the mystery of the seventy weeks - prophecy in the news magazine - december 2007

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By J. R. Church

During the Triumphal Entry … as Je-sus started His descent from the Mount of Olives into the Kedron Valley … He wept over Jerusalem. Throngs of people

stood along the road … a veritable sea of hu-manity was overflowing into the valley below … shouting and waving palm branches … yet, the Savior’s heart was heavy. His disciples may have been delighted to

see the crowd, but Jesus knew … it was not a throne that lay ahead, but a cross, instead. Luke recorded His words:

“And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,

“Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

“For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,

“And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:41-44).

This lament alludes to something the archangel Gabriel told Daniel, in the chapter before us. He said that after the seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah would be “cut off” and the “… people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary” (Daniel 9:26). We know of no other Old Testament passage that could possibly have been on the Savior’s mind at that moment. Furthermore, had their eyes not been blinded, Jewish scholars might have been able to calculate the “time.” Jesus knew that within a few days, He would be crucified. He knew that in A.D. 70, the Romans would destroy Herod’s Temple along with the city of Jerusalem,

Deciphering Daniel (Chapter 9)

The Mystery of the Seventy “Weeks”

thus fulfilling the prophecy. Over the centuries, many attempts have

been made to figure out the timing of Daniel’s seventy weeks … and some calcu-lations are quite remarkable. I suppose the study by Sir Robert Anderson is one of the

most famous. He began with a royal Persian decree in 445 B.C.; calculated the number of days in 483 “biblical” years; converted them to solar years; and concluded with the day of the Savior’s Triumphal Entry. How-ever, there is something about these verses

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As Jesus approached the Temple Mount, He wept over the city and said, “If thou hadst known ... but now they are hid from thine eyes ... thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” He was referring to Daniel’s ninth chapter.


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that he and most scholars have not consid-ered. In this chapter, we shall attempt to put Gabriel’s prophecy into perspective.

The First Year of DariusThe prophecy of the seventy weeks was

given to Daniel within a year following Belshazzar’s death. On that fateful night, Belshazzar had bequeathed a political posi-tion to Daniel, and the conquering leaders of the Medes and Persians, evidently allowed him to retain a measure of that authority. It is possible that they were acquainted with stories of Daniel’s wisdom, and felt that he could be a valuable asset to their government. As this chapter opens, Darius had become king over a new Persian realm that encompassed the defeated empire of Babylon. Daniel was reading the scroll of Jeremiah:

“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

“In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would ac-complish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

“And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” (Dan. 9:1-3).

Just how Daniel was able to obtain a copy of Jeremiah’s writings is not known, but being a high-ranking government official, he probably sent a letter to the publisher of scrolls in Jerusalem requesting a copy. Not only was Daniel a prophet, but he also studied what other prophets had written.

Daniel, being of royal descent, probably read Jeremiah in order to learn details about the political history of his family and the Jewish kingdom in the years leading up to and during the Babylonian captivity. Daniel read about the things that occurred in the sacred city after his deportation. He might have been anxious to learn why Nebuchad-nezzar had treated his family so harshly.

According to Babylonian accounts, dur-ing Nebuchadnezzar’s seven-year insanity, his son, Evil-Merodach, had befriended Israel’s imprisoned king, Jeconiah. It is reported that Evil-Merodach released Je-coniah and the blind Zedekiah from prison. It should be noted that Zedekiah mysteri-ously died that same day. We are not told whether he died of some terminal illness or was assassinated. But Jeconiah was al-lowed to live out his life comfortably in Babylon. Perhaps Daniel wanted to know what caused Jeconiah to be removed and Zedekiah installed in his place? If so, then

he was probably saddened to read about Zedekiah’s ill treatment of Jeremiah.

Whatever his reason for studying the scroll, we are told that he came across the passage where Jeremiah prophesied about the duration of the captivity being seventy years. Realizing that the seventieth year was fast approaching, Daniel put on sackcloth and ashes, a Jewish custom of mourning, and began to fast and pray.

Daniel’s Prayer“And I prayed unto the LORD my God,

and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

“We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and

have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

“Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land” (Dan. 9:4-6).

