Day of the Lord Series: Three Major Interpretative Approaches to the Seventy Weeks of Daniel

As we have noted in our previous classes, there are many day of the Lord prophecies which will be fulfilled during the seventieth week of Daniel (Zeph. 1:14; Joel 2:1; 2:11, 31; 3:14; Zechariah 14:1-2; Is. 13:6-16; Acts 2:20; 1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Thess. 2:2).

Most students of the Bible and in particular biblical prophecy know, the prophecy of the seventieth week of Daniel helps to compose the prophecy of the seventy weeks which is recorded in Daniel 9:24-27.

Daniel 9:24 “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. 25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” (NIV 84)

There are three major interpretative approaches with regards to the prophecy of the seventy weeks in Daniel 9:24-27.

These different approaches can be classified into two categories: (1) Christological (2) non-Christological.

The “non-Christological” approach is also called the “Liberal interpretation” and does not take Scripture as literal prophecy whereas the “Christological” view does.

The liberal interpretation or “non-Christological” view does not believe Daniel 9:24-27 is a prophecy of the Messiah.

They argue that Daniel was written in the second century B.C. which means that they view the book of Daniel as being written after all the historical events prophesied had come to pass.

Therefore, they view the entire book of Daniel as representing the author’s (not Daniel) interpretation of past history.

This “non-Christological” group believe the fulfillment of Daniel 9:24-27 is found in the events that led up to the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes IV in the second century B.C.

Those who adhere to this view of interpreting Daniel 9:24-27 include John E. Goldingay, R.E. Brown, J.A. Fitmyer, James A. Montgomery, F.F. Bruce and J. H. Walton to name a few.

The “Christological” interpretation is divided into two groups.

Both approaches view the first sixty-nine weeks as literal.

They both accept Daniel 9:25-26 as a prophecy of the Messiah.

However, they differ over the seventieth week.

One group views the seventieth week as fulfilled already in history and immediately follows the sixty-ninth week and they interpret the “he” in Daniel 9:27 as a reference to the Messiah or Christ and not the Antichrist.

Those who do not see a gap between these two weeks include Albert Barnes, Joyce Baldwin, John Calvin, John Gill, Matthew Henry, C.F. Keil, F. Delitzsch, E.J. Young and H.C. Leupold.

Most of these writers are “amillennial” and thus do not believe in the one-thousand-year reign of the Messiah on earth.

The other camp in the Christological interpretive school argues that the seventieth week will be fulfilled in the future.

Thus, those who contend the seventieth week is yet future believe there is a gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week and thus there is a postponement of the fulfillment of the seventieth week at this present time in history.

Those who view a gap between Daniel 9:26 and 27 include Sir Robert Anderson, Gleason Archer, Donald Campbell, Thomas Constable, Robert Culver, Thomas Ice, H.A. Ironside, William Kelly, Alva McClain, Dwight Pentecost, Randall Price, John Walvoord, John Whitcomb and Leon Wood to name a few.

Primarily dispensationalists and premillennialists hold to this view.

Dispensationalists and premillennialists believe that the Second Advent of Christ precedes the millennium and in the literal bodily one-thousand-year reign of the Messiah in planet earth.

They believe the Scriptures teach there is a distinction between Israel and the church.

They contend that the “he” in Daniel 9:27 is a reference to the Antichrist and not the Messiah.

They also believe in the literal, grammatical, historical method of interpretation.

They hold to a normal literal interpretation.

Those in this school of interpretation usually consider the seventy weeks as weeks of years and thus 490 prophetic years.

They do not consider these seventy weeks as weeks of days.

Conservative scholars generally feel the time units are years however those who are amillennial resist this idea since it does not conform to their other views.

In the Hebrew text of Daniel 9:24, the phrase “seventy weeks” literally reads, “seventy sevens,” which refers to years and “not” days as clearly indicated through a comparison of Scripture with Scripture.

First of all, Daniel was reading Jeremiah’s prophecy regarding Israel’s Babylonian exile, which was to last 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10-14).

Furthermore, 2 Chronicles 36:21 speaks of Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning the Babylonian exile and it indicates quite clearly that the exile would last 70 years.

These 70 weeks in Daniel 9:24 cannot possibly be 70 weeks in the ordinary, literal sense or 490 days for the number has an obvious relation to the 70 years of Jeremiah’s prophecy in Jeremiah 25:11 and 2 Chronicles 36:21.

Finally, the context clearly indicates that Daniel is referring to years and not days since Daniel 9:2 indicates that Jeremiah’s prophecy of Israel’s Babylonian captivity would be 70 years.

The 70 years of captivity were the specific penalty for violating 70 sabbatic years, which would be 70 sevens, a total of 70 years.

Seven days are in one week and every seventh year was a Sabbath rest and seventy sevens brought them to the year of Jubilee which is noted in Leviticus 25:8-12.

The provisions for the land’s Sabbath rest are recorded in detail in Leviticus 25:2-4, 26:32-35, 43 but in those 490 years, Israel had violated exactly 70 sabbatic years so they would go into captivity for 70 years to make amends.

The 490 could not designate days (about 1 1/3 years) for that would not be enough time for the events prophesied by Daniel 9:24-27 to occur and the same is true of 490 weeks of seven days each (i.e. 3,430 days, about 9 ½ years).

Also if days were intended one would expect Daniel to have added the phrase “of days” after “70 sevens” for in Daniel 10:2-3 he wrote literally, “three sevens of days”.

Also, it is important to understand that the length of a prophetic year was “not” 365 days but rather 360 days since the solar year, which we live by, of 365.25 days was unknown to the nations in the Old Testament but the Jewish year of biblical times was lunar-solar and had only 360 days.

This is borne out in Revelation in John’s vision of the Great Tribulation period since it describes the last 3 ½ years as precisely 1260 days (Rev. 12:6) and “forty-two months” of 30 days each (13:5).

The “time, times and half a time” in Daniel 7:25 corresponds to these two passages in Revelation.

Therefore, the “seventy weeks of Daniel” refer to 490 prophetic years of 360 days.