In the Book of Daniel, Time, Times and Half a Time is mentioned twice. Most people today think this means 3 and 1/2 years because of the "7 Year Tribulation" theory. Being that I have started showing you through the past few posts that there are major flaws in the "7 Year Tribulation" theory, I have no choice but to think the "Time, Times, and Half a Time" interpretation is incorrect too. In no way am I the one who figured this out. It is purely Ellis Skolfield who has done the work. With that said, lets get started.
SO far, we have only studied prophetic days. In every instance we found them to be years. But day=years are not the only duration of prophetic time in the Bible. Twice in Daniel, and once in
Revelation, there is the expression "time, times, and half a time." So how long is a time? Look at these verses:
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Daniel 7:25
25And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
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Daniel 12:7
7And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
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Is a time a year like the day=years? One thing for sure, a time is not a year. Here is how we know. The Hebrew word for day is yom. The Hebrew and High Syriac words for time (as used in Daniel 7:25 and 12:7) are iddan and moadah. Surely, the Creator of the universe knows the difference between iddan, moadah and yom.
Of course, and He gave us a yom for a year, not an iddan or a moadah for a year. So iddan (time), and moadah (time), must mean something else. Lets call them time durations "X". And what about the cryptic way in which those words were used, "time, times, and the dividing of a time"? How many "times" do we have there? As is true of English, Hebrew is full of idiomatic language. For instance, the Hebrew idiom "cut off" means to kill. "Ate the pieces of" means to bring malicious accusations against, and so on. Is "time, times, and the dividing of a time" also an idiom? Let's see if there is Scripture to support that hypothesis:
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Job 33:14
14For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
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Job 33:14
5Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
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Psalm 62:11
11God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.
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In the above, once is one, and twice is only one more, for a total of two: 1+1=2. A singular one followed by a plural twice is only two. In the same way, a singular time followed by a plural
times might be only two. Only two! The words are different, but the idiomatic form is the same. If the Lord had said, "time, yea time", we might have seen it instantly.
Now let's employ the same idiomatic language to interpret "time, times, and half a time". Time = one; times = one more, for a total of two times. Add a half a time and we have two and a half times, or 1+1+½=2½. That is pretty simple, isn't it? So why have people been saying that "time, times, and half a time", are three and a half years? Who knows? Probably because it fits the Seven-Year tribulation scheme. However, Hebrew scholars have told me their grammar does not support 3½ times as the correct translation for that idiom.
All right, so "time, times, and half a time", are two and a half times. But if a time isn't a year, how long is it? Daniel understood day=years, but he didn't understand time. Why? Because day=years were defined for him in Old Testament scriptures while time was not. In fact, time was not defined until late in the New Testament epistles:
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2 Peter 3:8
8But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
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On the surface that sure doesn't look like much of a definition for time, does it? It certainly doesn't work in English. But something is wrong here. God has already given us the definition for day. He gave us a day for a year. Is the Lord changing His definition of prophetic days here? Not at all. We can prove that the correct interpretation for prophetic days is still years by the 42
months and 1260 days of Revelation that we just studied. What we have here is an in X with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as an X. So how do we solve for X? By doing a word study in Greek, which was the original language of the New Testament. The Greek word translated day in 2Pe 3:8 is hemera.
Hemera is an ambiguous word sometimes translated: period, moment, season, year, and, guess
what ... Time. So what is the correct translation here? In Greek, context often determines translation, but in the above verse, the correct translation cannot be established with certainty because context does not suggest the correct concept. Understandably, translators went with iiday,lt which is the most common usage, but that may not be correct. Hemera is translated time in four verses in the KJV, and twelve verses in the NASB. So time is a very acceptable translation. Is it possible that duration X is a thousand years?
If time is a thousand years, and we have 2½ of them, then "time, times, and half time", could be 2500 years. Thus far, we have only a supposition. But that is all we had for day=years until we started plugging them into history. Let's see if there is an exact 2500 year historic fit that fulfills the Bible's description of these times right to the year.
The Lord gave Daniel the vision of four great beasts coming up out of the sea. Scripture tells us
when this was, right to the year, "In the 1st year of Belshazzar" (Dan 7:1). In pictorial language, the vision then describes the four great kingdoms that were to rule in the Holy Land during the time of the Gentiles. At the end of that prophecy, the Lord tells Daniel about times:
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Daniel 7:25
25And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
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Being that time was defined in the New Testament in 2 Peter 3:8 there is no need to convert to Solar Years. Therefore, lets start at 552 BC because that is when the Prophecy started according to Daniel 7:1. We will simply add the 2500 Years to 552 BC.
(552 BC) + (2500 Years) = 1948
This is the exact year that Israel became a nation!
You might be saying that it is a coincidence that this interpretation fits Scripture AND History. Well, I would agree with you if it only worked for one of the three prophecies that use the "time, times, and dividing of time" but, lets look at another one of these prophecies in the next post that is labeled "Time, Times, & Half 2".
These prophecies have been to the exact year and have not been swayed in any mathematical way. It is amazing how they fit exactly. Gods' knowledge and power is awesome. He truly has a plan for us. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior and believe he died on the Cross to save us from our sins, please say a prayer to accept him into your heart and life. Your eternity depends on it!
God Bless,
Martin Taylor
