To better understand the timing of the "70 sevens" we need to look at what the Bible says the timing of a "week" is according to the Bible.
Clarence Larkin helps to shed light on this when he wrote, "It is clear to every careful student of the Word of God that there is a 'Time Element' in the scriptures. We come across such divisions of time as 'hours;' 'days;' 'weeks;' 'months;' 'years;' 'times;' 'time and the dividing of time.' To be intelligible and avoid confusion they must be interpreted on the same scale. What is that scale?"
It is given in Numbers 14:34. 'For forty years-one year for each of the forty days you explored the land-you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.'
The Lord's scale is then "a day stands for a year."
"Let us apply this scale to the 'Seventy weeks.' We found that the time between the 'commandment' to restore and build Jerusalem, and 'Messiah the Prince,' was to be 69 weeks, or 69 x 7 = 483 days, or if a 'day' stand for a year, 483 years.
So when was the decree to "restore and build Jerusalem" decreed?
"Daniel was told that this 490 year period would begin 'from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem'. In the scriptures are contained several decrees that have to do with the restoration of the Jews from Babylonian captivity."
Decree of Cyrus - 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-3
Decree of Darius - Ezra 6:3-8
Decree of Artaxerxes - Ezra 7:7
"...in all these permission were granted for the rebuilding of the temple and nothing was said about the rebuilding of the city. When we turn to the decree of Artexerxes, made in his twentieth year, recorded in Nehemiah 2:1-8, for the first time is permission granted to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. This then becomes the beginning of the prophetic time appointed by God in this prophecy." - Dwight Pentecost
"Prophetic Chronology" uses a 360 day a year calendar taken from Genesis. Pentecost also says "The Persian edict which restored the autonomy of Judah was issued in the Jewish month of Nisan. I may in fact have been dated from the 1st of Nisan...the seventy weeks are therefore to be computed for the 1st of Nisan B.C. 445."
Daniels 69 weeks ran out on April 2, A.D. 30, the day that Jesus rode in triumph into the City of Jerusalem. For a more in depth look at the timing of this read Clarence Larkin's "Dispensational Truth" page 71 to understand how this time was arrived at.
My next post will deal with the "last seven" or the "last week" of Daniel's 70 Weeks.
Clarence Larkin helps to shed light on this when he wrote, "It is clear to every careful student of the Word of God that there is a 'Time Element' in the scriptures. We come across such divisions of time as 'hours;' 'days;' 'weeks;' 'months;' 'years;' 'times;' 'time and the dividing of time.' To be intelligible and avoid confusion they must be interpreted on the same scale. What is that scale?"
It is given in Numbers 14:34. 'For forty years-one year for each of the forty days you explored the land-you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.'
The Lord's scale is then "a day stands for a year."
"Let us apply this scale to the 'Seventy weeks.' We found that the time between the 'commandment' to restore and build Jerusalem, and 'Messiah the Prince,' was to be 69 weeks, or 69 x 7 = 483 days, or if a 'day' stand for a year, 483 years.
So when was the decree to "restore and build Jerusalem" decreed?
"Daniel was told that this 490 year period would begin 'from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem'. In the scriptures are contained several decrees that have to do with the restoration of the Jews from Babylonian captivity."
Decree of Cyrus - 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-3
Decree of Darius - Ezra 6:3-8
Decree of Artaxerxes - Ezra 7:7
"...in all these permission were granted for the rebuilding of the temple and nothing was said about the rebuilding of the city. When we turn to the decree of Artexerxes, made in his twentieth year, recorded in Nehemiah 2:1-8, for the first time is permission granted to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. This then becomes the beginning of the prophetic time appointed by God in this prophecy." - Dwight Pentecost
"Prophetic Chronology" uses a 360 day a year calendar taken from Genesis. Pentecost also says "The Persian edict which restored the autonomy of Judah was issued in the Jewish month of Nisan. I may in fact have been dated from the 1st of Nisan...the seventy weeks are therefore to be computed for the 1st of Nisan B.C. 445."
Daniels 69 weeks ran out on April 2, A.D. 30, the day that Jesus rode in triumph into the City of Jerusalem. For a more in depth look at the timing of this read Clarence Larkin's "Dispensational Truth" page 71 to understand how this time was arrived at.
My next post will deal with the "last seven" or the "last week" of Daniel's 70 Weeks.
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