70 Week Prophecy
The 70-week prophecy is the prophetic keystone of the entire Bible. It answers the question the whole Old Testament was asking: when will the Messiah come? The answer is given to the year — 500 years in advance.
Six Objectives of the 70 Weeks (v. 24)
Verse 24 lists six divine purposes for the 70-week period: (1) to finish the transgression — Israel's probationary period as a nation ends; (2) to put an end to sin — the atoning work of Christ; (3) to atone for iniquity — Calvary; (4) to bring in everlasting righteousness — the righteousness of Christ imputed to believers; (5) to seal both vision and prophet — the fulfilment of Daniel's vision validates the entire prophetic corpus; (6) to anoint a most holy place — the inauguration of the heavenly sanctuary ministry. All six are fulfilled in the life, death, and priestly ministry of Jesus.
The Structure of the 70 Weeks
The 70 weeks divide into three segments: 7 weeks (49 years) for the rebuilding of Jerusalem; 62 weeks (434 years) to 'Messiah the Prince'; 1 final week (7 years) in which the covenant is confirmed and sacrifice ceases. Total: 490 years from 457 BC. Note that the 70th week is not a future event separated by a 2,000-year gap — that interpretation requires inserting a parenthesis the text does not contain. The 70 weeks run continuously, culminating in 34 AD when the gospel formally extends to the Gentiles.
Why Futurism Moves the 70th Week
Futurist (dispensationalist) interpretation separates the 70th week from the first 69, inserting a 'Church Age gap' of indeterminate length and placing the 70th week at the end of history. This 'gap theory' was systematised by John Nelson Darby in the 1830s, building on the earlier futurist strategy of Jesuit scholar Francisco Ribera (1590) — who had first relocated the last 3.5 years of Daniel's 70th week to the end of time to deflect Protestant identification of the papacy. It has no explicit textual basis. The Hebrew text of Daniel 9 uses the conjunction waw to connect the 69th and 70th weeks sequentially. The Reformers, without exception, read all 70 weeks as continuous. The gap theory exists not because the text requires it, but because it is necessary to the futurist system.
The 70-week prophecy is a telescope pointed at one man. 'Messiah the Prince' — the anointed ruler — appears at the exact year of Jesus' baptism. 'Cut off but not for himself' — he dies as a substitutionary sacrifice. 'Covenant confirmed' — his 3.5-year ministry was the fulfilment of the new covenant promised in Jeremiah 31. The phrase 'not for himself' is one of the most theologically rich in all of Daniel: it is a pre-Calvary definition of penal substitutionary atonement. He was cut off — not because of crime, not because of failure — but for others. For us.
“The great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”