1) The 70 Weeks Prophecy of Daniel 9 – Another Look

The purpose of this short paper is to explore the possibility that the prophecy of the seventy weeks, given in Daniel 9:16 – 27, has an application to the second coming of Messiah as well as his first coming. The prophecy is reproduced below, from an English translation of the Septuagint translation and from the KJV respectively.

Septuagint

King James Version

O Lord, thy mercy is over all: let, I pray thee, thy wrath turn away, and thine anger from thy city Jerusalem, even thy holy mountain: for we have sinned, and because of our iniquities, and those of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach among all that are round about us. 17 And now, O lord our God, hearken to the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine on thy desolate sanctuary, for thine own sake, O Lord.  18 Incline thine ear, O my God, and hear; open thine eyes and behold our desolation, and that of thy city on which thy name is called: for we do not bring our pitiful case before thee on the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of thy manifold compassions, O Lord. 19 Hearken, O Lord; be propitious, O Lord; attend, O Lord; delay not, O my God, for thine own sake: for thy name is called upon thy city and upon thy people. 20 And while I was yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sins and the sins of my people Israel, and bringing my pitiful case before the Lord my God concerning the holy mountain;  21 yea, while I was yet speaking in prayer, behold the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, came flying, and he touched me about the hour of the evening sacrifice. 22 And he instructed me, and spoke with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to impart to thee understanding. 23 At the beginning of thy supplication the word came forth, and I am come to tell thee; for thou art a man much beloved: therefore consider the matter, understand the vision. 24 Seventy weeks have been determined upon thy people, and upon the holy city, for sin to be ended, and to seal up transgressions, and to blot out the iniquities, and to make atonement for iniquities, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal the vision and the prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy. 25 And thou shalt know and understand, that from the going forth of the command for the answer and for the building of Jerusalem until Christ the prince there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks; and then the time shall return, and the street shall be built, and the wall, and the times shall be exhausted. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, the anointed one shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in him: and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the prince that is coming: they shall be cut off with a flood, and to the end of the war which is rapidly completed he shall appoint the city to desolations. 27 And one week shall establish the covenant with many: and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and drink-offering shall be taken away: and on the temple shall be the abomination of desolations; and at the end of time an end shall be put to the desolation.

O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. 17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. 18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. 20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; 21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. 23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. 24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

It was on account of this prophecy that there was a widespread sense of expectation at the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry that it was the time for the Messiah to come:

And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not (Luke 3:15).

The reason for this expectation was that it was in the era when the seventy weeks of years, that is, 490 years, given in Daniel’s prophecy, from the giving of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, were about to run out.

A number of expositors have developed the timelines for the fulfilment of this prophecy, from the giving of the commandment by Artaxerxes recorded in Ezra 7:13-26, until the death of Christ.  Grattan Guinness, for example, shows that it was exactly 486 ½ lunar years from Artaxerxes’ decree in 444 B.C. until the death of Christ at Passover A.D. 29 [1]

486 ½ years is 69 ½ weeks, as it was in the middle of the 70^th week that the prophecy foretold that Messiah the Prince would be offered. The seventieth week began with the Lord’s baptism and the start of his ministry and closed with the bringing in of the Gentiles to the Abrahamic covenant.

The Context

The angel Gabriel was sent to give Daniel the 70 weeks prophecy at a time when he was earnestly praying that God would cause his face to shine upon the desolate sanctuary – he was praying for Jerusalem which he calls God’s holy mountain. The prophecy therefore relates to the redemption and glorification of Jerusalem when it ceases to be desolate and is the city of the Great King, Messiah the Prince.

On reading the 70 weeks’ prophecy, there are a number of references to events that did not relate to the first coming of Christ.

· Without specifying the time, verse 26 mentions that the city and the temple will be destroyed, indicating that the work accomplished by the first set of decrees, issued by kings of Persia, to restore and to build Jerusalem, was not to be permanent.

· Verse 27, in taking note of the desolations into which Jerusalem and the sanctuary site would come, with an abomination on the site of the temple, also decreed that they have an end at “the end of the time.”  What is “the time?” Is it a second application of the prophecy of the seventy weeks?

