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Prophecy of Seventy Weeks

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The Prophecy of Seventy Weeks appears in verses 24–27 in the ninth chapter of the Book of Daniel, a work included in both the Christian and Jewish Bible. The prophecy is part of both Jewish eschatology and Christian eschatology. In chapter nine Daniel records that an Angel appears to him in response to his prayer and makes a proclamation regarding the timing of important events in the future of the Jews.

New English Translation

'Seventy weeks have been determined concerning your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to bring sin to completion, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the prophetic vision, and to anoint a most holy place. So know and understand: from the going forth of the message to return and build Jerusalem until the anointed one, the Prince, there are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will again be built, with plaza and moat, but in distressful times. Now after the sixty-two weeks, the anointed one will be cut off and have nothing. As for the city and the sanctuary, the people of the coming prince will destroy them. But his end will come speedily like a flood, until the end of the war that has been decreed, there will be desolations. He will confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of that week he will bring sacrifice and offering to a halt on the wing of a desolating abomination, until the decreed end is poured out on the one who makes desolate.'

Context

According to the Book of Daniel, the vision takes place soon after Darius (who may or may not be the same person as Cyrus II, the Persian who controlled Babylon either at the time of the prophecy or shortly later) began his rulership over Babylon. Prior to this, Babylon had been ruled over by Belshazzar, and prior to him Nebuchadnezzar, who had besieged Jerusalem while Daniel was a youth. At the beginning of the scene, Daniel relates that he had read the prophecy foretold by the prophet Jeremiah. The oracle was that after the holy city of Jerusalem, considered God's home by Jews, lay in desolation for 70 years, the king of Babylon would be punished and the Jews would return to Jerusalem (strictly speaking, two separate prophecies, each quoting 70 years. Jer 25:11–12, 29:10).

Daniel, being aware of this writing and believing that the fulfillment was near at hand describes how he prayed for the Kingdom of Israel, asking God to have mercy on His rebellious people. Chapter 9 verses 20–23 describe an encounter in which the angel Gabriel came to share the vision.

There are several interpretations concerning what the 70 years cover. There are three events that may signify the beginning of "desolation".

  • Around 605 BC, in the aftermath of the Battle of Carchemish Nebuchadnezzar takes a party of Jews captive, signalling the beginning of the destruction of Jerusalem.
  • In 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar conquers Jerusalem, but leaves it standing, taking only certain groups of people captive after the Judaeans refuse to pay taxes or tribute to Babylonia and then he appoints Zedekiah, the previous king's uncle, as the governor, signalling the beginning of Babylonian control over Judea.
  • In about 587 BC, Jerusalem is burned down by Nebuchadrezzar's army, laying in complete desolation.

There are two interpretations of the 70 years.

  • One counts from the Battle of Carchemish until Jerusalem was ordered reconstructed by Cyrus around 538 BC. To make up for the several years' difference (605 to 538 is 67 years) some propose adjusting of the chronology slightly, or count 70 lunar years (lunar years being slightly shorter than solar years), or propose that 70 was a rounded number under inclusive reckoning. Others shift the termination event until the rebuilding actually began, one or two years later.
  • The other counts from the destruction of Jerusalem until the temple was fully rebuilt in the sixth year of Darius I, producing a time frame of 586-516 BC.

Debate on Weeks

One principal debate regarding the words in the prophecy deals with the meaning of Weeks. The Hebrew word for "week" is also the word for "seven." Secondly, in this instance the Hebrew word is in the male gender when normally the female version is used. There are three interpretations.

  1. Skeptical scholars like J.A. Montgomery claim that the weeks are really the same as the years previously decreed. This allows for the fulfillment of the prophecy to reside in the person of Antiochus Epiphanes. He and other skeptics believe that the book was written as a later forgery in an effort to engender resistance against the oppression of Antiochus.
  2. Various commentators (e.g., some conservative amillennialists, Orthodox Jews) believe that the seventy weeks represent, to one degree or another, an indefinite time scale that cannot be used for definite prediction. Some Orthodox Jews hold the fulfillment to be in the 70 AD destruction of the temple. Philip Mauro believed the first 69 weeks to be 69 sevens of years, but the last to be an indefinite period.
  3. A large majority of sacred theologians believe each seven represents seven years. Amillennialists who hold this believe the final fulfillment to have already happened; premillennialists hold that an anacoluthon exists between the first 69 weeks and the last. Some believe that the gap is over now that the nation of Israel has gained Jerusalem as its capital.

