Daniel
Chapter Two

DANIEL 9:24-27
The "Weeks Prophecy"

9:24 | 9:25 | 9:26 | 9:27

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. "

The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation | The Romance of Bible Chronology | Jerusalem's Destruction and the Seventy Weeks | When do they Begin and End? | Graph of Design Theory | Dissertations on Biblical Prophecy | Daniel's Seventy Weeks Revisited | How Daniel 9 Anticipates AD70 | Daniel Study Resources

• John Crowne: The Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian (PDF File)  "Amongst the angel's pronouncements is the statement "Thy weeks are finish'd." The phrase derives from Daniel 9. There, the angel Gabriel has come to explain to Daniel the meaning of his visions. Thus, we can clearly link Crowne's play not simply with Josephus and Suetonious, but also with two of the chief examples of Judeo-Christian apocalyptic literature, Revelation and Daniel. This certainly distinguishes this play from Racine and Otway, whose plays lack anything remotely like this kind of imagery."

• The Seventy Weeks Prophecy - "Imagine a god who said that "History will look like a statue" and then to match the interpretation you have to draw toes as long as the rest of the statue. Such a statue has to lie on his side because he can not stand on such deformed feet. Since premillenial scholars know that the division of the Roman Empire into 10 kingdoms took place about 500 years after the advent of Jesus of Nazareth and they err in not believing "the little stone" has hit the image in the feet as yet, then they are forced to draw toes that are 1500 years long. The diagram is not actually proportionate however since an honest picture of the toes make them 1 and 1/3 times longer that the complete standing image. The rest of the statue is proportionate to the time periods that each symbolic portion predicted. Surely God did not predict history represented by a freak statue."

• C.H. Mackintosh - A Great Gap - Daniel 9:20-27 (1858) Plymouth Brethren View

SCHOLARLY SOURCES

Gerard Israël and Jacques Lebar
"When, in the year 70 AD, the legions of Titus besieged and sacked Jerusalem and razed the temple -- the symbol of Jewish national independence -- they touched off a chain reaction." (When Jerusalem Burned: The Catastrophic Day when the Romans Destroyed the Great Temple and Jerusalem Itself  (Fr., 1970)

James Tabor
"Here we find a period of "about 40 years" tied to the demise of the Teacher. There is a fragment from Cave 4 (4Q171) that refers to the same period: "A little while and the wicked shall be no more; I will look towards his place but he shall not be there" (Psa 37:10). Interpreted, this concerns all the wicked. At the end of the forty years they shall be blotted out and not an man shall be found on earth." Here things get a bit prophetically complicated, unless one is steeped in the chronological schemes of the book of Daniel (and Ezekiel)-- particularly the "70 weeks" prophecy of Daniel 9. It essentially sets forth a 490 year period, which the DSS community understood neatly as Ten Jubilees, 49 years each. We then find references in various fragments (11QMelch; 4Q390) that attempt to fit the history of the community within this time scheme. The Teacher himself is to arise, as one would expect, "in the first week of the Jubilee that follows the nine Jubilees" (11QMelch), or just over 40 years from the End." (Dead Messiahs)

The Targumim of the Megillot
(Lamentations 4) "17 Our eyes still fail to see our help which we expected to come from the Romans, but which turned to naught for us. In hope we watched for the Edomites who were a nation which could not save.  18 They prowled our paths so that we could not walk safely in our open places. We said, "Our end is near; our days are fulfilled," for our end had come."  (Targum Lamentations)

Aquila
"On thy people, and on thy sacred city.. For ending disobedience, and for completing transgression. For the fulfilling of their disobedience and the completion of their sin, For the propitiation of their transgression, For the bringing in of everlasting righteousness, And for fulfilling the vision and the prophet. For the anointing of the most consecrated,"  (Quoted in Demonstratio Evangelica (Proof of the Gospel) ;  BOOK VIII)

Josephus
"Daniel prophesied and wrote about all this many years ago. Similarly we can read in his writings about the way our people came under the yoke of Roman slavery and how our nation was destroyed by the Romans. All these writings Daniel left by God's command to give to the readers and students of history proof of the great honour God had granted him and to convince the doubters, who close out all possibility of guidance from life, that God still is concerned with the course of history." (Josephus, Antiquities, X.10 and 11. )

Rabbi Judah (Main Compiler of the Talmud)
"These times were over long ago" (Regarding Daniel's prophecy - Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 98b and 97a)

Rabbi Moses Abraham Levi
"I have examined and searched all the Holy Scriptures and have not found the time for the coming of Messiah clearly fixed, except in the words of Gabriel to the prophet Daniel, which are written in the 9th chapter of the prophecy of Daniel."

