Updates with new topics will come up later  -  State: December 26, 2024

The 70 Weeks of Daniel


Synopsis  

The 70 weeks of Daniel are continuous without interruption; every verse of the prophecy of Dan 9:24-27 is about Christ, not one is about the Antichrist.



Daniel 9:24-27 24 Seventy weeks are decreed for your people, and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.


 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah [or: an anionted one] the Prince, shall be seven weeks and sixty two weeks; it will be restored and will be built, with street and moat, but in times of distress.


 26 And after sixty two weeks, Messiah [or: an anionted one] shall be cut off and have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And the end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end there shall be war; desolations are determined.


 27 And he shall confirm [or: make strong] a covenant with the many for one week. And in the middle of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease.
And on wing abominations desolating and until determined destruction shall be poured out on the desolate [or: the desolator].

Dan 9:27b: Bible text/translation adapted to the original Hebrew text (literally)





A brief overview

(further explanations are being prepared)


Daniel 9:24-27 is a key passage of Bible prophecy - a grandiose prophecy about the Messiah Jesus Christ! Many prophets of the Old Testament (OT) prophesied about the coming Messiah, but only Daniel prophesied when Jesus Christ would come for the first time. He predicted exactly 483 years before it happened (Dan 9:2):

- the year of Jesus' first public appearance

- and the year of his crucifixion


Daniel uses "weeks" for his time references. The Hebrew word for "week" ("shabua", pronounced "shavua") means "seven" or "a period of seven" and is always translated as "week" in the OT. It is generally agreed that the term "week" here in Daniel means "7 years"’ and not "7 days", which would be far too short for the fulfilment of the prophecy. Therefore, a week should be understood as a "week of years"


The prophecy concerns Israel and Jerusalem for 70 weeks, i.e. 490 years. These are made up of

- 7 weeks until Jerusalem is restored

- 62 weeks until the Messiah appears, and then is cut off

- 1 week in the middle of which the sacrifice is abolished (70th week)


In each of the 4 verses of Daniel 9:24-27, Jesus Christ is the centre and the fulfilment. The verses are closely linked:


Verse 24 explains what the goal of the 70 weeks (=70x7, i.e. 490 years) with Israel and Jerusalem is:

- to finish the transgression

- to make an end of sins

- to make atonement for iniquity

- and to bring in everlasting righteousness

- and to seal up the vision and prophecy

- and to anoint the Most Holy.


All of this was fulfilled at the crucifixion of Jesus on Golgotha, when he gave his life for each one of us so that everyone who believes in him may receive forgiveness of sins and be justified before God.


But even here the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine or dispensationalism contradicts this:

According to the doctrine of the Rapture before the Tribulation, verse 24 is not fulfilled at the first coming of the Lord, but only much later, at the visible Second Coming. The foundation of the still future fulfilment has already been laid on Golgotha. The reason why the fulfilment is still pending is that the 70 weeks do not run consecutively, but after the 69th week there is an interruption (a gap) of - by now - about 2000 years. After that, with the Rapture, begins the 70th week, which is the 7 years of tribulation.



Verse 25 mentions the time of the Messiah's public appearance: 69 weeks (i.e. 69x7=483 years) after the word to rebuild Jerusalem. This word can only refer to the decree of Cyrus (Kyros). This decree marks the turning point for the people Israel.


As announced by Jeremiah, Judah was to be led away to Babylon because of idolatry (Jeremiah 25:1-11 / Jeremiah 29:10). Nebudkadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and led Daniel and his friends to Babylon (Daniel 1:1-4). This first abduction of the captives (followed by 5 more) marked the beginning of the 70 years of Babylonian captivity. 20 years later, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed.


When the 70 years were completed, Cyrus conquered Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:17-23). Afterwards, in the first year of his world reign, Cyrus, king of Medo-Persia, issued a decree allowing the deported Jews to return to their land, and he gave orders for the city of Jerusalem and the temple to be rebuilt, just as God had expressly foretold through the prophet Isaiah (Isa 44:28 / Isa 45:1.13):


Isaiah 44,28 who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and shall do all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built; and to the temple, your foundation shall be laid.


This is the beginning of the 69 weeks (and therefore the beginning of the 70 weeks).


The end of the 69th week was fulfilled with the baptism of the Lord Jesus, when he was anointed with the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18 / Acts 10:38) and began his public ministry. This point in time is recorded extremely precisely in Luke 3:1-2 with detailed historical information about the rulers:


Luke 3,1-2 1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

 2 while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the Word of God came upon John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.


Verse 26 explains that after this, the Messiah will be cut off, which was fulfilled when the Jews handed Jesus Christ over to Pilate to be crucified. As a result of the rejection and murder of the Messiah, the Romans were to destroy the city of Jerusalem and the temple, which happened under the commander Titus in 70 AD.

