This post is one of three in a debate I had with a Facebook friend.

Resolved: Biblical prophecy offers evidence for God

I will not be considering modern interpretations, nor how these passages may address yet future eschatology.  Instead , I will focus on two aspects: First, attempt to understand passage as Biblical Israelites and Second Temple Judaism would have understood it. Second, argue they would have had what scholars call an “already, but not yet” perspective of prophecy, which I will explain shortly. 

With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls combined with other ancient sources (such as 1 Enoch, The Book of Jubilees, and The Assumption of Moses) we can assert with confidence that the Jewish Essenes, Pharisees, and Zealots believed they could date, or approximately date, the coming of the Messiah, the Son of David, based on Daniel’s 70 weeks. In Daniel 9 the prophet was praying for the people of Israel while they were in Babylonian captivity.  His prayer concerns the people’s past failure to keep the Law of Moses, and the Sabbatical rest of the land which occurred once every seven years.  During this time all sowing in the fields and pruning in the vineyards ceased, allowing the land time to nurture.  As Daniel was praying the angel Gabriel appeared and told Daniel when the people would return to their promised land. The text reads:

“Seventy weeks have been determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holy of Holies.  So you are to know and have insight that from the going out of a word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be restored and rebuilt, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, 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 decreed. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will make sacrifice and grain offering cease; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.” (Daniel 9:24-27 LSB)

The passage states that for “your people” (the Jews) and “your holy city” (Jerusalem) six things would happen following the promised 70 weeks:

1. Finish transgression. 
2. End of sin. 
3. Atonement for iniquity. 
4. Bring in everlasting righteousness. 
5. To seal up vision and prophecy. 
6. Anoint the Holy of Holies. 

The beginning of the 70 weeks were to start with the “word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem”.  69 weeks later “Messiah will be cut off and have nothing”. After that a “prince” will come and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple.  Then will come the 70th week when another Temple is built with sacrifices, and an “abomination” will make “desolation” in this Temple. 

The Hebrew word מָשִׁ֣יחַ (māšîaḥ) means Anointed One or Messiah. Likewise, the Greek Septuagint of Daniel uses the word χριστοῦ (Christ), which is Greek for Anointed One or Christ.  The Jewish people originally understood the 70 weeks referenced the coming Messiah.  It was not until after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD that some Jewish interpreters accepted a non-Messianic understanding of the passage.  Even Theodotion, a Hellenistic Jewish scholar who revised the Septuagint in 150 AD, uses χριστοῦ ἡγουμένου the Anointed One, the Ruler/Prince.  From the second century BC through first century AD Jews had Messiah in mind and attempted to set various dates of His arrival based on Daniel 9. 

The “seventy weeks” are not weeks of 7 days but of years. The Hebrew שָׁבֻעִ֨ים (sabuim) simply means a group of sevens.  We first find it used in Genesis 29 where Jacob agrees to work for Laban for a “week” to obtain Rachel as his wife, but this “week” is a week of years (Genesis 29:27).  Based on the context of Daniel 9, the original Jewish  readers would have instantly understood these to be years because of Leviticus 25:8 which states: “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years.” It was their constant disobedience to this Levitical Law that led to their captivity in Babylon and Daniel’s prayer.  This is not contested among scholars.  The “seventy weeks” would therefore equal 490 years.  These sets are divided into three groups: 7 sabuim (49 years), 62 sabuim (434 years), and 1 sabuim (7 years), equaling 70 sabuim (490 years). Because they are divided into groups they would not necessarily have considered them to be consecutive.

We have sound reason to think that this is exactly how Second Temple Jews would have understood Daniel 9:24-27, as seen in the following:

• Jesus and New Testament writers spoke of this as future.
• The Essenes gave a period of 490 years.
• The Pharisees gave a period of 490 years.
• The Zealots gave a period of 490 years.
• The Jewish and Samaritan people of the early first century A.D. were expecting the imminent coming of Messiah

All of the above groups would have known Jewish history and could have and did calculate when Messiah would come based on Daniel’s prophecy. Leaving only the Hellenistic Jews, those who were influenced by Greek culture, who viewed Daniel as non-Messianic.  

