisberg, year 1982 opened the timeframe for the coming of the Messiah. If the rabbi is correct concerning the year 1982, the year of the Messiah’s coming, we may want to make inquiry of that year.
Year 1982
These are the major events that occurred in 1982:
On 10 March 1982, all nine planets aligned on the same side of the sun. We should note here that this phenomenon occurred before the beginning of the Biblical year that began in the spring of 1982.
On 25 April, Israel completed its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in accordance with the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty of 1979: a territory the State of Israel took from Egypt in the Yom Kippur War, when it was attacked by a vast Arab army in 1973. The peace treaty was signed by Egypt’s president Anwar Sadat and the Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin.
On 3 June, Israel’s ambassador to the UK Shlomo Argov was shot in London. This assassination provoked the 1982 Lebanon War; Ambassador Argov died in 2003 in Israel without regaining full consciousness.
Three days after the assassination, on 6 June 1982, the Lebanon War began. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) under Minister Ariel Sharon invaded southern Lebanon in the “Operation Peace for the Galilee” and reached as far north as the capital Beirut. The United Nations Security Council voted to demand that Israel withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
On 4 July, four Iranians (three Iranian diplomats and a journalist) were kidnapped upon Israel’s invasion of Lebanon by Phalange forces, and their fate remained unknown.
Soon after, on 6 July, a lunar eclipse occurred (umbral duration of 236 min and total duration 106 min, the longest of the twentieth century).
On 4 August, the United Nations Security Council voted to censure Israel, because its troops were still in Lebanon.
20 August: in the Lebanese Civil War, a multinational force landed in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) withdrawal from Lebanon, as the French troops arrived on 21 August.
On 23 August 1982, Bachir Gemayel was elected Lebanese President amidst the raging civil war.
On 25 August 1982, the U.S. Marines arrived in Lebanon to join the French contingent.
On 14 September 1982, the President of Lebanon, the newly elected president of Lebanon, Bachir Gemayel, was assassinated in Beirut.
On 18 September, the Lebanese Christian militia (the Phalange) killed thousands of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in West Beirut; the massacre was a response to the assassination of President Bachir Gemayel four days earlier.
23 September: Amine Gemayel, brother of Bachir Gemayel, was elected president of Lebanon.
24 September: The Wimpy Operation, first act of armed resistance against Israeli troops in Beirut.
25 September: in Israel, 400 000 marchers demand the resignation of Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
On 10 November 1982, in the Soviet Union, the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, died.
On 11 November, in Lebanon, the first Tyre headquarters bombing killed about 100 people.
12 November: the KGB head Yuri Andropov was selected to become the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee, succeeding Leonid Brezhnev. With the death of Leonid Brezhnev, the foundation of the Soviet Union began to shake, and its disintegration in 1991 led to the return of Soviet Jews to Israel.
That was year 1982 in retrospect, which Rabbi Weisberg believes was the year that opened the timeframe for the coming of the Messiah.
Year 2027 of the countdown
Then Rabbi Weisberg counted 1335 years from year 692 and ended in year 2027—the final year in the reckoning. Thus, according to Rabbi Weisberg’s understanding of the reckoning of the 1335 days in Daniel, the timeframe for the Messiah to come is 1982-2027:
692+1290=1982
692+1335=2027.
What would transpire in 2027, the final year of the coming of the Messiah, according to Rabbi Weisberg, we cannot know; only the Most High knows. We cannot change the past, nor do we have control over the future. But whatever will transpire in 2027, according to Rabbi Isser Weisberg, has to do with the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. And we should agree, he made a very strong case. We will be keeping on rewinding the tape even further.
The status quo on the Temple Mount: history and presence
Jerusalem has been the scene of violent confrontations between Arabs and Jews since 1929, as both Judaism and Islam claim Jerusalem as their own thus making it one of the most contested real estates in the world. The Muslim presence in Jerusalem was managing the Temple Mount through the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf from 637 until 1948, when Jordan took control over the cite in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the War of Independence, in which the very existence of Israel was feared. After the war, the Jordanians disregarded the existing status quo of Jerusalem, and the Jews were prohibited from visiting the holy places in the city.
