This article is contributed by Ray Konig, the author of Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Prophet, Jesus the Miracle Worker, and 100 Fulfilled Bible Prophecies.
By Ray Konig
Published: March 3, 2003
Revised: January 20, 2025
This article is based on portions of the book, Jesus the Messiah, by Ray Konig.
The prophet Daniel, who lived about 2,500 years ago, gave a remarkable prediction that the Messiah would appear in about AD 26.
His prophecy, in Daniel 9:24-27, is also known as the Seventy Weeks prophecy.
For the past 2,000 years, since the dawn of Christianity, there have been hundreds of commentaries that have been written about Daniel's prophecy.
Some scholars and commentators take a Messianic view of this prophecy, believing that it predicted the timing of the arrival of the Messiah, and that it is fulfilled by Jesus.
And some scholars and commentators take a non-Messianic view of this prophecy, claiming that it is not about the Messiah, that it is not fulfilled by Jesus, and that it most certainly did not predict the timing of Jesus' arrival.
With this commentary, we will take a detailed look at the Seventy Weeks prophecy, explaining how it works, how it establishes itself as a Messianic prophecy, and how it is fulfilled by Jesus.
To begin, here is the full prophecy, as translated in the World English Bible (WEB), which is a freely available, non-copyright translation:
24 “Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
25 “Know therefore and discern that from the going out of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be built again, with street and moat, even in troubled times.
26 After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off, and will have nothing. The people of the prince who come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end will be with a flood, and war will be even to the end. Desolations are determined.
27 He will make a firm covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week he will cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. On the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate; and even to the full end, and that determined, wrath will be poured out on the desolate.” (Daniel 9:24-27, WEB)
This prophecy was given to Daniel in about the year 539 BC, which is about 2,500 years ago.
He received this prophecy shortly after Cyrus, and a coalition of Persians, Medes, and others, had conquered Babylon.
This conquest brought an end to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Previously, the Babylonians had conquered the Kingdom of Judah (southern Israel), destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the Temple, and forced many Jews into exile and captivity, including Daniel.
When Daniel received this prophecy, Jerusalem and the Temple were still in ruins.
This prophecy is predicting many events that are of staggering importance. It is predicting that Jerusalem would be rebuilt, that the Messiah would arrive, that the Messiah would be "cut off," as in rejected and executed, and that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed again.
All this was to take place during a 490-year period that would begin with a command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
This prophecy speaks of three time periods, which are given here as weeks, and in other English translations as sevens.
In the Old Testament, the underlying Hebrew word, sabua, can be used to refer to seven-day periods of time. Some scholars believe that it also can refer to seven-year periods of time.
There is strong consensus among scholars and commentators, within Christianity and Judaism, who agree that the weeks in Daniel 9:24-27 refer to seven-year periods of time, rather than seven-day periods of time.
Among the reasons for this consensus and this conclusion:
So, with the understanding that the references to weeks in Daniel 9 refer to seven-year periods, we have a way to understand the three time periods in Daniel's prophecy:
Daniel tells us in verse 25 that these time periods are to begin with the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.
And, Daniel tells us in verse 25 that the Anointed One was to appear after the completion of the first two time periods, which add up to 483 years.
So, Daniel is telling us that the Anointed One was to appear 483 years after the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.
And that is what happened.
Jesus appeared as the Messiah. He began his public ministry, as the Messiah, 483 years after the first of two commands were given to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, as we'll explain later in more detail.
The most natural and intuitive way to understand the three time periods in Daniel's prophecy is that they are sequential, as in consecutive, that the second time period begins when the first ends, that the third begins when the second ends. Factually speaking, this is the most natural and intuitive way to understand the three time periods.
Even so, some commentators claim that we should assume that there are gaps or overlaps between one or more of these time periods. Daniel, however, does not give us any cause or reason to assume anything other than the normal flow of time, that one time period begins when another ends.
And that brings us to the underlying Hebrew word, moshiach, which is translated here in the World English Bible as Anointed One, and in other translations, such as the King James Version, as Messiah. These two terms mean the same thing and are interchangeable.
Some scholars and commentators believe that the word moshiach, which means anointed, should be understood as pointing to an ordinary person who is anointed for a specific task. The Old Testament has many examples of ordinary people being anointed for the task of being king, or being a prophet, or being a priest.
