Page 266 - Daniel

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seven (days, years),” and “heptad, weeks.” The English word “weeks”
here is misleading, since the Hebrew is actually the plural of the word
for seven without specifying whether it is days, months, or years. The
only system of interpretation, however, that gives any literal meaning to
this prophecy is to regard the time units as prophetic years of 360 days

each, according to the Jewish custom of having years of 360 days with
an occasional extra month inserted to correct the calendar as needed.
The seventy times seven is, therefore, 490 years beginning with “the
word to restore and to build Jerusalem” (v. 25) and culminating 490
years later. (A full discussion can be found in an excursis at the end of

the chapter.)
In view of the great variety of opinions that find no Christological
fulfillment at all in this passage, the interpreter necessarily must
approach the Christological interpretation with some caution. Here

again, however, diversity of opinion is found even though there is
general agreement that the prophecy somehow relates to the Messiah of
Israel. All Christological interpretations tend to interpret the first sixty-
nine weeks as literal. The division comes on the interpretation of the
seventieth week. Amillenarians generally regard it as following
immediately after the sixty-ninth week and, therefore, already fulfilled

in history. The other point of view regards the seventieth week as
separated from the earlier sequence of years and scheduled for
fulfillment in the future in the seven years preceding Christ’s second
advent. Although many minor variations can be found, the principal
question in the Christological interpretation of this text concerns the
nature of fulfillment of the last seven years.

The prophetic period of time in question is declared to be “decreed,”
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which comes from a Hebrew word meaning “to cut, divide.” The idea
is that the time period has been divided out or determined. The

following timeline, as laid out by Gabriel, will occur because God has
marked it out and determined it to be so. But can these weeks of years
correspond to actual dates on a calendar? While Goldingay doesn’t
believe they can, he acknowledges that “Ancient and modern
interpreters have commonly taken vv. 24–27 as designed to convey firm
chronological information, which as such can be tested by chronological
facts available to us.” 35