The work that Messiah the prince was to accomplish included bringing in everlasting righteousness, which might be understood to mean inaugurating the Kingdom of God as the everlasting reign of righteousness. These provide clues that the prophecy may also have an application to the second coming of Christ.  Let the word ‘may’ be emphasized in this context, as what follows is only put forward as a suggestion for consideration, and with no measure of dogmatism.

There is a comment made in Peter’s first epistle that may also provide a clue in this regard: 

 Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently. They prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them. To them it was revealed, that they served not themselves, but you, in these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into. (1 Peter 1:10-12, World English translation).

There are two things in particular to note:

· What kind of time was searched not only in relation to the prediction of the sufferings of Christ but also to the glories that would follow, indicating that the time for the latter was revealed as well as the time for the former

· That angels desired to look into these matters – it was the angel Gabriel who gave Daniel the prophecy of the seventy weeks

The question

The question, then, is there a record in history of another commandment to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem besides that given by the Persian kings? Specifically, was there a commandment given after the first coming of Messiah the Prince and after the desolations of the temple which were foretold?

The answer is yes. The monarch who issued the decree was the one considered the greatest of the Ottoman sultans, Suleiman the Magnificent. As a result of a dream he believed he received from Allah, took a particular interest in Jerusalem about the middle of his reign and gave direction concerning its restoration.

There were three things of particular focus in the decree(s) given by Suleiman:

· The rebuilding of the city wall – the current walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and its gates were mainly constructed by reason of his decree − when people view the Old City walls and gates today they are seeing the Ottoman rebuilding project.  According to Wikipedia, there was a particular time when Suleiman the Magnificent “decreed the construction of the wall….”

· The sealing up [2] of the eastern “Golden” gate, the gate which through Jewish tradition held that the Messiah would enter the city – the gate had been sealed before by Muslim rulers of Jerusalem and reopened during the period when the Crusaders held Jerusalem

· The refurbishment of the Dome of The Rock shrine on Temple Mount

The Israel Antiquities Authority has the following information about this restoration work:

Suleiman the Magnificent carried out several building projects in Jerusalem, among them: he built the city walls, rehabilitated the waterworks and decorated the outside of the Dome of the Rock with Kashani tiles. Of the three major construction projects Jerusalem's city walls have left the greatest mark on the city's appearance since then.

It is commonly assumed that when the Ottomans arrived in the country in 1516 the wall in Jerusalem was breached and in ruins and just a few remains survived in the area. Suleiman's court architect, Sinan Pasha (dubbed Kuja Mimar - the great architect), was given the job of planning the new wall. Taxes the Ottomans collected in Egypt went to fund the construction. Abraham Castro, a Jew who served as minister of finance and 'master of the mint' in Egypt, was responsible for the implementation of the work.

It is estimated that the construction of the wall lasted three to four years.

Arabic inscriptions indicating that dates of its construction are fixed in various places in the wall. The inscription in Jaffa Gate states:

"In the name of Allah the merciful and the compassionate, our lord the great sultan, king of the Turks, the Arabs and the Persians, Suleiman Ben Salim Khan, ordered that this blessed wall be built, may Allah will perpetuate his reign, Year 945" (AH). M. Ben-Dov 1983, p. 85

The inscription in the northern wall commemorates the construction that took place in the years 1537-1538: "The construction of this wall was ordered by our lord the sultan, Suleiman Ben Sultan Salim Khan, in the year 949" (AH) Z. Vilnay 1969, 1980, 3281-3282

Conversion Table – Mohammedan years to western years

According to a conversion table on-line, the AH dates convert to AD years as follows:

945 AH1538 - 1539 AD

949 AH1542 - 1543 AD

Conversion Table – solar, lunar and prophetic years

The following table shows the measures of years based on whether they are solar, lunar or prophetic.

Type of Year	Number of Days	Days in 490 years	Solar Year Equivalent
Solar	365.24217	178969	490 years
Lunar	354.36707	173640	475.4 years
Prophetic	360	176400	483 years

 

The building work on the restoration of Jerusalem was decreed by Suleiman in 1538 and again in 1542 according to the inscriptions.

