Our Past and Future Hope – Chapter Three: Messiah and the Fate of Jerusalem

Daniel 9

In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom— in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. (Daniel 9:1-2)

Daniel was likely a teenager when he was taken from his home in Jerusalem, and into captivity in Babylon. He had served the kings of two different empires faithfully. Now an older man, he wondered when God’s promises to restore Jerusalem would be fulfilled. He knew the prophet Jeremiah had foretold that the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years:

This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (Jeremiah 25:11)

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:10-11)

Now the time was nearer than ever- or quite possibly, Cyrus had already decreed that the Jews may go and rebuild the city and the Temple- but the Temple was still not built, and the city was in shambles.

So Daniel pleads with God, acknowledging His faithfulness and love, admitting that his people have sinned and are covered in shame. Long ago, Moses warned them that they would be taken into captivity if they refused to obey, and it came to pass exactly as he said. But just as God delivered his people from Egypt, he was certainly able to deliver them from Babylon and restore Jerusalem. He begs God to act for his own glory: “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name” (Daniel 9:18b-19). I suggest taking the time to read the whole prayer- Miller calls it “the most insistent and pleading prayer in the whole Bible outside of Gethsemane.”¹

Have you ever felt the way Daniel did here? You know that God has promised to restore all creation, that Jesus is returning to consummate his Kingdom, and that he has made a place for us to be with him- but things look so bleak in the world around us. We have a feeling that it should be soon, but where are we in God’s plan right now? Wouldn’t it be comforting to have some kind of word from him, some idea of what he has been doing throughout the last 2000 years to the current day? Maybe it feels like too much to ask for… but we’re not asking to know ‘the day or hour.’ Perhaps we can acknowledge the same longing in our hearts that Daniel has here- to better understand God’s plan.

Seventy ‘Sevens’

While Daniel was still praying, the angel Gabriel came with an answer: “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision: Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city…” (Daniel 9:22b-24a). God’s answer to Daniel is one of the most amazing time prophecies in the Bible. Daniel asked for a word regarding the end of the 70 years of the desolation of Jerusalem, and the prophecy he is given is seven times that amount, or ‘seventy times seven.’

Older translations of the Bible, including the King James Version, translated this as seventy ‘weeks’, or 490 days, but modern translations like the NIV quoted above give the more literal seventy ‘sevens’ instead. This is done for a few reasons: ‘sevens’ does not necessarily mean a week of days, but also of years as in Genesis 29:27; Daniel is asking about a prophecy concerning ‘years’ and is answered with the same unit; interpreters have universally understood this prophecy to mean seventy ‘sevens’ of years, or 490 years. This passage is one of the clearest examples of a day symbolizing a year in biblical prophecy. Others include Numbers 14:34, where the Israelites were sentenced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, “one year for each of the forty days you explored the land.” Also Ezekiel 4:4-5, where the prophet is told to lie on his left side and put the sin of Israel on himself “the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel.”

Six Wondrous Events

Gabriel explains what the prophecy is about: “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place” (Daniel 9:24). Christians might be familiar with a few of these concepts, because it is how the New Testament describes what Jesus Christ has done. This prophecy concerns not only Jerusalem and the Temple, but the long awaited Messiah! The following are examples of how he has fulfilled these six things:

1. To finish transgression: The more natural reading of the Hebrew here is to restrain transgression.² Jesus has broken the power of sin over our lives: “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:6-7).
   
2. To put an end to sin: Before Christ, animal sacrifices were required at the Temple year after year to take away sin. But “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28), “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10), “for by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14). 
   
3. To atone for wickedness: The often quoted verse begins: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). It goes on to say that “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith” (Romans 3:25). 
   
4. To bring in everlasting righteousness: Paul writes that “now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (Romans 3:21-22a). It is an everlasting righteousness “because the benefit of it is to endure to everlasting life.”³
   
5. To seal up vision and prophecy: As just stated, Jesus is the One “to which the Law and the Prophets testify” (Romans 3:21). Barnes writes, “All the prophecies, and all the visions, had a reference more or less direct to the coming of the Messiah, and when he should appear they might be regarded as complete. The spirit of prophecy would cease, and the facts would confirm and seal all that had been written.”⁴ Jesus himself read from the prophet Isaiah and confirmed that he is the fulfillment: “‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:18-21).
   
