The 70 Weeks of Daniel
By: William Bell, Jr.
Understanding Daniel’s 70 Weeks
Scholars generally agree that each of the seventy weeks represent seven prophetical years.
The seventy weeks are divided into three sections, seven weeks, sixty-two weeks and one week. The first seven weeks are added to the sixty-two, bringing the total to sixty-nine weeks. This would bring us up to the time of Christ. This marks the closing era or last days of Israel evoking the statement from Jesus, “The time is fulfilled…the kingdom of God has drawn near, (Mark 1:14, 15).
Daniel predicts Jesus’ violent crucifixion saying that the Messiah is cut off, that is crucified, after the sixty-ninth week. There can be no mistake therefore that Jesus was crucified in the last or seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy.
Since Christ was cutoff after sixty-two weeks and because these followed the first seven weeks, then it is clear that Jesus was crucified after “sixty-nine” weeks or in the last, final or seventieth week. Some like to place a 2000 year time-gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks of Daniel. To do so would violently upset God’s prophetical scheme for the crucifixion of Christ. It would place Jesus’ crucifixion in our future. Thomas Ice and Tim LaHaye have done this very thing with their “gap-theory on Daniel 9:25, 26. See The End Times Controversy, page 341.
Daniel’s seventy weeks mark out the time of Jesus crucifixion and his return in judgment upon the nation of Israel. There is no gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. It is a clear testimony that the time of the end has come and gone.
William Bell is a public speaker and author on Covenant Eschatology. Visit http://www.allthingsfulfilled.com Write to: info@allthingsfulfilled.com