1,260 Days, 42 Months, Time and Times and Half a Time (3½ Years)
I’ve refrained from putting too much out that addresses much of the symbolism as it pertains to numbers or dates in Revelation. But, we’ve come across these time frames repeatedly and we will again this Sunday. So, I wanted to provide a bit more information about it since I’m not going to address it directly in any of these sermons.
I’ve become convinced these all refer to the same period of time that extends from Jesus’ resurrection to His return. The numbers are significant as they connect us to other events in the history of redemption and they help us understand two things:
Below, I’m dropping excerpts from a couple of resources that have helped me draw this conclusion for those that would like a little more info.
G.K. Beale - Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament:
The number “forty-two” months is not precisely literal, but rather is figurative for the extended eschatological period of tribulation repeatedly prophesied by Daniel (7:25; 9:27; 12:7, 11–12). The use of “forty-two” here and in 13:5 recalls the same time of Elijah’s ministry of judgment (see commentary on Rev. 11:6 below) and Israel’s wilderness wandering after the exodus, which encompassed a total of forty-two encampments (so Num. 33:5–49; see Morris 1987: 147). One may also reckon forty-two years as Israel’s total sojourn in the wilderness, since it appears that they were in the wilderness for two years before incurring the penalty of remaining there for forty years until the death of the first generation (so Farrer 1964: 132). In 12:6 the messianic community (= the “woman”) is protected from the dragon’s onslaught during the three and a half years by taking refuge in “the wilderness, where she has there a place prepared by God.” The picture in 12:14 is virtually identical. This “place” (topos) in which Christians are kept safe from the devil is likely none other than the invisible sanctuary of God, since that is to be the object of attack during the three and a half years in Daniel, and since that is the idea in Rev. 11:1–2; 13:5–6. This is pointed to by the fact that topos can be a synonym for the “sanctuary” in the NT and is a widespread synonym for the “sanctuary” in the LXX, including Dan. 8:11.
The three and a half years is thus a symbolic representation of the time from Christ’s death and resurrection to his second coming, which is considered to be a fulfillment of the prophesied three and a half year tribulation in Dan. 7, 9, and 12.
Vern S. Poythress – The Returning King: A Guidebook to the Book of Revelation
What do the 42 months mean? This is a limited time of distress and intense conflict between God’s people and their opponents (13:5). It is also described as 1,260 days (11:3; 12:6), or as a time, times, and half a time (12:14), which means three and a half years. (In a symbolic context like this one, a month is reckoned as consisting of 30 days.) This is half of seven years, which suggests a complete period of suffering, cut short by half. The main background for this is found in Daniel 7:25, which in turn is related to other passages in Daniel (9:27; 12:7, 11–12). Some futurist interpreters look for a period of time of this length shortly before the Second Coming. But, like other numbers in Revelation, this one is symbolic. It is related to the three and a half days mentioned in 11:9, 11. Thus, it designates a period of persecution of limited length.
The most significant clue comes from Daniel 9:27. In Daniel 9, God sets out a period of seventy weeks or 490 years or ten jubilee cycles, during which he will accomplish his purposes for worldwide redemption (Dan. 9:24). This period of seventy weeks builds on the earlier period of seventy years of exile prophesied by Jeremiah (Dan. 9:2; Jer. 25:12; 29:10). Each of Jeremiah’s seventy years is a sabbatical year in which the land rests (2 Chron. 36:21; Lev. 26:43; 25:1–7). Hence, it represents a total of 490 years. At the end of this period, God favors Israel again and restores his people to the land and to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1–4; 2 Chron. 36:22–23). But this restoration is only preliminary. The final restoration takes place at the conclusion of a second period of 490 years. And since the whole sabbath pattern symbolizes final rest, it is fitting that this second period consists of symbolic years, symbolizing the way to the consummation. The consummation occurs at the end of 490 symbolic years. The last week of years, seven symbolic years, stands for the time of inaugurated eschatology, after the Messiah has come and accomplished redemption (Dan. 9:26a). In the middle of the last week, the sanctuary is destroyed (Dan. 9:27), which took place in a.d. 70. The period from 70 to the Second Coming is the last half week of Daniel’s prophecy, a period of trouble and persecution as in Daniel 7:25. The 1,260 days, then, cover the entire interadvental period, viewed as a time of persecution and distress (cf. 2 Tim. 3:1–13; 2 Thess. 1:4–8).
Robert Mounce - New International Commentary New Testament
The temporal designation of 42 months (11:2; 13:5) is also given in Revelation as 1,260 days (11:3; 12:6) and “a time, times and half a time” (12:14). Its primary reference is to the period of Jewish suffering under the Syrian despot Antiochus Epiphanes in 167–164 b.c. It became a standard symbol for that limited period of time during which evil would be allowed free rein. It is “the conventional period in apocalyptic literature for the temporary triumph of evil before the end of the age.” In Luke 21:24 it is called “the times of the Gentiles.” The repeated use of the various designations in Revelation and the contexts in which they appear serves to point out that the periods of final witness, divine protection, and pagan antagonism are simultaneous.
D.A. Carson – from a class he taught on Revelation (you can listen to it here)
So 1,260 days, 42 months, three and a half years, and time, times, and half a time are all the same time. The question is.… What do they mean? Is this an exact historical referent? There are some people who think it is, that this is a measure of three and a half years during which certain things will take place. On the other hand, we have seen already that numbers are used symbolically again and again and again in the book of Revelation. Time is sometimes schematized….What has gone on is that the Medo-Persian Empire was finally taken over by the Greeks. I don’t know how good your ancient history is, but Alexander the Great and his marauding riffs went around the empire, got as far as India…Certainly his band of marauding riffs did go right through the Middle East. They took over Egypt. They took over the whole north shore of the Mediterranean. Then they moved east through Persia, through Arabia, all the way to the borders of India. Then he died, and the empire was broken up into four bits, four chunks, each controlled by one of his generals.
The two generals that were important from our point of view were Ptolemy, who gained control of Egypt and founded the Ptolemaic dynasty, and the Seleucids in the north in what is now Syria….For 150 years, you have this border going back and forth, back and forth. Whenever the Ptolemies take control, they demand utter allegiance, and whenever the Seleucids gain control, they demand utter allegiance. It goes back and forth, and it’s a terrible mess. Inevitably, the Jewish population in what is now Palestine was divided as to how to handle this. Some were conservatives and some were Hellenizers themselves and some wanted to go with one side and some with the other. Just a terrible mess.
In this period, one of the Seleucids came to power. We now call him Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He came to power in the north at a time when what is now Palestine was under Seleucid control. He was a passionate pagan. In consequence of this, partly because he was simply anti-Jewish as well, he made it a capital offense to own any part of the Hebrew Bible. He made it a capital offense to observe any Jewish religious rite. He made it a capital offense, for example, to observe the Sabbath. He made it a capital offense to go up to the temple on Yom Kippur. In fact, what he did was bring in his troops and sacrifice pigs, which were unclean, on the altar and dedicate the whole thing to a pagan god. This was a time of savagery and butchery.
The date was 167 BC. There was one old priest by the name of Mattaniah living in a village who, when one of the emissaries came by, refused to do his homage and, in fact, took out a spear and killed him. He had two or three sons. The most famous was Judas Maccabeus, which in Semitic tongue means Judas the Hammer. The Maccabean Revolt was the revolt of Judas the Hammer.…Eventually, Judas was killed and a brother took over and so on, but that was the Maccabean Revolt. The whole thing was over by 164. They won. They rededicated the temple. Antiochus IV Epiphanes was beaten, and that was the end of the Seleucid hegemony over this whole area. The whole thing lasted three and a half years, and it was a defining moment for the Jews. It’s still a defining moment for the Jews.
You ask any Jew, no matter how secular he is, to tell you about the Maccabean Revolt, and he’ll tell you about it. It is part of the self-identity of the Jews and was so even more in the first century. It was so much closer. So it came to be identified with a period of extreme suffering that would only last for a period of time and then it stopped. In that sense, it’s unlike seven from a numerical point of view. A perfection of things? No, it’s an acute of period of time, and then you cut it off.
Do you remember what Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse? “For the sake of the elect those days will be stopped.” Instead of going to a full number, you cut it off at three and a half. It came to be a useful symbol in a whole lot of ways. I think that’s what is picked up. I think in every instance of the 42 months or three and a half years or time, times, and half a time or 1,260 days …I think in every instance where it shows up in the book of Revelation, that is the background reality that now serves as a symbol for a period of time of terrible suffering, which is finally brought to an end. We’ll see that again in the next two or three chapters, so bear that in mind if you have your doubts. I think it’ll become a little clearer later.
