The Prophet Daniel is recognized for his precise predictions and testifies to the truth that God’s word is infallible and trustworthy. He predicted the coming of Christ with such accuracy that it should convince even the most skeptical critic of God’s word. Daniel’s prophecy was given when the nation of Israel was in captivity in Babylon in the first year of the reign of Darius in 539 BC. While Daniel was praying, he was visited by the angel Gabriel, who revealed the timeline for the coming Messiah and Israel’s destruction and rebirth.
“Seventy sevens are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.
Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to the sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him. Daniel 9:24-27.
The timeline given by Gabriel was divided into three sections, one of seven ‘sevens,’ one of sixty-two ‘sevens,’ after which the Messiah was to be killed and the city destroyed once more, followed by the final one ‘seven’. The context of the ‘seven’ implies years since Daniel was praying about the 70 years of captivity in Babylon, therefore the first time period is 49 years, the second is 434 years and the last is 7 years.
The final ‘seven,’ or seven years begin when a covenant is made with many by the ruler who will come. Three and one-half years into the agreement, this ruler will stop the sacrifice and offering, therefore, rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem must be a component of the treaty. He then sets up an abomination that causes desolation in the temple.
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, the Lord stirred his spirit to issue a decree (Isaiah 44:24, 28 and Ezra 1:1-4). This happened in 538 BC, however king Cyrus stopped short and only decreed that the temple be rebuilt and not the city. It is important to note that Darius was a Mede and Cyrus was Persian. At this time Babylon was being ruled by both the Medes and the Persians which is why there seems to be overlap in their reign. It wasn’t until Nehemiah lamented before king Artaxerxes in the twentieth year of his reign (444 BC) that Jerusalem still laid in ruins, which resulted in Nehemiah travelling to Jerusalem to begin the rebuild. So in order to calculate Daniel’s seventy weeks, 444 BC is the correct starting point for determining the time that would elapse during the 69 weeks of years (seven ‘sevens’ and sixty-two ‘sevens’) to when the “Anointed One” would be cut off.
Beginning at 444 BC and adding 483 years, but remembering that the Jews used the lunar calendar of 360 days in a year, the math looks like this: 483 x 360 then divide by 365 and you have 476.34 years. Add 476.34 to 444 and then add 1 year, for the year zero which isn’t counted and you arrive at 33.34 AD or Easter of 33 AD, which is the exact time of the crucifixion of Jesus, when he was “cut off and had nothing.” The people of the ruler who will come were the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70 and that end came like a flood resulting in the Jewish diaspora.
Some scholars have argued that since Daniel’s prophetic predictions were so detailed that they were written after the fact and their literal style made them sound prophetic, however a very powerful substantiation of their authenticity was made by the Jewish historian Josephus as well as being recorded in the Talmud. When Alexander the Great arrived at Jerusalem with his conquering army in 332 BC, the high priest, Simeon the Just, showed him the Book of Daniel with its prophecy regarding the Greek kingdom whom Alexander fought for, and their prophesied conquest of Persia in chapter 11. Alexander made the connection and surmised himself as the mighty king, therefore decided not to attack Jerusalem and instead marched on to Babylon and victory there.
Scripture is precise for a reason. Paul illustrated this precision when he wrote, “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say, ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed,’ meaning one person, who is Christ.” Galatians 3:16. In the same way that the book of Daniel prophesied the coming of Christ in pinpoint accuracy, the entire Bible must be accepted as both accurate and true.
There can be no middle ground when it comes to believing the Bible. There can be no sitting on the fence about who Jesus claimed to be. Jesus said, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” Mathew 12:30. Belief in God and the truth his word are substantiated by the precision of prophecy. This is God’s signature on the Bible.
