letters to a modern-day Job

This blog post is an expanded version of an excerpt. It’s from my coming book, “The Wreckage and the Redeemer: A Modern-Day JOB story. Losing Ivy-League dreams to incurable decades-long erythrodermic eczema and the Christianity that changed everything.” It explains how extra-biblical corroboration with careful study of the Bible made me realize in an undeniable way that the Bible was truly divinely inspired. This helped me greatly as I was fighting an incurable disease with diminishing life-prospects to hold firmly to God’s promises to beat the odds and thrive:

In the middle of those two months, I put finishing touches on my essay on Daniel. Weeks of intensely studying the prophecies regarding the Messiah revived a dormant faith without me realizing it.

I couldn’t tell you exactly when, but my heart swung towards the probability the Bible being divinely inspired as I realized there were genuine prophecies in the Bible, especially regarding the Messiah. Being nailed through his hands and feet (Psalm 22:16), being rejected by his own people (Isaiah 53:3), dying without any bones broken (Psalm 34:20), being betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9), having soldiers cast lots for his garments (Psalm 22:18) and buried with the rich (Isaiah 53:9) were only a few of numerous prophecies.

Years later, I would find that the biblically recorded events of unusual darkness during the time of Jesus’ death (cf. 31-33 AD) and the idea that a great atonement came to the world through the death of the righteous Christ for our sins had extra-biblical circumstantial support. The Bible records: “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.” (Matthew 27:45)

In the Book of Later Han, Emperor Guang Wu (reigned from 25 AD and 47 AD) is quoted:

“Summer, fourth month [of the year], on the day of Ren Wu, the imperial edict reads, “Yin and Yang have mistakenly switched, and the sun and moon were eclipsed. The sins of all the people are now on one man. Pardon is proclaimed to all under heaven.”^[1]

Even the ancient Chinese verified the biblical account of a likely solar eclipse, and yet, they somehow understood the event to have the sins of the people on one man. The date of this proclamation is associated with the crucifixion of Jesus around 30-33 AD.

During Jesus’ birth, the Persian Magi asked King Herod, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:2-12). After they spoke to the king, they “went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.”

Also, in the astronomy records of the Book of Han, dated 9 March 5 BC:

“In the second month of the second year [of Jian Ping], the comet was out of Altair for more than 70 days. It is said, ‘Comets appear to signify the old being replaced by the new.’ Altair, the sun, the moon and the five stars are in movement to signify the beginning of a new epoch; The beginning of a new year, a new month and a new day.”^[2]

Israel and ancient China had no recorded interactions at that time; their independent observations and conclusions floored my once-skeptic mind.

The research that tipped me over the edge was on Daniel 9, the topic of my final paper which now includes a short summary of my findings.

As a young Christian, I always wondered why Persian magi would be present at Christ’s nativity scene. By this time, Israel had been conquered and subjugated by the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks and now Roman Empire. It was nothing. Why would Persian soothsayers care about a Jewish Messiah? How would the Persians know this was the fullness of time to look for the birth of the divine savior? (Galatians 4:4-5, Mark 1:15)

This was because of the prophecy given to Daniel, while Israel was subjugated under the Persian Empire in the 6^th century BC, approximately 540 years before Christ. Under King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian rule, Daniel was placed “in charge of all its wise men.” (Daniel 2:24). This includes magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and scholars. Under Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian, Daniel was made one of three administrators over 120 satraps, shifting his role from “chief of the wise men” (intellectual/religious/mystical class) to a top government administrator (political leadership). Hence, as chief of the wise men (Aramaic: ḥakkîmê, often translated magi in Greek), having decades of authority and influence, why wouldn’t Joseph pass on his teachings to this guild?

In the first year of Darius, son of Xerxes, Daniel records the angel Gabriel came to give Daniel “insight and understanding”—a prophecy about the timeline of the coming of Christ:

“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 street 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.” (Daniel 9:25)

This is the key verse that changed my outlook on the nature of the Bible and thus my entire life.

This, arguably the most powerful prophecy in the Bible, has a few components that must be carefully studied, else it would be easy to twist the real interpretation to suit any agenda.

The components are:

1. The Starting Point: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem… with street and a trench, but in times of trouble.
2. The Time Frame: What is the unit of “seven” and where does 69 “sevens” (seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens’) lead to?
3. The End Point: the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.

