Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy

    Daniel 9:24-27, The angel Gabriel speaks to Daniel. (24) "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 the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place. (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. (26) Then after the sixty-two weeks Messiah will be cutoff, but not for Himself; 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; And till the end of the war; desolations are determined. (27) 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 the 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. New American Standard. (A), (B)

  NOTES: (A) Andrew E. Steinmann, Daniel Commentary, p.453, Clearly "weeks" are being used in a metaphorical manner. "Seventy" and "weeks" are commonly used for symbolic time in apocalypses written after Daniel. The traditional Christian interpretation of 9:24-27 is that the "Messiah" in the passage is Jesus Christ and that the seventy weeks culminate in the first advent of Christ. This was the belief of Calvin; Luther and many modern Christian scholars have adopted this view.                                                                                           (B) MacArthur Bible Commentary, p.962, Most interpreters view the units of "seventy weeks' as representing 490 years. These seventy weeks of years are then divided into three subunits of 49 years (seven weeks), 434 years (sixty-two weeks) and 7 years (one week.) Interpreters differ on whether these subunits are to be viewed as a continuous sequence or as having time intervals between them. The main point of Gabriel's answer to Daniel's request for God to deal with sin and wickedness of the Lord's people is that He will, but not immediately. This passage is to be divided into three parts. The first is to deal with the sin of the Jewish people. The second is to deal with the inauguration of the Messianic period. The third is that everything will be fulfilled. The best interpretation is to have 483 years to begin with the command of Artaxerxes I in the twentieth year of his reign 445 B.C. This is the year Artaxerxes gave permission for Nehemiah to return and rebuild Jerusalem, (Neh. 2:4-6). Seven weeks or forty-nine years, possibly closing Nehemiah's career in the rebuilding of the "street and wall". Using the 360-day Lunar year (as in the Jewish calendar.) Daniel 9:26, Sixty-two weeks or 434 more years to the first advent of Messiah. This was fulfilled at the triumphal entry of Christ on 9 Nisan 30 A.D. Then after sixty-two weeks Messiah will be cut off (or slain). This complex and startingly accurate prophecy answers Daniel's prayer and gives the future of Israel to the final end of the age. The final seven years or seventieth week is the time of the Antichrist. The Roman people from whom the Antichrist will come will "destroy the city" of Jerusalem and its temple in 70 A.D. Gabriel uses six phrases to describe the purpose for this prophecy, "to end transgression, to finish sin and to atone for iniquity." The second three are " To bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophet, and to anoint a Most Holy one. The first three are fulfilled in principle at Christ first coming. The last three are complete at His second coming. The last seven years of time constitute the 70th week of Daniel and the coming of the Antichrist in the future. In the "middle of the week" Antichrist will break his covenant with Israel bringing in the great tribulation mentioned in Revelation 11:2-3, 12:14,13:5 and called the Great Tribulation in Matthew 24:21. God permits this tribulation and ultimately triumphs achieving judgment of sin in the world.