Daniel 9 Explained
The Messianic-Historic Interpretation was how the Church traditionally explained Daniel 9 before Dispensationalism and Liberal Criticism became dominant in recent centuries. It is called Messianic because it understands Jesus Christ to be the focus of the prophecy, and it is called Historic because the full 490 years are interpreted as past history. In this interpretation:
The 490 years are a renewal of God’s covenant with Israel, and began with Artaxerxes’ first decree in 458/7 BC.
The last seven years began exactly when the first 483 years ended, namely, at Jesus’ baptism in AD 26/27.
3½ years later, Israel killed Jesus, but that was not the end of God’s covenant with Israel. God continued to send the Holy Spirit, with even greater power than ever before, but to Israel only.
The last seven years ended 3½ years after the Cross, when Israel rejected the Holy Spirit by killing God’s Spirit-filled disciples, beginning with Stephen’s stoning.
Therefore, the seven last years began with Jesus’s baptism and ended at Stephen’s stoning, with the crucifixion “in the midst of” these seven years, causing “sacrifice and the oblation to cease” (v27), not literally, but in terms of significance.
Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, about 40 years after the Cross.
A series of articles on Daniel 9 has been posted on this site (see here). The current article is a summary of the aspects relevant to the Historical-Messianic Interpretation. Links are provided, should more details be required.
The 70 Weeks of Daniel 9
Gabriel began the prophecy as follows:
“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city” (Dan 9:24).
Your People and your Holy City
This refers to Israel and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the capital and symbol of the Jewish nation. As discussed, while other prophecies in Daniel deal with all nations and all time, the prophecy in Daniel 9 deals specifically with Israel and the 490 years allocated to her.
The 70 weeks renewed God’s Covenant.
As discussed, this promise of 70 weeks for Daniel’s people is based on God’s covenant with Israel. The covenant stated:
(a) Should Israel become unfaithful (Lev 26:14-39),
(b) God will send them into exile and scatter them among the nations (Lev 26:33).
(c) But if Israel in exile “confess their iniquity” (Lev 26:40, 41, 44),
(d) God will remember His covenant … with Abraham (Lev 26:42) “that I might be their God” (Lev 26:45). In other words, God would renew His covenant with Israel.
Daniel 9 follows this sequence.
(1) At the time of Daniel 9, Jerusalem was in ruins and Israel in exile (Dan 9:2, 7) due to its unfaithfulness to the covenant (Dan 9:11-13).
(2) In his prayer (9:4-19), Daniel confessed the guilt of His people (Dan 9:5-11, 15-16), acknowledged the exile as the covenant penalty for unfaithfulness (Dan 9:11-13), and acknowledged that God acted fairly (Dan 9:7, 14). But, on behalf of Israel, Daniel also prayed for the renewal of God’s covenant with Israel (Dan 9:4). He prayed for Israel and its city, Jerusalem (Dan 9:19, 16-17).
(3) This context means that, when Gabriel brought God’s answer, namely that 70 weeks have been decreed for Israel and Jerusalem, this was a renewal of God’s covenant with Israel.
Therefore:
(a) God’s covenant with Israel is the central theme in Daniel 9. It binds together Daniel’s prayer and the prophecy.
(b) The covenant that is confirmed during the final “one week” (Dan 9:27) is the final week of God’s time-limited renewed covenant with Israel, not the covenant of an Antichrist.
(c) God’s covenant with Israel ended at the end of the 70 weeks.
Are the 490 years literal or symbolic?
Israel had both weeks of days and weeks of years. Israel’s calendar followed a seven-year cycle in which every seventh year was a sabbath, a year of rest for the land (Lev 25), just like every seventh day was a sabbath, a day of rest for the people. In the seventh year, Israel was not allowed to work the land (Lev 25:2-4).
God made the seven-year cycle part of the covenant. For example, God used the seven-year cycle to calculate how long Israel would be in exile, namely, one year for every sabbath year not observed (Lev 26:34-35, 43). While they are in exile, the land would enjoy its rest.
Jeremiah prophesied that Israel would be in exile for 70 years. In other words, each of the 70 years was the penalty for one sabbath year not observed, and the 70 years represented 490 years of disobedience before the exile (cf. 2 Chron 36:21).
Since the 490 years of Daniel 9 are a renewal of God’s covenant with Israel, and since the sabbath year cycle was part of the covenant, the 70 weeks are covenant weeks. In other words, the 70 weeks are 70 cycles of seven literal years each, in total, 490 literal years, not prophetic years of 360 days each. No year-for-a-day conversion is required.