But in 1967, against all odds Israel defeated in a defensive war its Arab neighbors, who again summoned strong armies on Israeli borders; this war would be known as the Six-Day War. In these fateful six days Israel managed to unify Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and ultimately its ancient capital Jerusalem. The Israeli flag was flying on the Temple Mount for the first time since the independence in 1948 but sadly only for a few hours. The hero in the Six-Day War, General Mosheh Dayan, took down the Israeli flag and, in a goodwill gesture, handed the authority over the Temple Mount to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; Moshe Dayan (1915-1981) was a secular Zionist. Thus, shortly after capturing the Old City from the Arabs and having a full control over the Temple Mount, Israel handed administration of the cite back to Jordan. Since June 1967 Israel has exercised sovereignty and overall control of Jerusalem, while the administration and organization of visiting and worshipping on the Temple Mount has been under the jurisdiction of the Jordanian Waqf, a branch of Jordan’s Ministry of Awqaf Islamic Affairs and Holy Places.
Despite the act of goodwill, a peace treaty between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the State of Israel would not be signed until 26 October 1994. In conformance to this peace treaty, Israel declared that it respected the present role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines (the abomination in Daniel) on the Temple Mount. According to the peace treaty between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the State of Israel, the Jordanian Waqf is to administer the Temple Mount for the religious and civil affairs, while Israel is to exercise security presence and supervision over the visitors, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. But in an attempt to keep the status quo and for political reasons, the Israeli government has gone beyond the treaty enforcing a controversial ban on prayer by non-Muslims, namely, its own citizens, the Jews. Since Jordan had agreed to the 1994 peace treaty and all subsequent agreements with Israel, the Hashemite kingdom had de facto acknowledged and committed itself to Israel’s overall authority, including security responsibility, over the Temple Mount. Thus, the Western Wall remained the only site where Jews could pray but only under certain limitations.
The Arab violence on the Temple Mount
However, a new Jordanian initiative, transmitted to the Biden administration, aims at removing the established status quo on the Temple Mount, and more specifically Israel’s security control, and transferring it to the Jordanian Waqf: all in violation of the 1994 peace treaty obligations. Very often the Muslims confuse Israel’s goodwill and meekness for weakness.
Before the Muslim conquest, Jerusalem was the capital of Israel and later of Judea after the split of the kingdom. The city was occupied by Rome and consequently by Byzantium until 637 AD, when the Arabs besieged and captured the city from the Greeks. In 692, the Dome of the Rock was built, and the long occupation of Islam over Jerusalem began. Since then, Jerusalem remains a major focal point of the Arab–Israeli conflict. But to whom do Jerusalem and the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River really belong? Israel views the Land as the Promised Land given to the descendants of Avraham, Yitschak, Ya’akov-Israel and Jerusalem as its unified and eternal capital. And that was the vision Isaiah saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem,
And it shall be in the latter days that the mountain of the House of Yehovah is established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills. And all nations shall flow to it. And many peoples shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yehovah, to the House of the Elohim of Ya’akov, and let Him teach us His ways, and let us walk in His paths, for out of Tsiyon comes forth the Torah, and the Word of Yehovah from Yerushalayim”. (Isa 2:1-3)
The prophet here saw a vision (literally, the word) that the mountain, on which the Temple stood, will one day be glorified above all high places of the earth. In such a glorification, all nations will come to Jerusalem and wish YHVH to teach them His ways, namely, His Torah, so that they can learn the truth of Him. All nations will come but one.
The direct descendants of Avraham, Yitschak, and Israel desire that the Temple Mount to be open to all worshippers: Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. But all nations (the U.N.) rejected the word the prophet saw. Since 2021, the clashes in Jerusalem, and particularly on the Temple Mount, incited and organized by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, has led the Arab Israelis to an uprising. The terrorists from Gaza have fired rockets and incendiary balloons in residential areas in Southern Israel causing fear and terror. The violence escalated in Judea and Samaria, and in the Arab communities inside Israel. Acts of murder and terror claimed the lives of innocent people: all because the Jews wanted the freedom to pray on the Temple Mount. If there were any illusions that all Arab Israelis were loyal citizens to the State of Israel, now they have been shredded into pieces. But what we cannot leave unnoticed is that the latest intifada by the Arabs in Israel coincides with the Jordanian initiative to change the status quo on the Temple Mount by transferring the entire control of the Holy Place to the Jordanian Waqf: all in violation of the 1994 peace treaty.
Is the violence on the Temple Mount and in Jerusalem “the abomination that devastates” spoken of and reckoned in Daniel? We in Time of Reckoning have the strong reason to believe that the Dome of the Rock is indeed the abomination, and the newest wave of terror is what devastates. We also believe that Rabbi Weisberg’s reckoning of 1335 days in Daniel deserves consideration, as we too have come to the same year 2027 although through different calculation, which we will present when the time permits.
The time has come for everyone to take sides.
Knowledge known to only a few will die out. If you feel blessed by these teachings of Time of Reckoning Ministry, help spread the word!
May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days!