Daniel 9 - Seventy Weeks Archives » Page 2 of 10

EXCERPT: The Historical-Messianic interpretation is the traditional understanding of Daniel 9. In this interpretation, the 490 years are an extension of God’s covenant with Israel, which was based on Israel’s Sabbath Year cycle. Jesus confirmed God’s covenant with Israel during the last seven of the 490 years.

This interpretation is called Messianic because it understands the Messiah to be the one who confirms the covenant for the seven last years. It is called historical because the full 490 years is interpreted as past history.

Daniel 9 has been understood in this way ever since the early church. It is only in recent centuries that Dispensationalism and Liberal Criticism have become the dominant views.

Below the Daniel 9 prophecy is explained from the Historical-Messianic perspective. The explanation will be phrase by phrase.

For discussions of the other interpretations of Daniel 9, see:

Dispensationalism
Critical Interpretation
Consistent Symbolical Interpretation

SEVENTY WEEKS

Gabriel appears to Daniel Gabriel began the prophecy by saying:

24a Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city (Dan 9:24)

Israel’s calendar followed a seven-year cycle in which every seventh year was a Sabbath Year for the land (Lev 25). The 70 weeks are 70 of those seven year-cycles and and, therefore, equal to 490 literal years.

“Your people and your holy city” refer to Israel and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the capital and symbol of the Jewish nation.

THE COVENANT

This concept is fundamental to understanding many things in this prophecy. It is discussed in The Covenant in Daniel 9. Below is a brief summary:

SABBATH YEARS

In Leviticus 25, God commanded Israel to allow the land to rest every seventh year (Lev 25:2), comparable to the weekly Sabbath day of rest. Israel had to work the land for six years (Lev 25:3), but the seventh year was to be a sabbath; the land had to rest (Lev 25:4). In this way, the years on the Jewish calendar were divided into groups of sevens, with each seventh year a sabbath.

COVENANT EXILE PATTERN

Mount Sinai Leviticus 26 contains the covenant promises (blessings) and warnings (curses). It states that, (a) should Israel become unfaithful (Lev 26:14-39), (b) God will send them into exile and scatter them among the nations (Lev 26:33). But (c) if Israel in exile “confess their iniquity” (Lev 26:40, 41, 44), (d) God will “remember (His) covenant … with Abraham” (Lev 26:42) “that I might be their God” (Lev 26:45). In other words, God would renew His covenant with them.

Furthermore, Leviticus 26 uses the seven-year cycle to calculate how long Israel would be in exile (Lev 26:34-35, 43). Namely, Israel would be in exile for every Sabbath Year not observed. While they are in exile, the land will enjoy its rest.

490 YEARS OF DISOBEDIENCE

Jeremiah prophesied that Israel would be in exile for 70 years. On the basis of Leviticus 26, as confirmed by 2 Chronicles 36:21, we know that each of Jeremiah’s 70 years of exile was a Sabbath year. This is confirmed by 2 Chronicles 36:21. Each of the 70 years, therefore, represents 7 years of disobedience. Consequently, the 70 years represent the equivalent of Seventy Weeks (490 years) of disobedience, prior to the exile.

DANIEL 9 FOLLOWS THIS PATTERN.

(1) This prophecy was received at a time when Jerusalem was in ruins and Israel in exile (Dan 9:2, 7). The exile was the covenant penalty for disobedience: Israel was scattered to allow the land to have its rest (2 Chron 36:21; Dan 9:11-13; cf. Lev 25:2).

(2) In his prayer (9:4-19) Daniel confessed the guilt of His people (Dan 9:5-11, 15-16), acknowledged the exile as the covenant penalty for disobedience (Dan 9:11-13), acknowledged that God had acted fairly (Dan 9:7, 14), but also prayed for the promise of covenant renewal after the exile (Dan 9:4). He prayed for “Your city and Your people” (Dan 9:19, 16-17). In this way, Daniel fulfilled the condition for covenant renewal after the exile (Lev 26:40-41). On behalf of Israel, and he prayed for the renewal of Israel’s covenant privileges.

(3) This context means, when Gabriel brought God’s answer, namely that “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city”, that this is a renewal of God’s covenant with Israel in terms of Leviticus 26:42, 45, for a new cycle of Seventy Weeks.

IMPLICATIONS

The important implications are:

(a) The covenant pattern forms the framework that binds together Daniel’s prayer in the first part of chapter 9 and the prophecy at the end of it. God’s covenant with Israel is the central theme in the entire Daniel 9.

(b) The 490 years promised by Daniel 9 are an extension of God’s covenant with Israel.

(c) The covenant that is confirmed during the “one week” (Dan 9:27) is the final seven years of God’s time-limited renewed covenant with Israel.

(d) God’s covenant with Israel comes to an end at the end of the Seventy Weeks of years.

