Daniel s Seventy Weeks Prophecy In Daniel 9: 24-27 Are the seventy weeks completed or are some days outstanding? Is Daniel referring to Jesus or to the Antichrist in verse 27 How does the Hebrew translate in this passage? Does the appearance of mathematical equidistant sequences of Hebrew letters in Daniel 9:24-27 have any relevance? Is there an outstanding period of seven years? Does this help us to discern the signs and the times? In November 2006 I read a Booklet by Herman Goldwag that was sent to me by Mrs Hugh Kitson, of the Hatikvah Film Trust. This Booklet had been mentioned in Hugh Kitson s book Jerusalem, the Covenant City and his recommendation encouraged me to track it down and read it for myself. Herman Goldwag entitled his Booklet, Daniel s Seventy Weeks Prophecy an exposition based on the Hebrew Text. Apart from researching the actual Hebrew used in Daniel 9:24-27, which he suggests the King James Version has poorly translated, Mr Goldwag was also enabled to research Yeshua s year of birth in order to undergird the dating of Daniel. Before progressing I need to tell you that Mr Goldwag, according to the entry on Google, went home to Glory on 8 th May 2011. I am asking if this is the reason that the LORD has asked me to get his Booklet, published in 1997, out again because the LORD desires this subject reconsidered in the light of the expected Return of Messiah Ruler as mentioned in Daniel s prophecy. I have received Mrs Goldwag s permission to use her late husband s Booklet, and Mrs Kitson has given her permission to make these references to her husband s Book. Mr Kitson mentions Mr Goldwag s booklet, in his Book (pages 68-69 and Appendix A) published in 2000 but which, though out of print, is available as a Kindle Book. However, in his Appendix D he writes, there are a number of Hebrew speaking Messianic Jews and some pre- 1
Millennial Evangelical Gentile Christians who would not agree with some interpretations of Daniel 9:24-27, simply because the original Hebrew Text does not support it. For that reason, alone, I believe they should be listened to and their view prayerfully considered. I can only ask that you test these things for yourself before the LORD. I am going to give you my synopsis of Mr Goldwag s Book. Please follow the Scriptures as I point out his suggested misinterpretations of the Hebrew text. Is Daniel referring to Jesus or to the Antichrist in verse 27? Whilst studying the King James Version of the Scriptures, alongside his own translation of the Hebrew text, Mr Goldwag became aware of anomalies that have been accepted for years but which, he believes, centres on incorrect translation and subsequent misinterpretation. One of the most important errors, in his eyes, is found in Daniel 9:27, which he suggests, clearly refers to Christ and yet has been interpreted as speaking of Antichrist (seemingly the future ruler of verse 26). Due to this interpretation we become focused on expecting the final seven years some 2000 years after Christ s Crucifixion. Mr Goldwag suggests these four prophetic verses so perfectly fit the events known to us about Christ s First Advent that taking part of verse 27 out of context and applying it to Antichrist is like taking the heart out of this outstanding prophecy (page 10). He believes the seventy-week period was fulfilled in one uninterrupted sequence. The chronological references and we need to understand that Daniel s days actually refer to years bring us to Yeshua s (Jesus ) appearance as the Messiah or The Anointed One of verse 25. This is at His Baptism in the River Jordan when the dove of the anointing rested upon Him (Matthew 3:16-17; Acts 10:37-38) not to His Birth or His Crucifixion. It is then that Yeshua was Messiah Ruler King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2; Luke 1:32, 2:11; Isaiah 9:6). Yeshua is Messiah Ruler: In the heavenly aspect because of the signs that followed His Ministry, for no miracle is of man but His Father in Heaven does 2