The Starting Point

Careful bible reading with extra-biblical sources show that the Starting Point is undoubtedly Artaxerxes I Longimanus’ decree to Nehemiah (Neh. 2, 444/445 BC)

1. The Four Persian Decrees

1. Cyrus (538 BC) — Ezra 1:1–4
   • Allowed Jews to return to the land and rebuild the temple.
   • Focus: the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, not the city itself.
2. Darius I (520 BC) — Ezra 6:1–12
   • Reaffirmed Cyrus’ decree, ensuring completion of the temple.
   • Again, about the temple, not the city.
3. Artaxerxes I (457 BC) — Ezra 7:11–26
   • Authorized Ezra to appoint magistrates, teach the Law, and regulate temple worship.
   • Focus: religion and teaching, not rebuilding the city walls.
4. Artaxerxes I (444/445 BC) — Nehemiah 2:1–8
   • Nehemiah explicitly requests and receives permission to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls and gates.
   • The king even provides letters for safe passage and timber for construction.
   • Nehemiah 2:17 confirms: “Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we will no longer be a reproach.”

2. Why Nehemiah’s Decree Fits Daniel 9

• Exact wording: Daniel 9:25 says the decree is “to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.”
  • “Plaza” (broad place) and “moat” (fortifications) clearly mean city infrastructure, not just the temple.
  • Only Nehemiah’s mission (444/445 BC) explicitly involves walls, gates, defenses.
• Historical fulfillment:
  • Nehemiah’s book shows rebuilding amid opposition and “times of distress” (Neh. 4:17–18).
  • This mirrors Daniel 9:25’s phrase exactly.
• Chronological precision:
  • Starting at 444/445 BC → counting 483 years (69 sevens) → lands around AD 32–33, the time of Christ’s crucifixion.
  • This makes Daniel’s timeline line up tightly with Jesus’ first coming.

3. Extra-Biblical Support

• Overwhelming evidence that Ptolemy’s Canon + Babylonian tablets: fix Artaxerxes I’s reign as 465–424 BC.
• His 20th year = 445/444 BC (depending on accession reckoning).
• This matches Nehemiah 2’s dating (“in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes”)
• A detailed treatment can be found here: https://letterstoamoderndayjob.com/2025/09/13/pinpointing-the-start-of-artaxerxes-i-longimanuss-reign-why-465-bc-is-rock-solid/

Conclusion

Among the four decrees, only Artaxerxes’ decree to Nehemiah (444/445 BC) matches Daniel 9’s requirement:

• It was an explicit command to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls and defenses, not just the temple or religious life.
• It fulfills the phrase “restore and rebuild Jerusalem … in times of distress.”

What is a Seven?

Both Jewish and Christian take Daniel’s “weeks/sevens” as seven-year periods rather than days of weeks of days.

1. The Hebrew Word שָׁבוּעַ (shāvuʿa)

• Literally = “a seven” or “heptad.”
• It doesn’t mean “week” by default, but “a unit of seven.”
• Context must decide: seven days, seven years, etc.
• In Daniel 9, the context strongly suggests “years.”

2. Context in Daniel 9:2

• Daniel is praying because of Jeremiah’s prophecy of 70 years of exile.
• He’s thinking in years, not days.
• Gabriel’s response (70 “sevens”) comes as a direct counterpart — an expanded period of 490 years decreed for Israel.
• This makes the “sevens” naturally mean years.

3. Old Testament Parallels: Sabbatical Cycles

• Leviticus 25:3–4 — the land is to be worked for six years, then rests the seventh year (Sabbath year).
• Leviticus 25:8 — “Count off seven sabbaths of years — seven times seven years — so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years.”
• Here, “weeks/sevens” explicitly = years, tied to Sabbatical/Jubilee cycles.
• Daniel’s readers, steeped in Torah, would immediately think of these year-weeks.

4. Jewish Historical Understanding

• The Book of Jubilees (2nd century BC) and later rabbinic writings use “weeks” of years as a normal unit of time.
• The Qumran community (Dead Sea Scrolls) also thought in “weeks of years” when reading Daniel.
• This shows the Jewish world around Daniel’s time and afterward already understood the idiom.

Conclusion

The strongest reasons the “weeks” = seven years are:

1. The direct context of Jeremiah’s 70 years.
2. The Sabbatical/Jubilee system in Leviticus (weeks of years).
3. The broader Jewish interpretive tradition.

A “Prophetic Year” is 360 days.

