Seventy Weeks Are Determined

            A very critical and important passage of Scripture is set forth in the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27.  It begins with the statement in verse 24 where it is revealed “seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and the city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy”. In order to begin to make an accurate interpretation of this verse and the following text it will be necessary to lay some background and context for the utterance of the prophecy. Daniel was a righteous servant of the Lord God.  He was carried away from Judah and Jerusalem about 586 B.C. when the Babylonians defeated and carried captive the people of Judah as a judgment for their apostasy and departure from the tenets of the old covenant.  Daniel was given wisdom from God to interpret dreams as well as visions which came into his understanding by the Spirit of the Lord. His prophecies provide a significant body of revelation necessary for us to understand, not only the future history of Israel, but also many prophetic revelations related directly to the end of the age leading up to the return of the Lord. This particular portion consisting of the four verses cited above is extremely important to understand that which was to befall Israel up to and including the coming of their promised Messiah, Jesus Christ.

            We will need to interpret the passage to correct and make clear  the erroneous doctrine which has come to be largely accepted among Christian evangelicals. The first point to be made is the duration of the prophecy being “seventy weeks”. These “weeks” are weeks consisting of seven years and this was clearly understood by the people of Israel as the foundation for this interpretation is laid at Genesis 29: 27-28 and Leviticus 25:8-10 establishing the Sabbaths and the year of Jubilee. So what we find in the duration of the seventy weeks is four hundred and ninety years , that is seventy times seven.

            Next to be determined is the point in time when the seventy weeks were to begin.  The prophet Daniel reveals in verse 27”Know, therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, unto Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks, the street shall  be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. “We can trace the time of the commandment to the 7^th year of Artaxerxes.  The decree is to be found in the seventh chapter of the book of Ezra where all of the provisions for the rebuilding of the city and the wall a well as finishing the temple are set forth.

The year is 457 B.C.E.  Understanding the colander has undergone some slight revisions. Nonetheless we can determine that the first sixty nine weeks bring us to 27 A.D.  At this juncture in time we have the anointing of the most Holy. This is the baptism of the Lord Jesus in the River Jordan by John the Baptist which initiated both his ministry and the inception of the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy. We find in verse 26 that “after threescore and two weeks that Messiah will be cut off, but not for himself…. ” Moving to verse 27 we find “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week and in the midst of the week he shall cause sacrifice and oblation to cease…” So we see that the seventieth week is continuous after the sixty ninth week marked by the anointing and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he was “cut off”, i.e. crucified in the middle of the week after a three and one-half year ministry.  The twelve apostles continued the ministry exclusively to the Jews for another three and on-half years completing the delivery of the gospel of the kingdom to the Jews. This is the seventy weeks determined upon thy people, that is to say the Jews or Israel.  The point of its consummation is concluded in the seventh chapter of Acts where we have the record of Stephens’s ministry and preaching to the Jewish Sanhedrin, the seventy elders of Jewry. Their reaction was a total rejection and a hatred for the words of Stephen including the message of the fulfillment of the coming of the Messiah.  They proceeded with one accord to stone him to death. At this point the “seventy weeks determined” have been fulfilled and the gospel of the kingdom to Jewry was withdrawn based on their collective rejection of their promised Messiah.

            Set forth above is the truth of the fulfillment of Daniel’s seventy week to the Jews. The vast majority of evangelical Christians have adopted a different and false interpretation of the passage. They would hold that only sixty nine weeks were fulfilled when Jesus entered Jerusalem just before his crucifixion, and the seventieth week is to occur at the end of the age in a period of seven years of tribulation.  This is known as the “gap” theory and it is based on the premise that the Jews are the “chosen people” and God has a future agenda to be fulfilled in the conversion of Israel and establishing a one thousand year reign pf Christ over them and the world from earthly Jerusalem.  They fail to understand that all of the promises of a Redeemer as well as the advent of Messiah were fulfilled with the coming of Christ and his death and resurrection. The gospel of the new covenant was then sent forth to all nations. God is not a respecter of persons.  Men are not saved on the basis of ethnicity or natural posterity. Evangelical’s failure to understand these basic truths leads to greet confusion in the interpretation of end time prophecy. For an accurate account of the words of the prophets obtain my books.  The Israel Deception and These Prophets and the Revelation available at Amazon.com, BN.com            David Lance Dean