Prophecy of Seventy Weeks

The Prophecy of Seventy Weeks in chapter 9 of the Book of Daniel tells how Daniel, pondering the meaning of Jeremiah's prediction that Jerusalem would remain desolate for seventy years, is told by the angel Gabriel that "seventy years" should be taken as "seventy weeks" of years.

Summary

Daniel reads in the Book of Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem will last seventy years, and prays for God to act. ("Let your face shine upon your desolated sanctuary ... Listen and act and do not delay!") The angel Gabriel tells him that his instruction went forth when he began to pray for the holy mountain of God. Gabriel then explains the true meaning of Jeremiah's words:

²⁴Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city: to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. ²⁵Know therefore and understand: from the time that the word went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince, there shall be seven weeks; and for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with streets and moat, but in a troubled time. ²⁶After the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing, and the troops of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. ²⁷He shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall make sacrifice and offering cease; and in their place shall be an abomination that desolates, until the decreed end is poured out upon the desolator. (vv. 24-27, NRSV)

Composition and structure

Rembrandt van Rijn, "Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem", c. 1630.

Book of Daniel

It is generally accepted that chapters 1-6 in the Book of Daniel originated as a collection of folktales among the Jewish diaspora in the Persian/Hellenistic periods, and were later expanded with the more visionary material of chapters 7-12 during the persecution under Antiochus IV in 167–163 BCE. The consensus of modern critical scholarship is that the stories about Daniel and his friends are legendary, and that the eponymous hero of this biblical book "most probably never existed." There are references to a person named Daniel in earlier texts: a priest named Daniel accompanies Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem in Ezra 8:2, a person named Daniel known for his righteousness and wisdom is alluded to in Ezekiel 14:14 and 28:3, and there is also a king named Daniel in the Ugaritic corpus. However, there is no straightforward connection between these figures and the legendary Hebrew prophet named Daniel.

Chapter outline

Old Testament scholar John J. Collins observes that chapter 9 can be distinguished from the second half of the Book of Daniel by the following two facts: (1) the point of departure for the chapter is another biblical text in Jeremiah's seventy years prophecy as opposed to a revelatory vision, and (2) more than half the chapter is devoted to a rather lengthy prayer. Accordingly, Collins divides the chapter into an introductory section that mentions Daniel's reading of Jeremiah's prophecy (vv. 1-2), the penitential prayer given by Daniel (vv. 3-19), and the prophecy given by the angel Gabriel following the aforementioned prayer (vv. 20-27)—with a more detailed outline given below:

1. Verses 1-2. Introduction, indicating the date and occasion (the reading of Jeremiah's prophecy).
2. Verses 3-19. Daniel's prayer:
   1. An introductory statement in vv. 3-4a describes how Daniel set himself to pray.
   2. The prayer:
      1. Invocation (v. 4b).
      2. Confession of sin (vv. 5-11a).
      3. Acknowledgement of divine punishment (vv. 11b-14), marked by the passive verb in v. 11b and the switch to God as subject in v. 12.
      4. Prayer for mercy (vv. 15-19).
3. Verses 20-27. The revelation:
   1. An introductory statement (vv. 20-21a), giving the circumstances in which the revelation occurred.
   2. The epiphany of the angel (v. 21b).
   3. The angelic discourse (vv. 22-27), consisting of:
      1. Prefatory remarks (vv. 22-23).
      2. The prophecy of seventy weeks of years (vv. 24-27).

Genre and themes

Coin of Antiochus Epiphanes. Reverse shows Apollo on an omphalos. The inscription ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥ ΝΙΚΗΦΟΡΟΥ translates, "Of Antiochus, God Manifest, Bearer of Victory."

The Book of Daniel is an eschatology, meaning a divine revelation concerning the end of the present age, a moment in which God will intervene in history to establish his kingdom. It is also an apocalypse, a literary genre in which a heavenly reality is revealed to a human recipient. Literature of this sort was common in the Second Temple period—not only among the post-exilic Jewish community, but also Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Egyptians.

