The 360 Day Prophetic Calendar of the Bible

Part One

By Randy Nettles

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This article is a study and comparison of three similar calendars: Our modern day Gregorian, conventional Jewish, and the 360 day or prophetic calendar and how they relate to the prophecies of Daniel 9:27 and Daniel 12:11.

“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Daniel 9:27).

“And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days” (Daniel 12:11).

The contents of Daniel 9:27 are in reference to the Antichrist and the period of time known as the Tribulation (Daniel’s 70th week or Jacob’s Trouble).

This verse gives the duration of the Tribulation as one week, which is a common biblical reference to 7 years. It starts when the Antichrist confirms a peace treaty or covenant with Israel . Daniel mentions that in the midst (near the middle) of the 7 years the Antichrist will break the peace treaty by stopping the animal sacrifices in the newly rebuilt temple of Israel and also desecrating the temple. His partner, the false prophet, does this by setting up some sort of image of the Antichrist in the temple and demands that the entire world worship him as God (Revelation 13:14-15).

Daniel 12:11 clearly states that the last half of the Tribulation, otherwise known as the Great Tribulation, will last for 1290 days. It must have been important for Daniel to mention this fact. Which calendar was Daniel referring to regarding these prophecies? Most Bible scholars are in agreement that the ancient 360 day calendar is the right one. That was the calendar in use during Daniel’s time (and earlier).

Many of these scholars believe the phrase “in the midst” means the exact middle….that there are two equal halves of 1260 days for a total of 2520 days in a 7 year time frame. 1260 + 1260 = 2520. However, that doesn’t explain Daniel 12:11 and why there appears to be an extra 30 days in the last half of the Tribulation. If there are 30 days added, the total 7 year duration would be for 2550 days and not 2520 days. 1260 + 1290 = 2550. So, which is correct? Hopefully, the answer lies within the scope of our study.

The Conventional Jewish Calendar

Most people think the Jewish calendar is a lunar one. That is only partially true. Technically, it is a lunar-solar calendar, which means the years are reckoned according to the sun, but the months according to the moon. In contrast, the Muslim calendar is strictly lunar. A pure lunar calendar presents a major difficulty because the solar year exceeds 12 lunar months by about 11 days. Thus, if the lunar calendar is not adjusted periodically, the calendar dates will rotate through the year, ending up with winter months falling in the summer and summer months in the winter.

This is exactly what happens with the Muslim calendar. The Islamic year has 12 months alternating between 29 and 30 days, making a year of 354 or 355 days. Because there is no attempt to align this lunar year with the solar year, Muslim months have no relation to the seasons. The months move around the year, and major festivals, like Ramadan, can occur in any season.

The Jews were prohibited from using a pure lunar calendar by the fact that they were required by their Scriptures to celebrate seven feasts each year, and three of those feasts — First Fruits, Pentecost and Tabernacles — were related to the agricultural cycle. So, to prevent the feasts from migrating around the calendar, the Jews inserted an extra month of 30 days seven times during a 19 year cycle. This extra month, called Adar 2, is referred to technically as an intercalary month since it is intercalated, or inserted, into the calendar. Thus they have either 354 or 384 days in their lunar-solar year (plus or minus one day).

The insertion of this extra month in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years of the cycle is the reason that Jewish feasts and historical dates jump around on the calendar. For example, the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) will fall on September 14 of 2015. In 2016 it will fall on October 3. The later date in 2016 is due to the fact that 2016 is a leap year, so an extra month (Adar 2) was inserted during the time of March on the Western calendar. In like manner, Israel 's Independence Day (May 14, 1948 on the Western calendar) moves back and forth on the Hebrew calendar (within a 30 day parameter). In 2015 it will fall on April 25. In 2016 it will be celebrated on May 14. The date on the Hebrew calendar is 5 Iyar.

The Gregorian Calendar

The calendar used in the Western world today dates back to Roman times. The early Romans used a lunar calendar. In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar decided to adopt a solar calendar that would cause the months to correspond with specific seasons. He adopted a plan devised by the Egyptian astronomer, Sosigines. It provided for a 365 day year, with one day added every fourth or “leap” year. He distributed the extra ten days among the 29 day months, making them identical with the months we know today.

This new calendar became known as the Julian calendar. It was introduced about 45 BC, but God delayed its consistent use until about the birth of Jesus Christ as a sign that “the fullness of time” had come, Galatians 4:4.

But the calendar had a flaw. The Julian year of 365.25 days was too long. The correct value is 365.242199 days. This error of 11 minutes and 14 seconds per year amounted to almost one and a half days in two centuries, and seven days in 1,000 years. To remedy this problem, Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal decree in 1582 directing that ten days be dropped from the calendar. The decree went into effect in October, when October 5 was declared to be October 15.

