Why We Believe

Daniel 9:24-27

The fascinating thing about the Book of Daniel is that it speaks of events clearly before they had originally transpired. This is the controversy. For those with a secular, atheist a priori view of the world, Daniel can only be a forthteller, not a foreteller of the future. Daniel very specifically discusses “the first king of Greece” (Alexander) the division of the kingdom into four (Daniel 8:20-23), and other events clearly meant as prophetic about the future.

The traditional dating of the book is Fifth or Sixth century, BC, following the events discussed in the book from the time of Daniel as a teenager through his old age. However, following Porphyry (third century AD) in his twelfth book in which he attacked the traditional dating of Daniel and differentiated between forthtelling and foretelling, most modern critics following the secularist world view claim that Daniel cannot be before the Maccabean period (Second century, BC) because the events prophesied could not possibly be predicted (foretelling). They commonly put the date of composition at 165 BC.

Copies of Daniel have been discovered in the Qumran caves, with some portions dating to 125 BC, and referring to Daniel as a prophet and the book as Scripture. That would mean that these Jews were referring to a fraud written only 40 years earlier as Holy Scripture! It is more likely that Daniel was finished before Ezra compiled the Old Testament canon in 458 BC (the time of Artaxerxes 1 first decree). At any rate, even if we allow for the 165 BC dating of the book, the events of Daniel 9:24-27 are best understood as prophetic about Jesus of Nazareth, due to the explicitness of the description.

The passage in question speaks of “seventy sevens.” What is the meaning of “seventy sevens”? In Daniel 9:2 we find a reference to the seventy years ¹⁰ first mentioned in Jeremiah 25:11-12 and again in 29:10 referring to the seventy years of exile in Babylon for the people of Judah. If we understand that there is a connection between Jeremiah’s prophecy of the 70 years and Daniel’s “seventy sevens,”¹¹ we can understand that Daniel is speaking of seventy years times seven, or 490 years. Here is where it gets interesting. Daniel goes on to say that there will be 69 sevens, or 483 years from the time of the edict to “restore and rebuild” Jerusalem to the time of the appearance of the “Anointed One.”¹²

This must be understood as the expected Messiah, or Christ mentioned throughout the Old Testament beginning with God’s prophetic word through Nathan to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. Though specifically speaking of Solomon, God looks beyond Solomon as well. God declares that the throne of his descendant will last forever. “To him I will be a father and he shall be my son.” The terms for Jesus “Son of Man” and “Son of God” in the New Testament carry much meaning from this prophesy. In 2 Samuel 22:51 God declares that David’s future offspring will be a king and anointed (mĕshiah “Anointed One”) The term “anointed one” was frequently used for prophets, priests and kings, but is specific in its reference here.

We know that there were at least three edicts and possibly a fourth. First, Ezra 1:1-4 Cyrus in 537 BC, but there was no mention of building the city; second, Ezra 6:1-12 Darius 1 in 520-518 BC, a renewal of Cyrus’s decree; third, Ezra 7:11-28 Artaxerxes 1in 458 BC; and a possible fourth for Nehemiah by Artaxerxes 1 in 445 BC. It was the third decree that actually resulted in the rebuilding of the city. So, if you add 483 years (from 69 weeks of years), times 365 days in a year, divided by 360 (the number of days counted in a year at that time) subtract 458 (for 458 BC),you came to the time of Christ!

Finally, we find that this ruler must be put to death. The manner this Messiah will be put to death is discussed in other passages. Following this will be a flood of war with another ruler rising up to destroy the Temple and Jerusalem (this is understood by many commentators to be a reference to the Jewish War, 68-70 AD). However, between verses 26 and 27 there is an apparent interval, because the Temple appears again. This interval is seen by many to be the church age. In the midst of a “seven” (seven years—this is the final seven of seventy sevens) the ruler from verse 26 appears again who makes peace (a covenant) for the seven years only to treacherously break it after three and one-half years (42 months, cf. Revelation 13) when the Temple will be desecrated. Then this ruler is judged. The book of Revelation provides more detail of what happens in this end-times scenario (Revelation 13 and 14). Unless one denies that which Jews at the time of Christ understood, that this prophesy of Daniel is of the coming Messiah, one will have to conclude that the only possible one who meets the conditions of this prophecy and the criteria that he must be a ruler, King in the line of David, must be Jesus of Nazareth!