Daniel - The Dating of Daniel's 70 Sevens

By: Cort Laurence -- Jul 26, 2016
== Artaxerxes Decree ==
Daniel 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
Artaxerxes began to rule in 465 BC.
Ezra 7:7,13 And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. 13 I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.
Command of Artaxerxes to rebuild: 457BC.
First 69 Sevens (7 weeks and threescore and two weeks) = 483 years. 457+483= 27AD. (There is no “Year 0” between BC & AD). The first 69 sevens end in 27 AD. It would be 483 years from Artaxerxes decree until ‘the Messiah the Prince.’ 27AD is when Christ enters the scene and begins his ministry.
== Birth of Christ ==
King Herod dies in 4 BC, according to Josephus. Before his death, he tries to kill Christ during his infancy and orders all male children two years old and younger to be executed.
Matthew 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
This would place Christ’s birth no earlier than 6 BC and no later than early 4 BC. 
== Ministry of Christ ==
Christ was baptized when he was 30 years of age and then following that event, Luke 4 records him returning from temptation in the wilderness and his fame spread throughout the region (Luke 4:14).
Luke 3:23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,
4 BC + 30 = 27 AD
Luke 3:1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,
Tiberius Caesar’s beginning is much harder to pinpoint. He dually served with his adopted father, Augustus Caesar. Augustus Caesar died in 14 AD and Tiberius takes sole reign in 15 AD*, which would place Christ’s baptism in 29 to 30 AD, which does not add up with his birth being between 6 and 4 BC. However, Tiberius Caesar was granted proconsular imperium in 13 AD*. If 12/13 AD is his first year to have reigning powers, then Luke 3:1 is accurate and the math fits with his birth being between 6 and 4 BC. (*Roman emperor reigns were not counted until the start of the first full year according to Roman history, thus giving the difference between the 14/15 AD and 12/13 AD.)
13 AD + 15 (inclusive) = 27 AD.
Christ’s ministry began around 27 AD, 30 years from his birth.
It would be 483 years from the time of Artaxerxes’s decree until Christ entered the scene. The 69th ‘seven’ ends and then Christ makes his splash, fulfilling Daniel 9:25:
Luke 4:14: 14And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
== Crucifixion of Christ AD 30 After the 69th Seven ==
Daniel 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
After the 69th seven, Christ would be cut off (crucified). Notice it is not said that ‘during the 70th week Christ would be cut off. The events that would happen during the 70th week are mentioned in Daniel 9:27:
Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
1st Issue: If the 70th week followed directly behind the 69th week, with no 'space to repent' (or gap as some call it), then why not put the crucifixion in verse 27 which deals with the events of the 70th week? Christ ‘appearing on the scene’ would come at the end of the 483 years. His being cut off (crucifixion) which starts the events leading to the end of the Jews are only said to happen after the 69 weeks are over.
Many claim the sacrifices and oblations ceasing in Daniel 9:27 is a reference to the Old Law being nailed to the cross, making the sacrifices and oblations obsolete. Daniel 9:27 is not speaking of their ineffectiveness; it is speaking to their ceasing, which they did not do until 70 AD when the Temple was destroyed.
Also, if you want to say the things in Daniel 9:26 that happen after the 69th week must happen in the 70th week, then you wind up putting the crucifixion of Christ at the same time as the destruction of the city and the end of the war of desolations that would be brought on by a type of flood. The destruction of the city and temple cannot be any event remotely close to 30AD. It had to be speaking of the events in 70 AD. NOTHING else lines up and there is little talk about this from other theories.
And he says the city and temple will be ended with a flood. That doesn’t literally happen anymore as God promised after the flood of Noah. But, it does happen figuratively as Isaiah says it will in Isaiah 59 during the time of the establishment of the church.
== Seventieth Seven ==
Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
The second issue with placing the 70th week directly behind the 69th week is that it ends 3.5 years after the supposed ceasing of the sacrifices and oblations on the cross. There is no major event recorded in the Bible or in history that lines up with that year, whether you use 30 AD or 33 AD for the crucifixion. It has to be left unexplained or irrelevant (and opens the door for millennialism).
While the first two issues raise good questions, they fail in comparison to the third issue. The third issue is reconciling Matthew 24:15 with Daniel 9:27.
