“For 2300 Evenings and Mornings” (Dan 8:14): Recalculating the Cessation of the Daily Offering

Abstract

A previous study (M. Segal, “Calculating the End: Inner-Danielic Chronological Developments,” VT 68 [2018] 272–96), analyzed chronological aspects in Daniel 7–12, and suggested that they offer a key for tracing the literary development of this section. This article offers a new interpretation of the expression “2300 evenings and mornings” (8:14), generally understood as a period of time shorter than the 3.5-year tradition expressed in 9:27 and 12:11–12. In contrast, it is suggested that 2300 refers to the number of daily offerings which were to be missed due to the desecration of the Temple. This calculation was performed according to an early, pre-sectarian halakhic interpretive tradition of Leviticus 23:37–38, reconstructed based upon a Sabbath prohibition in Damascus Document XI, 17–18. When calculated according to this method, “2300 evenings and mornings” maps precisely onto 3.5 years.