Daniel Chapter 9

Daniel 9: the Seventy "Sevens", or the times of the comings of the Messiah

The Seventy "Sevens"

The Seventy Seven is a very mysterious prophecy.

Here is the text of the prophecy:

Dan 9:23 Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:

24 "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.

25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree 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.

26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. 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.

27 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. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."

What is a "Seven"

The Hebrew word that gets translated into "Seven" is shabuwa` which means:
This word is translated to the English as seven or as week
Basically, it can be any "periods" of seven units... it could mean:
- the number 7
- 7 days (week) - the most common translation
- 7 months
- 7 years
- And so on.
It turns out that the prophecy can best be understood if we interpret shabuwa` as 7 "years"

NOTE:

Although the "traditional" interpretation translates shabuwa` as 7 "years"; the prophecy teachers does not use a normal year (that the Jewish and everyone else uses - 365 days), but a special prophetic year of 360 days
I will explain it in more details below...

The "traditional" interpretation of the Seventy "Sevens" vision

For a long time, I was sold on the "traditional" interpretation...
...until I stumbled on an alternative interpretation by Sir Isaac Newton

The gist of the "traditional" interpretation is to read the above passages as follows:

"Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' plus sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.

26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.

(after an unspecified period of time, the 70th "Seven" is fulfilled)....

The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

27 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. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."

The crux of the "traditional" interpretation is to read the passages as:

The time between the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem and the coming of Anointed One (Messiah), is: 69 (= 7 + 62) "years"
That takes care of 69 "Sevens" and since the number of "Sevens" is 70, there is one "Seven" left...
According to this theory, the 70th Seven us the 7 years of Tribulation before the Second coming of Jesus
So what happens between the 69 (= 7 + 62) "Sevens" and the 70th Seven ? How long is it ?
Well, no one knows... Some call this the "Church Period"

In a nutshell, the prophecy timeline (schedule) in Daniel 9 according to the "traditional" interpretation is as follows:

We have historical records on several decrees to rebuild Jerusalem.

The decree that will make the prophecy come true is one given by Artaxerxes to Nehemiah in 444 BC (see Nehemiah 2:1-8), to rebuild the city Jerusalem and the city gates as well as its walls:

Neh 2:1 And it happened in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, wine was before him. And I (Nehemiah) took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence before.

...

Neh 2:5 and I said to the king, If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I pray that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, so that I may build it.

Fact:

Nisan 1 444 BC is March 4, 444 BC in the Gregorian calendar

After we fill in this date in the prophecy schedule above, we have:

Now come some creative fudging...

To make the prophecy come true, we need to introduce the (new) concept of a prophetic year:

One "prophetic year" is 12 months of 30 days; or 360 days.

If we use a "Seven" = 7 prophetic years (PY), then Daniel's prophecy will give us something wonderful:

This is supposed to be the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey thus fulfilling the prophecy that:

The time between the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem and the coming of Anointed One (Messiah) is: 69 (= 7 + 62) "prophetic" years

The interpretation of the remainder of Daniel 9 in the "traditional" interpretation is very vague:

We have discussed this part of the prophecy:

From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem

until

the Anointed One, the ruler, comes

seven 'sevens,'

plus

sixty-two 'sevens.'

26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.

This part remains to be explained:

27 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. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."

Clearly, this part of the prophecy is about the end time.

Since there is one Seven left, the "traditional" interpretation assign this 7 (prophetic) year as the Tribulation period

There is no information given when this period (of 7 (prophetic) year) will start; except that it will begin with the confirmation of a covenant
Some hypothesize that the Anti-Christ will sign a 7 (prophetic) year peace treaty with many (that includes Israel).
In this treaty, the Temple will be rebuild - because in the middle of the Seven (so after 3.5 (prophetic) years), the Anti-Christ will stop the sacrifice.

My objections against the "traditional" interpretation

I must first say that I was sold on this interpretation for quite some time... until I stumble upon a better (more logical) explanation by Sir Isaac Newton (yes, the same guy who formulated the Laws of Gravity)...
Some of the criticism is from good old Isaac himself; and some from myself - because I have considered both explanations for quite some time.

Here are my objections:

There is no teaching on "prophetic" year in the Bible.
The main reason that I believed the "prophetic" year concept because of the outcome of the prophecy - it "did predict" the time of the coming of the Messiah (actually, after I thought about it - Jesus did not come on Mar 30, 33 AD).
You will see that in Newton's interpretation, Sir Isaac will use an ordinary year. Applying the Occam's razor principle (see: click here ) (and a healthy doze of respect for the intellect of Newton), I believe that the Newtonian interpretation is the correct one.

