With Mary's Yes, “the time is fulfilled”

The prophet Daniel specified the time of the Messiah's coming in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks: “Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city: to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.” (Daniel 9).

This time frame, the only one in the entire Old Testament, clearly refers to periods of seven years (Weeks of years), and to the coming of the Messiah at the end of 490 years, i.e. at the time of the Virgin Mary.

The discovery of scrolls from the 1st century B.C. found at Qumran shows that the community living there was very attentive to the signs of the times, and that they also relied on the prophecy of the “70 Weeks (of Years)”. They had calculated that the time of the Messiah would begin around 26 B.C., and it was because of this expectation that the Essenes withdrew to the desert.

Thus Jesus inaugurated his mission by proclaiming: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk 1:15).

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