Daniel 9.25b-The End of the Sixty-Ninth Week
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday January 14, 2014
Daniel: Daniel 9:25-The End of the Sixty-Ninth Week
Lesson # 287
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 9:24.
Daniel 9:24 “Seventy units of seven years have been decreed for the benefit of your people as well as for the benefit of your holy city in order to put an end to the rebellion and in addition to bring sin to an end as well as to atone for iniquity likewise to bring about everlasting righteousness as well as to seal up prophetic vision and in addition to anoint the most holy place. 25 Therefore, please know, yes please carefully consider: From the issuing of the command to restore, yes to rebuild Jerusalem until an anointed one, a prince, there will be seven units of seven years and sixty-two units of seven years. It will be restored, yes it will be rebuilt with a public square as well as a defensive trench even during distressful times.” (My translation)
Daniel 9:25 “So you are to know and discern 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 plaza and moat, even in times of distress.” (NASB95)
“Until Messiah the Prince” is composed of the preposition ʿǎḏ (עַד) (ad), “until” and its object is the noun mā·šîaḥ (מָשִׁיחַ) (maw-shee´-akh), “Messiah” which is followed by the noun nā·ḡîḏ (נָגִיד) (naw-gheed´), “the Prince.”
The noun mā·šîaḥ means “anointed one, Messiah” and denotes someone who has been ceremonially anointed for an office.
In the Old Testament, three office bearers are expressly described as mashiach i.e. as anointed with oil: (1) Prophet (2) High priest (3) King.
The anointing of oil on the individual assigned by God to one of these offices signified that he was empowered by the Holy Spirit.
In the Old Testament, oil signified the presence and power of God the Holy Spirit, thus the Messiah or Christ was One Who was totally and completely guided and empowered by God the Holy Spirit.
The Messiah is characterized by permanent possession of the Spirit, which enables or empowers Him as the Messianic Ruler to reign with integrity and wisdom.
Messiahship has a four-fold significance: (1) Separation unto God. (2) Authorization from God. (3) Divine enablement. (4) The coming Deliverer.
In Daniel 9:25, the noun mā·šîaḥ is the object of the preposition ʿǎḏ, which denotes a continuous extent of time up to a point and is a temporal marker indicating that something occurs up to the time indicated by its object or sometimes during the time indicated by its object.
Here it indicates that there will be sixty-nine weeks elapsed or 483 prophetic years from the decree to restore Jerusalem “until” the Messiah, the Prince.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase indicates that the arrival and appearance of the Messiah marks the end of the sixty-ninth week or four hundred eighty-third prophetic year.
The root of this noun nā·ḡîḏ is best understood as a generic word indicating one who is a leader in a variety of societal roles.
Here in Daniel 9:25, the word means “leader, ruler, prince” since it refers to someone who is the highest authority and describes the anointed one, the Messiah as being the highest authority in Israel speaking of Him as being the ruler of the state of Israel.
“Seven weeks and sixty-two weeks” is composed of the masculine plural noun šā·ḇûaʿ (שָׁבוּעַ) (shaw-boo´-ah), “weeks” which is modified by the feminine singular form of the cardinal number šiḇ·ʿîm (שִׁבְעִים) (shib-eem´), “seven.”
The masculine plural noun šā·ḇûaʿ means “a unit of seven years” and is modified this time by the singular form of the cardinal number šiḇ·ʿîm, which means “seven.”
In verse 24, it was modifying this noun as well but in the plural and thus the two words meant “seventy units of seven years,” which equals 490 prophetic years, with a year being 360 days.
Here in verse 25, these two words mean “seven units of seven years” or 49 prophetic years with a year being 360 days according to the Jewish calendar.
“And sixty-two weeks” is composed of the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the masculine plural noun šā·ḇûaʿ (שָׁבוּעַ) (shaw-boo´-ah), “weeks” but this time it is modified by the masculine plural form of the cardinal number šiš·šîm (שִׁשִּׁים) (shish-sheem´) and then we have the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), which is not translated and followed by the masculine form of the dual number šenǎ·yim (שְׁנַיִם) (shen-ah´-yim), which altogether are translated “sixty-two.”
The conjunction wa is adjunctive meaning that it in addition to the “seven weeks” or “seven units of seven years” there will be “sixty-two weeks” or “sixty-two units of seven years” until Messiah the Prince arrives on the scene in Israel.
Then, once again we have the masculine plural noun šā·ḇûaʿ which again means “a unit of seven years” but this time it is modified by the cardinal number šiš·šîm, which means “sixty” which is followed by the conjunction wa which is joining the former with the dual number šenǎ·yim, which means “two.”
Therefore, these three words mean “sixty-two units of seven years” or “sixty-two weeks,” which is 434 prophetic years.
“Until an anointed one, a prince, there will be seven units of seven years and sixty-two units of seven years” marks the end of sixty-nine units of seven years or sixty-nine weeks which is 483 prophetic years and was fulfilled in history when the Lord Jesus Christ presented Himself to Israel as her Messiah (Luke 19:28-44).
The “anointed one, a prince” is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The “seven units of seven years” or “seven weeks” is 49 years, which refers to the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:12-15).
The “sixty-two weeks” or “sixty-two units of seven years” is 434 years.
The “seven weeks” is to be added to the “sixty-two weeks,” which equals 483 years.
So we can see that the first seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks that followed it ran consecutively with no time between them and totaled 483 years.
This has been fulfilled in history in that it extended from March 5, 444 B.C to March 30, 33 A.D.
This would be 173,880 days and remember a year is 360 days.
In order to understand how 444 B.C. to A.D. 33 can equal 483 years, we must understand that the Jewish calendar had 360 days per year, thus 483 years times 360 days equals 173,880 days.
The Gregorian Calendar contains 365 days a year and under this 444 B.C. to A.D. 33 would be 476 years since only one year expired between 1 B.C. and A.D. 1.
A total of 476 years divided by four (a leap year every four years) gives 119 additional days but three days must be subtracted from 119 because centennial years are not leap years, though every 400 years is a leap year.
Thus, 476 years times 365 days equals 173,740 days and if we add 116 days in leap years and 24 days (March 5-30), we have 173,880 days.
If we multiply the sixty-nine weeks by seven years for each week by 360 days, it would give us a total of 173,800 days.
There are 476 solar years between 444 B.C. and 33 A.D.
Now, if we multiply 476 by 365.24219879 or by 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45.975 seconds as Hoehner suggests one arrives at the number 173,855 days, 6 hours, 52 minutes, 44 seconds or 173,855 days.
There are 25 days to be accounted for between 444 B.C. and 33 A.D.
If we add 25 days to March 5, 444 B.C., we arrive at March 30, 33 A.D., which was amazingly Nisan 10, 33 A.D.
This was the day of the Lord Jesus’ triumphal or tearful entry into Jerusalem to present Himself to Israel as her king (Matthew 21:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; John 12:12-19).
Luke 19:44 records the Lord Jesus Christ telling the Jews in His day that the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed because they did not recognize the day of their visitation meaning they did not recognize Him as their Messiah on the day He presented Himself as Israel’s king.
If the Jews studied the prophecy in Daniel 9:25, they would have been able to calculate the exact day when their Messiah would arrive.
Thus, they would have recognized Jesus of Nazareth as their king since He presented Himself on the last day of the 483rd year!
From a literal understanding of this prophecy in Daniel 9:25, they would have seen that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy to the exact day.