|
So
you are to know and discern
(Da 9:23; Matthew 13:23; 24:15; Mark 13:14; Acts 8:30)
Know and discern - Gabriel begins with an exhortation.
Know (03045) (perceive, understand) (yada') by
observing, reflecting upon and becoming "intimately" acquainted with the
important truth and timing of events to follow. The Greek Septuagint
translates know with ginosko meaning to "know by
experience" speaking of an intimate knowledge that goes beyond the
accumulation of facts.
Discern (07919) (have insight or comprehension, be prudent or
circumspect, give attention to or ponder) (sakal) is somewhat
synonymous with "know" but expresses the idea of knowing the reason for
something by looking at it or giving attention to it.
Sakal
implies the process of thinking through a complex arrangement of thoughts
(for which
Daniel 9:24-27 certainly qualifies!)
resulting in a wise dealing and use of good practical common sense with the
end result that one is successful.
The TWOT says that sakal...
also involves one in what he
considers, or pays attention to.
Discern is translated with the Greek verb suniemi
which entails the assembling of individual facts into an organized whole, as
collecting the pieces of a puzzle and putting them together. The mind grasps
concepts and sees the proper relationship between them.
Commenting on Daniel 9:24-27 Matthew
Henry writes that
We have here the answer that was
immediately sent to Daniel's prayer, and it is a very memorable one, as it
contains the most illustrious prediction of Christ and gospel-grace that is
extant in all the Old Testament. If John Baptist was the morning-star, this
was the day-break to the Sun of righteousness, the Day-spring from on high.
Reginald Showers of the Friends of
Israel Gospel Ministry writes that Daniel 9:24-27 is
one of the most significant prophecies in
all the Old Testament Scriptures" and is also "one of the strongest biblical
evidences to the effect that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. (The
Most High God: Commentary on the book of Daniel)
that
from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem: (Click
additional notes)
(Ezra 4:24; 6:1-15; 7:1,8,11-26;
Nehemiah 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8; 3:1) (2Samuel 15:25; Psalms 71:10)
Jerusalem will be rebuilt with
streets and strong defenses (CSB)
Streets will be built in
Jerusalem, and a trench will be dug around the city for protection
(CEV)
the street shall be built, and the wall (Brenton's Eng of
Greek Septuagint)
From the issuing of a decree to
restore and rebuild Jerusalem - This is the key to the interpretation of
this entire passage and obviously the critical determinant is when does the
"countdown" begin in history (the so-called "terminus a quo")
The decree (dabar = literally "word")
although made in heaven, would be made manifest on earth which would have
been wonderful news to Daniel. The important question is which "decree" marks the commencement of the 490 years? There are 4
possible "candidate" decrees (listed below):
|
Which
Decree Marks
the Beginning of the Countdown? |
|
(1) 538BC
Cyrus decreed
- "rebuild the house of the LORD" Ezra 1:3, 5:3, 2Chr
36:22, 23
(2) 519/520BC
Darius "issued a decree: ‘Concerning the
house of God at Jerusalem" Ezra 6:3 cf Ezra 6:6, 7, 8, 9,
10, 11, 12 (This decree was a
confirmation of decree #1)
(3) 457/458BC
Artaxerxes Longimanus - Ezra's response to the
decree (Ezra 7:11, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12, ff) was
Blessed be the Lord, the God of our
fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to
adorn the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem Ezra 7:27
This decree says nothing of
the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
(4) 444BC
Artaxerxes (some sources list 445BC
because of differences in the way the beginning of the reign is dated)
This decree is the only one that most closely fulfills the details of
the prophecy (rebuild the city [not the house or temple
as in the other decrees], with plaza and moat). Nehemiah 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7,8 |
Of the four "candidate" decrees, the
one which most literally fulfills the specific requirements in
Da 9:25 is found in Nehemiah in which he
records that
it came about
in the month Nisan (March-April), in the 20th year of King
Artaxerxes..(444/445BC). 3 (Nehemiah) said to the king, "Let
the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the
city, the place of my fathers' tombs,
lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire (which
would make the city defenseless)?" 4 Then the king said to me, "What would
you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king,
"If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you,
send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that
I may rebuild it." ... 8 and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the
king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates
of the fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the city,
and for the house to which I will go." And the king granted them to me
because the good hand of my God was on me. (Neh
2:1-8)
The plaza (07339)
(rehob) refers to an "open place" which came to mean a public square,
city-hub, central part of city where people met and civic activity
occurred. Rehob was first used in Genesis 19:2 when the angels told Lot "we
shall spend the night in the square". In summary,
rehob, describes the broad spaces,
generally just inside the city gates where one see the center of city life.
