“2,300 evenings and mornings”: the calculation that leads to 1967 (Daniel 8:14)

In short

The announcement. The prophet Daniel, in the book of Daniel, around 550 BC according to tradition, announces that after “two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings” the sanctuary will be cleansed. Some readers count these days as years.

What happened. In its context, the vision leads to the profanation of the Temple by Antiochus IV in 167 BC and its purification in 164. In 1825, the commentator Adam Clarke counted 2,300 years from Alexander's arrival in Asia and landed on 1966, or 1967 once the calculation is corrected. In 1967, Israel takes the Old City of Jerusalem, but no sanctuary is cleansed or restored.

What is still debated. the text speaks of evenings and mornings, not years, and with enough possible starting points, a calculation always ends up landing on a notable date.