Daniel's Amazing Prophecy of 70 Weeks Foretelling the Appearance of Jesus the Messiah and More.

While Daniel was praying, the angel Gabriel came to him with a prophecy. Gabriel, to start said, "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. 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." Daniel recorded the full prophecy in his book at Daniel 9:24-27.

Gabriel said. "Seventy weeks are determined..." He was not speaking of a literal 70 weeks because we know the Messiah did appear during the Persian Empire's rule. It is a prophetic 70 weeks. According to the Bible, the prophetic standard is "each day for a year." (Numbers 14:34, Ezekial 4:6) One week is seven days, 70 weeks would be 490 days. "Each day for a year" would make it 490 years. Therefore, the 70 Weeks in the prophecy is 490 years.

King Artaxerxes of Persia made a decree in the twentieth year of his reign allowing the Jews under the direction of Nehemiah "to restore and build Jerusalem." It was accomplished in 7 prophetic weeks or 49 years. The prophecy said there would be an additional "threescore and two weeks" until "Messiah the Prince" would make his appearance. Threescore equals sixty plus the two weeks totals sixty-two weeks or 434 days. "Each day for a year" would make it 434 years. Adding the 49 years to the 434 years would make it a total of 483 years. From the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes reign to the appearance of "Messiah the Prince would be 483 years. When was King Artaxerxes twentieth year of reign? The following are trustworthy references stating when he began his reign.

M. de Koutorga wrote: “We have seen that, according to the chronology of Thucydides, Xerxes died towards the end of the year 475 B.C.E." Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres de l’Institut Impérial de France, first series, Vol. VI, second part, Paris, 1864, p. 147.

E. Levesque noted the following: “Therefore it is necessary, according to the Alexandrian Chronicle, to place Xerxes’ death in 475 B.C.E., after eleven years of reign. The historian Justin, III, 1, confirms this chronicle and the assertions of Thucydides. According to him, at the time of Xerxes’ murder, Artaxerxes, his son, was but a child, puer [a boy], which is true if Xerxes died in 475. Artaxerxes was then 16 years old, whereas in 465 he would have been twenty-six years old, which would not justify anymore Justin’s expression. According to this chronology, since Artaxerxes began to reign in 475, the 20th year of his reign proves to be in 455 and not in 445 as it is said quite commonly.”​—Revue apologétique, Paris, Vol. 68, 1939, p. 94.

King Artaxerxes began his reign in 475 B.C. Therefore, the twentieth year of his reign would be 455 B.C. Thus, you would count 483 years from 455 B.C., and that is the year "Messiah the Prince" was expected to make his appearance according to the angel Gabriel. What year would that be?

Jesus the Messiah made his official appearance with his anointing by Holy Spirit at his baptism when John the Baptizer introduced him the next day to the people saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." The Book of Luke tells us Jesus was about thirty years old at his baptism, which took place in A.D. 29--the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. His baptism was the beginning of his ministry and appearance as the Messiah, which marked the ending of the 69 Weeks and the beginning of Week 70.

The Seventy Weeks run consecutively. Daniel 9:26 says, "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself..." "The Messiah be cut off" took place during Week Seventy--"Messiah be cut off" refers to Jesus' sacrifice and death. Daniel 9:27 says, "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." The "one week" spoken of here is Week 70. The "covenant" refers to the covenant mediated by Moses. It would remain in force for the full week of Week Seventy. 

"In the midst of the week" means the middle of the week. Jesus' ministry lasted 3 1/2 years from A.D. 29 to A.D. 33, starting with his appearance and ending with his sacrifice. Jesus' sacrifice as "the lamb that takes away the sin of the world" in A.D. 33 caused "the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." God no longer recognized the animal sacrifices at the Jewish temple. Jesus' sacrifice "ceased" the Law Covenant's requirements of animal sacrifices for sin. 

3 1/2 years later in A.D. 36 the first Gentile, the Roman Cornelius, was baptized and anointed with Holy Spirit by the apostle Peter. The "covenant with the many" mediated by Moses was no longer exclusive to just the Jews, but Gentiles were now included in the new covenant mediated by Jesus on Passover night before his execution, thus Week Seventy ended in A.D. 36. (Hebrews chapters 9,10)

Daniel 9:26 says, "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." Jesus spoke of this when he said at Luke 19:43,44, "For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 44  And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." 

While in Jerusalem, Jesus further said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate..." (Luke 13:34,35) Then, as soon as Jesus died, the long, heavy curtain that divided the Holy from the Most Holy in the temple was ripped in two, from top to bottom, further evidence of God's displeasure over the Jewish priesthood's rejection of Jesus the Messiah. (Matthew 27:51)

Finally, the "people of the prince" Daniel spoke of were the Romans under General Titus, who came and destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in A.D. 70, just as Jesus foretold would happen. Thus, the final evidence God no longer recognized the temple arrangement of animal sacrifices and the Jewish priesthood. Jesus was now High Priest of the heavenly arrangement and ransom sacrifice for all, both Jew and Gentile.