The Sixty-Nine Weeks

Double Meaning of Jerusalem

Another way of validating our solution of Daniel's riddle recognizes that it is a poem employing symbolism. Scholars have demonstrated that much of the Book of Daniel has poetic structure, and nowhere is this more prominent than in Gabriel’s message recorded in Daniel 9:22–27. His choice of words created a poem with an intricate design based on the technique known as step parallelism. We are thus entitled to explore the message for symbols, in recognition that symbolism is a common feature of poetry both in the Bible and in all other literary traditions.

The first term that warrants a closer look is "Jerusalem." For background on the meaning of this term, we must consider what Daniel was praying before the angel Gabriel interrupted him to provide a prophetic vision of the Messiah’s coming descent to this world. We will focus on Daniel’s words recorded in Daniel 9:14–21.

14 Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.

15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.

18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.

19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;

21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

Daniel 9:4–21

Twice, in verses 16 and 20, Daniel refers to Jerusalem as the holy mountain of God. This name recalls another name for the city that appears throughout the Old Testament: that is, Mount Zion (or simply Zion). Moreover, Daniel suggests in a veiled manner that the holy mountain bears double meaning. Although he states that he has prayed on behalf of "the holy mountain of God" (v. 20), the actual closing words of his prayer seek divine aid for "thy city and thy people" (v. 19). He apparently believed that the holy mountain, Jerusalem, was a suitable name for the people of God as well as for the city in Palestine.

The same double sense in the term "mountain" stands out plainly in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream interpreted by Daniel when he was a young captive of the Babylonians. The king had demanded that his wise men interpret the dream, but, to test whether their interpretation had any higher source than their own guesses, he demanded that they first tell him the dream itself. None could meet this requirement until Daniel appeared. Based on what God had revealed to him earlier, he was able to describe the ominous scenes that the king saw while sleeping.

31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,

33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Daniel 2:31–35

Daniel proceeded to interpret the dream. It was God’s revelation of the king’s place in the history of kingdoms that would dominate his part of the world.

36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.

39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. . . .

44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

Daniel 2:36–41, 44–45

The only kingdoms explicitly identified are the first and the last. The first is Nebuchadnezzar’s. The last, pictured as a great stone that crushes and supplants all preceding kingdoms, is the future kingdom that God Himself will set up. Unlike the others, it will "stand for ever" (v. 44). In other words, it will be eternal.

This eternal kingdom will begin when Christ returns in glory to our world and exercises dominion for one thousand years, a period known as the Millennium. Afterward, God will destroy the present universe and create "a new heaven and a new earth" (Rev. 21:1). Then forevermore the sovereign ruler will be God the Father (1 Cor. 15:24, 28).

As we consider the stone, we must recognize its twofold significance. Just as the golden head of the image represents both Babylon and its ruler, Nebuchadnezzar (vv. 37–38 above), so also the stone represents both the Kingdom of God and its ruler, Christ. Numerous prophecies set forth Christ as a stone (Isa. 28:16; Ps. 118:22; Isa. 8:14). Christ identified Himself as the stone that crushes His enemies.

Whosoever shall fall upon that stone [speaking of Himself] shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

Luke 20:18

In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the stone that falls upon the feet of the image is cut out of a mountain without the use of hands (v. 45 above). We might suppose that this mountain represents the earth, the imagery suggesting (1) that Christ the Stone will appear among men as another man born in this world and (2) that God will build His kingdom by taking people out of all of this world’s nations and tribes. Yet a mountain is not only the source of the stone, but also what the stone itself eventually becomes. After it pulverizes the image, it grows into a mountain so great that it fills the whole earth (v. 35 above). Presumably, the two mountains have parallel meanings. If the first is the earth, the second must be the earth also or perhaps another earthlike world. But since the earth cannot fill itself, nor can another world fill the earth, the mountains require a better interpretation.

We avoid absurd implications by defining both mountains as the people of God. The first mountain comprises all the godly in the nation of Israel before the advent of Christ. Christ the Stone was cut out of them in the sense that He was their descendant both physically and spiritually. As the final form of the stone, the second mountain is the church after it has grown to full size and taken possession of the new earth that God will create. It is the fully developed body of Christ.

Why should Scripture use a mountain to picture Old Testament saints and then again to picture all saints who have ever lived? Because in both instances it is employing an appropriate symbol: namely, Mt. Zion.

Zion, or Jerusalem, figuratively represents Old Testament saints because it was the center of God’s work to prepare a people for Himself before Christ came into this world. It was not only the capital of the Israelite nation, but also the site of their Temple. Throughout history, Jerusalem has anchored Jewish identity. Another reason it is equivalent to the first mountain is that it was the actual place where God delivered the last blows while cutting out the Stone. There Christ died for the sins of mankind and rose from the dead so that He might someday replace all earthly kingdoms with the Kingdom of God. Soon afterward in the same city, the church was born on the day of Pentecost.

The whole body of Christ is properly represented as a second mountain because, as we will demonstrate, God has given the names Zion and Jerusalem to its present and future dwelling places. One reason these are fitting names is that Jerusalem probably means city of peace.¹ Currently, all departed saints are in the Jerusalem also known as the heavenly or celestial city. There they are assembling in anticipation of that future day when the Almighty Creator will replace our rotten universe with a perfect heaven and earth. Then all of God’s people from all ages will descend to the new earth and dwell forever in its glorious capital called New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2), which, because of its towering height, will literally be a mountain; indeed, the greatest of all mountains (Rev. 21:16).

In Daniel 9:25, we read of a "commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem." Having discovered a double meaning in Jerusalem elsewhere, we are entitled to wonder whether here it might be a symbol as well as the name of an actual place. If it is a symbol, it has only one possible meaning, since Scripture is consistent in its use of symbols. It must refer to the people of God.

Jerusalem as the Church

We should never foist symbolism on a text to avoid its literal meaning, if the literal meaning is possible, and we should limit ourselves to symbols that Scripture itself defines. For example, when used as a symbol, leaven is always evil, a star is always a glorified being, and a fig tree is always Israel. But we violate neither rule if we suppose that Jerusalem in Daniel 9 is a symbol of the church. We are not denying its primary reference to an actual city. Also, we are adopting a usage found elsewhere in Scripture.

The writer of Hebrews uses Jerusalem and Zion as names for the heavenly city.

But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels.

Hebrews 12:22

Notice that the writer treats the city as parallel to an innumerable company of angels. The reason is that a city is not essentially some buildings or a location on a map but a group of people living together. One group in heaven is the angels. Another is all the members of Christ’s body, the church. It is to the latter group that the writer assigns the names of Jerusalem and Zion.

The heavenly city appears again in Revelation.

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. . . .

9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.

Revelation 21:2, 9-10

In John's vision, the heavenly Jerusalem is called "the bride, the Lamb's wife," a familiar name for the church. Especially here, by naming the church as Jerusalem, Scripture provides strong and decisive support for our position that when Daniel 9:25 foresees Jerusalem being restored and built, it is proclaiming truth with double meaning. It is speaking not only about the earthly city, but also about the church.

In Galatians we read,

22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Galatians 4:22-31

As Paul seeks to sharpen the contrast between the covenant of law and the covenant of grace, he treats them as allegorically equivalent to the earthly and heavenly Jerusalems. Paul views the heavenly Jerusalem as an appropriate figure for the covenant of grace doubtless because the covenant created the city. But it would be more precise to say that the covenant created the church. So, we detect in Paul's mind an assumed equivalence between the church and the city.

For Christians down through the centuries, Zion has been one of the most familiar and beloved of all Biblical symbols. Recognition that it stands for the church pervades older commentaries and older hymns. Among these hymns are "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, Zion, City of Our God" and "Hail to the Brightness of Zion's Glad Morning."

