Chronology 14: the 70 weeks and beyond

The seventy weeks of years that started at the decree of Cyrus would end and with the Messiah. At the end of the sixty-ninth week the Messiah would present Himself and during a week of years he would confirm a covenant. Like we already saw, it refers to the ministry of Jesus Christ with respect to Israel and the holy city. Within seventy weeks of years reconciliation would be made and “righteousness of eons” would be established but the kingdom to the Messiah would be far from visible. On the contrary, the Messiah would be cut off and as a king he would “not have”. Instead of seeing the fulfilment of vision and prophecy, “vision and prophecy would be sealed up” for the Jewish people and Jerusalem.

Parallel verses

For a good understanding of verse 26 and verse 27 it is of importance to see that the content of both verses runs parallel.

The content of the four rows in the left column corresponds to the content of the four rows in the right column. Partially they are even equal in wording.

• The “He” in verse 27 refers to the “Messiah” of verse 26.
• The “after threescore and two weeks” in verse 26 corresponds to “one week” in verse 27.
• The “sacrifice and the oblation to cease” in verse 27 corresponds to the “be cut off” in verse 26.
• The desolation in verse 27 corresponds to the destruction of “the city and the sanctuary in verse 26.
• What is called “until the end” in verse 26 is called “until the consummation” in verse 27.
• Both in the end of verse 26 and the end of verse 27 there is destruction that is “determined” until the end.

While the destruction of the city and sanctuary in verse 26 is connected with the eradication of the Messiah (after the sixty-ninth week of years) it is connected in verse 27 with the “cessation of sacrifice and oblation” (halfway the seventieth week of years). They may be two different descriptions, it refers to one and the same event nonetheless! After the seventieth week of years the city and sanctuary would be completely destroyed. Verse 26 says cryptically that “the end thereof shall be with a flood” which refers the ruination of the sanctuary that would be flooded with the hostile armies (for this figure of speech also read Dan.11:10). We know that this was fulfilled forty years after the assassination of the Messiah, when the Romans completely leveled Jerusalem to the ground in 70AD. And that would not be all. Until “the consummation” (see also 8:19; 12:4,6) desolations would be determined. It is a description of the status of Jerusalem until today. In a next blog we will zoom in even more on the direct link which is also made in the New Testament between the Jewish rejection of the Messiah and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.  MB

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