6. To anoint the Most Holy Place: The NIV version we quoted has a footnote that the Hebrew can also mean ‘the most holy One.’ Jesus is the Anointed One, the meaning of Messiah, or Christ. He is also the new Temple according to the New Testament: when asked by the Jews for a sign to prove his authority to turn tables in the Temple, he answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). Also, in Ephesians it says: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22, emphasis mine).
   
   Together with Christ as the chief cornerstone, we are the new Temple. Jesus is the Most Holy One, who proclaims he is anointed in Luke 4:18.
   
   But even if we insist on keeping the translation of Most Holy Place, Jesus fulfills this as well. Hebrew 9:11-12 tells us that Christ entered the Most Holy Place in Heaven by his own blood: “But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11-12).

All of these events are said to be accomplished within the seventy sevens, or 490 years.

The Beginning of the 490 Years

Gabriel goes on to explain when these 490 years will start: “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem… It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.” (Daniel 9:25a…b). They begin with the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, and not just the Temple, but the streets and a trench (likely a defensive moat outside of a wall. The KJV says ‘wall’ instead of trench). Which command was this, and when did it happen?

As mentioned in the previous chapter of this book, Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. This is recorded in Ezra 1: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them” (Ezra 1:2-3). Barnes writes, “in this order there is nothing said of the restoration of the city, and that in fact occurred at a different time, and under the direction of different leaders.”⁵

The next event to look at is a command given by a later Persian king, Darius Hystaspis. This is recorded in Ezra chapters 5 and 6. It is a command to finish the rebuilding of the Temple which started years earlier, but was delayed after only finishing the foundation. Another command is recorded in Ezra 7, given by Xerxes I (called Artaxerxes in Ezra 7), to use funds and authority given to Ezra to restore public worship in the newly completed Temple. But still, nothing regarding the rest of the city of Jerusalem.

Finally, Nehemiah is granted the authority by Artaxerxes I, king of Persia, to rebuild the city and walls of Jerusalem as written in the book of Nehemiah 2:1-10. It is recorded there that the rebuilding was successful, “but in times of trouble” (Daniel 9:25), just as the prophecy says. Their neighbors in Samaria opposed the city’s construction, so Nehemiah and his helpers “did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other” (Nehemiah 4:17).

It is difficult to determine the exact date this command was given, but Barnes and other scholars suppose it was in 454 B.C. With this, we now have the event and the date that marks the beginning of the seventy ‘sevens,’ or 490 years.

Until the Anointed One Comes

Looking at the vision again, it says: “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble” (Daniel 9:25). The Messiah comes after seven ‘sevens’ (or 49 years), and sixty-two ‘sevens’ (or 434 years). Together, these equal 483 years from the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah comes. The years are consecutive, but why are they separated? Is there anything that happens 49 years after the command that distinguishes it?

As stated previously, Nehemiah secured the king’s decree to rebuild Jerusalem. The wall was rebuilt after some time, but he also enacted other reforms, such as enforcing the Sabbath, tithes to the priest, and separation from foreigners. It so happens that the final reforms of Nehemiah in the last chapter of that book can be dated to around 408 B.C., which is 46 years after the beginning of the seventy ‘sevens’ in 454 B.C. It could actually be closer, but we can arrive at that date at least because of Nehemiah 13:28, which says that Joiada was the high priest, which was around 408 B.C. Barnes writes that “the time, then, if this be the event referred to, is sufficiently accurate to make it coincide with the prophecy- sufficiently so to divide the previous period from what succeeded it.”⁶ Jerusalem was finally rebuilt and restored to its previous condition before it became desolate, seven ‘sevens’ after it was decreed to happen.

After this period there are sixty-two more ‘sevens,’ or 434 years, “until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes” (Daniel 9:25). This brings us to 29 A.D., right around the time of Jesus’ baptism and the beginning of his public ministry. Even if we stopped looking at this prophecy right here, this is an amazing fulfillment of the vision. The Anointed one, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, came at exactly the time it was foretold he would come! Remember, we have empirical evidence that Daniel was written centuries before this happened.

