Tebbyson, Lady Of Shalott

8 Pages 2049 Words

THE ERA OF THE ISRAELITE PEOPLE

JUDAS MACCABEUS

The prophecy of the seventy years of exile

The Persians were conquered by the Greeks, who also occupied Judah. Yet they left the Jews their religious liberty, with the result that they opposed no resistance to this occupation. This happened with other occupiers several times in a similar manner, which is only known from non-biblical sources, for the Old Testament does not refer to any event that happened between the Babylonian exile and the events described by the books of the Maccabees. It therefore seems that it will be difficult to demonstrate the continuation of the cycles of the history of salvation. Quite the contrary, because this period constitutes a phase of transition of relative peace concerning the Jewish people, which the book of Daniel refers to as prophetic account.

Daniel ardently prayed to God to obtain an explanation of the seventy years of exile predicted by Jeremiah (Jer 25:11-12), since he was also in exile in Babylon and these seventy years seemed unbearable to him, so that he asked God to divert his anger from his people (Daniel 9:1-19). Thus, he perhaps guessed that the seventy years would not be as long as they appeared. For in reply to his prayer, God sent the angel Gabriel, who gave him a cryptic explanation concerning seventy weeks divided in seven weeks ("...to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks."), sixty-two weeks ("...for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat..."), and a last week. This one will be a time of persecutions committed by an impious king, who "will cause sacrifice and offering to cease" in the middle of the week (Daniel 9:20-27).

We are going to see that the first seven weeks refer to the Babylonian exile. According to Daniel 9:25, they began "from the going forth of the word". This refers to Jeremiah’s announcement of the seventy years of exil...