He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:
"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.
Gabriel explains that a long period of time still remains, "seventy sevens", in order to:
- finish transgressions,
- put an end to sin
- atone for wickedness
- bring in everlasting righteousness
- seal up vision and prophecy
- anoint the most holy.
The most natural interpretation is that the "sevens" are periods of seven years, although this need not be taken as literal calendar years. The end of this period will bring in some permanent changes, an "end of sin", the reign of "everlasting righteousness" and the anointment of the "most holy." The full transformation is presumably still in the future.
Daniel 9:25-27, The sevens
"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.
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. 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."
Although the NIV adds "of the temple" to the word wing in verse 27, Archer argues that the wing could be a "figure for the vulturelike role of the Antichrist as he swoops down...."
The judgment described in Jeremiah included 70 years of captivity. 70 is one of the important Old Testament numbers, the perfect 7 multiplied by a completed 10 (which was the base of the ancient numbering system.) Now there will be 70 7s (or 7 70s?) to complete the "atonement for wickedness." Somehow this 70 sevens break into 62+7+1/2+1/2 sevens....
There have been numerous attempts to equate the chronology of this chapter with a historical timeline. These attempts were numerous by the time Jerome commented on them in 400 AD! (Archer, p. 120.) Of particular interest is the end of the first 69 "weeks" of years, that is 483 years after "the decree to rebuild and restore Jerusalem." In one version of this (suggests Baldwin) the timeline begins with Jeremiah's prophecy and the 62 sevens end with the murder of high priest Onias in 171 BC and the entire prophecy ends with the death of Antiochus IV and restoration of the temple in Jerusalem in 164 BC. The math there does not quite work out -- there are not 69 sevens between Jeremiah's prophecy and 171 BC but ... the calendar math is rather vague and complicated. (The ancient Jewish calendar apparently used 12 lunar months, with an occasional leap month added in to keep Passover in the spring. )
Baldwin's commentary, pages 172-8, describes other attempts to navigate a historical timeline. Some equate the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem with the end of these 69 sevens of years. The difficulty with these computations is that there is debate about the beginning decree, debate about the dates of Jesus's entrance into Jerusalem and debate about the length of the Jewish year. Cyrus made a decree in 536 BC about the temple, as did Artaxerxes in 458 BC. In 445 BC Artaxerxes made a decree about the city. If we move 483 years forward from 445 BC we land about 39 AD (there is no 0 year) and if we use a year of 360 days (12 months of 30 days), we reduce that time period by about 7 years, leading to 32 AD. This is very close to the date of the triumphal entrance of Jesus into the city. GotQuestions agrees with that.
From April 1, 445 BC to April 1, 32 AD, there are exactly 173,880 days. This calculation accounts for leap years and the 476 years between the two dates. Since (360)(483) = 173880 then in this case 483 years of 360 days is 476 calendar years.
If the decree by King Artaxerxes of Persia was 444 B.C. (see Nehemiah 2:1-8). The first unit of 49 years (seven “sevens”) covers the time that it took to rebuild Jerusalem, “with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble” (Daniel 9:25). This rebuilding is chronicled in the book of Nehemiah. Converting the 360-day year used by the ancient Jews, 483 years becomes 476 years on our solar calendar. Adjusting for the switch from B.C. to A.D., 476 years after 444 B.C. places us at A.D. 33, which would coincide with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1–9). The prophecy in Daniel 9 specifies that, after the completion of the 483 years, “the Anointed One will be cut off” (verse 26). This was fulfilled when Jesus was crucified.
In Ezra 7:12-26, Artaxerxes I ordered Ezra to rebuild the temple. Gleason Archer, in his commentary on Daniel (p. 114), dates that decree to 457 BC. He then dates the appearance of Jesus as Messiah in Jerusalem to 27 AD, 483 calendar years later (p. 121)
In John 12:12-16 we see the crowds suddenly going out to meet Jesus and making a big deal about his triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Jesus had entered the city many times before that day. Why were the crowds suddenly waiting for him now? Some argue that a computation of the dates of Daniel led to that day.
Another interesting and related passage is Zechariah 9:8-17.
In this future day, YHWH will appear with dramatic light and sound, with an arrow flashing like lightning and the sound of a trumpet and thunderstorm. This description echoes the appearance of YHWH at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19:16-19.
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