And some scholars and commentators believe that the word should be understood as pointing to the Messiah -- the chosen one who is anointed to be the savior of the world.
And this is where the internal clues of Daniel's prophecy become useful. These clues point to the extraordinary Messiah, not to some ordinary person or persons.
In fact, these internal clues are thrown at us -- repeatedly -- in the opening verse of this prophecy:
24 “Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. (Daniel 9:24, WEB)
As you can see here, the problem of sin is directly addressed in three different ways, with the phrase, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity.
The problem of sin is a big deal in the Bible. One could argue that every event in the Bible, every law, every ceremony, and every prophecy has something to do with the problem of sin. The Bible's preoccupation with the problem of sin begins near the very beginning of the Bible.
In the second and third chapters of Genesis, which is the first and oldest book of the Old Testament, we get the story of Adam and Eve, who commit the very first sin and are evicted from the Garden of Eden.
From that point on, throughout the rest of the Bible, we continue to learn, over and over again, that sin is a problem, that sin separates people from God (Isaiah 59:2, etc), and that sin leads to spiritual and physical death (Genesis 2:17, etc).
And that's where the Messiah comes in. It is the Messiah who is anointed by God to resolve the problem of sin, by suffering and dying for the sins of others, so that people can regain what was lost in the Garden of Eden -- eternal life in the presence of God.
And that is why we should view Daniel 9:24-27 as speaking about the Messiah, not some ordinary person or persons.
It is the Messiah who is to resolve the problem of sin on behalf of humanity.
We are introduced to this concept in Genesis 2:17-3:15. We are given an exhaustive explanation of it in Isaiah 52:13-53:12. We are given a precedent in Genesis 22:1-18. We are given additional details in Psalm 22, Psalm 118, and Zechariah 12:10. And, with Daniel 9:24-27, we are given a prophetic timeline as to when the Messiah would appear and when he would suffer and die for the sins of others.
Immediately after verse 24 addresses the problem of sin, in three different ways, we get the two references of an Anointed One, the Messiah, in verses 25 and 26.
The first reference to an Anointed One speaks of the arrival of the Messiah. The arrival, according to a plain and literal reading of Daniel's prophecy, takes place with the conclusion of the first two time periods, which add up 483 years.
The second reference to an Anointed One speaks of him being "cut off," for which the underlying Hebrew word is karat. This event takes place during the third time period, which would be the final week of years, as mentioned in verse 27.
This word, karat, is used in the Old Testament, such as in Exodus 31:14, in reference to being expelled from the community, given a sentence of death, and executed.
And that is what happened.
Jesus was cut off, as in rejected, sentenced to death, and executed at the end of his public ministry as the Messiah. The timing of his execution by the Romans corresponds to Daniel's third time period.
Many scholars and commentators have disagreed as to when Daniel's seventy weeks, or 490 years, was to begin.
Some say it began with Cyrus in about 539 BC. Some say it began before then, with the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC. Some say it began before then, in about 605 BC, during the time of the prophet Jeremiah.
But, what does Daniel say?
Daniel says it begins with the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, as seen in verse 25.
If we read what Daniel wrote, rather than listen to the opinions of commentators who disagree with each other, we have cause and reason to conclude that Daniel's prophecy begins with the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.
And that brings us to Artaxerxes I (Longimanus), who was king of the Persian Empire from 465-424 BC.
But first, a little background.
When Cyrus had conquered the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Persians gained control of a vast empire that included the land of Israel. For the Jews, who were living in exile and captivity, they would need permission from the Persians to return to their homeland and rebuild their fallen cities.
It was Cyrus who gave the decree to release the Jews from their Babylonian Captivity. And it was Cyrus who gave the decree to rebuild the Temple. But, while Cyrus' conquest allowed for the eventual rebuilding of Jerusalem, he himself did not give the decree for the immediate rebuilding of Jerusalem.
In fact, for more than a century after the rebuilding of the Temple, which became known as the Second Temple, which was consecrated in 516 BC, the rest of Jerusalem, including its defensive walls and houses, remained in ruins.
It was Artaxerxes who gave decrees to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. The first was given in about 457 BC (Ezra 7:11-28). The second was given in about 445 BC (Nehemiah 2:1-9).
