Hiding the Sabbath: Daniel Warns of Calendar Change

The book of Amos contains an encouraging promise for the final generation: "Surely the Lord God will do nothing but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7.) Outlawing Yahuwah God's calendar and substituting a pagan calendar in its place is a monumental change. Deceiving the Creator's people into worshiping on a false day, while thinking that they are keeping holy the true Sabbath, is a diabolical deception. Therefore, it would be reasonable to expect Yahuwah to give a warning in the Bible of such a significant, portentous event.

Yahushua Himself referred to this calendar change. His warning against this masterpiece of deception is given almost word-for-word in both Matthew and Mark:

Matthew 24:15, 16 – "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth let him understand:) then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains."

Mark 13:14 – "But when he shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains."

There are not that many times the "abomination of desolation" occurs in Daniel. They are Daniel 8:11-13; 9:27; 11:30, 31; and 12:11. For an in-depth study of all of these passages and how it relates to the growing movement for calendar reform today, please read chapter 7, "Changing Calendars: the Abomination that Desolates," in The Great Calendar Controversy - 4angelspublications. 

For the purposes of the present study, however, only Daniel 8: 9-14 will be covered.

In doing the expanded word study on Daniel 8, four resources were used:

• The Key-Word Study Bible, KJV
• Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, English
• The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
• The New Strong's Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words Daniel 8:9-14:
  (Supplied words, as given in the KJV, appear in parentheses.)

9  And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant (land).

10  And it waxed great, (even) to the host of heaven; and it cast down (some) of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.

11  Yea, he magnified (himself) even to (margin: against) the prince of the host, and by him the daily (sacrifice) was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.

12  And a host was given (him) against the daily (sacrifice) by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced; and prospered.

13  Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain (saint) which spake, How long (shall be) the vision (concerning) the daily (sacrifice), and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?

14  And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days: then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

It has been assumed that the prophetic books were largely uninfluenced by the sectarian creeds of the translators. People have reasoned that, because the prophecies were so difficult to understand, the translators were less likely to influence the translation, than in other areas of the Bible.

This assumption is not entirely accurate. Sometimes when the translators could not understand what a particular phrase meant, they would add a supplied word, in italics, just trying to make sense of the passage. One such instance is found in Daniel where "daily" is mentioned in the above quoted verses. The word "daily" means: perpetual, continuously without interruption. Not knowing what the word meant in that context, the translators supplied the word "sacrifice." It should not have been added. The word "sacrifice" only confuses the meaning of the texts.

The following is the result of looking up every single word/phrase in the passage. Words that are implied in the Hebrew are in italics; words that supplied (for clarity) are in parentheses. The supplied word "sacrifice" has been left out.

Daniel 8:9-14:

9  And out of one of them came a little horn; and became very great, toward Egypt, the south, and toward the sun-rising, the east, and toward the Bountiful, the Supremely Splendorous, the Preeminent.

10  And the little horn became great against the celestial bodies: the sun, moon and stars that revolve in the heights of the heavens. And the little horn made fall to the ground the sun, and moon, and the mass of blazing, shining stars who faithfully serve their Superior and trampled them (thus, destroying the knowledge of their function.)

11  Even against the Master, (the Creator), the Ruler of the faithfully serving celestial bodies, he exalted himself and by him was presumptuously promoted the continuously-without-interruption (cycle of weeks, the counterfeit measurement of time) and (as a result) the foundation of the little horn's sanctuary was made whole, safe and secure.

12  And the faithfully serving celestial bodies were delivered up, yielded and given up, (with the acceptance of) the continuously-without-interruption (calendar) because of stupidity and degeneracy: thus the little horn cast down truth and stability to the ground and the little horn worked and prospered mightily.

13  Then I heard a certain Holy One speaking and said another Holy One to that one who spoke, "Until when the vision, the continuously-without-interruption and the apostasy, the moral revolt and religious rebellion which stuns, stupefies and devastates, to deliver up both the sacred, set-apart, hallowed day and the faithfully serving celestial bodies to be trampled underfoot, abasing it?"

14  And he said to me, "For evenings/mornings: two thousand and three hundred; then vindicated, cleared, restored, cleansed and justified shall be the sacred, set-apart, hallowed, most holy day."

For the expanded word study, click here.