If this prophecy points right to Jesus as the Messiah, why don’t Jews recognize him? It turns out that traditional Jewish teachers cut off 164 years from the Persian period of their calendar so that it points to the failed messianic rebellion of Bar Kokhba in 132 A.D.⁷ Jewish Torah historian Rav Shimon Schwab speculates on the reason they did this:

How could it have been that our forebears had no knowledge of a historic period, otherwise widely known and amply documented, which lasted over a span of at least 165 years and which was less than 600 years before the days of the Sages who recorded our traditional chronology in Seder Olam? …it seems possible that our Sages, for some unknown reason, “covered up” a certain historic period and purposely eliminated and suppressed all records and other material pertaining thereto… Had it not been for the fact that important parts of those prophecies had been left out or were purposely obscured, the clues for the Messianic date found in Daniel might have yielded the desired results. This was rendered impossible through the hiding of certain data and chronological material.⁸

The Last ‘Seven’

The prophecy so far has been about the coming of the Anointed One, sixty-nine ‘sevens’ from the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Now the vision shifts to what the Messiah will accomplish in the last ‘seven.’ Daniel will also be shown the fate of Jerusalem and the Temple, the matter he so earnestly prayed to God about at the beginning of the chapter.

Gabriel continues: “After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing” (Daniel 9:26a). This is not to happen immediately at the start of the last ‘seven,’ because the prophecy goes on to tell us what the Messiah will do for the rest of the week. But it is the next major event.

This is another prophecy from the Old Testament that reveals that the Messiah would be put to death. The phrase ‘and will have nothing’ can also be interpreted as ‘but not for himself’- that is, he died for others- a view of the atonement for our sins. But it can also mean that he died without ruling his kingdom in the manner many Jews expected- that is, not as the conquering ‘Son of Man’ we will see in Daniel chapter 7. He set up his kingdom when he came, but he said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place” (John 18:36). The Kingdom of God came in an unexpected manner.

The vision continues by stating what will happen at some point after the death of the Messiah: “The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed” (Daniel 9:26b). Jerusalem and the Temple were to become desolate again. Jesus predicted that this would happen within 40 years from when he said it (Matthew 24:34), and it occurred in 70 A.D. just as he foretold- the Temple was utterly destroyed, and the city was a bloodbath. We will look at this event more in the next chapter. Again, this was not to happen right after the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ or even in the last week. The scope of the seventy ‘sevens’ is the six things that Jesus accomplished with his death and resurrection: “to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place” (Daniel 9:24). The primary focus of this prophecy is not on “the people of the ruler,” but on the Anointed One. However, just as the prophecy begins with the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, the desolation of the city after the Messiah is in sight.

In the last verse of the vision, we turn again to what the Messiah does in the last seven years: “He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering” (Daniel 9:27a). Jesus confirmed the new covenant that was foretold by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah… This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31,33)

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

Jesus told the disciples at the Last Supper, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20). Jesus’ ministry was chiefly among the Jews, and it wasn’t until about three years after his death that Gentiles became a part of the church (with Peter going to Cornelius, and Paul being converted). As the vision told to Daniel is “for your people and your holy city” (Daniel 9:24), it could be said to be fulfilled with the Messiah (and his apostles) confirming the covenant among many of the Jews for seven years. After this, the church was flooded with Gentile converts, as other Jews began to reject Christ.

“In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering” (Daniel 9:27a). After only three years of public ministry since his baptism, the Messiah is suddenly ‘cut off,’ or put to death. This happens in the middle of the last ‘seven.’ Upon his death, the Temple curtain is torn in two (Matthew 27:51), as the final sacrifice had been made:

We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:10b-14)

Sacrifices were only a shadow of what was to be fulfilled in Jesus: “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship” (Hebrews 10:1). After Jesus’ death, there is no use for any more animal sacrifices.

