Lord Jesus Christ

Prophecy

The 70 weeks

Daniel wrote it in Babylon, more than five hundred years before Jesus was born. It names the year the Messiah would be anointed, and that He would be cut off in the middle of the last week. Here it is, step by step.

Daniel 9:24-27 KJV

24Seventy 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.25Know 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.26And 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.27And 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.

A day for a year

In Bible prophecy a day can stand for a year. God gives the rule Himself, twice.

Numbers 14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

Ezekiel 4:6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

Seventy weeks

Seventy weeks of days is 490 days - so 490 years, "determined" (a word that can mean "cut off") for Daniel's people and the holy city, out of a longer prophecy of 2300 days in the chapter before.

Daniel 9:24 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.

Daniel 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

Seventy weeks: 490 years
7 weeks 62 weeks - 434 years 457 BC 408 BC AD 27 His ministry - 3½ years the last 3½ years of the week AD 27 Baptism - Messiah anointed Spring AD 31 The cross - "in the midst of the week" AD 34 The gospel to the world
The 2300 days: 2300 years from the same decree
70 weeks 1810 years 457 BC AD 34 1844 "then shall the sanctuary be cleansed"

  1. 457 BC

    The commandment to restore Jerusalem

    "From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem..."

    In the seventh year of King Artaxerxes, Ezra sets out for Jerusalem with a royal decree to restore the city's worship and government - the start of the 70 weeks, and of the 2300 days.

    Daniel 9:25 · Ezra 7:7-8 · Ezra 7:25-26 KJV

    Daniel 9:25 25Know 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.

    Ezra 7:7-8 7And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.8And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.

    Ezra 7:25-26 25And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not.26And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

  2. 408 BC

    Seven weeks: the city rebuilt

    "...shall be seven weeks... the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times."

    Forty-nine years for Jerusalem to be rebuilt - in troubled times, as Ezra and Nehemiah record.

    Daniel 9:25 KJV

    Daniel 9:25 25Know 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.

  3. AD 27

    Sixty-nine weeks: Messiah the Prince

    "...unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks."

    483 years on, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, Jesus is baptized and anointed with the Holy Spirit - Messiah means Anointed. He begins to preach: "The time is fulfilled."

    Luke 3:1 · Acts 10:38 · Mark 1:14-15 KJV

    Luke 3:1 1Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,

    Acts 10:38 38How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

    Mark 1:14-15 14Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,15And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

    Walk with Jesus: The baptism of Jesus

  4. Spring AD 31

    In the midst of the week: the cross

    "...in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease."

    Three and a half years into the last week, in the spring, Messiah is "cut off, but not for himself". As Jesus dies, the veil of the temple tears from top to bottom - the sacrifices have met their meaning.

    Daniel 9:26-27 · Matthew 27:50-51 KJV

    Daniel 9:26-27 26And 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.27And 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.

    Matthew 27:50-51 50Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.51And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

    Walk with Jesus: Calvary · Walk with Jesus: "It is finished"

  5. AD 34

    Seventy weeks end: the gospel goes out

    "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people..."

    The 490 years end. Stephen is stoned, the believers are scattered, and the gospel goes beyond Israel to the whole world.

    Acts 7:59-60 · Acts 8:4 KJV

    Acts 7:59-60 59And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.60And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

    Acts 8:4 4Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.

  6. 1844

    2300 days: the sanctuary cleansed

    "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."

    Counted from the same decree, the 2300 years reach to 1844. The Great Controversy tells what that date came to mean - Christ's ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, and the judgment before His return.

    Daniel 8:14 · Hebrews 8:1-2 KJV

    Daniel 8:14 14And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

    Hebrews 8:1-2 1Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;2A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

    The Great Controversy: An American Reformer · The Great Controversy: What Is the Sanctuary? · The Great Controversy: In the Holy of Holies · The Great Controversy: The Investigative Judgment

This is how The Desire of Ages and The Great Controversy read Daniel 9, with many Protestant interpreters since the Reformation. Others start from a different decree (Nehemiah's, in 444 BC), date the cross differently, or read the last week another way. The Scriptures are here so you can weigh it for yourself.