Daniel's prayer in vv. 3-19 is distinctly Deuteronomistic in implying that God may relent from his punishment in the event his people show penitence; however, this creates an apparent contradiction with the theology of Gabriel's prophetic revelation, which suggests that history is already predetermined and cannot be altered. Hence, Collins suggests that the prayer may only be an act of piety on Daniel's part, and was not intended to influence God into changing the course of history.

Historical-critical analysis

Gabriel. A 14th century fresco from the Tsalenjikha Cathedral by Cyrus Emanuel Eugenicus.

Historical background

Nebuchadnezzar II defeated Egypt at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE and established Babylon as the dominant regional power, with significant consequences for the southern kingdom of Judah. Following a revolt in 597 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar removed Judah's king, Jehoiachin; and after a second revolt in 586 BCE, he destroyed the city of Jerusalem along with the Temple of Solomon, carrying away much of the population to Babylon. Accordingly, the subsequent period from 586 BCE to 538 BCE is known as the Babylonian exile.

The exile ended when Babylon was conquered by the Persian king Cyrus the Great, who allowed the exiles to return to Judah via his famous edict of restoration. The Persian period came to an end in the first half of the fourth century BCE following the arrival of Alexander the Great, whose vast kingdom was divided upon his death among the Diadochi. The series of conflicts that ensued following Alexander's death in the wars that erupted among the Diadochi mark the beginning of the Hellenistic period in 323/2 BCE. Two of the rival kingdoms produced out of this conflict—the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt and the Seleucid dynasty in Syria—fought for control of Palestine during the Hellenistic period.

At the start of the second century BCE, the Seleucids had the upper hand in their struggle with the Ptolemaic kingdom for regional dominance, but the earlier conflicts had left them nearly bankrupt. The Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV attempted to recoup some of his kingdom's fortunes by selling the post of Jewish high priest to the highest bidder, and in 171/0 BCE the existing high priest (i.e. Onias III) was deposed and murdered. Palestine was subsequently divided between those who favored the Hellenistic culture of the Seleucids and those who remained loyal to the older Jewish traditions; however, for reasons that are still not understood, Antiochus IV banned key aspects of traditional Jewish religion in 168/7 BCE—including the twice daily continual offering (cf. Dan 8:13; 11:31; 12:11).

Context within chapter 9

Verse 1 sets the time of Daniel's vision as the "first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, by birth a Mede;" no Darius the Mede is known to history, but it can be assumed that the author means 539/8 BCE. Verse 2 tells how Daniel reads in Jeremiah that God has allotted seventy years "for the devastation of Jerusalem." The verses are presumably Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10, and their meaning is straightforward: Babylonian hegemony would last for seventy years, followed by punishment for Babylon and restoration for Judah. Jeremiah probably did not intend his seventy years to be taken literally—the figure represents a normal lifespan, and Jeremiah was telling his readers that their exile would last for the remainder of their lifetime—but his prestige was greatly enhanced when Babylon fell to the Persians in 539 BCE, proving his prophecy approximately correct.

Daniel is set in the courts of Nebuchadnezzar and Darius the Mede, but commentators since the 3rd century have dated it to the time of Antiochus. But Jeremiah's seventy years could not apply literally to Jews in the time of Antiochus, so the author of Daniel provided a creative solution: Jeremiah's shiv'im years is to be understood as shavu'im shiv'im, seventy sevens, or 490 years. The resulting prophecy is one of the most controversial in the Book of Daniel. Many proposals have been put forward, but none yield historically significant dates when projected 490 years into the future, and as a result there is no consensus.

