You wrote:
Regarding Daniel, I subscribe to the theory that it was written during the Maccabee era (that it is not included in the Prophets section of the Hebrew Bible but in the Writings is one of the reasons I think this). So I see the "predictions" you mention as having already happened or were happening (or just about to happen) when Daniel was written (i.e., the four kingdoms). But I reckon you do not agree with this idea, and that's fine. So from your point of view Daniel supports what you are saying and we'll just have to disagree on that issue.I gave you one - Daniel. - he said that Nebudchadnezzar's empire would get crushed, which happened in the Biblical era. So the Israelites presented Daniel as trustworthy in the Bible. But Daniel also made prophecies about what was for them the distant future, ie. the events of the 1st c. AD. So they were reading Daniel like he was a reliable prophet who already got predictions right and was now telling them predictions for the distant future. They of course would give Daniel a pass for that, because they treated his predictive words as holy scripture.
But regarding the timing of the End of Days, Nehemia Gordon has an interesting article about this and concludes that "there is no secret" about when the End of Days will begin because it is already discussed in the Torah and that it isn't contingent on any particular chronology but rather repentance and that this is what the later prophets are referring to, and I think it's worth putting up most of it here.
This reminds me of something the Recognitions of Clement 1.69 says about James:When will the "End of Days" Begin?
In the book of Daniel we see a number of prophecies which describe with varying degrees of detail the chronology of the End of Days. However, the prophet himself does not understand to what historical events this chronology refers. In his vision Daniel protests to the angel that appears to him:
"And I heard but did not understand and I said, 'Master, what is the End (Aharit) of all these things?' (Dan 12:9)
The angel explains to Daniel that the meaning of the visions will remain undecipherable until the events of the End of Days itself:
"And he said, 'Go Daniel, for the things are closed up and sealed until the end time." (Dan 12:10)
Although the exact year of the End of Days can not be learned from the Book of Daniel, there is no secret in the Hebrew Bible about when the End of Days will take place. In fact, the timing of the End of Days is spelled out explicitly in the Torah. In Dt 28-30 God lays down the terms of his covenant with Israel: If Israel keeps the covenant they will be blessed with abundance and peace but if they violate the covenant they will be harshly punished with a curse. In Dt 29:25-27 the people of Israel are warned that if they continue to sin the ultimate curse will be exile from the Land of Israel. Dt 30:1ff. then describes the final redemption:
"And it will be when all the these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, and you will return with your heart in all the nations wherein Yehovah your God has cast you. And you will return to Yehovah your God and obey his voice according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, with all your heart and all your soul. And Yehovah will return your captivity and have mercy upon you and he will again gather you in from all the nations wherein Yehovah your God has scattered you. If your dispersed ones be at the end of the heavens, from there will Yehovah your God gather you and from there will he take you. And Yehovah your God will bring you to the land that your fathers inherited and you will inherit it; And he will do good to you and make you multiply more than your fathers. And Yehovah your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed to love Yehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul in order that you will live."
We see from the above passage in Deuteronomy that after Israel repents Yehovah will return their exile to Israel (a second time!) and will cut his covenant into the hearts of the people. Returning to Jeremiah 31:32 we see that the end of days is described as period in which the covenant of Yehovah is written on the hearts of the people:
"For this is the covenant which I will make with the House of Israel after those days, says Yehovah; I will place my Torah in their inner parts and I will write it upon their hearts and I will be to them God and they will be to me a people."
The End of Days of Jeremiah and the Redemption of Dt 30 are one and the same event. In Dt 4:30 we are told explicitly that the End of Days will be brought on by the repentance of Israel:
"...in the End of Days you will return to Yehovah your God and obey his voice... And he will not forget the covenant which he swore to your fathers..." (see the broader context in Dt 4:25-31 from which it is clear that this refers to the exact same sequence of events as Dt 30:1ff.).
Thus there is no secret as to when the End of Days will take place. As can be gleaned from Dt 4 and 30, as soon as Israel repents and returns to Yehovah, the exile will end and the period of the renewed covenant will begin. With the great majority of the People of Israel still in the exile, and those in the Land of Israel following the path of iniquity, this time seems far off. We can only pray that the People of Israel repent and fulfill their duty to be a guide to the nations. Until that day it is the duty of every human being, both from Israel and the Nations, to keep the commandments of Yehovah in his holy Torah so that the time will come when:
"no longer shall a person teach his fellow and a man his brother saying 'Know Yehovah!' for they will all know me from the littlest one to the greatest, says Yehovah". (Jer 31:33 [KJV 31:34])
A Final Note on Daniel
Even if we could decipher the chronology of the prophecies of Daniel (which Dan 12:10 indicates we can not do!) this would not necessarily give us a precise date for the End of Days. We learn in Dan 9 that a predicted end time can be delayed if Israel sins. At the beginning of Dan 9, the prophet looks into the Book of Jeremiah and discovers that the Babylonian exile is to end after 70 years. Daniel proceeds to pray to Yehovah to forgive the people of Israel and to bring them back from exile. Was this a vain prayer since the fate of Israel was determined beforehand by the prophecy of Jeremiah? Why did Daniel see a need to ask for forgiveness when the time of the redemption of Israel was set in advance? If we look at Daniel's prayer we see the reason for his trepidation. Daniel calls to Yehovah:
"Master hear! Master forgive! Master Listen and Do, Do not delay!" (verse 19)
Daniel realizes that if Yehovah does not forgive his people for their sins the end of the 70 years would be "delayed", perhaps indefinitely. This is an important lesson when trying to decipher the chronology of the end time in the Book of Daniel. Even if we can figure out what periods are referred to in Daniel's prophecies we must realize that if there is not repentance then the date of the Redemption will be delayed, as Daniel himself teaches us in his prayer.
http://karaite-korner.org/end_of_days.shtml
"To him our James began to show that whatsoever things the prophets say they have taken from the law, and what they have spoken is in accordance with the law."
In other words, there's nothing really "new" in the prophets regarding the End of Days.
There's a lot to unpack here. First, I don't agree with your chronology, as per Gordon above. Second, I also don't agree with the idea that the Suffering Servant in Isaiah (for example) is the Messiah (even though it was seen this way by some in ancient Judaism, including, possibly, the DSS sect) but rather a symbol of Israel, or that Ps. 22 is about the Messiah (unless you count David). I think interpretations of verses like these -at least in Jesus' case- are only after-the-fact cherry picking. I don't think there are any hidden "secrets" like that in the OT. As the Torah says (in the same chapter that discusses the End of Days above):The point I was making is that when it comes to the Tanakh's concept of the suffering Messiah who gets killed by his enemies in the first century AD and resurrects, I think that the interpretation not only of mainstreams Christians, but of Torah-observant Messianic Christian Jews, and of Talmudic scholar Daniel Boyarin on this question is correct.
And since I believe this interpretation about the nature of the Messiah to be correct, it leads to what is for me the most interesting question that comes out of this thread:
If the Tanakh did make such a prediction about the Messiah does that show that in fact such a prophesied event would occur - ie. the arrival, killing, and resurrection of a first century Davidic Messiah?
"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it" (Dt. 30:11-14).
The Torah is also to be read out loud every seven years so that even people who could not read could understand it by simply hearing it, including children, which, in my view, supports the plain meaning of at least the Torah rather than there being a "mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God," as Paul puts it.
"...you shall read this law before them in their hearing. Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess” (Dt. 31:11-13).