Notes on Daniel’s Prophecy of the 70 Weeks

Dan 9:24-27 NASB "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy {place.} "So you are to know and discern {that} from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince {there will be} seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. "Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end {will come} with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. "And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations {will come} one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate."

     In this prophecy, Daniel is told the exact date that the Messiah would come to redeem Israel & the world. The Timetable starts “from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem”. This event happened on 14th March, B.C. 445 when the king of Persia Artaxerxes Longitmanus issued a decree that Nehemiah was to return to Israel & rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The Prophecy on 6th April, A.D. 32 when The Messiah Jesus entered Jerusalem in Psalm Sunday.

 Daniel is told of 3 timelines

1. Seven weeks - 49 years, until the city and its walls are rebuilt
2. 69 weeks (7 plus 62), 483 years from the decree, until Messiah the Prince appears
3. A final 70th week to complete the prophecy

     The Hebrew word for “Weeks” (shabuwa or שבדצ) actually means seven or period of seven & can mean 7 days (Week) or 7 years (Sabbatical Year). So in this passage the term weeks should be read as 70 Sabbatical Years or 70 X 7 years. The Nation of Israel at the time of Daniel was using a calendar based on 12 lunar months of 30 days or 360 day years with an extra month added every few years to reset the calendar also known as a “Prophetic Year”.  The 70 X 7 must be based on this 360 day Prophetic Year (see also Rev 11:3 where 1260 days = 42 months = 3 ½ years)

Seven weeks and sixty-two weeks

     The first part of this timeline called “seven weeks” are 7 X 7 or 49 years refers to the actual rebuilding of Jerusalem that took 49 years

     The Julian date of that 10th Nisan was Sunday the 6th April, A.D. 32.1 What then was the length of the period intervening between the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and this public advent of" Messiah the Prince "- between the 14th March, B.C. 445, and the 6th April, A.D. 32? THE INTERVAL WAS EXACTLY AND TO THE VERY DAY 173,880 DAYS, OR SEVEN TIMES SIXTY-NINE PROPHETIC YEARS OF 360 DAYS.

     From B.C. 445 to AD. 32 is 476 years 273,740 days (476 X 365)+116 days for leap years. And from 14th March to 6th April (reckoned inclusively according to Jewish practice) is 24 days. But 173,740+116+24=173,880. And 69 X 7X 360= 173,880.

Chapter 9 Daniel in the Critic's Den

The 70th week

     The last week or the 70^th week is still to come & refers to the 7 years of the tribulation period where The “Prince” or Anti-Christ will Stop the daily sacrifice & declare himself God. After this, he will attack the nation of Israel & finish the prophecy

     Notes on Daniel’s vision of World history from Cyrus to the Time of the End 

Daniel is told this vision in “first year of Darius the Mede” or 539 BC & covers the next 200 years of the future. The prophecy is so accurate that all liberal atheists believe that the Book of Daniel had to be written much later. Their so-called “Logic” runs as follows:

1. There is no God because we say there is none.

2. Without a God, no one can predict the future.

3. The Book of Daniel predicts the future so perfectly that if had to be written long after Daniel was dead because of # 1 & 2 above. 

1. Cambyses 530-522BC
2. Smerdis 522BC
3. Darius I 522-486BC

The forth King to stand up would then be Xerxes 486-465BC. In 480, Xerxes attacked the Greek Mainland & began a 200 year rivalry between the two powers ending only when Alexander the Great defeated Persia. Notice the prophecy never says that there will only be 4 Persian kings, only that 4 will arise – it then skips the rest Persian history. 

With verse 3, the prophecy jumps to 336 BC & speaks of

1. A mighty king who does as he pleases
2. When he is at the peek of his live, his empire is split up into 4 smaller empires none of which are given to any of his offspring. 

In 336 BC, a man takes the throne in Greece. Within 13 years, he will conquer Persia as well as the rest of the Known world. This man was Alexander the Great. & in his 33^rd year of life he will die & his vast empire would be split up between his 4 generals & his only offspring will be killed thus answering this part of the prophecy perfectly.

Dan 11:5

"Then the king of the South will grow strong, along with {one} of his princes who will gain ascendancy over him and obtain dominion; his domain {will be} a great dominion {indeed.} NASB

Starting with Verse 5, the prophecy begins to cover the King of the South (Kingdom of the Ptolemys 323-30BC) & the King of the North (Kingdom of the Seleucids 323-64BC). 

The king of the South here is Ptolemy I (323-285BC). The “Prince” here is Seleucus I (323-281BC) who worked under Ptolemy I to defeat Antigonus I (315-307BC). Soon after the Defeat of Antigonus I, Seleucus I grew stronger & stronger until he became even stronger then Ptolemy I. Thus, Verse 5 answered perfectly as usual with biblical prophecy. 

Dan 11:6

"After some years they will form an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the South will come to the king of the North to carry out a peaceful arrangement. But she will not retain her position of power, nor will he remain with his power, but she will be given up, along with those who brought her in and the one who sired her as well as he who supported her in {those} times. NASB

Verse 6 skips to Ptolemy II ( 285-246BC) who’s daughter Berenice was married to

Antiochus II (261-246BC) who was forced to divorce his wife Laodiceia. In 246 BC, Ptolemy II died & Antiochus II quickly divorced Berenice & took back his first wife. Soon after, Antiochus II died. So just as the Bible said, neither king prospered over the marriage, Berenice never kept her power & was given up. 

Dan 11:7	"But one of the descendants of her line will arise in his place, and he will come against {their} army and enter the fortress of the king of the North, and he will deal with them and display {great} strength. NASB
Dan 11:8	"Also their gods with their metal images {and} their precious vessels of silver and gold he will take into captivity to Egypt, and he on his part will refrain from {attacking} the king of the North for {some} years. NASB
Dan 11:9	"Then the latter will enter the realm of the king of the South, but will return to his {own} land. NASB

Verses 7-9 Prophecy what will happen under the next King of the South & North. In 246 BC, Ptolemy III (246-221BC) invaded the empire of Seleucus II (246-226 BC) Jerome describe this invasion on page 123 of his commentary on Daniel. 

He (Ptolemy III) came up with a great army and advanced into the province (706) of the king of the North, that is Seleucus Callinicus, who together with his mother Laodice was ruling in Syria, and abused them, and not only did he seize Syria but also took Cilicia and the remoter regions beyond the Euphrates and nearly all of Asia as well. And then, when he heard that a rebellion was afoot in Egypt, he ravaged the kingdom of Seleucus and carried off as booty forty thousand talents of silver, and also precious vessels and images of the gods to the amount of two and a half thousand. Among them were the same images which Cambyses had brought to Persia at the time when he conquered Egypt. The Egyptian people were indeed devoted to idolatry, for when he had brought back their gods to them after so many years, they called him Euergetes (Benefactor). And he himself retained possession of Syria, but he handed over Cilicia to his friend, Antiochus, that he might govern it, and the provinces beyond the Euphrates he handed over to Xanthippus, another general.

Verse 9 prophecies that Seleucus II would invade Egypt but would not be successful. This was answered in 240 BC when Seleucus II invaded Egypt but lost & had to return to his own land in shame.

NASB New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. All rights reserved. Used by permission.