Charles Ellicott Commentary Daniel 9:24

"Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy." — Daniel 9:24 (ASV)

EXCURSUS G: THE SEVENTY WEEKS (Daniel 9:24).

It may be questioned in what way this prophecy presents any meaning to those who follow the punctuation of the Hebrew text, and place the principal stop in Daniel 9:25 after “seven weeks,” instead of after “threescore and two weeks.” The translation would be as follows: “From the going out ... until Messiah the prince shall be seven weeks; and during sixty-two weeks the city shall be rebuilt ... and after sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off” ... This can only be explained on the hypothesis that the word “week” is used in an indefinite sense to mean a period.

The sense is then as follows:—The period from the command of Cyrus or Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem, until the time of Messiah, consisted of seven such weeks. During the sixty-two weeks that followed, the kingdom of Messiah is to be established amidst much persecution. During the last week, the persecution will be so intense that Messiah may be said to be annihilated by it, His kingdom on earth being destroyed. At the end of the last week, the Antichristian prince who organises the persecution is himself exterminated and destroyed in the final judgment.

According to this view, the seventy weeks occupy the whole period that intervenes between the times of Cyrus or Artaxerxes and the Last Judgment. The principal objection to it is that it gives no explanation of the numbers “seven” and “sixty-two,” which seem to have been chosen for some particular purpose. Nor does it furnish any reason for the choice of the word “weeks” instead of “times” or “seasons,” either of which words would have equally served the same indefinite purpose.

The traditional interpretation follows the punctuation of Theodotion, which St. Jerome also adopted, and reckons the seventy weeks from 458 B.C., the twentieth year of Artaxerxes.

From this date, measuring seven weeks of years—that is, forty-nine years—we are brought to the date 409 B.C. It is predicted that during this period the walls of Jerusalem and the city itself would be rebuilt, though in troubled times. It must be remembered that very little is known of Jewish history during the times after Ezra and Nehemiah.

The latest date given in Nehemiah is the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, or 446 B.C. It is highly probable that the city was not completely restored until nearly forty years later.

Reckoning from 409 B.C. sixty-two weeks, or 434 years, we are brought to A.D. 25, the year when our Saviour began His ministry. After three and a half years, or in the midst of a week, he was cut off. The seventy weeks end in A.D. 32, which is said to be the end of the second probation of Israel after rejecting the Messiah. The agreement between the dates furnished by history and prediction is very striking, and the general expectation that prevailed concerning the appearance of a Messiah at the time of our Saviour’s first advent points to the antiquity as well as to the accuracy of the interpretation.

However, the explanation of the latter half of the seven weeks is not satisfactory. We have no chronological account of events that occurred shortly after the Ascension, and there are no facts stated in the New Testament that lead us to suppose that Israel would have three and a half years’ probation after the rejection of the Messiah.

The modern explanation adheres in part to the Masoretic text and regards the sixty-two year-weeks as beginning in 604 B.C.

Reckoning onwards 434 years, we are brought to the year 170 B.C., in which Antiochus plundered the Temple and massacred 40,000 Jews.

Onias III, the anointed prince, was murdered in 176 B.C., just before the close of this period. From the attack on the Temple to the death of Antiochus in 164 B.C. was seven years, or one week, in the midst of which, in 167 B.C., the offering was abolished and the idolatrous altar erected in the Temple. The seven weeks are then calculated onwards from 166 B.C. and are stated to mean an indefinite period expressed by a round number, during which Jerusalem was rebuilt after its defilement by Antiochus.

This explanation is highly unsatisfactory. It not only inverts the order of the weeks but arbitrarily uses the word “week” in a double sense—in a definite and in an indefinite sense at once. There is still a graver objection to assuming that the starting point of the seventy weeks is the year 604 B.C. No command to rebuild Jerusalem had then been issued.

Seventy weeks.— Great difficulty is experienced in discovering what sort of weeks are intended. Daniel 9:25–27 are sufficient to show that ordinary weeks cannot be meant. Possibly, also, the language (Daniel 10:2, margin “weeks of days”) implies that “weeks of days” are not intended here. On the other hand, it is remarkable that in Leviticus 25:1-10 the word week should not have been used to signify a period of seven years, if year-weeks are implied in this passage.

