The Seventy Week Prophecy

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Of the 333 prophesies about Jesus in the Old Testament, the Bible provides this one that is remarkable. It is a shame that the few curious enough to decipher it, did not make it public at the time of Jesus. If they had, other would have been our history. It’s about Daniel’s prophesy that in Chapter 9:24-26 says:

“24 Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.

 

25 Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.

 

26 And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off…”
 

To understand this prophecy, we first need to place certain things into context:

 

1) Weeks of years. When the Bible mentions this, it means blocks of 7 years. God, and therefore the Bible, which is His word, uses numeric symbology. Seven is the number for perfection and fullness. In key prophecies, such as the restitution of Israel to the Promised Land and Revelation, seven and half of seven are very important. For example, God created the universe and He rested on the seventh day, and Jesus’ ministry was half of seven or three and a half years.

 

2) Daniel receives this revelation as the answer to his prayers for his people exiled in Babylon. He just finished reading Jeremiah 29:10 that states: “For thus says the Lord: that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.”

 

3) In Daniel 9:24 it is clear that the angel that is revealing the prophecy is speaking about years when it mentions weeks, since it reaffirms what Jeremiah predicted about 100 years before this happened.

 

4) Why were the Jews punished for 70 years? Because since the time King Solomon died in 928 BC until Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC, the Jewish people moved more and more apart from God. The books of Chronicles and Kings in the Bible testify of this. God sent many prophets to warn the Jewish monarchy and the people that if they did not turn back to Him, He would destroy them. Instead, they kept worshiping idols until God had enough. But the Jews are His chosen people and therefore, He would never abandon them. He would send His only begotten son, the Messiah!

 

5) In Daniel 9:25 God gives us the exact date Jesus would enter Jerusalem on a donkey. He mentions the span of time between the date given to restore and rebuild Jerusalem and the arrival of the Messiah Prince would be 7 weeks and 62 weeks. That is, 7 + 62 = 69 weeks of years. Which is 69 x 7 = 483 years

 

6) At this time the calendar year as a means of counting time, such as we know it today had not been developed. Instead the lunar year was used, which consists of 360 days. Therefore, the number of days would be 483 x 360 = 173,880 lunar days

 

7) To covert lunar days into calendar years we need to simply divide the number of lunar days into 365.25 (the complete number of days in a year), which results in 476.05749 calendar years

 

8) The king of Persia Artaxerxes I proclaimed on March 14, 445 BC and provided the means to rebuild Jerusalem and its Temple. Subtracting 445 of 476 gives us 31. Adding one year lost by moving from BC to AD gives us 32 AD

 

9) Calculating the fractions of a year remaining from the original calculation into days, that is 0.05749 x 365.25 = 21 calendar days. Adding 21 days to March 14 means that Jesus entered Jerusalem April 6, 32 AD!

 

It is impossible to lose sight of this important fact. But we should also not miss the reality that even though God sends His only and begotten son Jesus, His people rejected Him. As a result, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Jews were yet again exiled this time by the Romans in 70 AD. Nevertheless, Ezekiel (36: 8-10) mentions Israel would again be a restored nation: “But the mountains of Israel will produce heavy crops of fruit for my people, for they will be coming home again soon! See, I care about you, and I will pay attention to you. Your ground will be plowed and your crops planted. I will greatly increase the population of Israel, and the ruined cities will be rebuilt and filled with people.” Until May 14, 1948 this and other similar prophesies appeared like dreams, idiocies, impossibilities. But now we know it came to past. God is a God of hope and unconditional love for His people. If only they would believe!

 

Things to be considered by the Jewish people:

• You no longer have a Temple to sacrifice and obtain forgiveness for your sins, according to your Law

• You no longer have a way to tell the lineage of the Messiah, which had to be of the House of David

• Your prophesies are clear, Jesus was your Messiah. No need to continue pretending otherwise