Summary:
Daniel 9 contains the only prophecy in the Bible that predicts the first advent of Jesus – the number of years between Daniel’s day and the
Messiah.
Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy helps us to calculate the date Jesus presented himself as the Messiah. At the beginning of the 69th week when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the holy spirit anointed our Lord. Here Jesus became the Messiah (the “Anointed” or the “Christ”). This event occurred in early October of 29 AD. Jesus lived and taught for only 3 1/2 more years until he was crucified on Friday, April 3, (Nisan 14 in the Jewish Calendar) 33 AD. During the last half of the 70th week, the gospel message went out exclusively to the Jews. Cornelius, the first Gentile convert, was probably baptized in 36 AD.
Discussion: Daniel 9:24-27:
24 “Seventy weeks (symbolic weeks where a day equals a year or 490 years – see footnote **) are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins (Jesus’ sacrifice atones for sin), and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness (the opportunity to receive forgiveness either now or in Christ’s kingdom), 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 (454 BC) unto the Messiah (Messiah means “anointed.” Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit) the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore (60 years) and two weeks (Jesus was baptized and received the Holy Spirit at 69 weeks or 483 years – October, 29 AD): the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off (crucified), but not for himself (Jesus died to redeem mankind): 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 (middle) of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease (the typical animal sacrifices of the Jewish nation were no longer acceptable to God once Jesus offered His life as the antitypical sacrifice), and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate (Jerusalem and the Jewish nation was destroyed in 70 AD by Rome), even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
** There are two scriptures which directly teach that one prophetic day represents one actual year.
1) Numbers 14:34: “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.”
2) Ezekiel 4:6: “And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.”
Additional Resource:
Christian Questions Podcast
Episode #786: “Why Do Historians Dislike Daniel So Much?”
The astounding scope of Daniel’s prophecies
CQ Rewind Show Notes
