04/17/2025
The Triumphant Entry
Was it hidden?
Luke 19:41-44 “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.””
This verse in particular sticks out to me because Jesus declares that the day which would bring peace is now hidden from their eyes.
Why was it hidden?
John tells us that the world did not recognize him and that his own did not receive him and further down in the declaration made by Jesus he says 'you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you'.
John 1:9 -11 “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
John is pulling from Isaiah's prophecy about the suffering Messiah: He was despised and rejected by mankind.
Should they have known?
I think they should have known because of a few things.
1. Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, a c**t, a foal of a donkey which fulfilled Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a c**t, the foal of a donkey.”
The Jews would also be aware of the rest of Zechariah's prophecy - Zechariah 9:10-1 “I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.”
Zechariah, who prophesied later than both Micah and Isaiah, uses some of the same language: 'Daughter Zion' which in both Isaiah and Micah are used in prophecies concerning the last days.
Micah 4:8 “As for you, watchtower of the flock, stronghold of Daughter Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you; kingship will come to Daughter Jerusalem.””
Isaiah 62:11 “The Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.’ ””
2. Jesus entered through the Eastern Gate and went straight to the Temple. Ezekiel 43:1-5 “Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown. The glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east. Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.”
Jesus was aware of this prophecy just as He was aware of Zechariah's prophecy and was letting those with eyes to see that He was equating himself as God.
3. Jesus came on the appointed day. Daniel 9:25 ““Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.”
The Jews received a long range Messianic Forecast from God via the prophet Daniel in where a SPECIFIC date is given for when the Messiah would come.
Daniel 9:20-27 “While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill—while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision: “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place. “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”
Time to Math
What's a seven? This has been understood to be 7 year periods. According to the Angel Gabriel there will be 70 of these 7 year periods until the end. 62 of these 7 year periods will be contiguous while the final 7 sevens is not.
So, 62 x 7 = 434 and 7 x 7 = 49, when you add these together we come to 483, so 483 years until the Messiah comes.
The first thing we need to do is sort out when the word to rebuild Jerusalem went out. When Daniel wrote this the Jews were currently in exile and Jerusalem was desolate and in ruins from Nebuchadnezzar around 587 BC. Daniel gives a date at the beginning of chapter 9, 'In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes' which is probably 522 BC.
There were two decrees that went out, the first was to rebuild the temple given by Cyrus in 538/537 BC. This decree only gave permission for the Jews to rebuild the temple.
The second decree, which was the decree given to Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem by King Artaxerxes in the month of Nisan is the 20th year of his reign.
These are dates that you can run down!
The 20th year of his reign was either 445 or 444 BC which gives us our start date.
This is where it gets a little complicated, the calendar that we use is different than the calendar the Jews were using during their time in exile. In the Gregorian Calendar we have 365 days in a year, and in the Babylonian Calendar they had 360 days.
If you take 483 Babylonian years and convert them to the number of years on our Gregorian calendar you would arrive at 32 or 33 AD. So, we have narrowed it down to these two years.
Now, because Passover always starts on the night of the first full moon in Spring, we can sort the date for Passover on these years if we use historical lunar data to determine when the first full moon after the Spring Equinox is during the month of Nisan. (src. https://astropixels.com/ephemeris/phasescat/phases0001.html)
We also need to look at the events recorded in the Gospel record leading up to the Crucifixion and Resurrection, because each day has something recorded.
If we look at the year 32 AD, we can see by the full moon that Passover began on Tuesday, April 15th.
We have to understand that Jewish time keeping is different, we start our days at 12AM, but they begin their days at evening.
The issue with the 33 AD Passover is the references made in the Gospel records to the Sabbath don't match.
However, if we look to 33 AD, we see that Passover began on the evening of Friday, 15 Nisan, April 3rd and this means Jesus would've made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on 10 Nisan in 33 AD!
As you can see, this matches up perfectly to the Gospel record.
So, according to the Angel Gabriel the 10th of Nisan would be 173,880 days after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. Now, if you really wanted to, you could go back and sort out that exact day too!
