How long is a year? Does it matter?

wannabefree

Does how we calculate a year in our calendar today have any impact on how we understand dates in history and/or prophecy from the Bible?

I was reading about the current calendar and how it came to be. When the Julian calendar was introduced, the preceding year was lengthened to 445 days to bring the new calendar to a correct starting point. Then, it wasn't until the twentieth century that the Gregorian calendar was accepted which made slight refinement to the Julian calendar and even changes the way some festivals are dated.

Just wondering?

Soldier77

Interesting wannabefree. Now I'm curious! So we could be off in our calendars by what? a year or more?

I'm wondering too!

wobble

Now now boys, Freddie Franz has told you that a year in Bible prophecy is 360 days long.

Except it isn't when we talk about the 2520 years that run from 607B.C. E ( a year when nothing of historical note took place) down to 1914 C.E.

These years are solar years, otherwise Freddie, and before him Russell and before him other numerologists would be just over 37 years short of 1914.

So to make it clear, when the Angel told Daniel that 7 times would pass over the king of Babylon, in his mind the Angel meant 7x360. he did not mention this to Daniel, who, poor chap may have thought that the Angel referred to Babylonish or even Jewish years.

But in the fulfilment of the prophecy (not the fulfilment mentioned in Daniel by the king himself, but the "greater" fulfilment) the years would be solar in length and would run from a year when nothing happened to the magic year of 1914 when nothing happened either that had really been prophecied in the Bible.

Put like that you can see why Jesus was forced to choose the Bible Students/Rutherfordians in 1919, they were teaching such wonderful truths at the time.

Case closed, JW's are "evidently" God's organization.

garyneal

I wondered this myself as I was researching the WT chronology concerning 607 B.C.E.. But, according to The Gentile Times Reconsidered, the Babylonian sources used to support 586 B.C.E. had recorded in them the positions of the stars and events like lunar or solar eclispes.

I figured astronomers could chart the movements of the stars, the sun, and the moon to arrive at a fairly accurate date in whatever calendar system we employ. Those things are absolute.

jgnat

When it comes to calendars and dating, I could sit at Leolaia's feet and listen all day.