Samuel Levine (1925) - He is right, by the way..
"Christians, for lack of a better answer, claim that the 70th week will take place when Jesus returns in his second coming as a king.  The problem was caused because Daniel mentioned a total of 70 weeks, and then he specified 7 plus 62, leaving one remaining.  The Christians say that the first 69 weeks were consecutive, then there is at least a 1900 year gap, and sooner or later the 70th week will occur.  This is obviously a very forced explanation, born of desperation." [You take Jesus, I'll Take God: How to Refute Christian Missionaries (Los Angeles: Hamoroh Press, 1980)p. 31]

Preteristic references include: The Epistle of Barnabas 16:6; Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 1:21; Tertullian, Against the Jews 8; Origen, Matthew 24:15; Julius Africanus, Chronography (relevant portions preserved in Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 10:10 and Demonstrations of the Gospel 8); Eusebius, Demonstrations 8; Athanasius, Incarnation 40:1

"Vespasian rose to the supreme power, and destroyed Jerusalem, and desolated the holy place.  And that such are the facts of the case, is clear to him that is able to understand, as the prophet said."

Africanus (160-240)
"The section thus expressed gives much strange information. But here I will make the necessary examination of the times and the matters connected with them. It is clear, then, that the coming of the Christ is foretold as to occur after seventy weeks. For in the time of our Saviour, or after His time, sins are done away and transgressions ended. And by this remission iniquities are blotted out (c) by a propitiation together with unrighteousness, eternal righteousness is published beyond that of the law, visions and prophecies (last) until John, and the Holy of holies is anointed. For these things existed in expectation only before our Saviour's Coming. And the angel explains we must count the numbers, that is to say the seventy weeks, which are 490 years, from the going forth of the word of answer and from the building of Jerusalem. This took place in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, King of Persia. For Nehemiah his cup-bearer made the request, (d) and received the answer that Jerusalem should be rebuilt, and the order went forth to carry it out. For till that date the city lay desolate. For when Cyrus after the seventieth year of the Captivity spontaneously allowed every one who wished to return, those with Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel went back, and those afterwards with Ezra, and were at first prevented from building the Temple, and the wall of the City, as no order had been given for it; and so |125 there was a delay until Nehemiah and the reign of Artaxerxes and the one hundred and fifteenth year of the Persian Empire. And this was 185 years from the taking of Jerusalem. It was then that King Artaxerxes gave the order (390) for it to be built. And Nehemiah was sent to take charge of the work, and the street and wall were built, as it had been prophesied. And from that date to the coming of Christ is seventy weeks. For if we begin to count from any other point but this, not only the dates will not agree, but many absurdities arise. If, for instance, we begin counting the seventy weeks from Cyrus and the first Mission, the period will be too long by more than a century, if from (b) the day the angel prophesied to Daniel still longer, and longer still if we start from the beginning of the Captivity. For we find the length of the Persian Empire to be 230 years, and of the Macedonian 300, and from then to the sixteenth year of Tiberius Caesar 60 years. And from Artaxerxes to the time of Christ seventy weeks are (c) completed according to Jewish reckoning. For from Nehemiah, who was sent by Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem, in the one hundred and fifteenth year of the Persian Empire, and in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, and in the fourth year of the eighty-third Olympiad up to that date, which was the second year of the two hundred and second Olympiad, and the sixteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, there are 475 years, or 490 according to Hebrew reckoning. For they reckon years by the course of the moon, I ought to (d) tell you, counting 354 days, while the course of the sun is 365 ¼ days, twelve lunar revolutions, being exceeded by one solar by 11¼ days. Therefore the Greeks and the Jews add three intercalary months to every eighth year. For eight times 11¼ days makes three months. So then 465 years, in eight-year cycles, makes fifty-nine years and three months. Since adding the three intercalary months every eighth year, we have a few days short of fifteen years. And these added (391) to the 475 years complete the seventy weeks."  (Fifth Book of his Chronography, Quoted in Demonstratio Evangelica (Proof of the Gospel) ;  BOOK VIII)

St. Augustine
"For let us not suppose that the computation of Daniel's weeks was interfered with by this shortening of those days, or that they were not already at that time complete, but had to be completed afterwards in the end of all things, for Luke most plainly testifies that the prophecy of Daniel was accomplished at the time when Jerusalem was overthrown." (Matt. 24:22, Golden Chain)

Barnabus
"This abstract discussion of Judaism is the sign of an epoch when the Judaizing controversies were already a thing of the past in the main body of the Church. In settling the date of the letter reference is often made to verses 3-5 of chapter four, where the writer, it is believed, finds the fulfilment of the prophecy of Daniel (Dan. 7:7, sqq.) in the succession of the Roman Emperors of his time." (New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia)

