Well, Anonynomemon,
Matthew 24 is metered. So yeah it is a timeline. First and Second Advents and the Tribulation itself, are all originally and still
Jewish; were all timed. And, tracked for that reason. As a calendar. As appointments. Jews knew that then and today's Jewish calendar is unfortunately a garbled version of that tracking, which you can Google to learn about: the Seder Olam Rabbah. Somewhere along the line, the Jews forgot how to tell what time it was, at least by the time of Josephus, who uses the errant SOR for his day. There was a competing Book of Jubilees which was also really bad, but popular. Of course, I'm assuming you know the Zohar was invented about 1200 years later.
The
Bible timelines were done like a prophecy GPS. Countdown to Millennium, to Messiah, to the end of the 2100 years allotted to the Jews, and make up for the fact that 2100 years started 54 years early, so that 54 of 2100 years were still owed to Gentiles. So the meter is always accounting the time. So Matthew 24 is designed to show how God will make up and keep the Time. That's why Daniel 9 was metered, to account for Israel's past and future time, and that's why the Lord uses meter here, to show how the
promise (=seven), would be kept.
That meter will be covered in future vids (not necessarily my own), still trying to understand what pattern the Lord is using. I'm not the one working on that meter. I used to be the only one who understood it, but the FACT of the meter has been out for seven years now -- I first learned it by mistake in Isaiah in 2008,
full playlist is in Youtube, smaller playlist
in vimeo -- and others are working on it now too. Whether they agree with my interp or not, I don't know. All I know is that the
fact of the meter's
existence, is proven well enough to spend more time on it; others are metering other passages, testing them. Matthew 24 is one of those.
For Trib's Start was a known date, pre Church. He was scheduled to die 57 years before the Mill. 7 for Trib, last 7. 50 for Jubilee time to harvest the gentiles, based on the 1050 which is the
basic civilization unit for time, the last 50 being reserved for intensive evangelism, a trend of history.
So:
1.
He was supposed to die at age 40, and everyone was tracking that since Moses in Genesis 1 and Psalm 90. Talmud Sanhedrin 98-99 still mentioned it, since of course they don't acknowledge Christ as Messiah, post His Death.
So now look at Daniel 9 again: if enough Israel had accepted Him as Messiah, then there would have been a civil war with the Sanhedrin, who weren't accepting Him in any case -- so then He would have been crucified anyway, and the Temple destroyed. So the 62nd week was supposed to end that way: - He's crucified, end 62nd week;
- then, 50 years culminating in the destruction of the Temple, the hiatus in the grammar of Dan 9:26 compared to 27 (the 50 is Gentile time, so is not part of Promise Time to the Jews, so is not part of the 490).
- Then the Trib, as an outcome of the 50 years ending with the destruction of the Temple, so that Daniel 11:35ff now fits in, whoever the Jewish ruler then was gonna make a pact with Rome, to vanquish his other local enemies. (Or something similar. I'm still working out the details. Temple does not have to be standing for the Daniel 9:27 sacrifices to be made, so when does it go down? Just after Messiah dies, sometime after that, or at Trib mid-point? For sacrifices stopping is the key to Dan9:27: but sacrifices were made post-Moses and pre Temple completion, while travelling or on the site where building was to begin, see Ezra 3 and before that, Joshua, Judges, Samuel.)
But instead, He dies in the 61st week, at the hand of the Sanhedrin appealing to Rome, with not enough accepting Him as Messiah so now Time is In Breach. The Temple the Temple Depicted down, so now the Temple Depicting goes down too. So John will be writing 7 years after the Temple goes down (in his own meter, his gospel; replace the 'htm' with pdf for readable Greek).
2.
For He had to be born 97 years before the Millennium, but originally it was to be 94 years, since Abraham supermatured 54 years
prior to the expiry of Gentile Time (2100 years post-Adam's fall). That, because Noah's 490-year time grant ran out, and Abraham HAD to mature by then. Else Time would have ended. All this is obvious from the begats in Gen 5, 7, 11, 15, 17 if you crunch the math.
3.
But the Temple started 3.5 years late, 1Kings 6:1; was supposed to start as soon as David died, 2Sam7:12. So now 53.5 (rounded to 54 in the meters, as you cannot split a syllable) gets elongated to 57 (which in the meter is 56, the most common meter in the Bible -- with Daniel pregnantly using 58 to show missed appointment due to Manasseh). So that's why
God uses 57 and 54 meters in His Reply to Daniel in 9:24-27 (excessively long video on that,
here). Clever, 54 is a Trinity meter (3x3x6). Paul plays on this, but that's another discussion of great length already covered in
Ephesians1REPARSED, search on
231. Mary played on it first, deducting the 14 from God's 231 in her meter, so I guess that's why Paul plays on it to tag Mary and Daniel at the same time. (PDF copy of REPARSED has readable Greek,
click here.)
4.
So to make up for that, Messiah has to be born 3.5 years earlier, so instead of dying 54 years prior to 4200 from Adam's fall, he has to die 57 years prior, which is the 1000th anniversary of David's death. But Israel rejected Him, so He actually dies 64 years prior, hence the extra 7 was as originally told Daniel, spent on taking down the Temple -- but the original seven years for the Trib, remained. Hence Church had to be inserted, and rapture is unpredictable.
So the point is, the entire timeline of when the Trib was supposed to begin and end pre-Church, was known, and watched. The 'Seder Olam Rabbah' is all garbled now, but it was a calendar some ancient Jew(s) created to keep track of this timeline. I can't tell
when it became garbled, only that by the time Josephus wrote, it was.
One of many gaps in the accounting, is to account for when the SOR went bad, to find its initial or earliest version, which predates Messiah's birth. For if we can find that, hopefully there will be collateral text to show they knew the meter, too. That's my big concern, trying to find extra-Biblical material showing that the meter was known. It's obvious in Bible, but outside of Bible, where is there text showing it was used? One can argue it's not needed, since the Bible is proof enough. But still, how they used the meter would be invaluable.
Doesn't invalidate your statement, but does elaborate on the duality of KNOWN DATE versus due to Israel's rejection and Church's insertion, UNKNOWN Date. Matthew 24 takes both into account.
And of course, the above is subject to dispute, but so far I can't find any contradictions or true discrepancies. The problems are more like multiple answers for the same numbers (i.e., WHICH extra 7 or 3.5 starting WHEN, as there are several going all the way back to Jacob at Haran).