The Prophecy - Daniel 9:24-27 - Daniel's 70 Weeks |
Old Testament Prophecy |
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 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 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. 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 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. |
The 69 weeks are found in Daniel 9:25. They are a combination of two periods of time added together. (Seven sevens or weeks added to 62 sevens or weeks)
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.
The sixty nine weeks represents Seven Sevens Or Weeks added to 62 Sevens Or Weeks. They are 69 out of the 70 Week Prophecy, with 1 week left (The Seventieth Week) to be still fulfilled sometime in the future.
When They Commence: In 396 B. C., following the forty-nine years of rebuilding Jerusalem, a period of sixty-two weeks of years (434 years) commenced. Simple addition shows that the total number of years between the second decree of Artaxerxes and the coming of the Messiah is 483 years. Each of those years consisted of 360 days. Thus the total number of days involved is 173,880 days.(1)
When They Conclude: The interpretation that makes the most sense is the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem since that was when He was presented to the Jewish people as the Messianic Prince. The test of this theory is whether the triumphal entry occurred 173,880 days after the second decree of Artaxerxes.(1)
Conclusion: When Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph it wasn't on a whim. When He said, "Mine hour is not yet come," He knew what He was talking about: God has declared "the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done" (Isa. 46:10). God told Daniel precisely when the Messiah would enter Jerusalem and be acknowledged as King with shouts of "Hosanna to the Son of David!" (Matt. 21:9).(1)
It may be possible to identify the 69 Weeks To The Day.
The end of the seven weeks and threescore and two weeks (69 Weeks) will be marked by the appearance of Messiah as the "Prince" of Israel (Dan. 9:25). (2)
The 69 weeks leads to the coming of the Messiah.
69 weeks or 69 sevens represents 483 prophetic years at 360 Days Per Prophetic Year.
1). John MacArthur
2). Things to Come by J. Dwight Pentecost p. 241.