Daniel 9:25
“So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.”
Know and Discern
“So you are to know and discern”
This is an example of the poetic structure of the prophecy, also reflected in the phrases:
- “Restore and rebuild,” and
- “Seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.”
As discussed below, to understand the real sequence of the events prophesied in verses 25 to 27, it is important to analyze this poetic structure.
Decree to Restore and Rebuild
“that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem”
The 490 years began with “a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem” (Dan 9:25). As discussed, the word translated as “restore” (shub) does not mean the same as “rebuild.” Shub means to return the city to the previous owner to own and govern according to its own laws:
Cyrus’ decree in 538/7 BC allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem and, therefore, to rebuild the city, but the decree did not yet “restore” the city. Israel was still under Persian rule.
Darius’ decree in 520 BC merely confirmed Cyrus’ edict.
Artaxerxes I issued two decrees; the first in 458/7 (Ezra 7:1-26) and the second 13 years later in 445/4 (Neh 1-2). For the following reasons, the first decree was the decree intended by the prophecy:
• The first decree “restored” Jerusalem because it granted Judah judicial autonomy, for it decreed: “Whoever does not obey the law of your God and the law of the king must surely be punished by death …” (Ezra 7:26).
• If we add seventy weeks (490 years) to 458/7 BC, we come to the time of Christ.
In Dispensationalism, the 490 years began with Artaxerxes’ second decree in 445/4. However:
• The second decree did not “restore” Jerusalem. It said nothing about Israel ruling itself. It only dealt with the physical construction of the city walls.
• By about seven years, the second decree was too late to fit the time of Christ. Dispensationalism, to solve this discrepancy, interprets the 490 years as years of 360 days each. This reduces the 490 years to 483 literal years. However, as discussed, the 490 years are literal years.
• Dispensationalism claims that the second decree of Artaxerxes I was the first to authorize the rebuilding of Jerusalem. However, all previous decrees, by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, by allowing the Jews to return to Judah, to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:1-4; cf. Isa 45:1), and to rule themselves, implicitly authorized the rebuilding of the city.
Messiah the Prince
“until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks”
Verse 25 continues that the “Messiah the Prince” will appear at the end of “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.” In other words, the Messiah will appear (7+62) x 7 = 483 years after the decree.
However, in the KJV, the “Messiah the Prince” appears after only seven weeks. As discussed, the NASB is correct here. This difference is due to different assumptions about punctuation. The KJV follows the punctuation that the Jews, about five centuries after Christ, added in an attempt to remove Jesus from the prophecy.
The Messiah, the Prince, is Jesus Christ. He ‘appeared’ to Israel at His baptism, when He was anointed by the Holy Spirit, and God proclaimed the Anointed to be His Son. This was the beginning of His public ministry (John 1:31; Acts 10:38; Mark 1:9-14; Luke 4:18; Psa 2:6, 7).
He was baptized in the fifteenth year of the Roman emperor Tiberius (Luke 3:1, 5, 21). Different chronologists give different years for His baptism, mostly from 26 to 29 AD. If we add 483 years to 458/7 BC, we arrive at AD 26/27. (Remember, no year nil. From 1 BC to 1 AD is one year, not two.) Artaxerxes’ first decree, therefore, aligns well with the possible dates of Jesus’ baptism.
Daniel 9:26
“Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.”
The Messiah cut off
The Messiah, who is cut off (killed), is Jesus Christ. While verse 25 uses the word “until” to explain that He would appear at the end of the 483 years, verse 26 uses the word “after” to say that He would die some unspecified time after the end of the 483 years.
Destruction of the City and the Sanctuary.
The city is Jerusalem. The Romans destroyed it in 70 AD. Since the 70 weeks were decreed for Jerusalem (verse 24), the city would not be destroyed during that period. As will be explained below, it was destroyed AFTER the end of the 490 years.
God did not intend the Jewish nation to fail, but He foresaw that they would. Jerusalem was rebuilt to receive the Messiah, but it was again destroyed because it rejected and killed the Messiah. Consequently, Israel lost God’s divine protection. As our Lord looked into the future, He wept over the city, and said:
“If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:21, 42-44).
Beginning in AD 66, wars broke out between Israel and the Romans. A few days before the AD 70 Passover, the Romans attacked Jerusalem, breached the wall, took the city, set the temple on fire, and ruthlessly slaughtered the Jews. According to Josephus, their blood flowed in streams down the steps. Hundreds of thousands were slain, tens of thousands were sold into slavery.