The Messiah did not come on Mar30, 33 AD

The Messiah came on the day that Jesus was born !!!

Evidence of this fact are:

The angels announced His arrival (birth) - Seek Luke, Chapter 2
Two people were waiting to see the Messiah in God's Temple: Simeon and Anna, the daughter of Phanue.
Could it be that these 2 people understood Daniel's prophecy in the same way that Newton did and came to see the Messiah ???

There is no way to read the text:
as
I.e., from the Hebrew text, you cannot add the two number together. (This objection is from Sir Isaac Newtom himself; Sir Isaac studied Hebrew so he can read the Bible in its original language - so he should know what he was talking about)
There is inconsistency in the prophecy if we added 7 and 62 together:
- Suppose we are to add the 7 "Sevens" and 62 "Sevens" together, and now the prophecised period is (7 + 62) = 69 "Sevens".
- Why then would the prophecy say:
  This is an inconsistency. If we were to add the 7 "Sevens" and the 62 "Sevens" together, the prophecy should say:
  It should be 69 "Sevens" and not 62 "Sevens" !!!

Next, I will present Sir Isaac Newton's interpretation of Daniel's vision of the Seventy "Sevens"

Newton's Interpretation of Daniel's Seventy "Sevens"

Although Sir Isaac Newton is most famously known for discovering the Laws of Gravity, he actually spent more time studying prophecies in the Bible....
The writings of Newton on Daniel (and Revelation) can be found in the book OBSERVATIONS upon the PROPHECIES of DANIEL, and the APOCALYPSE of St. JOHN.
This book can be found on the Internet at: ( click here )
Newton's interpretation of Daniel 9 is remarkably simple: he reads the text at face value... i.e., literally

This is how Newton interpreted the vision:

Dan 9:23 Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:

Newton reads this as a prophecy that the Jews will need 490 years 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.
The start is when the Jews return back to their land
The end is when the Messiah (Jesus) is cruxified and resurrected

In Newton's own words:

"Seventy weeks are cut out upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression,"...

Here, by putting a week for seven years, are reckoned 490 (70x7) years from:

the time that the dispersed Jews should be re-incorporated into a people and a holy city,
until the death and resurrection of Christ; whereby transgression should be finished, and sins ended, iniquity be expiated, and everlasting righteousness brought in, and this Vision be accomplished, and the Prophet consummated, that Prophet whom the Jews expected; and whereby the most Holy should be anointed, he who is therefore in the next words called the Anointed, that is, the Messiah, or the Christ.

For by joining the accomplishment of the vision with the expiation of sins, the 490 years are ended with the death of Christ.

We still need to figure out the exact dates for these 2 events...

According to Newton, the time that the dispersed Jews should be re-incorporated into a people and a holy city, was the Julian year 4257:

There were but two returns from captivity, Zerubbabel's and Ezra's.

In Zerubbabel's they had only commission to build the Temple.

In Ezra's they first became a polity or city by a government of their own. (So Newton believed we must use Ezra's date of return as the start of this prophecy)

Now the years of this Artaxerxes began about two or three months after the summer solstice, and his seventh year fell in with the third year of the eightieth Olympiad; and the latter part thereof, wherein Ezra went up to Jerusalem, was in the year of the Julian Period 4257.

According to Newton, when you add 490 ordinary years to this date, you arrives to 34 AD, which is the year that Jesus was cruxified

Count the time from thence (= Julian Period 4257) to the death of Christ, and you will find it just 490 years.

If you count in Judaic years commencing in autumn, and date the reckoning from the first autumn after Ezra's coming to Jerusalem, when he put the King's decree in execution; the death of Christ will fall on the year of the Julian Period 4747, (which is) Anno Domini 34 (34 AD); and the weeks will be Judaic weeks, ending with sabbatical years; and this I take to be the truth: but if you had rather place the death of Christ in the year before, as is commonly done, you may take the year of Ezra's journey into the reckoning.

The simplicity of Newton's interpretation is so great: Newton consider this verse to be independent from the previous verse !
In other words: Newton look at this statement entirely on its own

Furthermore, Newton look at the statement at face value - i.e., literally: no adding !!!

