Daniel's Seventy Weeks by John Stevenson

 

 

DANIEL'S SEVENTY WEEKS

DANIEL 9:24-27

"Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.

"So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.

"Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.

"And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate." (Daniel 9:24-27).

Daniel's prophecy is made in the context of Daniel's prayer. Daniel was in captivity along with the rest of the Hebrew people. He had been pondering over the writings of the prophet Jeremiah and the promises of a 70 year captivity. This pondering led him to prayer. In the midst of this prayer, the angel Gabriel came to him with this new prophecy.

THE SCOPE OF THE PROPHECY

"Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place." (Daniel 9:24).

The prophecy has to do with the restoration of the city of Jerusalem. It is a prophecy of the holy city and the most holy place. But that is not all. The scope of this prophecy transcends the mere rebuilding of Jerusalem when it speaks of:

• Finishing the transgression.

• Making an end of sin.

• Making atonement for iniquity.

• Bringing in everlasting righteousness.

• Sealing up vision and prophecy.

From our perspective, we can see that each of these aspects were ultimately fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. By His death upon the cross, He finished transgression and made an end of sin and made atonement for iniquity. It is through that atonement that he brought in everlasting righteousness. As a result of this completed redemptive work, there is no further need for vision or for further prophecy as we have the completed Scriptures today.

 

THE SEVENTY WEEKS

All of these things are to take place within the scope of "seventy weeks" - literally, "seventy sevens." Just as Daniel had been reading of 70 years of captivity, so now he is told that 70 weeks remain.

This reckoning of time seems very foreign to us since we count time by tens, adding up either decades or centuries. The Jews, on the other hand, were Sabbath oriented. It is for this reason that they counted time by parts of seven. Every seven years they had a year-long holiday. Every 49th year all of their debts were forgiven.

Such groups of sevens is not unusual in the Scriptures. A similar wording is used in Leviticus 25:6 where seven weeks of years is said to refer to the 49 years between Jubilees. In Numbers 14:34, the Israelites were told that the 40 years they would spend in the Wilderness would correspond to the 40 days that the spies spent in the land of Canaan. Ezekiel was instructed to lie on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for 40 days. This was to be understood as a day for each year (Ezekiel 4:6).

I want to suggest that these 70 weeks are to be understood by each day of these "weeks" representing a single year. This means that we are dealing with a period of 70 weeks of year - a total of 490 years.

7 Weeks 62 Weeks + 1 Week 70 Weeks

=

49 Years 434 Years + 7 Years 490 Years

 

THE BEGINNING OF THE 70 WEEKS

"So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem... (Daniel 9:25).

This period begins with a very specific event. The event is the issuing of a decree to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem. The Hebrew word translated "decree" is simply dabar, the normal Hebrew word for "saying" or "word." The problem that we have is that the Bible records several different decrees concerning rebuilding within Jerusalem.

Author	Passage	Date	Specifics of the Decree
Cyrus	Ezra 1:1-4	539 B.C.	Permitted Jews to return to the land and rebuild their Temple. This work was discontinued because of false accusations (Ezra 4:6-13).
Darius	Ezra 6:8-12	520 B.C.	Permitted Jews to complete the rebuilding of the Temple
Artaxerxes	Ezra 7:11-28	457 B.C.	Allowed Ezra authority to lead the nation in the Laws of God
Artaxerxes	Nehemiah 1	445 B.C.	Nehemiah given permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem

The first two decrees are far too early to have had any bearing upon the coming of the Messiah. The last decree is too late, though it was adopted by Sir Robert Anderson who taught that this prophecy was to be reckoned in "prophetic years" of only 360 days, measured by twelve months of thirty days each. He used this complicated formula to add up an exact number of days from the final decree of Artaxerxes to the Triumphal Entry of Jesus in A.D. 33. It is evident that the theory is contrived, having been born out of a supposed necessity. The Jews knew exactly how many days ought to be in a year and even added an "intercalary month" upon occasion to correct their calendar. Furthermore, it seems that Daniel himself understood the years of Jeremiah in the usual sense.

Ezra was given his commission in the 7th year of Artaxerxes. That Persian king began his reign in 464 B.C. This would place his decree to Ezra around 457 B.C. Later, in Ezra's priestly prayer, he alludes to possibly having been given permission, not only to build up the Temple, but also to build the walls of Judah and Jerusalem.

For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. (Ezra 9:9).

Nehemiah comes along twenty years later and goes into mourning when he hears that the walls still have not been repaired. But I would suggest that the decree which had been given earlier was the one described in Daniel's prophecy.

THE CULMINATION OF THE 69 WEEKS

"So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks... (Daniel 9:25).

The culmination of the first 69 weeks is the advent of "Messiah the Prince." It is universally agreed among Christians that this Anointed Prince is a reference to Jesus. In hindsight, it is a simple matter for us to trace back to the four decrees to see which one of them aligned with the coming of Jesus.

Date for the giving of the Decree			Plus 483 Years
Cyrus	Ezra 1:1-4	539 B.C.	56 B.C.
Darius	Ezra 6:8-12	520 B.C.	37 B.C.
7th Year of Artaxerxes	Ezra 7:11-28	457 B.C.	27 A.D.
20th Year of Artaxerxes	Nehemiah 1	445 B.C.	39 A.D.

It is evident from this chart that the first decree of Artaxerxes given to Ezra in 457 B.C. is the one that matches the prophecy of Daniel. The date of 27 A.D. is within the realm of the beginning of the ministry of Jesus.

 

THE PRINCE WHO IS TO COME

In verse 26 there is a second person introduced. He is described as "the prince who is to come." He stands in contrast to Messiah the Prince.

"...the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate." (Daniel 9:24-27).

Notice the actions of this one who is "the prince who is to come." It is he who will destroy the city and the sanctuary. It must be remembered that, at the time Daniel received this prophecy, there was no city or sanctuary. It had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. But Daniel says that it is going to happen again.

This was dramatically fulfilled in A.D. 70 when the Roman General Titus marched against Jerusalem and took the city after a siege of eight months. Since that time, the site of the Temple has been the site of desolation and a complete destruction. Today archaeologists even debate as to exactly where the original Temple was located.