In several areas of Bible prophecy and chronology, some insist on using special 360-day years, that is, 12 months of 30 days. These are sometimes called prophetic years and are especially popular with many rapture theology adherents.
Part of the concept is true and was common in much of the ancient world. Egypt, for example, used twelve 30-day months for the year. But this was not considered a completed year until additional religious days were observed at the end, bringing the total days of a year to 364/365 before the first month of the next year began. Many ancient lands used a lunar based calendar. Athens, for example, had months of 29 or 30 days each, but added an entire extra month to specific years in a 19-year cycle. Babylonia, Assyria, and Persia were roughly similar. The Jews also followed a lunar calendar with 12 months of 29-30 days each with an additional month occasionally added and a full year being a solar year.
So, regardless of the surface appearance of a 360-day year, the actual year in the context of Old Covenant Bible prophecy was the same length as ours today. More trustworthy yet, when speaking of the very beginning of creation, Genesis 1:14 establishes God’s definition of a year as a solar, that is, a 364-1/4 day year. “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years”. Even if as some claim, the pre-flood world experienced a 360-day year, the definition remains a solar year regardless of later theorized change to the earth’s rotation speed.
The fact that we can produce desirable interpretations, or misinterpretations of prophecies and chronologies does not mean our assumptions are either biblical or correct. What matters is that we remain within the clear words of Scripture and resist either adding or subtracting from God’s revealed truth. Sadly, many varieties of Christian and pseudo-Christian theologies gladly go where God’s word does not take them.
Yet, in Daniel, a 1260-day period is predicted. Since he isn’t speaking of years, he seems to be using the 30-day month that was common language in his day, and would of course also be inspired by God and correct. This divides into forty two 30-day months as also similarly described in Revelation 13:5. We might note that Daniel and Revelation consistently avoid using the Chaldaic (original Old Testament text where Hebrew is not used in Daniel), or Greek (Septuagint or New Testament) word for a solar “year”. So, the days are precise numbers of days that also show God as deliberate and orderly in his revelation of future events. Rounded months of 30 days each were common concepts in the ancient world. Conflict with Scripture only arises when years are defined by 360 days, which the Bible does not appear to support.
On a related topic: the attempt to connect Nehemiah’s decree to rebuild the WALL of Jerusalem to Daniel 9:27 by mathematical assumption of 483 360-day years fails to prove that the selected starting point decree authorizes rebuilding the city. With our solidly corrected calendar years (Jesus’ birth was likely between 4 and 7 BC, which also moves dates thought to be his crucifixion year), the mathematical “proof” built upon a faulty calendar system* now arrives on a year after Jesus was already returned to the Father’s right hand instead of at the Triumphal Entry. Changing to Ezra’s decree will not help either as the difference between using biblical solar years and prophetic years is about 2082 days, or nearly 6 years’ variance. So, while the Genesis 1:14 definition of 483 solar years arrives at the year of Jesus’ anointing at his baptism and open revelation to Israel, prophetic years would fall short of his baptism by almost five years and almost two years short of his triumphal entry. For more on the count of years see this post.
* In about 525 AD, Dionysius Exiguus made a commendable effort to pinpoint the year of Jesus’ birth and established the system that would eventually become widely used, especially in the western world. But he had to approximate the birth, just as we still do. Sure, we have other indicators in suitable Passover dates, but these also provide multiple options. In general, arguments from calendars are inconclusive to various degree.
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