Seventy Weeks of Daniel Chap. 9

“²⁴Seventy weeks are determined for thy people, and for thy holy city, to shut up the transgression, and to seal up sins, and to cover iniquity, and to bring in righteousness age-during, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies.

²⁵ And thou dost know, and dost consider wisely, from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem till Messiah the Leader [is] seven weeks, and sixty and two weeks: the broad place hath been built again, and the rampart, even in the distress of the times.

²⁶ And after the sixty and two weeks, cut off is Messiah, and the city and the holy place are not his, the Leader who hath come doth destroy the people; and its end [is] with a flood, and till the end [is] war, determined [are] desolations.

²⁷ And he hath strengthened a covenant with many — one week, and [in] the midst of the week he causeth sacrifice and present to cease, and by the wing of abominations he is making desolate, even till the consummation, and that which is determined is poured on the desolate one.’”   Dan. 9:24-27. (Young’s Literal Translation. All bold emp. is mine throughout.)

First, notice that Gabriel is speaking to Daniel, and the subject is Daniel’s people…”thy people”, the Israelites, and the holy city….Jerusalem!   Daniel’s people were not the Romans, or the Greeks, or the Edomites, or the Ammonites.  They were the Jews.  Daniel earnestly wanted to know what was going to happen to his people.  The entire prophecy of the seventy weeks is clearly stated in the first sentence to be about the Jews and their city, Jerusalem.

If you are attempting to apply this prophesy to some other nation, or to some future as yet unknown people of Daniel you are gravely mistaken!  Nor, can it be about the current Zionist political dream creation of “Eretz Yisrael”, the so called holy land, for reasons I will go into later.

Next, let’s notice that Daniel 9 occurs in the first year of Darius’ reign (c.9:v.1).  Darius rose to power after Cyrus’ reign ended in the second empire of the dream of Daniel 2, that is the Mede-Persian empire.  And, then let’s notice that the seventy weeks begin “from the going forth of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.”

So, the 70 weeks of the prophesy that Gabriel speaks to Daniel in chapter 9 begins some time after Cyrus’ decree was proclaimed for the return of the Jews to Jerusalem.  However, we cannot start counting from Cyrus’ decree because the rebuilding of Jerusalem was not accomplished immediately.  Those that returned to Jerusalem with Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel were prevented from rebuilding. 

Ezra chap. 3 records the building of the altar, and the sacrifices of the seventh month (Tishri) had begun, but the temple had not yet been “founded”.  The Israelites were frustrated in their attempts to rebuild by the surrounding adversaries through all the days of the reign of Cyrus until the reign of Darius. (Ezra 4) 

By the time the adversaries in Samaria and surrounding cities sent a letter of accusation against the Israelites to Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, only the walls and the foundation of Jerusalem had been completed. (Ezra 4:12)  Artaxerxes authorized the halt of the building pending a further decree from him for the restoration to continue.  (Ezra 4:21-23)

In the second year of Darius’ reign, the Jews appealed to Darius for relief and permission to continue the building.  (Ezra c. 5)  After review of the records of the treasury, Darius issued a decree that not only allowed the Jews to continue, but funded the rebuilding from the taxes owed him from the accusers in Samaria and beyond the river. (Ezra 6).  This was the decree that was the going forth of the word which Gabriel measured to Daniel as the start of the seventy weeks.  This decree was issued in the second year of the reign of Darius. (Ezra 3:24)  A similar decree was given Nehemiah by Artaxerxes in the 20th year of his rule. (Neh. 2)

We must recognize that the history we read of events prior to the birth of Christ is recorded in years of the reigns of kings. That makes it very difficult to get an accurate number of years if any one historian has recorded a reign or event incorrectly.  And, as many of the records we have are in cuneiform where scribes could easily add an extra “wedge” mark by mistake, no accounting of years or time can truly be determined accurately from human records.  Human error builds upon human error, and it becomes impossible to calculate an absolute starting point.

We need to also notice that our current calendar is off by approximately three years.  I believe the best record is obtained by counting backward from A.D. 70 at the destruction of Jerusalem, a known and verifiable date.