The Greek
Septuagint (LXX)
translates rehob with
plateia and describes a wide or broad street or way.
The moat
(02742) (charuts/harus)
is used only here in the OT and conveys the basic sense of "to cut or
sharpen". In Hebrew charuts/harus means to cut in or dig, and in context
refers to a
defensive trench, ditch, i.e., a moat
as a defense feature of a rampart (Swanson, J.. Dictionary of Biblical
Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew -Old Testament,1997).
The idea is that a trench or ditch is
dug or "cut out" around a city for the purpose of fortification.
This same word in Aramaic refers to a trench and in Akkadian to a
city moat.
The Greek
Septuagint (LXX)
translates
charuts/harus with the Greek word teichos which describes a
wall, especially a wall of a city or town which was used to provide strong
fortification. Teichos is also used in the rabbinic literature to mean a wall,
frequently one designed for defense.
Some argue that the word for moat
is not the same Hebrew word used for wall in Nehemiah 2:8, but they miss the point
that both have a similar function.
Nehemiah 2:8 ...the wall (Hebrew
= chomah, Lxx = teichos) of the city...
Furthermore, note that the
Septuagint
translates the Hebrew word for wall
in Nehemiah 2:8 with the same word used in Daniel 9:25, teichos,
the specific word for wall!
In Ancient times cities had walls and moats to defend against enemy
attack. A "city" without such protection was not really a functional
"city".
In summary, the evidence is extremely
convincing that the starting date for the countdown of the 490 years is
found in Nehemiah 2.
Prior to Artaxerxes' decree in
444/445BC, the Temple rebuilding had begun but the city itself was still
unprotected. Nehemiah was charged by the king to restore the raised city
to its former defensible state, which is compatible with the prophetic
description in Daniel 9:25.
In regard to the date of Artaxerxes'
decree Dr. Hoehner goes through a discussion (too detailed for these
notes) and concludes that "Nisan 444 BC (March 5,
444BC) marks the terminus a quo (point of origin) of the seventy
weeks of
Daniel 9:24–27" rather than the
date found in many texts of
445BC. (For detailed discussion see
Harold W. Hoehner Chronological Aspects
of the Life of Christ - Part 6 - Daniel’s Seventy Weeks and New Testament
Chronology - Bibliotheca Sacra 132:525 Jan 1975. Pages 48-65).
(Note: only a portion of this article is available at no charge - see
Theological Journal Subscription info)
(List
of 22 journals - 500 yrs of articles searchable by topic or verse!
Incredible Online Resource!)
It is interesting that this decree in
Nehemiah was also the one favored even as early as the second to third
century AD by Africanus, one of the "early church fathers".