these things (John 5:19,30,36-47). Yeshua answered Pilot, My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). And as He left His disciples He said, All authority is given unto Me in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18). Among His followers for the Hebrew word used here nagid can mean ruling in terms of leadership among His disciples. He said, My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me (John 10:4,16,27). At the LORD s Festival of Shavuot (Weeks or Pentecost) fifty days after the LORD s Festival of Pesach (Passover) when God sent His Holy Spirit to anoint and empower Christ s followers it is written, And He commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). Christ manifested Himself to His disciples and He is still doing that across the world today. The Coming King for His Millennial Reign on earth and His future Eternal Kingdom with His Father YHVH God together with the saved who will inherit His eternal kingdom. For the government shall be upon His shoulders; and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace, there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His Kingdom, to order it and to establish it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this (Isaiah 9:6-7). These words refer back to prophecies given earlier by Jacob to Joseph (Genesis 49:10) and by God to Abraham (Genesis 26:4). How does the Hebrew translate in this passage? Some have interpreted Daniel s sixty-nine weeks as referring to Yeshua s birth but if this is so then adding the years of Yeshua s life brings us well over the seventy years of Daniel s prophecy. Christ s Full, Final and Perfect Sacrifice for iniquity and the cutting off has to be within the seventy years of verse 24 not outside of it. Another suggestion is that the sixty-nine weeks or 483 years refer to the end of Christ s Ministry when He entered Jerusalem riding on an ass (Matthew 21; Zechariah 3
9:9). However, the Hebrew word ad should be translated until and not unto in verse 25 and so we should only be looking at Messiah s anointing in the Jordan River rather than at any other period in His Life. Mr Goldwag says that the use of ad translated until in Scripture tends to refer to a definite and abrupt change in events, situations and conditions. See Matthew 24:38 until the day Noah entered the Ark and Matthew 24:39 until the Flood came and Genesis 3:19 till you return to the ground. Consequently until Messiah Ruler (Daniel 9:25) points to the world s greatest turnaround in events that took place at the termination of the sixty-nine weeks of Daniel s prophecy. Taking the Bible at its word we have the historical and chronological account of John the Baptiser s ministry, which runs alongside Yeshua s. John began his ministry in 29 A.D., which should bring us to Yeshua s crucifixion in 33 A.D. The emergence of the word to rebuild Jerusalem was given to Nehemiah (chapter 2) in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes rule in 454 B.C. Therefore, adding the sixty-nine days or 483 years we arrive at 29 A.D. when until Messiah Ruler was fulfilled, with the cutting off of Messiah taking place within the seventieth week. Continuing and after ve acharei in Hebrew does not necessarily mean immediately after as we know the Crucifixion was three and one half years after His anointing confirmed in verse 27, and in the midst of the week (he) shall terminate sacrifice and offering as Christ did when He offered His Precious Blood as the Full, Final and Perfect Sacrifice for the Sin of Man once for all (Romans 6:10) on the LORD s Passover Festival at His Crucifixion. In verse 27 we are told and the city and the sanctuary will be destroyed by nation of the future ruler. And Jerusalem suffered the outworking of this under Titus in 70 A.D. when the Roman army completely destroyed the city and the Temple after the cutting off of Messiah. Now, Mr Goldwag tells us, we have to understand that there has been a further mistranslation with a possible misinterpretation of Scripture. Because of the suggestion that verse 27 could refer to Antichrist we have the related suggestion that verse 26 refers to this coming future 4
ruler and that he shall confirm the covenant WITH many (KJV). Mr Goldwag, however, suggests this translation should be shall confirm the covenant FOR many. Not only have Gentiles interpreted this as a coming Antichrist but because the Jews have refused to accept Yeshua as their Messiah they too have tended to suggest that these prophetic words could refer to Cyrus King of Persia or Yehoshua ben Yehotzadak who returned from Babylon or Zerrubabel Shealtiel descended from the King of Judah or even to King Agrippa II killed at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple. Mr Goldwag suggests that they have completely overlooked the fact that these two passages concern the Advent of Messiah Ruler and were completed under Daniel s seventy weeks prophecy. So contemporary Evangelicals are still expecting the future ruler while Jewish scholars state he appeared as Titus with his Roman army having interpreted it on a human scale and not on a Messianic and Divine scale. Mr Goldwag says that the Hebrew vehigbir brit larabim shavua echad should be translated and (he) shall mightily strengthen covenant FOR MANY one week and not FOR ONE WEEK as the KJV reads but during the seventieth week. Vehigbir is masculine