The last of Daniel’s 70 year-weeks
Introduction: This study concludes a short series on parts of the OT that are relevant for interpreting biblical eschatology, i.e. the future and final events of history. The aim is to survey from a helicopter view key texts to which authors of related sections of the Bible alluded because knowing the former is necessary to understand what the latter are talking about. They are the basis to interpret also the book of Revelation. One of those prophecies is a vision in the book of Daniel about God’s plan for his people during a time of 70x 7 weeks. As discussed in the preceding study, the first 7+62 ‘weeks’ of years foretold the time from the rebuilding of Jerusalem until the coming of Messiah. Here, we examine what Daniel predicted to happen to God’s people thereafter.
Read again Daniel 9:24-27
Explain: There are by and large two interpretations. A classic view before and since the Reformation that stood a test of time holds that most if not all of the 70th week has already been literally fulfilled. A more recent, alternative view holds that the 70th week describes 7 literal years in the future of the modern state of Israel, before or after the church has been taken away by what they call the “rapture”.
Warm-up: As an example of the latter view, you could watch, e.g., a youtube excerpt (0-2’16”) of Chuck Missler (a former businessman and US Air Force officer, turned author and teacher).
1) What did this youtube video say “characterizes” the 70th week?
- What is this covenant “for one week” supposed to be?
- Why does the speaker believe that it is “the right to the Palestinian land”? Does he provide any evidence that this covenant in Daniel 9:27 has anything to do with land?
- Who is supposed to establish a covenant, and for how long?
- What is then thought to happen after half of the week?
2) According to this video, who is thought to be the “He” of v27?
- Why the “bad guy”? Quote: “…Grammar: Seemingly the same subject as the last one in v26.”
- Does Missler say who held a different view? => “All venerable commentators”: Does he say who, or give any reason why they are supposedly wrong?
- Instead, what was Missler’s argument that the Jews must have rebuilt a temple by then? =>
- Does v27 mention a temple at all?
3) When did the blood sacrifices mentioned in v27 truly come to an end?
- Read Heb 7:27; 9:12; and 10:10. Does the Bible say that sacrifices will ever resume after the coming of Messiah, and only to end again some time in the future? Why not?
- If Daniel predicted 3.5 literal years without temple sacrifices, what about the past 2000 years? If he omitted to mention those, why would that be strange?
- What was necessary for Daniel’s readers to know: That their animal sacrifices shall be suspended temporarily, or that they shall become obsolete one day and end for good at the coming of a “prince”? Hint: Which one of these two readings would direct them to place their faith in Messiah as their Savior?
4) What covenants might qualify as the covenant that Dan 9 is talking about?
- If the said “covenant” (Hebr. berith) were a covenant by the antichrist, what do you make of the fact that no such covenant is mentioned in the NT or anywhere else in the Bible? *
- How does Dan 9 describe it instead? [strong/prevailing] Why? => How long will it last: For the entire 70th week or, as implied by Missler, only during its first half?
- Read Dan 9:2. Accordingly, what covenant was on Daniel’s mind after studying the writings of the late prophet Jeremiah?
- How did Jesus say he already fulfilled this promise, e.g. in Lk 22:20?
5) If the “He” in Dan 9:27 is Jesus, how did he establish the covenant at the beginning of the week, i.e. before the end of the sacrificial system?
- Explain: gabar (translated ‘to make strong’) is derived from a root word that means to be strong => How does that fit with Jesus? [Jesus is the strong covenant, he didn’t have to “make” one, cf Isa 42:6; Mal 3:1; Heb 10:7]
- v24: Why then is sin atoned only by the end of the 70th week?
- Explain: To atone means to satisfy the law’s requirement of just punishment of who transgress the law.
- Recall the preceding study about Ezekiel’s visionary temple: For the descendants of those priests who were unfaithful to David (as representative of the future Messiah), what was left for them that might atone for their sin thereafter, Ezk 44:12-13?**
- Why will God not forever reject his chosen people for having rejected Messiah as their atonement at the beginning of the 70th year-week?
6) What happens in the second half of the 70th week?
- 67-70 AD was a time of war during 3.5 literal years until the destruction of Jerusalem. Does Rev 11 claim that this event fulfilled Daniel’s prophecy about the final 3.5 weeks, i.e. that this prophecy was fulfilled already long before the book of Revelation was even written (towards the end of the 1st century) ?*** Why not? =>
- Instead, what did John expect the ‘3.5 years’ (=42 months =1260 days) of Daniel’s 70th year-week to look like? Hint:
- How did he interpret Daniel’s vision of what will happen to the Jews (“your people”, Dan 9:24) during that period? Hint:
- The ‘outer court’ of the temple mentioned in Rev 11:2 is a metaphor from the book of Ezekiel about members of God’s house (i.e. people) under the guardianship of those priests whose ancestors had abandoned the rightful heir of the throne of David already centuries before, Ezk 44:11. Did John prophesy that the ‘trampling’ of these people by the nations ended after 67-70 AD, or that it had just begun and must continue for “42 months”, Rev 11:2?
- To remove all doubt, this prediction is repeated in Rev 12:1-6. How did John’s metaphors of sun, moon and twelve (!) stars explain that the metaphor of a woman represents none but the nation of Israel? cf Gen 37:9-10
- How did ‘fleeing into the desert’ become an unmistakable symbol for Israel’s exile among the nations? cf Isa 43:14-20; Ezk 19:12-13; 20:34-35
- Given the known history of this Jewish diaspora and how John wrote about it at the end of the 1st century, how literally did he take the 3.5 years of Daniel’s 70th week?
7) Application
- When you read prophetic parts of the Scriptures, is it of any practical relevance?
- How about Middle East politics: Do/should you support a Zionist agenda? Why or why not?
- Should one take Daniel as the light and measuring stick to interpret Rev 11-12? Or should Revelation be used to interpret Daniel?
* For further personal study (source:http://thomaswilliamson.net/70_weeks.htm):
- Ralph Woodrow, in “Great Prophecies of the Bible,” says, “The fact is, Daniel 9:27 says nothing about a future rebuilt temple, nothing about restored sacrifices, nothing about the Antichrist making a covenant with the Jews. There are over 280 references to ‘covenant’ in the scriptures and not one of them in any way introduces the idea of a covenant being made between the Jews and the Antichrist.”
- Over the centuries, the great commentators have agreed that Christ is the One who confirmed the covenant with many (see Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, Adam Clarke, Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Edward Young, John Calvin, John Wesley, Geneva Study Bible, etc). The Church Fathers such as Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Athanasius, Augustine and Eusebius regarded the 70th week of Daniel as having already been fulfilled by Christ’s earthly ministry, as did the Venerable Bede, John Wycliffe, Luther, Melanchthon, John Gill, etc.
** They were condemned to bear their own sin themselves, as elaborated in more depth by Ezk 4-5, especially 5:16-17
*** Note that the above ancient “amillennial” authors apparently thought that the entire 70th week was already fulfilled in the days of Jesus, whereas “premillennialists” believe it to be still future. According to the explanations by the NT in Lk 21:24 and Rev 11-13, a third reading is that the better covenant was indeed established by the life and death of Jesus during the first half of Daniel’s 70th week. By contrast, the second 3.5 ‘years’ of that ‘week’ predicted the resulting Jewish diaspora that has lasted to this day, starting with Satan’s eviction from the heavenly courts after the Ascension of Jesus to heaven (for “42 months”, or “1260 days”, Rev 11:2-3; 12:5-8), until Satan is allowed to defeat the remaining faithful witnesses of this same Jesus (Rev 12:6-14; 13:5-7).
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