Appendix 2 - Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
Introduction
The book of Daniel documents the life of the prophet Daniel, who at an early age was taken captive from Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire to serve in King Nebuchadnezzar’s court. It is one of the more controversial books in the Old Testament because of its incredible accuracy and detail predicting the events that transpired between the time of the prophet Malachi and the arrival of John the Baptist (the period between the Old Testament and New Testament). Because of its accuracy, many believe it was written after those events, but it is easily proven that it was written at least two hundred years earlier (for example it is included in the Septuagint which was written from mid-third century to second century BC).
Due to Daniel successfully interpreting a dream for the king, he began to rise in political power but always remained faithful to God. And as a result of his faithfulness, Daniel received several prophetic insights including an encounter with an angel who gave him a quick breakdown of God’s plan for humanity’s salvation which are recorded in four verses of Daniel chapter nine. These four verses are often called “Daniel’s Seventy Weeks,” because of the use of the Hebrew word ‘šā·ḇûª’, which will be explained below. Since these verses are easier to understand visually, using a timeline approach, one is also provided below.
The Text of Daniel 9:24-27
9:24 “A period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. 25 Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times.
9:26 “After this period of sixty-two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end. 27 The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven, but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration, until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.” (NLT)
About the Word ‘Week’
Often translated as the word ‘week’, the Hebrew word ‘šā·ḇûª’,[1] refers to the number seven or a set of seven. It can be a reference to seven days, seven months, seven years, etc. In the context of these verses the term refers to a group of seven years. Making this period of seventy weeks a total of 490 years. We also see that the period is broken into three parts, the first being seven sets (or 49 years), the second being sixty-two sets (or 434 years) and the third being one set (or 7 years). There is no need for a “secret decoder ring” to interpret, remember the Bible is its best commentary. From the Bible we can identify the people and places, as well as see that a Biblical year is 360 days (twelve 30-day months). Making the total interval 176,400 days (or using our current solar year way of calculating time it would be a period of 482.96 years per today’s 365.25-day system).
A Brief Word Overview
Your people: The Israelites (see Daniel 1:3)
Your holy city: Jerusalem (see verse 25)
Most Holy Place: The Holy of Holies room in the Temple (see Exodus 26:33)
Anointed One: Literally the Hebrew word ‘Messiah’, or in Greek ‘Christ’, and we know Him as Jesus
A ruler whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple: Roman siege on Jerusalem
A treaty: A peace treaty that allows the Jews to reconstruct the Temple on the Temple Mount.
The ruler: Although only referred to as a ‘beast’ in the text (see Revelation 13:1-10) he is often referred to as the ‘Anti-Christ’ by theologians (not a Biblical title).
End of sacrifices and offerings: After the Temple being rebuilt and the Torah’s system of sacrifices and offerings restarted, the process is stopped.
Sacrilegious object: An unclean object placed in the Most Holy Place.
Desecration: Once the Temple is “spiritually polluted” by the presence of an unclean object it is considered desecrated and cannot serve God (sacrifices and offerings halted) until it has been cleansed.
A Brief Verse Overview
Verse 24
Four-hundred and ninety years (seventy weeks) decreed for the Israelites and the city of Jerusalem to finish their rebellion against God, to end sin and to bring in eternal righteousness. This verse introduces the following prophecies which ultimately lead to the Messiah as the source of eternal righteousness. The last few words are often translated as “to anoint a most high place,” can also refer to person, or in context, Jesus. Remember, the title ‘Messiah’ and ‘Christ’ means “the Anointed One.”
Verse 25
The angel tells Daniel to listen carefully and pay close attention. After 483 years from the command to rebuild the city of Jerusalem (the city’s walls, not the Temple) the Messiah will appear. A decree from King Artaxerxes (Longimanus) was given to allow the rebuilding of the walls around Jerusalem (see Nehemiah 2:1-8). The walls were rebuilt during hostile times (see Nehemiah chapters 3 through 7) with completion estimated between 447 B.C. and 445 B.C. (understanding that construction only took 52 days, see Nehemiah 6:15). Adding 483 years or 173,880 days (476.06 years of our years) from the decree would place the beginning of the Messiah’s ministry between 29 A.D. and 31 A.D.
Verse 26
At the end of the 483 years the Messiah will be killed and from the Jews living at that time perspective, He died as a blasphemer and believed that His death meant nothing, when in reality His death and resurrection changed literally everything. Then at some point afterwards, a ruler would rise into power and his army will quickly and completely destroy Jerusalem and the Temple. In response to a Jewish revolt in the year 66 A.D., the Romans sent a new general by the name of Vespasian and his son, Titus, to besiege the city, and in the year A.D. 70, the city and the Temple were indeed completely destroyed. See commentary and each of the Considerations under Luke 21:20-24.
Verse 27
A different leader, a world leader, namely the Anti-Christ (the first beast of Revelation chapter 13), will make a seven-year treaty with the Jews (allowing them to rebuild the Temple without any hostilities), but halfway through (three and a half years later), the Anti-Christ will break the treaty and erect an object in the Temple that will desecrate it and cause the cessation of the Temple processes (sacrifices, etc.). This prophecy has yet to be fulfilled.
The Gap
There are a number of “gap theories” that have been proposed to interpret the Bible or to make a presupposition or some other concept ‘fit’ Scripture. While most are unnecessary as they typically try to make room for an erroneous assumption, this gap between the 69th week and the 70th week is indeed an unspecified period of time. Most like to refer to it as the “Church Age.” The ‘clock’ that begins the countdown of the last week of years will begin when the ‘Anti-Christ’ makes a seven-year covenant of peace with the Jews. The book of Revelation (as well as several Old Testament books) provides details on the events that will occur during this period, including a battle between man and Jesus known to many as Armageddon.
Conjecture
Daniel’s “70 Weeks” can be viewed as being presented in three sections: 1) the past, as it accurately predicted the coming of the Messiah who died for our sins; 2) the present, being the gap, a time for believers to spread the gospel message (until the “fullness of the Gentiles,” see Luke 21:24; Romans 11:25; Revelation 7:9); and 3) the future, the last seven-year period known as the ‘Tribulation’.
The Tribulation is a period of distress that is mentioned in several locations in both the Old Testament and New Testament and it is most often referred to as a “time of tribulation.” It is a seven-year period that is considered by most scholars to be Daniel’s 70th week, which is often divided in half (two, three- and a half-year periods, the last half is often referred to as the “Great Tribulation,” see Matthew 24:21; Revelation 7:14). Even though the book of Revelation may have the best presentation and outline of the events that will occur during this period, there are many references and direct connections recorded in the Old Testament (for example, see Isaiah 3:1-4:1 and Daniel 12:1). This period is also referred to as a “time of Jacob’s trouble,” a phrase taken from Jeremiah 30:4-7 (KJV).
Potential Timeline
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[1] Strong’s Hebrew 7620.