Thomas Spencer Baynes, 1823-1887, and William Robertson Smith,1846–1894, eds., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The 360 Day Prophetic Year
The 360 Day Prophetic Year Video
The 360 day year first appears in the story of Noah. In Genesis 7:11 the deluge starts in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the 2nd month on the 17th day of the month.
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Genesis 8:3 tells us that after 150 days the waters abated. This was the 17th day of the 7th month. Exactly 5 months had passed. 150/5=30. Therefore we know that a month lasted 30 days. 12 months lasted 360 days.
There are also 360 day, prophetic years in the books of Daniel and Revelation. Here we find that "42 months", "1,260 days" and "Time, times and half a time" all express the same period namely three and a half years.
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This also confirms that a prophetic year is 360 days made up of 12 months of 30 days each.
A Time, Times and half a time is 360 plus 720 plus 180. The equivalent of 1,260 days or 42 months. This time period can be found in several places in Daniel and Revelation. It relates to the final week of the 70 weeks of years referred to in Daniel Chapter 9. A week of years is 2,520 days (7 x 360). 1,260 days refers to half a week of years. As an illustration I have copied a table from Sir Edward Denny's (see page on Sir Edward Denny) "The Seventy Weeks of Daniel". This gives the places in scripture where Days, Times and 42 months are used in connection with Daniel's final week
For me the 360 day year makes the most sense in terms of bible prophecy. This is the time period used by Sir Robert Anderson in his interpretation of prophetic years. Others mentioned on this site used different years such as the 354 day lunar year and the solar year of 365.2422 days. However in terms of prophecy the 360 day year seems to be the one used in scripture itself.