(e) Since the 490 years of Daniel 9 are an extension of God’s covenant with Israel, and since the Sabbath year cycle is part of this covenant, every seventh year will be a Sabbath year. This means that these are 490 literal years, not prophetic years, as in Dispensationalism.

SIX GOALS

Verse 24 lists 6 goals for the 490 years, namely, to:

Finish the transgression, to make an end of sin
Make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness
Seal up vision and prophecy
And to anoint the most holy place

These goals are discussed in When will the Daniel 9:24 goals, set by for the 490 years, be fulfilled? However, the reader is advised to first read the explanation of verses 25 to 27 before reading the analysis of the goals.

Articles in this series

(1) The traditional interpretation of Daniel 9 is Historical-Messianic, in which the 490 years is an extension of God’s covenant with Israel. – CURRENT ARTICLE

(2) The 490 years began with Artaxerxes’ decree. The first 483 years ended with the arrival of the Messiah, namely His baptism in the 15^th year of Emperor Tiberius.

(3) The Messiah who is cut off is our Lord Jesus Christ. The people who destroy the city are the Romans. The prince in Daniel 9:26 is a supernatural force controlling that Empire.

(4) The prophecy’s Poetic Pattern alternates between Jerusalem and the Messiah. In this pattern, Jesus confirms the covenant in Daniel 9:27.

(5) Jesus confirmed God’s covenant for the Seven Last Years by His personal preaching and by sending His disciples to Israel ONLY for a few years after His death.

(6) Daniel 9 promises atonement for sin (Dan 9:24) through the killing of the messiah (v26), while he will put a stop to sacrifice (Dan 9:27). In light of the New Testament, this messiah is Jesus Christ.

(7) The Poetic Pattern and the repetition of ideas from verse 26 identify the “complete destruction” in Daniel Dan 9:27c as the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

(8) The key message of Daniel 9 is that the Messiah will appear within 500 years after Jerusalem is given back to the Jews; before Jerusalem is destroyed in AD 70.

See also, the Summary of all Daniel 9 articles, including the Dispensational Interpretation of Daniel 9. Another series identifies the Antichrist in the other prophecies of Daniel.

EXCERPT: Various other differences between Daniel 9 and the Dispensational interpretation exist, such as that (1) Jerusalem will be rebuilt twice, (2) the Antichrist breaks his own covenant, (3) the sanctuary will be destroyed during the 490 years decreed for it, (4) the last week will end with the return of Christ, and that (5) Jerusalem is awarded a total of 1490 years.

REBUILT TWICE

The prophecy of Daniel 9 was given while Jerusalem and the temple were in ruins. The prophecy promises that Jerusalem will be rebuilt (Dan 9:25), but it also warns that Jerusalem will be destroyed again (Dan 9:26). This was fulfilled with the rebuilding of Jerusalem a few hundred years before Christ and its destruction in 70 AD.

rebuild the temple But Dispensationalism requires the sanctuary to be rebuilt a second time in the future, and the sacrificial system to be revived. However:

The prophecy explicitly promises only one rebuilding of the city and the sanctuary. There is not the least bit of evidence in the text for a second rebuilding, or that sacrifices will be resumed. If the temple was to be rebuilt after the destruction of verse 26, the prophecy would have explicitly stated this, given that it is so clear about the rebuilding in verse 25.

Since the sacrificial system has been abolished 2000 years ago, there can never be a valid return to the old covenant and its earthly temple worship. Christ, the antitype, has terminated once for all the “shadow” and inaugurated a “better covenant” that offers His righteousness as the everlasting righteousness (see Heb 7:22; cf. Heb 10:12; Rom 3:22, 25). That is the very meaning of the statement “in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering” (Dan 9:27).

The reinstatement of the sacrifices stems from the assumption that Daniel 9 covers the same ground as the other prophecies of Daniel, but this is not a valid assumption: Daniel 9 is a literal prophecy, dealing with Israel only, and with the 490 years only. The other prophecies in Daniel are symbolic and deal with all nations and with all time.

BREAKS HIS OWN COVENANT

In Dispensationalism the Antichrist breaks his covenant with Israel after 3½ years, but according to 9:27, the covenant is confirmed for the full seven years.

DESTROYED WITHIN THE 490 YEARS

In Dispensationalism the sanctuary will be destroyed in the middle of the last week, when “he will put a stop to sacrifice”. However, since the full 490 years have been determined for the city of Daniel’s people (Dan 9:24), the sanctuary and its services will not be destroyed during the 490 years, but only at or after the end of the 490 years.

RETURN OF CHRIST

Dispensationalism maintains that the last seven years end with the return of Christ, but the prophecy in no way indicates the return of Christ. If the 490 years are to end with Christ’s return, would verse 27 not end with a description of His glorious return, as the other prophecies in Daniel do? In contrast, the Daniel 9 prophecy ends in the accumulation of desolations and chaos.

