Daniel's Seventy Weeks (Part 2)

This is the second installment of a series written by Wayne Jackson. It appeared in the October, 1979 edition of the Christian Courier. Jackson was also the editor and it was published by the East Main Street Church of Christ in Stockton, California.

The time element of the famous prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 allowed the studious Jew to know when the promised Messiah would die for the sins of mankind. The chronology of the prophecy was to commence with the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (25a). First, 7 weeks would pass (i.e., 49 years) then 62 weeks would lapse (434 years). After this time (26a), specifically in "the midst" of the 70th week, the Anointed One would be cut off. Actually, therefore, from the starting point (the command regarding Jerusalem's restoration) until the termination point (the Messiah's death), some 486 and a half years would pass.

There are three generally recognized possibilities for the starting point of the prophecy. The following chart lists each of these and computes where a passing of 486 1/2 years would put the terminal point.

Zerubbabel's Return    536 B.C._________50 B.C.
Ezra's Return             457 B.C._________30 A.D.
Nehemiah's Return     444 B.C._________43 A.D.

Let us consider each of these:

1. Though some believe that Zerubbabel's commission (536 B.C.) was the one alluded to in the prophecy, such would appear unlikely. That charge was primarily to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:2-3). Moreover, the terminal point would be a half century before the birth of Christ, thus 80 years before His death.

2. Others see Nehemiah's charge (444 B.C.) as the beginning time of the prophecy, especially since Nehemiah was definitely commissioned to rebuild the city of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:3-5). However, this would place the terminal point approximately 12 to 13 years beyond the death of Christ. It is claimed however, that such a few years are really insignificant compared with the fact that the prophecy spans nearly five centuries. While this may be a possibility, it is not favored by this writer in view of the precision of Old Testament prophecy concerning the time of the coming of Jesus and the accomplishment of His work. Note the following time indicators concerning Christ's first coming.

a. Christ, the Branch, would not come until the kingly lineage of Jesse became a stem (or stock - ASV, Isaiah 11:1). "Stem" is "the trunk of a felled tree" (Gesenius, Hebrew Lexicon, 116). The last political king of that family was Jeconiah (Jeremiah 22:24-30).

b. The Messiah and His kingdom would come in the days of the Roman kings (Daniel 2:44) between about 63 B.C. and 476 A.D.

c. Shiloh would come before Judah lost her right of self-government (Genesis 49:10). That privilege of political independence enjoyed by Judah was lost in 6 A.D. when Archelaus, son of Herod the Great (Matthew 2:22) was deposed (cf. H.E. Dana, The New Testament World, 97, 98).

d. As the anti-type of the Passover lamb (I Corinthians 5:7), Christ was slain at the time of the Passover (John 13:1). In fact, as the Passover lamb was killed, "between the two evenings, so Jesus died at the 9th hour (Mark 15:34, 37).

e. The Lord repeatedly spoke of His approaching "hour" as though such were a fulfillment of a scheduled program of death (John 2:4; 7:30; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 16:32; 17:1).

f. In view of the precision of this prophetic indications therefore, it seems unlikely that the prediction of Daniel 9 was so general as to miss the time of the Messiah's death by a dozen years or so.

3. If Daniel's prophecy is calculated from the return of Ezra (457 B.C.) the terminal point is 30 A.D.; the exact year of the death of Christ! (Note: The commonly accepted date of Jesus' death as 33 A.D. incorporates the 3 year error of the Dionysian calendar.) One of the objections to this view is the allegation that Ezra's commission involved only the restoration of the law. But Ezra's mission likely entailed more than that. Old Testament scholar Gleason Archer notes that Ezra's commission: "...apparently included authority to restore and build the city of Jerusalem (as we may deduce from Ezra 7:607 and also 9:9 which states, 'God...hath extended loving kindness unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of God, and to repair the ruins thereof, and to give us a wall in Judea and Jerusalem' ASV). Even though Ezra did not actually succeed in accomplishing the rebuilding of the walls till Nehemiah arrived thirteen years later, it is logical to understand 457 B.C. as the terminus a quo for the decree predicted in Daniel 9:25..." (Old Testament Introduction, p. 387).

It is the view of this writer therefore, that the general period known as Daniel's Seventy Weeks involves substantially that era between Ezra's return (457 B.C.) and the death of Christ (30 A.D.).

Chronological Breakdown - The 70 weeks, chronologically considered, falls into three sections. These are: 7 weeks; 62 weeks; the "midst" of the 70th week. Each of these will be considered briefly.

1. The division of 7 weeks (actually 49 years in prophetical computation) was the time in which Jerusalem was to be rebuilt (25b). This was in answer to Daniel's prayer (9:16). However, that rebuilding was to characterized by "troubled times." The Jews' enemies had troubled them in previous construction efforts (cf. Ezra 4:1-6) and continued to do so in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Whitcomb describes the period:
      One of the by-products of the revival under Ezra seems to have been an effort on the part of the Jews to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. This in turn provoked the wrath of Rehum and Shimshai, who wrote an accusation against them to Artaxerxes (Ezra 4:7-16). The king commanded the work to cease until a further decree should be issued (Ezra 4:21). Rehum and Shimshai, upon receiving this decree from the king, hurried to Jerusalem and 'mand them cease by force and power,' presumably breaking down the wall that had been started and burning the gates (Ezra 4:23; Nehemiah 1:3). It was the news of this fresh disaster that shocked Nehemiah and brought him to his knees before God" (Wycliffe Bible Commentary, 435.)

2. The second division of 62 weeks (or 434 years), which commenced following the completion of the 7 weeks, would culminate with the beginning of Jesus' personal ministry (approximately 3 1/2 years prior to His death). Thus, starting from 457 B.C. and counting forward 483 years (49 plus 434) would bring one to 26 A.D., the approximate time of the baptism of Christ (Matthew 3:1ff).

3. The third division of Daniel's chronology is "the midst" of the 70th week (i.e., approximately 3 1/2 years beyond the end of the 69th week). This was wonderfully fulfilled in the the 3 1/2 years of the personal ministry of Christ. That the Lord's ministry spanned this approximate time frame may be observed by noting that this period encompassed four Passovers (John 2:13, 23; 5:1; 6:4; 12:1) in addition to the weeks which preceded the first on in John 2:13.

The dispensational theory contends that the 69th week of Daniel's prophecy culminates in the death of Christ. It further alleges that there is a vast gap between the 69th and 70th weeks, known as "the church age," which was completely unknown to the Old Testament prophets. According to the dispensational scheme therefore, the 70th week is the so-called "tribulation period (of 7 years), which is supposed to precede the battle of Armageddon and the 1,000 year earthly reign of Christ! The utter falsity of this view is revealed by the fact that the passage does not suggest that the Messiah's death terminates the 69th week. Rather, the text is very clear that the Anointed One is cut off at some point AFTER the 69th week (26a).

There is absolutely no justification for assuming that there is a gap of hundreds of years between the 69th and 70th weeks of this prophecy. The truth is, more than 278 weeks have already passed since the death of the Lord. How in the name of common sense can we still be waiting for the 70th! Is it not reasonable to conclude between the first 7 weeks and the following 62 weeks, there was also continuity between the 69th and 70th weeks? How tragic it is that some religionists will butcher the text of the Bible in order to justify their pet theories.