The seventy weeks prophecy

The seventy weeks of years are divided into three periods of time: a seven week period spanning forty-nine years, a sixty-two week period spanning 434 years, and a final period of one week spanning seven years. The first period of seven weeks begins with the departure of a "word" to rebuild Jerusalem and ends with the arrival of an "anointed prince" (v. 25a). This "word" to rebuild Jerusalem has generally been taken to refer to Jeremiah's seventy years prophecy and dated to the fourth year of Jehoiakim (or the first year of Nebuchadnezzar) in 605/4 BCE. Collins objects to this identification on the basis that "[t]he word to rebuild Jerusalem could scarcely have gone forth before it was destroyed" and prefers to see this as a reference to the "word" that Gabriel came to give Daniel in v. 23; other possible candidates suggested by critical scholars include the edict of Cyrus in 539/8 BCE, the decree of Artaxerxes I in 458 BCE, and the warrant given to Nehemiah in 445/4 BCE. The word translated as "prince" in v. 25a may refer to either an actual prince or some other figure of authority; and critical scholars have proposed various candidates for this figure as well, including Cyrus (cf. Isa 45:1), High Priest Joshua, Zerubbabel, Sheshbazzar, Nehemiah, and even the collective people of God in the Second Temple period.

Following the subsequent period of sixty-two weeks—during which time the city is rebuilt (v. 25b)—an "anointed one shall be cut off" (v. 26a); this "anointed one" is generally considered to refer to High Priest Onias III, whose death at the hands of Seleucid officials outside Jerusalem in 171/0 BCE is recorded in 2 Maccabees 4:23-28. The identification is further supported by the fact that most critical scholars see another reference to Onias III's murder in Daniel 11:22, though Ptolemy VI and the infant son of Seleucus IV have also been suggested. On the other hand, the identification of the latter "anointed one" with Onias III raises the question of how 7 + 62 = 69 weeks of years (or 483 years) could have elapsed between the departure of the "word" in v. 25a—which is not earlier than 605/4 BCE—and the murder of Onias III in 171/0 BCE. Some critical scholars follow Montgomery in thinking that there has been "a chronological miscalculation on [the] part of the writer," who is then criticized for making "wrong-headed arithmetical calculations;" while others like Goldingay are not inclined to see this as a "chronological miscalculation" on the basis that the seventy weeks are not an exercise in literal chronology, but the more inexact science of "chronography." Collins opts for something like a middle-ground position in saying that "the figure should be considered a round number rather than a miscalculation." And there are still others who see the calculations as being at least approximately correct so long as the initial seven week period of forty-nine years can overlap with the sixty-two week period of 434 years, with the latter period spanning the time between Jeremiah's prophecy in 605/4 BCE and Onias III's murder in 171/0 BCE.

The "prince who is to come" in v. 26b is typically seen by critical scholars as a reference to Antiochus IV, though Jason and Menelaus have also been suggested. Hence, the "troops of the prince" are either thought to be the Seleucid troops that settled in Jerusalem (cf. Dan 11:31; 1 Macc 1:29-40) or the Jewish hellenizers. In any case, the reference to "troops" that will "destroy the city and the sanctuary" in v. 26b is somewhat problematic on this view since neither Jerusalem nor the temple were actually destroyed during the Antiochene crisis, though the city was arguably rendered desolate and the temple defiled (cf. 1 Macc 1:46; 2 Macc 6:2). Accordingly, it has been noted that the language of destruction "seems excessive" in this context. The "covenant" in v. 27a most likely refers to the "covenant" reported in 1 Maccabees 1:11 between the Jewish hellenizers and Antiochus IV, with the ban on regular worship for a period that lasted approximately three and a half years alluded to in the subsequent clause (cf. Dan 7:25; 8:14; 12:11).

The reference to an "abomination that desolates" in v. 27b (cf. 1 Macc 1:54) is another point of contention among critical scholars. One of the more popular older views was that this difficult phrase was a contemptuous deformation (or dysphemism) of the Phoenician deity Baal Shamin—the "Lord of Heaven"—whom Philo of Byblos identified with the Greek sky god Zeus. Moreover, the temple in Jerusalem was rededicated in honor of Zeus according to 2 Maccabees 6:2, hence the tendency among older commentators to follow Porphyry in seeing this "abomination" in terms of a statue of Zeus. More recently, it has been suggested that the reference is to certain sacred stones (possibly meteorites) that were affixed to the great alter of sacrifice for the purposes of pagan worship in the temple, since the use of such stones is well-attested in Canaanite and Syrian cults. The aforementioned proposals have been criticized, however, on the basis that they are either too speculative, dependent on flawed analysis, or not well-suited to the relevant context in the Book of Daniel. Increasingly, critical scholars tend to see the expression as being a reference to either the pagan offerings that were given during the Antiochene crisis instead of the twice daily continual offering that was forbidden (cf. Dan 11:31; 12:11; 2 Macc 6:5), or the pagan altar on which such offerings were made.

