A Theology of Christ's Crucified Body | Part I
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Summary: The Angel Gabriel Proclaims the Timings of the Comings of Christ
St. Gabriel prophesied (by implication) of the First Coming of Christ to Daniel in the OLD Testament as being in the 65th literal week of Jewish years after the beginning of the rebuilding of the Temple, which was approximately 444 BC.
In the NEW Testament, St. Gabriel announces this literal birth of Christ to Mary, when St. Elizabeth is in her sixth month of pregnancy. So Mary will give birth to Jesus almost six months after St Elizabeth gives birth, or 9+6 = within the 15th month overall. But 15 Jewish months are actually 64 weeks and 2 days. So Jesus is born no later than the first two days of the 65th literal week of the pregnancies.
The Angel Gabriel Proclaims the Timings of the Comings of Christ
The New American Bible, commissioned by the USCCB around the time of Vatican II, unfortunately contains rationalist approaches to prophecy, especially Daniel in the OT and Apocalypse in the NT. Nevertheless, at least since the times that St Augustine destroyed the bogus arguments of the pagan Porphory in the fifth century, who was scoffing at blatantly appropriate prophecies of Daniel, the Catholic Church used to hold the OT apocalyptic Book of Daniel the Prophet in sufficient esteem as to grant it true prophetic characteristics, meaning, even unbelievable prophecies of great temporal events, such as empires rising, some specific characteristics of such empires, and so forth.
That is, until modern Historico-Critical methods, which treat fantastic miracles as bogus until proven innocent. Of course, they are never proven innocent, even if they make far more appropriate sense than the pathetic solutions of the critics to the contrary. When someone does not want something to be true, they will attack it even when they know they are losing.
One such prophecy is the seventy weeks of years. Effectively, this incredible prophecy that is simply hard to deny, even by critics, is a mind-blowing revelation of the near exact year that the Christ would appear in human history as to begin his Public Ministry, a prophecy made by the great Archangel messenger, St Gabriel, some five centuries before Christ.
Were that not enough, the Church, while now giving liberal, or rationalist, interpretation to Daniel in the New American Bible (NAB), including such passage in question, nevertheless retains a vestige of such prophecy in the great Christmas Proclamation that is sung, many times by a deacon, in the first part of the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass. Here is the text for reference:
The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/christmas/christmas-proclamation.cfm
The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ
The Twenty-fifth Day of December, when ages beyond number had run their course from the creation of the world,...
around the thousandth year since David was anointed King; in the sixty-fifth week of the prophecy of Daniel;in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
...JESUS CHRIST, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence, was conceived by the Holy Spirit,...
What does it mean?
“in the sixty-fifth week of the prophecy of Daniel; “
Here is the context. What happened is as follows: the Scripture in question comes from Chapter 9 of the same book of Daniel, in the midst of the exile, in which the prophet Daniel found himself. The prophet is lamenting that his People are suffering so grievously under foreign power, yet realizing that it is highly warranted because of the great unfaithfulness of the Jewish people prior to that same exile. He prays a prayer of repentance on behalf of His People and implores the Almighty to reach out in mercy and help them. At this time, the angel Gabriel, the same angel that will later appear to Mary in the New Covenant, makes his first appearance in Scripture, comes to comfort Daniel, and in fact give a prophetic time table of general events that are to follow before the ultimate restoration in Christ. Let us now look at the text. For the sake of brevity, let us isolate the essential elements here:
Daniel 9:
...[24] Seventy weeks [of Jewish years, exactly 360 days/year] are shortened upon thy people, ... [25] Know thou therefore, and take notice: that from the going forth of the word, to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ the prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks:...
We see now, through the Douay-Rheims footnotes, that the prophecy indicates that from the going forth of the word to rebuild Jerusalem unto Messiah the prince’s Public appearance shall be 7+ 62 = 69 weeks of years, or effectively 69 * 7 = 483 years. Long story short, the decree to rebuild the Temple came around 444 BC under Persian King Artaxerxes. So 483 years later is roughly 483 – 444 = 39 AD. Unfortunately, that is, by most estimates, too late, since Christ’s ministry started more like anywhere from 27~AD to 30~ AD, by most estimates.