Historically, the Jewish captivity in Babylon began in 605 B.C. In 171 B.C. the beloved and faithful High Priest, Onias III was murdered by Andronicus and Menelaus as recorded in 2 Maccabees 4:30-33.  The High Priest was considered God’s “anointed” and his “cutting off” or put to death occurred in 171 B.C.  This would have been considered a historical fulfillment of the passage; 605 B.C. minus 434 years (62 weeks) equals 171 B.C.  Seven years later in 164 B.C. the Greek king Antiochus IV invaded Jerusalem, entered the Jewish Temple, erected a statue of the god Zeus, and sacrificed a pig on the altar of incense.  Thus, fulfilling the “abomination” mentioned in Daniel 9:27.

However, this is where the “already, but not yet” perspective comes into play.  While all of the above (Jesus, the New Testament writers, the Essenes, the Pharisees, the Zealots, and the Jewish people in general) would have known the historical events, they also saw a future event not yet fulfilled.  In our modern western thought we tend to view given prophecies and time as linear (from point A to point B).  But in ancient eastern thought prophecies and time are more circular (point A to point B back to point A and repeat).  An example of this is found in Luke 4:14-30 when Jesus reads from Isaiah 61, but only reads half of the text, stops and says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” allowing for the remainder of the text to yet be fulfilled.  Likewise, the text of Daniel (vs. 24) has historical typology with more to come. This is seen in the following groups of Second Temple Judaism. 

Jesus and New Testament writers:

The Gospel writers record Jesus stating that the 70 weeks would conclude when the “abomination of desolation” spoken by Daniel occurred (Mark 13:14; Matthew 24:15; Luke 21:20; Daniel 9:27). Therefore, Jesus saw Daniel’s prophecy as “already” (having knowledge of Jewish history) as well as “but not yet.”  Likewise, in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 we are told that the Day of the Lord (return of Christ) would not come until “the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition” (vs. 3).  Regardless of when or who wrote various books of the New Testament it is clear that by the first century AD early Christians (Jews and Gentiles) saw Daniel as future prophecy.  The “already, but not yet.”  Or, as Jesus reminded us, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18 ESV).

The Essenes:

The Essenes were a large number of religious Jews who took a mystical approach towards Judaism. Although smaller in number than the Pharisees and Sadducees they still represented a large segment of the population and were scattered throughout Judaea.  Many scholars believe the Essenes were the primary contributors to the Dead Sea Scrolls, with Essenes leadership having left Jerusalem in protest over Temple issues, and set up a monistic society in Qumran near the Dead Sea.  It was in the caves of Qumran where the Scrolls were discovered.

Among the Scrolls were eight copies of the Book of Daniel, some dating as early as 125 B.C., making it one of the most biblical books included in the Scrolls.  In the non-biblical books of the Scrolls, Daniel 9:25 is referenced in the Melchizedek Document (11Q13) and the prophecy of the 70 weeks is calculated in the Book of Jubilees, Testament of Levi and the Pseudo-Ezekiel Document (4Q384-4Q390).  They dated events from the time of creation (Anna Mundi or A.M.) onward, believing the 70 weeks would conclude in 3920 A.M. or between 3 B.C. to 2 B.C. with the coming of the Messiah. This, of course, is approximately the time of the birth of Christ and may explain why the Gospel of Luke (2:22-40) mentions both Simeon and Anna as expecting the Messiah.  There is no doubt that the Essenes and those influenced by them were anticipating Messiah.  As Luke notes of Simeon, “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah” (Luke 2:26 NIV). 

