Reply to Chance (26 March 2023) Daniel's 70th Week

Daniel’s 70^th Week has suffered many attacks over the years… especially from Dispensational teaching.

I agree with your statements (marked in brown print) regarding the dates for Jesus’ ministry occurring between AD 26 to AD 30; and that He began His ministry at the start of the 70^th Week, and was crucified (cut off) in the middle of the 70^th week (to end the sacrifices and offering required in the Temple). You also seem to understand that there was a new covenant written in their hearts, but do you realise that it was the fulfilment of the ‘New Covenant’ promised in Jeremiah 31:31–34? Regarding your statements highlighted in yellow above—perhaps you might consider the following….

1. Jesus announced the appointed day that began the first half of Daniel’s 70^th Week (AD 27–30) (not on the occasion when He entered Jerusalem, and they feted Him as King on Palm Sunday), but when he read from Isaiah, claiming to be the Messiah… They tried to kill Him afterward.

‘The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.’ (Luke 4:18–19, ex Isaiah 61:1–2a)

Jesus broke off from quoting Isaiah at that point, and left unsaid the other half of Isaiah 61:2b about ‘The day of vengeance of our God.’

Note: It was only later, during his dissertation on the Mount of Olives (Matt 24:1–34; Luke 21:5–36) before His pending crucifixion, that he privately told His disciples that ‘The days of vengeance’ would occur with the desolation of Jerusalem. The sign for the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple would be…

‘But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near… For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.’ (Luke 21:20, 22) i.e. Isaiah 61:2b must also be fulfilled!

The destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem 36 years later fulfilled ‘the days of vengeance’ (cf. Isaiah 61:2b). This seven year period AD 66–73 that I have called The Alternative Week for those who said ‘let His blood be upon us and our children,’ resulted in the annihilation of Jews and their expulsion from the land during the First Jewish-Roman War, which ended at Masada!

Re: the two halves of Daniel’s 70^th week, and the repercussions arising from it.

2. The second half of Daniel’s 70^th week was fulfilled by Jesus’ disciples in AD 30–34!

The six clauses in Daniel’s prophecy were intended… ‘For [Daniel’s] people and for your holy city [Jerusalem].’ (Dan. 9:24) Thus, Jesus commanded His disciples to preach the Gospel (exclusively) to the ‘Lost Sheep of the House of Israel.’ (cf. Matt. 10:6, 15:24, 18:11) That is what they did… First to the Jews in Jerusalem, then Judea, and Samaria, and afterward to the ends of the earth; cf. Acts 1:4–9.

After 3 ½ years of witness to the Jews in Jerusalem, it was Stephen who had the final opportunity to preach the Gospel to the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem (i.e., the Council of the Sanhedrin, cf. Acts 6:8–7:59), who afterward collectively denounced his message, denied the Gospel, and stoned him to death.[1] Stephen’s death occurred in AD 34. This ended Daniel’s 70^th week set aside for the Jews and Jerusalem.

The very next verse (Acts 8:1) tells us ‘At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.’ (A decade later they left too!)

Thus, the preaching of the Gospel to the Jews in Jerusalem from the Day of Pentecost in AD 30 until Stephen’s death had provided the foundation for the vibrant Jewish Church in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1–6:42), and fulfilled the second half of Daniel’s 70^th week which ended it in AD 34.

3. The six clauses in Daniel’s prophecy were all fulfilled by Jesus (according to the writer of Hebrews 8–10, and other New Testament writers)…

So Chance: To return to your recognition of a new covenant,’ Daniel says he had been reading Jeremiah’s writings (cf. Daniel 9:2), i.e., the two documents that Jeremiah sent to the exiles in Babylon, and he found out some interesting new things—one was that their captivity would last seventy years; the other was about a New Covenant that God promised to make ‘after those days’ of captivity. This is what prompted Daniel to obey God’s invitation (cf. Jeremiah 29:12–14) and pray such a long prayer for his peoples’ forgiveness, which is recorded in Daniel 9:3–19. His prayer was interrupted by the angel Gabriel who came to give him the important details about when, how, and who would confirm Jeremiah’s New Covenant, via the Prophecy of 70 Weeks. Obviously, there was a connection between what Daniel was reading, and Gabriel suddenly coming to talk to him to explain it all.

Jeremiah’s letter (chapter 29) sent to the captives in Babylon, (cf. Jeremiah 29:1); and Jeremiah’s Book (chapters 30–33), which was also sent to Babylon, (cf. Jeremiah 30:1–3).

Jeremiah 31:31–34 stated what God was going to do, at some future time after their return from captivity. Thus, it is my belief that the when and how God would do it, is laid out in the Prophecy of 70 Weeks, and the six clauses required for its fulfilment would be confirmed by Messiah in the 70^th Week. Daniel read these two documents when he was in his seventies after living about 58 years in Babylon! These two promises are essential to each other; one cannot be understood without the other.

I regard Jeremiah’s New Covenant as the ‘forgotten’ manifesto of Jesus,

A lengthy reply is needed here, so I will quote from my book ‘The Curse and the Covenant’ and you can compare the two documents, and see what the New Testament has to say about Jesus’ fulfilment of the six clauses during the middle of the 70^th Week.