I’ve become convinced these all refer to the same period of time that extends from Jesus’ resurrection to His return. The numbers are significant as they connect us to other events in the history of redemption and they help us understand two things:
- That it is a time God’s people will wander in the wilderness or suffer persecution but be protected/preserved by God.
- The suffering/persecution will be cut short or restrained meaning it won’t last as long as it could and won’t be as bad as it could be because the Lord is with us.
Below, I’m dropping excerpts from a couple of resources that have helped me draw this conclusion for those that would like a little more info.
G.K. Beale - Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament:
The number “forty-two” months is not precisely literal, but rather is figurative for the extended eschatological period of tribulation repeatedly prophesied by Daniel (7:25; 9:27; 12:7, 11–12). The use of “forty-two” here and in 13:5 recalls the same time of Elijah’s ministry of judgment (see commentary on Rev. 11:6 below) and Israel’s wilderness wandering after the exodus, which encompassed a total of forty-two encampments (so Num. 33:5–49; see Morris 1987: 147). One may also reckon forty-two years as Israel’s total sojourn in the wilderness, since it appears that they were in the wilderness for two years before incurring the penalty of remaining there for forty years until the death of the first generation (so Farrer 1964: 132). In 12:6 the messianic community (= the “woman”) is protected from the dragon’s onslaught during the three and a half years by taking refuge in “the wilderness, where she has there a place prepared by God.” The picture in 12:14 is virtually identical. This “place” (topos) in which Christians are kept safe from the devil is likely none other than the invisible sanctuary of God, since that is to be the object of attack during the three and a half years in Daniel, and since that is the idea in Rev. 11:1–2; 13:5–6. This is pointed to by the fact that topos can be a synonym for the “sanctuary” in the NT and is a widespread synonym for the “sanctuary” in the LXX, including Dan. 8:11.
The three and a half years is thus a symbolic representation of the time from Christ’s death and resurrection to his second coming, which is considered to be a fulfillment of the prophesied three and a half year tribulation in Dan. 7, 9, and 12.
Vern S. Poythress – The Returning King: A Guidebook to the Book of Revelation
What do the 42 months mean? This is a limited time of distress and intense conflict between God’s people and their opponents (13:5). It is also described as 1,260 days (11:3; 12:6), or as a time, times, and half a time (12:14), which means three and a half years. (In a symbolic context like this one, a month is reckoned as consisting of 30 days.) This is half of seven years, which suggests a complete period of suffering, cut short by half. The main background for this is found in Daniel 7:25, which in turn is related to other passages in Daniel (9:27; 12:7, 11–12). Some futurist interpreters look for a period of time of this length shortly before the Second Coming. But, like other numbers in Revelation, this one is symbolic. It is related to the three and a half days mentioned in 11:9, 11. Thus, it designates a period of persecution of limited length.
The most significant clue comes from Daniel 9:27. In Daniel 9, God sets out a period of seventy weeks or 490 years or ten jubilee cycles, during which he will accomplish his purposes for worldwide redemption (Dan. 9:24). This period of seventy weeks builds on the earlier period of seventy years of exile prophesied by Jeremiah (Dan. 9:2; Jer. 25:12; 29:10). Each of Jeremiah’s seventy years is a sabbatical year in which the land rests (2 Chron. 36:21; Lev. 26:43; 25:1–7). Hence, it represents a total of 490 years. At the end of this period, God favors Israel again and restores his people to the land and to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1–4; 2 Chron. 36:22–23). But this restoration is only preliminary. The final restoration takes place at the conclusion of a second period of 490 years. And since the whole sabbath pattern symbolizes final rest, it is fitting that this second period consists of symbolic years, symbolizing the way to the consummation. The consummation occurs at the end of 490 symbolic years. The last week of years, seven symbolic years, stands for the time of inaugurated eschatology, after the Messiah has come and accomplished redemption (Dan. 9:26a). In the middle of the last week, the sanctuary is destroyed (Dan. 9:27), which took place in a.d. 70. The period from 70 to the Second Coming is the last half week of Daniel’s prophecy, a period of trouble and persecution as in Daniel 7:25. The 1,260 days, then, cover the entire interadvental period, viewed as a time of persecution and distress (cf. 2 Tim. 3:1–13; 2 Thess. 1:4–8).
