LESSON 5 Part 6 Daniel’s 70 Weeks (LONG VERSION)
LESSON 5 Part 6
Daniel’s 70 Weeks
(Long Version)
THE 70 WEEKS IS THE BUILD UP TOWARD THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION
Daniel was familiar with the prophet Jeremiah. He was familiar with the 70-year limit on captivity…here’s some background:
Dan 9.2 - in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
Daniel was familiar with these verses in Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 25:11 - This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Jeremiah 25:12 - ‘Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the Lord, ‘for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.
Jeremiah 29:10 - “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.”
Israel was a divided kingdom after Solomon. There was Northern Israel and Judah in the south.
Israel of the northern kingdom had earlier fallen to Assyria in 722 B.C. And now, with Judah’s captivity, the judgment was complete.
In Babylon, Daniel received God’s word concerning successive stages of Gentile world domination through the centuries until the greatest Conqueror, Messiah, would put down all Gentile lordship. He then will defeat all foes and raise His covenant people to blessing in His glorious millennial kingdom.
Some history and dates:
God sovereignly allowed Gentiles to dominate Israel, i.e.,
- Assyria (722-605 B.C.)
- Babylon (605–539 B.C.),
- Medo-Persia (539–331 B.C.),
- Greece (331–146 B.C.),
- Rome (146 B.C.–A.D. 476),
- The milestone will be the Second Advent of Christ.
Again:
Jeremiah 29:l0 - “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.”
We’ll address what “weeks” mean in a moment, but first…let’s look at the breakdown.
Here’s how the 70 Weeks break down:
70 weeks are divided into three sections:
Past:
- first section is seven weeks (70 years),
Past:
- the next one is 62 weeks (482 years), and
Future (Total 483 years combined with the first):
- the last one is one week (7 years)
We are now waiting for the last week, which will be the 7-year tribulation…69 weeks have passed.
So, you have three segments. The whole time period begins, according to Dan 9.25, at the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. The end of it all, in verse 25, is when the Messiah the Prince comes.
What does 70 “weeks” mean? It does not mean days, weeks, or a “long period of time.”
In Hebrew, it does not mean "week." It means "seven," seventy sevens. It doesn't in itself identify days, it doesn't identify weeks, it doesn't identify months, it doesn't identify years, it just means seventy sevens.
It refers to years, not weeks of days but weeks of years.
Daniel was already thinking in sevens of years. Verse 2, he was thinking of the seventy years prophecy. So, he was thinking in terms of years. And there's a sense in which there is a play on words here.
Dan 9.2 “in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.”
Daniel is thinking, "Lord, seventy years and it will all be over."
And God is saying to him, "No, seventy times seven, seventy sevens." You're not there yet. (Dan 9.25-27)
Oh, yes, there will be restoration to the land after the seventy years but there's a lot more after that until all of sin is dealt with and everlasting righteousness is brought in. And so, I think he plays off the very thought of the seventy.
The context of 7 goes all the way back to Leviticus when God told Israel to give the land rest from farming after 6 years and the 7th year the land should rest.
And so they saw years in terms of weeks of seven. And after seven weeks of seven years, in the forty-ninth year, came a year known as the Jubilee Year.
In the "Jubilee Year," the land rested, and all the estates returned to their original owners and all debts were forgiven and all slaves were freed. And so, a multiple of these week of years was very familiar to the Jewish thinking.
One of the many reasons Israel was taken into captivity was that they had constantly violated that seventh year Sabbath.
They had become disobedient, greedy and self-indulgent and materialistic, and they'd worked that land six years and instead of letting that seventh-year rest to restore the land, they'd plow that land the seventh year and they kept doing it and kept doing it and kept doing it and they violated Sabbath year after Sabbath year after Sabbath year after Sabbath year.
And that is one of the reasons that they were removed from the land because God wanted to give to His land its proper Sabbath rest. And if they wouldn't let the land rest when they were in it, then God would empty it of them and let it rest on His terms.
