Daniel 8 Discussion - Also Seventh Day Adventists and Other Cults

Here is the Letter by E. S. Calman who is the only source the SDA church has to confirm the October 22 1844 date:

Mr. Editor: I have been requested by a friend to write a few lines for your paper on the subject of the Jewish mode of reckoning time. I am a descendant of the ancient Karaite Jews, who have always rejected the authority of the Rabbins, and have ever considered the Old Testament as the only rule of our faith. We believe that the Scriptures teach us plainly when we should observe the Passover. We keep it on the same month that the Jews do; but we reckon the commencement of that month differently from them. They commence their month at the change or dark moon; we commence ours at the first sight of the new moon. The Rabbinical Jews have a great many traditions which they follow in preference to the Scriptures. They have a set of astronomical tables by which they calculate their feasts; but we follow nature as our guide. We believe that barley should be ripe before we keep our Passover; and if it is not ripe, we put off our feast one month that year. This makes occasionally a difference of one month between us and them. This was the case in 1843. The Rabbinical Jews kept their Passover one month before we did; and consequently their seventh month was one month earlier than ours. The Rabbinical Jews commenced their seventh month on September 12th, 1843; but we did not commence ours until October 13th. The tenth day of our seventh month will be October 22d, which will be the true Day of Atonement for this year.

We have no leap year as often as other Jews have. They have seven leap years in nineteen years; but we have only six in nineteen years. We never put in an embolismic or thirteenth month until after two common years; but they sometimes put it in after one common year. This makes a difference sometimes between us and them of one whole month.

The Rabbinical Jews reckon their time from sunset to sunset; but we reckon ours from sunrise to sunrise. Consequently our Day of Atonement will commence on Monday morning at sunrise, October 21st, and will end on Tuesday morning at sunrise, October 22d.

I am fully convinced that Br. Miller’s calculation of the prophetic periods is correct; and I believe that every Karaite Jew in this city is of my opinion.

Yours respectfully, E. S. Calman

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This took me so many hours to figure out just this tiny detail of a start date, But I believe Antiochus stopped the Daily sacrifices when he plundered the Temple on November 28th or 29th in 168 bc (i have to work on converting the Israel times just a touch more precisely and so i can narrow it down to one of those days). December 16th of 168 bc is what I believe is Kislev 15, which is one of the times I am understanding for setting up the altar to Zeus. But even if it is set up on the 25th, it doesn't really affect the 2300 sacrifices being halted for 1150 days. I am trying to contact a couple of sources to verify this, but currently I think this is a pretty decent ballpark. I haven't seen anyone else pose this date. And I will try to go into some detail why I think it is fairly safe.

But I seem to have confirmation that 168 BC was a jewish leap year, and it looks like 166 BC was as well. So that gives us 384+354+384 = 1122 plus 10 days from Kislev 15 to Kislev 25 so that's 1132 days then add the days from where Antiochus first plunders the Temple after he arrives back from Eleusis, which seems reasonable he would be back by November 28, maybe even sooner in order to prepare for an attack, 18 days from November 28 to december 16.

A day may be need to be shifted around, but this is the closest I can get until I get data back to so I can chart new moon conjunctions and full moons and Israel time the conjunctions occured.

(note Jewish years range over 2 Gregorian calendar years, for instance, September 168 is the start of the Jewish year, so even though most of the year is in 167 bc, when researching this, many sources will count the year the jewish year begins in, so the extra month of Adar 2 is added in 167 bc around March)