Daniel reminded the Lord that He was a covenant-keeping God, and pleaded with Him to remember Jeremiah’s promise that the Jews could return after seventy years. Being from the royal family of Israel’s kings, Daniel asked forgiveness on behalf of his family … for not requiring their sub-jects to keep the Mosaic Law regarding the Sabbatical Years … and for the way they had treated the prophets. Daniel realized that he would not have spent his life in a

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foreign land, had his family been men of integrity. I am sure that Daniel knew about King Manasseh, one of his previous rela-tives, desecrating the Temple and execut-ing Isaiah. Overwhelmed with knowledge about the checkered history of his family, and the desperation of the Jews in exile, Daniel prayed:

“O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the in-habitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee” (Dan. 9:7,8).

Daniel addressed the sins of his people, while realizing that his own royal family failed to lead the nation in serving the Lord. It is the responsibility of the king to set the standard of conduct for their people. If the king does not lead in morality, honesty and integrity, the people will not aspire toward godly conduct. Ultimately, Daniel realized that God’s righteous judgment had fallen upon his people. He begged God for mercy:

“To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;

“Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

“Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

“And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusa-lem” (Dan. 9:9-12).

Realizing the specific sin against the Law, Daniel admitted that his family and the wayward Jewish nation deserved their punishment. At the same time, however, suspending the sovereignty of the nation for seventy years was a worse punishment than the forty-years in the wilderness. There, all who were under twenty years of age when they left Egypt, were allowed to enter the Promised Land. Here, however, hardly any-one who remembered their homeland would survive to return. Seventy years was a life-

time. Daniel, himself, could not return. He was destined to live out the rest of his life in exile and die in Persia. Daniel reminded God that nothing so harsh had ever been done before. He called Babylon’s invasion “a great evil.” His prayer continued:

“As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.

“Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice” (Dan. 9:13,14).

Daniel did not blame God. He admitted that the people could have repented and did not. None of his predecessors, or their subjects, had sought repentance. Now, Dan-iel reminded God that He once delivered the nation from Egypt, and prayed that He would do it again:

“And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

“O Lord, according to all thy righteous-ness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jeru-salem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

“Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctu-ary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.

“O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desola-tions, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplica-tions before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.

“O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name” (Dan. 9:15-19).

Daniel begged God to turn His righteous anger away and have mercy upon Jerusalem and its people for His Holy name’s sake. Perhaps thinking that his people could never expect God to love them as He once did, Daniel asked that God save the nation purely out of His own mercy and grace — for His “own sake.”

Gabriel Responds to Daniel’s Prayer“And whiles I was speaking, and praying,

and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplica-tion before the LORD my God for the holy

mountain of my God;“Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer,

even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

“And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding” (Dan. 9:20-22).

Daniel had not closed his prayer. If Gabri-el had not appeared, the prophet would have probably continued. On another occasion, Daniel prayed for twenty-one days. This prayer might have lasted that long, were it not for the archangel. Daniel recognized Gabriel as the same one who appeared to him a year earlier and told him about the ram and goat, and the little horn that would arise out of the Greeks. Now we find that Gabriel had returned to tell him more about this future Antichrist. More than that, how-ever, the archangel told Daniel about the Jewish return to rebuild Jerusalem; about the Messiah and how He would be cut off; and about the Romans who would replace the Greek Empire. Furthermore, Gabriel referred to the Romans as “the people of the prince that shall come” (Dan. 9:26). Here is another clue to the genealogy of the Antichrist. Though he will ascend through Greek royalty (as we noted in chapter 8), he will also descend from the leaders of Rome! Gabriel explained:

“At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and con-sider the vision.

“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” (Dan. 9:23,24).

God heard Daniel’s prayer, and sent the archangel to tell Daniel about another extended period of time — this one would be 490 years long. The English translation “week” should not be mistaken for a seven-day week. These seventy weeks are weeks of years. The Hebrew text refers to each “week” as a guca shavuah, a seven-year Sabbatical cycle.

Gabriel used the Leviticus (25-26) pas-sage as a reference point. However, just as the original 490 years did not accrue consecutively, but rather accumulated over a period of 830 years, Daniel should expect these “seventy weeks” to stretch out over a longer period of time, as well. In fact, Gabriel divided these “weeks” into seven,

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sixty-two, and one; with gaps of unspeci-fied years between the seventh and eighth “weeks,” and between the sixty-ninth and seventieth “weeks.”