Based on the two dates for the decrees, when do 490 years run out? The following table shows the three types of years used in prophecy and the differences in their durations.

Type of Year	Solar Year Equivalent	Starting Point	Ending Point
Solar	490 years	1538	2028
Lunar	475.4 years	1538	2013-2014
Prophetic	483 years	1538	2021

 

 

 

 

 

During the last portion of this period, Jerusalem essentially used a western clock of solar years, first with the British mandatory power from 1917 to 1948, and then with the intercalary system that adjusts lunar months to the solar cycle, as followed in Israel today.

What might this mean?

If there is any possibility that Suleiman the Magnificent’s decrees to restore and to build Jerusalem, particularly as it relates to restoration of the wall and its gates, is the starting point for a time cycle that ends with Christ’s return, a question is whether the pattern of 7 weeks, plus 62 weeks, plus one week, holds in a possible second application as it did in the first application?

Specifically, are there events that occur at the end of the 69th week or which fall within the duration of the seventieth week?

There will be no event occurring in the midst of the 70th week as that related only to his first coming, when our Lord was crucified as the one great offering for sins.

Could our Lord return at the end of the 69th week or at any time during the 70th week? The difference between 490 solar years (365 ¼ days duration) and 490 prophetic years (360 days) is almost exactly seven years. It is 2,569 days or 7.03 years. This year, 2021, is 483 solar years (69 weeks solar) from 1538 and 490 prophetic years (70 weeks prophetic).

Might the 70th week be the week when the Lord confirms the covenant with the people of Israel, the natural seed of Abraham, and commences the rebuilding of the Temple? Is it possible that the end that shall be put to the abomination that makes desolate occurs at the end of the 69th week? On a solar year basis, that could be as early as this year. It is important to remember that Daniel’s prayer, to which this vision was given as an answer, concerned the city, the sanctuary, and the people. The coming of Messiah the Prince was the resolution.

As the striving in Jerusalem over the Al-Aksa Mosque, the rights of Arabs and Jews to ascend Temple Mount, the rights of Jews to display their flag in the Old City intensify, these things may be heading to a crisis that will be connected with the return of Jesus and the end of the abomination that makes desolate on Temple Mount.

Objections

It is good to look for weaknesses and difficulties in the case.

1. The commandment given by Suleiman the Magnificent to “restore and rebuild Jerusalem” was not for the benefit of the Jewish people.

The statement is correct. The prophecy of Daniel, however, did not state that the commandment would benefit the Jewish people.  What would benefit the Jewish people is the work that Messiah the Prince is given to do.

At least part of Suleiman the Magnificent’s motivations for rebuilding Jerusalem were to advance the cause of Islam at the expense of both Judaism and Christianity. He sought to enhance the former’s prominence in Jerusalem while diminishing that of the rivals to Islam.

His commandment strengthened the role of the desolator. But the prophecy indicated that the desolator would continue right up until the end – and conflict over the city and the sanctuary would continue to the end.

2. The seventy weeks prophecy is focused on the atoning work of Christ’s offering at his first coming – therefore it is a stretch to see how it could apply to his second coming

Daniel, in his prayer, was praying for the sanctuary, for the holy city, and for the people of Israel. None of these was resolved by Christ’s first coming. The way for the people of Israel to be restored to God was opened by his sacrifice at his first coming but the fulness of his work requires his return.

Conclusion

In no way should the thoughts here be construed to mean that the writer is proposing that Christ will come in 2021.  Date-setting is unwise.  None of us knows the day nor the hour.

What may be indicated, however, is that about 490 years after Suleiman the Magnificent’s decrees for significant building work to be done in Jerusalem, the era for the Lord’s coming is upon us. This era might begin in 2021 but it extends at least as far out as 2032 (490 solar years from 1542).

If there is any validity in this line of thought, over the next few days, weeks, months, and years, should we not expect to see more striving over the city of Jerusalem, the Old City walled and gated by Suleiman, and the temple mount site where the desolator now has its places of worship?

June 7, 2021

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