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CAL-6619Folder 01Appointed Times — The Biblical Files

Daniel's Time Language

Daniel 7:25; 9:24-27; 12:7, 11-12

Daniel speaks in weeks, times, days and appointed ends. The archive files the language as text, and the competing readings as interpretation — because they are.

BIBLICAL TEXTINTERPRETATION

The expressions

'A time and times and the dividing of time' (7:25); 'seventy weeks are determined' (9:24); 'a time, times, and an half' (12:7); the 1,290 and 1,335 days of 12:11-12. Daniel 8:19 speaks of 'the appointed time of the end'.

Change the times and the law

Daniel 7:25 says the little horn 'shall think to change times and laws'. This verse is quoted constantly in popular calendar arguments. What the text says is that a persecuting power will attempt to alter appointed times and law; it does not name a calendar, a century, or a reform.

Where interpretation begins

Whether the seventy weeks are years, whether they run continuously, where they terminate, and whether the day-figures are literal or symbolic are all disputed among serious interpreters. Any file that presents one of these as settled fact is overclaiming.

The honest use of Daniel 7:25

Applying 'change the times' directly to the Gregorian reform is an interpretive move, not a documented one. It belongs on the interpretation board with a stamp, not in the history folder. The archive records that the application is made, and that the text does not require it.

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