We then subtract 40 years for the probate of the will of the testator (Christ), which 40 years is the anti-type of the 40 years of the exodus wilderness, and we reach the cross at 30 A.D.  The cross of Christ, the release from bondage and slavery of sin, the Passover lamb, was the anti-type of the release from bondage and slavery out of Egypt at the last plague, the first Passover.  (See recommending reading link #4 below this post.)

We know that Jesus’ earthly ministry was 3.5 years (3.5*354 lunar days, or 1239 days on the Hebrew calendar), and that He was cut off in the midst of the 70th week (Dan. 9:26), the week after the 69th week.  Subtracting 3-1/2 years (3.39 solar years) from A.D. 30, we get A.D. 26 – A.D. 27 for His baptism by John in the river Jordan at the age of 30.

We must also then ask was He 30 lunar years old by the Hebrew calendar, or 30 solar years old?  I think we must calculate 30 lunar years of age to be consistent, and add the 10 months the Hebrews added to their calendar every third year (30 years divided by three is 10).  Jesus would have been 29 years and 10 months old based upon conversion to a solar calendar.  Luke 3:23, “And Jesus…began to be about thirty years of age…:”

Continuing then, we subtract 29.8 years of His age from time line of 26-27 A.D., and we get his birth in approx. 3 B.C.  Is this even important in the whole scheme of God’s plan?

The seventy weeks, which are seventy years of seven… do we begin counting from the second year of Darius’ reign, or the 20th year from Artaxerxes’ reign for the going forth of the commandment to rebuild?  And, are we counting to Jesus’ birth, or to His baptism?  The prophesy says “to Messiah” (Young’s), or “unto the Messiah” (KJV)

Some people count to the birth of Christ.  Others count to his baptism, as the word Messiah means the anointed.  Christ was anointed at His baptism by John.  But, I believe an argument can be made that He was also anointed at His birth.

One guess for a starting point is Nehemiah’s work to restore Jerusalem at the decree of Artaxerxes which some historians date from 454 BC.  Add 483 years (62 weeks) equals = 29 A.D.  This is somewhat close to the quick calculation we did above for the date of Jesus’ baptism, and the beginning of His 3-1/2 year ministry.  This calculation would make the cutting off of the Messiah in the midst of the seventieth week 3-1/2 years later approx. 32 – 33 A.D.

We can get close, but human records are problematic, and this can only be considered a contrivance.  Here is another record.

Aficanus’ calculation:

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)

The entire struggle trying to pinpoint the starting date of the 70 weeks of Daniel c.9 has been going on for centuries, and I believe it to be not only futile, but unnecessary.

It is more accurate to rely upon God’s word as the scriptures have been proven to be true time and again.  We know we can count on what the Holy Spirit has recorded, instead of trying to struggle with the imperfect records of man.  So, let’s examine what the scriptures actually say.

We know that the Messiah was going to be cut off in the midst of the week after the 69th week of Dan. 9 (v25-26).  So, the midst of the 70th week, which immediately followed the 69th week as logic demands, was somewhere between 30 and 33 A.D when He was crucified.  Close enough.  The end of the prophesies of Daniel concern the first century A.D., the crucifixion of Christ, and therefore the destruction of Jerusalem.  The time period is pin pointed very well by the cutting off of the Messiah which we know occurred at the cross in the first century A.D.  We do not have to look any further.

Dan 12:6-7, “⁶ And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?  ⁷ And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.” (KJV)

Dan. 12:11, “ And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.”

The abomination of desolation was the Roman army, and they caused sacrifices to the Roman Caesars (gods) to be carried out in the temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 66-67.

Matt. 24:15, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)”

Luke 21:20, “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.”

We know that in Matt. 24:2, Jesus told the disciples that the temple was going to be torn down, and that in v. 3 the disciples asked Him when “shall these things be“.  They were shocked at His statement about the destruction of the temple, and their question was immediately concerned with its destruction.  Jesus’ answer throughout all of c.24 concerns that time period of the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem, which we know occurred in A.D. 70.