Never fear! The years we currently speak of are secular, or Roman years, which are roughly 365.25 days. The Jewish year, however, is only 360 days, consisting of 12 perfect months of 30 days. Hence, since the Jewish year is some 5 and a quarter days less, 483 Jewish years will be less time than 483 Roman years. To get, therefore, the Jewish timing relative to Roman years, we need to compute the total number of days in 360 Jewish Years, then divide the number of days by total number of days in a RomanYear [again, about 365.25] In other words, this is:
483 Jewish Years =
483 * 360 days =
483 *360 days / 365.25 days per Roman year
= 483 * (360 / 365.25) Roman years
= 483 * .9856228
= 476 Roman years.
Now, 476 – 444 Roman years – 1 year (no 0 AD) = 31 AD, a far better estimate!
Long story short, this prophecy is clearly incredibly accurate, and it also explains why Jewish expectation of Messiah was high at that time: The Jews had this prophecy in their orthodox conception, and they knew that Messiah was right around the corner.
The 65th LITERAL Week of Years: Time of Christ's Birth
But now, Ok, you say, but this is the PUBLIC MINISTRY of Jesus, and it is end of week 69, not 65! True! And this actually leads to common sense: Christmas Eve Mass is NOT celebrating the PUBLIC appearance of Christ in human history, but His SECRET appearance, His BIRTH. And so if He appears PUBLICLY at the end of week 69, at what we know is roughly age **30**, then his BIRTH is effectively **30** years BEFORE the end of week 69. Bingo. What is that?
30 years is 30/7 = 4 weeks of years and 2 years.
Now, count back: 4 weeks subtracted from the END of week 69 is 69 - 4 = the end of week 65! And two years more back is right IN week 65, two days short of its END! Bingo!
in the sixty-fifth week of the prophecy of Daniel! [Christ was born into human hstory!]
So, the scholars of the Church who compiled the Christmas Eve Proclamation have indeed done their homework with Daniel!
St Gabriel, Mary, and the SECOND Coming!
Notice, then, St Gabriel, in this OLD Testament, is proclaiming the TIMING of the FIRST Coming of Christ!
Now, where have we seen St Gabriel before? Where else? MARY! He came to MARY in the NEW Testament, ALSO proclaiming the FIRST Coming of Christ, although in a LITTLE sense: LITERAL MONTHS. "And behold, as proof of my witness, thy cousin Elizabeth, who was thought barren, is now in her SIXTH MONTH with child, for nothing is impossible with God!"
How does THAT work? Let us see: St. Gabriel announces this literal birth of Christ to Mary when St. Elizabeth is in her sixth month of pregnancy. So Mary will give birth to Jesus almost six months after St Elizabeth gives birth. Of course, like any normal woman, St Elizabeth gives birth at the end of 9 months. So since Mary gives birth some six months later, or IN the sixth month later, she gives birth within 9+6 = the 15th month overall. So that would be, because it is IN the fifteenth month, it is NO LATER than the END of the fifteenth month.
BUT NOW!!! If St Gabriel revealed the First Coming by WEEKS of years, how about looking at the literal WEEKS in the FIFTEEN MONTHS!
How many?
Well..... 15 months is...
15 * (30 days/Jewish month) / (7 days / week)
= (15*30) / 7
= 450 / 7
= 64 weeks remainder 2 days!
And since 2 days are left over, the two days are the first two days of the ***65th week**!
Hence! Whereas Jesus came the First time noearlier than the last two days of the65th week of years in Daniel’s Prophetic Time Frame, He came nolater than thefirst two daysof the literal 65 weekof thepregnancies of St. Elizabeth and Mother Mary!
So just as God seals the prophecy of Daniel, made by St Gabriel, in terms of 65 weeks of years, so St Gabriel seals the prophecy to Mary with 65 weeks of days!
Take that, liberal scholars!
I am a Catholic revert. I desire to share deeper theology about the Catholic Church that is admittedly speculative but that makes perfect sense from Catholic doctrine and church teaching.
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