so referring to a man. The Hebrew does not contain the pronoun he ; only if it did could it point to a future ruler. However, taken in the context of verses 25 and 26 with the use of the root word gibbor one of the attributes of Christ, El Gibbor, Mighty God- which appears only once in the Scriptures, right here, it would seem that we are receiving a very strong hint, within the Hebrew text itself, that we are referring to Yeshua the Messiah. Because the translation should read for many we are also receiving a further hint that should take us to Yeshua s own words during the Passover Meal, For this is My Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28). We now have a very different slant here between making a worldly covenant with individuals and nations as against a voluntary covenant for many as Christ did. There would seem to be a confirmation of this or a second witness to this in Matthew 20:28, Even as the Son of Man came not 5
to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His Life a ransom for many. Now Daniel s words, and (he) shall mightily strengthen covenant for many one week (during the last or seventieth week) begin to take on an awesome and distinct truth as we see it tying in with verse 26. Particularly as we see the disciples in disarray after Yeshua s Crucifixion and before His Resurrection. Because it was here that He strengthened and Re-Newed the Covenant, that the LORD YHVH had given to His people, in His own Blood. Yeshua then spent the next forty days expounding unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:27); not only appearing to His disciples (John 20:19-20) but also to above five hundred brethren at once (1 Corinthians 15:6). Again, in verse 27, we have another incorrect translation in the KJV according to Mr Goldwag. It is written and he shall make it desolate but in the Hebrew there is no he so the one who strengthens has no direct connection to the destruction that follows. We have Christ s ministry lasting three and one half years from His Baptism and then He established and strengthened the Covenant in His Blood at His Crucifixion when He terminated sacrifice and offering, which refers to the entire sacrificial system. In verse 24 the seventy weeks are determined upon thy people the people of Israel. So we have the Crucifixion of Christ during the seventieth week with three and one half years still to go. During this second three and one half years the preaching of the Gospel was exclusively to the Jews. After the completion of the seventieth week around 36 A.D. the Gospel was opened up to all nations, commencing with Cornelius (Acts 10). This episode with Cornelius has been calculated, over the years, to be variously estimated between the years 35 40 A.D. so, in the light of Daniel s prophecy, 36 A.D. is not without favour. Because verse 24 refers to a place anointing the holy of holies Mr Goldwag believes it is not out of place to refer to this as the Temple of living stones which Temple we are (1 Peter 2:5; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 6
Corinthians 6:16) and of course the Holy Spirit came upon this Temple of living stones, the Body of Messiah, at Shavuot (Weeks or Pentecost) while they were standing in the precincts of the actual Temple. Originally the LORD, YHVH God, dwelt in the Tabernacle with His people in the wilderness of Sinai and then through the Temple in Jerusalem. But in Yeshua our bodies, our tents, are temples of the Holy Spirit and He is building us into His living Temple today. So perhaps the abrupt change from actual stones to living stones has been effected (Acts 2:1-4)? And because Yeshua s Death has paid for sin everlasting righteousness prevails (Daniel 9:24; Romans 3:22; 2 Corinthians 5:21). We still await the prophecy given by Paul, and so all Israel shall be saved (Romans 11:26), but whatever the future holds Mr Goldwag believed the foundation of this great blessing was laid down by Messiah Yeshua at His First Advent in the seventieth week of years. Does the appearance of mathematical equidistant sequences of Hebrew letters in Daniel 9:24-27 have any relevance? In a note dated 24 th May 1998, which was sent out with his Booklets after they were published in 1997, Mr Goldwag speaks of an interesting discovery he made regarding the appearance of mathematical equidistant sequences of Hebrew letters in Daniel 9:24-27. In this world of biblical codes it has been found that significant words can be discovered embedded within the text of Scripture, which experts suggest do not occur by chance and so must be of God s doing, with which Mr Goldwag agrees. He discovered the name Yeshua, formed from the four Hebrew letters yod, shin, vav and ayin encoded twice in these four verses. Firstly in Daniel 9:24 starting from the yod in iyr (city) and counting every 79 th letter three times (right to left), finishing with the ayin in ve ad (and until) in verse 26. Secondly, in Daniel 9:25 starting with the yod in shishim (sixty) counting every 61 st letter three times up to the ayin in ve ad (and until) in verse 27. He suggests these encoded mentions of Yeshua in the Hebrew Scriptures are very significant as they occur in Daniel s Seventy Week prophecy, especially as verse 27 is included 7
