Notes on Daniel’s Prophecy of the 70 Weeks

Dan 9:24-27 NASB "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."

     In this prophecy, Daniel is told the exact date that the Messiah would come to redeem Israel & the world. The Timetable starts “from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem”. This event happened on 14th March, B.C. 445 when the king of Persia Artaxerxes Longitmanus issued a decree that Nehemiah was to return to Israel & rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The Prophecy on 6th April, A.D. 32 when The Messiah Jesus entered Jerusalem in Psalm Sunday.

 Daniel is told of 3 timelines

1. Seven weeks - 49 years, until the city and its walls are rebuilt
2. 69 weeks (7 plus 62), 483 years from the decree, until Messiah the Prince appears
3. A final 70th week to complete the prophecy

     The Hebrew word for “Weeks” (shabuwa or שבדצ) actually means seven or period of seven & can mean 7 days (Week) or 7 years (Sabbatical Year). So in this passage the term weeks should be read as 70 Sabbatical Years or 70 X 7 years. The Nation of Israel at the time of Daniel was using a calendar based on 12 lunar months of 30 days or 360 day years with an extra month added every few years to reset the calendar also known as a “Prophetic Year”.  The 70 X 7 must be based on this 360 day Prophetic Year (see also Rev 11:3 where 1260 days = 42 months = 3 ½ years)

Seven weeks and sixty-two weeks

     The first part of this timeline called “seven weeks” are 7 X 7 or 49 years refers to the actual rebuilding of Jerusalem that took 49 years

     The Julian date of that 10th Nisan was Sunday the 6th April, A.D. 32.1 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 March, B.C. 445, and the 6th April, A.D. 32? 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 AD. 32 is 476 years 273,740 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 7X 360= 173,880.

Chapter 9 Daniel in the Critic's Den

The 70th week

     The last week or the 70^th week is still to come & refers to the 7 years of the tribulation period where The “Prince” or Anti-Christ will Stop the daily sacrifice & declare himself God. After this, he will attack the nation of Israel & finish the prophecy

     Notes on Daniel’s vision of World history from Cyrus to the Time of the End 

For Daniel 11:1-9 see notes on Timeline 350-230 BC (Inter-Testamental Period Part 1)

Dan 11:10	"His sons will mobilize and assemble a multitude of great forces; and one of them will keep on coming and overflow and pass through, that he may again wage war up to his {very} fortress. NASB
Dan 11:11	"The king of the South will be enraged and go forth and fight with the king of the North. Then the latter will raise a great multitude, but {that} multitude will be given into the hand of the {former.} NASB
Dan 11:12	"When the multitude is carried away, his heart will be lifted up, and he will cause tens of thousands to fall; yet he will not prevail. NASB
Dan 11:13	"For the king of the North will again raise a greater multitude than the former, and after an interval of some years he will press on with a great army and much equipment. NASB
Dan 11:14	"Now in those times many will rise up against the king of the South; the violent ones among your people will also lift themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they will fall down. NASB
Dan 11:15	"Then the king of the North will come, cast up a siege ramp and capture a well-fortified city; and the forces of the South will not stand {their ground,} not even their choicest troops, for there will be no strength to make a stand. NASB
Dan 11:16	"But he who comes against him will do as he pleases, and no one will {be able to} withstand him; he will also stay {for a time} in the Beautiful Land, with destruction in his hand. NASB
Dan 11:17	"He will set his face to come with the power of his whole kingdom, bringing with him a proposal of peace which he will put into effect; he will also give him the daughter of women to ruin it. But she will not take a stand {for him} or be on his side. NASB
Dan 11:18	"Then he will turn his face to the coastlands and capture many. But a commander will put a stop to his scorn against him; moreover, he will repay him for his scorn. NASB
Dan 11:19	"So he will turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble and fall and be found no more. NASB

