Daniel 9:24-27 - ²⁴ 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. 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 weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 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. 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. (KJV)

The Prophet Daniel had a vision in chapter nine (9:24-27) in which, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city…" the meaning, of which is greatly debated. The debate as to how we are to interpret these weeks centers on understanding the Hebrew word for week. I first looked up some references to this word and here are my findings:

What types of weeks are spoken of here? With a little inductive reasoning and some insightful media sources and commentaries, I think we can safely draw out the right conclusions. I believe what Daniel has in mind here is a set of seven-year weeks, and not a set of a seven-day week. To help you understand how I am making the jump from a literal seven-day week to a seven-year week, I would like you to consider the following articles and Scripture passages.

"The ‘seventy weeks’ of the prophecy in (Dan 9:24-27) have long been a subject of controversy in the critical schools. The conflicting views may be seen very fully in Dr. Driver’s Daniel, 94 ff, 143 ff, and Dr. Pusey’s Daniel the Prophet, lectionaries II, III, IV. On both sides it is agreed that the ‘weeks’ in this prophecy are to be interpreted as "weeks of years," i.e. the 70 weeks represent 490 years. This period, commencing with ‘the going forth of the commandments to restore and build Jerusalem’ (verse 25), is divided into three parts, 7 weeks (49 years), 62 weeks (434 years), and one week (7 years). The 69 weeks extend to the appearance of "an anointed one (Hebrew ‘Messiah’), the prince’ (verse 25), who, after the 62 weeks, shall be "cut off" (verse 26), apparently in the ‘midst’ of the 70^th week (verse 27)." James Orr, ISBE, 1996 Biblesoft.

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city—"seventy weeks," namely, of years; literally, 70 sevens; 70 heptads or hebdomads; 490 years; expressed in a form of ‘concealed definiteness’ (Hengstenberg), a usual way with the prophets." Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary

• In Gen. 31:27, the concept of the seven-year week is referred to. Isaac worked two seven-year periods, which the Scripture refers to as weeks for the hand of Rachael his beloved.

• In 2 Chronicles 36:21, we have a reference to Sabbatical Years or a seven-year period designed after a week of seven days. You were to work six years and then give the land a rest in the seventh.

• See Lev. 25:1-7 (Moses was well aware of this understanding of time) Daniel’s people were in exile partially because they had broken this law of God.

The concept of the half-week or three and one half-year period is also mentioned in many places in prophetic passages.

• 1260 days (Rev. 11:3, 12:6)

• 42 months (Rev. 11:2)

• "time, times and half a time" (Dan. 7:25, Rev. 12:14)

All of these point to years being conveyed by the understanding of weeks or partial half weeks as years not days. These are all in a prophetic framework and might seem hard to grasp but nevertheless are a legitimate method of hermeneutical representation.

Another question arises if the weeks are just seventy seven-day periods. The problem exists when 490 days later all that this passage prophesied should have come to pass, but it didn’t. If on the other hand the weeks are not seven-day weeks, but seven-year prophetic weeks, we have a workable prophecy. One creates an environment conducive to a fulfillment, which can be traced through a historical survey, and the other has to be spiritualized. I am not in the habit of spiritualizing prophetic Scripture, though it is sometimes unavoidable, (see example: Rev.12:1-6). The question in prophetic circles is not whether you do spiritualize, as much as, how much do you spiritualize. The problem becomes for the thinker an issue of context, as it should be. Based upon what Dan. 9:24-27 communicate, when did these events happen? And what am I to learn, and find out from them that will strengthen the image of Christ being formed in me? The truth of God always has a purpose in the life of the believer. One such purpose is to glorify God in the knowledge made available in Christ. If these weeks were just seventy day-weeks the questions begin to jump up in alarming number, such as: When was Messiah cut off? Four hundred and eighty-three years after the command was sent forth to restore and build Jerusalem or 483 days after the decree was given? n short when did any of the following events happen? And is the question centered on weeks or years?

We have only looked at the first verse and we can see that this prophecy is waiting for the lapse of years not weeks.

This would bring us to the next step in the progression of issues. Why is there a need to present the argument now? More than ever the issues that the approach of a new millennium will bring into our consideration must be examined. The prophecy teachers are at an all time high in the sale and distribution of media related materials. The opinions, prophecies, and ideas of unscriptural teachers who oppose the truth they supposedly uphold, saturate the whole of western culture. We as true children of God, must not abandon the witness of the Scripture in favor of the tickling of our ears. The issue of truth at the possible risk of deception is a cost none of us should be willing to trade for the empty hype of changing times. The amount of teaching on this subject in our day is overwhelming. I am currently reading seven works on prophecy related materials as I prepare to write this article. These materials represent a drop in the bucket when considering the vast amount of information that is being pumped into the already over-crowded prophecy supply and demand inventory. Not that all of this information is bad, but it can be somewhat beyond the uninformed mind when trying to work out his or her salvation in true wisdom and holiness.

Hopefully you can see from the brief discussion above that the understanding of the context of the seventy weeks of Daniel is a great place to put down a steak and take another reading. Plotting a course from here will hopefully prove satisfying to your conscience and the issues of context.

Briefly I want us to look at what time periods are under consideration. This is not to ask what time periods are we looking at but which time periods are the commentators trying to interpret this into. Please read the following article carefully, as it will play a major role in the development of thought in the following articles.

"The divine revelation regarding the seventy weeks.—This message of the angel relates to the most important revelations regarding the future development of the kingdom of God. From the brevity and measured form of the expression, which Auberlen designates "the lapidary style of the upper sanctuary," and from the difficulty of calculating the period named, this verse has been very variously interpreted. The interpretations may be divided into three principal classes.

1. Most of the church fathers and the older orthodox interpreters find prophesied here the appearance of Christ in the flesh, His death, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

2. The majority of the modern interpreters, on the other hand, refer the whole passage to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes.

3. Finally, some of the church fathers and several modern theologians have interpreted the prophecy eschatologically, as an announcement of the development of the kingdom of God from the end of the Exile on to the perfecting of the kingdom by the second coming of Christ at the end of the days." Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

I have put my marble with the third reference when I opted to show the weeks not being days but years and not just years but a division of years which leaves one seven year segment unanswered for until the final Tribulation period; thus in this commitment I am a Futurist. Refer to the diagram for what I believe you are looking at when you view this prophecy.

My rejection of the first choice made by the early Church Fathers is simple. I do believe that the life of Christ is mentioned here by the reference of His death or being "cut off". To except this interpretation as the whole picture of the prophecy is to undermine the reason for its being given in the first place (namely to show the future of National Israel in prophecy). And if this interpretation were the case, the other references this prophecy brings into view are strikingly silent? The second view which most A-mill thinkers believe, cannot satisfy the demands of geography or timing when trying to fit the Syrian King, Antiochus IV, Epiphanies into the equation. Where is the satisfaction in context and conscience when considering the rest of the prophecies (Matt. 24:15, Dan. 8:11-13, 11:31) which speak of this same subject? This will be the topic of a future article. In short the only possible way we can find a method of interpretation that works is to go with the view of the Futurist. These events are only partially fulfilled and the rest are awaiting the providential timing of God.