The Pharisees:

The New Testament shows that the Pharisees were likewise expecting the Messiah.  The High Priest at Jesus’s crucifixion asks Jesus, “Are you the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the Blessed?” (Mark 14:61 c.f. Matthew 26:63 and Luke 22:67). The question is an allusion to Daniel 7:13-14, revealing that even at that moment the Book of Daniel was present.  

So we have Biblical evidence that the Pharisees anticipated the Messiah in the first century.  We also have extra-biblical evidence such as the Assumption of Moses, the book of 1 Enoch, and the later Seder Olam Rabbah, where the Pharisees viewed the coming Messiah after Daniel’s 70 weeks.  They took this to occur somewhere between 63 to 70 A.D.  This led the Pharisees to expect some sort of great intervention of God around the end of the first century B.C. and beginning of the first century A.D.  This, of course, would be in some agreement with the Essenes calculations and with the birth of Christ.  They began their calculation in what we would understand as 421 B.C., minus the 490 years/weeks taking us to 69-70 A.D.  While these are not precise dates, it reveals that the Pharisees were anticipating the coming of the Messiah in the first century A.D. and adds light to the High Priest’s question to Jesus.

The Zealots:

This group of Jewish radicals sought to overthrow the Roman government in Israel under the leadership of the conquering Messiah.  Josephus tells us that the Zealots agreed with the Pharisaic notions, mainly because they were founded by Judas of Galilee and Zodok the Pharisee.  Believing the warrior Messiah would come between the end of 69th week of Daniel and the end of the 70th week of Daniel, and calculating the beginning of Daniel’s 70 weeks to 421 B.C., led to the Zealot revolt in 66 A.D.  And, to their dismay, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D.  While we have the good fortune of hindsight, these were current events to first century Judaism.  And, although they had a different aspect of the Messiah, they none the less anticipated His coming within that century.  This again shows that Messiah was expected.

The Jews and Samaritans:

Finally, we see the expectations of Messiah within the pages of the New Testament.  Remembering that “Christ” is simply the Greek word for the Hebrew “Messiah”.  We know, as already mentioned, that Simeon and Anna were expecting the Messiah as recorded in Luke 2:22-40.  Matthew begins his Gospel stating, “the book of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah” and Mark, “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus the Messiah.”  Clearly the synoptic Gospels are written to proclaim that Jesus is the Messiah, something which could not have been proclaimed if the Messiah was not expected.  We can add John’s Gospel to this as well.  In John 1:41 Andrew finds his brother Simon and states, “We have found the Messiah”.  When Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well it is clear that she knew the Messiah would soon be coming because she states, “I know that Messiah is coming.  And when he comes he will explain everything to us” (John 4:25).  And, to remove all doubt, Jesus responds with, “I who am speaking to you am he” (John 4:26).  

This is why it comes as no surprise that all four Gospels not only call Jesus the Messiah, but shows us that the people of the first century were expecting the Messiah to come, and to come soon.  This is why, as recorded in all four Gospel accounts, the people of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus as King on what we know as Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-48; John 12:12-50), the week of His crucifixion.

Calculating the Messiah:

Why would they expect the Messiah to come in the first century?  There are two reasons:

• Jewish leaders were expecting the Messiah.
• The people knew their history, scriptures, and could count.

We have already seen the various groups, including Jewish religious leaders, anticipating the coming Messiah.  But the people would have been able to read for themselves (or at least have heard it read while at synagogue) that there were 490 years (70 weeks) predicted.  They would have known it to be divided into 49 years (7 weeks), 434 years (62 weeks), and 7 years (1 week).  They also would have known that the start of these 70 weeks was not the beginning of the Exile, but as Gabriel stated would start when the decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem was given.  

There are three candidates for this decree:  

• A decree by Cyrus in 538 B.C.
• A decree by Artaxerxes in 457 B.C.
• Second decree by Artaxerxes in 444 B.C.

