📖 Biblical Definition
The Seventy Weeks are Daniel's prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27: 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. The Hebrew shavu'im means ‘sevens’ (commonly read as periods of seven years, totaling 490 years). The prophecy frames Israel's redemptive timetable from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of Messiah.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
(Daniel 9:24-27.) Daniel's prophecy of seventy ‘sevens’ (commonly 490 years) determined for Israel and Jerusalem.
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Three groupings: 7 weeks (49 years) + 62 weeks (434 years) + 1 week (7 years), totaling 70 weeks (490 years). The prophecy specifies the rebuilding of Jerusalem at the start, the cutting off of Messiah after the 62 weeks, and a final week of covenant-confirmation, sacrifice-cessation, and abomination of desolation.
Major interpretive schools: dispensational (the final week is yet future, separated from the 69 weeks by the church age); historic/preterist (the 70 weeks ran continuously to AD 70); messianic (the 70 weeks were fulfilled in Christ's first coming and the AD 70 destruction). The chronology has been calculated dozens of ways.
📖 Key Scripture
Daniel 9:24 — "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins."
Daniel 9:25 — "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."
Daniel 9:26 — "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself."
Daniel 9:27 — "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity often reads the Seventy Weeks through one school's lens only; the prophecy itself rewards careful, multi-school study.
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Daniel 9:24's six purposes (finish transgression, end sin, reconcile iniquity, bring everlasting righteousness, seal vision and prophecy, anoint the most Holy) all converge on Christ's first coming for many interpreters. Dispensational schemes spread some across the future.
The household need not pick a school dogmatically, but should learn enough to understand why the chapter has been pivotal in Christian eschatology. Its detail and chronological precision are unusual in prophetic literature.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew shavu'im; the term for sevens.
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Hebrew shavu'im — sevens, weeks; the unit Daniel uses.
Note: same Hebrew root behind Shavuot (Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks).
Usage
"Seventy sevens determined for Daniel's people and city."
"From the decree to rebuild Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince."
"The chronology has been calculated dozens of ways."