Then, to prevent the problem from occurring again, the Pope directed that three times in every 400 years the leap-year arrangement should be omitted. This practice led to the rule that no centennial years should be leap years unless they were exactly divisible by 400. Thus, 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, as they should have been on the Julian calendar, but the year 2000 is a leap year.

The new calendar was called the Gregorian, or New Style. It was adopted immediately by Catholic countries, but Protestant and Orthodox countries continued to use the Julian calendar for a long time. The Gregorian calendar was not adopted in England until 1572. It became the calendar of Russia in 1918. The Eastern Orthodox Church did not adopt it until 1923 (by that time, 13 days had to be dropped). The Gregorian calendar has 365.2422 days per year and is the one most of the Western world goes by in these modern times.

The 360 Day or Prophetic Calendar

It is commonly supposed that the ancient 360-day calendar is hopelessly inaccurate. After all, has not modern science shown the number of days in a year to be 365.2422 days, and not 360? However, such reasoning lacks understanding as to how all calendars work. All calendars insert leap-days or leap-months to nudge the 'normal' year closer to the exact 365.2422 year, otherwise before long the months on the calendar would be out of synchronization with the seasons of the year. (This was a big problem in the ancient world.)

For instance: In our modern calendar, a “normal” year has 365 days, with every 4th year having 366 days. In the modern Hebrew calendar, a 'normal' year has 354 days, but upon every 2 or 3 years a leap month is added with 384 days in that year. Likewise, the 360-day year of the Prophetic Calendar adds a 30-day leap month at regular intervals with that year having 390 days instead of the “normal” 360 days.

 To match the 365.25 level of accuracy, the 360-prophectic calendar of 12 months of 30 days must simply count out 6 years before an extra month of 30 days is accumulated (A 365 solar year less a 360 prophetic year = 5 days. Five days for each year over a six-year period = 5 x 6 = 30 days). That means that every 6th year is a leap month year with 390 days in that year, (i.e., 13 months of 30 days = 390 days).

The 6th cycle of 6 years is followed by a 7th cycle only 4 years long---for a total of 40 years, (a "generation" in the bible). 6 x 6 = 36 years, + 4 years = 40 years. The effect is to place emphasis upon the 6th and 7th cycle since the 6th cycle of 6 years precedes the special seventh cycle of only 4 years, which in turn concludes the 40-year cycle. The 40-year cycle is foundational to the prophetic calendar.

The 360-day prophetic calendar works in unison with, and gives meaning to, the ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Mayan, Chinese, Julian (Roman), Islamic, Gregorian, and Jewish calendars since all of these were based upon the expert observations of the sun and moon. However, all of these calendars come short in accuracy, usability, and meaning. But the bible fills in where these come short. The Bible fully reveals the rhyme and the reason of how the precise cycles of the years and months work. The bible contains the special revelation necessary to know the workings of this perfect calendar-clock.

What about the lunar calendar used by Moses, which is still used by modern Israel today? The calendar used by Moses at the time of the Exodus out of Egypt (1446 BC, Ex. 12:2) is essentially the same as that one used today in modern Israel: It was a lunar-solar calendar. Nevertheless, a careful study of the chronological material from the books of Moses show that his lunar-solar calendar was synchronized with the 360-day calendar. (We will examine this later).

Moses was very knowledgeable about both the lunar-solar calendar and the 360-day calendar since he was “trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22). The Egyptians used at least three calendars: The 360-day calendar, a lunar-solar calendar, and one kept in synchronization with the stars.

However, although there are many similarities between the calendars of Moses and the Egyptians, yet there are significant differences as well. For instance, the 360-day year of the Egyptians was adjusted to the actual 365-day solar year by adding 5 special days at the end of every 360-day period; (12 months of 30 days, plus 5).

However, it is evident from the books of Moses (and later, the prophetic writings) that the 360-day calendar of the prophets was adjusted by adding a leap month of 30-days approximately every six years, rather than the Egyptian method of 5 days at each years' end. (The insertion of the 30-day leap-month at regular six-year cycles was also the method used in the ancient Zoroastrian calendar.) Another distinction between Moses and the Egyptians is that Egypt had three seasons to their year whereas Moses held to four (Gen. 8:22).

All three of these calendars (Jewish, Gregorian, and 360 day) are about the same in accuracy over relatively short periods of time. However, the 360 Prophetic Calendar shows itself superior in every way, as it spans and divides time into biblical generations of 40 and 100 years, and biblical ages of 4,000 and 100,000 years; with the biblical principle of a 7th-day rest woven throughout. Moreover, the constant use of multiples of 360 years in keeping with 360 days enforces the biblical concepts that, "a day is as a year," and also, "a thousand years is as a day."

Randy Nettles