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Messianic Prophecies

The Seventy Weeks of Daniel

Strongly supported 538 BC – AD 70 Daniel · OT

30-second summary

Daniel 9:24-27 foretells that an 'anointed one, a prince' — rendered 'Christ the prince' in the Douay-Rheims — will be 'cut off,' after which 'a people with their leader' will 'destroy the city and the sanctuary.' The Church has read this since antiquity as Jesus, put to death under Pontius Pilate, followed by Rome's destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70. The text itself predates both events by centuries, attested by Qumran manuscripts and confirmed even under the latest mainstream critical dating of the book.

Scripture

Daniel 9:25
Know thou therefore, and take notice: that from the going forth of the word, to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ the prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: and the street shall be built again, and the walls in straitness of times.

Scito ergo, et animadverte : ab exitu sermonis, ut iterum aedificetur Jerusalem, usque ad Christum ducem, hebdomades septem, et hebdomades sexaginta duae erunt : et rursum aedificabitur platea, et muri in angustia temporum.

Daniel 9:26
And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain: and the people that shall deny him shall not be his. And a people with their leader that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary: and the end thereof shall be waste, and after the end of the war the appointed desolation.

Et post hebdomades sexaginta duas occidetur Christus : et non erit ejus populus qui eum negaturus est. Et civitatem et sanctuarium dissipabit populus cum duce venturo : et finis ejus vastitas, et post finem belli statuta desolatio.

Prophecy & Fulfillment

Given
Traditionally c. 538 BC in Babylon; composed by the second century BC at the latest — either way, centuries before Christ
Fulfilled
Christ 'slain' c. AD 30-33; the city and sanctuary destroyed by the Roman army under Titus in AD 70

Jesus of Nazareth, called 'Christ' (the Anointed One), was put to death outside Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate, and roughly forty years later, in AD 70, Roman legions under the future emperor Titus ('a people with their leader that shall come') besieged Jerusalem, razed the city, and burned the Second Temple to the ground, ending the sacrificial cult.

Why this level?

Level 2. The textual anchor is solid and independent of Christian tradition: Qumran manuscripts of Daniel 9 predate Jesus on any dating, and even the latest mainstream critical dating of the book's final form (167-164 BC) still places it more than a century and a half before Christ's death and over two centuries before AD 70. Onto that anchor, this entry takes the interpretive step of identifying the 'anointed one, a prince' who is 'cut off' with Jesus and 'a people with their leader' with Rome's destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 — a reading the Church has held since antiquity. That identification is not independently corroborated by two secular sources apart from the Bible and apart from each other, which would be required for level 3; but it rests on more than typology or a single source, since the pre-Christian date of the text itself is attested by physical manuscript evidence (Qumran) and noted by a first-century non-Christian witness (Josephus) who already read Daniel as forecasting Rome's desolation of Judea. That combination — a solidly dated text plus the Church's own interpretive identification of its fulfillment — is exactly what level 2 describes.

Dig deeper

The prophecy

Daniel 9:24-27 sets a decree to rebuild Jerusalem in motion and describes an 'anointed one, a prince' (Hebrew mashiach nagid; the Douay-Rheims capitalizes this 'Christ the prince') who, after a further sixty-two 'weeks,' is 'cut off.' The passage ends with 'a people with their leader' destroying 'the city and the sanctuary.' The Church has read this since antiquity as Jesus of Nazareth, executed outside Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate, followed roughly forty years later by Rome's destruction of the city and the Second Temple in AD 70 under the future emperor Titus — the two events falling in the same order and general span the text lays out.

A text older than its fulfillment

The prophecy's antiquity is well attested on physical evidence. Qumran preserved Hebrew manuscripts of Daniel predate Jesus on any reckoning: 4Q116 contains portions of chapter 9, and the related scroll 4Q114 (chapters 10-11) has been radiocarbon-dated to roughly 230-160 BC. Even under the latest mainstream critical dating of the book's final form — the Maccabean crisis, 167-164 BC, a dating the USCCB's own study-Bible introduction to Daniel accepts — chapter 9 was fixed in writing at least a century and a half before Christ's death and over two centuries before AD 70. Catholic tradition places composition earlier still, under Daniel in the Babylonian exile of the sixth century BC. Either dating places the text firmly before the events it describes.

The first-century Jewish historian Josephus, writing independently of any Christian source, already credited Daniel with foretelling that Rome would make Judea desolate, citing this as evidence of divine providence at work in history. Within the Church, Eusebius of Caesarea attests in the fourth century to a settled messianic reading of the 'cutting off' of the anointed one as pointing to Christ — a reading Catholic tradition has carried forward ever since.

One translation note worth flagging: the Hebrew term behind 'Christ the prince,' mashiach nagid, is a common noun ('an anointed one, a leader') rather than a proper title in the original text; the Old Testament applies the same word elsewhere to kings and priests. The Douay-Rheims capitalization reflects the Church's christological reading of the term in this passage, not a difference in the underlying Hebrew wording itself.

Keep digging

Citations

  1. Scripture

    Daniel 9:24-27, Douay-Rheims + Clementine Vulgate

    Daniel 9:24-27

    Supports: Gives the exact Douay-Rheims and Latin Vulgate wording of the seventy-weeks prophecy, including 'Christ the prince,' 'Christ shall be slain,' and 'a people with their leader ... shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.'

  2. Historical Source

    Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 10

    Antiquities of the Jews 10.11.7

    Supports: The first-century Jewish historian Josephus, writing independently of Christian tradition, states that Daniel foretold Rome would make Judea desolate, treating this as evidence of divine providence — an early non-Christian witness to the prophecy's Roman-destruction element.

  3. Church Father

    Eusebius, Church History, Book I, chapter 6

    Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica I.6

    Supports: A fourth-century Church historian attests that Daniel's numbered 'weeks' point to 'the coming of Christ,' documenting the Church's messianic reading of the passage from antiquity.

  4. Archeological

    Associates for Biblical Research, 4Q114 and the Date of Daniel

    4QDan-c (4Q114), containing portions of Daniel 10-11, and the related scroll 4Q116, containing portions of chapter 9

    Supports: 4Q114 (chapters 10-11) has been radiocarbon-dated to roughly 230-160 BC; the separate scroll 4Q116 preserves chapter 9. Together they place a Qumran-era Hebrew Daniel, including chapter 9, well before Jesus and AD 70.

  5. Church Father

    USCCB, Introduction to the Book of Daniel

    New American Bible, Revised Edition, Introduction to Daniel

    Supports: The U.S. Catholic bishops' own study-Bible introduction states Daniel 'was composed during the bitter persecution carried on by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (167-164 B.C.),' giving a firm floor for the book's final form well before Christ, even under the latest mainstream dating.

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