What Do the 70 Weeks of Daniel Indicate?

Reading Daniel 9:24 (the angel Gabriel is speaking to Daniel): “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.”

Gentiles who have believed in Israel’s Messiah Jesus Christ have been added to Daniel’s people while those of Israel who have rejected Him have been cut off. Don’t overlook the division which happened in the 1st century AD among the Jewish people. Consider also that throughout the Old Testament the Lord was judging the nation of Israel and rooting out sinners among it. Daniel was in captivity as a result of a judgment which resulted in the deaths of a large percentage of those in the Jewish nation and the exile of the rest for 70 years. That is why Daniel was praying for the restoration of Jerusalem. His prayer in relation to these matters led to Gabriel appearing to him and explaining the 70 weeks which were decreed to bring about the goals stated in Daniel 9:24. Daniel’s preceding prayer demonstrates that he surely did not believe that the Jews have an unconditional right to the land that they had inherited.

Daniel 9:25: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two (i.e. 62) weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”

A week in this context is a period of seven years. The very nature of what is spoken requires that the 70 weeks be understood as 490 years.

From the going forth of the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem there would be 483 straight years until the Messiah (69 X 7= 483 years). This would be a period of rebuilding Jerusalem over the course of 49 years; and there would then be 434 more years until the Messiah. The city would not be destroyed after it was rebuilt until after the Messiah had come- even in the many tumultuous times that Jerusalem went through over that period.

Which commandment to rebuild Jerusalem is Daniel 9:25 referring to?

If it is referring to the decree of Cyrus, the Persian King who conquered Babylon in 539 and gave the decree the same year (that is recorded in 2 Chronicles 36 and Ezra 1), then that would mean the Messiah would have to appear about 55 BC. Cyrus’ decree could not be it then. It concerned the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and wasn’t about rebuilding the city in general.

The same could be said of Darius I’s decree which is recorded in Ezra chapter 6. It was really an affirmation of what King Cyrus had commanded after the Temple’s building had been interfered with (which is recorded earlier in Ezra). This decree was given early in Darius I’s reign since we see in Ezra chapter 6 that the Temple was finished in the sixth year of his reign. Darius I’s reign began in 522 BC. If this is the decree spoken of in Daniel 9:25, then that would put the Messiah’s arrival on the scene in the 30s BC. That could not be it either.

The decree in Daniel 9:25 must refer to either the letter to Ezra by the Persian King Artaxerxes 1 (also known as Artaxerxes Longimanus) which is recorded in Ezra chapter 7. This decree of Ezra 7 would have happened in 458 or 457 BC (since Artaxerxes’ reign began in 465 BC). The decree in Ezra 7 came in the seventh year of his reign. Artaxerxes also sent Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in the twentieth year of his reign (recorded in Nehemiah chapter 2). Yet it is implied in Nehemiah 2 that the city should have already been built, at least a lot more than it was, and not laying waste like Nehemiah knew it to be. To say that the building of Jerusalem is implied in the Ezra 7 decree does not seem like a stretch as you read that chapter carefully.

If we take the decree of Ezra chapter 7 that was given in 458 or 457 BC, and then add 483 years to that, that brings us to AD 26 or AD 27 (since there is no year zero). It is reasonable to believe that Jesus was publicly declared the Messiah at His baptism by John the Baptist within this brief span. The historians who tried to place a date on Jesus’ birth were probably off. They were probably a little too late.

Given the 2nd Temple’s destruction in AD 70, and God’s common use of periods of 40 involving testing, it is reasonable to believe that Jesus would have been born in 5 BC. That would mean He was publicly baptized in AD 26 or 27 at 30 years old, was crucified between 3 to 4 years later in AD 30, and then the Temple was destroyed 40 years later in AD 70 after the Jewish nation had 40 years to get in line with its rightful King.

Daniel 9:26: “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

After, but not necessarily immediately after the 483 year period ends, the Messiah would be rejected and suffer the death penalty. This would not be due to His own guilt.

If you refer back to Daniel chapter 2 and Daniel chapter 7, it is taught that the last great world empire spoken of is in some measure a revival of the world empire which came before it (the 4th kingdom spoken of in Daniel chapter 2). The ancient Romans then are proper to call the people of the prince that shall come (i.e. of the Antichrist).

The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple in AD 70. Calamities happened to the Jews at this time in great numbers and with great severity. To speak of multiple and/or exceedingly great calamities as a flood is normal in the Bible. The Jews were left desolate at that time. They were also left desolate when the false Messiah Simon Bar Kohkba’s army was massively crushed by the Romans and Jerusalem was plowed to the ground around AD 135. That marked the end of the ancient Jewish nation.

Note that Christ had been building His New covenant church for over 100 years as of AD 135. That means there is no warrant to say, like many say, that His church would have to exit the world in order for Him to deal with national Israel.

There is also no warrant to say that Israel becoming a nation again in 1948 was the Lord’s doing. The ancient nation of Israel was cast off for rejecting Jesus as the Messiah. Modern Israel has not remedied this rejection and rather piles up its sins more and more.

Then we read in Daniel 9:27: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

Some think that “he” in Daniel 9:27 refers to Jesus Christ Himself. They say that Jesus’ public ministry was the first half of the 70th week. They say Jesus broke the Old Covenant and initiated the New Covenant by His death after 3.5 years of public ministry. However, Jesus surely did not cause the sacrifice and the oblation at the Temple to cease immediately after His death (even though the New Covenant was inaugurated after His death). There was a time indeed when being a faithful Christian involved practicing Judaism (with a renewed perspective and deeper understanding). These rituals were always intended to be done out of a living faith rather than as a way to earn justification. This is a key reason many missed Jesus Christ whom these rituals pointed to.