Clement of Alexandria (150-215)
"And thus Christ became King of the Jews, reigning in Jerusalem in the fulfillment of the seven weeks. And in the sixty and two weeks the whole of Judaea was quiet, and without wars. And Christ our Lord, "the Holy of Holies," having come and fulfilled the vision and the prophecy, was anointed in His flesh by the Holy Spirit of His Father. In those "sixty and two weeks," as the prophet said, and "in the one week," was He Lord. The half of the week Nero held sway, and in the holy city Jerusalem placed the abomination; and in the half of the week he was taken away, and Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius. And Vespasian rose to the supreme power, and destroyed Jerusalem, and desolated the holy place." (Miscellanies)

"The half of the week Nero held sway, and in the holy city Jerusalem placed the abomination; and in the half of the week he was taken away, and Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius. And Vespasian rose to the supreme power, and destroyed Jerusalem, and desolated the holy place. And that such are the facts of the case, is clear to him that is able to understand, as the prophet (i.e., Daniel) said." (Miscellanies 1:21)

Eusebius (314)
"And all these things were fulfilled when the seventy weeks were completed at the date of our Saviour's Coming."

"I think that the fact that the intermediate period of their primacy, during which they governed, is meant, is shewn by the words, "From the going forth of the answering and the building of Jerusalem, until Christ the governor, is seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." And the weeks of years make 483 years added together from the reign of Cyrus up to the Roman Empire, when Pompeius (392) the Roman general attacked Jerusalem and took the city by siege, and the whole city became subject to Rome, so that thenceforward it paid taxes, and obeyed the Roman enactments."

(c) "20. AND while I yet spake and prayed and confessed my sins and the sins of my people Israel, and casting my misery before the holy Mount of my God, 21. and while I yet spake in prayer, behold the man Gabriel, whom I had seen at the beginning came flying, and he touched me about the time of the evening sacrifice. 22. And he instructed me and spake with me, saying, O (d) Daniel, 23. I am now come forth to impart to thee understanding. At the beginning of thy supplication the word came forth, and I am come to tell thee, for thou art a man greatly beloved: therefore consider the matter, understand the vision, for thou art a man greatly beloved. 24. Seventy weeks have been decided on for thy people, and for the holy city, for sin to be ended, and to seal up transgressions, and to blot out iniquities, and to make atonement for iniquities, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. 25. And thou shalt know and understand, that from the going forth of the command for the answer and for the building of Jerusalem until Christ the Prince shall be seven (382) weeks, and sixty-two weeks; and then it shall return, and the street shall be built, and the wall, and the times shall be exhausted. 26. And after the sixty-two weeks, the Anointing shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in him, and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary together with the coming prince; they shall be cut off in a flood, and, to the end of the war which is rapidly completed, in desolations. 27. And one week shall establish the covenant with many: and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and drink-offering shall be taken away: and on the temple shall be an (b) abomination of desolations: and at the end of time shall an end be put to the desolation."

When the captivity of the Jewish people at Babylon was near its end, the Archangel Gabriel, one of the holy ministers of God, appeared to Daniel as he prayed, and told him that the restoration of Jerusalem was to follow without the slightest delay, and he defines the period after the restoration by numbering the years, and foretells that after the predetermined time it will again be destroyed, and that after the second capture and siege it will no longer have (c) God for its guardian, but will remain desolate, with the worship of the Mosaic Law taken away from it, and another new Covenant with humanity introduced in its place. This was what the Angel Gabriel revealed to the prophet as by secret oracles. So then he says to Daniel"

Instead of, "For sin to be ended, and to seal up transgressions," Aquila translated, "For ending disobedience, and for completing transgression." I think that our Saviour's words to the Jews, "Ye have filled up the measure of your fathers," are parallel to this."

"And the people of the governor that cometh will destroy the city and the holy place." Meaning that the city and the Holy Place arc not only to be ruined by the leader to come, whom I have identified in my interpretation, but also by his people. And you would not be far wrong in saying, too, that the Roman general and his army arc meant by the words before us, where I think the camps of the Roman rulers are meant, who governed the nation from that time, and who destroyed the city of Jerusalem itself, and its ancient venerable Temple. For they were cut off by them as by a flood, and were at once involved in destruction until the war was concluded, so that the prophecy was fulfilled and they suffered utter desolation (400) after their plot against our Saviour, which was followed by their extreme sufferings during the siege. You will find an accurate account of it in the history of Josephus."

"But after the prophecy of the events that happened to the Jewish nation in the intermediate period between the |135  seven and sixty-two weeks, there follows the prophecy of the new Covenant announced by our Saviour. So when all the intermediate matter between the seven and the sixty-two weeks is finished, there is added, "And he will confirm (b) a Covenant with many one week," and in half the week the sacrifice and the libation shall be taken away, and on the Holy Place shall come the abomination of desolation, and until the fullness of time fullness shall be given to the desolation. Let us consider how this was fulfilled." (Demonstratio Evangelica (Proof of the Gospel) ;  BOOK VIII)

Origen (2nd Century)
"The weeks of years, also, which the prophet Daniel had predicted, extending to the leadership of Christ, have been fulfilled" (Principles, 4:1:5).