The Prince and his People
“The people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.”
The “people” refer to the Roman Empire, which destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70.
Verse 26 describes the prince of Rome as “the prince who is to come.” In the next chapter, we read of another prince who is “to come,” namely, the prince of Greece. We also read of the prince of Persia and of Michael the Prince of Israel. But these are supernatural beings. For example, the supernatural being speaking to Daniel had to return to fight against the prince of Persia. He said that no one stands firmly with him against these forces except Michael, the prince of Israel (Daniel 10:13, 16, 18, 20-21). Therefore, the prince of Rome is probably an angel or a supernatural force, representing the Roman nation, not a human being.
Daniel 9:27
“And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering;
and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”
This verse is the core of the prophecy. Nothing really happens in the first 483 years, except the rebuilding of the city. The Messiah appears at the end of the 483 years. The major action is reserved for the last seven years, as described in verse 27.
This verse consists of two parts, describing the activities of two individuals: First, “he” who makes a covenant for one week and who stops sacrifices. He is followed by “one who makes desolate.”
The previous verse (26) ended with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. If the events in the prophecy are in chronological sequence, then the “one week” of verse 27 must follow after AD 70. Consistent with that reading, in Dispensationalism, the “he” is an endtime revived Roman Antichrist, and the destruction is the Antichrist’s destruction when Christ returns.
In the Liberal view, this verse describes the Greek King Antiochus in the 2nd century BC.
But it will now be argued that the “he” is Jesus Christ, that the “one week” (9:27) is the seven years around Christ’s death, 2000 years ago, and that the destruction in verse 27 is again the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
The “he” of Daniel 9:27
(1) It is God’s Covenant.
Firstly, as discussed, the entire 70 weeks (490 years) are God’s renewed covenant with Israel: “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city.” Therefore, the “one week” in Daniel 9:27 is the last seven years of God’s covenant. This can be confirmed as follows:
(a) In verse 27, in the NASB, “he will make a firm covenant.” This sounds like a NEW covenant. However, in Hebrew, the verb is “gâbar,” which Strong’s defines as “prevailed.” In the NASB, of the 25 times this word appears in the OT, it is 14 times translated as ‘prevail.’ According to Meredith G. Kline, “The covenant of the Seventieth Week,” the evidence of the usage of gâbar in the Bible indicates that Daniel 9:27 has in view enforcing an EXISTING covenant. It is not a verb for making a new covenant. Similarly, the KJV translates it as “confirm the covenant,” and Young’s Literal Translation as “strengthening a covenant.” These translations imply a covenant that existed prior to the last seven years. Then it can only be God’s covenant.
(b) The main character in verse 26, and in the entire prophecy, is the Messiah. For example, the goals listed in verse 24 for the 490 years can only be fulfilled by the Messiah. Verse 25 explains when the Messiah will appear. Verse 26 says the Messiah will be cut off (killed).
The “prince that shall come” is not the main character in verse 26. He is not the subject of that clause. It reads “people of the prince”, not “the prince of the people.”
Since the Messiah is the main character in verse 26, the “he” in verse 27, who confirms the covenant, must also be the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
(c) As discussed, the prince in verse 26 is a supernatural being, representing the Roman nation. Since the “he” in verse 27 is presumably a human being, “he” does not refer back to the prince in verse 26.
(d) “The many”, with whom the covenant is confirmed, most often refers to God’s people (Isa 53:11; Dan 11:33, 39; 12:3; Matt. 26:28; Hebr. 9:26-28; Rom 5:15, 19; 1Co 10:33). If the covenant is confirmed with God’s people, it must be God’s covenant.
For these reasons, the seven-year covenant in 9:27 is the last seven years of God’s covenant with Israel. Therefore, the “he,” who confirms the covenant, must be the Messiah.
(2) Events are not Chronological.
Dispensationalism assumes that the events of verse 27 follow after the destruction of Jerusalem in verse 26. However, secondly, the events in the prophecy in Daniel 9 are not given in strict chronological sequence. For example:
• The rebuilding of the city (25c) is mentioned AFTER the appearance of the Messiah (25b), but the city was rebuilt four hundred years BEFORE the Messiah.
• The prince causes sacrifices to cease (v27) after the sanctuary was destroyed (verse 26). However, if the sanctuary is destroyed, there remains no sacrificial system that can be ceased.
• Verse 26 mentions the destruction of the city and the sanctuary. However, since 70 weeks have been determined for the city of “your people” (verse 24), the city will only be destroyed after the end of the 70 weeks. Therefore, only after the 70th week of verse 27.
