It is one of the most remarkable time-prophecies in Scripture: the angel Gabriel tells Daniel exactly how long until the Messiah would come and be “cut off” — a span of seventy ‘weeks,’ or 490 years, beginning with a decree to rebuild Jerusalem. Here is the text, the arithmetic, and why so many see it pointing to Jesus.
The text (Daniel 9:25–26)
“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… And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.”
The arithmetic
- A “week” (Hebrew shabua, “a seven”) is a period of seven years.
- 70 weeks × 7 = 490 years decreed upon Israel and Jerusalem.
- 7 + 62 = 69 weeks = 483 years from the decree to “Messiah the Prince.”
- After the 62 weeks, Messiah is “cut off” — put to death — “but not for himself” (for others).
- Then “the people of the prince that shall come” destroy the city and sanctuary — fulfilled when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70.
Where the clock starts — and where it lands
Three Persian decrees are proposed: Cyrus (538 BC), Artaxerxes to Ezra (457 BC), and Artaxerxes to Nehemiah (445 BC). On the well-known calculations of Sir Robert Anderson and Harold Hoehner, the 483 “prophetic years” reach precisely to the time of Jesus' public ministry and crucifixion, c. AD 30–33 — the very era when, as the Gospels record, the Messiah was “cut off.” Even on the critical late-dating of Daniel, the 69-weeks terminus still falls centuries later, at Christ.
The 70th week — one debate
Interpreters divide on the final week. Historic / amillennial readers see it fulfilled at the first advent — Christ confirming the covenant by His death “in the midst of the week,” with AD 70 following. Dispensational / futurist readers insert a gap (the present church age) before a still-future seven-year tribulation. Bible Prophecy Explorer presents both, with the apostolic reading, side by side.
Why it matters
Daniel's Seventy Weeks is a dated prophecy of the Messiah's coming and death, given centuries in advance. If it points to Jesus, it is among the strongest evidences that He is the promised One — and the response He asks is the gospel the apostles preached: repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and receive the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38).