Excerpt from my Book – The Curse and the Covenant (below), I hope this is helpful.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD,

I will put My Law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbour,and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. (Jeremiah 31:33–34)

Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks… And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself…

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. (Daniel 9:24, 25b, 26a and 27a)

The Epistle to the Hebrews (among other Epistles), shows that Jeremiah’s promised New Covenant was confirmed by Jesus Christ (Messiah). The author writes that the previous covenant of the Law (of Moses)—involving sacrificial offerings—is old and is therefore ready to vanish away.

Its pending redundancy was first implied in Jeremiah 31:32 with the introduction of a New Covenant, and this intention was fully affirmed in Daniel 9:27a, where it says: But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. Indeed, the six objectives listed in Daniel 9:24—which had to be achieved to accomplish forgiveness of sin for the people of Judah—are quoted by the author of Hebrews to prove that Jesus completed them all, which inevitably meant that the New Covenant superseded the previous Mosaic Covenant.

In support of that claim, the Epistle to the Hebrews quotes Jeremiah’s New Covenant details twice; Hebrews 8:6–8a (below) contain direct quotes from Jeremiah 31:31–34, which have been [bracketed and indented] in 11 pt. font.

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, in as much as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says:

[Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah – not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.]

[For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the LORD; I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbour, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.]

In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. (Hebrews 8:6–13)

For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. (Hebrews 9:24–26)

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,

[This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them, then He adds, Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.]

Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:14–22)

Thus, the Epistle to the Hebrews contends that Jesus Christ (the Jewish Messiah and great High Priest), confirmed the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31–34, which made the old Mosaic Covenant obsolete and of no further use! Interestingly, the New Covenant was not confirmed by two parties—as at Mt. Sinai, where God and the Children of Israel both agreed on the terms—instead, it was initiated by God in a magnanimous act that was exercised on earth solely by Messiah, to solve the House of Jacob’s perpetual sin problem!

Furthermore, Hebrews states that because Jesus—the perfect sacrifice—achieved remission for sin, there is nothing more that needs to be sacrificed or offered by the Jews, and as a result, the Old Testament Mosaic covenant and rituals were made obsolete and needed to cease (Daniel 9:27a and Hebrews 10:14). To support this argument the six objectives from Daniel 9:24 (numbered below), which required completion for the New Covenant to be confirmed, have been matched with New Testament writers’ own comments and arguments.

NOTE: Relevant scriptural references are mainly from Hebrews, but some verses are quoted twice because they deal with different aspects of the six covenant objectives. [Bracketed] words and bold text are added for emphasis.

And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. (Hebrews 9:15)

Not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. (Hebrews 10:12)

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins. (Romans 11:26)

Therefore, in all things He [Jesus] had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation [i.e., appeasement or conciliation] for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5: 18–19)

These first three tasks were all accomplished by Jesus Christ to fulfil the two promises contained in the New Covenant:

For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. (Jeremiah 31:34b)

For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4)

Believers are credited with His righteousness that was far above the righteousness demanded by the Mosaic Law! ‘Christ is the end of the law, now superseding its sway and gaining its goal.’[2]

This fourth objective to provide everlasting righteousness in Christ is summed up in the words of the New Covenant:

I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts... they shall be My people… they all shall know Me. I will forgive their sin. (Jeremiah 31:33b, 34b)

Jesus said he came to fulfil all that was spoken of him in the scriptures. In this sense, all vision, and prophecy, have been sealed up and completed in Him, as stated in the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks. Revelation ended with Christ; He said ‘But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand. (Mark 13:23)

Then He [Jesus] said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me. (Luke 24:44)

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. (Revelation 1:1–3)

For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. (Revelation 22:18–19)

But with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption… And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. (Hebrews 9:12b, 14–15)

For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. (Hebrews 9:24–26)

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:19–23)

In this manner, various New Testament scriptures show how the New Covenant promised by Jeremiah, and the six objectives recorded in the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks (Dan. 9:24), for the salvation of the whole house of Jacob—were completely fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Jesus achieved all six of those tasks in the middle of the seventieth sabua of Daniel’s prophecy (AD 30) when He was cut off to confirm the New Covenant and make it operational.

During the last half of Daniel’s seventieth week the now pertinent and effective Gospel (The Good News of Salvation), was preached by Jesus’ disciples exclusively to the Jews in Jerusalem (via the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and thereafter) until AD 34, which completed the prescribed time-period total of 490 years for the New Covenant to be confirmed with the House of Israel and with the house of Judah. Jesus had done His part, and the disciples completed the task. The New Testament’s Jewish writers certainly believed that the six objectives required for their salvation listed in Daniel 9:24, as well as the promises of forgiveness contained in Jeremiah’s New Covenant, had all been fulfilled. Jesus believed that too, when He declared:

‘I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.’ (John 17:4)

‘It is finished’; and bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. (John 19:30)

[1] They should have listened to Gamaliel, Acts 5:33–40.

[2] New Bible Commentary – Editors F. Davidson, A. M. Stibbs, and E .F. Kevan. Commentary on Romans, Page 957.