These “weeks” (Hebrew ohgca shevuim) would be seven-year cycles, each beginning with year one and concluding with year seven — as it was established in the days of Joshua. In other words, the first year of the seventy could not begin in, say, the fourth year of a Jewish Sabbatical cycle, but in its first year. This is something that most scholars do not take into account when trying to calculate the time. Nor do they un-derstand that there would be a gap between the seventh and the eighth “weeks.”

The ultimate goal of these Sabbatical cycles would be to complete the desola-tions of Jerusalem. Jeremiah had quoted the prophecy from Leviticus — that, if the people did not let the land rest every seven years, God would drive them into exile. Only then could the land enjoy its Sab-baths. The land had been deprived of rest for seventy Sabbatical Years. That was the reason for the Babylonian captivity.

However, there was something about the Leviticus passage that Jeremiah did not address. God had promised: “… if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins” (Lev. 26:18). This was the reason for the seventy weeks in this chapter. Daniel was told that another exile is coming, that it would begin when the “people of the prince” destroy the city and the sanctu-ary, and be concluded in the days of the “prince that shall come” — namely, the Antichrist.

There were six goals to be met during the course of the seventy weeks:

1. To finish the transgression — the viola-tion of the Law of the Sabbatical Years.

2. To make an end of sins — to be ac-complished by the sacrifice of God’s Son for the sins of the world.

3. To make reconciliation for iniquity — God’s plan to offer salvation by grace through faith.

4. To bring in everlasting righteousness — the future return of Christ to establish the Messianic kingdom.

5. To seal up the vision and prophecy — the final installment of the seventieth week.

6. To anoint the most Holy — the glorious appearing and official inauguration of the King of kings.

The First Seven WeeksNow, let us look at the seven weeks: “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, … the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times” (Dan. 9:25).

The “commandment to restore and build Jerusalem” has been dated to the decree of Artaxerxes in 445 B.C., as given in the opening chapter of Nehemiah. However, there was an earlier commandment — given only a year after Daniel received this vision. It was issued by King Cyrus in the autumn of 537 B.C., within a few months following his ascension to the throne. King Darius only ruled one year (538-537 B.C.), then turned the throne over to his son-in-law, Cyrus, the Persian, as a dowry for marrying his daughter. This was the Cyrus of which Isaiah had prophesied:

“That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid” (Isa. 44:28).

“Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him …” (Isa. 45:1).

Isaiah wrote that Cyrus would say to Jerusalem, “Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundations shall be laid.” God called him “my shepherd” and “his anointed.” Is it not obvious that this is the date God had in mind when Gabriel told Daniel about the “commandment” to restore and build Jerusalem?

Why should the Jews have to wait another 91 years (until 445 B.C.) for the “com-mandment?” The last verse of Daniel’s opening chapter tells us that the prophet “… continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus” (Dan. 1:21). This was the year of the “commandment.” It does not mean that Daniel died that year. Quite the contrary, it can only refer to the “commandment” that Cyrus delivered to Zerubbabel at the conclusion of the seventy-years exile.

A Jewish publication entitled, The Jewish Time Line Encyclopedia: A Year-by-Year History from Creation to the Present, by Mattis Kantor, said of Cyrus: “Cyrus became king and the power of the empire moved to Persia. Cyrus immediately en-couraged the Jews of Babylon to return to the land of Israel and to rebuild the Temple. Over 40,000 people [49,697 to be exact] returned with Zerubbabel (who was of the royal family), including Joshua (the priest, a nephew of Ezra), Nehemiah, and Mordecai, but the majority remained behind” (p. 69).

In the spring of 536 B.C., Zerubbabel and Joshua led the initial return. In September, they rebuilt the altar in Jerusalem. Although the foundation stones of the second Temple

were not yet laid, they began the daily sac-rifice services on Rosh Hashanah (the new moon of September 24, 536 B.C.). More than a fourth of those who returned with Zerubbabel were from tribes other than Judah and Benjamin. Construction on the Temple began the following spring, in the month of Iyar (April/May 535 B.C.).