Sulpicius Severus (403)
"But from the restoration of the temple to its destruction, which was completed by Titus under Vespasian, when Augustus was consul, there was a period of four hundred and eighty-three years. That was formerly predicted by Daniel, who announced that from the restoration of the temple to its overthrow there would elapse seventy and nine weeks. Now, from the date of the captivity of the Jews until the time of the restoration of the city, there were two hundred and sixty years. (p. 254, ch. 11)

Symmachus The Ebionite (161-80)
"Against thy people, and thy holy city"

Theodoret (430)
(Closes the period three years and a half after the suffering of Christ) "and so they begin the last week at the baptism of Christ" (Quoted by Willet)

Jacques-Benigne Bossuet
"In the fifteenth year of Tiberius, St. John Baptist appears: JESUS CHRIST receives baptism from that divine harbinger: the eternal father acknowledges his well-beloved son, by a voice from heaven : the Holy Ghost descends upon the Saviour, under the harmless figure of a dove : the whole Trinity manifests itself. There begins, with the Seventieth week of Daniel, the preaching of JESUS CHRIST. This last week was the most important, and the most noted.

Daniel had distinguished it from the rest, as the week, wherein the covenant was to be confirmed, and in the middle of which; tile old sacrifices were to lose their efficacy. We may call it the week of mysteries. In it JESUS CHRIST establishes his mission and doctrine, by numberless miracles, and afterwards by his death. This happened in the fourth year of his ministry, which was also the fourth year of the last week of Daniel; and after this manner is that great week found exactly interfered by the suffering of our Saviour.

Thus the computation of the weeks is easy to be made, or rather is done already. We have only to add to 453 years, which will be found from the 300th year of Rome, and 20th of Artaxerxes, to the beginning of the vulgar era, the 30 years of that era which we fee come down to the fifth year of Tiberius, and the baptism of our Lord ; these two sums will make 483 years : of the seven years which yet remain to complete 490, the fourth, which makes the middle one, is that in which which Jefus Christ died : and all that Daniel prophesied, is visibly contained within the term prescribed. There would even have been no necessity for so much exactness, nor does any thing oblige us to take in so strict a sense the middle marked by Daniel." (Universal History, pp. 114,115)

F.F. Bruce (1971)
"When the temple area was taken by the Romans, and the sanctuary itself was still burning, the soldiers brought their legionary standards into the sacred precincts, set them up opposite the eastern gate, and offered sacrifice to them there, acclaiming Titus as imperator (victorious commander) as they did so. The Roman custom of offering sacrifice to their standards had already been commented on by a Jewish writer as a symptom of their pagan arrogance, but the offering of such sacrifice in the temple court was the supreme insult to the God of Israel. This action, following as it did the cessation of the daily sacrifice three weeks earlier, must have sensed to many Jews, as it evidently did to Josephus, a new and final fulfillment of Daniel's vision of a time when the continual burnt offering would be taken away and the abomination of desolation set up" (Bruce, p. 224)

William Hales (1747-1831)
"And after the sixty and two weeks, before specified, as the largest division of the 70, was the anointed [leader] cut off judicially, by an iniquitous sentence, in the midst of the one week, which formed the third and last division, and began with our Lord's Baptism, about A.D. 27.--'when he was beginning to be thirty years of age,' and commenced his mission, which lasted three years and half until his crucifixion, about A.D. 31.

"27. During this one week, which ended about A.D. 34 (about the martyrdom of Stephen,) a new covenant was established with many of the Jews, of every class; in the midst of which the Temple sacrifice was virtually abrogated by the all-sufficient sacrifice of the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the [repentant and believing] world."

Ernst Hengstenberg
"it was then regarded by the Jews as relating to a still future occurrence -- the yet impending conquest and destruction of Jerusalem." (Com. 2, page 584)

Keil and Delitzsch Commentary
"the interpretations may be divided into three principal classes. 1. Most of the church fathers and the older orthodox interpreters find prophesied here the appearance of Christ in the flesh, His death, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. 2. The majority of the modern interpreters, on the other hand, refer the whole passage to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. 3. Finally, some of the church fathers and several modern theologians have interpreted the prophecy eschatologically, as an announcement of the development of the kingdom of God from the end of the Exile on to the perfecting of the kingdom by the second coming of Christ at the end of the days." (Daniel, p. 336)

Philip Mauro (1925)
"We understand that the sense in which the death of Christ made an end of sins was that thereby he made a perfect atonement for sins, as written in Hebrews 1:3, 'when He had by Himself purged our sin,' and in many like passages." (The Seventy Week, p 47)

Jim McGuiggan (1978)
"When these 'seventy weeks' have 'run their course' God will have finished altogether his work with the Jews as a (Mosaic) commonwealth!" (The Book of Daniel, p. 151)

Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
"And in half a week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease; that is, by the war of the Romans upon the Jews: which war, after some commotions, began in the 13th year of Nero , A.D. 67, in the Spring when Vespasian with an army invaded them; and ended in the second year of Vespasian, A.D. 70, in autumn, September 7 when Titus took the city, having burnt the Temple 27 days before: so that it lasted three years and an half."

