Messianic Judaism - The Torah and the Testimony Revealed

There are two interpretations of the 70th week of Daniel 9:24-27. One, is that the 70th week immediately follows after the 69 weeks, with no break between the 69th and 70th week. The other is that the 70th week does not immediately proceed the 69th week, but rather, is cut off and separated from the 69th week to be fulfilled at a later time.

We will begin this study by first examining the grammatical structure of these verses in Daniel to see which interpretation is best supported by the rules of grammar.

Daniel 9:24-27 reads as follows:

9:24 Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your set-apart city, to finish the transgression, to made 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 set-apart place.

9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem, until the Anointed One the Prince, there shall be 7 weeks and 62 weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.

9:26 And after the 62 weeks, the Anointed One shall be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and until the end of the war desolations are determined.

9:27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.

In verse 9:24, we are told that certain prophecies shall come to pass in a 70 week period.

In verses 9:25-27, this 70 weeks is broken down into 3 parts; 7 weeks, 62 weeks and 1 week.

In verse 9:25, it is prophesied that from the time of the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, until the Anointed One, the Prince, would be 7 weeks, and 62 weeks.

The grammatical structure of this sentence is as follows:

First, are the order of events (the prophecies), which are then followed, respectively, by the time frames that those events are to be fulfilled within.

And there are two events listed. The first, "from the time of the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem" is event #1, and, "until the Anointed One the Prince", is event #2.

The time frames are listed accordingly:

“7 weeks" is time frame #1, and is therefore required by the rules of grammar to correspond respectively to event #1.

“62 weeks" is time frame #2, and is required by the rules of grammar to correspond respectively to event #2.

And the portion of verse 9:25 of Daniel which reads,

9:25 "...the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times" is an extension of event #1, of the 7 week portion of this prophecy.

Based on the grammatical structure of these verses it is easily concluded that "from the time of the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem" to the time its streets and walls are actually rebuilt, would be a period of 7 weeks, and that 62 weeks later the Anointed one, the Messiah, would come.

Now it is important to note at this point that a week in Hebrew does not refer exclusively to a 7 day period, but rather, refers to any set of 7, much in the same way that the English word "dozen" refers to any set of 12.

In the case of Daniel, he uses the term week in his passages to refer to a set of 7 years, which is self apparent by the context of the passage as it would not have been possible to rebuild Jerusalem in 49 days (7 x 7 weeks of days).

So the time frames that we will be using are respectively, 49 years (7 x 7 weeks of years), 434 years (62 x 7 weeks of years), and 7 years (1 x 1 week of years), for a total of 490 years (70 weeks of years).

Now for the next verse, 9:26, we are told of events that are to follow after the 62 week period, which again confirms our conclusion that the 62 week period follows after the 7 week period, as history also confirms.

And we know this because verse 9:26 begins with the words, "And after the 62 weeks,,,", the word "after"signifies upcoming events that are to follow previously stated events. In this case, the first event to occur "after" the 62 weeks is that the Anointed One, the Messiah, would be cut off.

To get a more detailed time frame on this, let’s first clarify where the 7 and 62 weeks begin and end. To determine when the 7 weeks began we will start with the beginning of Messiah’s birth and work backwards from there.

Yeshua was born on September 25, 3 bce. See our Time Line 1, "The 6000 years from Adam to Yeshua" and Time Line 5 "Yeshua, 3 bce to 30 ce".

Counting back 7 weeks and 62 weeks (483 years) from 3 bce, we see that the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem went out in 486 bce; and the wall and streets were repaired within 7 weeks (49 years) of that time in 437 bce; and 62 weeks (434 years) later, in 3 bce, Yeshua was born.

Now back to Daniel 9:26. We see that it is stated that "after" this 62 weeks; that is, sometime "after" 3 bce, Messiah would be cut off.

Yeshua's ministry began in Fall of 27 ce, and continued for 2 1/2 years, ending in Spring of 30 ce. So He was cut off in 30 ce.

