Interesting Take on the 69 Weeks of Years

[Barraco]

I wanted to pose a possible interpretation on Daniel 9:24-26, which describes the amount of time Jerusalem and the Jews would be under Gentile control. The proposed interpretation is that Daniel was not told about the amount of time the Hasmonean Dynasty would rule (103 years) but only the amount of time foreigners would rule Jerusalem before the city was destroyed. I propose that from the second year of Darius the Great (520 BC, Haggai 1:1), 483 years of occupation in addition to the 103 years of Jewish sovereignty brings us to the year 66 AD, the year the war in Judea against the Roman Empire began. During this year, the Jewish people threw off their procurators and puppet priests. That was when the Jewish high priest Ananus ben Ananus was deposed by the Jews, cut off from his prestigious role as chief leader of the Jewish people. In this case, the messiah mentioned in Daniel 9:25-26 was the high priest, the only Jewish leader among the Jews under Roman procuratorship. This paused the weeks of years until the time of the end.

If I am understanding this correctly, the last week of years shown in Daniel 9:27 begins when the high priesthood is restored. That would match what Daniel 9:27 suggests, that sacrifice and oblation would cease because of an abomination that causes desolation. That being the corruption of the office of high priest and the consequent apostasy throughout the land.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

 

[RandyPNW]

It's easier if I just tell you my position. The decree of Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple was carried out in stages. It was, I think, the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 BC that re-started the process that had been going on, the Temple largely having been built but still needing final touches. From 457 BC to 30 AD is 487 years, which is the 69 Weeks (483 years) plus 1/2 Week (3.5 years).

This is the point at which the Messiah was to be cut off, when in the midst of the 70th Week offerings were brought to an end by the act of the Roman ruler. He had Jesus put to death, ending all possibility of making Temple offerings to God, since the Lord Himself had been rejected by the Jewish People, including the priests and religious rulers.

It is said that the "people of the ruler to come" would destroy the city and the sanctuary. And so, after Christ was crucified, Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by the Roman leader's Army, the Abomination of Desolation. They were a pagan Army violating the sanctity of the holy city where the Temple was located. And they would desolate the city and the sanctuary.

This would lead not just to Jerusalem's destruction, but also to the continuing tribulation of the Jewish People who would remain under punishment until the return of Christ. This is exactly as laid out in Luke 21, where an Army is viewed as surrounding Jerusalem, and casting the people of Israel into captivity, being exiled until the endtimes.