Harold W. Hoehner (in Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ) follows Sir Robert Anderson’s approach in treating Daniel’s “sevens” as 360-day prophetic years. Here are the key reasons why he (and others) adopt this system:

1. Biblical Precedent: Flood Account (Genesis 7–8)

• Genesis 7:11 → Flood begins on the 17th day of the 2nd month.
• Genesis 8:4 → Ark rests on the 17th day of the 7th month = 5 months later.
• Genesis 7:24 → Waters prevailed 150 days.
• 5 months = 150 days → each month = 30 days → year = 360 days.
  👉 Suggests the Bible’s “prophetic calendar” often assumes 30-day months.

2. Daniel and Revelation Parallel

• Daniel 7:25 & 12:7 → “time, times, and half a time” (3½ years).
• Revelation 11:2–3 & 12:6 → same period described as 42 months or 1,260 days.
• 3½ years = 42 months = 1,260 days → 360 days per year.
  👉 Shows that in prophetic apocalyptic literature, a “year” is reckoned as 360 days.

3. Consistency Across Prophecies

• Using 360-day “prophetic years” harmonizes Daniel 9 (69 weeks = 483 years) with Revelation’s timespans.
• Creates a uniform “prophetic calendar” rather than mixing solar years (365.24 days) with symbolic months.

4. Ancient Calendars

• Many ancient cultures (Babylonian, Egyptian) used 360-day base calendars, with intercalary days added to sync with the solar year.
• Thus, Daniel’s Jewish-Babylonian context makes 360-day reckoning historically plausible.

Conclusion

Hoehner uses 360-day years because:

1. Genesis flood chronology shows 30-day months.
2. Daniel & Revelation equate 3½ years = 1,260 days.
3. A 360-day prophetic year creates consistency in apocalyptic literature.
4. Ancient calendars often used 360-day systems.

The END POINT fits the Crucifixion Timeline

• Starting from Artaxerxes’ decree (444 BC) and counting 483 “years” of 360 days = 173,880 days.
• Converting back to solar years = ~476 years.
• 444 BC + 476 years = AD 33 (around Nisan, near Passover).
  👉 Lands directly at the time of Christ’s crucifixion — an astonishing fit.

Final Conclusion:

The starting point of 444 BC of Artaxerxes I Longimanus’ decree to Nehemiah has the strongest extra-biblical support to anchor the prophecy. A careful contextual study of “sevens” and “years” and a conversion of prophetic years to solar years land directly at the time of Christ’s crucifixion (the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.).

The crucifixion is one of the best-attested events of ancient history — even outside Christian sources.

Non-Christian Sources:
Tacitus (Annals 15.44, ~AD 116): mentions Christ executed by Pontius Pilate under Tiberius.
Josephus (Antiquities 18.3.3, ~AD 93): refers to Jesus’ crucifixion (though wording partly contested).
Mara bar-Serapion (Syriac letter, ~late 1st/early 2nd c.): refers to the Jews executing their “wise king.”
Lucian of Samosata (2nd c.): mocks Christians for worshipping a crucified sage.

Christian Sources:
All four Gospels, Paul’s letters (written within 20–25 years of the event), multiple independent traditions.

Historical Consensus:
Even skeptical historians (e.g., Bart Ehrman, Gerd Lüdemann) affirm that Jesus’ crucifixion under Pilate is one of the most secure facts we have about antiquity.

Both the starting point of Artaxerxes I Longimanus’ decree in 444 BC and Christ’s death in 33 AD are very heavily attested by extra-biblical sources. There is no other prophecy in any ancient religious book that can withstand such historical criticism that I know.

This prophecy explains many of the “unexplained” details in the Bible. Why would Persian Magi care about a Jewish Baby? The Jews had already been conquered a few times by the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and now Romans. There was nothing “special” about Israel as a world power at that time. Ancient cultures tend to equate military power with how “great” their gods were. Because Daniel was put in charge of the wise men (that encompassed the magi) while in Persian captivity and likely explained the prophecy to them! How would the Persian Magi even know WHEN to look for this special baby? Why was there a great excitement in 33 AD, the year when Jesus had the triumphant entry into Jerusalem? Because those Jews had great respect for the Biblical texts, they knew that Daniel 9 was pointing to this time for when the anointed one would be cut off.