On September 14, 35 B.C., the people observed the beginning of a Sabbatical Year, which continued until October 2, 534 B.C., at which time the first year of Gabriel’s first set of seven Sabbatical cycles commenced. We should note that the seventy weeks had to follow the Sabbatical cycles. Therefore, we should begin counting the first seven weeks (49 years) on October 2, 534 B.C., rather than in 536 B.C., the year of their initial return. In my opinion, Gabriel’s first seven-week period ended with the death of King Ahasuerus, husband of Queen Esther, in the Sabbatical Year of 486/85 B.C.

When construction first began, the Sa-maritans volunteered to help, but were dis-couraged. After that, the Samaritans bribed certain courtiers of Cyrus and disrupted the Jews in their work of building the Temple. This was probably the reason why Daniel fasted for three weeks, as we shall see in chapter 10.

King Cyrus reigned for seven years, plus a month or so, and died in 529 B.C. His son, Artaxerxes (Cambyses), took the Medo/Persian throne in 529 B.C., and ruled for seven years. Bishop James Ussher tells us that in 522 B.C., the Samaritans wrote a letter asking Cambyses to “... forbid the further building of Jerusalem. They claimed it was a rebellious and wicked place which, if it were rebuilt would never pay tribute to the kings of Persia. Artaxerxes [Cambyses] sent a letter forbidding the rebuilding of Jerusalem until he should so order. The Samaritans, encouraged by this reply, came swiftly to Jerusalem and forced the Jews to stop building both the city and the Temple, although Cyrus had expressly ordered them to finish the temple. They stopped all work until the second years of the reign of Darius [Ahasuerus]” (James Ussher, TheAnnals of the World, p. 124).

King Cambyses, son of Cyrus, was mentally unstable. He married two of his sisters (one of whom was Atossa, also called Vashti); killed his brother; conquered Egypt; and then went stark raving mad. He came back to Persia and died of an accident (a self-inflicted wound with his sword while mounting his horse) in 522 B.C.

In 521 B.C., Darius (also called Artax-erxes the Great and Ahasuerus) began his reign. The next year (520 B.C.), Haggai and Zechariah challenged the people to finish



rebuilding the Temple and its construction resumed. In 518 B.C., Ahasuerus banished Vashti (also called Atossa, daughter of Cyrus and former wife of Cambyses). In 515 B.C. King Ahasuerus married Esther. In the spring of that same year, the new Jerusalem Temple was dedicated. In 510 B.C., Haman was hung on the gallows he had made for Mordecai. In 485 B.C., Aha-suerus died, having reigned for 36 years. We are not told what happened to Esther upon the death of Ahasuerus, but Vashti’s son, Xerxes, may not have appreciated the woman who took his mother’s place. However, if she had not been well treated, someone would have surely recorded it.

Xerxes, son of Ahasuerus and Vashti, ascended the Persian throne in 485 B.C., and was the richest monarch of his genera-tion. We are told that he launched a battle against Greece with 1,700,000 soldiers, 80,000 horses, plus camels, and chariots. The Greeks never forgot this Persian intru-sion. It took them 150 years to prepare for vengeance and, eventually, Alexander, son of Phillip of Macedonia, would take up the challenge to crush the Persian monarchy.

In my opinion, the first seven “weeks” of Gabriel’s prophecy was fulfilled in 485 B.C., with the death of King Ahasuerus, husband of the famed Queen Esther. An ominous cloud of suspense may have swept over the Jewish community. Their future may have seemed in peril. A period of “troublous times” (v. 25) descended upon Jerusalem.

The 77-Year Interim PeriodThere is a gap of 77 years between the sev-

enth and eighth weeks. The counting of the sixty-two weeks was resumed in 408/07 B.C., the 21st Jubilee Year. During the time of this gap, in 464 B.C., Artaxerxes (son of Xerxes) ascended the Persian throne. He sent Ezra with furnishings for the Temple in 457 B.C., and, in 445 B.C., sent Nehemiah to rebuild the walls and gates. Nehemiah built the walls of the fortified city in 52 days amidst threats of war. These were the “troublous times” mentioned by Gabriel in Daniel 9:25.

EzraAccording to most scholars, in 457 B.C.,

Ezra, a priest and scribe (lawyer) skilled in the Mosaic Law, obtained permission from King Artaxerxes (464-425 B.C.) to take seven counselors and a contingent of Jews to resettle in Judah and establish a govern-ment based on their religion. This grant once again allowed all the Jews to return.

