Daniel 9:27, commentary and pictures

The final seven years run from A.D. 27 to A.D. 34, beginning with Christ's baptism and anointing as Messiah after sixty-nine weeks or 483 years from the decree of 457 B.C., and reaching His crucifixion three and a half years later in the spring of A.D. 31. During that week He confirms the covenant with many by the gospel preached especially to the Jews, three and a half years by Himself in person and the remainder by the apostles, until Jewish rejection is sealed in A.D. 34 by the stoning of Stephen and the gospel turns to the Gentiles. In the midst of the week His death as the true sacrifice fulfills and ends the value of animal offerings, tearing the temple veil and closing the Jewish dispensation by bringing in reconciliation for iniquity and everlasting righteousness. The seventy weeks are 490 years cut off from the 2300 years and specially allotted to the Jews, with the remaining 1810 years extending to the cleansing of the sanctuary in 1844. The overspreading of abominations making desolate is met when idolatrous Roman standards stand on holy ground outside Jerusalem, the signal for Christ's followers to flee at once to the mountains, a destruction fulfilled about forty years after Christ spoke when more than a million perished yet not one obedient Christian perished.

Setting and Revelation

Daniel 9:27 came as God's direct communication to Daniel through ministering angels in answer to earnest prayer offered with fasting and affliction of soul and tears and confession and humiliation, assuring him that he had not sought God in vain because his prayer was heard. God makes known His purposes in this way through chosen agencies so that the grand work of redemption goes forward. The revelation was brought by Gabriel in answer to fervent prayer.

It was given while Israel was in captivity with the temple destroyed and the temple service suspended. At that time religion had centered in the ceremonies of the sacrificial system, with outward forms made all-important while the spirit of true worship was lost. The services had been corrupted with the traditions and practices of heathenism, the sacrificial rites being performed without looking beyond the shadow to the substance, and Christ was not discerned as the true offering for the sins of men.

God brought the captivity and the suspension of the temple services so that outward ceremonies would not become the sum total of religion, so that principles and practice would be purged from heathenism, so that the ceasing of ritual service would revive heart service, and so that the removal of outward glory would reveal the spiritual. In the land of captivity, as the people turned to the Lord with repentance in humiliation and distress without the outward representation of His presence, He manifested Himself to them with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining into minds and hearts. He gave visions to His prophets unfolding the overthrow of the oppressors of God's people, the coming of the Redeemer, and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom.

The verse belongs to the angel's explanation of the time period left unexplained in Daniel 8 concerning the 2300 days. It is the part of Gabriel's explanation in which the Messiah is shown confirming the covenant with many for one week and, halfway through that week, bringing sacrifice and offering to an end. The seventy weeks of which it speaks are 490 years cut off from the 2300-year period and specially allotted to the Jews, beginning with the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem dated to 457 B.C.

It is part of Daniel's prophecies about future ages which Daniel himself did not fully understand and which were sealed until the time of the end. Those prophecies are to receive special attention in the closing period of world history, when the wise will understand them.

Time Framework and Calculation

The seventy weeks are 490 years, determined or cut off from the 2300-year period and specially allotted to the Jews, and the two periods commence together. A prophetic day stands for a year, and these great periods were given with the design that they should be studied with reverent labor until their commencing and closing dates are fully understood, expiring about this age of the world in the 1840s. The starting point is the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, the decree of Artaxerxes, dated to 457 B.C. in the autumn by historical and chronological evidence, which also marks the beginning of the 2300 years.

The seventy weeks divide into seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, and one week, shown on the chart as 49 years, 434 years, and a final seven years marking Christ's baptism and crucifixion and the gospel reaching the Gentiles. The sixty-nine weeks are the first 483 years of the 2300 years and reach to the Messiah, fulfilled by Christ's baptism and anointing by the Holy Spirit in A.D. 27. With the first 490 years ended in A.D. 34, 1810 years remain, extending to 1844 when the sanctuary is to be cleansed.

The earlier expectation of spring rather than autumn 1844 does not change that endpoint, for the seventy weeks counted from 457 B.C. end in A.D. 34 and the whole 2300-day period ends in 1844. By that reckoning, subtracting 457 from 2300 gives 1843, verifying the calculation as held by those who made it. Events limited by this period were once prophecies and were fulfilled in accordance with their predictions, including the date of the crucifixion and the specifications fulfilled from the 457 B.C. starting point when the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was completed.

Confirming the Covenant

The one week is seven years, the last seven years of the seventy weeks, running from A.D. 27 to A.D. 34. It is the final portion of the seventy-week period allotted especially to the Jews, with its midpoint marking the crucifixion in A.D. 31 and its close marking the turning of the apostles to the Gentiles. The seventy weeks began with the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C., and the seventy weeks, or 490 years, are cut off from the 2300 years extending to 1844.

The week began when Jesus entered upon His ministry in A.D. 27, confirming the covenant. During the week the covenant is confirmed with many by extending the gospel invitation especially to the Jews. For the first three and a half years this work is done by Christ Himself in person, and for the remainder by the apostles and disciples.

The seven years end in A.D. 34, when Jewish rejection of the gospel is finally sealed by the stoning of Stephen and the persecution of the disciples. Then the scattered disciples go everywhere preaching the word, and shortly after Saul is converted to become Paul the apostle to the Gentiles. At that close the full seventy weeks complete the confirmation of the covenant with Daniel's people, the Jews cease to be God's chosen people, and the gospel is carried to the Gentiles as the apostles turn to them.

