“Seventy Weeks” or Ten Jubilees
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More specifically, with what prophecy do we begin? We can begin anywhere—wherever Yehuveh leads us, or with whatever prophecy we personally find ourselves intrigued or puzzled. I am very interested in numbers, so prophecies like “seventy weeks are determined . . . ,” “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” “. . . to continue forty and two months,” always attract my attention! Daniel 9:24; Revelation 12:6; 13:5.
For purposes of instruction, I here begin with the “seventy weeks” prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27. In reality I could turn to any passage in Isaiah to Malachi or in Revelation and, by prayer and careful research and study, learn what Yehuveh has said therein. So can you! His promises are for every one of us: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye.” “Good and upright is Yehuveh: therefore will He teach sinners in the way. The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His way.” Psalms 32:8; 25:8-9.
Traditional View of One Prophecy
So let’s begin. The Daniel 9:24-27 prophecy reads: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And 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, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” There are multiple insights drawn together here, insights which Yehuveh wants to explain to us and which we can understand, insights which we need for the decisions we are making every day right now.
Traditional commentators’ views regarding Daniel 9:24-27 assume this seventy-week prophecy to be four hundred ninety years in length and several of these commentators place this four hundred ninety years as beginning with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem issued in 457 B.C. The seven plus sixty-two weeks are calculated to be four hundred eighty-three years, which mathematically reached to A.D. 27, assumed to be the year of Yehoshua’s (Jesus’) baptism and the beginning of his public ministry. The phrase “he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week” [Daniel 9:27] is interpreted to describe the seven years following A.D. 27 when these commentators assume that Yehoshua (Jesus) renewed the covenant with many in ancient Israel —for three-and-a-half years personally, until Jewish leaders convinced Roman rulers to crucify him in the midst of the week, then for another three-and-a-half years through the ministry of His followers. In A.D. 34 this seventy weeks is supposed to have ended and the gospel is supposed to have gone to the world.
Gael Bataman
Originally Written: 4 November 2005
Latest Update: 11 February 2010
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