Few hold that the weeks in question are sets of 7 days. Some Christians have proposed such theories, but no such theory has gained any degree of acceptance.

Timing of the decree

One aspect of the 70 weeks prophecy is that it specifies a specific starting point in history before the countdown, as it were, begins. In this case it is an edict to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple in Jerusalem. Four edicts concerning reconstruction in Judaea are recorded in history and in the Bible.

  • A decree permitting rebuilding (Ezra 1:2-4) issued by Cyrus in the first year of his reign (539-537 BC, depending on reckoning system)
  • A decree restarting the rebuilding after a lull and confirming Cyrus' earlier decree (Ezra 6:3-12) granted by Darius in his second year (520-518 BC for Darius Hystaspes, 422-420 BC for Darius Nothus)
  • A decree authorizing the use of certain articles for the temple rites and giving certain rights to Ezra and the Jews (Ezra 7:12-26) issued by Araxerxes in his seventh year (459-457 BC for Artaxerxes Longimanus, 398-397 BC for Artaxerxes Memnon)
  • A decree authorizing the reconstruction of the city of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:4-9), granted by Artaxerxes Longimanus in his twentieth year to Nehemiah (446-444 BC)

Most Christian interpreters, following Sir Robert Anderson and/or Harold W. Hoehner, have held that only the last of these explicitly allows for the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. However, this particular idea does not actually have strong scriptural support. The Bible itself is arguably more directly supportive of the decree of Cyrus being the key initiating edict (see Isa. 44:28 and 45:18), with many Jews adhering to this same belief. A rigorous Christian interpretation of the 70 Weeks prophecy that begins the prophecy with the decree of Cyrus (rather than with Artaxerxes Longiminus' letters of support to Nehemiah) has recently been written by T.T. Schlegel (see external link below).

Other authors have speculated the decree, in a divine prophecy, could be a divine command, which God's responses to Ezra's (several months after his decree was issued) or Nehemiah's prayer (in the month of Kislev the year before his decree was issued) would presumably represent. Jeremiah's prophecies of desolation at the fall of Jerusalem are also supplied as an opening date. Here it is said that the first seven weeks end at the Cyrus decree (exactly 49 years after the Fall of Jerusalem).

Division between the periods

In the prophecy the 69 weeks prior to the last are separated into a chunk of seven sevens and another chunk of sixty-two sevens. There is little description in the prophecy to enlighten one as to why the division is there in the first place. Some, such as Edward Young, suggest that the first set of 49 years represents the gap between one decree and another. His viewpoint is that the first decree by Cyrus represents the beginning of the prophecy, and the decree by Darius is represented by the second part of the prophecy (admittedly, this would force 49 years to lie between 538 BC and 520 BC, but Young does not hold that the years are definite measures of time).

Another viewpoint is that the first seven set of seven years represents the time it took to clean out Jerusalem and restore the city. This is John Walvoord's supposition, but he does not consider it particular important in the grand scheme of things.

A composite interpretation involves the identification of the Ezra decree's progenitor with Artaxerxes Memnon. Then, there are 49 years between Nehemiah's decree and Ezra's decree. Since Nehemiah's decree was followed by a start to rebuilding and Ezra's decree was followed by the end of the temple building and the dedication of the new temple, the two events can also stand as the endpoints of the restoration period.

Fulfillment

A variety of opinion is present as to possible fulfillment of the prophecy. This passage has caused great concern for Jews as it suggests through any cursory calculation that their Messiah should already have come it is for this reason that a curse was placed on any who attempt to calculate the end times. Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, better known as "Maimonides", is one of the most prominent exegetes in Jewish history, and he wrote of this exact concern in his Igeret Teiman. His viewpoint was that the timing was sealed up so that none should attempt to calculate when the Messiah was coming, and he was concerned that the "untutored" would be led astray upon finding that the Messiah's time had already come. Rabbi Judah haNasi, one of the most respected teachers in Rabbinical Judaism for his work in assemblage of the Talmud, had a less hopeful viewpoint on the matter, indicating that the time of the fulfillment of the prophecy was long past. (Sanhedrin 98a and 97a)

Secular historians who hold that Daniel is a 2nd century forgery generally hold that Antiochus Epiphanes is the fulfillment of the pseudo-prophecy found therein. Many conservative scholars believe that Antiochus is the fulfillment of other prophecies in Daniel without being the fulfillment of this one.