"Thus have we in this short Prophecy, a prediction of all the main periods relating to the coming of the Messiah; the time of his birth, that of his death, that of the rejection of the Jews, the duration of the Jewish war whereby he caused the city and sanctuary to be destroyed, and the time of his second coming: and so the interpretation here given is more full and complete and adequate to the design, than if we should restrain it to his first coming only, as Interpreters usually do. We avoid also the doing violence to the language of Daniel, by taking the 7 weeks and 62 weeks for one number. Had that been Daniel's meaning, he would have said sixty and nine weeks, and not seven weeks and sixty two weeks, a way of numbering used by no nation."

Blaise Pascal
"709. One must be bold to predict the same thing in so many ways. It was necessary that the four idolatrous or pagan monarchies, the end of the kingdom of Judah, and the seventy weeks, should happen at the same time, and all this before the second temple was destroyed.  (SECTION XI) 

722 (cont.). Daniel 9:20. "Whilst I was praying with all my heart, and confessing my sin and the sin of all my people, and prostrating myself before my God, even Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, came to me and touched me about the time of the evening oblation, and he informed me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee the knowledge of things. At the beginning of thy supplications I came to shew that which thou didst desire, for thou are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to abolish iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness; to accomplish the vision and the prophecies, and to anoint the Most Holy. (After which this people shall be no more thy people, nor this city the holy city. The times of wrath shall be passed, and the years of grace shall come for ever.)

"The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after three score and two weeks," (which have followed the first seven. Christ will then be killed after the sixty-nine weeks, that is to say, in the last week), "the Christ shall be cut off, and a people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and overwhelm all, and the end of that war shall accomplish the desolation."  (SECTION XI) 

724. Predictions.--That in the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the second temple, before the dominion of the Jews was taken away, in the seventieth week of Daniel, during the continuance of the second temple, the heathen should be instructed, and brought to the knowledge of the God worshipped by the Jews; that those who loved Him should be delivered from their enemies, and filled with His fear and love.

And it happened that in the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the second temple, etc., the heathen in great number worshipped God, and led an angelic life.   (SECTION XI) 

William Whiston (1737)
"This is a very remarkable day indeed, the seventeenth of Panemus, [Tammuz,] A.D. 70, when, according to Daniel's prediction, 606 years before, the Romans "In half a week caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease," Dan. ix. 27; for from the month of February, A.D. 66, about which time Vespasian entered on this war, to this very time, was just three years and a half.

"How general the reference of the prophecy then was to a future destruction of the city, appears from the express observation of Josephus, that even the zealots had no doubt of the correctness of this interpretation. The same interpretation is found also in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Gemarah." (P. 215.)

"See Bishop Lloyd's Tables of Chronology, published by Mr. Marshall, on this year. Nor is it to be omitted, what year nearly confirms this duration of the war, that four years before the war begun was somewhat above seven years five months before the destruction of Jerusalem, ch. 5. sect. 3." (Wars of the Jews, VI,II,1)

Zonaras (11/12th C.)
"commences the period at the 20th year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, and ends the 62 weeks at the death of Hyrcanus. From this point to Christ's baptism they reckon seven weeks more, and then in the midst of the last week, Messiah was slain; so there remained afterwards three years and a half for the preaching of the Gospel. Eusebius begins the 69 weeks in the sixth year of Darius Itystaspes, and ends them in the first year of Herod, about the death of Hyrcanus. He begins the 70th week at Christ's baptism, and ends the period three years and a half afterwards. Tertullian, by beginning in the first year of Darius, counts 490 years, to the destruction of Jerusalem." (Dissertations on Calvin)

 

Gary DeMar
"Dispensationalists need a gap between the feet and the toes of Nebuchadnezzar's statue.."  (Last Days Madness, p. 172)

J. Marcellus Kik
"The only valid objection against this general interpretation is that the destruction of Jerusalem did not occur within the seventieth week - within the period of seven years.  The seventy weeks extended to about 33 A.D. The destruction of Jerusalem, of course, came in 70 A.D.  A close examination of the passage in Daniel does not disclose any definite statement that the people of the prince were to cause this destruction within the seven years.  Within the seven years the destruction of the city was determined by its rejection of Christ and his apostles.  Because of that rejection the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." (An Eschatology of Victory 109-110) 

"If the seventieth week were postponed we would still be in our sins!" (An Eschatology of Victory 108)

 

John Lightfoot (1654)
"Daniel knowing from Jeremies Prophecie, that the seventy years of Captivity were now fully expired, addresseth himself to God by prayer for their return: he receiveth not only a gracious answer to his desire, but a Prediction of what times should pass over his people till the death of Christ; namely, seventy weeks, or seventy times seven years, or four hundred and ninety.  This space of time the Angel divideth into three unequal parts.

