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. See Timeline 350-230 BC (Inter-Testamental Period Part 1)

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.