After studying this for a month, I found my faith subtly rising from within. My intellect that was skeptical started to become more open towards the supernatural nature of the Bible. As my intellect and spirit connected and harmonized, I found myself becoming open to everything Christ is. When that happened, everything in my life changed. A chain reaction started that kindled a long road to recovery in both my health, career, and life.

I share this long “intellectual” post for those who are very thoughtful about science and history. These individuals have been inundated with the reductive truism in today’s post-truth world that all religions are man-made and the same. Because of this, most people don’t read the Bible carefully or dismiss it. I have found in my decades of searching that pretty much only the Bible can survive historical criticism to show real prophecy, and that the message of Christ as Logos, The Way, The Son of God who died for our sins so we can become New Creations and transform us to defeat out sinful natures and have a heavenly destiny has the most power for our thriving and survival as a species.

I hope this post encourages you to explore both the Bible and Christ with an open heart.
I know it will change your life for the better.

Much of the blog post is taken from the work of Sir Robert Anderson and Harold Hoehner.

For more on this topic, see:

Anderson, Robert. The Coming Prince. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1894. (Later reprinted by Kregel, Grand Rapids, MI).

Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977), pp. 115–139. (Hoehner refines Anderson’s approach in Chapter 5: The Seventy Weeks of Daniel (pp. 115–139). He places Artaxerxes’ decree in 444 BC and concludes the 69 weeks terminate in AD 33, the year of Christ’s crucifixion.)

END.

EXTRA:

To be comprehensive, many try to argue that “the Anointed One… being cut off” could apply to something else instead of Christ. After the Temple’s destruction, rabbis needed to reclaim Daniel 9 but deflect it from Jesus. In the Talmud (Sanhedrin 97a–b, 98a), various rabbis reinterpret the prophecy: Others link it to Israel’s suffering or to generic “anointed ones” (like priests). Some apply it to the destruction of the Second Temple, not to a Messiah.

Here are the strongest reasons why many scholars see it as pointing to Jesus’ death, not the temple of a priest.

1. The Term “Anointed One” (Mashiach)

• In the OT, “anointed one” can mean a king, priest, or prophet — but Daniel 9 links it to a unique eschatological figure tied to Israel’s future hope.
• Jewish expectation at the time (e.g., in Qumran texts) anticipated a coming Messiah.
• In the NT, “Christ” (Christos) is the Greek translation of Mashiach.

The word naturally points toward a messianic figure, not a building.

2. “Cut Off” = Violent Death, Not Temple Destruction

• Hebrew karat (“cut off”) is used elsewhere for death under divine judgment (e.g., Genesis 9:11; Exodus 31:14; Leviticus 7:20).
• It does not mean “destroy a building.”
• So this must be a person’s fate, not the temple’s.

The text describes a person cut off, not a place.

3. Timing Fits Jesus, Not Other Options

• Counting 69 “sevens” (483 years) from Artaxerxes’ decree in 444/445 BC lands in the time of Jesus’ crucifixion (AD 30–33).
• No other high priest or temple event matches this timeframe so precisely.

The chronology matches Christ’s death exactly.

4. Temple is Mentioned Separately

• Daniel 9:26 distinguishes:
  1. “The Anointed One will be cut off and have nothing.”
  2. “The people of the ruler to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.”
• If “anointed one” were the temple, it would be redundant to mention the sanctuary’s destruction right after.

👉 The text deliberately treats them as two different events: Messiah’s death, then the temple’s destruction.

5. “And Will Have Nothing”

• This phrase implies the figure dies without apparent legacy or triumph — exactly like Jesus, who was crucified in weakness, rejected by His people (Isaiah 53 echoes this).
• A high priest, even if killed, would leave successors. The temple, if destroyed, was still rebuilt. Only Jesus’ crucifixion matches the sense of being cut off with nothing visible gained — yet leading to ultimate victory.

Conclusion

Daniel 9:26 cannot naturally be read as the temple or a high priest because:

• “Anointed One” points to a person, not a building.
• “Cut off” means death, not destruction of property.
• The text separates Messiah’s cutting off from the temple’s destruction.
• The timeline fits Jesus’ crucifixion precisely.

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[1] Book of Later Han. Volume 1b: Annals of Emperor Guangwu (Website: https://chinesenotes.com/houhanshu/houhanshu003.html)

[2] For more information, refer to The Star of Bethlehem – A Comet in 5 BC by Colin Humphreys: This research discusses the correlation between ancient Chinese comet records and the Star of Bethlehem. It is available in various scientific and historical journals.