There is an interesting example of this truth from Jewish sources. On the Hebrew holiday called Yom Kippur- the Day of Atonement- two male goats were chosen by lot. One was to be killed as a sin offering, and the other to be a scapegoat, the goat that would carry the sins of Israel into the wilderness (Leviticus 16). Rabbi Tovia Singer admits the following:

In Tractate Yoma 39b, the Talmud…discusses numerous remarkable phenomena that occurred in the Temple during the Yom Kippur service…There was a strip of scarlet-dyed wool tied to the head of the scapegoat which would turn white in the presence of the large crowd gathered at the Temple on the Day of Atonement. The Jewish people perceived this miraculous transformation as a heavenly sign that their sins were forgiven. The Talmud relates, however, that 40 years before the destruction of the second Temple [approximately AD 30] the scarlet colored strip of wool did not turn white.⁹

The miraculous sign of the scarlet cloth tied to the scapegoat turning white no longer appeared after the death of Christ. Animal sacrifices were no longer effective for taking away sin. Jesus fulfills the Day of Atonement, the ultimate and final sacrifice for sin.

With the events of the seventieth ‘seven’ now revealed, the vision turns again to the desolation of Jerusalem and the Temple. “And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him (Daniel 9:27b). The NIV has a footnote with a varied translation of this part: “And one who causes desolation will come upon the wing of the abominable temple, until the end that is decreed is poured out on the desolated city.” In fact, translators have a very difficult time with this part of the verse, due to the sources having variations: “The Latin Vulgate is, ‘And there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation.’ The Greek, ‘And upon the temple shall be an abomination of desolations.’ The Syriac. ‘And upon the extremities of the abomination shall rest desolation.’ The Arabic, ‘And over the sanctuary shall there be the abomination of ruin.’”¹⁰ If you look up any of the English translations, you will notice the same kind of variety.

One way to understand this last verse better is to see it in parallel with the previous one. That is,

In verse 26:

A. The Anointed One is cut off.
B. In the second part of the verse, the people of the prince destroy the city and sanctuary. 

In verse 27:

A. The Anointed One makes a covenant with many for one week and puts an end to sacrifice in the middle of the week.
B. In the second part, the people of the prince set up an abomination in the Temple.

Another way to understand it is that Jesus himself quotes this verse: “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:15-16). The parallel account of this passage is in Luke: “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city” (Luke 21:20-21). So this ‘abomination that causes desolation’ has to do with the armies surrounding the city and entering the Temple, ravaging both. Not only was the Temple desecrated, but it was torn apart brick by brick. This was fulfilled in 70 A.D.- within one generation, or about 40 years after Jesus said it would happen. We will look into this more in the next chapter of this book.

In this way, the vision ends on a somewhat bleak note. It was undoubtedly comforting to Daniel that the Temple would be restored, and astounding in its timeline for the appearance and work of the Messiah… but its chief purpose is fulfilled in Christ, and so it becomes desolate once again.

Traditional Vs. Modern Interpretation

Growing up in a Christian home, I had read this chapter many times. I never paid much attention to it, because once again, surely this was all ‘future stuff.’ It was drilled into my head repeatedly that the ‘abomination of desolation’ (whatever that was supposed to be) would someday appear in a rebuilt Third Temple, sometime soon. All focus was put on the apparently unfulfilled last two verses of this prophecy. The rest of the chapter? Footnotes we rush past to get to the ‘good stuff’’, the part we can speculate on, the titillating unknown but fast-approaching future. All incentive to study the historical context of this chapter was lost on me. Why bother even checking a commentary (besides Scofield, of course)? We can’t trust those!

Dutifully reading through the Bible again as an older adult, I finally caved when I got to this chapter. I was ready to admit that I had no idea what it really meant. I was even brave (or desperate) enough to check a commentary after praying for protection. Little did I realize that my mind was about to be blown… this prophecy is fulfilled by Jesus?! I always thought the spotlight was on Antichrist, the anti-hero of this chapter. The story is so compelling, I was never more motivated to learn history. And the timing of it all! I was absolutely astonished at what God had done. “What remarkable coincidence in this wonderful 70 week prophecy. No human could have devised this before the events transpired. It is a faith-building prophecy.”¹¹

Yes, it is faith-building, as I have witnessed in my own life. Encountering the traditional interpretation of this chapter sent me on a renewed journey of wonder in God’s Living Word, and every beautiful book in it was chock-full of fresh and inspiring surprises. God keeps his promises, it can be verified, it’s all recorded there- we just need to pay attention to it.

