The secret of the 3.5 years

The book of Revelation is full of strange time periods — 1260 days, 42 months, and so on. What do they mean, and are they meant to be taken literally?

You may want to read before

• The book of Daniel
• The four kingdoms in Daniel
• The 70 years

A little math

In the book of Revelation, chapters 11 through 13, there are five references to periods of time.

So there are really three distinct time expressions here — the third, “3.5 times,” is literally called “time, two times, and half a time.” If we assume a 30-day month, all three come out to the same length: 1260 days = 42 months = 3.5 years = 3.5 times.

That raises three questions worth asking before we go further. Do these periods follow one another in sequence, or do they describe parallel, overlapping activities? Are they meant symbolically, or literally as exact durations? And why does the text switch between units — days, months, “times” — instead of using just one?

To answer any of that, we first need the Old Testament background.

Elijah and the drought (1 Kings 16:29–18:35)

King Ahab of Israel marries Jezebel of Sidon, a city north of Israel, and she brings with her the worship of Baal and Asherah — gods of fertility, promising many children, good harvests, and strong armies. But almost all of that depends on one thing: enough rain.

So God sends Elijah to announce a drought that lasts 3.5 years¹, during which Elijah is fed by ravens. Later, he goes to a widow in Sidon whose dying son he saves, and she comes to believe in God — a believer raised up in Jezebel’s own home territory.

After that intervention on Jezebel’s home turf comes the great power struggle on Mount Carmel over who the true God really is. The test is simple: the true God is the one who can make fire come down from heaven — notably, the same feat the second beast performs in Revelation. The whole episode turns on that one question: who is the true God?

The year week in Daniel

Daniel gives us the 70 weeks, which resolve into two half-weeks of 3.5 years each. The first half-week covers Jesus’ time on earth, and the second, perhaps, the work of the church. Jesus’ covenant is itself described as being established within this week.

These 3.5 years, then, are the period in which God is quietly building something that will overthrow the kingdoms of this world.

What are the 3.5 years in Revelation

Let’s work through the passages, starting with chapter 13, which describes the devil’s deception. When does it start? According to chapter 12, it begins after Jesus’ death on the cross, once the devil realizes he cannot destroy Israel because God protects her — so, essentially, right after Jesus dies. When does it stop? Not until it has to: until Jesus returns.

At the same time, the woman is protected from the devil’s attack and provided for in the desert. This period begins the moment Jesus is victorious on the cross, and it likewise ends only once the devil himself is gone — again, at Jesus’ return.

Then there is the temple, no longer used for sacrifices but as a place of worship. That, too, begins with the death of Jesus, and there’s no indication it will end before he returns.

That leaves the 1260 days of the two witnesses, which must span the whole time between Jesus’ first and second coming.² That length alone suggests the “witnesses” aren’t really two individuals but most likely the Church.

So why does the text switch units — days here, months there? For two of them Richard Bauckham has shown the reason: 42 months marks the beast’s time, 1260 days the church’s — and the two numbers belong to 36, the root of the beast’s 666, and to 1225, the number of the people of God (Bauckham, Climax of Prophecy, pp. 400–402; see numbers with shapes). So the days mark the testimony of the witnesses and the provision for Israel, and the months mark the devil’s reign and the trampling of the temple’s outer court. The third unit, the “times” or years, I read as God’s hidden work — that one is my own observation, not something the commentaries carry.³ What the parallel does make clear is this: the devil’s rule and the Church’s God-given rule run side by side, and even though the world looks as though the devil is in charge, the Church remains the one truly in charge.

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