Some might object that in treating Jerusalem as a symbol for the church, we are imposing a New Testament idea on the Old Testament. But the Bible is the work of one author, God. If we can go to the New Testament to determine the length of a prophetic year, we can go there also to learn the larger significance of Jerusalem.

Opening and Closing Events

Now with eyes open to symbolism, we are ready to consider whether Daniel 9:25 contains another fulfilled prophecy. It says, "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." A better translation points instead to "a commandment," since the Hebrew text contains no definite article.² The precise wording signals that the scope of reference is broader than one commandment. In fact, the oracle envisions two. The second is the subject of a prophecy concealed beneath the obvious and well-known prophecy that we have already expounded. This other prophecy, based on symbolism, discloses that there would be sixty-nine weeks "from the going forth of a commandment to restore and to build" not only the earthly city of Jerusalem, but also the spiritual city.

"Commandment" can be translated simply as "word"³ and "restore" as "turn back" or "convert."⁴ At the symbolic level of meaning, the initial event must therefore be a word to convert and build the church. The event that best fits the description is Jesus’ announcement a few days before the Transfiguration, "Upon this rock I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18). Here was God’s first declaration of intent to accomplish this objective. Here also was the first time in human history when the word "church" was used with the meaning it has now. By our reckoning, the date was December 9, AD 31, which we have called the Day of Announcements.

If this announcement is the opening event in a second interval of sixty-nine weeks, what is the terminal event? That is, in relation to God’s intention to build His church, what event marked Jesus’ coming as Messiah the Prince? The wording "unto the Messiah the Prince" is deliberately vague to allow more than one fulfillment. As we have argued before, it does not refer to when men acclaimed Jesus as a king, as many did at the Triumphal Entry. Rather, it refers to when the Father acknowledged and honored Jesus as the rightful possessor of this exalted title. We have said that Jesus was so honored at two events. The first was the Transfiguration. The second was the Father seating Christ at His right hand.

1 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

2 The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.

4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.

6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.

7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

Psalm 110:1-7

The Transfiguration was, as we proved earlier, Jesus’ coronation. Yet at that time He was not anywhere near the true seat of His authority. Rather, He was leading an incursion into hostile territory under the control of another prince, the prince of this world. So although the Father could confer upon Him a crown of glory and honor, Jesus could not, without provoking a final clash with Satanic forces, wear it openly or exercise kingly power while He remained upon the earth. Yet to stay here was necessary for completion of His redemptive work. The time for Him to mount His throne was later, after He had demonstrated obedience "unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8).

When was Christ’s actual enthronement? It could not have preceded Jesus’ first visit to heaven after the Resurrection. For several reasons, we believe that His first visit, when He broke the bonds of this world and moved into His Father’s presence for the first time since His incarnation, took place on Easter Sunday.

1. Why would He have waited any longer for a joyous reunion with the Father?
2. On Sunday morning He forbade Mary Magdalene to touch Him, and the reason He provided was that He had not yet ascended to the Father (John 20:17). Yet a short while later, when He met other women as they were rushing away from the tomb, He allowed them to grasp His feet in worship (Matt. 28:8–10). Thus, in the interim He must have ascended and returned. We might think the time lapse was too short to allow not only a journey to heaven and back, but also the heavenly ceremonies which must have greeted His arrival there. But we dare not suppose that our pace of events is the same as heaven’s. God can proceed through time at any rate that He chooses.
3. In the same encounter with Mary, Jesus instructed her to tell the disciples, "I ascend" (John 20:17), apparently to be understood as the reason He was not coming to them directly.
4. Soon after Jesus’ resurrection, perhaps at the same time He was meeting with Mary or with the other women, the supernatural world intruded upon life in Jerusalem in a marvelous way, although Matthew reports the incident offhandedly.