1. Seven sevens, or forty nine years, to the finishing of  Jerusalems Walls.
2. Sixty two sevens, or four hundred thirty four years, from that time, till the last seven.
3. The last seven in the latter half of which Christ Preacheth, viz. three years and a half, and then dieth, &c.

The twenty seventh Verse therefore is to be read thus:  He shall confirm the covenant with many in the one week, and in half that week he shall cause Sacrifice and Oblation to cease, &c.  So that from this year to the death of Christ are four hundred ninety years; and there is no cause, because of doubtful Records among the Heathen, to make a doubt of the fixedness of this time, which an Angel of the Lord hath pointed out with so much exactness."  (Works, 1st. Ed., Vol. 1; Chronology, p. 136)

"[C]hrist now hath three years and a half to live, and to be a publick Minister of the Gospel, as the angel Gabriel had told, Dan. 9.27. that in half of the last sevens of the years there named, he should confirm the Covenant:  R. Jochanan saith, Three years and an half the Divine Glory stood upon the Mount of Olives and cried, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Midr. Till. fol. 10. col. 4." (Works, 1st. Ed., Vol. 1; Harmony, p. 10)

Samuel Lee (1849)
"The wording of the Hebrew is peculiar here and highly deserving of remark. It stands literally thus, — “Until (the) evening (and) morning, or it may be until the evening of the morning, two thousand and three hundred, and the sanctuary (lit. holiness) shall be sanctified.” Evening and morning, I take here to be a mere periphrasis for a day; and so our translators have taken it, Genesis 1:5. The day here had in view must mark the period of Daniel’s seventieth week — the numbers given above must be understood indefinitely, and as intended to designate a considerable length of time.  This consummation could not be effected by Antiochus Epiphanes: he only suspended the service of the Temple for about three years and a half. By every consideration, therefore, it is evident that the Little Horn of Daniel’s seventh and eighth chapters, is identically the same, and that this symbolized that system of Roman rule which ruined Jerusalem, and then made war upon the sainted servants and followers of the Son of man; and in this he prospered and practiced, until he in his turn fell, as did his predecessors, to rise no more at all. (An Inquiry into the Nature, Progress, and End of Prophecy, p. 168.)

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID

Todd Dennis (1995)
"Christ, in response to the question of how many times a man should forgive his brother (Matthew 18:22), responded by saying, "until seventy times seven," which is the exact amount of time (490 years) in Daniel's "weeks prophecy". Considering that the end of that prophecy foretold desolation upon the Jerusalem and the nation, perhaps Jesus implied that there was an end to God's patience with national Israel. If this was indeed Christ's intent, then this declaration serves as one of His most chilling notices of Israel's impending destruction-by-fire." (The Seventy Weeks Were Fulfilled by AD70)

Collin Sandler
"The word used for "weeks" is actually TWO words in the original text: shibah and shabuwa."

In his book "Daniel, Key to Prophetic Revelation," John Walvoord cites Edward Young's "The Prophecy Of Daniel", which noted that Daniel used: "the masculine plural instead of the usual feminine plural. No clear explanation is given except that Young feels 'it was for the deliberate purpose of calling attention to the fact that the word sevens is employed in an unusual sense.'" This word is found only FIVE times in the O.T., all in the 9th chapter of Daniel, twice in verse 24, twice in verse 25, and once in verse 26. Interestingly, Daniel's verse 27 uses "shabuwa" (Strong's 7620)."

However, if you examine a J.P. Green interlinear, you should find FIVE instances of the Hebrew word "shibiym" ("Strong's" 7657), and TWO instance of "shabuwa".  According to "Strong's", "shibiym" is described as a "multiple [plurl] of 7651", which is the word "sheba" in feminine gender and "shibah" in masculine gender. "

If I understand the contexts correctly, it appears that the first sixty-nine "shibah" are one chronology, and the seventieth "shabuwa" is a different chronology.  It seems fairly obvious that the seventieth "shabuwa" is a seven-year period, and that the sixty-nine "shibah" are NOT.  Nearly all commentators interpret all seventy periods of time as "shabuwa", which totals to 490 years.  Literal scripture does NOT support
that interpretation."
 

 

High in the Father's house above
My mansion is prepared;
There is the home, the rest I love,
And there my bright reward.