Click Thomas Ice's discussion of the
beginning of the countdown.
until
Messiah the Prince (John
1:41; 4:25) (Da 8:11,25; Isaiah 9:6; 55:4; Micah 5:2; Acts 3:15; 5:31;
Revelation 1:5; 19:16)
Messiah the Leader (Young's Literal),
the Anointed One, a Prince (Amplified),
Christ the Prince (English of Greek Septuagint),
the Anointed One, the ruler (NIV),
an anointed prince (NRSV),
an Anointed Prince (NJB),
God's chosen
leader (TEV),
the appointed leader (NCV),
one who is anointed and a leader (NAB),
a prince, on whom the holy oil has been put (BBE)
Although the opinions are nearly
unanimous among evangelical conservative scholars that this phrase is a clear prophetic reference to the first
coming of Christ our Lord, it must be kept in mind (especially if discussing
this passage with someone who may not believe in the literal interpretation
of Scripture) that there are some who will see the prophecy as fulfilled in
the lives of other
individuals (click
here to see why some Bible versions also do not support the
Messianic interpretation).
Until (05704) follows
69 seven's or 483 years. As indicated in the chart below (click
countdown),
of those that interpret Messiah as reference to Christ there are two major
views as to the termination of this time period. One view favors the
termination as coinciding with His baptism and others (most
modern, conservative, evangelical commentaries) favor this time as
coinciding with the triumphal entry of Messiah into Jerusalem. (Click
here for discussion by John MacArthur)
John is the only NT writer to use the
word Messiah...
He found first his own brother Simon, and
said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which translated means Christ).
(John
1:41)
The woman said to Him, "I know that
Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will
declare all things to us."
(John
4:25)
Messiah (04899)
(Mashiyach/Mashiach from mashach = basic meaning is to
smear something on and conveys the idea of anointing something as act of
consecration) is an adjective often used as a noun and is one of the most
important words in the OT. An "anointed one" would have sacred oil poured on
their head, which set them apart as an individual with a special authority
and/or function. And so we see that patriarchs, priests (Lev 4:3), or
kings (Cyrus Isa 45:1) were anointed ones.
In Psalm 2 Mashiyach clearly
refers to the Messiah, the Christ...
Psalm 2:2 The kings of the earth take
their stand, And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and
against His Anointed (Hebrew = Mashiyach > "Messiah"; Lxx = Christos
= one who has been anointed).
As
Pfeiffer says there is no doubt that this time refers to
Some official presentation, such as his
baptism and
the formal beginning of his ministry, or His triumphal entry. (The Wycliffe Bible Commentary: Old Testament Chicago: Moody
Press)
Although I realize that one must be careful being dogmatic, this
website does favor the termination of the 69 weeks on the day of the
triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem when He was presented to the
Jews as their King.
Robert Anderson (The Coming Prince in 1894) and Harold Hoehner
(in 1976) have
independently calculated that following the decree to rebuild Jerusalem
(Neh 2:1-8) until Messiah, the Prince was 177,880 days which
by their calculations coincides with
the very day Jesus entered Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) riding on a donkey
fulfilling Zechariah's prophecy
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is
coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on
a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zech 9:9)
Although prince (05057) (nagiyd)
is not the usual Hebrew word for king (melek), it is
notable that the first use in Scripture is a reference to Saul, God
informing His prophet Samuel that
I will send you a man from the land of
Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince (nagiyd) over
My people Israel; and he shall deliver My people from the hand of the
Philistines... (1Sa 9:16)
There are numerous other examples of nagiyd used as a synonym
for kings in the OT, so although some argue that the specific Hebrew word
for "king" is not used in Daniel, nagiyd conveys the same idea. It
follows that it is reasonable to interpret Daniel 9:25 as a reference to
Messiah as King of Israel.
The Greek translates prince
with the Greek "hegeomai" which speaks of one who leads out and is
the same word in Matthew used quoting Micah's prophecy that
"out of you (Bethlehem) shall come forth a Ruler (hegeomai),
Who will shepherd My people Israel" (Mt 2:6),
a reference to the Messiah Who came to lead and rule Israel.
And so we see that as Jesus rode into
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the Jewish crowds
cried
"BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD
(quoted in part from
Ps 118:26 but see note in next paragraph).
