The Revelation of the 70 Weeks: Daniel 9:24-27
24 “Seventy ‘sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,' and sixty-two ‘sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.' In the middle of the ‘seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing [of the temple] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."
A. Its contents: This passage sets forth God’s plan of “seventy weeks” for accomplishing the national and spiritual redemption of Israel.
B. Its interpretation and how it relates to the End Times:
1. v. 24--The Hebrew word for “week” means “sevens” of years. A week of years is a common idiom in Judaism. It comes from God’s command that every 7th year, the sabbatical year, the land was to have rest (Lev. 25:1-22; 26:3-35; Dt. 15).
2. v. 25--“From the issuing of the decree . . .” = the decree issued to Nehemiah (2:1) in 445 B.C. by Artaxerxes I to rebuild Jerusalem; “until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes . . .” = the coming of the Messiah to Israel riding on a donkey (Zech. 9:9); “there will be “7 ‘sevens’ and 62 ‘sevens’” = 7 x 7 weeks + 62 x 7 weeks = 69 weeks[1]or 483 yrs. If one uses the decree of Artaxerxes I to Nehemiah (2:1) in 445 B.C., the lunar or prophetic year[2]of 360 days/year and the date when “the Anointed One, the ruler, comes” in 32 A.D.[3], you get: 445 + 31[4]= 476 x 365.25 days/solar year = 173,859 days - 3 non-leap year days[5] = 173,856 days. If you take 483 yrs x 360 days/prophetic year = 173,880 days. 173,880 days - 173,856 days = 24 days, which allows for a different day of the year. From when the decree was issued on Nisan 1 (March 13/14), 445 B.C. to Jesus Triumphal Entry on Nisan 11 (April 5/6), 32 A.D.[6] there are exactly 173,880 days (Paul Meier, The Third Millennium, p. 303).
3. v. 26--“And after . . .the Anointed One will be cut off” = It is generally thought that Christ was crucified in A.D. 32, after the 62 week period; “and the people of the ruler . . . will destroy the city and the sanctuary” = destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70.
4. v. 27--“the ruler who will come” (v.26) i.e. Anti-Christ, shall make a covenant with the Jews for this last seven year period which will possibly allow them to rebuild the Temple and reinstate their sacrificial system. In the middle of the seven yr. period, he breaks this covenant and he himself sits as God in the Temple (2 Thess. 2:3-4), beginning The Great Tribulation against God’s people (Rev. 13:1-10).
[Note: It is believed by most Bible students that there is an indeterminate interval between the 69th & 70th week. Due to Israel’s rejection of her Messiah, God instigated His most severe curse of scattering the Israelites among the nations (Lev. 26:33, 38-39). During this interlude, salvation has been preached to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous (Rom. 11:11-24). Now that Israel is back in her land (1948) and has control of Jerusalem (1967), we are the 1st generation since A.D. 70 which can look for the start of the 70th week.]
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End Notes
[1]Thus, 1 week of years remains of the total 490 years determined.
[2]The prophetic year is 360 days long. The Babylonian calendar, which Daniel used, had 360 days/year. Prophetic Scriptures used various descriptions to convey the idea that a month had 30 days and a year was 12 months of 30 days each, totaling 360 days.
*Ex. #1: Dan 7:25, where the 4th Beast with 10 horns oppresses the saints for “a time, times and half a time;” which clearly parallels Rev. 13:5 where the Beast out of the Sea with 10 horns has “42 months” to exercise authority during which he makes war against the saints.
*Ex. #2: Rev. 11:2-3 has the Temple trampled for “42 months” while the 2 witnesses are prophesying for “1,260 days.”
*Ex. #3: Rev. 12:6, 14 have the Woman fleeing from the Dragon for “1,260 days,” which is also described as “a time, times and half a time.”
*Ex. #4: Dan. 12:7 again lists “a time, times and half a time” which 12:11, 12 expound upon and add to, to let us know that it will be a little bit longer than the standard 3 1/2 yrs.: as 1,290 days [1,260 + 30 (or 3 1/2 yrs. + 1 mo.)] and 1,335 days [1,260 + 75 (or 3 1/2 yrs. + 2 1/2 mo.)] from the time the daily sacrifice is abolished and the Abomination of Desolation is set up until the end and the final blessing.
*Thus, “a time, times and half a time” is equal to “42 months” which is equal to “1,260 days” (42 x 30) which is again equal to “a time, times and half a time” (or 1 year, 2 years and 1/2 a year = 3 1/2 yrs.). (See also Gen. 7:24 & 8:3-4 where 5 mo. = 150 days)
[3]Herod the Great died in 1 B.C. Based on the time the Magi gave him for the appearance of the star, Herod killed all the baby boys under 2 years old. Therefore, Jesus must have been born between 3 & 1 B.C. If so, then He was “about thirty” (Lk. 3:23) in A.D. 28, at which time he began His public ministry, which lasted 3 1/2 years, and then was crucified in A.D. 32.
[4] 1 year must be subtracted for moving directly from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. with no year 0 in between.
[5] Century years that cannot be divided by 400 are not leap years; therefore 3 days must be subtracted for 300, 200, and 100 B.C.
[6] Because the Jewish day goes from sunset-to-sunset, rather than midnight-to midnight, approximately 6 hrs. of what we would call the previous day needs to be included in dating events. For simplicity’s sake we usually think of the dates of Nisan 1, 445 B.C. & Nisan 11, 32 A.D. as March 14 and April 6, respectively.