Now, going on to verse 9:26, it states, "...and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city (of Jerusalem) and the sanctuary."

that is, not the prince himself; but rather, the people of the prince, the people of Rome.

This happened in 70 ce, 40 years after Yeshua was "cut off". And the verse concludes, "the end shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined."

This, of course, is a foreshadow of the 40 Jubilee (2000 year) period [see radio show on the Sabbath(s) of Yahuweh] from the time of His Anointing in 27 ce, to the time of His 2nd coming in 2027 ce, where we shall also see Jerusalem on the brink of destruction. But unlike Jerusalem in 70 ce, this time Yeshua shall return and cut those days short to save His elect and to prevent Jerusalem’s destruction.

Likewise, this fulfillment in 70 ce of verse 9:26 is also confirmed, not only by the fact that Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, but also by the fact that the Temple buildings had been utterly destroyed as well, as Yeshua also prophesied would happen in Mattit’yahu (Matthew) 24:1,2.

Then we arrive at the final verse of Daniel 9:27, which states, "Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for a week."

The word "Then" has the same meaning as the word "After" in verse 9:26, and once again, announces upcoming events that are to follow previous events. The last event that occurred previous to this new announcement was the desolation of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple in 70 ce.

This follows after that same pattern as shown in verse 9:26; that is, that the word "after" announced two upcoming events that were to occur "after" the 62 weeks, but it did not state how long after the 62 weeks it would take for those two events to come to pass.

It is the same pattern in verse 9:27, the word "then" announces an upcoming 1 week covenant (the last week of the 70) that is to "follow after" the destruction of the Temple in 70 ce, but does not state how much time will pass before the 1 week covenant will begin.

But one thing is for certain, the final week begins sometime after the time of the destruction of the Temple and end of the sacrifices taking place in 70 ce.

One might argue that Yeshua brought an end to sacrifice and offering spiritually when He offered up Himself. However, this reasoning falls short because this prophecy of Daniel 9:26, requires the Temple to be destroyed after the 62 week, but prior to the last 7 year period.

One might then argue that this destruction of the Temple was referring to the Temple of Yeshua’s body, that He stated He would He destroy and raise up in 3 days; Yahchanan (John) 2:16-21. However, Daniel 9:26 and Mattit’yahu 24:1,2 make it clear that the prophecy of Daniel 9:26, is referring to a physical destruction of the Temple not a spiritual one.

This is supported by the fact that the physical Temple was indeed destroyed even as Yeshua and Daniel stated they would be; and by the fact that it was destroyed 40 years after Yeshua's death and resurrection, not a mere 3 days later as Yahuchanan (John) 2:16-21 states when referring to the Temple of His body.

Then there is the fact that the prophecy also required the destruction of Jerusalem prior to the making of this covenant, which, again, did not occur until 40 years after Yeshua’s death and resurrection.

Therefore, this portion of Daniel 9:27 is not referring to any discontinuance of the sacrifices and offerings at the time of Yeshua's death and resurrection, or to the renewing of the covenant made with Avraham and Moshe, or to any kind of "new" covenant made at that time.

What it is referring to is an end of sacrifice and offering that will be brought about by the False Messiah and False Prophet that will occur around the time the detestable idol that causes destruction is set up in the Temple (the image of the beast) in the middle of the 70th week; and just prior to the desolations that will come upon the earth at the hands of the False Messiah (The Beast and "anti-Messiah").

So what is meant by the next portion of verse 9:27, which states, "But in the middle of the week he shall cut off sacrifice and offering." When in fact, after 70 ce there were no more sacrifices, or offerings being made that could be cut off, for their was no more Temple remaining to offer them up in?

How is he going to end a non-existent sacrifice?

The answer is simple. The Temple must first be rebuilt. Likewise, since the Temple has not yet been rebuilt, the 70th week of Daniel, and its accompanying 7 year covenant are yet to be fulfilled.

Copyright 1999, by the Torah and Testimony Revealed Ministry, 8/31/10 Edition

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