Daniel 9:24-27 speaks of events that are to take place within 70 weeks. I will now place the events of this chapter in a historical context, accepting the common interpretation of exegetes that one day here corresponds to one year—an interpretation not unknown in the Bible.
Daniel 9:24-27
24 Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people… 25 So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress.
Since one day here corresponds to one year, 70 weeks are 490 years. The decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem refers to that of Artaxerxes I in 458 BCE (Ezra 7). From 458 BCE, 483 years (7 weeks and 62 weeks) into the future, we end up in the year 26 CE. In 26 CE, Jesus Christ, who is the Messiah, was baptized and thus began his ministry.
26 Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing.
It says that the Messiah will be “cut off” and “have nothing” after 62 weeks. Since the first 7 weeks (49 years) are considered to have passed, the counting now begins from 409 BCE instead of 458 BCE. In 409 BCE the completion of the “Restoration of Jerusalem” may have taken place. From 409 BCE, we thus go 434 years (62 weeks) into the future and arrive again in 26 CE, the year Jesus was baptized. “Cut off” means that Israel will reject the Messiah. Shortly after Jesus began his ministry, the Jews tried to throw him off a hill to kill him (Luke 4:28-30). “Have nothing” means that the Messiah’s own family will abandon him and that he will be poor. Jesus’ family distanced themselves from him (Matt 13:57), and he was homeless (Matt 8:20).
26 And the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. 27 And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.
The prince in verse 26 is the Roman commander Titus, who with his Roman soldiers destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE. The first half of verse 27 refers to Jesus the Messiah who made a new covenant with many (Matt 26:28). That Jesus will end the Temple service in the middle of the 70th week refers to his crucifixion, which ended the old covenant (Mark 15:38). Half of a year-week is 3.5 years. Jesus began his ministry at the end of 26 CE and was crucified after 3.5 years in the spring of 30 CE. The second half of verse 27, however, again refers to Titus the destroyer of Jerusalem.
Summary
- 458 BCE - Decree to rebuild Jerusalem and start of the 70 weeks
- 409 BCE - End of the first 7 weeks
- 26 CE - Jesus, the Messiah, begins his ministry at the beginning of the 70th week
- 30 CE - Jesus is crucified in the middle of the 70th week
- 66 CE - First Jewish-Roman War begins
- 70 CE - Titus destroys Jerusalem and the Temple