Seventy Weeks

Text and Content

In Daniel 9, Daniel reads in the books the prophecy of Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem would end after seventy years (Daniel 9:1-3; cf. Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10). He then prays, confessing the sins of the people. At the time of the evening oblation, while he is still praying, the angel Gabriel comes and brings him an answer (Daniel 9:21-23).

Gabriel declares, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city." The things to be accomplished within that period are as follows (Daniel 9:24):

• Transgression is finished and an end is made of sins.
• Reconciliation is made for iniquity, and everlasting righteousness is brought in.
• Vision and prophecy are fulfilled (KJV: "sealed up").
• The most Holy is anointed.

The period is then divided into three parts:

• Seven weeks and sixty-two weeks: the span from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem until "the Messiah the Prince" arises.
• After the sixty-two weeks: the Messiah is cut off, and the people of a prince destroy the city and the sanctuary.
• The final week: "he" confirms the covenant with many. In the midst of the week the sacrifice and the oblation are made to cease, and the abomination is set up (Daniel 9:25-27).

Background and Terminology

The Korean word ire, used to render "week" in this passage, means a period of seven days. The underlying Hebrew word, shavua, denotes "a unit of seven" and ordinarily means a week. The seventy weeks are thus "seventy sevens," and most interpreters take these as years, understanding the whole period as 490 years.

The prophecy is notable for taking the form of Jeremiah's seventy years multiplied sevenfold. Interpreters also frequently point to the statement in 2 Chronicles 36:21 that the land kept sabbath "to fulfil threescore and ten years," as well as to connections with the institutions of the sabbatical year and the Jubilee.

The phrase "the most Holy" in 9:24 can also be rendered from the original as "a most holy thing (or place)." Interpreters are therefore divided over whether it refers to a person or to the sanctuary. Likewise, in 9:25 the accentuation of the Masoretic Text divides the "seven weeks" from the "sixty-two weeks," whereas many Christian translations read the two together.

Connection with the New Testament

In his teaching on the end times, Jesus refers to "the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet" (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14). This expression links back to Daniel 9:27, 11:31, and 12:11.

Jesus' teaching to Peter on forgiveness, "Until seventy times seven" (Matthew 18:22), is sometimes mentioned alongside the seventy weeks because of the similar form of the numbers. The texts themselves, however, do not directly connect the two passages.

Interpretations and Points of Debate

• Messianic interpretation: Many traditional Protestant interpreters take the starting point to be a Persian king's decree to rebuild Jerusalem and place the end of the sixty-nine weeks at the public ministry or the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Messiah who is "cut off" is understood to refer to the death of Christ. Interpreters differ on whether the starting point is the edict of Cyrus or a decree of King Artaxerxes issued in the time of Ezra or Nehemiah. In this view the passage is counted among the principal texts of messianic prophecy.
• Dispensational interpretation: Dispensationalism holds that a gap, the church age, falls between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. The final week is read as a future seven-year Great Tribulation, and the "he" who confirms the covenant is identified as the Antichrist.
• Covenant theology and amillennial views: Some interpreters within covenant theology hold that the final week, too, was fulfilled in Christ. They identify the one who confirms the covenant as Christ and read the cessation of sacrifice in the midst of the week as the end of the sacrificial system through the cross; some also take the numbers symbolically.
• Historical-critical interpretation: Scholars who date the Book of Daniel to the second century BC see the passage as referring to the desecration of the Jerusalem temple by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV and to the controversies surrounding the high priesthood in that period.
• Seventh-day Adventist Church: Adventists hold that the seventy weeks begin at the same starting point as the prophecy of the 2,300 days in Daniel 8:14, which they place in 457 BC.

As these views show, the text itself does not specify a starting year or a "gap." Specific chronological calculations are additions made by interpreters.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, under the influence of dispensational eschatology, sermons and Bible studies explaining the final week as the "seven-year Great Tribulation" are widespread. This interpretation is often presented together with teaching on the Rapture and the Millennium. Presbyterian seminaries in the Reformed tradition also teach a Christ-centered reading of the weeks alongside it. Attempts to fix the time of the Second Coming on the basis of calculations from the seventy weeks have been treated with caution by many denominations.