The history of the exegesis of the 70 Weeks is the Dismal Swamp of O.T. criticism…. the trackless wilderness of assumptions and theories in the efforts to obtain an exact chronology fitting into the history of Salvation, after these 2,000 years of infinitely varied interpretations, would seem to preclude any use of the 70 Weeks for the determination of a definite prophetic chronology. J. A. Montgomery, Commentary on the Book of Daniel, 400-401.
In Daniel 9 Daniel reads from a scroll of Jeremiah and understands the 70-year exile must be coming to an end. While Daniel is praying an angel is sent to him to give an answer to his prayer. Unfortunately it was not the answer he may have been expecting. Rather than a confirmation the Judah’s exile would soon be over, Daniel is told the seventy years have become seventy “weeks of years,” or 490 years in all. At the end of the period prophecy and vision will be sealed up and the Most Holy Place will be anointed (9:24).
However, before the 490 years are complete the final seven years (the seventieth week) will be a time of war and desolation. At the end of the sixty-ninth week, the “anointed one will be cut off and have nothing,” the ruler of the people to come will destroy the Jerusalem and the sanctuary and the “end will come like a flood.” This ruler will confirm a covenant but break it in the middle of the final seven-year period. When he breaks the covenant he will put an end to sacrifice and “set up an abomination that causes desolation.” (9:27).
Is this a literal period of 490 years? If so, when does the period end? The majority of modern commentators (Hartman and Di Lella, Driver, and Montgomery, for example) think the years are literal and extend into the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The beginning of the period is the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., although the “decree” is Jeremiah’s prophecy (dated to 605 B.C.) As is well known, Antiochus desecrates the altar in the Temple by sacrificing a pig, something which can be describing as an “abomination that causes desolation.” The rededication of the temple after Antiochus was in 164 B.C., so the period is about 65 years short. For most, this is simply a miscalculation on the part of the second-century writer (Montgomery, 393).
In this view, the “cutting off of the anointed one” is the assassination of Onias III the high priest, about 170 B.C. Sacrifices stopped for a slightly more than three years, not quite a full three and a half years (time, times and half a time, 1260 days), nor is the period 2300 mornings and evenings from Daniel 8:14 accurate, either as 1150 days or a full 2300 days (neither number is three and a half years or a full seven years). Nevertheless, the numbers work out generally to the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the period of seven years is approximately correct. Stylized apocalyptic numbers do not need to be precisely accurate; there is no need to impose modern precision on the seventy sevens.
A second approach is to interpret the years are symbolic of the time from the end of the exile to the coming of messiah. E. J. Young argued a “seven” was an indefinite period of time and ran the whole 490 years from the return from exile up to the time of Christ. Even the last seven has been completed, starting sometime in the ministry of Christ and ending before A.D. 70. (Young, Daniel, 203).
A third approach takes the years as a literal period of time, but begins the period with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem (not Cyrus’ decree). The first 483 years begin with the Artaxerxes permitting Nehemiah return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city (Neh 2), approximately 445 BC. The 483 period ends sometime in the ministry of Jesus. There are several very detailed attempts to count days and calculate the exact moment in Jesus’s ministry the 483 years end (the most common suggestion is Jesus’s baptism or the triumphal entry). But this is almost impossible since the years may be lunar or solar, there may be intercalculary months, etc. The cutting off of the anointed one is the crucifixion, but the final seven year people is still in the future.
In this view, the book of Revelation picks up the final seven year period to describe a final confrontation between the arrogant kingdom of man and God’s coming kingdom. The Christian writer to first suggest this appears to have been Julius Africanus in A.D. 200, mentioned in Jerome’s commentary on Daniel. But even here, there are scholars who interpret the tribulation described in Revelation as wholly fulfilled by the Roman destruction of Jerusalem or persecution of Christians in the late first century. Others read Revelation as looking to the distant future and events leading up to the return of Messiah Jesus to establish his kingdom.
Which approach is best? Theological presuppositions often guide the answer to this question. If an interpreter is committed to a second-century date, then the author of Daniel only knows history up to the 160’s B.C. and only the first view is viable. But the prophecy of Daniel was read in the first century as not completely exhausted by the events leading up to the rededication of the Temple. Jesus alludes to Daniel 9 and the “abomination that causes desolation” in Mark 13:14. For Jesus, this is still a future event: “when you see ii, then let those in Judea flee…” Revelation is another thread of evidence that at least some Jewish Christians expected a future seven-year period of extreme suffering prior to the coming of the Messiah.
If the seventy years of captivity is taken literally by Daniel, it seems reasonable to take the extension of the seventy years as a literal period as well. I really do think the events leading up the Rededication of the Temple are part of Daniel’s vision, but prophecy often predicts something in the near future which also refers to the eschatological age.
The third option seems to be the way the text was read in the first century, “how soon until the exile was really over?”