Some critics on both sides believe that no intelligible specific fulfillment exists. Among these are J.A. Montgomery and Edward Young. Conservatives respond that the words "Know and understand" in the prophecy imply an achievable solution.

One traditional chronology of the 69 weeks has been done from Ezra's decree in 458 BC to AD 26, the alleged date of Christ's baptism, a span of 483 solar years. The problem is that the prophecy is accurate only to the year, and even then very roughly. Some have used other methods to determine the chronology, some exact to the day.

Sir Robert Anderson used lunar data to fix the date of the first day of the first month of the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (the day implied in Nehemiah) to March 14, 445 BC. He showed that, based on various apparent refererences to the Great Tribulation both as three and a half years and also as 1260 days, 360 days could be fixed as the length of what he called a "prophetic year". He fixed the end date to April 6, 32, which he offered as the date of the Triumphal Entry. Alva McClain and others have since concurred with this viewpoint. There have been objections raised to some of Anderson's calculations, with debate on both sides. For instance, later calculations have confirmed that Anderson was off by two days, as the opening date was a Friday, but the closing date a Sunday, something that could not happen in a whole number of seven-time periods. Also, Babylonian records appear to show a leap month in 445 BC (so Nisan 1, the date of the decree, should be one month later on April 13). Moreover, Sunday, April 6 was almost certainly not Nisan 10, and more likely Nisan 6, with Passover eight days later on Monday the 14th.

Harold Hoehner set forth revisions to Anderson and gave an opening date of March 4, 444 BC (the one year shift being due to a different accession date of Artaxerxes) with the end of the 69 weeks on March 30, 33 AD. The same errors with Anderson's calculations also plague Hoehner's, for he miscalculated the length of a year. The leap month means that Nisan 1 probably occurred on April 3 or 4. Ron Bigalke Jr. set forth revisions to Anderson and Hoehner based on the year of Artaxerxes succession as August 465 BC which Hoehner timed as December 465 BC. According to Bigalke, the end of the 69 weeks may be March 26, AD 33. However, this event loses its significance as the Triumphal Entry, for it does not occur on Sunday as church tradition dictates, nor on Monday as some new interpretations report. Bigalke did indicate the problem of a 26 March date since it would be too soon before Jesus' arrival in Bethany and the Passover. He stated that Hoehner did admit the possibility that Artaxerxes may have given permission to Nehemiah later than 1 Nisan. Bigalke's conclusion was if the starting date was 5 Nisan (which Hoehner left possible) then the number of days would be an exact 173,880 days.

The 19th century theologian Nathaniel West offered a completely different Christian solution and utilized strong internal biblical evidence to begin the prophecy with the decree of Cyrus (see Isa. 44:28, 45:13) and end the 69th week with the birth of Jesus' rather than with Jesus' Triumphal Entry. The recent work by T.T. Schlegel further builds upon West's original scholarship and adds additional historical, hermeneutical and textual support.

Another interpretation can be found at a Christian apologetics ministry, The Moorings. It dates the decree to the divine command in response to Nehemiah's prayer in chapter 1 of his book, on November 24, 446 BC. Counting 173 880 days results in December 15, 31, which is given as the date of the Transfiguration. An extension is then added counting off 62 weeks (Dan. 9:26), but this time, in ordinary seven-day periods, to February 20, 33 (depending on reckoning), which is postulated to be the date of Lazarus' resurrection (and the subsequent warrant of arrest to Jesus, John 11:45-57). They back this up with a Talmudic passage citing approximately 40 days between a warrant of arrest and a crucifixion of a certain "Yeshu", deemed to be a corruption of the Hebrew form of Jesus. There are 42 days from the condemnation to the crucifixion, if the latter is placed on the traditional date of April 3, 33.

More on the fringes, Michael Travesser, spiritual leader of the self-proclaimed cult, Strong City, calculated 490 years, or 70 "weeks of years" from October 31, 1517, the date traditionally given for Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of Castle Church. Thus he predicts the fulfillment of Daniel's prophesy for late 2007!

See also

External links

References

  • Sir Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince (ISBN 0825421152)
  • Ron J. Bigalke Jr., "Government of the Future," in One World (ISBN 0974981184)
  • Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (ISBN 0310262119)
  • Clarence Larkin, The Book of Daniel (ISBN 0766185737)
  • John F. Walvoord, Daniel: The Key To Prophetic Revelation (ISBN 0802417531)
  • T. T. Schlegel, Know Therefore and Understand: A Biblical Explication of the First 69 Weeks of Daniel 9 (ISBN 0970433093)
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