! ! ! LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

! ! The 70 Weeks of Daniel: Survey of the Interpretive Views

! ! Submitted to Dr. Guest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course.

! ! OBST 520 - D10 Old Testament Orientation II

! ! by

! Jonathan Esterman December 8, 2013


! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Copyright © 2013, Jonathan Esterman. !All rights reserved. No portion of this article may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or !transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, !scanning, or other - except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior !written permission of the publisher. !Published by Scripted Genius. Visit us online at scriptedgenius.com.


Table of Contents Abstract

4

Introduction

5

Daniel 9:24-27

6

Context

6

Historical and Cultural Context

6

Literary Context

8

Block Diagram

10

Survey of Interpretive Viewpoints

12

Literal Years Viewpoint

12

End of Time Viewpoint

13

Symbolic Timeline Viewpoint

13

Conclusion

14

Bibliography

16

!

!4 Abstract The differing interpretative views of the Seventy Weeks prophecy of Daniel 9 have been a hotbed of contention and debate among theologians and scholars for decades. This paper establishes the criteria of evaluation and interpretation that one must take in regards to historical context, cultural context, and literary context, in order to determine the most likely translation of the manuscript, analyzed by phrasing a block diagram. Then, using the contexts and blocks determined, the paper surveys the different interpretative views of the prophecy and determines which ones are valid for interpretation, as well as which ones are not, in hopes to establish which interpretative view of the Seventy Weeks prophecy is, in fact, the correct one. This paper will, at conclusion, leave the reader with an exhaustive evaluation and survey of the different interpretative views of the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks in light of context, translation, and historical value.

! !

!5 Introduction The Bible is chock full of prophetical words, most of which is still under debate as to if the prophecies in question have occurred or not and if the prophecy in question is still relevant to believers and theologians today. One well-conversed prophecy is that of the Seventy Weeks, found in the Book of Daniel, and Old Testament apocalyptic text. This paper seeks to establish the different views formed throughout the years regarding this debated prophecy by examining a wide variety of academic journals and commentaries written throughout the last century. In doing so, the paper will clearly define the strengths and weaknesses, as well as validity, of each popular interpretive view of this prophecy. Prior to surveying the differing viewpoints of interpretation, however, this paper will first establish the historical, cultural, and literary context that this prophecy should be read in consideration of, as well as analyze the text verse by verse, forming a basic block diagram of the text. In consideration of the defined contexts to consider, as well as a block diagram that visualizes the small section of Scripture for analysis of sentence structure, the different views can be considered in light of most recent understandings and teachings. It should be noted, that for the purposes of this research paper, the English Standard Version will be utilized, a version that is considered to be functionally, or dynamically, equivalent translation that provides a near word-for-word translation of the original manuscript in possession while maintaining a modern understanding and usage of the language being translated to.1 In this regard, the translation will not be a point of discussion or debate in this  

1!

Craig L. Blomberg and Jennifer Foutz Markley, A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010), 39.

!6 paper, and only the context in which to interpret the translation, as well as the differing viewpoints. This paper will, at conclusion, leave the reader with an exhaustive evaluation and survey of the different interpretative views of the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks in light of context, translation, and historical value. Daniel 9:24-27 Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty- two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixtytwo weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.

!

Context Historical and Cultural Context!

One large challenge that readers face in light of Old Testament prophecy is the historical and cultural context in which the prophecy must be interpreted. Many will read a prophecy out of context and find far too many the applications and uses for the prophecy. However, when context is considered, the options of interpretation are more limited and refined, and particulars of the prophecy tend to make more sense. As with most of the Bible, reading prophecies out of context “can seem like listening to one side of a phone conversation or reading an e-mail addressed to

!7 someone else.”2 By learning the context into which the prophecy most aptly fits, such as  

“understanding the relevant aspects of the social atmosphere as the authors and the audience of Scripture would have understood them,”3 the reader “will then be equipped to discover  

comparable…applications of those principles.”4 Particular aspects to pay special attention to is  

the history that led up to the text, such as the date, author, recipients, and historical events that may have affected the writing, as well as history in play at the same time as the text, such as social relationships, political systems, and cultural values.5  

In the case of the Book of Daniel, readers are presented with several key parts to help provide a fuller understanding. The historical context in which one finds Daniel in is about the time of 538-537 B.C., the first year of the reign of Darius. At that time, there was a prophesy of a seventy year period of captivity by Jeremiah that was nearing its completion. The captivity was the result of Israel failing to obey the Word of the Lord, provided by the prophets, and the failure to give the land its sabbatical rests. Thusly, Israel was scattered until the land received its cumulative sabbatical rests. Daniel had, at this point in history, recognized that the time was nearing completion and realized that Israel still needed to confess and repent.6 To achieve this,  

Daniel petitioned on behalf of Israel, and during his moment of prayer, the angel Gabriel appeared to provide the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. The result was the return of Israel being

2!

Blomberg and Markely, 62.

3!

Ibid., 63.

4!

Ibid.

5!

Ibid., 67.