In 2 Chronicles 36:21, it says: "To fulfill the Word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, talking about the captivity, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths, for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfill threescore and ten years. How many is that? Seventy. (One score = 20 yrs.)
God says you're going to stay out of that land for 70 years. You know why? They had violated 70 Sabbaths. They violated 70 Sabbaths. How many years would it take you to violate seventy Sabbaths? 490 years.
It seems to be that the Spirit of God is telling us that just as they had violated the Sabbath for 490 years, so 490 more years would be determined upon their history.
This is amazing.
In their 800 years as a nation, they had violated 70 of their Sabbaths. And so, God uses the same number of years violated as the basis of His future plan. And each year in captivity was for one 70 period when the Sabbath was violated. God is very exacting.
How long is a year? 365 days?
NO!
It went according to the Jewish calendar – 360 days.
To see this let’s go to the Flood in Genesis, then Revelation and work our way back to Daniel.
The Bible says in Genesis 7:11, the flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month. And the flood came to an end on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. Now if the flood started on the seventeenth day of the second month and ended on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, how many months was the flood?
Five months.
You say, "What's so interesting about that?" In Genesis 7:24 and in Genesis 8:3, the Bible says the flood lasted for one hundred and fifty days. Now if the flood was 150 days and the Jews counted that as five months, how long were their months?
Twelve thirty-day months equals a 360-day year. So, we believe the Jews functioned on a 360-day year calendar. The earliest known months used then in the biblical text were 30-day months giving us a 360-day year.
Now, Daniel 7 says that the great Tribulation will last for a time (that's one), times (that's two), and half a time (that's half) times, time, half a time, three and a half.
Time = 1
Times = 2
Half a Time – 1/2
Revelation 13 says the Tribulation will last forty-two months. (42 months = 3 ½ years)
And Revelation 12:6 says the Tribulation will last 1260 days. (1260 days / 42 months = 30 day months)
Dan 9.27 –
“And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week (the last 7 of 70 Sevens), but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”
One place it says 3 ½,
One place it says 42 months and
One place 1260 days.
And with the last week it will be divided into Three and a half years which in all, equals 42 months.
We’re not done calculating yet!
So, back to the question, “When will Israel return to their land?”
Dan 9.24-27 - “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”
We see from the previous verses that there was seven weeks (70 Years) – the time expiring at the end of the Babylonian Captivity.
Then there was the 62 weeks (now a total of 483 years with one week remaining)
Dan 9.26 - Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
Dan 9.24 - When Israel finishes the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.
And this will take 70 sevens, or 490 years.
The next question is, “When did the clock for the 62 weeks of the 70 sevens begin?
It began when there was a decree to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem.
Dan 9.25 - So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.
The next question is, “Which DECREE are we to start the clock?”
There were Three decrees.
The three different decrees were all given at different dates, and if they all start at a different time, they're all going to end at a different time. And there's much debate as to which of these is right.
Now some say the first decree of Cyrus is the one. That's the one they find in Ezra 1. And so they say the first decree of Cyrus is the one and the reasoning being that in Isaiah 44, the Bible tells us that Cyrus would be the servant of God who would lead the people or let the people go back to the land to rebuild their city and so forth.
So, they say the 490 years began when Cyrus made the first decree. That was in 536 B.C. But if we say it began in 536 B.C. and it went from there…that’s a problem…
If you'll notice over in verse 27, it says: "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week."
For one week. The seventieth week is cut off from the other 69, so we can't count that one.
But we cannot accept the first decree because when you go with 483 years from 536 B.C., you wind up around 54 B.C. and you can't have the Messiah 54 years Before Christ.
You've got a problem.
In fact, Christ doesn't really start His ministry until 30 A.D. and so it's 80 years off.
Also, we don't accept that first decree because in the first decree of Cyrus there was no command to rebuild the CITY, only the temple.
