What arguments are there against the 69 week periods of Anderson and Hoehner?

Question

Today is Palm Sunday, when our Lord made his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem seated on a humble donkey. Both Robert Anderson, in his book The Coming Prince (1894), and Harold Hoehner, in Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (1978) argue that 69 of the 70 weeks in Daniel 9:24-27 ends with the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday.

Anderson claims the starting date for the 69 weeks was 14th March 445 BC which he derives from Nehemiah 2:1. He assumed it was on the 1st of Nisan that Artaxerxes I gave a decree to Nehemiah to go to Jerusalem to rebuild it. Anderson also claims that the Triumphal Entry happened on 6th April AD 32. By using a 360 day "prophetic year" Anderson then claimed the period in question is 483 years (69 weeks) to the exact day.

Hoehner felt Anderson's date range was untenable, probably because in AD 32 the 14th Nisan, the day the Passover lambs were slain, was on a Monday, impossible to reconcile with a Sunday resurrection. He therefore argued that the 20th year of Artaxerxes I (Nehemiah 2:1) was a year later and placed the start of the 69 weeks as 5th March 444 BC. He then claimed the Triumphal Entry happened on 30th March AD 33. He also kept Anderson's 360 day "prophetic year". He also claimed the period is 483 years, 69 weeks, to the exact day.

My question is "What arguments do non-dispensationalists have against these theories?"

I'm assuming Anderson's theory is more or less replaced by Hoehner's, since AD 32 for the crucifixion is a non-starter. But arguments against both are welcome.

(I will be asking a parallel question: how do dispensationalists justify belief in either of these theories?)

Answer 1

Problem No. 1 - Not 69 weeks exactly

Perhaps the most fun and easiest thing anyone (except Anne, sorry!) can do is go into onlineconversion.com/julian_date.htm and enter in the dates and see if they add up to 483 years, to the exact day. This website gives the Julian Number for each date.

For Robert Anderson's dates:

Enter 6th April CE 32. [Answer = 1732842] (Use 12hr, 0 min, 0 sec) Enter 14th Mar BCE 445. [Answer = 1558959]

1732842 - 1558959 = 173883 (days).

173883 / 360 does not give an integer answer. It is actually 173880 / 360 which gives an integer answer. Therefore Anderson's date range is not 69 weeks ( 483 years ) to the exact day!

Now let us look at Hoehner's dates:

Enter 30th March CE 33. [Answer = 1733200]

Enter 5th March BCE 444. [Answer = 1559316]

1733200 - 1559316 = 173884 days.

173884 / 360 does not produce an integer value. It is 4 days longer than 483 years (or 69 weeks). Therefore Hoehner's date range is not 483 years, 69 weeks, to the exact day either.

(Actually, to be fair, it would have been better not to include the first day of each date range: this would have meant Anderson was 2 days in error, and Hoehner was 3 days in error. The difference between 10th Jan 2021 and 10th Jan 2022 is 366 days: if we want to know how much 10th Jan 2022 is beyond 10th Jan 2021 we need to start with 11 Jan 2021 and end with 10th Jan 2022.)

Now just for fun let us take another date range. This is from 1st Nisan 458 BCE (obedience to the decree of Artaxerxes to restore Jerusalem to Jewish rule and rebuild it in Ezra 7:9) to the Resurrection Day on 5th April CE 33 (Julian), assuming the crucifixion was on 3rd April 33 CE (Julian).

1st Nisan 458 BCE was 8th April 458 BCE (Julian).

Enter 5th April 33 CE. [Answer = 1733206]

Enter 8th April 458 BCE. [Answer = 1554236]

1733206 - 1554236 = 178970.

178970 / 365.24219 (solar year) = 490.00363 (or 70 weeks and 1 day). Starting with 9th April 458 BCE as explained above gives 490 solar years (70 weeks) to the exact day.

When Hoehner changed the 20th year of Artaxerxes from 445 BC to 444 BC he also, unfortunately, changed all of Artaxerxes's other years so that his 7th year (Ezra chapter 7) became 457 BC and not 458 BC. In this part of his theory Anderson was at least correct.

Problem No. 2 - there was no decree given in either 445 or 444 BC

445 BC is the year Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem in Nehemiah chapter 2 because Artaxerxes gave him permission. But the Bible does not mention any decree at this time. The last decree given was in 458 BC in Ezra 7:13.

Problem No. 3 - Hoehner's 5th March 444 BC could not possibly have been 1st Nisan.

5th March (Julian) is 28th February 444 BC Gregorian. This would have meant Passover falling on 13th March (Gregorian). This is completely impossible because Passover always had to fall after the Spring Equinox on (Gregorian) 21st March! So Hoehner's start date is wrong by a month. 1st Nisan in 444 BC came after the New Moon and was no earlier than 3rd April (Julian). So once again the date range is nothing like 69 weeks to the exact day.

For a more detailed critique see https://www.oxfordbiblechurch.co.uk/index.php/books/new-book-daniel-s-70-weeks/475-appendix-2-anderson-hoehner-interpretation-a-critique

This is a critique by a Pastor who is himself a dispensationalist.

Another website from the dispensationalist fold which demolishes both Anderson and Hoehner can be found here: https://www.pickle-publishing.com/papers/harold-hoehner-70-weeks.htm (Thanks to Lesley for finding this.)

It seems modern dispensationalists are very aware of the shortcomings of the theories of both of these men.

It is, I think, very regrettable that some Christians, who otherwise show signs of being non-dispensationalists, are not aware of these problems and continue to quote the theories of these two men as authoritative and with approval.

Answer 2

To Andrew's list of problems, I would like to add the following:

(1) In Dispensationalism, the decree with which the 490 years began was Artaxerxes’ SECOND decree of 445/4 BC. However, that decree did not “restore” Jerusalem. To "restore" Jerusalem means to allow the Jews to govern themselves according to their own laws.

(2) That decree does not fit the time of Christ. To make it fit, Dispensationalism reckons these as years of 360 days each. However, Israel had two types of weeks: Weeks of days and weeks of years. In both, every seventh was a Sabbath (year or day of rest). The 70 weeks are 70 weeks of years and, therefore, equal to 490 LITERAL years; not 'prophetic years'. (See here.)

(3) In Dispensationalism, the 483 years end when Jesus’ ministry ended. But Daniel 9:25 implies that the Messiah’s ministry will BEGIN at the end of the first 483 years.

(4) In Dispensationalism, God suspended His covenant with Israel at the Cross and postponed the last seven years to just before Christ returns. However, the first chapters of Acts show that God’s covenant with Israel did not come to an end at Christ's death. In the first six chapters of Acts, God sends His Holy Spirit, but only to Jews and only to Jerusalem. During those years God appealed to the heart of the Jewish nation as He has never done before or after for any nation.

For an article that discusses the objections to the dispensational interpretation of Daniel 9, see here.