139 - 70? Weeks - A Hebrew View Point

To lay a basis for the next few posts I quote, I am fully of opinion, that no interpretation as yet published will stand the test of thorough grammatico-historical criticism; Professor Stuart in Barnes Commentary.  Or, in other words, whatever one writes about this vision is bound to be successfully refuted by others.

Seventy Weeks

This section of Daniel is very significant to Bible study and so convoluted, with so many different schools of thought explaining it, that in this blog, we will, only briefly scan over a few of the basic facts.  Since the Hebrew interpretation, because they do not accept Christ as the Messiah, and the Christian viewpoint are radically different we will take a quick look at both, starting with the Jewish commentary by Rashi.

Seventy weeks (Concerning Biblical prophecy this is very important: 

Each day represents one year and one week represents seven years so that seventy weeks represents 490 years). 

The Babylonian exile was seventy [years] and the Second Temple stood four hundred and twenty [years] (the total is 490 years.) Rashi.

Seventy weeks are decreed as to your people (the Jews who were taken captive to Babylon) and as to your holy city, (Jerusalem - from the day of the first destruction in the days of King Zedekiah until it will be [destroyed] the second time (will be 490 years, the second destruction was by Titus of Rome). Rashi.

he (Gabriel) ... said, ... I have come to explain.

Seventy weeks are decreed.  The following list of things is to be accomplished in those 490 years. 

1.  to finish the transgression; 
2.  to make an end of sins; 
3.  to make atonement for iniquity;  9:24.

As the prophets had foretold, Israel would pay for their ungodly lifestyle and they must make atonement for iniquity by

1. being banished from their country and 
2. later by turmoil in their own country. 
3. This payment, for sins committed, would last from the days of King Zedekiah until the time when Titus, In 70 A.D. besieged and captured Jerusalem, and destroyed the city and the Second Temple. Wikipedia.

from the going out of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem.  Cyrus is only one of the rulers who gave the Jews permission to return home after 70 years of captivity.  There are actually four different events in history from which Bible students can choose a starting day.

to Messiah the Prince (Cyrus, king of Persia, about whom the Holy One ... called him His anointed (translate anointed as Messiah) and His king, as it says (Isa. 45:1): “So said the Lord to His anointed one, to Cyrus.”) Rashi.

It is understandable that Rashi would quote that verse of Scripture because the Jewish religion has never accepted Christ as the Messiah (the anointed one).  According to Isaiah Cyrus was the Messiah; His (Jehovah's) anointed and His king. 

It seems that here again, we have a situation where a prophecy fits both Old Testament and New Testament history.  In our studies, several times already, we have run into this interesting type of prophetic expansion. See:

http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2014/08/29-mighty-god-is-born-oh- 

http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2016/08/137-epimanes-madman.html

to Messiah, the Prince shall be seven weeks (49 years), and sixty-two weeks (483 years) or sixty-nine weeks altogether, which is 532 years). 9:25.

First, Rashi spoke of the invasion during Zedekiah's reign (in 606 BC) until Cyrus gave the Jews permission to return home (in 536 BC); this was 70 years. However, the prophecy speaks of 7 weeks (49 years).  

The invasion during King Zedekiah's reign does not meet the criteria of 7 weeks (49 years) until Darius gave the Jews permission to return to Judea, so Rashi changed the date at which to start counting from the invasion during Zedekiah's reign to the total destruction of Jerusalem which happened 20 years later than 606 B.C. to 586 BC.  He ends up with 7 weeks (49 years).  

And after sixty-two weeks (434 years from the time Darius gave the Jews permission to return home) Messiah shall be cut off.  This Messiah is Agrippa, the king of Judea, who was ruling at the time of the destruction, will be slain. This is purely an expression of a prince and a dignitary. Rashi.  

Notice that earlier he used the Bible to prove that Cyrus was the Messiah, now he says that Agrippa is the Messiah (the anointed one). Obviously, in his opinion there is no problem in having more than one person who has been chosen, to a certain task, by Jehovah; the word "Messiah" does not have the same import to him as it has to Christians.

As to King Agrippa being the Messiah note: 

nor is King Agrippa intended, ... who, they say, was the last king of the Jews, and was slain by Vespasian at the destruction of Jerusalem; which is not true; 

• he was not properly king of the Jews, having only Galilee for his jurisdiction; 
• was not slain by Vespasian; 
• was a confederate of the Romans, 
• lived some years after the destruction of the city, and at last died in peace. Gill

Instead of, but not for Himself Brenton's translation has: and there is no judgment in him:

And the people (the army) of the ruler (Titus) who shall come shall destroy the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the second temple, the one in which Christ worshipped). [The monarch who will come] upon them. That is Titus and his armies. And the end of it shall be with the flood, and ruins are determined. That is a flood of blood and destruction, not a flood of water.

Concerning the destruction of the temple Josephus described the scene:

As the legions charged in, neither persuasion nor threat could check their impetuosity: passion alone was in command. Crowded together around the entrances many were trampled by their friends, many fell among the still hot and smoking ruins of the colonnades and died as miserably as the defeated. As they neared the Sanctuary they pretended not even to hear Caesar's commands and urged the men in front to throw in more firebrands. The partisans were no longer in a position to help; everywhere was slaughter and flight. Most of the victims were peaceful citizens, weak and unarmed, butchered wherever they were caught. Round the Altar the heaps of corpses grew higher and higher, while down the Sanctuary steps poured a river of blood and the bodies of those killed at the top slithered to the bottom. Wikipedia, Siege of Jerusalem

And he will strengthen a covenant for the princes for one week, (for seven years) and half the week (3.5 years) after that he will abolish sacrifice and meal-offering, and on high, among abominations, will be the dumb one, on a high place, among abominations and disgusting things, he will place the dumb one, the pagan deity, which is dumb like a silent stone. Rashi. until destruction and extermination befall the dumb one. 9:26-27. Total destruction will descend upon the image of the pagan deity and upon its worshipers.

We will touch on points 4, 5 and 6 in the next post. 
4. to bring in everlasting righteousness; 
5. to seal up the vision and prophecy; 
6. and to anoint the Most Holy.