   52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

   53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

   Matthew 27:52-53

   Matthew’s account raises many intriguing questions. Surely, the newly risen saints did not return to their graves after they had walked about Jerusalem. But why were they never seen again? There is no record of any sightings after Sunday morning. The only plausible answer is that later on Sunday, they rose to their permanent abode, heaven. The one who ushered them into the Father’s presence was doubtless Christ. Various texts hint that when Christ ascended to the Father, He led upward from Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:23) the entire host of Old Testament saints (Hos. 6:1–3; Eph. 4:8–10).⁵ Presumably most remained in a disembodied state, for Scripture teaches that many saints from the pre-Christian era will not be raised until the end times (Dan. 12:2). Yet none could be admitted to heaven until the Son had presented His own shed blood as atonement for the sins of mankind. Throughout the Book of Hebrews we see glimmers of this solemn transaction (Heb. 9:11–12, 24; 10:11–13). Only with its completion did Old Testament saints gain legal standing before the Father.

As soon as the Father accepted Jesus’ blood as a sufficient sacrifice to recompense all sin forever, Jesus ascended His throne.

11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:

12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

Hebrews 10:11-13

Another text affirming this sequence of events is Hebrews 1:3.

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Hebrews 1:3

We conclude that the day of Jesus’ resurrection was also the day of His enthronement. Sitting down at the Father’s right hand brought Jesus' redemptive work to an end so that He could begin the work of building the church, the very work He announced in Matthew 16:18. For this reason, Daniel 9:25 treats His promise of the church and His enthronement as related events.

This prophecy says that the enthronement would come sixty-nine weeks after the promise. The promise was on December 9, AD 31. If Jesus died on Friday, April 3, AD 33, His resurrection and enthronement transpired on the next Sunday, April 5. Thus, the interval between the two events that we have discovered in the symbolism of Daniel 9:25—the word to build heavenly Jerusalem and the enthronement of Messiah the Prince—was 483 days, precisely the same as sixty-nine whole weeks.

Second Validation of the Solution

We have come to another amazing result, with profound significance in two respects.

1. We have verified again that the main prophecy in Daniel 9:25 (the prophecy placing the coming of Christ sixty-nine weeks after the rebuilding of earthly Jerusalem) was fulfilled. It predicts that the Messiah would come during the month following December 8/9, AD 31. We argued that this December 9 was the date of the epic announcements recorded in Matthew 16, including Jesus’ promise to build His church. By recognizing the double meaning in Jerusalem, we found a second prophecy that sets Jesus’ enthronement 483 days later. By computation, the date was April 5, AD 33. The strong historical and chronological evidence confirming that this was indeed the date of the Resurrection, together with the Scriptural evidence that His enthronement took place on the same day, shows that the earlier date, December 9, AD 31, must be correct. Moreover, since the Transfiguration was indisputably six days after this earlier date, the same evidence shows that our date for the Transfiguration, December 14/15, must be correct also.
2. We have discovered a scheme of intervals that must be supernatural. From the Book of Nehemiah, we learned that Nehemiah prayed during the month following November 17/18, 446 BC. From the study of New Testament chronology, we concluded that Jesus rose on April 5, AD 33. These two dates framing the historical period treated by the prophecy of the sixty-nine weeks are totally independent. Each date rests on evidence and reasoning that in no way take account of the other date. Yet look at the relationship between them! From the first we obtain the second by moving forward in two simple steps: by sixty-nine prophetic weeks (coming to December 8/9, AD 31), then by sixty-nine ordinary weeks.

Could successive sixty-nine week intervals between the given date in 446 BC and the given date in AD 33 be mere coincidence? To calculate the probability that such a pattern could arise by chance would be impossible, since it would require unattainable information about all possible outcomes. Yet the calculation would also be unnecessary, for the probability is obviously minute, and it diminishes to infinitesimal if we attach the requirement that the events associated with the opening and terminal dates must fit the prophecy. We conclude that the scheme of intervals we have uncovered must not be accident, but design.