Eschatology: Daniel 9

I’m going to plunge right into the passage Heiser considers most difficult: Daniel 9:24-27. He doesn’t even mention the approach I used in my published commentary. You can look it up, but I didn’t try to nail down too many specifics for the simple reason that it would miss the point.

The context is Daniel praying about the end of the Exile. He knows that the 70 years Jeremiah prophesied is finished. He’s praying about a restoration of the city of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the Covenant. He’s already dealt with Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of the statue and the future empires, as well as his own vision of the four beasts representing the rulers over his own nation. Then he has a vision of the goat and ram. He’s already spoken with Gabriel before. Now he’s praying for his own nation.

His emphasis is on repentance. Keep in mind that Daniel knows the Covenant and is quite clear on the symbols of humble obedience to things that have been neglected. The whole point of this message here in chapter 9 is that the Lord will restore the remnant of the nation, but in the long run, it will not turn out as Daniel expects. The nation will never get back to the ancient glories. It will continue into apostasy until the city and temple are destroyed a final time. However, the returning remnant will get the symbols of righteousness right for a time, at least. The city and temple are coming back.

That much I wrote in my commentary. I’ve since done some research, and I want to call attention to this rather long study on identifying the key element of the “decree to rebuild” — it was 457 BC, not the more popular notion of 538 BC.

Let’s parse the passage at issue using the NET translation:

Seventy weeks have been determined
concerning your people and your holy city…

Gabriel begins by establishing a frame of reference. There is no specific Hebrew word for “week” so the actual term is simply “seven” and the thrust is not “weeks” but Sabbaths. This is a key warning in the Law and Prophets, a theme that keeps coming back. The nation was exiled so that the land could have its Sabbaths, Sabbaticals and Jubilees that had been missed for a very long time.

Further, notice the interplay of seventy years of exile versus seventy weeks of years (Sabbaticals). There are 7×70 years for what follows.

…to put an end to rebellion,
to bring sin to completion,
to atone for iniquity,
to bring in perpetual righteousness…

Daniel wants this more than anything. He is praying that his nation can return to the ancient glories, the good times when they were righteous. This is Hebrew hyperbole; don’t force legalism or an excessively literal reading of this language. Gabriel is pointing to the genuine humility of Daniel’s repentance on his nation’s behalf.

…to seal up the prophetic vision…

The Hebrew language here refers to authentication of the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Placing a seal on something means it’s the real deal.

…and to anoint the most holy place.

This is an obvious reference to rebuilding and restoring the Temple and ritual offerings, of having once again the Presence of God in His appointed place in the Promised Land.

So know and understand:
From the issuing of the command to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem…

This is the point of the linked long article above. The Decree of Cyrus mentions the temple, but does not include the city. It mattered in Medo-Persian imperial law; without mention of the city, only the temple was allowed on the site. It’s been the considered opinion of some scholars that Ezra received a commission for his second visit, and that we can deduce from his actions that the commission included rebuilding the city and renovating the temple, but not the walls. We can’t know the exact date of that commission, but we do know when Ezra went back to implement things.

Given the narrative in Ezra, we know that he struggled to reestablish the full ritual calendar regarding the Second Temple. On his second visit in 457 BC, he would have waited until the official beginning of the year on Tishri 1, 457 BC. The whole point of Gabriel’s choice of terminology points to this very thing — restoring the ritual calendar as a symbol of full restoration of the Covenant life.

…until and anointed one, a prince arrives…

Heiser notes the huge debate over whether this is Jesus or some other. I take the position that this refers to Jesus as the Messiah, though I acknowledge that the Hebrew term “messiah” is generic for “anointed one”, having been applied to other figures both Israeli and pagan (Cyrus is called a messiah in one place).

…there will be a period of seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.

Heiser also notes that the Masoretic Text inserts a grammatical break between the seven weeks and the sixty-two, meaning that the interval between the decree to build the city and the arrival of the anointed prince is only seven weeks, and that the sixty-two then follows with the city continuously built up. I’m going to go with the majority view that this is not the correct reading. The city will be rebuilt; that’s one thing. The issue to commence building the city is the starting point, and the arrival of the Messiah is the completion of 7+62 weeks.

