Thanks for youre postings Third witness you may be supprised to know I agree with you on the word shabuwa the word means a seven but that can be a seven of anything. It could mean a seven of days weeks months or a seven of marbles.As I mentioned before it is the context which decides what it is a seven of. As I also mentioned before it is the context which is important to explain this chapter it is not the use of the day year principle in fact most scholars dont use the day year rule in this chapter but still get the result of 490 years by looking at the context.
Consider the following. Daniel in chapter 9v2 is praying to the lord in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes and thinking about the 70 years of desolation of Jerusalem by the end of Daniels prayer the angel Gabriel is sent to Daniel. The Angel says in our lingo 'Look Daniel 70 years might sound a lot but there will be seven times that long for things to be settled. As I said before other churches beleive this prophecy is for 490 years but they dont use the day =year to do it.
The Adventist church uses the rule to interpret 1844 and the 1260 days as years some use it with Daniel 9 but most commentries interpret 490 years here without application of that rule. 1844 is also a big issue among Adventists it may be an important date to Adventists but you wont find it in the bible. The same can be said for 1914.