Question:
Why, in applying a day for a year in prophecy, do you give the Jewish year as 360 days?
Answer:
(1) The application of a day for a year in prophecy is authorized by Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:4-6. (2) A Bible month is shown to be thirty days by Genesis 7:11; 8:4, in comparison with Genesis 7:24. The first passage places the beginning of the Flood on the second month and 17th day; the second passage tells us the ark rested on the seventh month the 17th day; and the third passage shows this period to be just 150 days, a period of five months at thirty days to the month. Twelve of such months would constitute a year of 360 days. The twelve-month year is indicated in 1 Kings 4:7; 1 Chronicles 27:1-15. (3) There is one prophetic period mentioned seven times in the Bible, as follows: “time and times and the dividing of time” (Daniel 7:25); “a time, times, and a half” (Daniel 12:7); “forty and two months” (Revelation 11:2; 13:5); “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” (Revelation 11:3; 12:6); “a time, and times, and half a time.” (Revelation 12:14). If forty-two months are identical with 1,260 days, there are thirty days to the month; and if the forty-two months constitute three and one-half times, or years, there are twelve months to the year, of thirty days each. That is conclusive as to prophetic time.
In the later Jewish calendars, a short month, Ve-adar, was added occasionally to correct the calendar, which would make the average Jewish year correct. See Smith’s Bible Dictionary, article “Month.”
