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Although this is a very technical, and to most, boring report on Daniel's Seventy Weeks of Years, for some reason God did put it in the Bible. I suppose God would want us to understand it. Some of you, though, may have wondered what these weeks of years represent and how we come to the conclusions we do. This work is not copyrighted, so feel free to have fun with it and distribute it as you wish (by print or linking to this page); of course, without changing the text.
This is the question for our final exam asked by Troy Blackwell in his Daniel and Revelation class at Hyles-Anderson College in the spring semester of 1999: "Explain Daniel's seventy weeks of years." On the test, we were required to meet these criteria: 1. We were required to fill up two complete pages, which handwritten, I went on to a third page; but it didn't work out that way when typed out. 2. Explain what Daniel's seventy weeks of years is. 3. Explain how we know that the weeks represent weeks of years. 4. We were to show the three time divisions of the seventy weeks. I was surprised to see a 100% on my returned test.
I have made a few minor changes on this paper from my original test paper for clarification.
Although we were allowed to use our notes our Bibles, this was actually a test on how well we paid attention and took notes in class.
If you wish to follow this study in your Bible, be sure to use the old, 1611 King James Bible. Otherwise you will end up in quite an abyss of confusion using any other version!
by Glen Morris
After the Babylonian Captivity, God had meted out His judgment upon Israel for not keeping her Sabbaths by allowing the Assyrians to take them into Babylon for 70 years (606-536 B.C.). God allowed Gabriel to give a message to Daniel in answer to his prayer for forgiveness. God was setting the stage for the people of Israel to go back to their homeland and rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. Gabriel explains to Daniel that the balance of man's history (previous to the Millennium) will be divided into seventy weeks.
We know these 70 weeks (70 x 7) represent seventy weeks of years because we read in Matthew 1:17: ". . .from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations."
Job 42:16 tells us how long a generation is. Job lived to be 140 years old. He lived to see four generations. Dividing 140 years by four gives us an average of 35 years. Taking this 35 years times the 14 generations in Matthew 1:17, we get 490 years, or 70 weeks of years (70 x 7).
This 70 weeks is divided into three parts:
Of course, these "weeks" represent weeks of years.
Although the Babylonian captivity ended in 536 B.C., when Cyrus made a decree for Zerubbabel to go back to build the TEMPLE in Jerusalem (II Chronicles 36:23 and Ezra 1:3), the 70 weeks of years did not begin until Artaxerxes made "the commandment to restore and to build JERUSALEM (Daniel 9:25), which represented the CITY of Jerusalem. This is exactly what Nehemiah requested of Artaxerxes in Nehemiah 2:5: "that thou wouldst send me unto Judah, UNTO THE CITY. . .that I may build it." Artaxerxes' response was, "So it pleased the king to send me. . ." (Nehemiah 2:6) This commandment was made on March 14, 445 B.C.
The first division of seven weeks of years, or 49 years, is the time period it took to build Jerusalem and the wall. This is found in the book of Nehemiah. We see where "the street shall be built again, and the wall. . ." (Daniel 9:25). This covered a period from 445 B.C. to 396 B.C., which covered the Old Testament time period through Malachi.
The next 62 weeks (434 years) covered the inter-Testament years until the crucifixion of Jesus: ". . .shall Messiah be cut off." (Daniel 9:26)
Part three is the last week, which covers the Tribulation period. There is a time gap from Jesus' crucifixion until the Tribulation, the church age, in which we are now.
Isaiah 61:2 refers to this: "To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Jesus' ministry). After "Lord," there is a comma. This comma represents a time period between Jesus' ministry on earth and the following Tribulation: "and the day of vengeance of our God. . ."
The "day of vengeance of our God" has not yet arrived. This is yet a future event. Jesus' ministry in Isaiah 61:2 was confirmed in Matthew 4:18-19, which Jesus read in the synagogue, but instead of reading about "the day of vengeance," he stopped "To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." PERIOD
The last "week," or week of seven years, represents the Great Tribulation spoken of in Revelation. In the "midst" of this "week," or after 3-1/2 years, the covenant the Anti-Christ makes with the Jews is broken. This represents the time when Satan is cast to the earth and embodies the Anti-Christ. He then seeks to destroy all the 144,000 Jews who had been preaching Jesus around the world and seeing millions saved. (Revelation 12:9)
If you have any Bible related questions or wish to contact me, you may e-mail me at glenmorris@altavista.net or glenmorris@freeNsafe.com