Nobody says it's the second decree of Darius, but they'll jump to the third one…
They'll say, "It's the first decree of Artaxerxes in 458 B.C."
And that's moving a little bit ahead in the calendar, about 90...80 years or so. They're trying to make up that little slack. And so they say 458 B.C. And if we go 483 years from 458 B.C., which is the decree of Artaxerxes, we wind up at 25 A.D.
Well, that's a problem. In 25 A.D the only thing that can be remotely close to 25 A.D. would be the baptism of Christ.
And the baptism wasn't His presentation as Messiah.
The baptism was the Father's approval. That was between Himself and God. There's not even any comment that anybody around made any statement about it at all. We don't even know if they heard what was going on. They heard a noise.
And by the way, the first decree of Artaxerxes said absolutely nothing about the city either, only about the temple. Nothing about restoring and rebuilding the city.
In the first three decrees there was no authorization given at all for the building of the city
We know they didn't have that right until that decree of Artaxerxes. That's the only decree that fits. And that's found in Nehemiah chapter 1-2.
It's only possible that that could have occurred from the decree of Artaxerxes because it was at that time that Nehemiah began to rebuild.
The time period was to the triumphal entry. There's really no other alternative. No wonder it says in Isaiah 46:10 that God is the one who declares the end from the beginning. And He predicts things that are not yet done. God told Daniel the very day Jesus would enter the city of Jerusalem and what did they say? "Hosanna to the King of David." The Messiah.
It didn't last long. And after, verse 26 says, after this seven and threescore and two weeks, shall Messiah be...cut off – Crucified.
There is ONE WEEK REMAINING!
The last half of the 7-year Tribulation will culminate in the greatest battle of all time.
Rev 16 – the time of Armageddon. The attempt to remove Israel from the earth.
Zech 12.10 ff
Rev 19.11 will trigger the Second Coming – EVERY eye will see Him, not like the rapture which will be in the twinkling of an eye.
And now, we ask, “Why all this math and why all this about the days and weeks and years?”
God owns history and history is going someplace.
God controls all future events.
History will “end” or conumate with Israel.
We need to know that God carved out 490 years of history and future events that are exclusively allocated for Israel, in both their chastisement and covenant love. This is not about the church!
I would even go as far as saying that all of history can be summed up in God finishing what He eternally promised with Abraham. And that is what the last week of the seventy-sevens is all about.
Again…ONE WEEK TO GO. THAT WEEK IS WHAT WE REFER TO AS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION – “JACOB’S TROUBLE.”
We have discussed the reason for God’s persistent, covenantal love for Israel in previous lessons.
We have also discussed the Purpose for the tribulation:
To bring Israel back to God and to fulfill His eternal covenant He made to Abraham and David –
LAND and PEACE during the Millennium.
Repeating…ONE WEEK TO GO. THAT WEEK IS WHAT WE REFER TO AS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION – “JACOB’S TROUBLE.”
Daniel describes the final week:
Dan 9.27 “And he (Antichrist) will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”
2 Thess 2.1-2
There will be a political superhero coming. A new world order headed by this man. A global apostacy. No biblical doctrine – it divides, we just want love. We lose any distinction of redemption. Everyone decides to have a one world religion. Global peace led by this satanic world leader.
The world then begins to unravel during the last 3.5 years.
At the end of the final week:
Armageddon, descending from heaven comes King Jesus to destroy the armies against Israel in a supernatural display of power and glory and he plant His feet on The Mount of Olives (Zech 14.4).
He will literally reign for 1000 years.
Another recap of the Millennium while we’re at it:
Matt 25 Who lives in the millennium?
Verses 31-33 At His second coming, when His feet touch the mountain, it says there will be a great separation that takes place. The sheep will be separated from the goats.
There will be a perfect theocratic rule, perfect justice.
The curse of the earth will not be removed but will be held back.
The earth will be similar to that of the original Eden.
