Daniel’s Seventy Weeks
Seventy weeks of years decreed for Israel: sixty-nine fulfilled, one still to come
“Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.”Daniel 9:24 — WEB
Israel’s Clock and the Church
The Seven Acts
The first sixty-nine weeks run through Act 5, the Age of Israel, and end when the Messiah is cut off. The seventieth week falls in Act 6: after the Church is taken to heaven, God turns His focus back to Israel and the nations in the Tribulation.
A “week” is seven years
The Hebrew word means “sevens.” Daniel had just been reading about Jeremiah’s seventy years (Daniel 9:2), and the answer comes back as seventy sevens.
The Seventy Weeks at a Glance
Not drawn to scale. The prophecy’s clock stops after the sixty-ninth week and starts again with the seventieth.
Swipe sideways to see the whole chart, or tap it to enlarge →
Six Purposes for Israel
Daniel 9:24 lists what the seventy weeks will accomplish “on your people and on your holy city.” Christ’s death paid for sin once for all, but these promises are made to Israel. They are completed for the nation when it is restored at His return (Romans 11:26–27).
| # | Daniel 9:24 | Concerns |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | “to finish disobedience” | Dealing with sin |
| 2 | “to make an end of sins” | Dealing with sin |
| 3 | “to make reconciliation for iniquity” | Dealing with sin |
| 4 | “to bring in everlasting righteousness” | Bringing in righteousness |
| 5 | “to seal up vision and prophecy” | Bringing in righteousness |
| 6 | “to anoint the most holy” | Bringing in righteousness |
Counting to the Messiah
Two well-known calculations reach the same week in the life of Christ.
| Sir Robert Anderson | Harold Hoehner | |
|---|---|---|
| Decree | Nisan 1, 445 BC | Nisan 1, 444 BC |
| 69 weeks | 483 years × 360 days = 173,880 days | 483 years × 360 days = 173,880 days |
| Ends at | The Triumphal Entry, AD 32 | The Triumphal Entry, AD 33 |
Both count in 360-day “prophetic years.” Revelation treats half of the seventieth week as 1,260 days and 42 months (Revelation 12:6; Revelation 13:5), which only works with 30-day months. The two differ only on how Artaxerxes’ twentieth year (Nehemiah 2:1) is reckoned.
Why There Is a Gap
Four reasons the seventieth week did not follow right after the sixty-ninth.
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1
The text itself
Daniel 9:26 places the Messiah’s death and the city’s destruction “after the sixty-two weeks,” not in the seventieth. The city fell in AD 70, almost forty years after the cross.
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2
Jesus put it in the future
Jesus said the abomination Daniel spoke of was still to come (Matthew 24:15), followed by unequaled tribulation and His return (Matthew 24:21; 24:29–30).
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3
Jesus paused a prophecy before
In Nazareth He read Isaiah 61:1–2 and stopped before “the day of vengeance,” saying only the first part was fulfilled that day (Luke 4:18–21).
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4
The Church was not revealed to Daniel
The Church is a mystery not made known in earlier generations (Ephesians 3:5–6). Its age fits between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks.
Notes & Sources
- The decree date of 445 BC follows Philippe R. Sterling and Sir Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince (1894). Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (1977), dates it to 444 BC and the Triumphal Entry to AD 33.
- “The prince who is to come” (Daniel 9:26) is the future ruler of Daniel 9:27 who makes the covenant. His people, the Romans, destroyed the city and the temple in AD 70.
- Half of the week is also called “a time, times, and half a time” (Daniel 7:25; Revelation 12:14) and forty-two months (Revelation 11:2).
- This chart takes the pretribulational view that the Church is caught up before the seventieth week begins.
Adapted from Philippe R. Sterling’s Bible survey notes, used with permission.