With Him I love, in spotless white,
In glory I shall shine;
His blissful presence my delight,
His love and glory mine.

All taint of sin shall be removed,
All evil done away;
And I shall dwell with God's Beloved,
Through God's eternal day.

From "The Lord's Coming", Things New and Old, by C. H. Mackintosh.

 

---

What do YOU think ?

Send an email with your comments to todd @ preteristarchive.com
Be sure to include the article name.  They will be posted shortly upon receipt
 

---

Date:

20 Apr 2004

Time:

16:36:18

Comments

Dispensational puzzler: The teaching goes that "Antichrist" makes a treaty with Israel for one week. In the beginning of this seven year period, they are permitted to worship in the temple, conducting animal sacrifices and all of that. In the midst of that seven years the Antichrist sets up the abomination in the temple, simultaneously ending the sacrifice and oblation. But Daniel 12:11 reads, "And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days." Daniel has the end of the sacrifice taking place about three and a half years BEFORE the abomination is set up. This is one of many contradictions between Dispensationalism and the Bible. ------ C.P.Machovsky ------- www.biblebits.com

---

Date:

20 May 2004

Time:

15:14:05

Comments

There's nothing puzzeling about it. The two events do occur at the same time; thus the word "and" rather than "until". They both occur in the middle of the week and then there remains three and a half years of the 70th week. The preterist doctrine is impossible because they cannot explain Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks! No matter how hard they try, preterists cannot make the numbers add up! It doesn’t matter where you start the time line, everyone agrees that the Lord’s death and the destruction of the city (Jerusalem) occurs after the 69th week. Preterists say they both occurred in the 70th week. But these two events occurred nearly 40 years apart! Thus they must either admit a gap in the middle of the week (which they say cannot be) or else cram 40 years into seven! Neither option will do. Therefore preterism is clearly a false theory. Incidentally, every other non-dispensational view has this same insurmountable problem.

---

Date:

22 Sep 2004

Time:

21:56:54

Comments

Sorry, I had to correct Collin when he finds 5 shibiym and 2 shabuwa in Dan. 9:24-27. He has read the wrong vowels in. There are actually 1 shibiym, 4 shabuim and 2 shabuwa. The 1 shibiym should not be counted because it means simply "seventy", not "weeks"; then shabuim is here the plural of shabuwa and both have the same meaning. The only reason he finds a distinction is that one means "weeks" (70, 62, 7) and one means "week" (1, 1/2). This is obvious looking at the vowels in the text, which after all begins "shabuim shibiym", meaning "70 weeks", not "weeks of weeks" nor, God forbid, "70 70's"! As a covenantal premill tending to posttrib, I found Africanus very helpful in that he uses the math honestly, unlike many. He comes to very similar conclusions as Robert Anderson. However preterists have never answered Anderson's power-packed math. (I'm going to use the Julian and Hillel II calendars as well as what Anderson assumed the date was called when it actually occurred.) Adjusting him slightly, there are 173,880 days (7x69x360) from Sun 16 Mar 445 (4 Nisan 3316) to Sun 6 Apr 32 (6 Nisan 3792, assumed 10 Nisan). Artaxerxes' decree date is (early) Nisan in his 20th [445] in Neh. 2:1, and Jesus' triumphal entry date is apparently 10 Nisan [32] implied in Ex. 12:3. Anderson finds evidence from lunar embolismic tables that indicates that Hillelite 6 Nisan was called 10 Nisan. Josh McDowell adjusts this by one year, as there are also 173,880 days from Mon 9 Mar 444 (6 Adar Sheni 3317, assumed early Nisan 3318) to Mon 30 Mar 33 (10 Nisan 3793). With this adjustment there is no lunar or Scriptural problem with either date. If the weather was good, Hillelite Adar Sheni would have been called Nisan. However, Anderson's other great contribution was to find THE SAME PATTERN in Jeremiah's 70 years with both dates stated precisely in Scripture. Again adjusting slightly (both Anderson and McDowell made minor math errors), from the siege of Jerusalem dated Sat 18 Dec 589 (11 Tevet 3173, assumed 10 Tevet as given in 2 Kings 25:1), to the blessing of Jerusalem dated Sat 16 Dec 520 (23 Kislev 3242, assumed 24 Kislev as given in Hag. 2:18-20), are exactly 25200 days, or 70x360. Since covenantal premills reject the basic tenet of dispensationals (separating Israel from church as two chosen peoples), I find it difficult to reserve the 70th week for an Israel-only future tribulation. However, since preterists have nothing resembling this exactitude of math, could Anderson be right to end the 69th week with the triumphal entry? If not, why would God permit EXACT DATES for 3 of these incidents (and an exact month for the 4th) to be known and to correspond so exactly to 360-day years? Just another trick up his sleeve? And of course this leaves the 70th week in complete limbo! Best wishes! rabbi@messianicjews.net

