Chronology 12: The first half of the last week of years

The seventy weeks of years in Daniel are period of five hundred years, starting from the word of king Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem. Dan.9:25:

Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks….

The first seven weeks (49/50 years) refer to the duration of the reconstruction of the city. The subsequent sixty weeks end with “Messiah the Prince”. When the “Messiah the Prince” presents himself, sixty nine weeks of years have passed and so there is only one week of years to go. It is from this moment that the last week of years commences, about which verse 27 reads the following:

²⁷ And HE shall confirm the covenant with (the) many for one week…

The HE can’t be anyone but “Messiah the Prince”, since by mentioning Him, the previous sixty nine weeks of years had ended. “With the many” (that is of Daniels’ people and of the holy city) the Messiah would confirm a covenant. Which covenant this is, is not mentioned. But the fact that the Messiah confirms this covenant points in the direction of the promised “new covenant” about which is spoken elsewhere in the prophets (Jer.31:31-34). This last week of years is divided in two halves of three and one half years each. Because Daniel 9:27 reads:

…and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease…

When we look at the fulfilment of this seventieth week of years, then this takes us to the  start of Jesus’ public appearance. He was baptised in the Jordan and when he rose up from it, the Spirit descended unto Him in the form of a dove (Mat. 3:16). That was Jesus’ anointment like Peter said in Acts 10:

³⁷ That word, [I say], ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; ³⁸ How God ANOINTED Jesus of Nazareth with holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all…

With his baptism in the Jordan, Jesus became anointed and with this also became the Messiah (= anointed). Since then he also proclaimed to his people that the time was fulfilled and that the Kingdom of God was at hand (Mark. 1:15). And with this the promised new covenant was at hand as well. Jesus’ preaching was approved Of God with “miracles and wonders and signs” (Acts.2:22). From the gospels and especially the one from John we can determine that His public appearance lasted for at least three years. From His first Passover (John.2:13) until His last Passover (19:14) is exactly three years (see 5:1 – compare to. 4:35 en 6:4). This given fact matches perfectly with the first three and a half years of Daniel 9. It is at the start of the last Passover that Jesus dies on the cross at the ninth hour, which is the hour of prayer and the evening sacrifice (Acts. 3:1). Exactly during the bringing of the sacrifices, the colossal curtain of the temple was rent from top to bottom (Luke. 23:45). That was a Divine intervention. It was the Messiah who caused the “sacrifice and the oblation to cease” literally and concretely. At the same time, it is the fulfilment of what we read in Daniel 9:26:

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:

The Messiah was killed by his own people but it was not for Himself. No, what he did, (as verse 24 describes), was finishing the transgression, making an end to sin, in other words reconciliating the iniquity. It was not for Himself, or as another possible translation reads: He shall not have. That which the Messiah as ruler and “King of the Jews” rightfully deserved, He did not have, but instead he died the most humiliating death imaginable. In a subsequent blog we would like to further reflect on what happened in the second half of the last week of years and beyond. HB

Delen: