Daniel’s 70-Week Prophecy Reveals the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ

by | Posted November 14th at 9:06pm

Daniel was a Jew living in Babylon, having been taken captive as a young man by King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled the world at that time. He was praying, confessing his and Israel’s sin before the Lord.

“While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the LORD my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.” (Dan 9: 21-23 NASB)

The archangel Gabriel came to Him to reveal God’s future plans to his faithful servant. Daniel had not even finished his prayer (vs. 20) before the angel appeared (vs. 21). This mighty archangel appeared in a humanlike form and spoke to Daniel intelligibly, as one man speaks to another. Similar terms are used of the angels who announced Christ’s resurrection to the disciples who had come seeking to anoint his corpse: “Suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them” (Luke 24:4). This was also similar at the Ascension: “Suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them” (Acts 1:10). Angels often appear as men, as Gabriel did to Daniel.

Daniel was seeking to know how long Israel would suffer under captivity. When Gabriel came, he was sent by God to teach Daniel and reveal the future. This prophecy is not often taught in churches. I feel it should be presented more often. Daniel Chapter 2 outlines the various future kingdoms that would come along in the world. Daniel 9 is special because it prophetically outlines the exact date that Jesus the Messiah would come to the earthly scene to begin His redemption—the reconciliation of man to God through His sacrificial giving of His life. Daniel’s record made a prophetic marker on the time of His crucifixion when Jesus was “cut off” from mankind, crucified.

Observe how ready the Lord was to answer Daniel’s prayer of faith: “As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given [by God].” In Daniel’s case, there were powerful grounds for a speedy reply, reassuring him of the Lord’s intention to bring to an end the seventy years of hardship in slavery for captive Israel. He knew of Jeremiah’s 70-year prophecy, indicating the future time when Israel would be freed from Babylonian captivity—a type of our freedom from the world (referred to as Babylon in Revelation).

The 70-week prophecy that Gabriel revealed to Daniel – an extended period beyond Jeremiah’s 70 years – would present the greater work of the Messianic kingdom in the future. This longer 70-week period was already interpreted by Daniel, who unpacked King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the coming world kingdoms, ending with the Messianic kingdom:

As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay. In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. (Dan 2: 43-44 NIV)

In Daniel 9:24, Gabriel presents the timeline of the “seventy sevens” to Daniel. This is a period of 490 years during which God would accomplish his plan of national and spiritual redemption for Israel – a time to “put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness”. This points to the Crucifixion – the antitype of the Jewish Day of Atonement, an event that ushered in the final stage of human history before the establishment of the fifth kingdom (cf. Dan 2:35, 44). Christ’s entire ministry, from John’s baptism, was a call to Israel to turn from sin, “to bring in everlasting righteousness,” and live righteously before the Lord. The apostles carried on this call to righteous living in the New Testament.

“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a Most Holy place” (vs. 24)

After Christ had been crucified and resurrected, Peter affirmed at Pentecost, “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people’” (Acts 2:16–17 NIV). This evidence of the “last days” was revealed at the inauguration of the New Testament church at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in the upper room where 120 believers gathered. Peter preached and remarkably 3,000 more were added to the church that day (see Acts 2:41).

The Feast of Pentecost occurred after the Resurrection. The Crucifixion was the final Atonement reckoned by our Saviour’s dying words on the cross, “it is finished,” with the tearing of the old temple’s curtain of the Most Holy Place precisely at His point of death – ending all old covenant typical/symbolic representations of cleansing from sin: “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (John 19:30; Matthew 27:50-51 ESV). Every intelligent, honest scholar knows that Christ’s death achieved the final atonement for man’s sin and offers us reconciliation to God.

The death of Jesus made possible the establishment of the New Covenant order, the church of the redeemed, and the coming kingdom now arrived. This clearly indicated a higher order of society – as regards the church – in which righteousness, justice, and conformity to the standards of Scripture would prevail on earth via the Holy Spirit (at least in our minds, our modus operandi with Christ), rather than the temporary periods of upright government that have occasionally occurred in world history until now.

Daniel received another vision of the final government again revealing the redemption of Jesus Christ:

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed…but the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever.” (Daniel 7:13-14, 18 NIV)

When Jesus ascended to heaven, the angels speaking to the disciples, indicated that the Second Advent of Jesus Christ will be evidenced by His descending upon the clouds as He had gone into heaven just as Daniel was told, “one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven”. (Daniel 7: 13) Look at the striking similarity of the ascension into heaven with the declaration of a return in like manner:

“He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)

The final goal to be achieved at the end of the seventy weeks was the anointing of “the Most Holy”. This I believe is the anti-typical anointing of the heavenly Most Holy Place actualized by Christ’s own blood as the Lamb of God, slain since the foundation of the world (cf. Revelation 13:8) as a propitiation for our sins. The occurrence of the crucifixion has convicted and continues to convict believers of their sin and their need to reconcile with God. Concomitantly, this conviction is achieved in the post-cross New Covenant period through the witness of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given to those during the process of believing (John 7:39; Romans 15:13; Galatians 3:5). Thus, I assert that the church is where the presence of our Lord resides through the Holy Spirit. Christians all claim the merits of Christ’s blood – He, the Lamb of God, takes away the sin of the world by His atoning blood. Christ Himself said that you must be born of the Spirit to enter the heavenly kingdom of God. Here, the anointing of the “Most Holy,” indicating Christ’s glorification, fits perfectly with the consecration and anointing of the Holy Spirit poured out upon the believing church at Pentecost, soon after Christ’s ascension.

The symbol of the blood used in the Old Covenant period, prior to and at the Crucifixion, was used to portray that God was redeeming man Himself through His own Son’s life as a propitiatory ransom payment for our rebellion — blood is the symbol of physical life — the “life of the body is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11). Now the life of Christ is imparted to us by His living Spirit, as He transforms us into His image. Both symbols of Christ’s physical life and Christ’s glorified life in the Spirit (compare John 7:38; Revelation 22:1) were manifest by the blood and water which flowed from the puncture wound when Christ was spear-jabbed by the soldier at the foot of the cross to ensure he was dead (John 19:34).

Paul referred to the church as the living temple of the Lord on earth—Christ being the chief cornerstone, where Christ’s kingdom remains and will endure at the Second Advent. “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). Moreover, Paul taught that we are to be translated into heavenly places now – via the Holy Spirit to be with Him, abide with Him now – not only at our physical death as most believe (compare Ephesians 1:3, 20; 2:6; John 15:4). Further, it is clear that this new place of worship is the church, a place of uniting with, abiding with, in fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ – “together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit”:

“built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:20-22)

The primary goals of Daniel chapter 9, v. 24, to occur during and after the completion of the seventy weeks must first be established before the question of the seventieth week can be properly unpacked. Daniel 9:24 gives six aspects of the Messiah’s work of redemption.

1. To finish the transgression
2. To make an end of sins
3. To make reconciliation for iniquity
4. To bring in everlasting righteousness
5. To seal up the vision and prophecy
6. To anoint the Most Holy

The first three concern the conquest of sin. The second three have to do with the positive aspects of the completion of redemption; to bring all things for all time under the righteous rule of God; to seal up the vision and prophecy by bringing these to fulfillment; and to anoint the Most Holy, the heavenly sanctuary which is the eternal antitype of the earthly holy of holies.

If these goals were in fact attained by the crucifixion of Christ with the establishment of the early church as the temple of God, Daniel 9:25 is important: “From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One the ruler comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’” It should be observed that only sixty-nine groups of sevens [Hebrew: heptads] are listed here, broken into two segments. Think of one week—or one group of seven, calibrated as seven years. The first segment of seven amounts to seven multiples of seven, or forty-nine years, when the city of Jerusalem is to be “rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.” This ended forty-nine years (7×7 yrs) later, in 408 BC.

Further, verse 26 specifies the termination of the sixty-nine groups of sevens—69×7 yrs (heptads)—entering into the final single period of seven years, adding to 70×7 yrs in total. The final seven years are the period of the cutting off of the Messiah in the “midst of” the final seven years. That is to say, after the appearance of the Messiah as Ruler—483 years ((7×7) + (62×7))—after the sixty-nine weeks have begun—he will be cut off. This “midst of” the final seven years matches the Messiah’s approximate three-year ministry before his crucifixion. Verse 26 goes on to say: “After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One [meaning Messiah] will be cut off and will have nothing [Hebrew: weʾên lô can mean either ‘nothing’ or ‘no one’].” This indicates that when the Messiah is cut off, he will be bereft of followers; all of them will flee from him at the time of his arrest, trial, and death.

Verse 25 specifies the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem with streets and moats, to be completed within forty-nine years of the end of the 69-week period. This fulfilment matches the first decree of Cyrus the Great (2 Chronicles 36:23; Ezra 1:2–4). Both versions of this decree stress one undertaking: rebuilding the temple of Yahweh—a project in which Cyrus promised to cooperate with the Jewish leaders and the rank and file of all the Jewish returnees.

A concomitant fulfilment is a decree issued to Ezra in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I (464–424), that is, in 457 B.C. Its text is found in Ezra 7:12–26, which lays the chief emphasis on adorning and strengthening the temple at Jerusalem and enforcing the laws and regulations of the Mosaic code.

