“You should know and understand that from the issuing of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Leader, there will be 7 weeks, also 62 weeks”
(Daniel 9:25)
The first visible presence of Christ
There was a first visible presence of Christ which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem in the 70 CE. This earthly, visible presence began at the time of Christ’s baptism and ended at his ascension into heaven (Acts 1:9). This first visible presence was mentioned in the prophecy of the 70 weeks of years and announced that its conclusion would result in the destruction of Jerusalem: « And the people of a leader who is coming will destroy the city and the holy place. And its end will be by the flood. And until the end there will be war; what is decided upon is desolations” (Daniel 9:24-26).
This prophetic statement announces the time of Christ’s coming to earth. First of all, they are weeks of years, not days, which means that each week represents, not seven days, but seven years. So seventy weeks of years (70×7) are 490 years. When does this period begin?
From the issuing of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem: The city of Jerusalem has been desolated and forsaken, after the exile of its inhabitants to Babylon, for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11,12). After this time, the temple and the walls of Jerusalem were gradually rebuilt. So the beginning of this period is the year the order was given to rebuild Jerusalem. According to Nehemiah, one of the writers of the Bible, this order came « in the 20th year of King Ar·ta·xerxʹes » (Nehemiah 2:1,5-8.). As historians confirm, 474 BCE was the first year of Artaxerxes’ reign. The twentieth year of his reign was therefore, in 455 BCE.
Until Messiah the Leader, there will be 7 weeks, also 62 weeks: from the year 455 BCE, until the baptism of Christ, it is necessary to count, 7 weeks of years (7×7 = 49 years), and 62 weeks of years (62×7 = 434 years), that are 483 years (49 + 434). By adding, these 483 years to the year of departure, 455 BCE, we get to autumn 29 CE, when Christ was baptized in the Jordan, by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:13-17). So at the end of the 69 weeks of years (483 years), and at the beginning of the seventieth week of years, Jesus Christ has been baptized.
And after the 62 weeks, Mes·siʹah will be cut off, with nothing for himself: It is written that after these seven and sixty-two weeks of years, Christ would be cut off. But when in the time of the week 70? In the middle of the week, that is to say three and a half years, after his baptism: “And he will keep the covenant in force for the many for one week; and at the half of the week, he will cause sacrifice and gift offering to cease” (Daniel 9: 27a). By his sacrificial death, « at the half of the week », three and a half years, after his baptism, he made the « sacrifice and gift offering to cease », that is to say on 14 Nisan 14, 33 CE: “For Christ is the end of the Law, so that everyone exercising faith may have righteousness” (Romans 10:4).
During the three and a half years, corresponding to the second part of the seventieth week of years, the resurrected Jesus Christ, shortly before his ascension, asked his disciples to preach the Good News, first in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and then, to all the nations: « But you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you, and you will be witnesses of me in Jerusalem, in all Ju·deʹa and Sa·marʹi·a, and to the most distant part of the earth » (Acts 1:8). At the end of the seventieth week, God officially turned His attention to the whole of the nations, at the time of Cornelius’ baptism, mentioned in Acts 10: « At this Peter began to speak, and he said: “Now I truly understand that God is not partial, but in every nation the man who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him » (Acts 10:34,35).
The second part of this last week of years, this period of 70 weeks of years, ended in the year 36 CE, with the baptism of the Roman officer Cornelius, at the moment when God turned his attention to all the nations. From then on, God’s special relationship with the earthly nation of Israel had definitively ceased (Acts 10).
The prophecy (of Daniel) of the 70 weeks of years foretold the first presence of Christ on earth and the imminent end of the special relationship with the former nation of Israel, culminating in its destruction, particularly its administrative structure, in the year 70 CE, through the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies. This description of Jesus Christ in Matthew (24:15-20) is its first fulfillment.
There is the prophecy of Jesus Christ concerning the signs of his second presenc, announcing the near end of this system of things (Matthew 24:3). This prophecy is the subject of a study on another page (click the link to access the study article: The Presence of Christ (Matthew 24:3-28)).
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