On the first day of the first month, in 457 B.C., Ezra left Babylon with a large number of Jews. After a journey of four months,

they arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month. They rested for three days, then weighed the gold and silver brought from Persia and stored the treasure in the Temple, along with other furnishings.

When Ezra discovered that many of the men had intermarried with Gentile women in the area, he demanded that they “put away their heathen wives and the children whom they had fathered” (Ussher). Over the next three months, his edict was carried out.

NehemiahThough Ezra had instituted many reforms,

he did not fortify Jerusalem. The wall was still broken down and the gates burned. The city was in such ruin, it was difficult for a horse to find footing in the streets. The news of this reached Nehemiah in December (445 B.C.), at Susa, the winter quarters of the Persian king. He was grieved at the report and began to fast and pray that God would help him do something about it.

Three months later, around the first of Nisan (444 B.C.), he took his turn as cupbearer to the king. But his countenance caught the attention of King Artaxerxes and Queen Damaspia. Nehemiah told them of the news about Jerusalem, and was given permission and supplies to go and rebuild the walls. In spite of opposition from two governors, Sanballat, the Horonite of Moab, and Tobiah, the Ammonite, Nehemiah man-aged to rebuild the walls in 52 days. The workers worked with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other.

The wall was finished on the 25th day of Elul, the sixth month. A week later, on the Feast of Trumpets, the Jews came to Jerusalem to hear Ezra read and expound upon the Mosaic Law. It was an emotional time for the Jews, and a time of great re-vival. For the next three weeks, the Jews kept the festivals of the High Holy Days. Nehemiah wrote:

“And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month:

“And that they should publish and pro-claim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.

“So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.

“And all the congregation of them that

were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.

“Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, ac-cording unto the manner” (Neh. 8:14-18).

In my opinion, these “troublous times,” predicted by Gabriel, were not part of the seven weeks, nor of the sixty-two weeks that followed, but of the interim period between the two prophecies. Artaxerxes and his wife, Damaspia, both died on the same day in 425 B.C., leaving the throne to his son, Xerxes, who reigned for one year. When he was “roaring drunk” on a festival day, he was killed in his chamber while sleeping. His brother, Secundianus, born of Aloguna, a Babylonian woman, murdered him with the aid of a eunuch.

In 424 B.C., Secundianus (second son of Artaxerxes) took over the throne. His army hated him for killing his brother. He also plotted to kill Ochus, his other brother, but was killed instead. Ochus/Darius (third son of Artaxerxes) lured Secundianus to meet him and make a treaty. In 423 B.C., Ochus captured and executed him for the murder of Xerxes. Ochus took the name Darius and reigned for 19 years. He died in 404 B.C., leaving the throne to his son, Arsicas. He gave his other son, Cyrus, rulership over the seacoast provinces of Ionia and Lydia, across the Aegean Sea, east of Greece.

The Sixty-Two WeeksNear the end of the reign of the Persian

king Ochus/Darius (423-404 B.C.), Judah observed the Sabbatical Year of 409/08 B.C. This was the seventy-seventh year after the death of Ahasuerus, husband of the beloved and revered Queen Esther. This Sabbatical Year was followed by Judah’s twenty-first Jubilee Year in 408/07 B.C. I think Gabriel intended to resume the counting of the next sixty-two Sabbatical cycles with this Jubilee Year.

Bishop James Ussher wrote that the twen-ty-first Jubilee was the last one seen by the prophets of the Old Testament. The period of the prophets came to an end. Malachi, a contemporary of Nehemiah was the last of the Old Testament prophets. The first-cen-tury historian Flavius Josephus wrote:

“From the death of Moses to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, who succeeded Xerxes, the prophets wrote thirteen books. From Ar-taxerxes to our time, all things indeed have been likewise committed to writing, but not held in the same esteem as the former,


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because the succession of the prophets one after another has been uncertain” (Josephus, Against Apion, bk. 1, pp. 8).

Following Malachi, there were no bibli-cal books until Matthew. We have basically 400 years of silence, with only Malachi’s promise that Elijah would return to intro-duce the Messiah. We need 434 years — the number of years in sixty-two Sabbatical cycles. If Gabriel’s sixty-two “weeks” began in the Jubilee Year of 408/07 B.C., which ushered in the “silent years,” then sixty-two Sabbatical cycles later would bring us directly to the Sabbatical Year of A.D. 26/27, and the emerging ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.