(3) The Prophecy’s Poetic Pattern
Thirdly, as discussed, the Angel Gabriel gave the prophecy in the form of a poem. He frequently used parallelism, where two related words or phrases are used together to emphasize a point. For example:
- Insight with understanding (v22);
- Give heed to the message and gain an understanding of the vision (v23);
- Your people and your holy city (v24);
- To finish the transgression, to make an end of sin (v24);
- Know and discern (v25);
- Restore and rebuild (v25);
- Seven weeks and sixty-two weeks (v26);
- The city and the sanctuary (v26); and
- Sacrifice and grain offering (v27).
But the most important pattern in the prophecy is that it alternates between the two foci: Jerusalem and the Messiah:
| JERUSALEM | MESSIAH |
| 25 from a decree to restore Jerusalem | until Messiah the Prince |
| There will be 7 weeks | and 62 weeks; |
| It will be built again | 26 Messiah will be cut off … |
| people will destroy the city | 27 he will make a firm covenant for one week, but in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to sacrifice; |
| one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction |
These two foci stand in cause-and-effect relationships: The city is rebuilt to receive the Messiah, but it is again destroyed because it rejected the Messiah.
Verses 25 and 26 explicitly shift the focus repeatedly between Jerusalem and the Messiah. By implication, verse 27 continues this pattern. Therefore:
The “he” in 27, who confirms the covenant for seven years, but “cause the sacrifice … to cease” in the middle of that week, must be the Messiah.
The one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, is again the Roman Empire, destroying Jerusalem.
The Last Seven Years
If the “he,” who confirms the covenant for the last seven years, is the Messiah, what are those last seven years?
Follows immediately after the first 483
During the first 483 years, the only event is “restore and rebuild Jerusalem.” The Messiah appears at the end of the 483 years (v25). He is killed some unspecified period AFTER the end of the 483 years, presumably during the last seven years. Also during the last seven years, he confirms the covenant and causes the sacrifice to cease (v27). Therefore, those last seven years are the core and the real purpose of the 490 years. The first 483 years merely serve to locate the seven last years in time. Therefore, the last seven years must follow immediately after the first 483 years.
Covenant Continued after the Cross.
God’s covenant with Israel did not end when Israel crucified its Messiah. As discussed, during the first few years after the Cross, God gave Israel a final opportunity to repent. For this purpose, God sent the Holy Spirit with greater power than ever before, but to Israel alone (Acts 10:47-11:3, 18, 19). The gospel was preached only to Jews. The church consisted only of the “circumcised” (Acts 10:45; i.e., Jews). For a few years after the Cross, the Christians did not associate with the uncircumcised (Acts 10:34-35).
About 3½ years after the Cross, the Jews persecuted these Jewish Christians, beginning with the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7; 8:1). Thereby, for the last time, Israel broke its covenant with God. That was the end of the covenant, which is the end of the 70 weeks. Israel lost its special place in God’s plan. The kingdom of God was taken away from the Jews (Matt. 21:43).
This conclusion is supported by Stephen’s speech. Both Daniel’s prayer and Stephen’s speech are based on God’s covenant with Israel. But while Daniel confessed the sins of his people and prayed for the mercy promised in the covenant, Stephen’s speech was an announcement of God’s judgment in terms of the covenant. In other words, Stephen announced the end of the 70 Weeks.
Peter and his fellow Christians remained reluctant to share the good news with non-Jews, but soon after Stephen was killed, God gave Peter the vision of the unclean beasts (Acts 10:11, 12, 19-20). Through this vision, God told him, and the church, not to regard non-Jews as unclean (Acts 10:28), but to accept Gentiles as equals, and to preach the good news to them as well (Acts 10:34-35).
The Last Seven Years
Therefore, Jesus’s baptism was the end of the first 69 weeks and also the beginning of the last “one week.” There was no gap, as Dispensationalism suggests.
The last 7 years and the 490 years ended about 3½ years after the Cross, with Stephen’s stoning.
During those seven years, Jesus Christ confirmed God’s covenant with Israel, firstly, for 3½ years, through His personal ministry before His death, and secondly, after His death, for a further 3½ years, by sending His disciples in the power of the Holy Spirit, but to Israel alone. During those final 3½ years, the Church was a sect of Judaism, consisted only of Jews, and still adhered to all Old Testament laws.