Matthew 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
Matthew 24:15 is found in the ‘first half’ of Matthew 24 and is a section that is widely accepted as concerning the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Roman army. Matthew 24:15 directly references the ‘abomination of desolation’ in Daniel, so the ‘abomination of desolation’ spoken of in this 70th week has to deal with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. 70 AD was when the sacrifices and oblations ceased. Daniel 9 is not the only chapter that references the abomination of desolation. Further light can be shed by exploring another instance in Daniel where he speaks of it.
Daniel 12: 7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half (3 and a half, or half of a seven, or 42 months); and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. 8And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? 9And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 10Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. 11And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
(*Note: The abomination of desolation (destroying the temple) by the Babylonians does not fit in Matthew 24 at all - eliminating the earlier references to it in Daniel.)
The seven year war between the Jews and the Romans started in March of 67 AD when Vespasian was sent by Nero to quell the rebellion. It ended with the last stronghold, Masada, falling on the 15th of Nissan, 74 AD, 1335 days exactly after the fall of Jerusalem. After Jerusalem fell, the Jews, or the Holy people were sold into slavery and scattered throughout the world. Around the middle of the 70th seven (after 3 and a half OR times time and half a time OR 42 months, all symbolic of half of a 7 year period) what does Daniel 9 say would happen? “And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate.” Then the holy people would be scattered. The Bible does not say these things would happen at the crucifixion in the 30s AD. It says they would happen when the Romans would destroy Jerusalem. Daniel’s 70th seven has to happen from 67 AD to 74 AD; with the ceasing of the sacrifices and oblations, the abomination of desolation being set up by the invading army, and the scattering of the Jews.
The nailing of the Old Law to the cross is different from the sacrifices and oblations ceasing. The Old Law being nailed to the cross happened at the crucifixion, but that did not stop the sacrifices from happening. The ceasing of the sacrifices and oblations happened when the abomination of desolation would occur and both Daniel and Matthew together put that at the time of the outside invader (Rome) coming in and destroying Jerusalem, thus scattering the Jews. The 70th seven absolutely has to happen when all of these events occur, and that only happens with the 7 year period sandwiched around 70 AD. For it to not makes Matthew 24:15 obsolete, worthless, and inaccurate.
== Space of 40 Years ==
The ‘midst of the 70th seven’ does not happen directly after the 69th week ends. There is a space which many preachers call a transition period between the covenants. The space spans from the time the Messiah enters the scene in 27 AD and ends forty years later in 67 AD. This is the same amount of time given for transition from the Patriarchal Law to the Mosaical Law (the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness). Just as the Old Law is a precursor or shadow to the New Law, the transition period is also a shadow. The transition period in the first century is directly compared to the transition period after the Exodus - another 40 year period between dispensations. That is what the entire book of Hebrews is about, especially chapter 3.
Paul specifically compares the transition they were going through from Judaism to Christianity to the transition the Jews went through when they were coming out of the Patriarchal Age:
I Cor 10: 1-11: 1 For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and did all eat the same spiritual food; 4 and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ. 5 Howbeit with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9 Neither let us make trial of the Lord, as some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents. 10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. 11 Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.
The early 1st century Christians were going through the same sort of transition that the Israelites who 'passed through the sea' went through. The 1st century Christians needed to understand what they were going through (a transition) and heed the warning because the end of that Jewish age had come, and it would bring death and damnation to those who were not ready. 
Forty years was the time between the Jews killing Christ and Christ (figuratively coming back and) killing the Jews. 30 AD to 70 AD. The Jews did not receive their reward for killing the messiah right away. God gave everyone space to repent and switch over to Christianity:
Revelation 2:21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
The space is the 40 year transition period between dispensations. But the Jews did not repent and kept after the Christians just as they had done since Christ had entered the scene. They kept up this attempted death blow to the cause of Christ until they were scattered in the midst of the 70th seven, or 70 AD, as Daniel 12:7-11 states.
== Conclusion ==
Artaxerxes decree in 457 BC + 483 Years (69 sevens) = 27 AD, the Messiah enters the Scene, or the beginning of his Ministry. The 69th seven is followed by a 40 year space / transition period before the 70th seven starts in 67 AD. Then in the midst of the last 7 year period, the 70th week, Jerusalem is destroyed in 70 AD when the abomination of desolation is set up and the temple and city are destroyed. The last seven (70th seven) ends in 74 A.D. when Masada is destroyed.