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" 39 And some of the
Pharisees in the multitude said to Him, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."40
And He answered and said, "I tell you, if these become silent, the stones
will cry out!" 41 And when He approached, He saw the city and wept over it,
42 saying, "If you had known in this day (KJV has "in this
thy day" but modern manuscripts lack the "thy". Note definite article before
"day" which clearly singles this out as not just any day, but a specific day
and one the Jews could and should have known if they had studied
Daniel 9:24-27), even you, the things which make for
peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days shall
come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you, and
surround you, and hem you in on every side, 44 and will level you to the
ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one
stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your
visitation (the "visitation" of the Messiah in His first advent - they
could have calculated His arrival date from Daniel's prophecy but instead
they obscured the truth and even refused to read or discuss Daniel 9:24-27
evidencing their rebellious hearts!). (fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in
70AD some 40 years later)" (Lu 19:38-44).
Two observations are significant regarding the
Jewish crowd's quotation from
Ps 118:26:
(1). The
original Psalm (in Hebrew and the Greek) does not have the word king (Hebrew
= melek, Greek = basileus) which is used only in Luke's
account (but not in Mt 21:9 or Mk 11:9). Mark however does follow the
quotation from Ps 118:26 with the "kingly"
declaration...
Blessed is the coming kingdom (basileia
related to basileus = king) of our father David; Hosanna in the
highest! (Mk 11:10)
(2)
Jesus even when he was admonished to rebuke the crowd for calling Him King,
refused to do so, declaring in fact that
if these become silent, the
stones will cry out! (Luke
19:40)
What would they cry out? That the King of the Jews had
arrived, just as had been precisely prophesied by
Daniel 9:24-25, 173,880 days earlier! Only
on this day did our Lord offer Himself publicly and officially as Israel's
Messiah and this was the day Anderson and Hoehner calculated had been
prophesied by in Daniel 9! It is also noteworthy that all four gospels
record the inscription above Jesus' head on the cross as the King of
the Jews.
Anderson (see
The Coming Prince) adds that
No student
of the Gospel narrative can fail to see that the Lord's last visit to
Jerusalem was not only in fact, but in the purpose of it, the crisis of His
ministry, the goal towards which it had been directed. After the first
tokens had been given that the nation would reject His Messianic claims, He
had shunned all public recognition of them. But now the twofold testimony of
His words and His works had been fully rendered, and His entry into the Holy
City was to proclaim His Messiahship and to receive His doom. Again and
again His apostles even had been charged that they should not make Him
known. But now He accepted the acclamations of "the whole multitude of the
disciples," and silenced the remonstrance of the Pharisees with the
indignant rebuke, "I tell you if these should hold their peace, the stones
would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:39, 40)
C H Spurgeon writes that...
The Lord God appointed
a set time for the coming of His Son into the
world; nothing was left to chance. Infinite wisdom dictated the hour at
which the Messiah should be born, and the moment at which He should be cut
off. His advent and His work are the highest point of the purpose of God,
the hinge of history, the center of providence, the crowning of the edifice
of grace, and therefore peculiar care watched over every detail. Once in the
end of the world hath the Son of God appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself, and this is the event before which all other events
must bow. The studious mind will be delighted to search out the reasons why
the Messiah came not before, and why He did not tarry till yet later ages.
Prophecies declared the date; but long before infallible wisdom had settled
it for profoundest reasons. It was well that the Redeemer came: it was well
that He came in what Scripture calls the fullness of time, even in these
last days.
there will be seven
weeks and sixty-two weeks
What is the Terminus ad Quem
of the First "Seven Weeks" (49 Years)? |
|
Completion of rebuilding of
Jerusalem
Completion of the Old Testament canon |
The text does not associate a specific
event with the first seven "seven's", therefore we need to be
careful not to be dogmatic. The two
most frequent events mentioned are (1) the time to completely rebuild
Jerusalem or (2) the time at which the Old
Testament canon was completed.
Some commentators such
as M R DeHaan state that...