This is how Newton read the above verse:

In other words: the above is a prophecy of two comings of the Messiah.

Newton said:

Know also and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to cause to return and to build Jerusalem, unto the Anointed the Prince, shall be seven weeks. The former part of the Prophecy ..., seems to relate to his second coming.

In other words:

25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' for the second coming and (there will be) sixty-two 'sevens.' for the first coming

The following diagram represents Newton's interpretation:

26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.

Now we can understand the above prophecy very logically:

Newton's interpretation takes 62 "Sevens" literally; and so after 62 Sevens means after the first coming of Jesus.
It is so clear, simple and logical !!!
We still need to figure out the start date and the end date of these 2 comings

The first coming has already happened, and according to Newton, the start and end dates of the first coming are:

Now Nehemiah came to Jerusalem in the 20th year of this same Artaxerxes, while Ezra still continued there, (Nehem. 7:36), and found the city lying waste, and the houses and wall unbuilt, (Nehem. 2:17, 7:4), and finished the wall the 25th day of the month Elul, (Nehem. 4:15), in the 28th year of the King, that is, in September in the year of the Julian Period 4278 (= command to rebuild Jerusalem).

Count now from this year 62 x 7 years, that is 434 years, and the reckoning will end in September in the year of the Julian Period 4712 which is the year in which Christ was born, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, Iren��us, Eusebius, Epiphanius, Jerome, Orosius, Cassiodorus, and other antients;

Since the second coming of Jesus has not happened yet, all Newton can say is "I don't know; but time will tell":
But Newton does give us the following very useful analysis:
Newton expected a Second Return of the Jewish people !
In other words, Newton knew that the nation of Isreal will be established some time in his future (which is our past !)

The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

Newton believed that these verses relate to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Most prophecy teachers would read these verses as a prophecy into the future when the Anti-Christ will make the convenant.
I have disagree with Newton and side with the prophecy teachers...

Filling in the blanks in Newton's interpretation

At the time of writing, Newton did not have the information that we presently have.
In particular, we know for a fact that the nation of Israel has been re-born in 1948 - Newton did not have this information !
In his analysis, Newton said:
Although the nation of Israel was established in 1948, at that time, Israel does not have complete control over Jersusalem
The East Section of Jersusalem was under the control of Jordan
During the 6 day war in 1967, Israel captured the whole of Jerusalem.
I think the command to rebuild Jerusalem soon followed the 1967 conquest...

Applying Newton's analysis, we come to the following conclusion for the time (season) of the Second Coming of the Messiah:

Sept (?) 1967 Sept (?) 2016 -----+--------------------------------------+-------- ^ ^ |<------------- 49 years ------------->| | | Command to Second coming rebuild of Jesus Jerusalem

To those who claim that "we don't know the day or the hour", I did not tell you which day nor which hour.
I only told you about the season to expect the return of our Lord.
Jesus did say that we can know the season:

Other people are catching on to this interpretation
- Website 1: click here
Update: "day that no one know" is Yom Teruah !!!
- A Jewish Christian website says that the "Day the no one knows" is in fact the day known as Yom Teruah
- I have also learned about 2 pieces of intriguing information that points to the year 2017 as the year of Jesus' return:

Jewish Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel

The 10 Jubelee Prophecy on Jerusalem:

Jewish Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel predicted in 1217 (!!!) that:

Jerusalem will first be controlled by Muslims for 400 years (8 Jubilees)
Then Jerusalem will remian no-man's land for 50 years (1 Jubilee)
Then Jerusalem will return to God's people for 50 years (1 Jubilee)
And then the Messianic end time will begin.
See: click here

Partial fulfillment:

Ottoman Empire conquered Jerusalem in 1517:
Jerusalem is no man's land under British "mandate" from 1917-1967:
Jerusalem is Jewish's control from 1967 after the 6 days war:
See: click here

Prophecy timeline in the Great Pyramid of Giza

Have not written on the material yet (very long)
Here is the website: click here

I have always believed that the Great Pyramid of Giza is constructed under direction from God because of the incredibly precise measurements contained in the pyramid and what Isaiah said:

Isaiah 19:19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is now in the heart of Egypt:
The Great Pyramid of Giza was located at the border of ancient Egypt
See: click here

The question was: What was God's message

The website "The Oracle in Stone" make a convincing case that the Pyramid of Giza marks the time of Jesus' return (on the day Yom Teruah in the year 2017 !!!)