Sacrifice and Oblation Ceasing

In the midst of the week, three and a half years after His baptism, Messiah was cut off, and this was fulfilled when Christ the true Sacrifice was offered on Calvary in the spring of A.D. 31. Sixty-nine and a half weeks from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem extend to that crucifixion, when sacrifice and oblation cease in the midst of the week. The full period of seventy weeks witnesses the complete confirmation of the covenant with Daniel's people, as the first 490 years of the 2300 days commencing together with them.

His death caused sacrifice and oblation to cease because the animal offerings that foreshadowed His one great offering of His own life met their fulfillment in Him at Calvary. The symbols met their antitype, the ceremonial sacrifices that had pointed forward to the Lamb of God fulfilled what they had foreshadowed, and so the sacrificial system ceased in significance. The typical sacrifices lost their significance because the great antitypical Sacrifice had been offered, the Jewish sacrifices and offerings lost their value, and the typical system ended.

At His death the veil of the temple was torn in twain, showing that the sacredness and significance of the sacrificial service had departed. That rent veil showed the time had come for earthly sacrifice and oblation to cease, showing that the sacrificial system had ceased and its sacrifices and offerings had ceased. This marked the close of the Jewish dispensation.

Through His sacrifice the Messiah has brought in reconciliation for iniquity and everlasting righteousness, with the cross of Calvary as the great center. This truth makes Christ's sacrifice effectual when acted upon, and by the humiliation of the cross He brings everlasting deliverance to all who walk after Him and give positive evidence that they are separated from the world.

Causing sacrifice to cease in the midst of the week by Christ's death does not abolish the Sabbath or nail it to His cross, nor was the fourth commandment rendered null and void. It was to be held sacred forty years after His death and holds its claim upon humanity as long as heaven and earth remain.

Abomination and Desolation

The abomination of desolation is the setting up of idolatrous Roman standards on holy ground outside Jerusalem. Their appearance is the appointed sign that judgment on the city will follow swiftly, warning Christ's followers in Judea and Jerusalem to flee at once into the mountains without delay. When they see it standing in the holy place they are to go immediately without presumptuous delay, without going down from the housetop to take anything from the house, and without returning from the field to take clothes or possessions. The warning directs prayer that flight be not in winter nor on the Sabbath day, and pronounces woe on those with child and those giving suck in those days.

The foretold destruction was fulfilled to the letter about forty years after Christ spoke, in the siege of Jerusalem when more than a million people perished and many were led into captivity. Yet not one Christian perished in the destruction of the city, because they heeded the warning and fled without going back for goods or clothing. In foreshadowing that destruction the prophecy also foreshadowed the terrors of the last great day.

Proclamation and Response

The seventy-weeks prophecy makes known the exact time of Christ's first coming, the hour determined in heaven's council to send forth His Son to redeem those under the law. It was revealed to Daniel five hundred years before Gabriel came to Zacharias, and knowing that its end was near Zacharias prayed for the Messiah's advent and Gabriel came to announce the prophecy's fulfillment. It belongs with the many promises repeated from Enoch through patriarchs and prophets that kept alive the hope of His appearing and led the Hebrews to live in constant expectancy as strangers and pilgrims, believed even by many who died without receiving the promises.

The verse belongs to prophecies pointing unmistakably to the time of Messiah's coming and directly foretelling His death, His anointing by the Holy Spirit, and the giving of the gospel to the Gentiles, which could be understood and recognized as fulfilled in Jesus. By the time John began preaching those weeks were nearly ended, marking the expected time of the Messiah's coming. It is sure prophecy about the coming One, giving testimony about the time and manner of His first appearing, including His real coming and testing in the wilderness, and showing that Christ fulfilled every specification of the promised Messiah. It was what Moses and Elijah and Christ talked of at the transfiguration.

The seventy weeks formed the basis for the first disciples' preaching that the appointed time was fulfilled and the kingdom of God was at hand, concerning one portion of the 2300-day period while Miller and associates proclaimed the end of the larger period. Proclaiming the time from this prophecy was giving the right message at the right time in fulfillment of God's will, even though the disciples expected an earthly kingdom at the end of the seventy weeks through adherence to popular errors that blinded them to the truth of Messiah's death foretold in the same scripture, paralleling the Adventist mistake over the 2300 days. The disciples proclaimed the time but did not recognize that the same prophecy foretold the Messiah's death. The prophetic time for looking and waiting had expired though scribes knew it from prophetic history, and Jesus directed them to prophecies that foretold the events then taking place.

Earnest humble searching with pure and simple hearts willing to receive light makes the time known, while priests and rulers lofty in their own estimation, darkened by devotion to the world and forgetfulness of God, were unprepared and ignorant of Messiah's advent. The Jews misread Scripture by assigning to His first advent the glories belonging to His second appearing, and though Christ was among them they fulfilled what had been prophesied; even after the time was revealed not all rightly interpreted the message. Jewish leaders discouraged study of this prophecy until rabbis pronounced a curse on attempts to calculate the time, and eighteen hundred years of blindness and indifference stand as solemn warning of the danger of rejecting light from heaven. Christ urged His disciples to study these prophecies, which were given by the Holy Ghost with design to be studied until fully understood.