The baptism and anointing of our Saviour happened on time. The King James Version says, “The time is fulfilled.” But to what time does Christ refer? The time had arrived for Jesus to appear and be anointed. More than 500 years before Jesus came to this world, the prophet Daniel predicted the moment when Jesus would appear as the Messiah.

Did Daniel the prophet predict that Jesus would appear and be anointed as the Messiah in A.D. 27? Here is Daniel’s prophecy:

“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens’ [margin: weeks] and sixty-two ‘sevens’ [weeks].”
—Daniel 9:25.

Seven weeks and sixty-two weeks total sixty-nine weeks or 483 days (7 X 69 = 483 days). In symbolic Bible prophecy we count each day as equaling one year (Ezekiel 4:6; Numbers 14:34), so the 483 days equals 483 years. Daniel predicted that a command would go forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, and exactly 483 years after this command, the Messiah would appear.

Did Jesus appear as the Messiah at the appointed time? Artaxerxes issued the decree to rebuild Jerusalem in the year 457 B.C. (Ezra 7:7-13, 21-26). The period of 483 years, then, ended in A.D. 27. (457 B.C. + A.D. 27 = 484.) However, the decree went forth during the year 457 and Christ was anointed during the year 27, making them both partial years, so the correct span of time would be 483 years.)