6! 6!

Harold W. Hoehner. "Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. Part Vi, Daniel's Seventy Weeks and New Testament Chronology." Bibliotheca sacra 132, no. 525 (1975), 47-48.

!8 delayed from the end of the Seventy Years to the end of the Seventy Weeks.7 In summation, it is  

critical to note during interpretation the events that Daniel had experienced in regards to captivity, as well as they delay of the restoration to a time when the Messiah would return.8  

Literary Context!

To understand the impact of literary context, the reader must recognize that there are circles of contextual relationships. These circles represent the lens in which one should compare context. The first circle is the immediate context within the biblical book - the verses preceding and after the amount in question.9 In the case of the Seventy Weeks prophecy, this is Daniel  

9:20-27, since Daniel 10:1 takes place at a different point in time. The preceding verses help provide the historical context needed for understanding. The next circle of context is the paragraph and/or series of paragraphs containing the text.10 This should be 9:1-27, which again  

gives historical context to consider, as well as immediately preceding events already covered in this paper. Moving on would be the following contextual circles: surrounding chapters, main section of the book, entire contents of the book, other biblical writings of the author, and other books in the Old Testament by a different author.11 Thus, to fully understand the situation in  

Daniel, the reader should not only be aware of the time and culture Daniel lived in during his

7!

Thomas C. Oden, Michael Glerup and Kenneth Stevenson. Ezekiel, Daniel. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008, 266. 8!

Ibid.

9!

Blomberg and Markely, 94.

10 !

Ibid.

11 !

Ibid.

!9 writing, but also Daniel’s style of writing, so as to not misread the intention of the prophecy.12  

An important detail to note of Daniel’s style of writing is that there are two different components in play. In the immediate context, there is a prayer of Daniel that leads to the verses in question, a revelation. Thus, it can be considered that the style of writing may potentially change from recording a prayer to recording a prophecy.13 This ninth chapter of Daniel has  

received recognition for its style, being considered the “backbone” of prophecy and the “key” to prophetic interpretation.14 The context to be considered, overall, is that of a narrative. Boice  

points out that at the end of chapter eight, Daniel is physically ill from attempting to interpret the visions given to him. As a result of this illness, as recorded in chapter nine, Daniel turned to studying the Torah and prayer as his mode of recovery.15 The Book of Daniel is considered,  

overall, to be an apocalyptic book.16 The basic concept to this is that the prophecies contained  

within tell of the end of the times of the kingdom of man and the replacement by G-d’s own kingdom.17 There is, nevertheless, debate on if the entire book should be considered apocalyptic  

literature, or historical catalog.18 This gap between the understandings also lends to a difference  

12 !

Ibid., 92.

! James 13

Montgomery Boice. Daniel: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003, 95. 14 !

Ibid., 96.

15 !

Ibid.

! 16

William Sanford LaSor, David Allan Hubbard, and Frederic William Bush, Old Testament: The Message, Form, and Background (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), loc. 10748. Kindle Edition. 17 !

Ibid.

18 !

Ibid., 10755.

!10 in interpretations of the prophecy of weeks. It is generally agreed by all opponents, however, that the term “weeks” in v. 24 is essentially equivalent to the term “sevens,” and by this comparison, the term “sevens” no longer applies to weeks but rather to years.19 There are no events in which  

490 days or weeks would apply.20 On a basic time inference, it could be considered that the  

period of time on the Jewish calendar was based off Shabbat. There would be six years of toil of the land, then one year of rest. Since the prophecy Daniel ponders in the beginning of Daniel 9 is regarding the years of exile due to failure to provide the “sevens” rest, it could be applied that the seventy “sevens” more accurately translate to sets of years, with the six of labor and one of rest presenting on set of “sevens.”21 The exact interpretation of this for the timeline of the prophecy,  

however, is hotly debated, and reserved for the interpretative views. The next logical point, therefore, is to dissect the text. Block Diagram It is an important part of understanding the intended translation of a text to go through a process known as phrasing. This process allows the reader to evaluate the text and determine how the translation best fits.22 This is valid for both Hebrew (Old Testament) manuscripts and  

translations and Greek (New Testament) manuscripts and translations. Thus, here is one version of a phrasing of the prophecy, termed as a block diagram: 19 ! George Athas.

"In Search of the Seventy 'Weeks' of Daniel 9." The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9, no. 2 (2009), 4. ! 20

Hoehner, 50.

21 ! Stephen

R. Miller, Daniel, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, The New American Commentary, vol. 18 (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 1994), 252. 22 !

William D. Mounce, Greek of the Rest of Us: Using Greek Tools Without Mastering Biblical Greek (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 61.

!11 24

25

26

Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty- two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty- two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come

!12

27

!

shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. Survey of Interpretive Viewpoints Literal Years Viewpoint!