The Lord did not immediately remove the Christians from partaking in offering the Jewish sacrifices and from participating in Temple worship overall on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

He rather removed them from these things over the next 40 years (the years between Jesus’ death in AD 30 and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70). This destroys the concept which many have of God’s grace. He removed the requirement that Gentiles be circumcised and convert to Judaism in order to be Christians through the Acts 15 council. This was approximately twenty years after the New Covenant was inaugurated at the Pentecost following Jesus’ death and resurrection. Later on, He removed the Jewish Christians from Temple worship (which included the Jewish sacrificial system) by their escape from Jerusalem during the Roman military campaign to suppress Jewish revolt and through the eventual destruction of the 2nd Temple by the Romans.

It seems more reasonable to say that all seven years of Daniel’s 70th week are yet to happen. There is evidence in Revelation of a rebuilt Temple near the end of the age and a 3.5 year tribulation period after a time of deceptive peace. If all of Daniel’s 70th week is yet to happen, this time of deceptive peace would also be 3.5 years.

In a sense, this abomination of desolation happened between Daniel and Jesus’ time with the Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes in the 2nd century BC. Antiochus Epiphanes was a type and foreshadow of the prince spoken of in Daniel 9:26-27 (he took away the daily Temple sacrifice and offered a pig to the Greek God Zeus in the Temple at Jerusalem).

However, in the 1st century AD the Apostle Paul spoke of someone of this nature yet coming in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The Beast described in Revelation chapters 11 to 19 also corresponds strongly to the wicked ruler spoken of in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

It seems reasonable to believe that this wicked ruler will make a covenant with the Jews and let them rebuild the Temple (which the Jews want to rebuild for rebellious reasons). It is also reasonable to believe that this wicked ruler will turn against this covenant and command sacrifices to himself instead. That would correspond to the mark of the Beast being imposed upon the world- which would in turn lead to 3.5 years of persecution from the Beast of those who would be faithful Christians and of whoever else would not take the mark. The end of that wicked adversary of the true God, as well as the relation of his power to Rome, are seen in Revelation 17:9-14.

The very context of the 70 Weeks of Daniel being written was an answer to Daniel’s prayer for the restoration of God’s worship at Jerusalem which had been suspended through the Babylonian captivity. Though Daniel’s prayer was answered, there would be another destruction of the Temple in AD 70 by the Romans and a greater, more prolonged dispersion of the Jews.

The Lord’s appointed worship will spread through the nations (and indeed has), and will be happening throughout the nations, when Christ returns. At that point the righteous goals spoken of in Daniel 9:24 will all be accomplished.

The times of the Gentiles then did not end with Israel becoming a nation again in 1948 like many believe. The Lord’s established worship is still not centered at Jerusalem. It has not been since the 2nd Temple was destroyed in AD 70. It is rather spread abroad in whatever Christian churches there are which He regards as faithful.

This will remain the case until Jesus returns in person to restore Jerusalem and to reign from there. The Lord’s appointed worship will not be centered again in Jerusalem until the very day that Jesus actually returns to reign.

Any Temple built there before that point would be under the control of the Jews who have rejected Jesus as the Messiah- and then later under the control of the Antichrist right before Jesus returns. The Antichrist’s very claim to divinity will likely be his claim to be the Jewish Messiah (hence the term Antichrist- the Jewish Messiah has already come once and that is Jesus of Nazareth in the Bible).

The common concept that the Christian church will exit the world in a pre-tribulation rapture is a great delusion. It is also a great delusion to believe, like many do, that the terms of the Lord’s covenant which He extends to mankind will suddenly change when the period of the great tribulation begins.

People will be saved during the tribulation period by a living faith in Jesus Christ which denies self to live under the authority of His Word. That is also how people are saved today. Multitudes are deluded at this very moment in believing that they don’t need to be obedient to the true Messiah and follow Him through much tribulation now. The nature of an effective living faith in Jesus endures tribulation to a notable degree now in order to be on His side and prepared to meet Him. It will not become a reality when all are pressured to the highest degrees to deny Jesus Christ by taking the mark of the Beast in order to simply buy and sell. It is rather already a reality.

Moreover, since most people who believe in the pre-tribulation rapture think that they’d be among the ones raptured, then they are prime candidates to be deluded by the Antichrist. Think about it. The pre-tribulation rapture doctrine necessitates that the rapture happens before the Antichrist is revealed. So if one believes in the pre-tribulation rapture, what will happen when the Antichrist is revealed and they are still around? They will obviously believe that the Antichrist could not possibly be the Antichrist. They are then set up to rationalize all the unrighteousness he speaks and to comply with the unrighteousness demands which he makes of everyone.

It is not necessary to believe in Dispensationalism in order to believe that Daniel’s 70th week has not already happened. Along the same lines, there is no need to believe in a pre-tribulation rapture in order to believe that the tribulation period described in Revelation has not already occurred. Though intellectual honesty requires some caution in believing that there will be a rebuilt Temple and a coming individual whom it is proper to label as “The Antichrist”, it is extremely suspect to conclude that Daniel’s 70th week has already happened.

To point to seven particular years that have already happened which account for Daniel’s 70th week, and to say that the goals spoken of in Daniel 9:24 in relation to the conclusion of the 70 weeks have all been accomplished already, is not realistic. That requires drawing unwarranted conclusions and overlooking much evidence which says otherwise.

It is acknowledged that there are some things which are complicated and difficult to account for in the Book of Revelation regarding this matter. In relation, it is foolish to support evil and not do what God has commanded in any matter out of a desire to help accomplish Biblical prophecy or fear of interfering with Biblical prophecy being accomplished. Nothing concerning how the end-times will or will not unfold could negate anything else which is written in the Bible.

Proverbs 17:15: “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.”