Many scholars reckon that the decree in Ch.9 v.25 is dated to 457 B.C. (the date of Ezra’s return to Jerusalem); then we may compute the first seven periods of sevens as running from 457 to 408 (457 – (7×7) = 408), within which time the rebuilding of the walls, streets, and moats was completed. Then from 408, we count off the sixty-two periods of sevens also mentioned in v.25 and come out to A.D. 27, since a year is gained in our reckoning as we pass directly from 1 B.C. to A.D. 1 (without any year zero in between). Christ’s public ministry, from his baptism in the Jordan to his death and resurrection in Jerusalem, must have taken about three years. The 483 years from the issuing of the decree of Artaxerxes ended in A.D. 27, the year of the “coming” of Messiah as Ruler (nāśîʾ). It was indeed “after the sixty-two sevens,” which moves along to a total of sixty-nine sevens to 27 A.D., when Christ was baptized—three years after which history indicates that “the Anointed One” was “cut off.”

Day-weeks or year-weeks considered here?

Day-weeks could not have been intended for the sixty-nine period of sevens (69×7 yrs = 483 yrs). Daniel 9 would then have been discarded as false prophecy within two years (at 483 days) after its composition if that had been the meaning. Therefore, it could only have been year-weeks the author had in mind. And given the reckoning from Ezra’s return to the appearance of Jesus Christ as “Messiah and Ruler” in A.D. 27, it comes out to exactly 483 years, or sixty-two periods of sevens (heptads).

In agreement, I include the Hebrew scholar, Dr. Roy E. Wim writing about the revelation of the seventy weeks (Daniel 9:24-27):

Strangely, the message of understanding which Gabriel brought to Daniel seems to bear not at all upon the immediate subject of Daniel’s prayer. He had been thinking of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the seventy years and that the completion of this time was near at hand. This fulfilment did indeed soon come in the edict of Cyrus and the release of the Jews to return to Jerusalem. But in the message Gabriel brought, another door of prophetic insight opens into a larger dimension of God’s purpose—not only for Israel, but for the world. This larger dimension of revelation concerns the work and reign of the Messiah. ¹

Dr. Keil of the renowned Hebrew Commentary Keil–Delitzsch sees the new Holy of Holies, meaning the Most Holy Place, as the church:

We must refer this sixth statement (to anoint the Most Holy) also to that time of the consummation, and understand it of the establishment of the new Holy of Holies which was shown to the holy seer on Patmos as “the tabernacle of God with men,” in which God will dwell with them, and they shall become His people, and He shall be their God with them (Rev 32:1-3). In this holy city there is its temple, and the glory of God will lighten it (vv. 22-23). Into it nothing shall enter that defileth or worketh abomination (v. 27), for sin shall then be closed and sealed up; there shall righteousness dwell (2 Pet. 3:13). ²

Also, Dr. Thomas Myers commented on the knowledge of the coming Messiah, indicating that there was a surge of apocalyptic excitement – an anticipation of the coming of the Christ:

At the time of Christ’s first advent, there was an unprecedented surge of expectancy of the Messiah. The documents of the Qumran community from the Dead Sea caves, with their heightened tone of apocalyptic excitement, confirm this. John the Baptist was not the first in his day to cry out for preparation. And whence, can we suppose, did the wise men from the East gather this hint that a King in Judah was to be born at that particular time? The star alone would hardly have been sufficient without some tradition or teaching to provide a basis for an approximate time of expectancy. These men came from Daniel’s country, where these weeks of years were known and discussed. ³

Dr. E. J. Young supports the same traditional view of the Messianic Interpretation, which holds that the seventy weeks prophesies the first advent of Christ, especially His death, and culminates in the destruction of Jerusalem. Following Augustine, who first described this interpretation, its proponents have also included Pusey, Wright, and Wilson. I quote Young:

One thing, however, should be clear. It is that according to Daniel, the important matters are not the beginning and ending of this period but the remarkable events which took place within it….We believe…that when the seventy sevens were completed, so also the six purposes of verse twenty-four were accomplished. And that is the important matter. When Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, the mighty salvation which He came to accomplish was actually accomplished. ⁴

Summary of the Main Event: Redemption through the Atonement of Christ

The prophecy studied in Daniel 9 would bring us to the beginning of the year of A.D. 27, at the end of the 69th period of 7 years — the time of Jesus’ baptism at Jordan and the occasion of His anointing by the Holy Spirit. The first half of the seventieth week of years — of the final seven years —occupied with the public ministry of Jesus. His “cutting off” comes in the middle of this crucial week after 3 ½ years. For 3 ½ years more the gospel is preached exclusively to the Jews until at the house of Cornelius the door of opportunity is opened to Gentiles and Israel’s special privilege ends (Acts Ch. 10). In due course, the destruction of the Temple and the devastation of Jerusalem by Titus follow in AD 71.

¹ Wim, Roy E., Beacon Bible Commentary, Daniel, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1966, pgs. 671-676

² Commentaries on the Book of Daniel, Vol II, trans. by Thomas Myers (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1948 [reprint]), p 349

³ Commentaries on the Book of Daniel, Vol II, trans. by Thomas Myers (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1948 [reprint]), p 349

⁴ E. J. Young, The Messianic Prophecies of Daniel, pp. 56, 82.

Article posted by Glen R. Jackman, founder of GraceProclaimed.org

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