Starting with Verse 10 & 11 we skip to the reign of Antiochus III (223-187BC) & Ptolemy IV (221-203BC) when in 217 BC, Antiochus III marched a army of 70,000 into Egypt but his entire army was wiped out & Antiochus III had to flee on foot. Antiochus III spent the next 16 years building wealth & a new army by invading the lands to the east. Ptolemy IV died in 203 leaving Egypt in the hands of a infant son named Ptolemy V Epiphanes (203-181BC). Two years later, Antiochus III took full advantage of the young leader by once again invading Egypt as is prophesied in verses 13-16. Israel was ruled by the Ptolemies at this time & treated the Jews with compassion. During this attack of Antiochus III, some Jews took advantage & attacked the fortress that Ptolemies had in Jerusalem. The Jews would soon regret this mistake. In 198 BC, Antiochus III occupied all of the land of Israel. A little fledgling empire to the east named Rome began to pose a threat to the kingdoms of Antiochus III as well as that of Ptolemy V. as a result of this new threat, in 192 BC, Egypt & Syria (Antiochus III) made a peace pact by having Antiochus III’s daughter Cleopatra marry the young Ptolemy V. Verse 17 is answered when Cleopatra chooses to side with her new husband against her father. Verse 18 is answered when the Roman consul Lucius Scipio Asiaticus stood against an attempt by Antiochus III to invade Greece. Antiochus III lost at every attempt against Roman & Pergamum forces. Finally, verse 19 is answered when Antiochus III is killed while attempting to plunder a temple.

Dan 11:20

"Then in his place one will arise who will send an oppressor through the Jewel of {his} kingdom; yet within a few days he will be shattered, though not in anger nor in battle. NASB

Verse 20 describes the reign of Seleucus IV (187-175BC) who due to the heavy cost of defending himself against Rome began to tax Israel. In 175 BC he commanded his Tax Collector Heliodorus to plunder the Jewish Temple. Days later, Seleucus IV was killed by this same Tax Collector. Yet another verse of prophecy answered perfectly.

These three verses initiates a 16 verse prophecy of Antiochus IV (Epiphanes 175-163BC). When Seleucus IV died, Antiochus IV usurped the throne by having Seleucus IV youngest son murdered & while his oldest son was being held hostage in Rome. Antiochus IV soon gave the High Priesthood in Jerusalem to the highest bidder while he had the real high Priest Onias III (185-175BC) murdered, hence the prophecy in verse 22 pf the “prince of the covenant”.

Antiochus IV was true to this part of the prophecy as well in that unlike his predecessors, he used his newly conquered wealth to buy friends. He invaded Egypt a few times & won but to no great extent.

Antiochus IV & Ptolemy VI signed many peace agreements, neither of the kept to the agreements for long. At last Antiochus IV took much wealth from Egypt. Even though Antiochus IV returned from Egypt with much wealth, he still wanted the wealth in the Temple of Jerusalem. In 168 BC Antiochus IV invaded Egypt yet another time but this time he was greeted by Gaius Popillius Laenas a Roman consul who demanded that Antiochus IV leave Egypt. Rather the risk a war with Rome, Antiochus IV left Egypt & conceded it to Rome (Kittim is prophecy speak for Rome). Antiochus IV being the spoiled child that he was now vented all his anger at loosing Egypt against the Jews & the Temple of God. He burned a pig on the Alter of God & set up a image of Zeus in the Temple. This is why Antiochus IV is known as “the little Anti-Christ” because what he did will be copied by the future one world leader during the middle of the Tribulation. This “Abomination that causes Desolation” will feed the faith of the Jews until the time of the Maccabaeus when Israel drives out the Greeks for their blasphemes against God. Verses 33-35a describes the persecution of the Jews at the hands of Antiochus IV as well as later rulers. In verse 35b there is a subtle by significant brake in the prophecy with the words “until the end time”. From this point in the prophecy until the end of the book, the prophecy shifts to the last 7 years of world history known as the Tribulation.

NASB New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. All rights reserved. Used by permission.