While any of these dates would work when we recognize that not all of the weeks (years) need to be consecutive and that after the 69th week the Messiah would be “cut off” or killed.  But the text in Daniel is more precise and tells us that this decree includes both restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem including the building of the plaza and moat.  The date that matches this was 444 B.C.  This agrees with Nehemiah 2:1-8 where we are told in the Jewish month of Nisan (around our March/April) and in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes a decree was given that “the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me” (vs 8) so that Nehemiah and the people could rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. 

However, 444 B.C. minus 490 years would take us to 45 A.D. (remember there was no year 0).  And even if we take away the 70th week we would only end up with 38 A.D. (45 minus 7 equals 38).  This would be several years after Jesus was crucified.  But as you recall, that is thinking like 21st century westerners using the Julian or Gregorian calendars.  Our current way of calculating a year is 365 days in a year.  But that is not how Second Temple period Jews calculated a Jewish year.  And to correctly understand passages we have to think (and calculate) like Biblical Israelites and Second Temple Judaism may have thought and calculated.

Ancient people had a yearly calendar that consisted of 360 days per year using lunar years.  This is how the Babylonians, Persians, Indians, Egyptians, and Assyrians all calculated a year.  And it is how both Biblical Israelites and Second Temple Jews would have understood a year.  Not only because that is how other ancient nations understood a year, but how the Bible itself defines a yearIn Genesis 7:11 the text says that the flood began “in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month” and that it continued until the waters “receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the water had abated and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest” (Genesis 8:3-4).  This was a five month period.  150 days divided by 5 months is 30 days per month.  30 days times 12 months is 360 days.  Biblical Israelites would have known this.  As would Jewish New Testament believers born or living during the Second Temple period as they would have also had access to the book of Revelation.  In Revelation 11:2-3 it tells us of 42 months that equal 1,260 days.  When you divide 1,260 days by 42 months you end up with 30 days per month.

Second Temple period Jews would have known that a year consisted of 360 days as normally counted, it is conceivable that they would have applied this numbering system to Daniel’s 70 weeks.  This second decree of Artaxerxes occurred in the Jewish month of Nisan (March/April) 444 B.C. Using 360 days in a year and multiplying it by 483 years (7 weeks plus 62 weeks) we have 173,880 days (483 times 360).  When we subtract 173,880 days from the year Nisan 444 B.C. we arrive at the Jewish month of Nisan 33 A.D.  The Passover in 33 A.D. was celebrated on Nisan the 14th (a Friday), followed by the Sabbath.  This would have been the very day Jesus was crucified (Friday, Nisan 14th, 3793 AM, or same as April 3, 33 A.D. Julian, or same as April 1, 33 A.D. Gregorian), when the Messiah was cut off and explains why the people of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus as the Son of David, the Anointed King of the Jews, the Messiah.  

The six things mentioned earlier in Daniel 9 (end transgression, end of sins, atonement for iniquity, everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision and prophecy, and anoint the Most Holy Place) have their fulfillment in the work of Jesus Christ.  And, thinking like Second Temple Jews with “already, but not yet,” will have complete fulfillment (Matthew 5:18) at the return of Christ after the 70th week (Romans 11:25-27). 

Possible Objections:

Daniel was written after 164 BC.

We have no solid evidence that Daniel was written after the historical events between 171 BC with the death of Onias III and the abomination that occurred in the Temple in 164 BC.  In fact, this “after the events” view was only set forth because the events so closely match what historically happened.  Nevertheless, if one is to hold this view they must explain the following:

