LESSON 5 PART 6 ESCHATOLOGY DANIELS's 70 WEEKS (SHORT VERSION)
A SYNOPSIS OF DANIEL’S 70 “WEEKS”
(DANIEL 7-11)
A DISPENSATIONAL PEEK INTO THE FUTURE
THE 70 WEEKS IS A TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME ASSOCITATED WITH SPECIFIC EVENTS THAT GOD HAS CUT OUT OF HISTORY TO PUNISH AND TO RESTORE HIS COVENANTAL PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.
THE 70 WEEKS IS NOT CONSECUTIVE.
IT IS THE BUILD UP TOWARD THE
7 YEAR TRIBULATION.
THE END OF THE TRIBULATION WILL BE THE END OF THE 70 WEEKS.
THE 70 WEEKS is much like the clock in a football game. The clock starts and stops multiple times throughout the game for multiple reasons.
God starts and stops the 70 Weeks in the same manner.
God owns history and history is going someplace.
God controls all future events.
There will be a Great Tribulation and History will end 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!
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.
Israel was very familiar with the term “seven weeks.”
BUT WHY 490 YEARS (70x7 = 490)?
IT IS TO “REPAY” GOD FOR THE 490 YEARS OF DISOBEDIENCE OF ISRAEL FOR DISREGARDING THE “70 SEVENS” OF SABBATH RESTS THEY OWED THE LAND…FROM LEVITICUS.
Note…it is my surmise, the 70 weeks’ TIME frame is synched with the 70 weeks of violating the Sabbath of the Land from Leviticus, but violating the Sabbath is not the summit reason for God’s judgment of Israel. The 70 weeks is predominately a coherent framework or amount of time for the discipline against Israel for many rebellious acts against God.
But listen, this 70 Weeks (or sevens), was divided into three segments. They didn’t happen all in one consecutive period. In total, the 70 Sevens equal 490 years stretched out over a longer period of time. There has been 483 years up to this point in time. We do not know when the last week (7 years) will begin.
70 weeks are divided into three sections or segments:
First Segment is in our Past:
- This was when Daniel, while in exile, was reading from the Book of Jeremiah and was reminded that God would punish Israel for 70 years (seven weeks) and release them from captivity.
Daniel looked at the calendar and realized that the 70 years in captivity was just about at the end.
He began to pray to God for release.
God answered Daniel and told him, yes, the 70 years for your captivity is near the end…BUT there is more to come. These 70 years you have just experienced is just the first segment of Israel’s punishment. There will be a total of 70 Sevens. You have just completed 7 (or one week) of them in captivity. There will be a total of 70 times 7. You have 63 more weeks to go.
The next segment of the 70 Sevens will begin when your captors DECREE that Jerusalem will be allowed to be rebuilt…
70 weeks are divided into three sections:
Next, there is the Second Segment. It, too, is in our Past: This next segment began when the captors DECREED that Jerusalem will be allowed to be rebuilt. It will continue until the Messiah is cut off (hailed at the triumphant entry and then crucified.)
This second segment of the 70 Sevens lasted for 62 Weeks (or 482 years).
70 weeks are divided into three sections:
Next, there is the Third Segment. It is in our FUTURE:
This last segment kicks off the Great Tribulation and begins when the anti-christ makes a covenant for One Week (7 years) with Israel. He will break his covenant halfway through the last week (3 ½ years).
This third segment of the 70 Sevens begins the last of the 70 Sevens against Israel. To this day, there has been 69 Weeks (or 483 years). The clock has been stopped.
The First Segment of the 70 Sevens was the 70 years of Israel’s captivity ending in Babylon.
This was ONE WEEK completed. Of the 490 years of judgment, there were 483 years to go
(or, 63 Weeks).
The Second Segment of the 70 Sevens lasted 482 years. Of the 490 years of judgment, there is now ONE WEEK to go. ( One week remaining)
The Third Segment of the 70 Sevens is in the future. One week remaining. It will complete the 490 years of judgment. We stand at 483 years complete.
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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