Robert Mounce - New International Commentary New Testament
The temporal designation of 42 months (11:2; 13:5) is also given in Revelation as 1,260 days (11:3; 12:6) and “a time, times and half a time” (12:14). Its primary reference is to the period of Jewish suffering under the Syrian despot Antiochus Epiphanes in 167–164 b.c. It became a standard symbol for that limited period of time during which evil would be allowed free rein. It is “the conventional period in apocalyptic literature for the temporary triumph of evil before the end of the age.” In Luke 21:24 it is called “the times of the Gentiles.” The repeated use of the various designations in Revelation and the contexts in which they appear serves to point out that the periods of final witness, divine protection, and pagan antagonism are simultaneous.
D.A. Carson – from a class he taught on Revelation (you can listen to it here)
So 1,260 days, 42 months, three and a half years, and time, times, and half a time are all the same time. The question is.… What do they mean? Is this an exact historical referent? There are some people who think it is, that this is a measure of three and a half years during which certain things will take place. On the other hand, we have seen already that numbers are used symbolically again and again and again in the book of Revelation. Time is sometimes schematized….What has gone on is that the Medo-Persian Empire was finally taken over by the Greeks. I don’t know how good your ancient history is, but Alexander the Great and his marauding riffs went around the empire, got as far as India…Certainly his band of marauding riffs did go right through the Middle East. They took over Egypt. They took over the whole north shore of the Mediterranean. Then they moved east through Persia, through Arabia, all the way to the borders of India. Then he died, and the empire was broken up into four bits, four chunks, each controlled by one of his generals.
The two generals that were important from our point of view were Ptolemy, who gained control of Egypt and founded the Ptolemaic dynasty, and the Seleucids in the north in what is now Syria….For 150 years, you have this border going back and forth, back and forth. Whenever the Ptolemies take control, they demand utter allegiance, and whenever the Seleucids gain control, they demand utter allegiance. It goes back and forth, and it’s a terrible mess. Inevitably, the Jewish population in what is now Palestine was divided as to how to handle this. Some were conservatives and some were Hellenizers themselves and some wanted to go with one side and some with the other. Just a terrible mess.
In this period, one of the Seleucids came to power. We now call him Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He came to power in the north at a time when what is now Palestine was under Seleucid control. He was a passionate pagan. In consequence of this, partly because he was simply anti-Jewish as well, he made it a capital offense to own any part of the Hebrew Bible. He made it a capital offense to observe any Jewish religious rite. He made it a capital offense, for example, to observe the Sabbath. He made it a capital offense to go up to the temple on Yom Kippur. In fact, what he did was bring in his troops and sacrifice pigs, which were unclean, on the altar and dedicate the whole thing to a pagan god. This was a time of savagery and butchery.
The date was 167 BC. There was one old priest by the name of Mattaniah living in a village who, when one of the emissaries came by, refused to do his homage and, in fact, took out a spear and killed him. He had two or three sons. The most famous was Judas Maccabeus, which in Semitic tongue means Judas the Hammer. The Maccabean Revolt was the revolt of Judas the Hammer.…Eventually, Judas was killed and a brother took over and so on, but that was the Maccabean Revolt. The whole thing was over by 164. They won. They rededicated the temple. Antiochus IV Epiphanes was beaten, and that was the end of the Seleucid hegemony over this whole area. The whole thing lasted three and a half years, and it was a defining moment for the Jews. It’s still a defining moment for the Jews.
You ask any Jew, no matter how secular he is, to tell you about the Maccabean Revolt, and he’ll tell you about it. It is part of the self-identity of the Jews and was so even more in the first century. It was so much closer. So it came to be identified with a period of extreme suffering that would only last for a period of time and then it stopped. In that sense, it’s unlike seven from a numerical point of view. A perfection of things? No, it’s an acute of period of time, and then you cut it off.
Do you remember what Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse? “For the sake of the elect those days will be stopped.” Instead of going to a full number, you cut it off at three and a half. It came to be a useful symbol in a whole lot of ways. I think that’s what is picked up. I think in every instance of the 42 months or three and a half years or time, times, and half a time or 1,260 days …I think in every instance where it shows up in the book of Revelation, that is the background reality that now serves as a symbol for a period of time of terrible suffering, which is finally brought to an end. We’ll see that again in the next two or three chapters, so bear that in mind if you have your doubts. I think it’ll become a little clearer later.