It is a matter of history that the
rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple and all of the streets,
and so forth, took exactly forty-nine years, fulfilling the first division
of the seventy weeks of Daniel which was up to the completion of the Temple
in the city of Jerusalem. (De Haan, M. R. (1995). Daniel the prophet.
Originally published: Grand Rapids, Mich. : Zondervan, 1947. Grand Rapids,
MI: Kregel Publications) (Comment: In fact this terminus cannot be
historically verified with absolute certainty so we had best avoid
dogmatism. In any event the fulfillment pales in comparison to the
fulfillments in the following sections!)
Comparison of two
translations of the next time phrase And sixty-two weeks
(NASB) reveals two modes of translation...
|
NASB |
and
sixty-two weeks |
|
RSV |
.Then for sixty-two weeks |
The RSV (rendered
the same way in the ESV, Good News Translation, Bible in Basic English, Tanakh, New
American Bible, The Message
click here) bases the English rendering of
this time phrase
on the additions of Hebrew scholars known today as the Masoretes. The Masoretes
added an accent (called a "atnach") to the
original Hebrew manuscripts, the accent in this case being placed between the
two time phrases "seven weeks" and "sixty-two weeks".
The RSV translator felt that this Masoretic accent justified placing a
period at the end of "seven weeks" and beginning another sentence to which
they added the time phrase word "then".
The RSV reads as follows:
Know therefore and understand
that from the going forth 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. (The ESV although generally a good and
relatively literal translation is not good in this verse and is rendered "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)
So what difference does this make in
one's interpretation? For one thing, many Jewish rabbis
will reference this Masoretic "accent" as
a major line of evidence to refute the fact
that
Daniel 9:24-27 is referring to the coming
Messiah. If we read the RSV literally, we are indeed forced to interpret
Daniel 9:25 as a reference to "an anointed one, a prince"
as coming on the scene after
"seven weeks" (49 years) from the decree to rebuild
Jerusalem. Clearly this view would not allow one to interpret the "anointed one" as
a reference to the Messiah. Those who favor the RSV
are forced into a non-messianic
interpretation of the "anointed one". And thus depending on
which commentary you consult, attempt to identify the anointed one
as King Cyrus (called anointed in Isa 45:1), Zerubbabel or Joshua the High Priest (priests were
anointed). Then they are forced to interpret the second anointed one
in Daniel 9:26 as a reference
to Onias III (also called Oniah), a Jewish high priest (therefore "anointed")
who was displaced and then killed ("cut off") during the reign
of Antiochus Epiphanes (circa 171 BC) (see
Daniel notes
and
additional discussion),. The upshot is that the passage has
then been emptied of any valid
Messianic interpretation! It is not surprising that the liberal, critical school
of interpretation follows this line of reasoning and similarly it is not
surprising that many in this school even deny that Daniel wrote Daniel! They
postulate that Daniel was written some time in between 200-100 BC, after the
events had historically taken place.
Arguments against the RSV rendering
(1) The Greek translation of the Hebrew is an older manuscript than the
Masoretic additions and does not support the
RSV (ESV, NAB, GNB, BBE, Message) but does support the NAS, NIV, KJV,
NKJV, etc. The Greek reads "until Christ the prince there shall
be seven weeks, and (the Greek conjunction "kai" = "and"
is present in the Greek) sixty-two weeks" (Brenton's English
Translation). The Greek reading allows for the interpretation of two time periods as successive
periods.
(2) The RSV (and "RSV-like" renderings) force a cumbersome translation
which reads as if it will take 62 "sevens" or 434
years to build the temple and moat, which is nonsense!
(3) Regarding the insertion of this accent (atnach)
mark by the Masoretes, even Keil and Delitzsch remark that "the atnach
does not always separate clauses, but frequently also shows only the point
of rest within a clause; besides, it first was adopted by the Masoretes, and
only shows the interpretation of these men, without at all furnishing any
guarantee for its correctness."
