NOTES for Dan 12:5-13

It is not surprising that the revelation received raised for the author of the Book of Daniel, just as for the visionary himself, the question of times and dates: after the end of the persecutions many expected the coming of the Messiah and the triumph of the messianic Kingdom. The period of three and a half years ("a time, times, and half a time," vv. 5-7) raised many other questions, especially if we suppose that the vision had been revealed after the death of Antiochus Epiphanes. Indeed, the three and a half years promised in another vision, during which the Temple stood defiled, had already passed, the persecutor who had defiled it had died, and the expected resolution connected with the coming of the Messiah still had not arrived. A natural question arose: what else is God waiting for? And what should the faithful expect?

Meanwhile, there is an answer in the vision received by the unnamed visionary, though it does not immediately catch the eye. It is no accident that the messenger of God, after repeating the already fulfilled prophecy about the 1290 days of "desolation," that is, the defilement of the Temple, called blessed those who "wait and reach" the period of 1335 days from the moment of the Temple's defilement. It is easy to see that the difference between the first and second periods is 45 days. Those same 45 days, as is known, separate the celebration of Pesach (the Jewish Passover) in the Jewish calendar from another feast called Shavuot (in the Christian tradition it is usually called Pentecost). And if during Pesach the Exodus is remembered and lived through anew, then the feast of Shavuot is associated, among other things, with the firstfruits, the fruits of that land which God had promised to Abraham and whose conquest became the completion of the Exodus.

The meaning of the revelation in such a context becomes quite clear: blessed is the one who waits for the day of firstfruits, reaches the end of the path, and does not stop halfway to the Kingdom promised by God. Of course, the period in this case must be considered symbolic; God does not reveal to His servant a specific date for the coming of the Messiah. He merely reminds him that the liberation of Jerusalem and the cleansing of the Temple are not the end of the path, as many thought, but only the beginning of its final stage. Truly blessed is only the one who walks the whole path to the end, meeting the Messiah and gaining the Kingdom of which the prophets spoke.