Stop to Sacrifice
The stop to sacrifices, in verse 27, must be understood within its context. Verse 24 lists six goals to be attained during the 490 years through Daniel’s people, including “to make atonement for iniquity” and “to bring in everlasting righteousness.” This will be achieved through the appearance and killing of the messiah (verses 25 and 26), while “he” will put a stop to sacrifice in the middle of the final seven years (verse 27). In the light of the New Testament, all of this describes the Messiah.
A good way of structuring the events in the prophecy, as given by Gabriel, is as a chiasm. In a chiasm, the first item corresponds to the last, the second to the second last, etc., and the statement at the center is the core. As Gabriel described the events in verses 25-27, they form the following chiasm:
25a From the decree to restore Jerusalem
· · · 25b Until Messiah the Prince
· · · · · · 25c It will be built again
· · · · · · · · · 26a Messiah will be cut off
· · · · · · 26b People will destroy the city and the sanctuary
· · · 27a He will make a firm covenant / put a stop to sacrifice
27b A complete destruction
In this chiasm, the death of the Messiah is the main event in the prophecy. It was Jesus who, through His death, put a stop to sacrifice in the middle of the week:
He is the Messiah (Matt 1:1, cf. 1:16, 17; 2:4; John 1:41, 4:25).
He was killed.
He was “pierced through for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53). Through His death, He fulfilled the goals in verse 24, making atonement for iniquity (John 1:29; Matt 26:28; Heb 7:27, 9:12; 10:10, 12, 14, 26-28), and bringing in everlasting righteousness (Heb. 9:12; Rom. 5:10, 11, 18; Col. 1:19-20, 22; 2 Cor 5:19; John 3:17).
His death put a stop to sacrifice, but not immediately. The Jewish sacrifices continued until the destruction of Jerusalem forty years later. However, these sacrifices pointed forward to the ultimate sacrifice. When Jesus, the Lamb of God, died as the once-for-all and all-sufficient sacrifice for sins, He fulfilled the significance of those sacrifices. In other words, after His death, the Jewish sacrifices no longer had any meaning.
The letter to the Hebrews states this explicitly. When Jesus ascended to heaven and became High Priest, the law changed, including the sacrificial system (Heb 6:20; 7:12, 19; 8:4; 9:22). Jesus set “aside the first (sacrifices and offerings) to establish the second” (Heb. 10:9; cf. Heb 8:13; Eph 2:15.). In this way, His death caused sacrifice to cease (Daniel 9:27).
The prophecy, received 500 years before the cross, not only proves that God exists, but also tells us that we are not aimlessly floating around in an unending universe. God knows where we are. He has sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins. We cannot understand why and how, for His thoughts are as high above our thoughts as the stars are above the earth, but it is wonderful to know that the Source of all power and love feels this way about us, undeserving sinners.
The Six Goals (Daniel 9:24)
Verse 24 lists 6 goals for the 490 years, namely, to:
Finish the transgression,
To make an end of sin
Make atonement for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness
Seal up vision and prophecy
And to anoint the most holy place.
The goals of finishing the transgression and making an end of sin were given to Israel. Israel had to end the sins that led to its exile.
To make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, were fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
To seal up vision and prophecy is interpreted as meaning that, through the appearance and death of the Messiah, as promised in Daniel 9, the other Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah were fulfilled.
Lastly, to anoint the most holy place is interpreted as meaning that, through Jesus’ victory on earth, God was able to expel Satan and His angels from the “holy place” (the temple) in heaven, as explained in Revelation 12.
Conclusions
• The essence of the prophecy in Daniel 9 is that, within 500 years from the restoration of Jerusalem (after the Babylonian captivity) and, therefore, before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Messiah would appear. Understandably, the Jewish Talmud places a curse on anybody who attempts to compute the seventy weeks of Daniel (Sanhedrin 97b (Soncino ed.), p. 659).
• Daniel did not pray for a Messiah. He prayed for Jerusalem and the temple. But the prophecy includes a Messiah because the goals, as listed in verse 24, had to be fulfilled through the Messiah.
• It is an irrefutable fact that Christ’s public ministry began exactly 483 years (69 weeks of years) after Artaxerxes’ first decree. Furthermore, the specifications of the prophecy find complete fulfillment in the life and death of Jesus Christ, 2000 years ago, and in the first-century events following His death.
• The Historical-Messianic interpretation offers a testimony to God’s foreknowledge. Jesus Christ fulfilled the prophecy, received 500 years before His human birth, with an astounding mathematical exactness. This gives me confidence that we will one day see God with our own eyes. The things that we read about in the Bible are really true.
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