For Steve: making a covenant for one week?

[Guest]

Todd, of course there are "problems" as you put it! That's just the way multiple fulfillments work. Not every part of a prophecy is fulfilled with each partial fulfillment.

For instance, Isaiah 40:4-5 was not fulfilled by John the Baptist, even though Isaiah 40:3 was. It was only a partial fulfillment. In the same manner, Jesus didn't fulfill Micah 4:10-13 and 5:3 at His first coming, even though He did fulfill Micah 5:1-2 at His first coming. Same deal.

When was the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem? Unfortunately, this period of history has been screwballed by conventional historians, so let me try to reconstruct it as simply as I can.

By the way, a good web site for this historical revision is here.

The decree was issued by Cyrus in his first year (see Isa. 44:28-45:1 and Ez. 1:1-3). It was actually only several months beforehand that Daniel was given the vision of the 70 weeks' prophecy. The building of the Temple didn't commence for at least a year or so into the reign of Cyrus - and Cyrus only reigned for roughly three years. It ceased during all of the reign of Ahasuerus, which was about 12 years. A second decree was issued in the second year of Darius the Persian, and building resumed again on the 24th day of the 6th month (Hag. 1:14-15) and was finally completed in Darius' sixth year, on the 3rd day of the 12th month (Ez. 6:15).

The street and the wall were completed in 52 days in the twentieth year of "Artaxerxes the king" (Neh. 7:15). Artaxerxes is a title that simply means a king, and this is referring to Darius the Persian.

Notice that all of these figures have nothing to do with the 70 weeks, nor 70 years, nor 70 weeks of years. The open court and the wall surrounding Jerusalem weren't built 7 weeks of years after Cyrus' decree went forth, either. They were built only about 35 years later. So what gives?

The answer is that 70 literal weeks passed from the time Cyrus' decree went forth until Daniel received another vision. This one was in the very beginning of Cyrus' third year. You'll find reference to it in Daniel 10:1. As is mentioned in this chapter, the time for the fulfillment of this second vision was quite a number of years away, past the end of Daniel's own lifetime. So the 70 weeks is symbolically connected with a 70-year period of exile as I mentioned previously, but it does not fit any sort of weeks-of-years pattern.

According to the web page I cited, the Temple was destroyed in 421 BC, making the end of the 70 years' captivity in 351 BC, the second year of Darius the Persian. This is when the second decree went out and the Temple was finally rebuilt. Zechariah 1:1 and 12 confirm that this was the end of the 70 years. But once again, we see quite a few prophetic references in this chapter which did not occur within the historical context of the building of the second Temple.

So, why was 70 weeks connected with "Messiah the Prince"? Because it has to do with the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. That's when the decree goes out to rebuild the Temple. 70 weeks later, the antichrist takes possession of the Temple. 3 1/2 years afterwards, Jesus returns as the "Prince" rather than as our High Priest (see Heb. 9:11).

This prophecy has been partially fulfilled several times over in history, including with Jesus' first coming. However, the original context had to do with the rebuilding of Jerusalem and specifically the rebuilding of the Temple, which is not what Jesus' first coming was connected with - at least not physically. Nevertheless, there was a literal period of seventy weeks during Jesus' ministry as well, culminating in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem as the Messiah that was "cut off" or executed, as it's more properly rendered, "in the middle of the week."

Damon