Calendars, Counting and 1260 Days

The 1260 day prophecy, as advanced by some, particularly members of the Seventh Day Adventist community, seems to be built upon the premise that the Jewish year is 360 days long.

The theory (in a nutshell) is that the 'time and times and the dividing of time' of Dan 7:25 is 1260 days (three and a half years, assuming a 12 month 30 day per month year) correspond to the exact 1260 year period (also assuming a 'year for a day' principle) between the papacy assuming direct political control over some of the collapsing Roman Empire, 538AD and the Losing of that political control when Napolean arrested the Pope 1798AD.

In looking into the Jewish calendar, it appears that the Jewish year, according to the observational principles laid out in scripture, or based on calculations related in the mishnah, is NEVER 360 days long.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_calendar

Since the Hebrew Calendar is primarily based on the lunar calendar (the length of months is directly linked to the phases of the moon), months are an average of 29.5 days long. Most being either 29 or 30, with the possibility of some exceptions outside that range, but when that is so, other months are adjusted to compensate back to the phases of the moon. Under the calculated method it is always 29 or 30

Thus the length of the regular Hebrew year is 12 x 29.5 = 354 days, not the 360 assumed above.

Further, it appears that, under the Jewish calendar, almost invariably, at least one out of every three years has an additional month. This is done to ensure that Passover is always in the spring. Under the calculated method this month is always 30 days.

So 'time, times and half time would be either

354 x 3.5 = 1239
or
354 x 3.5 + 30 1269
or possibly, if one is going simply by scripture and not using the calculated method
354 x 3.5 + 29 = 1268

And if there were 2 'leap' years in a three and a half year period, those numbers would be bigger again, but still not 1260.

Even were we to assume (as the proponents of this theory do) that every month be counted as 30 days (even though roughly half are 29) the 'time, times, and half a time' spoken of in Daniel 7 would count to (at least) 43 months, and therefore 1290 days, not the 1260 proposed by advocates of this theory.

Dan 12:11 ... a thousand two hundred and ninety days.

The people who push this theory, (and I've been in conversation with quite a few recently) put it forth as proof positive that the Catholic Church is the Anti-Christ (some variations say the Papacy and/or the Beast)

Seems like quite a stretch to me, if they have to fudge the numbers that much to make it fit the history.