Dougg,

Isaiah 44:28 and Josephus' Antiquities 11.6 and 11.12 (from 11.1.2 / 11.1.3) prove both biblically and historically that Cyrus' edict included the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and I also offered you a link which shows Jerusalem was populated WELL before Nehemiah. If you insist on Artaxerxes' decree, that's one thing - but you cannot deny the facts about Cyrus.

I agree that it's a 490 year prophecy. You don't. You believe it's 483 or 486.5 and separated by some 2000+ years until the 70th week. You continue to ignore the fact that the cut-off Messiah's death coincides with the destruction of the Temple. The temple's destruction would have happened in week 74 or 75 according to your calculations with Jesus (which is dependent on a mythical 360 day calendar).

If everlasting righteousness, etc.. came to the world in Jesus' day, where's the proof? What changed?

If 70 weeks were decreed on the people and city, how did that come to fruition with Jesus? Daniel prayed for the city and his people. Jesus didn't do anything for the city or the people he prayed for. It is the Jewish point-of-view that sees Gabriel's words as a direct response to Daniel's prayer for both his people and the city.

The fact is that the 490 years were a purging period or a fixed amount of time that Jews had to get their act straight, or else. Note that the 2nd temple was not like the 1st. No explicit miracles in the 2nd temple (except for Channukah). The holy-of-holies was never annointed. The Jews went through some VERY dark times throughout that entire period( like the Samaritans, Greeks, and Romans - like Gabriel predicted).

IF Jews cleaned up their act, THEN at the end of this 490 year period it was possible that Jews could have brought about the Messianic era at THAT time. THEN all the Messianic promises would start, as well as the annointing of the holy-of-holies. THAT didn't happen, and there's absolutely zero proof that it did happen with Jesus. Things got worse for the city and the people directly after Jesus.

Why is the 2nd annointed the last Saduccean high priest? That line was utterly cut-off, never to be continued again. Ezekiel even writes about the restored high priesthood of the 3rd Temple and how it is NOT to be corrupt like the Saduccean cult. These are good priests who do not stray from Torah and actually teach Torah laws to others. But again, even if it's the last Judean King, that's big news too - as these events coincide with the fall of the Temple and Jerusalem.

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"He who saves one life... it is as if he saves an entire universe. He who destroys a life... it is as if he destroys an entire universe"

TALMUD - Sanhedrin 4:5

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