Man will mushroom in population with a perfect environment
There will be a Millennium temple built – a thousand-year testimony of the sacrifice of Jesus and the True Israel will lead the world in worship to Jesus.
It will prove that mankind can have a perfect environment, perfect rule, and yet, his heart remains in rebellion to God.
There will be many who truly worship the King of Glory and relish their redemption and there will be many who will be subjugated to Christ’s rule on the outside but the heart rebellious on the inside.
Proof to all who say society needs to be perfect for man to be perfect.
The millennium could never be a more perfect place than to prove the depravity of man’s heart.
Thus ends the reason for knowing the reason for the 70 sevens. We know that all of history is on the edge of its seat just waiting for the final week for the remnant of Israel to carry the lampstand.
Just a little more with reiteration....
There are two solid treatments for squaring the 70-week dates of Daniel.
First, there is Sir Robert Anderson’s work in The Coming Prince.
(Sir Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince, 10th ed. (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1957).
Second, there is Dr. Harold Hoehner’s refinement of Anderson’s basic position from Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ.
(Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977)
Sir Robert Anderson:
Sir Robert Anderson, a British Brethren, developed a chronology that used a 360-day year, that he called a “prophetic year.” Anderson bases this upon the Jewish calendar and the clear implication that the prophetic timetable of Daniel was derived from it as well (i.e., 42 months = 1260 days). Anderson began the 483-year countdown with Artaxerxes’ decree that he said was March 14, 445 B.C. (NISAN 1, 445 B.C.) and it culminates in Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on April 6, A.D. 32 (Nisan 10, A.D. 32). Here is Anderson’s explanation:
. . . According to the Jewish custom, our Lord went up to Jerusalem on the 8th Nisan, which, as we know, fell that year upon a Friday. And having spent the Sabbath at Bethany, He entered the Holy City the following day, as recorded in the Gospels. The Julian date of that 10th Nisan was Sunday the 6th of April, A.D. 32. What then was the length of the period intervening between the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and this public advent of "Messiah the Prince"—between the 14th of March, B.C. 445 and the 6th of April A.D. 32 (when He entered into Jerusalem)? THE INTERVAL WAS EXACTLY AND TO THE VERY DAY 173,880 DAYS, OR SEVEN TIMES SIXTY-NINE PROPHETIC YEARS OF 360 DAYS).
From B.C. 445 to A.D. 32 is 476 years = 173,740 days (476 x 365) + 116 days for leap years. And from 14th March to 6th April, reckoned inclusively according to Jewish practice is 24 days.
But 173,740 + 116 + 24 = 173,880.
And 69 x 7 x 360 = 173,880.
Wow…now this is meticulous…
It must be borne in mind here that in reckoning years from B.C. to A.D. one year must always be omitted; for, of course, the interval between B.C. I and A.D. 1 is not two years but one year. In fact, B.C. 1 ought to be called B.C. 0; and it is so described by astronomers, with whom B.C. 445 is—444. And again, as the Julian year is 11 m. 10.46 s., or about the 129th part of a day, longer than the mean solar year, the Julian calendar has three leap years too many in every four centuries. This error is corrected by the Gregorian reform, which reckons three secular years out of four as common years. For instance, 1700, 1800, and 1900 were common years, and 2000 will be a leap year.
HAROLD HOEHNER:
Dr. Hoehner has questioned the starting and ending times put forth by Anderson. Hoehner advocates the time of Artaxerxes’ decree as 444 B.C. and not 445 B.C.
Dr. Hoehner explains:
The date of this decree is given in the biblical record. Nehemiah 1:1 states that Nehemiah heard of Jerusalem’s desolate conditions in the month of Chislev (November/ December) in Artaxerxes' twentieth year. Then later in Artaxerxes' twentieth year in the month of Nisan (March/April) Nehemiah reports that he was granted permission to restore the city and build its walls (2:1). To have Nisan later than Chislev (in the same year) may seem strange until one realizes that Nehemiah was using a Tishri-to-Tishri (September/October) dating method rather than the Persian Nisan-to-Nisan method. Nehemiah was following what was used by the kings of Judah earlier in their history.
