What are the seventy “weeks” in Daniel?
This might require more background than I intend to give here. Daniel is a an Old Testament prophet who gave several prophecies, which includes the infamous seventy weeks (Dan. 9:24-27). What is unusual is that someone figured out that if you take each week to represent 7 years, and you start counting years from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, Jesus started his ministry at the beginning of the 69th week (the prophecy mentions that this is when the Messiah was to come). Because of an apparent fulfillment of the 69 weeks prophecy here, many skeptics and nonchristian Jews have argued strongly against this interpretation. Examination of the critiques of the Christian interpretation of Daniel 9 is out of the scope of this document; what we are interested in here are the last 2 verses, 26-27. “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; ev