The point of mentioning the first seven weeks is all about that first Jubilee that Ezra’s reforms will see implemented as part of the full ritual calendar restoration. The full ritual calendar had not been observed properly for a long time before the Babylonian siege, nor during the Exile or the Return up to that time. Observing a proper Jubilee was like a test for removing the defilement of all those failed observances.

If we accept the concept of starting with Ezra’s commission to rebuild the city in 457 BC, that puts the end of the sixty-nine weeks (483 years) right about the time Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan. That’s close enough for Hebrew prophecy.

It will again be built, with the plaza and moat,
but in stressful times.

This affirms a portion of what Daniel had been praying for. The Second Temple will be built and eventually the city will have a nice plaza and wall and defensive trench. Side note: We deduce that someone during Ezra’s service in Jerusalem attempted to rebuild the city wall in Jerusalem and it was destroyed by Persian troops because it was not included in the commission Ezra had received. The wall was eventually permitted under Nehemiah in 444 BC.

Now after the sixty-two weeks,
an anointed one will be cut off and having nothing.

That is, sometime after the full sixty-nine weeks, in which at least one proper Jubilee will be observed, things will go downhill. The honest truth is the Hebrew for us is quite ambiguous regarding “an anointed one will be cut off”. The rest of the prophecy is murky on purpose, and modern folks read way too much into this.

What would it have meant for Daniel, given what he has already been shown in previous prophetic messages? What is Daniel expecting here? That’s the whole point of the passage, and any desperate search for specific clues that match later events would be missing that point altogether — the kingship will be vacated, implying that the nation will forever cease to exist independently.

The balance of this passage is all about how God acts out of sight from the political obsessions of humans, not so much about specific timing and events. What follows is detached from the seventy weeks of years.

As for the city and the sanctuary,
the people of the coming prince will destroy them.
But his end will come speedily like a flood.
Until the end of the war that has been decreed
there will be destruction.

Basic fact — some political power is coming that will destroy the Temple and City. Gabriel is telling him: Don’t get hung up on that, Daniel. We can read all kinds of future events into this through various levels of literalism and symbolism, but the whole point is that the Temple and City are not the big deal Daniel makes of it. It doesn’t matter who does what.

He will confirm a covenant with many for one week.
But in the middle of that week
he will bring sacrifices and offerings to a halt.
On the wing of abominations will come one who destroys,
until the decreed end is poured out on the one who destroys.

It’s funny how most scholars and theologians recognize that this final week is detached from the sixty-nine in terms of continuity, but then they won’t recognize the fluidity of the wording otherwise. The continuity is in the flow, not the calendar. Daniel would have understood that; seventy weeks were decreed, but not all in one lump.

The only point to mentioning a half-week is the symbol for tribulation = 3.5 years, 42 months, 1260 days. Daniel would have seen that immediately.

This is typology: Antiochus Epiphanes committed a desolation of abomination in the Temple in 167 BC, and his life ended shortly thereafter. Rome also committed an abomination of desolation on the Temple leading up to the revolt and siege in 70 AD. Both the Emperor Vespasian, and his son Titus who commanded the forces, died rather quickly from harsh ailments. The critical element (“abomination”) in those two events was the idolatry — defiling the Temple with pagan rituals. We can say the Israelis learned that anti-idolatry lesson from the Exile, but they substituted a subtle self-idolatry for the more obvious ritual idolatry.

Finally, Jesus is the counter-type of this image. He also brought an end to the ritual sacrifices in the Temple by offering Himself as the final Lamb of God. He then opened the Temple up to all nations, and turned His followers into living temples of the Holy Spirit. Instead of false images and false gods, we are meant to be the true image of the only God. This matters in understanding the gospel message of opening the Covenant to Gentiles.

The final words of the passage refer to Satan himself. It’s a summary of what this is all about. As long as there are humans doing human things, the Devil will raise up figures who destroy everything humans have built, good or bad. None of it matters. Eventually it will all be destroyed as will the destroyers.

Daniel is all about typology and numerology. It was inescapable in the Ancient Near East, in Daniel’s education in Babylon’s courts, and in Hebrew culture itself. It is the language of Heaven. Without that, you cannot hope to understand Daniel, nor the angels who communicated with him.