Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks – Part 1

“‘Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.’” (Daniel 9:24)

The Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks (or countdown to the end of the world as I like to call it) in the Old Testament book of Daniel is one of the most exciting prophecies in all of Scripture. It’s exciting to me, not only because the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks is so accurate in the way it’s given, but because the fulfillment of it ~ it is so close to being fulfilled in our day today. (Wow!)

Simply put, the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks is an outlining of history up and until the coming of Jesus Christ to rule and reign on the planet.

DEFINITION OF “WEEKS”

Now to begin to understand the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks we first must consider the Hebrew term for “weeks.” According to my Teacher’s Commentary by Larry Richards, “The word is shabua, and literally [it] means ‘sevens.’ The Jews used this term for weeks and also for a ‘sabbath of years’ or seven years (see Genesis 29:27; 2 Chronicles 36:21).”

And so one “week” in the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks equals seven years. And “seventy weeks” of the prophecy equals 70 x 7 years or 490 years.

And, by the way, the Hebrew religious year was equal to 360 days ~ slightly shorter than our years of 365 days.

And so we’re talking about 70 x 7 years of 360 days each which equals 173, 880 days (important to keep in mind).

THE SIXTY-NINE “WEEKS”

Now it just so happens that 69 of these weeks (sixty-nine “sevens” of the 70 x 7 years) are encompassed from the Decree to rebuild Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day (March 14, 445 B.C.; Insight on the Life and Dreams of the Prophet from Babylon by Cho, pg. 131) to Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on a colt (April 6, 0032; Cho, pg. 131, Richards, pg. 448). Isn’t that something?

And there are some other things to keep in mind to see how this works.

You don’t count both 445 B.C. and 32 A.D. as complete years (see my calculations below) and you have to also include leap years ~ approximately every four years even on the Jewish religious calendar.

Another thing to remember is the 70 years that the Jews were to remain in exile ended up being approximately 68 years and the sixty-nine “sevens” between the Decree and the Messiah come up short as well.

Despite this, scholars accept both prophecies (of the Jewish captivity and the Seventy Weeks) to be of pinpoint accuracy. Each confirms the other as you will see by my own personal calculations of the sixty-nine “weeks.”

Leap years: 121 days
445 B.C.: 287 days
32 A.D.: 65 days

Total: 473 days (or 1.31 years)

481.59 years (360-day years from 444 B.C. to and including 31 A.D.)

1.31 + 481.59 = 482.90 years (approximately sixty-nine “sevens”!)

That leaves one “week” to go in the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. I will develop the seventieth “seven” in Part 2 of this blog post series. To read it: click here.

(Jesus entering Jerusalem on a colt picture above is in the public domain: click here. PD-US)