War and devastation are to remain until the end, which speaks against the rebuilding of the temple.



Verse 27 is also about the Messiah. He will strengthen the covenant for 7 years. This is connected to the Abrahamic Covenant, the Law Covenant and the New Covenant.


In the middle of the 70th week, i.e. 3.5 years after his baptism at the Jordan, the Lord puts an end to sacrifices and grain offerings by giving a better sacrifice, namely himself on the cross of Golgotha (see also verse 26). The temple curtain was torn from top to bottom. By this God signalled, that the sacrifices were no longer necessary (although they continued until the destruction of the temple).


It is generally accepted that the Lord's ministry lasted 3.5 years. This corresponds to the first half of the 70th year-week.


The end of the 70th week extends into the Acts of the Apostles and could be fulfilled with the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7) or the conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10).



Verse 27, like the previous verse 26, speaks of desolation or desolating abominations. This concerns the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem (70 AD).


The abomination of desolation to which the Lord refers in Matthew 24:15 (and Mark 13:14) could mean the following:

- the legionary eagle (see the word "wing" in verse 27 above), the most important of the Roman military insignia

- the fact that the holy city was surrounded by Gentiles (Luke 21:20).

- the occupation of the temple by the Zealots during the Roman siege (and the civil war).


But with the introduction of the new doctrine - the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine of Darby (ca. 1830 AD) - Dan 9:27 is interpreted completely differently: The 70th week is still to come. This verse is about the Antichrist, and not about Jesus Christ. The Antichrist will make a covenant/peace treaty with Israel for 7 years after the Rapture. In the middle of the 7 years, he will break the covenant and abolish the reintroduced sacrifices in the future third temple in Jerusalem by sitting in the temple and setting up an abominable image of himself there.


The gap between the 69th and the 70th week (see scheme above) is the Church Age. The 69th week ends with the entry of Jesus on Palm Sunday - 5 days before the crucifixion. Thus the prophetic clock for Israel has stood still since the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem - and will only start ticking again 2000 years later, immediately after the Rapture (which takes place before the Tribulation).


----> The interruption is now 4 times longer than the prophecy of the 490 years, namely around 2000 years. But an interruption cannot be derived from the Bible text. Finally, there is no interruption between the 7 and 62 weeks.


----> And it contradicts the context and flow of the text when, in verse 27, the focus suddenly shifts from Christ to the Antichrist.


----> According to dispensationalism, the crucifixion of Jesus is therefore NOT included in the 70 weeks for Israel, but in the large gap of now 2000 years between the 69th and the 70th week.


----> So the abolition of sacrifices by the Lamb of God is not part of the prophetic programme with Israel? Although verse 24 says that the 70 year-weeks are about putting an end to sins and atoning for injustice:


John 1:29 The next day John sees Jesus coming toward him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!


1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.


Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.


Hebrews 10:18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.


----> Moreover, it is not the Antichrist who makes a covenant with Israel, but Christ who strengthens the covenant. This is because the verb usually used for making a covenant, in Hebrew “karath” = to cut, does not appear in this verse.



Errors in the chronology? - Comment on the year numbers (diagram above)


Most Bible commentators put the year of Jesus' crucifixion at 30 A.D. If we subtract the 3.5 years of the Lord's public ministry from this, we arrive at the year 26 A.D. for Jesus' baptism. If we add back the 69 year-weeks (483 years) from this date, we arrive at 457 BC for the year of Cyrus' decree.


However, according to the common extra-biblical chronology - which is accepted by almost all Bible interpreters - the year of Cyrus' decree (1st year) is not 457 BC, but 538 BC, i.e. around 80 years earlier. This chronology is based on the ‘Canon of Kings’ compiled by Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD, a list of kings from 747 BC to 30 BC.


Because of the Ptolemaic calendar/chronology, many Bible commentators therefore do not place the beginning of Daniel's 70 year-weeks on the year of Cyrus' decree, but on Nehemiah's permission to return in the 20th year of the Persian king Artaxerxes.


However, there are important biblical reasons why the Ptolemaic chronology cannot agree with the Bible, e.g:

Of the 22 heads of the priests who returned to Judah with Zerubbabel from the Babylonian captivity (Nehemiah 12:1-9), 15 signed the covenant with Nehemiah (Neh 10:1-14). However, that was at least 93 years later.

If one assumes that the heads were at least 40 years old when they returned at the time of Zerubbabel (otherwise they would hardly have been heads) ... then they would have been at least 40+93= 133 years old at the time of Nehemiah, which is not realistic.


Further explanations will follow at a later date.





Updates with new topics will come up later  -  State: December 26, 2024