Sir Robert AndersonIt is unlikely that Sir Robert Anderson’s

dating, concluding with the Triumphal Entry, was correct. He didn’t take into ac-count the Sabbatical cycles — the “weeks.” Anderson wrote:

“The Julian date of that 10th Nisan was Sunday the 6th April, A.D. 32. What then was the length of the period intervening between the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the public advent of ‘Mes-siah the Prince,’ — between the 14th March, 445 B.C., and the 6th April, A.D. 32? The interval contained exactly and to the very day 173,880 days, or seven times sixty-nine prophetic years of 360 days, the first sixty-nine weeks of Gabriel’s prophecy” (The Coming Prince - 1895).

He tried to squeeze 483 years into 477 years. To do this, he converted the 173,880 days in 483 years (claiming they were 360 days each) into 477 solar years of 365.25 days each. Unfortunately, he failed to un-derstand the Mosaic Law concerning Sab-batical Years. He overlooked the “weeks.” The seventh year of the sixty-second “week” ended in the year our Lord was baptized, not when He made His Triumphal entry. Gabriel continued:

“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” (Dan. 9:26).

Note that Gabriel said, hrvt ahrei, “after …,” meaning that the death of our Lord would occur some time after the conclusion of the sixty-second “week.” Furthermore, Gabriel included the destruction of Jerusa-lem in the same statement. Yet, we know that the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in August of A.D. 70, some forty years after the Savior’s crucifixion and resurrection.

The prophecy that the Messiah would “be

cut off, but not for himself” can only refer to the crucifixion. Jesus was not executed because He was guilty of some crime. All of the charges leveled against Him were bogus. Pilate, a cynical and hardened procurator, could see through that. Jesus died completely innocent. He died for the rest of us, not for Himself. Gabriel could not have been more clear, without tipping off the Sanhedrin Court. The crucifixion was divinely ordained and orchestrated in order to pay for the sins of the world. Jesus expressed it perfectly when He said, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes” (Luke 19:42).

The Prince that Shall ComeGabriel gave Daniel a very important

clue as to the lineage or background of the Antichrist. He said that Jerusalem would be destroyed by “the people of the prince that shall come” (Dan. 9:26). Since we know that the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and Herod’s Temple in A.D. 70, we may assume that the future Antichrist will be from one of the royal families of the ancient Roman Empire. That could be a reference to Euro-pean royalty or, for that matter, anyone with family ties to the royal bloodline.

In Daniel 7, the little horn rises out of the fourth beast — the Roman Empire. In Daniel 8, the little horn rises out of the he-goat — the Greek Empire. In Daniel 9, Gabriel returned to the subject of the Roman Empire as the source of the “prince that shall come.” How can the future Antichrist be both Roman and Greek? In Daniel’s following chapters, we shall discuss this subject further.

Gabriel did not end the prophecy there. The gap between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth weeks began with the appear-ance of the Messiah, but will conclude with three signs: a flood, desolations, and war (Dan. 9:26). The world is still awaiting the flood, the desolations, and the war. We do not know how or when these events will occur, but we can be certain that they will happen before the beginning of the seven-tieth week. We cannot be dogmatic about these events, but it seems that the seventieth week could begin in the aftermath of some great war. The next verse explains that the Roman Prince will “confirm” or strengthen a covenant with many.

The Seventieth Week“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 over-

spreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Dan. 9:27).

Most scholars agree that this seven-tieth week is the notorious Tribulation Period. The Roman Prince will feign to be a peacemaker. He will launch an effort to restore peace — but where? Gabriel said the covenant would be with “many.” However, I think the “covenant” that will be “confirmed” (possibly through military strength) will specifically concern the city of Jerusalem and its territory — the Holy Land. Let us not forget that the prophecy of the seventy weeks is all about the desola-tions of Jerusalem. That is what Daniel was praying about. And that was the subject ad-dressed by Gabriel in this prophecy.

The future Antichrist will confirm or strengthen an existing covenant, setting the time-frame for its full deployment at seven years. In order to fall within the framework of the seventieth week, it must begin in the first year of a Sabbatical cycle and conclude in a Sabbatical Year, seven years later.