• The Jewish canon was closed by 400 B.C. as testified by Josephus (Contra Apion 1:7-8). This being the case one must offer historical evidence that Daniel was an exception.
• Daniel was included in the Jewish Greek translation of the Septuagint predating the death of Onias III.  This being so one must show that the Septuagint of Daniel was translated after 164 B.C.
• We have 8 copies of Daniel from the Dead Sea Scrolls which date from 125 B.C. allowing only a very brief period for Daniel to have been widely accepted if written in 164 B.C.  Since all Jews in the second century B.C. considered Daniel canonical and established Scripture how does one historically explain its unanimous acceptance in such short order.
• If Daniel were written during the Maccabean crises and added to the Jewish canon despite Josephus’s claim, why were the books of Maccabees and other Jewish literature not included?
• How does one address the fact that both the Hebrew and Aramaic in Daniel matche the Hebrew and Aramaic of the Babylonian captivity and not the Hebrew and Aramaic of the second and first centuries?   Daniel is written in ancient biblical Hebrew.  Most Jews by the second and first centuries B.C. no longer spoke biblical Hebrew but mostly spoke Aramaic, a sister language of Hebrew.  The Hebrew that was used during the later Second Temple Period was Mishanaic Hebrew found in rabbinic writings which changed sentence structure from verb-subject-objects (as in the Captivity and Daniel) to subject-verb-object (as found in second and first century Hebrew).  Likewise, the Aramaic in Daniel was “Imperial Aramaic” as was used in the Babylonian captivity, and not the common Aramaic found in Second Temple Judaism.

The Pharisees, Essenes, and Zealots did not have the exact same dates.

This is true.  But they did have the same general dates.  All three were anticipating the coming of the promised Messiah starting with His birth by the end of the first century BC and His ministry shortly afterwards.  This in itself is an amazing event and, based on Daniel, is why the Jews of Jesus’s Day were looking for the Messiah.

Jews added an extra month every few years so that it averaged out to 365 days not 360 days.

Again, this is true.  But it also is not relevant.  We have the historical data as to when the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was given.  We know that Biblical Israelites and Second Temple Jews would have calculated a possible year as 360 days based on Scripture (as well as how other cultures current to that time calculated a year).  And, the fact remains that 173,800 days from Nisan 444 B.C. takes us to Nisan 33 A.D. when Jesus was crucified.  Since the people of this time reckoned the coming Messiah during Passover Week 33 A.D. as seen by events on Palm Sunday, we are warranted in agreeing with their assessment.

The passage in Daniel 9 should be translated “an anointed one” and not “the Messiah.”

The Hebrew  מָשִׁ֣יחַ means “anointed” or literally “Messiah.”  The Greek Septuagint, translated by Second Temple Jews, reads τοῦ . . . χριστοῦ (the . . . Christ/Messiah).  It is clear from Second Temple Period literature that various Jewish religious groups understood Daniel 9 to reference the coming Messiah.  To this we can add Theodotion’s Septuagint revision of the second century AD which reads, χριστοῦ ἡγουμένου “the Anointed One, the Ruler/Prince.”  

Others have used Daniel to calculate the Messiah.

True.  Some have viewed Daniel and end up with either 27 A.D. (dating from 457 B.C.) or 30 A.D.  But my concern deals only with how the people of the Second Temple Period viewed Daniel’s prophecy and not modern interpretations.  Even if one of these other dating methods were correct, we are still left with the fact that Daniel foretold of the coming Messiah, which the people expected, and that after these dates (27 A.D. or 30 A.D.) Jesus the Messiah was “cut off” by dying on the cross.  Therefore, the prophecy stands.

Conclusion

Regardless of how one understands this prophecy it is clear from history that the majority of Second Temple Judaism were expecting the coming of Messiah at the very time of Christ. And, like the prophecy in Daniel 9, Jesus was “cut off” and died “having nothing.”  Yet, according to the Jewish writers of the New Testament, in so doing put an end to the spiritual effects of sin by purchasing our salvation.  And, as Jesus and Daniel predicted, the Second Temple was destroyed. 

With this evidence in place we have to conclude that either the dates, times, and events were amazingly coincidental; or the dates, times, and events were planned in advance in which case they were foretold and therefore offer evidence for God’s existence.  No matter how we understand these things, it is clear that the Jews of Jesus’ day saw the passage in Daniel as “already but not yet” as they anticipated the coming Prince, the Messiah in the first century A.D.