It was these decrees, from Artaxerxes, that called for and resulted in the restoring and rebuilding of Jerusalem. And the first of these decrees was given in about 457 BC.
With the first decree from Artaxerxes, the Jews began restoring Jerusalem. That city had been the capital for a sovereign Israel during ancient times. But that political sovereignty was long gone.
Religious sovereignty, however, was a different matter. Jerusalem had formerly served as the administrative center for Judaism. And, with the first decree from Artaxerxes, it could be restored in that capacity. Remarkably, this is a detail that is overlooked in many commentaries.
The first decree, as recorded in Ezra 7:11-28, restores Jerusalem as the administrative center for Judaism while also restoring the rights of Jews to freely and fully practice the religion of Judaism -- without restriction. This decree was of staggering importance in restoring Jerusalem.
The second decree, as described in Nehemiah 2:1-9, specifically addressed and overrode the opposition that the Jews had been facing in trying to rebuild the protective walls around Jerusalem. Once the walls were rebuilt, it would be possible to safely repopulate Jerusalem.
And that is what happened.
The work to restore and rebuild Jerusalem took place well within the first time period that Daniel spoke of, which is the seven weeks, or 49 years. That work, as documented in the Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah, allowed the fallen city of Jerusalem to once again function as the center of Judaism and to be safely repopulated.
It was during the second time period, which is the sixty-two weeks, or 434 years, that Jerusalem, and other parts of Israel, continued to rebuild, expand, and become fully repopulated.
That offers an explanation as to why Daniel has two time periods, the seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks, before the arrival of the Messiah. The first time period was to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to a basic point of viability, so that it could again be repopulated, during the second time period.
And that brings us to the completion of Daniel's first two time periods.
And that brings us to the arrival of Jesus.
But first, a little background.
Historians and other scholars have different views as to when Artaxerxes gave his first decree. Some say it was 457 BC. Some say it was 458 BC.
And scholars have different views as to when Jesus began his public ministry. Some say that it began as early as late AD 26, while others say that it could have started as late as AD 29.
The reason for this range is that there are challenges as to when Tiberius began his reign as emperor of the Roman Empire, because he shared power with the previous emperor for a few years before that emperor died. And, the start of Jesus' public ministry is tied to the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius (Luke 3:1).
Even with the qualified amount of precision that is available to us at this time, we can see that the 483-year period that Daniel predicted, starting with the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, coincides with the arrival of Jesus as the Anointed One.
In as early as late AD 26, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. It was at that time that John announced that Jesus is the Messiah, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29-34). And, it was at that time John testified that he witnessed Jesus being anointed by the Holy Spirit of God as the Messiah. And, it was at that time that Jesus began his public ministry as the Messiah.
In other words, Jesus was announced as the Messiah, anointed as the Messiah, and began his public ministry as the Messiah, 483 years after a Persian king began granting permission to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, in fulfillment of a plain and literal reading of Daniel's prophecy.
As for the scholars and commentators who claim that Daniel 9:24-27 is not a prophecy about the Messiah, they are, in effect, suggesting that Daniel, who predicted the rise and fall of a succession of empires, in other chapters of his book, somehow overlooked the single most impactful religious figure in the record of history.
But, in their own defense, they too also overlooked the single most impactful religious figure in the record of history.
As for the scholars and commentators who claim that Daniel 9:24-27 is a prophecy about the Messiah, they are, in effect, suggesting that Daniel, who predicted the rise and fall of a succession of empires, did not overlook the single most impactful religious figure in the record of history.
Either way, Jesus appeared, as the Messiah, 483 years after the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, as predicted by Daniel, in his Seventy Weeks prophecy, in Daniel 9:24-27.
And that is what happened.
© 2003, 2025 Ray Konig.
Ray Konig is the author of Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Prophet, Jesus the Miracle Worker, and 100 Fulfilled Bible Prophecies.
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Articles about Daniel's Seventy Weeks prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27
• The Messiah would appear 483 years after a call to restore and rebuild Jerusalem
• Does the Seventy Weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27) refer to days or years?
• How do we know that Daniel 9:24-27 is a prophecy about the Messiah?
• Is Daniel 9:24-27 a prophecy about the Messiah or about two lesser messiahs?
• Did Christians misinterpret Daniel 9:25?
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