If the Antichrist follows Solomon’s solu-tion, he will seek to “divide the baby,” so to speak. It is possible that Jerusalem will remain a divided city, but this time, Israel will be allowed to erect a sanctuary on the Temple Mount. According to Ezekiel, a wall will be built to make a separation between the sanctuary and the “profane place” (Ezk. 42:20). In Revelation 11, John was told to measure the area of Jewish worship, but to leave the Gentile area alone.

It is possible that current negotiations over the destiny of Jerusalem will result in a divided city and a divided Temple Mount. Since the Moslems have already developed the southern half of the Temple Mount, with three mosques in the area, perhaps Israel will be given the northern half of the compound for the restoration of Temple liturgy. Some kind of Jewish presence has to be there, because Gabriel links the abomination of desolation to the Antichrist stopping “the sacrifice.” This will occur in the middle of the Tribulation Period.

The DesolationThe term “desolation,” as used in “abom-

ination of desolation,” is a direct reference to the Mosaic Law of the Sabbatical Years:

“And I will bring the land into desola-tion: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.

“And I will scatter you among the hea-then, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

“Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths,



as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.

“As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it” (Lev. 26:32-35).

The Antichrist will fulfill this prophecy of desolation when he commits the abomina-tion of desolation. Evidently, the Babylo-nian captivity did not end the “desolations” of the land. It has continued down through the centuries — until the return of the Jews in the last century. Yet, even though the land now has trees and crops, the Temple Mount remains desolate of a Jewish sanctuary. Why has Israel continued to suffer over the past two millennia? Wasn’t their Babylo-nian captivity enough? Moses tells us:

“And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins” (Lev. 26:18).

It seems that Gabriel was addressing this very subject when he spoke about a future “seventy weeks.” Going one step further, God may have multiplied those 490 years by seven! If so, the prophecy could be a reference to 490 Sabbatical cycles, or 70 Jubilees — 3,430 years.

Counting from Joshua’s first Sabbatical Year in 1431/30 B.C., there have been 490 Sabbatical cycles (3,430 years) — leading up to the signing of the Israeli/Palestinian Peace Accord on September 13, 1993, just a few days before Israel’s 490th Sabbatical Year in 1993/94, which was followed by what should have been their 70th Jubilee in 1994/95.

Did a Jewish messiah arrive on the scene that year? If so, where is he? In any case, he could not have been the right one. We are still waiting for Jesus to return. However, while Israel awaits their messiah, Gabriel promised that the Antichrist will come first. Perhaps this “prince” will try to revive the failed Peace Accord, divide the city, establish a Palestinian State, and deploy a multinational military garrison to keep the peace.

The Mysterious u Vav in Jacob’s NameIn Leviticus 26:40-42, we are told about

the final conclusion of the Jewish exile in the end of days:

“If they shall confess their iniquity … “Then will I remember my covenant with

Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land” (Lev. 26:40,42).

This passage deals with Israel’s return after the land has fulfilled its years of deso-lation; and history attests to the fact that the Promised Land was desolate for many

centuries — until the Jews returned. In the Hebrew text of Leviticus 26:42,

“Jacob,” which is normally spelled cegh Yac-v, here is spelled cuegh Yacov with an added u vav (pronounced as an “o”). This is the only time in the five Mosaic books where Jacob is spelled with a u vav. How-ever, Jeremiah used this spelling four times, each of them referring to the days of the final Jewish return to their homeland. Com-menting on this, some have suggested that the u vav stands for the Messiah, and that Israel will return and the Messiah will come to Jacob. Today, we await the Messiah. The four Jeremiah passages are:

“Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s [cuegh] tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplac-es; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof” (Jeremiah 30:18).

“Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;

“Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob

[cuegh], and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them” (Jeremiah 33:25,26).

“But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob [cuegh] shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid” (Jeremiah 46:27).

“The portion of Jacob [cuegh] is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name” (Jer. 51:19).

Why would Jacob be spelled in this par-ticular way? Moses and Jeremiah did not misspell his name. This is not the bungled work of some scribe? It seems that God placed a cryptic message in these verses to help Israel understand the timing of its fulfillment. In each case, the context points to the revival of the nation in the latter days — when the Messiah (typified by the vav u) will come to Jacob. ◆

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the mystery of the seventy weeks - prophecy in the news magazine - december 2007

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