The prophecy of the seventy sevens
This will be the fifth set of comments I will have to do on these daniel blog posts. There has been a common theme when interpreting apocalyptic literature in these blogs that PLong has been writing about. And I can’t help but feel very repetitive when I comment. It’s the same thing over and over. I just want the scripture to be interpreted as true as possible. Unless I am just not creative when it comes to commenting on these blog posts.
But to answer the question “Which approach is best?” when it comes to the views on how to interpret the seventy sevens. I think that it’s okay to think that this period could be an exaggeration or a metaphor for a very long time. I feel that scholars get caught up between what is literal and what is figurative. I think this because of what PLong would say in class about examples in scripture when the author would use exaggerations to prove a point. When Daniel and his friends were thrown into the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar wanted the temperature to be turned up seven times. No how were they able to measure that temperature. They most likely couldn’t, therefore this was just a way to show that the fire was very hot. Another example could be when someone says 1000 years, they most likely mean a very long time.
I won’t deny that many scholars agree that this was an actual period, the question is when the period starts. It is just not a bad thing to consider this view on the seventy
So much of the job to the reader of the book of Daniel is to figure what is literal and what is allegorical. When looking at all the views that scholars have put together over the years, it amazes me the vast historical interpretations of when the start of the 70 7’s began. Personally, I take the position that the 483 literal years started with the degree to rebuild Jerusalem. For the next 483 years (representation of 69 weeks) we have fulfilled biblical prophecy in which Daniel 9:20-23 talks about. These 483 years (69 weeks) end with Jesus’s ministry and of course the cross happens. We are now living in the Church age that was reveled by the Apostle Paul; however that last 7 years (1 week) has not been fulfilled yet. The last 7 years (tribulation period) will begin after the rapture and finally the last 7 years will be fulfilled. However, in this 7 year tribulation period there will be an anti-Christ (an anointed one Daniel 9:26) who will step foot into the newly built temple and claim himself as God. This is called the abnodation of desolation as Jesus talked about in Matthew 24. Of course these things aren’t as clear as our salvation, but with the scripture that we have, this seems to be the best approach to Daniel’s 70 weeks.
I think the first inclination should be to read the years literally. The seventy years from which they grow are literal. Further, much of the symbolism of the book is literal. There are four literal kingdoms in Dan 2/7. The various horns etc associated correspond to literal people. The History of 10/11 is literal. Secondly a literal reading takes us somewhere into the time of Christ which seems right. Thirdly the numbers don’t easily lend themselves to figurative particularly 62 years. The case for literal years seems strong. I may add the final 31/2 years in Revelation seems to me to be literal too. The 42 months is the time when the beast who was slaughtered yet lives persecutes the saints (church). This seems to me to decisively limit the period. It can’t refer to the whole church age. I think in this respect Revelation (a. Prophecy from Jesus) reflects the Olivet discourse. It begins with first century christian struggles (Rev 2,3) then jumps to an indeterminate time in the future immediately before Christ’s return (Daniel,’s 31/2 yrs in Revelation).
This does not answer all my questions. Why is there such a ‘gap,? How can the fourth kingdom be conceived as the final kingdom even if resurrected. What of all the ones in between. I am not a dispensationalist but it’s answer doesn’t convince either – the present age a mystery unforeseen in OT. Is it reasonable to miss out 2,000 years that significantly change the contours of of the ‘times of the Gentiles’?
Any help on this would be appreciated.
The gap is weird, yes. Daniel 9 extends the exile from 70 years of exile to 70X7 years, so 490 years in exile until the son of Man finally arrives. Is it possible Israel’s continued rejection of the messiah and the preaching of the Kingdom in Acts 2-5 (culminating in the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7 and the call of Saul to be the light to the Gentiles in Acts 9) results in another extension of the exile? So a third rejection results in a third extension of even longer exile, but also of undetermined length?
Hard to see anything contingent in Daniel’s dreams and their explanations.
The blog opens with the concept of the seventy “weeks or years” or 490 years. At the end of the exile, it takes a turn that was not expected as the angel tells a future period of war and destruction within those seventy weeks. I enjoy the approach that Phillip Long takes with the two main ways of understanding the 490 years. The first way is known by many modern commentators, they interpret the years in a literal sense, making this idea extend into the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The second way views the years symbolically, showing the time from the end of the exile to the coming of the Messiah. E.J. Young’s argument that “seven” indicates an indefinite period aligns with this perspective. Another angle considers the years as literal but starts the time when the rebuilding of Jerusalem by Artaxerxes, rather than Cyrus. This place’s the end of the 483 years around the ministry of Jesus. The final seven years were marked by war and destruction. I think that the blog does a great job at encouraging us readers to navigate the prophecy and the diverse ways scholars and communities engage with Daniel 9 throughout history.