McDowell's date for Artaxerxes' decree under Hillel's calendar should be corrected to 6 Adar Sheni 3316, assumed early Nisan 3317. See how easy mistakes are! Also the Julian dating is of course New Style. rabbi@messianicjews.net

---

Date:

03 Dec 2004

Time:

19:34:59

Comments

To begin with, there is no "gap" between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel. "Until" and "and," in this context, have the same meaning. If not, then Daniel would have stopped in the middle of his sentence, and essentially said nothing. The comma after "taken away" separates the two events by the given length of time: 1290 days. Daniels' 70th week began immediately after the 69th week. Christ was anointed Messiah, and began His ministry. Ostensibly, He was to confirm the covenant to the many in Israel for seven years, at the end of which He would have set up the kingdom to the nation. But three and half years later He was crucified. The end of the seven years is not clearly defined in the Bible, because it was immaterial after Israel rejected and crucified Him. The nation had forfeited the kingdom. About 40 years later the days of vengeance prophesied by Isaiah, and foretold again by the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 21:22, took place. C.P. Machovsky WWW.Biblebits.Com

---

Date: 15 Dec 2005
Time: 18:03:32

Comments:

Thank God for this website and to all behind it. Now we have a website that allows for unbiased and non-indoctrinating presentation of Biblical positions by all denominations. Let the TRUTH shine on! Dr. Isabelo S. Alcordo, Ph.D. (Author: "Biblical History of Israel and the Kingdom of God.")

---

Date: 23 Nov 2006
Time: 13:15:35

Comments:

i would like to add soemthing very interesting to this whole daniel equation about the 70 weeks of daniel, at first i was futurist as taught in church then thought on the preterist thoery a great deal, and what i found on deep meditation over the years was that theres an obvious preterist truth simply because of the condition and spirit of the red letter of christ, he was all about coming to make a visitation on the people of israel matt23:35-36, that being daniels people and not gentiles as said in daniel 9:24.
and christ was to only come to the lost sheep of israel matt.10:5-7 and matt. 15:24.
my acute observation on something on the chart you have on this webesite is the 70 weeks, the 62 weeks, and the times when christ was born, this is a massive flaw in your understanding, daniel states firstly that the 'unto the messiah" in 9:25 will be 69 weeks of years, but it says in the 26th verse that messiah will be cut off at the 62nd week of years, ok correct me if iam wrong, but isnt that 49 yrs difference between when christ is on the cross at 62 weeks and 69 weeks he shows up again in some way for judgement on jerusalem.

my thinking cant seem to get over the fact theres something wrong with both the current thinking in futurist models and preterist thinking,i lean toward preterist because its clear that christ judged israel and said all those things would happen to that generation and it did according to historian josphus, and even christ said the abomination of desolation spoke of by daniel would be seen by some of the apostles matt.24:15. he addressed the apostles. not us!

bottem line is we have a issue with the real understanding of the weeks of years, the 62 weeks thing and 69 weeks thing has to be figured out before you can figure out the 70th week people!

---

Date: 04 Apr 2007
Time: 22:23:05

Comments:

In response to the 62/69 weeks question, the 62 weeks comes after the first 7 weeks making 69 weeks.

However, there are several things that I can't figure out regarding preterist theology.
1) It appears that the city and sanctuary are destroyed in verse 26 before the covenant that begins the seventieth week in verse 27.
2)If Jesus' death marks the middle of the 70th week, then where is the abomination that causes desolation, which should appear about the same time?

If anyone can answer either of these questions, I greatly appreciate it.

---

Date: 31 Oct 2007
Time: 01:10:14

Comments:

In the NKJV, vs 26 and 27 are written together as poetry. I took this as a key to consider them as Hebrew Parallel literature.

If you divide each of the 2 verses into 3 parts, beginning, middle and ending sections, then allow the parts of both verses to asymilate together, it is a narrative of the 70th week and the cause/effects of the things that happen in the 70 weeks.... i.e. the desolation.

Part 1.
He (Messiah) shall confim a covenant with the many for the one (final) week. In the midst of that week, he shall be cut off, but not for himself, CAUSING the sacrifice and oblation to cease. (the sacrifice and oblations did not immediately cease, but the cause of their end had occured with His being cut off)

End of 70 weeks, but not the end of the effects.
Part 2, cause effect.

For the overspreading of abominations (I view this as the continued disbelief and rejection of Christ and the Apostles and the continued animal sacrifices which would now be a total abomination to God.) the people of the prince who is to come shall desolate the city and the sanctuary and its end will come as a flood.

Part 3, the desolations

Throughout the war till it's end desolations will continue until the city and sanctuary are consummed. And that which is determined (the end of the people?) shall be poured out upon the desolate.