What Scripture says
“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness… Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” (Daniel 9:24–26, ESV)
The “weeks” are literally “sevens”, usually understood as periods of seven years, so seventy sevens is 490 years.
What the evidence says
Scripture
The order of events
Whatever the exact numbers, the passage gives a sequence:
- A decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
- A period of 7 + 62 sevens (483 years).
- An “anointed one” is “cut off”.
- Then the city and sanctuary are destroyed.
Christians have long argued that this places the Messiah’s death before the destruction of the second temple, which happened in AD 70. Jesus was crucified around AD 30–33, about 40 years earlier.
History
Calculating the years
The starting point and calendar matter:
| Starting decree | Date | Proposed end of 483 years |
|---|---|---|
| Cyrus’s decree (Ezra 1) | 538 BC | Too early for Jesus on a straightforward count |
| Artaxerxes to Ezra (Ezra 7) | 458/457 BC | c. AD 26–27, Jesus’ baptism |
| Artaxerxes to Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2) | 445/444 BC | c. AD 32–33, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem (using 360-day years, Harold Hoehner) |
Different scholars use different start dates and year lengths (365-day solar years or 360-day “prophetic” years). Each yields a date in Jesus’ lifetime, but the variety shows the calculations aren’t straightforward.
The final week
Daniel 9:27 describes a final “week” in which someone “shall make a strong covenant” and “put an end to sacrifice”. Interpretations differ:
- Some see it fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry and death, ending the need for sacrifice.
- Dispensationalists see a gap, with the 70th week still future, in a seven-year tribulation (see 10.8).
- Others link it to the Roman war of AD 66–73.
The critical view
Critical scholars, who date Daniel to about 165 BC (see 5.9), read the seventy weeks as ending in the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. They identify the “anointed one cut off” as the high priest Onias III, murdered in 171 BC, and the destruction of the sanctuary as Antiochus’s desecration of the temple in 167 BC. On this view, the numbers are schematic and don’t add up precisely.
Christians respond that the sanctuary wasn’t destroyed in 167 BC (it was desecrated, then restored), while it was utterly destroyed in AD 70.
Where they meet
Daniel 9:24–26 says the Anointed One is “cut off” before the city and temple are destroyed, which happened in AD 70. Exact year counts vary and depend on how Daniel is dated.
What’s still open
The starting point, the calendar, the meaning of the final week, and the date of Daniel.
Bottom line
Daniel 9:24–26 says the Anointed One is “cut off” before the city and temple are destroyed, which happened in AD 70. Exact year counts vary and depend on how Daniel is dated. This is rated Debated.