Is there a gap between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel?

[Dave Slayer]

Is there a gap of two thousand (or more) years between the 69th and 70th week of the prophecy in Daniel? Many Christians believe the 70th week comes during the 7 year tribulation. But what is Biblical?

 

[wavy]

Short answer: no.


Thanks,
Eric

 

[Dave Slayer]

Short answer: no.


Thanks,
Eric

May I ask what the long answer is?

 

[wavy]

The long answer is that Daniel's chronology is approximated to the passage of time between the word of Jerusalem's restoration during the Babylonian Exile in the 6th century B.C. (Jeremiah xxx.1, 18) and events in the 2nd Century B.C.

Within this time frame, the events the author describes find perfect correspondence with the suppression of Jewish religion by oppressive Hellenization under Antiochus Epiphanes. At the 69th week an anointed one is cut off/murdered (the high priest Onias III) in 171 B.C. (Josephus, Antiq. Book xii.237), which began the 70th week in Daniel's Chronology. Antiochus made a covenant around 167 B.C. (corresponding with Daniel's middle of the 70th week) with Hellenized Jews (see 1Maccabees i.11-15; Antiq. xii.240), but then betrayed them and ransacked the city (1Maccabees i.29-31; Antiq. xii.248-49), burned and destroyed much of it (1Maccabees i.30, 31; Antiq. xii.252), ended Jewish sacrifice (1Maccabees i.44-45; Antiq. xii.251), and then erected the 'abomination' the book of Daniel speaks of (1Maccabees i.54; Antiq. xii.253).

This matches Daniel's chronology just fine.


Thanks,
Eric

 

[Dave Slayer]

The long answer is that Daniel's chronology is approximated to the passage of time between the word of Jerusalem's restoration during the Babylonian Exile in the 6th century B.C. (Jeremiah xxx.1, 18) and events in the 2nd Century B.C.

Within this time frame, the events the author describes find perfect correspondence with the suppression of Jewish religion by oppressive Hellenization under Antiochus Epiphanes. At the 69th week an anointed one is cut off/murdered (the high priest Onias III) in 171 B.C. (Josephus, Antiq. Book xii.237), which began the 70th week in Daniel's Chronology. Antiochus made a covenant around 167 B.C. (corresponding with Daniel's middle of the 70th week) with Hellenized Jews (see 1Maccabees i.11-15; Antiq. xii.240), but then betrayed them and ransacked the city (1Maccabees i.29-31; Antiq. xii.248-49), burned and destroyed much of it (1Maccabees i.30, 31; Antiq. xii.252), ended Jewish sacrifice (1Maccabees i.44-45; Antiq. xii.251), and then erected the 'abomination' the book of Daniel speaks of (1Maccabees i.54; Antiq. xii.253).

This matches Daniel's chronology just fine.

Thanks,
Eric

That makes sense to me. But why do some teach the 70th week doesn't come until two thousand or more years later? Where is their Biblical proof?

 

[wavy]

That makes sense to me. But who do some teach the 70th week doesn't come until two thousand or more years later? Where is their Biblical proof?

Because they're trying to interpret the prophecy in Christian hindsight. Firstly, they insert Jesus into the context. Some prophecy buffs try to calculate Daniel's time frame so that it ends down to the year with Jesus' death in the 69th week (the anointed one spoken of) sometime in the early 30's CE. But that's where things get tricky for them and then all of a sudden the last week in the 70 weeks of years is no longer literal. If the prophecy referred to Jesus and the weeks of years were contiguous all the way through, then the events described in verses 26-27 should have occurred within seven years after Jesus died.

...But they didn't. So to salvage their reading of Jesus into the passage, they mentally interpolate an unjustified hiatus that continues indefinitely and which doesn't end until the events in verses 26-27 happen some time in the future (2000 years and still counting), which many Christians believe are prophecies of the Anti-Christ's actions. But the events in verses 26-27 aren't going to happen in the future. They already did.


Thanks,
E.L.B.

 

[Dave Slayer]

That makes sense to me. But who do some teach the 70th week doesn't come until two thousand or more years later? Where is their Biblical proof?

Because they're trying to interpret the prophecy in Christian hindsight. Firstly, they insert Jesus into the context. Some prophecy buffs try to calculate Daniel's time frame so that it ends down to the year with Jesus' death in the 69th week (the anointed one spoken of) sometime in the early 30's CE. But that's where things get tricky for them and then all of a sudden the last week in the 70 weeks of years is no longer literal. If the prophecy referred to Jesus and the weeks of years were contiguous all the way through, then the events described in verses 26-27 should have occurred within seven years after Jesus died.

...But they didn't. So to salvage their reading of Jesus into the passage, they mentally interpolate an unjustified hiatus that continues indefinitely and which doesn't end until the events in verses 26-27 happen some time in the future (2000 years and still counting), which many Christians believe are prophecies of the Anti-Christ's actions. But the events in verses 26-27 aren't going to happen in the future. They already did.


Thanks,
E.L.B.

Thanks, that helps!

God Bless!