Christological readings

Francesco Albani's 17th century Baptism of Christ is a typical depiction with the sky opening and the Holy Spirit descending as a dove.

The seventy weeks prophecy has frequently not been read as an ex eventu prophecy whose Sitz im Leben is the Antiochene crisis in the second century BCE, but as a messianic prophecy concerning the future arrival of a certain individual who would be anointed by God to bring salvation for his people that was revealed to Daniel by the angel Gabriel in the sixth century BCE. Accordingly, those who read the prophecy this way almost never follow historical-critical scholars in seeing the Book of Daniel as a combination of legendary folktales and other visionary episodes that belong to the literary genre of Jewish pseudepigrapha, but as a series of ancient Near Eastern court tales and other revelatory episodes that actually took place in the sixth century BCE and are faithfully recorded as such in the biblical text. On this understanding, the prophecy has more in common with the genre of Old Testament prophecy in developing the ancient Jewish/Christian eschatological hope of a future messianic age in which the promised Davidic king will preside over an era of worldwide peace, prosperity, and enduring righteousness. This way of reading the prophecy has given rise to a rich tradition of Christian theological speculation in which the prophecy is understood to be a prediction involving the coming of Christ in Jesus of Nazareth.

Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, 12th century medieval illustration from the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg.

Generally speaking, the various christological readings that have been proposed share a number of features in common. The "anointed prince" in v. 25a along with the "anointed one" in v. 26a are both understood to be references to the same figure in Christ, who is also sometimes thought to be the "most holy" thing that is anointed in v. 24 (following the Peshitta and the Vulgate). Some of the early church fathers also saw another reference to Christ in the "prince who is to come" (v. 26b), but this figure is more often identified with either the Antichrist or one of the Roman officials that oversaw the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE (e.g. Titus or Vespasian). The seven and sixty-two week periods are typically understood as consecutive, non-overlapping chronological periods that are more or less exact in terminating with the time at which Christ is anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism, with the terminus ad quo of this 483-year period being the time associated with the decree given to Ezra by Artaxerxes I in 458 BCE. The reference to an anointed one being "cut off" in v. 26a is identified with the death of Christ and has traditionally been thought to mark the midpoint of the seventieth week, which is also when Jeremiah's new "covenant" is "confirmed" (v. 27a) and atonement for "iniquity" (v. 24) is made. The "abomination that desolates" is read in the context of the New Testament references made to this difficult expression in the Olivet Discourse and understood as belonging to a complex eschatological tableaux described therein, which may or may not remain to be fulfilled.

Dispensationalist christological readings are notable in deviating from this general pattern in a number of ways that are worth mentioning. These readings have the warrant given to Nehemiah in 445/4 BCE as the terminus ad quo, but since 483 years from 445/4 BCE would extend to 39/40 CE—which is somewhat beyond the lifetime of Christ—these years are reduced to 476 years by understanding them to be so-called "prophetic" years, in which each "prophetic" year consists of only 360 solar days. Consequently, the sixty-nine weeks of "prophetic" years terminate with the death of Christ in 32/3 CE. The seventieth week is then separated from the sixty-ninth week by a long period of time known as the "church age;" hence, the seventieth week does not begin until the end of the "church age," at which point the church will be removed from the earth in an event called the rapture. Finally, the future Antichrist is expected to oppress the Jewish people and bring upon the world a period of tribulation lasting three and a half years, constituting the second half of the delayed seventieth week. These readings were originally popularized through the expository notes written by C. I. Scofield in his Scofield Reference Bible and continue to enjoy widespread support among American evangelicals.

See also

• Apocalypticism
• Year-day principle
• Millennialism