Heptads - Seventy Weeks Prophecy of Daniel
In the book of Daniel, in the mid-550s BC period, we find that Daniel receives a series of visions concerning the future. All have passed into history except for one. In Daniel chapter nine the KJV titles this section as “The Seventy Weeks”. In Daniel's visions concerning the “Seventy Weeks” we are told that a prophetic week is seven years. The prophetic week of seven years is called a heptad in some bible versions.
The emphasis is weeks of years instead of years. The principle for this comes from how to determine the Jubilee Year (Leviticus 25:8), where it was necessary to divide the years into seven weeks of years (7 x 7 = 49). Seventy weeks then, corresponds to 70 x 7, which equals 490 years! The main emphasis of the 70 weeks concerns
God’s chosen people, the house of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem.]
Dan 9:24 (KJV) Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Dan 9:25 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: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
There are three progressions in the period of 490 years. The first 7 prophetic weeks of 49 years concerned the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem from 458 BC to 409 BC.
The second lasted from 406 BC to 26 AD, 62 prophetic weeks of 434 years. So the first two prophetic weeks ran from the first prophetic 7 weeks to the second 62 prophetic weeks for a total of 69.
From the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (Neh.2:1-5), the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, unto Prince Messiah, Christ's entry into Jerusalem upon a colt, the foal of an ass (Luke 19:32-44; Zech.9:9), was a period of exactly 173,880 days, or sixty-nine sevens of years
However the period from the end of the the second progression from 406 BC to 26 AD to the beginning of the last heptad of 7 years is a gap of time that is not revealed in Daniel's prophecy.
One more prophetic week would give us a total of 70, equivalent of 490 years. The last prophetic week of 7 days concerns the Messiah and the House of Israel.
Dan 9:26 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; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
The Messiah will personally “confirm the covenant for one week” verse 27. In AD 26, He began the personal instruction to His disciples, but was cut off after 3½ years—in the middle of the week. He was crucified. He, therefore, did not finish the week. The indication from the remainder of this verse is that the final 3½ years end at/during His Second Coming at the seventh trumpet.
Next Page Count Down