Revelation 11:1-2 The temple, the holy city, and the gentiles

Revelation 11:1-2 Measurement of the temple with a measuring rod evokes the vision that Ezekiel had of the temple. (Ezekiel 40-42) The temple in Ezekiel's vision was evidently not the physical temple in Jerusalem because it was much larger. However, there are no detailed dimensions in Revelation because the important fact is that the court outside the temple is not to be measured because it and the holy city of Jerusalem will be under the control of Gentiles for forty-two months. This seems to closely parallel Daniel 12:11, in which Daniel was told that it would be 1290 days from the time that that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up. Forty-two months is approximately 1278 days, at an average of 30.4375 days/month. Close but not an exact match.

          There seem to be two possible interpretations. One is that this refers to three and one-half years, that will occur during the end times, with the clock starting at some point at the beginning by the conquest of Jerusalem by Gentiles, and culminating in the abomination that makes desolate 3 1/2 years later. Daniel 11:31 and 12:11 were thought to have been fulfilled on December 25, 167 BC, when Antiochus IV Epiphanies sacrificed a pig to Zeus on the altar in the Jewish Temple. However, Jesus referred to the abomination of desolation in future tense as part of His end-time prophecy (Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14); therefore the act of AE must be viewed as a foreshadowing of a future greater abomination. In this interpretation, the antichrist, a.k.a. the man of sin, will lead an army that conquers Jerusalem and then 1290 literal days later will set up and carry out this spiritual abomination.

          A second possible interpretation is that these are figurative days, representing years, and that the time from Jerusalem being overrun by the Gentiles would be 1290 years before the Jews would regain control, in time for the end times to set up and the abomination to be enabled. But when would this clock begin? Jerusalem was sacked by the Roman army under the Roman general Titus in 70AD, which Jesus referred to in Mark 13:2. The trampling of Jerusalem under the Gentiles' feet was referred to in Luke 21:24. 1290 years after 70 AD would have been 1360 AD, well after the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem (1099 AD) and the Islamic armies reconquered it (1187 AD). Jerusalem was overrun by the Islamic armies the first time in 637AD. 1290 years later would have been 1927 AD. The Balfour declaration establishing a homeland for the Jews was issued in 1917. The Jewish nation of Israel was enabled by vote of the United Nations in 1947 to partition Palestine, and then declared in 1948 by the Jews with David Ben-Gurion leading them. The Jews regained control of Jerusalem in the six-day war in 1967 AD. Daniel's prophecy of a blessing on the one who endured to 1335 days would, if interpreted figuratively as years, point to 637AD + 1335 = 1972 AD. Is it only a curious coincidence that the Balfour declaration was 10 years less than 1290 years after Jerusalem surrendered to Caliph Umar, and Jerusalem was retaken by the Jews 5 years less than 1335 years after the same event?