The 70 weeks of Daniel give us a excellent proof of the Divine Authorship of the Bible, but IMO they point to the Death of the Christ and the beginning of the Christian congregation, not our Lord's return!
The 70 weeks picture weeks of years, or 490 years beginning in 455 B.C.E. when Nehemiah was authorized by Persian king Artaxerxes "to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem." (Nehemiah 2:1-8)
Daniel 9:25* states "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."
As Daniel stated, the Messiah would be cut of at 69 week's (7 + 60 + 2). 69 x 7 = 483 thus 483 years after 455 BCE brings us to 29 C.E. (remembering their is no zero year) when Jesus was baptized and anointed, becoming the Christ, or the Anointed One, the Messiah.
Jesus died 3 1/2 years later or at the half of the 70 th week as Daniel 9 :27 prophesied "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."
By means of our Lord's death the animal sacrifices under the Law of Moses were no longer necessary as he caused sacrifice to cease.
A new spiritual Israel was now chosen, those that would follow Christ. But those who refused to accept Christ and stubbornly stayed with the old law covenant with it's Jewish traditions would be completely cut of at the end of the 70 weeks. This was in 36 C.E., when the apostle Peter was guided to preach to a Gentile, Cornelius. (Acts 10:1-48). The transformation of God using the Jewish people to the new Christian congregation was now complete, just as Daniel had prophesied some 570 years in advance.
Brian
*bible quotations from the 1995 World Library, Inc. |