GOALS NOT FULFILLED

Daniel 9:24 lists 6 goals to be achieved by the events of the 70 sevens, including:

“to make an end of sin”
“to make atonement for iniquity” and
“to bring in everlasting righteousness”.

In Dispensationalism, the 69th week ends a few days before the death of Christ, namely at His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, while the 70th week still lies in our future. Consequently, the 70 weeks do not include the death of Christ, and the goals in 9:24 have not been fulfilled by the Cross. Dispensationalism proposes that these goals will be fulfilled at the end of the last seven years, with the return of Christ.

But this proposal denies Israel its responsibility and denies the 490 years their purpose. The goals in 9:24 were set for Israel to achieve, and Israel was given 490 years to accomplish those goals. In other words, these goals were to be achieved during the 490 years, through Daniel’s people.

Since the final seven years is the core of the 490 years, these goals are particularly achieved by the events of the last seven years, as described by the first part of verse 27:

“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”

In Dispensationalism this describes the work of an end-time Antichrist. An Antichrist will certainly not fulfill the wonderful goals of verse 24.

Daniel did not pray for a messiah for the goals in verse 24. He prayed for Jerusalem. But the prophecy includes the Messiah and the goals because that was Jerusalem’s purpose. Jerusalem was to be rebuilt and 490 years were allocated to it to receive the Messiah, and through the Messiah to realize the goals. The Messiah was the means and the goals were the end. To remove these goals from Israel and Jerusalem is to remove the reason for Israel’s election.

MILLENNIUM

The complex Dispensational view with respect to the sacrificial system is as follows:

Stopped by the Babylonian captivity (prior to receiving the prophecy)
Re-introduced when the sanctuary is rebuilt, as predicted by 9:25;
Stopped when the sanctuary is destroyed, as predicted by 9:26;
Re-introduced in the beginning of the last seven years (not explicitly in the prophecy);
Stopped by the Antichrist in the middle of the last seven years (assuming this is what 9:27 refers to);
Re-introduced at the end of the 70^th week, at the visible return of Christ, after which the sacrificial system and the Jewish period will be continued for one thousand years. (No mention of this in the prophecy)

Dispensationalism postulates the Millennium as a period of Jewish dominance. This allocates to the Jews not only 490 years but 490 years plus the millennium; in total 1490 years. But 70 weeks have been determined for the city of “your people” (9:24). In other words, sacrifices will not be continued beyond the 70 weeks.

A strange aspect of Dispensationalism is the proposal that sin will continue for 1000 years after the return of Christ. This is inconsistent with the goal “to make an end of sin” (9:24).

TWO UNRELATED PROPHECIES

To postpone the last seven years to the end of the age destroys the simple unity of the prophecy. It divides the prophecy into two completely separate and unrelated prophecies:

One about Christ 2000 years ago, and
One about some future Antichrist.

The last seven years are the core of the prophecy, but Dispensationalism allocates those seven years to the Antichrist. This converts a prophecy about Christ into a prophecy about the Antichrist.

SUMMARY

Rebuild again – The prophecy promises that Jerusalem will be rebuilt, which happened before the time of Christ, but Dispensationalism requires the sanctuary to be rebuilt a second time, namely during the last seven years before Christ Returns.

Breaks his covenant – In Dispensationalism the Antichrist breaks his covenant with Israel after 3½ years, but according to 9:27 the covenant is confirmed for the full seven years.

Destroyed in the middle of the last week – In Dispensationalism the sanctuary will be destroyed in the middle of the last week, but since the full 490 years have been determined for the city, the sanctuary will not be destroyed during the 490 years.

Return of Christ – Dispensationalism maintains that the last week ends with the return of Christ, but according to the prophecy, the last week ends in chaos.

Goals fulfilled – In Dispensationalism the goals in 9:24 have not been fulfilled by the Cross, but will be fulfilled at the end of the last seven years, with the return of Christ. This proposal denies the 70 sevens of their purpose. The goals in 9:24 were given to Israel to fulfill, and Israel was given 490 years to fulfill those goals.

Millennium – The prophecy promised that sacrifices will be revived when Jerusalem is rebuilt but also predicts that the sacrifices will be stopped. In contrast, the complex Dispensational view proposes that the sacrifices will be stopped three times and again revived three times; the last time at the beginning of the Millennium.

By picturing the Millennium as a period for Jewish dominance, Dispensationalism awards the Jews a total of 1490 years.

Two unrelated prophecies – To postpone the last seven years of final crisis to the end of the age divide the prophecy into two completely separate and unrelated prophecies; One about Christ 2000 years ago, and one about some future Antichrist.

Historical-Messianic view of Daniel 9: every seventh was a Sabbath Year.

SEVENTY WEEKS