But it’s difficult to see the evidence when we are so fixated on the future. The modern way of interpreting prophecy in the Bible trains us to do this- it’s called futurism for a reason. Every passage of Scripture we’ve looked at so far (and those we will study in the rest of the book) are said to be unfulfilled in major ways; all of them are pushed into the future. The stone in Daniel 2 is yet to hit the statue, so the kingdom of God is yet to come. Sure, the little horn in Daniel 8 is partly about Antiochus Epiphanes, but it’s really about the future Antichrist. Maybe the sixty-nine ‘sevens’ have passed, but the last ‘seven’ is still to come- 2000 years later? Yes, there is said to be an unmentioned ‘gap’ in this prophecy- less a gap and more a vast chasm- as if the vision was put on pause. What violence has been done to this vision! Why mention dates at all if this was the case? It would have been better to leave the time portion out of it, if that was the correct interpretation. Author Steve Gregg likens it to asking a friend for a ride:

It’s as if I asked you to take me to the airport this Saturday, and you said, “well, how far is the airport from here?” I said, “well, I think it’s about 40 miles from here… it’s 40 miles from here.” Now you said, “yeah, I can do that.” So we get in your car and we drive towards Seattle, and we go 35 miles, 36 miles, 37 miles, 38 miles, 39 miles. You’re expecting the airport in the next mile or so. Well we go 45 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles! 200 miles! You say, “I thought you said the airport is 40 miles from here?” I say “oh, you didn’t understand. Between the 39th and the 40th mile there’s a gap of 200 miles.” So the real distance is really 240 miles. Well, you would probably think I had lied to you, rather than had given you any information.¹²

Historical events confirm that the vision is fulfilled: the city and walls were rebuilt in a time of trouble; Messiah brings the new covenant but is cut off; the city and the Temple become desolate once again. Scripture confirms that the six works Messiah was to do are wonderfully fulfilled in him, all within the timeline of 490 consecutive years as told to Daniel. The vision is breathtaking in its scope and accuracy when understood this way.

Please don’t get me wrong- I’m not going to go through every prophecy in the Bible and tell you they’re all fulfilled (that’s called preterism). There are prophecies we will look at that are still waiting for fulfillment. But what the modern interpretation has done is taken obviously fulfilled prophecies and pushed them inexplicably into the future, wreaking havoc on the picture of God’s faithfulness they give us, and causing us to lose all sense of reference for where we are now or how to understand other prophecies.

But if you get nothing else from this book and disagree with its conclusions, at least stand next to me and gaze in wonder at the fulfillments we can agree on: Jesus came to earth at precisely the appointed time. A time recorded centuries before it happened- what an incredible miracle! Only our God knows and guides the future. And even though our Savior was ‘cut off’’, he accomplished all he came to do. I wish I had understood at least this much of the prophecy decades ago.

1. Fred Miller, “Revelation: a Panorama of the Gospel Age”, 205.
   Available online at http://moellerhaus.com/70week.htm ↩︎
2. Albert Barnes, “Notes, Critical, Illustrative, and Practical”, Daniel 9:24.
   Available online at https://biblehub.com/commentaries/barnes/daniel/9.htm ↩︎
3. George Whitefield, “The Righteousness of Christ, an Everlasting Righteousness”, fourthly.
   Available online at https://www.biblebb.com/files/whitefield/gw015.htm ↩︎
4. Barnes, ibid, Daniel 9:24. ↩︎
5. Barnes, ibid, Daniel 9:25. ↩︎
6. Barnes, ibid, Daniel 9:25. ↩︎
7. Floyd Nolan Jones, “The Seder Olam Rabbah- Why Jewish Dating is Different”, 42-46.
   Available online at https://assets.answersingenesis.org/doc/articles/cm/Divided.pdf ↩︎
8. Rav Shimon Schwab qtd. in Rafael Cowan, “History vs חזל in the Purim Story: Can both be correct?”
   Available online at https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/389476.19?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en ↩︎
9. Tovia Singer qtd. in Daniel Mann, “Witnessing to the Messianic Fulfillment of the Day of Atonement”, 1.
   Available online at https://www.equip.org/PDF/JAE383.pdf ↩︎
10. Barnes, ibid, Daniel 9:27. ↩︎
11. Miller, ibid, 209. ↩︎
12. Steve Gregg, “Daniel 9:24-27 – 70 WEEKS PROPHECY”, 55:23.
    Available online at https://youtu.be/QbTmTEVk8WE ↩︎