which he believes refers to the Christ (Yeshua) and not the Anti-Christ as I have been outlining. Mr Hugh Kitson includes some very pertinent questions in his Book, questions we need to answer as we make our own considerations of this subject. A necessary consideration is the fact that one should never build a doctrine or theology on one verse of Scripture alone. Yet it appears that many have built a doctrine on this one verse, in Daniel 9:27, by teaching that the Antichrist appears to be making or confirming a covenant or treaty with many. If such a political situation should arise in the future there is the possibility that this political leader may not be the, perhaps incorrectly anticipated, Antichrist. Is there an outstanding period of seven years? Again, there is only one verse in the Bible which implies that the Great Tribulation will be a period of seven years due to the fact that it has been equated with the seventieth week of Daniel. Certainly Daniel and the Book of Revelation speak of a period of three and one half years for the Great Tribulation but it is not clear just how, when, where and who brings this to pass. We will also perhaps, in the light of Mr Goldwag s booklet, have to question the view that many hold regarding the rapture of the Church in this outstanding seven year period; called the pre-tribulation rapture. It would seem to suggest that this subject may need to be reconsidered, if Daniel s seventieth week has already been fulfilled, which will cause even more heated debate among those who hold quite dogmatic views on the subject. Mr Kitson believes (page 325 of his Book) that the LORD s statement to Moses for His people, the things hidden are to YHVH our God and the things revealed are to us and to our sons to the age to do all the words of this law (Deuteronomy 29:29); together with the statement in Mark s Gospel, and concerning That Day and the hour no one has known not even the messengers that are in the heavens, not even the Son except the Father (13:32), should be the final words on this debate. 8
Mr Kitson concludes his Appendix D, page 325, with In formulating a view on whether or not the Seventieth Week of Daniel has already been fulfilled, or whether its fulfilment lies in the future, I believe that the real meaning of the Hebrew text in Daniel 9:24-27 needs to be the only consideration, not the eschatological implications. I repeat Is the reason that the LORD has asked me to get Mr Herman Goldwag s Booklet out again and study it because He desires us to reconsider this subject in the light of the expected Second Advent of the Messiah Ruler as mentioned in Daniel s prophecy? Does this help us to discern the signs and the times? I am also asking - Is this subject important in order for us to be able to discern the signs and the times today even as the LORD s Issachar Tribe were gifted to do? Or even if we should be more Berean in our Bible Study so we can seek out the Truth of Scripture for ourselves; our only help coming from our Teacher, God s Holy Spirit (1 John 2:27)? As we witness the continuing shaking of the LORD (Haggai 2:6-7; Hebrews 12:26; see also Jeremiah 25 and Psalm 46) until that which cannot be shaken stands; and as we ponder His Word to us all, could we find that Mr Goldwag s translation is more applicable than the traditional teachings of the church today? However, it is also a wake-up call and a reminder that we should always be ready for that moment when Yeshua will return; with or without prior notice. That is why our Heavenly Father has the gift of Repentance always available to us as we undertake our walk of Faith yoked to our Saviour, Messiah Yeshua. Daniel, when speaking of the three and one half years in Chapter 12:7, has the words the wise shall understand (12:10). Yeshua also gives us clues to the things we should be watching out for in order to be ready for His Return and His Millennial Reign. However, Yeshua ends these many words of warning with some of the most beautiful and important words that we should act upon. 9
Watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:36). Amen. 2012 Penny Byrne 10