However, it is generally assumed that we must understand the weeks to consist of years and not of days (see Pusey’s Daniel, pp. 165, 166), the principle of year-weeks depending on Numbers 14:34, Leviticus 26:34, and Ezekiel 4:6. The word “week” in itself provides a clue to the meaning. It implies a “Heptad,” and is not necessarily more definite than the “time” mentioned in Daniel 7:25.

Are determined.— The word only occurs in this passage. Theodotion translates συνετμήθησαν; the Septuagint, ἐκρίθησαν; Jerome, “abbreviatae sunt.” In Chaldee the word means “to cut,” and in that sense “to determine.”

The object “determined” is twofold:

1. Transgression and sin;
2. Reconciliation and righteousness.

To finish.—The Hebrew margin provides an alternative rendering, “to restrain,” according to which the meaning is “to hold sin back” and to “prevent it from spreading.” If this reading is adopted, it will be parallel to the second marginal alternative, “to seal up,” which also implies that the iniquity can no longer increase. Although the alternative readings may be most in accordance with the Babylonian idea of “sealing sins,” the presence of the word “to seal” in the last clause of the verse makes it more probable that the marginal readings are due to the conjectures of some early critics, rather than that they once stood in the text. However, it must be observed that while St. Jerome translates the passage “ut consummetur praevaricatio, et finem habeat peccatum,” Theodotion supports the marginal reading “to seal.”

To make reconciliation—i.e., atonement. (Isaiah 6:7; Isaiah 27:9; Psalms 78:38.) The two previous clauses show that during the seventy weeks sin will cease. The prophet now brings out another side of the subject. There will be an abundance of forgiveness in store for those who are willing to receive it.

Everlasting righteousness.— A phrase not occurring elsewhere. The prophet seems to be combining the notions of “righteousness” and “eternity,” which elsewhere are characteristics of Messianic prophecy (Isaiah 46:13; Isaiah 51:5–8; Psalms 89:36; Daniel 2:44; Daniel 7:18; Daniel 7:27).

To Seal Up.— σφραγίσαι, Theodotion; συντελεσθῆναι, Septuagint; impleatur, Jerome; the translators' impression being that all visions and prophecies were to receive their complete fulfilment in the course of these seventy weeks. It appears, however, to be more consistent with the context to suppose that the prophet is speaking of the absolute cessation of all prophecy (Compare to 1 Corinthians 13:8.).

To anoint the most Holy.— The meaning of the sentence depends on the interpretation of the words “Most Holy” or “Holy of Holies.” In Scripture they are used of:

1. The altar (Exodus 29:37);
2. The atonement (Exodus 30:10);
3. The tabernacle and the sacred furniture (Exodus 30:29);
4. The sacred perfume (Exodus 30:36);
5. The remnant of the meat offering (Leviticus 2:3; Leviticus 2:10);
6. All that touch the offerings made by fire (Leviticus 6:18);
7. The sin offering (Leviticus 10:17);
8. The trespass offering (Leviticus 14:13);
9. The shewbread (Leviticus 24:9);
10. Things devoted (Leviticus 27:28);
11. Various offerings (Numbers 18:9);
12. The temple service and articles connected with it, or perhaps Aaron (1 Chronicles 23:13);
13. The limits of the new temple (Ezekiel 43:12);
14. The sanctuary of the new temple (Ezekiel 45:3);
15. The territory set apart for the sons of Zadok (Ezekiel 48:2).

Which of these meanings is to be adopted here can only be determined from the context. Now, from the careful way this verse and the following one are connected by the words “Know therefore,” it appears that the words “most Holy” are parallel to “Messiah the Prince” (Daniel 9:25), and that they indicate a person. (1 Chronicles 23:13.)

This was the opinion of the Syriac translator, who translates the words as “Messiah the most Holy.” It was also the view of the Septuagint translators, who used εὐφρᾶναι ἃγιον ἁγίων; it has been remarked that εὐφρᾶναι would have no meaning if applied to a place, and the phrase used in this version for the sanctuary is invariably τὸ ἃγιον τῶν ἁγίων. Any reference to Zerubbabel’s temple, or to the dedication of the temple by Judas Maccabeus, is contrary to the context.