This method used by Nehemiah is confirmed by the Jews in Elephantine who also used this method during the same time period as Nehemiah.
Next, one needs to establish the beginning of Artaxerxes' rule. His father Xerxes died shortly after December 17, 465 B.C. and Artaxerxes immediately succeeded him. Since the accession-year system was used the first year of Artaxerxes' reign according to the Persian Nisan-to-Nisan reckoning would be Nisan 464 to Nisan 463 and according to the Jewish Tishri-to-Tishri reckoning would be Tishri 464 to Tishri 463. . . .
In conclusion, the report to Nehemiah (1:1) occurred in Chislev (November/December) of 445 B.C. and the decree of Artaxerxes (2:1) occurred in Nisan (March/April of 444 B.C.)
Therefore, Nisan 444 B.C. marks the terminus ad quo of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24-27.
Dr. Hoehner further objects to Anderson’s use of the solar year instead of the sabbatical year. Dr. Hoehner also corrects some of Anderson’s calculations. Dr. Hoehner spells out his difference in the following:
First, in the light of new evidence since Anderson's day, the 445 B.C. date is not acceptable for Artaxerxes' twentieth year; instead, the decree was given in Nisan, 444 B.C. Second, the A.D. 32 date for the crucifixion is untenable. It would mean that Christ was crucified on either a Sunday or Monday.82 In fact, Anderson realizes the dilemma and he has to do mathematical gymnastics to arrive at a Friday crucifixion. This makes one immediately suspect. Actually, there is no good evidence for an A.D. 32 crucifixion date.
In previous chapters in this book it was concluded that Christ's crucifixion occurred on Friday, Nisan 14, in A.D. 33. Reckoning His death according to the Julian calendar, Christ died on Friday, April 3, A.D. 33.83 As discussed above, the terminus a quo occurred in Nisan, 444 B.C. Although Nehemiah 2:1 does not specify which day of Nisan the decree to rebuild Jerusalem occurred, it cannot have occurred before Nisan 1. . . . it could have occurred on some other day in Nisan.
“Using the calculating method Anderson used, Hoehner comes up with the 476 solar years. This is the difference between 444 B.C. and A.D. 33. By multiplying 476 by 365.24219879 days, comes to 173,855 days, and Hoehner states:
This leaves only 25 days to be accounted for between 444 B.C. and A.D. 33. By adding the 25 days to Nisan 1 or March 5 (of 444 B.C.), one comes to March 30 (of A.D. 33) which was Nisan 10 in A.D. 33. This is the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. . . . The terminus ad quem of the sixty-ninth week was on the day of Christ's triumphal entry on March 30, A.D.
As predicted in Zechariah 9:9, Christ presented Himself to Israel as Messiah the king for the last time and the multitude of the disciples shouted loudly by quoting from a messianic psalm: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord" (Ps. 118:26; Matt.21:9; Mark 11:10; Luke 19:38; John 12:13). This occurred on Monday, Nisan 10 (March 30) and only four days later on Friday, Nisan 14, April 3, A.D. 33, Jesus was cut off or crucified.
The seventieth week of Daniel's prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. When that is accomplished, Daniel's inquiry will be fully realized for Israel will be back in her homeland with her Messiah.
Dr. Hoehner has put together an airtight case for his understanding of the beginning and ending of the first sixty-nine weeks of Daniel’s prophecy. Dr. John Walvoord notes, in support of Dr. Hoehner, that “the best explanation of the time when the sixty-nine sevens ended is that it occurred shortly before the death of Christ anticipated in Daniel 9:26 as following the sixty- ninth seven. Practically all expositors agree that the death of Christ occurred after the sixty- ninth seven.”
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