(4) The Hebrew Masoretes added their interpretative marks hundreds of years
after the original Hebrew manuscript
(and hundreds of years after the Greek translation) leading some to suggest
that they may have had a possible anti-Christian bias.
What
a difference a single accent mark makes in the interpretation of this
important prophecy! Now are you totally confused? I pray not and in fact as
you read this my prayer is that of Paul
that the eyes of your heart may be
enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are
the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. (Eph 1:18-note)
Please do not let this discussion shake your confidence in the
truth that God's Word is fully inspired and inerrant. If you would like to
read a more detailed discussion,
click
this link for Randall Price's analysis and scroll down the page
to section subtitled "Question of the Division of the Seven and Sixty-two
Weeks".
Pfeiffer comments that...
The reasoning and evidence behind the
RSV, (Ed note: I would unfortunately have to add the ESV) which renders this
clause quite incomprehensible, is most obscure, though the effect—to make
the prophecy focus on Antiochus rather than on Christ—is plain enough. The
Berkeley Version is no better. Both seem to destroy the essential reference
to Christ in this verse. As a matter of fact, 7 plus 62 equals 69; 69 x 7 =
483. From 444 B.C. to about 30 A.D., the general period of Christ’s ministry
is 470 plus years—so close to the specified 483 that without further
refinement the correspondence is quite convincing—and as precise in
proportion as the 70 years of Jeremiah’s prophecy, really only about 68
years. Inasmuch as Christ presented himself officially as “Messiah-Prince”
only once (Zech 9:9; cf. Mt 21:5. Contrast Mt 16:20; Lk 9:20, 21) at the
beginning of his last week, those interpreters who favor the Triumphal Entry
for the close of the 69 weeks appear to be on the right track. (Pfeiffer,
C F: Wycliffe Bible Commentary. 1981. Moody
or
Logos)
it will be built again with plaza
and moat even
in times of distress (Nehemiah
4:8,16, 17, 18; Ephesians 5:16) (Nehemiah 6:15)
It will be built
again with plaza and moat - See preceding discussion of plaza and
moat.
Times (06256)
('eth; Lxx =
kairos)
refers to a time, such as a season or the proper time. Their efforts to
rebuild the city of Jerusalem would be associated with a "season" of trouble
as discussed below.
Distress (06695)
(tsoq) describes oppression, trouble, i.e., a state of hardship,
trouble, and distress brought on by external pressure. For example this word
is used in of God "distressing" His people in an attempt to bring them to
repentance and salvation, Isaiah recording...
Isaiah 29:2 And I will bring
distress (tsoq) to Ariel ("lion of God" = name applied to Jerusalem),
and she shall be a city of lamenting and mourning; and she shall be like an
Ariel to me (NIV = "and she will be to me like an altar hearth."). (Comment:
In this passage Jerusalem would be turned into an altar hearth because of
the death and devastation to come.)
The book of Nehemiah (entire book) gives ample testimony to the fact that the
rebuilding of the city and the wall was associated with vigorous, even
vicious opposition. Nehemiah records for example that
it came
about when the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times, “They
will come up against us from every place where you may turn, ”then I
stationed men in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, the exposed
places, and I stationed the people in families with their swords, spears,
and bows. When I saw their fear, I rose and spoke to the nobles, the
officials, and the rest of the people: “Do not be afraid of them; remember
the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons,
your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” And it happened when
our enemies
heard that it was known to us, and that God had frustrated their plan, then
all of us returned to the wall, each one to his work." (Neh
4:12, 13, 14, 15). Nehemiah later wrote that "it came about when it was
reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, to Geshem the Arab, and to the rest of
our
enemies that I had
rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it, (so that now
when the gates were set up it would be a "city" that could be defended thus
fulfilling the specific details in Daniel 9:25) although at that time I had not set up the doors
in the gates, that Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, "Come,
let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono."
But they were planning to harm me.
(Neh 6:1-2) |