This view interprets the years as literal years, beginning with the initial Babylonian exile. A set of “sevens” would indicate seven years, and therefore seventy sevens would imply 490 years. The largest challenge to this viewpoint is the end of the 490 years would place close to

!13 163 B.C. Historically, the timelines match historical events to a fair degree of accuracy, but place Antiochus as the persecutor, which does not align with the ending of sacrifice.23 There are  

several close semblances with dating in this viewpoint, but a conflicting issue regarding the ending of sacrifice, which continued until the Temple was destroyed near 70 A.D. End of Time Viewpoint!

This view interprets the years as a form of literal years. The time of the 490 years starts around 445 B.C. and ends with the Messianic Kingdom. Seven sevens, or forty-nine years, brings the ministry of Malachi and the career of Nehemiah to a close. The next section, sixty-two sevens, a whopping 434 years, starts at that point and ends with the Advent, or the first coming of the Messiah. At this point, a cumulative 483 years of the 490 years have passed. The final set of seven, seven years, is indicative of the reign of the Antichrist, which has yet to pass.24 The  

largest inconsistent with this viewpoint, despite its popularity among evangelical Christians, is the unmeasured gap of time between the first coming of the Messiah and the start of the reign of the Antichrist. This concept aligns with traditional Jewish thought of the prophecy, indicating that some of the events described in the latter part of the prophetic words could only occur in a Messianic age.25  

Symbolic Timeline Viewpoint!

This viewpoint considers the seventy sevens to be symbolic periods of time instead of actual amounts of time. In this view, there are three periods: (i) from the exile until the rebuilding of the Temple, (ii) from the rebuilding of the Temple until the arrival of the Messiah, and (iii) ! 23

Miller, 253-254.

24 !

John MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005), 962.

25 !

F. F. Bruce, ed. New International Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979), 864.

!14 from the birth of the Christ until sometime just prior to 70 A.D., when the Temple was destroyed.26 There are several issues with this viewpoint. General consensus has been to have a  

someone-literal viewpoint of the seventy sevens. In this consideration, however, the first set of sevens would be approximately twenty years, the next sixty-two sevens being close to six years each, and the last set of sevens being mostly undefined, representing a range of when Y’shua was born to when the Temple was destroyed.27 If the reader were to analyze the prophecy in a literary  

context, it would be easy to determine that since specific timeframes were provided in Daniel’s prayer and subsequent vision, that the seventy sevens must represent an exact measurement of time. Conclusion It is clear that this prophecy of the Seventy Weeks has been debated as a point of contention in biblical interpretation. This paper did not include all the interpretative viewpoints in existence concerning this prophecy. There are, in fact, additional viewpoints. However, for the purposes of this survey, it is important to view the most likely, or most researched, viewpoints. Additional viewpoints are not a consideration of actual valid interpretation, just as like pseudo epigraphical extra biblical texts are beyond the validity of being inspired and worthy of canonization for the same reasoning: if the reader examines the interpretations/works, it is clearly evidence the problems that are presented that challenge the rest of biblical interpretation. In all, there are truly only two viewpoints to argue for potentially valid method of interpretation: a literal interpretation and an apocalyptic interpretation.

26 !

Miller, 254-255.

27 !

Ibid.

!15 While a literal interpretation does have the struggles with sacrifices not ending by the end of the 490 years, the view lends to fit in line with the context and translation of the rest of the Book of Daniel. In comparison, an apocalyptic translation includes a rather large, unexplained, gap in time to accommodate the current era of existence. This is a grand departure from traditional interpretation of the rest of the Book of Daniel. A point of conjecture, though, is that the Messiah is cited as comparing seventy sevens to represent the end of time.28 Nevertheless,  

one should consider that the term “anointed one” was not considered a technical term for the coming Messiah at the time of the writing of the prophecy, when directs back to the importance of literary context.29  

Thusly, the two remaining viewpoints can be rendered potentially valid and potentially invalid at the same time, leaving the reader the same issue theologians have faced over the years: how to determine which viewpoint is correct and explanatorily dismiss all potential room for error. 


28 !

See Matthew 18:21-22.

29 ! Paul

1994.

M. Lederach. Daniel. Believers Church Bible Commentary. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press,

Bibliography Athas, George. "In Search of the Seventy 'Weeks' of Daniel 9." The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9, no. 2 (2009). Blomberg, Craig L. and Jennifer Foutz Markley. A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010. Boice, James Montgomery. Daniel: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003. Bruce, F. F., ed. New International Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979. Hoehner, Harold W. "Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. Part Vi, Daniel's Seventy Weeks and New Testament Chronology." Bibliotheca sacra 132, no. 525 (1975): 47-65. LaSor, William Sanford, David Allan Hubbard and Frederic William Bush. Old Testament: The Message, Form, and Background. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996. Kindle Edition. Lederach, Paul M. Daniel. Believers Church Bible Commentary. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1994. MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Bible Commentary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005. Miller, Stephen R. Daniel. Vol. 18 The New American Commentary, Edited by E. Ray Clendenen. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 1994. Mounce, William D. Greek of the Rest of Us: Using Greek Tools Without Mastering Biblical Greek. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003. Oden, Thomas C., Michael Glerup and Kenneth Stevenson. Ezekiel, Daniel. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008.