Now we turn back the clock to another critical moment in history: the completion of the walls of Jerusalem on Elul 25, 455 B.C.E. (Nehemiah 6:15). This event marks the rebirth of Jerusalem as a "city." In Biblical times, a city without walls was not a "city" at all. This fact is made clear by the legal distinction made in Leviticus 25:29, 31 between a settled area protected by a wall, which was called a "city," in contrast to an unwalled area, which was not.

Daniel 9:24 foretold that at some future time the "city" of Jerusalem would begin a period of special consideration, namely "70 weeks." Thus, the wording of the prophecy required that the walls of Jerusalem be made operational again; otherwise, it could not regain its designation as a "city" and therefore could not begin the city's designated "70 weeks" of special consideration. The prophecy also states that the countdown to the Messiah begins at the moment of the declaration to rebuild Jerusalem. In such a hostile environment, this work could only logically begin after it was secured by a protective wall.

After Nehemiah 6:15 records the date of the wall's completion as Elul 25, 455 B.C.E., Nehemiah 7:1-5 reports that Nehemiah did not delay in setting up the city gates, appointing the gatekeepers, and issuing the decree to begin the work of rebuilding and repopulating Jerusalem's buildings. These events must have taken place on the day after the completion of the wall, which would be Elul 26, 455 B.C.E. This would be the earliest time that both the "70 weeks" of the prophecy and the countdown to the appearance of the Messiah could begin.

From this point, we travel forward 69 "weeks," or 483 years, and arrive at Elul 26, 29 C.E. Remarkably, this is the same date we arrived at earlier by counting backward one half "week" of 1,288 literal days, as prescribed by the proposed calendar, from the death of Jesus on Nisan 14, 33 C.E.

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