So, the abomination of desolation of Matt. 24:15, which ties to Dan. 12:11, is confirmed by Luke 21:20… that the abomination of desolation was the Roman army which surrounded and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70, and is the same the 3-1/2 years (“time, times, and an half”) of Dan. 12 v7, and answers Daniel’s question of when the end would be. 

Dan. 12, v7 states that the end of these wonders would be finished when the power of the holy people (Jews) shall have been scattered.

Rev. 11:2, “ But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.“

Three and a half years, or 42 months, or a time, times, and an half…. from A.D. 67 to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70. the Roman army put an end to national Israel.

God’s chosen people, the Israelites, had been the holy people of God, until they rejected and crucified the Messiah.  Those who were not caught within the city at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 were scattered throughout the nations after the destruction.  With the destruction of the temple, all of the genealogical records were gone.  They Jews could no longer prove the Levitical line of the priesthood.  The empty sacrificial offerings that had been continued after Christ’s death ceased. 

This was the end of national Israel which God had allowed to be restored upon Cyrus’ decree approx 539 B.C for the sole purpose of the coming of the Messiah.  And, in spite of the contrived “State” of Israel that men recently conspired to establish in 1948, the people who live there today are not national Israel, and are not God’s chosen people.  They cannot prove any lineage to the twelve tribes of Jacob, nor can they put into office any proven Levitical priest.  The Israelites are still scattered to this day throughout all the nations of the world!

A.D. 70 was the end of the prophecies Gabriel showed to Daniel.  Therefore, all of the prophesies of Daniel were events that transpired no later than A.D. 70.  Anyone that tries to span a 2,000 year break in these prophesies does not understand the intent of the prophesy.

All of the prophesies Daniel desired to understand in chap. 9 -12 concerned his people!  He was hoping to see a restoration of national Israel with the world power and glory it had held under Solomon, just as the disciples were still hoping for when they asked Christ at His ascension if He would “at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel”. (Acts 1:6) They wanted an earthly kingdom, and did not understand the spiritual kingdom that was coming.

Daniel was sick at heart, and sick in his soul at what he heard from Gabriel because he suspected, but did not want to believe what Gabriel was telling him; that it was the end of the genealogy of the tribes of Israel, the end of their line to Abraham, and the end of the hope of any earthly kingdom of Israel! (Dan. 8:27; Dan. 10:2-3) 

We must look for understanding of these prophesies within the last days of the national history of the second temple of Jerusalem from the first decree of Cyrus unto the destruction of that temple in A.D. 70.  All of the things prophesied in Dan. 9:24 were to happen within that prophetic 70 weeks.  Nothing in Daniel was prophesied past A.D. 70.

This history was well understood by many until evil and wicked men promoting Zionism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for their own purposes a) to re-establish what God had destroyed to be able to acquire resources of the Middle East, and b) to create continued wars for the bankers who profit off the destruction of others.

The current “state” of Israel is not from God, but from the devil.  The political State of Israel which currently rules American politicians through their AIPAC lobby is not the subject of the prophesy of Daniel.

So many people have been swayed by a false and contrived futurist use of the prophesies of both Daniel and Revelation which are promoted by evil and wicked men who use God’s word for their own convenience.  Our Lord has provided well for us.  We do not have to worry about a future Armageddon, or Apocalypse.  Those scenarios are fear porn designed to get you to support their schemes of continued wars that benefit only them… the international bankers.

All who follow them are giving them power.  Quit putting your trust in the Zionists, and start relying on your Heavenly Father.  The freedom of that is heady indeed.

Please go back to my original posts, “It’s Not the End of The World…” at my contributor profile link to understand more fully.  And please read more at these links below.  The study is well worth your time.

All bold emphasis is mine.  All posts are also at www.shreddingtheveil.org.

Further reading:

1. http://www.schoettlepublishing.com/otherworks/mauro/seventyweeks/chapter9.htm

2. http://www.preteristcentral.com/Commentary%20on%20Daniel%20Twelve%20-%20The%20Great%20Tribulation%20and%20Time%20of%20Resurrection.html

3. http://www.ecclesia.org/truth/70-weeks.html

4. http://www.worldwithoutend.info/wwe321wp/category/bbc-sermons/feasts-of-the-lord-bbc-sermons/