The Seventy Weeks of Daniel 9:24 – Guest Article by Julienne Chambers
Julienne Chambers is one of my FaceBook friends. She is a very good student of the Word and has done a lot of study on the Seventy Weeks of Daniel 9:24. While I may not agree with every minute point she makes, I nonetheless feel that overall, she has done an excellent job of developing the chief points of that great text! I invite our visitors to spend some time carefully examing her article that I am glad to share.
Matt 24 is about the fulfilment of the prophecy of 70 Weeks. Gentry’s position on Matt 24:36 is informed by an interpretation of the Weeks that falls short.
When Jesus said no one knew the day or the hour the Son of Man would come He was referencing the prophecy of 70 Weeks. The time of the end could not calculated because the period from the first to the second coming of Jesus was not revealed in the prophecy. It is as simple and profound as that. In fact the time was deliberately concealed.
The 70 Weeks were not symbolic. They were literal Weeks of Years. From the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 BC to the death of Jesus in 30 AD there were 69.5 Weeks = 486.5 years.
But then the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks oversteps the history of the Jews from the death of Jesus to the end of the age .. TWICE .. in Dan 9 verses 26 & 27. The focus changes from the cross to the start of the war as if the sequence of events is chronological .. as if the war was to follow the death of Jesus, sequentially.
“26 Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing; >>>>>> and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary ..” 27 And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; >>>>> and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”
Why are 3 decades excluded as if they do not exist? This was the period in which the Spirit was out-poured, the Church was born and the gospel was preached to all nations!
Because 70 Weeks were marked out for the holy people and their from the decree to 70 AD. To mark out is to cut out. The prophecy oversteps the history of the Jews from the death of Jesus to the start of the war because this time was not marked out in Weeks. In His infinite wisdom God chose to conceal the Weeks of Years from the middle of the 70th Week to the start of the great tribulation.
It is apparent from the opening verses in Matt 24 that the disciples believed the destruction of the temple and the coming of the Son of Man were simultaneous events. “Jesus said, “.. Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, WHEN will these things happen, and what will be THE SIGN of your coming and of the end of the age?”
When the disciples asked Jesus THE TIME they were asking when the prophecy of 70 Weeks of Daniel 9 would be fulfilled. This prophecy is the context therefore of Matt 24:36, 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”
NO ONE KNEW THE DAY OR THE HOUR BECAUSE IT WAS NOT REVEALED IN THE PROPHECY OF 70 WEEKS. However, Jesus said the great tribulation would begin before the generation passed.
Jesus knew He would die at the appointed time >> in the middle of the 70th Week at Passover. But He also knew that the last three and a half years of the 70 Weeks determined for the holy people and their city was the cryptic period of ‘a time, times and half a time’ at the end of the age.
According to Dan 12 there would be a period of great distress at the time of the end. This was also when the resurrection of the just and the unjust would occur. There were three and a half years from the start of the war to the destruction of the city and temple.
“5 Then I, Daniel, looked and behold, two others were standing, one on this bank of the river and the other on that bank of the river. 6 And one said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be until the end of these wonders?” 7 I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, [d]as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a [e]time, [f]times, and half a [g]time; when the power of the holy people is shattered all these events will be completed.”
3.5 years = half a Week = 1 year + 2 years + half a year = ‘a time, times and half a time’.
The period of ‘A TIME, TIMES AND HALF A TIME’ from the start of the war to the Fall of Jerusalem was ‘THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES’ prophesied by Jesus in Dan 12. It was also the last half Week of the Seventy Weeks marked out for the holy people and their city.
Jesus came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. He knew the gospel would be preached to all nations from His death to the start of the war. He also knew His followers would be severely persecuted and killed. The time of the end would arrive when the sin of Israel reached the measure of judgment. This was the cryptic period of ‘a time, times and half a time’ prophesied in Dan 12. There would be many signs of impending judgment. The last sign would be an abomination in the holy place.
Therefore Jesus knew many years would pass from His death in the middle of the 70th Week to the start of the war at the end of the age. And because He understood a period of ‘a time, times and half a time’ was marked out by God for the holy people and their city in the great tribulation He also knew there was a parenthesis in the Weeks from His death in the middle of the 70th Week to the start of the last half Week. (Note- that “parenthesis” is, I believe the fulfillment of the “gap” in Israel’s festal calendar between Pentecost and Rosh HaShanah– DKP).
The time statements of the Apostles in the NT confirmed that Jesus was coming soon. The Revelation given to John shortly before the war began revealed the time was short. The disciples were waiting with great expectation because knew the time was at hand .. THE TIME DETERMINED BY GOD THE FATHER .. the time prophesied in Daniel 9 and Dan 12.
Jesus came at the appointed time, in the great tribulation, at the end of the age.
The first half of the Seventy Week countdown was the three and a half years from the baptism of Jesus to His death on the cross. The second half of the 70th Week was the three and a half years from the start of the war to the destruction of the city and temple.
These 2 unique periods determined by God encompassed the last days of Israel’s covenantal history and made certain there were 40 years from the baptism of Jesus to the start of the war and from the death of Jesus to the destruction of the city and temple.
According to Gentry, “Although Daniel clearly specifies the event that serves as the terminus of the sixty-ninth week he does not specify the terminus of the seventieth week. Apparently, an exact event ending the seventieth is not as significant to know.”
NO!! The terminus of the 70th Week was the destruction of the city and temple in 70 AD.
And the significance of the 70th Week, from beginning to end, is inestimable.
When Jesus said no one knew the day or the hour the Son of Man would come He was referencing the prophecy of 70 Weeks. The TIME OF THE END could not calculated because the blocks of Weeks from the first coming to the second coming was not made known. The fulfilment of Matt 24:36 is not future. It’s past.
Of course this ^^ links beautifully with the Feast of Trumpets, which was fulfilled at the time of the end .. in the last three and a half years of the Seventy Weeks.
Be sure to get a copy of Don K. Preston’s book, Seventy Weeks Are Determined… For the Resurrection, for an in-depth analysis of Daniel 9.