This is one of the most difficult and obscure passages in the Bible. John Calvin says it has been “almost torn to pieces by the various opinions of interpreters, that it might be considered nearly useless on account of its obscurity.” In its basic thrust, it is simple: it is a prediction of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. It appears that the “seventy weeks” (or “seventy sevens” in some translations) refers to a period of 490 years, but it is not clear precisely when that period begins and ends.
Seventy weeks are decreed about 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. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing.
(Daniel 9:24-26a)
Since this is an answer to Daniel's prayer, the most natural way of taking the “going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem” is Cyrus' decree for the Jews to return home and rebuild the temple in 538 BC, while the most natural way of taking “an anointed one shall be cut off” is the death of Jesus in 30 AD. The period between these dates, however, is 567 years, out by more than 80 years.
To get around this, some interpreters (like James Montgomery Boice) see the decree to be the one that Artaxerxes makes in Ezra 7:12. This occurred in 457 BC, so 483 years (69 sevens) take us up to 27 AD, the start of Jesus' ministry. (He is then cut off in the middle of the 70th seven, 3 ½ years later.) This emphasizes building the wall, but it doesn't answer Daniel's prayer.
Furthermore, the text seems to distinguish between a period of 7 sevens and then a further period of 62 sevens. Possibly the Messiah comes after 49 years, and then is cut off 434 years later. Some interpreters see the decree as the promise that God makes to Jeremiah, and the first anointed one to be Cyrus, but the numbers still don't work out. Sometimes the 7 sevens are seen as overlapping with the 62 sevens, while sometimes a gap between the two periods is suggested. A number of interpreters view the two “anointed ones” as different people, and a range of people have been suggested as fulfilling the prophecy, including Onias III (a Jewish high priest who was murdered), Aristobulus I (the first of the Hasmonean kings of Judaea), Antiochus IV Epiphanes (the Seleucid king of Syria who persecuted the Jews) and a future Antichrist.
In addition to this, some interpreters see the years (or some of them) as being metaphorical (particularly in seeing fulfilment in a future Antichrist), while others get around discrepancies in the numbering by positing 360-day “prophetic years”.
We are thus in a position to create a table of the suggested chronologies of the 69 weeks:
Of course, after all this we still have to work out the chronology of the 70th week!
And the people 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. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.
(Daniel 9:26b-27)
The starting point of the 70th seven depends largely on when the 69 sevens are considered to have ended, but there is also significant variation regarding its length: a literal period of seven days (namely, Holy Week); the seven years centered on Jesus' death; or seventy years from Jesus' birth to the Jewish War. In each of these cases, Jesus' death is viewed as being the midpoint of the seventieth week. Dispensationalists, however, tend to see the 70th week as having been delayed on account of the Jews' rejection of Jesus and occurring at the end of history.
The “prince who is to come” is either regarded as Jesus (in which case “his people” are the Jews, who brought the destruction of the temple upon themselves), the Roman general Titus (who destroyed the temple in 70 AD) or a future Antichrist:
Although the chronologies are deeply disputed, it is clear that this passage is a prophecy of Jesus' death. It also raises the intriguing possibility of whether it would have been possible for a first-century Jew to work out what year the Messiah would die. Certainly, when Jesus was born there were at least some godly Jews who were waiting for and expecting the Messiah (Luke 2:25).
