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Seventy Weeks
At the end of chapter nine, of the book of Daniel, Daniel informs us of an event that would transform anyone's life. He was visited by the angel Gabriel, who informs him about the exact timing of the Messiah's coming and much more. This visitation came while Daniel was in prayer. It was clear to Daniel that the seventy year period God had determined upon his people was drawing to and end. As an old man Daniel could remember the days when the Jews had been brought into captivity. He understood, "the number of the years". Daniel set his face, "unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes". After a prayer of confession of national sin, Daniel begins his plea to God for mercy on the people and mercy on the desolate Jerusalem. He asks God to intervene for His own sake, for his name sake, and for the people and the city. This is when Gabriel appears to tell Daniel what is to come...
"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. 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 weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 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. 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." (Dan 9:24-27)
From the opening it is clear that the seventy weeks are not yet accomplished or else there would be an end to sin. As we look around this world, we know that sin is still waxing worse and worse. However we do know that the Messiah was cut off , or karath, cut down, cut out, eliminated, and killed. Jesus is our New Covenant. This karath is the same 'cut' that is cut in a covenant. A sacrificial blood letting would seal the deal of a covenant in the ancient world. Abraham was ready to sacrifice Isaac, but God provided "himself a lamb for a burnt offering". This cutting off of the Messiah is said to happen after 69 weeks of years. Many scholars have struggled to figure the timing between the , "going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three-score and two weeks". One sticking point in the figuring is the starting point. Four main decrees were given in regards to Jerusalem. In 536 BC Cyrus made a decree to, "build the house of the LORD God of Israel". In 519 BC Darius reaffirmed the decree of Cyrus. In 458 BC, Artaxerxes gave permission for an offering to be collected and brought to the Temple where worship should be established. In none of these three decrees is there a specific mention of a "commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem", (presumably the city walls).
A forth decree was made which did specifically give permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The story is told in the book of Nehemiah. This decree was made on March 14th of 445 BC. Now we would simply expect to look forward sixty nine weeks of years and find either the crucifixion when Jesus was killed or perhaps Palm Sunday, when he was officially cut off by the pronouncement of Pharisees. After all it was Palm Sunday when Jesus said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Luke 13:34-35)
At first glance, calculating the time between March 14, 445 BC and April 6, 32 AD, should be a simple task. It appears to be 477 years, not quite the 483 years we expect from 69 weeks of years (69 x 7 = 483). For unraveling this mystery for us, we owe a debt of gratitude to the late Sir Robert Anderson. Sir Robert Anderson was knighted by Queen Victoria for his excellent stewardship of Scotland Yard. Anderson had access to the finest minds in the British Empire. He also had a keen understanding and appreciation for the Bible. He wrote at least seven books on Biblical Exposition. It was his book, The Coming Prince, written around the turn of the last century that has become the basis for understanding the calculating of the sixty nine weeks.
Beginning with the 483 years (69 weeks of years), we can calculate the number of days to be 173,880 ( based upon the Biblical years of 360 days). Now going back to our reckoning of 477 years, we must make a few adjustments, as Sir Robert Anderson discovered when he consulted the finest minds who knew all about the history of the western calender. One adjustment has to do with our assumption that 477 years passed between 445 BC and 32 AD. Because there is no year zero, only one year passed between Passover of 1 BC and Passover of 1 AD. Therefore our first adjustment is to turn the assumed 477 years, into 476. Next we discover that 116 leap days occurred between 445 BC and 32 AD, so we add them in. Then finally we add the extra days from March 14 until April 6, 24 days. So now we calculate the 476 years between March 14, 445 BC until April 6, 32 AD in this way; 476 x 365=173,740. To this number we add the leap days (116) and the extra days from March 14 until April 6 (24 days) and we calculate, 173,740+116+24=173,880. That is the exact same number of days we expect from 69 weeks of years (a Biblical year of 360 days). From this we can draw the conclusion that indeed, it is not just about 483 years from the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem until the Meshiach Nagid was Karat ( that is until Jesus Christ was judicially cut off from the Jewish nation by the Pharisees on Palm Sunday, April 6, 32 AD) but it was exactly 483 years or 69 weeks of years or 173,880 days, to the day. Why wouldn't it be so? Why would we be surprised?
NOTES
1)
All the ancient calenders of the world reckoned the year to be 360 days until about the time of Joshua's long day. At that time calenders around the world shifted to a 365 day year. For the Jews, leap months were added to the calender every so many years, to make up the difference. By comparing Revelation 11:2-3 , 12 :6-14 and Dan 7:25, we can see that God will again be using this ancient calender in the last days. If God said it would be so, would it be about that time or exactly that time? It is astonishing that so few seem aware of Sir Robert Anderson's work in calculating this for us. His book , The Coming Prince, has been reprinted over ten times. In the latest edition, his biographical sketch is written by none other than Warren Wiersbe. This Calculation has been adopted by best selling author Grant Jeffrey. It has also been adopted by Jack Van Impe and Chuck Missler. The persuasive sway of the calculation should convince any reader of the veracity of Jesus' statement of the law, that not one jot or tittle would go unfulfilled.
2)
Two interesting side notes to do with the entire period of seventy weeks can be entertained. In Matthew 18, Peter approaches the Lord with a question, "How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?" So then Jesus replied, "I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." This seems to indicate the limit of God's patience before judgment. After all, this Church Dispensation will end and God's attention will be turned back to the Jew and Israel when,"the fullness of the Gentiles be come in" and then the judicial blindness on Israel will be lifted. After seven years of tribulation, final judgment will fall. This Church Dispensation seems to be hinted at in Jesus' reading of Isaiah 61 at the opening of his ministry. He read, " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,"(Luke 4:18). He stopped there without reading the following statement, "and the day of vengeance of our God." (Isa 61:2)
The second side note has to do with the context of the seventy times seven, or the use of 490 years by God, in his dealings with Israel. As E.W.Bullinger notes in his book, Number in Scripture, "God's dealings with His people have to do with actual duration of time rather than with specific dates; and we find that his dealings with Israel were measured out into four periods, each consisting of 490 (70 x 7) years."
The first of these periods of 490 years was from Abraham to the Exodus. The second from the Exodus to the dedication of the temple. The third from the temple to Nehemiah's return, and the forth from Nehemiah to the second advent. Each of these periods was interrupted, for instance, from the dedication of the temple until Nehemiah's return was 560 years. But when we deduct the 70 years captivity in Babylon we find the 490 year period. The numbers involved do not seem to be coincidental either. Seventy is the number of nations associated with Ham, Shem and Japheth. It is the number of elders chosen to help Moses. It is the number of disciples Jesus choose to go out in his name. Seventy being the product of seven and ten; seven associated with the completed creation and ten associated with law and responsibility through the ten commandments.
In many ways, the prophecy of the seventy weeks is perhaps the most interesting of all prophetic scripture. In the way God has chosen to deal with his chosen people of Israel, seventy times seven is ordained. In the way we see the dispensational gap between the first and second coming of our Lord predicted in the prophecy, it is reassuring that we have a, "more sure word of prophecy." Finally the way that the first 69 weeks were fulfilled to the day reminds us of how Jesus fulfills every jot and tittle of the law. We can be sure he will be faithful to complete it.
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