Daniel 9:25

Now, it gave Christ a second name as leader.… He is our leader in his humanity as "the firstborn of all creation," that is, a new creation: "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation"24—and as firstborn from the dead, so as to …

The chapter which we read in Daniel concerning the seventy weeks contains many remarkable details, which require too lengthy a discussion at this point; and so we must discuss only what pertains to our present task, namely that which concerns chronology. There is no doubt …

This is Daniel who prophesied in Babylon and who was also privileged to utter predictions concerning the Lord Christ, and he speaks thus: And thou shalt know and discern that from the going forth of the commandment to the response and the building of Jerusalem, …

The learned scholar Clement, presbyter of the church at Alexandria, regards the number of years as a matter of slight consequence, asserting that the seventy weeks of years were completed by the span of time from the reign of Cyrus, King of the Persians, to the reign of the Roman emperors, Vespasian and Titus; that is to say, the interval of four hundred and ninety years, with the addition in that same figure of the two thousand three hundred days of which we made earlier mention. He attempts to reckon in these seventy weeks the ages of the Persians, Macedonians, and Caesars, even though according to the most careful computation, the number of years from the first year of Cyrus, King of the Persians and Medes, when Darius also bore rule, up to the reign of Vespasian and the destruction of the Temple amounts to six hundred and thirty.

And so the angel Gabriel speaks to him in this way, "From the day you gave your face to be humbled before the Lord your God your supplication was heard and I myself was sent to cause you to understand [Daniel 10:12] so that you may not inquire further before the time of time happens, for you are a greatly cherished man. For you desire to see these things, which are about to be ministered through me, but they will be fulfilled in their own time." And he added saying, "Seventy weeks have been cut out for your people and for the holy city, for sin to be ended and for sin to be sealed and for unrighteousness to be erased and for lawlessness to be atoned and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal dreams and prophecy and to anoint a Holy of Holies. And to know and understand from the procession of the words for an answer to build Jerusalem until Christ the ruler, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." [Daniel 9:24-25] And so having named seventy weeks he divided them into two, so that what was spoken by him to the prophet may be understood all the more. For he says that thusly, "Until Christ the ruler, seven weeks," [Daniel 9:25] which is forty-nine years. For also in the twenty and first year Daniel sees these things in Babylon. And so when adding forty-nine years to twenty-one years, they fulfill seventy years, which the blessed prophet Jeremiah has spoken, that for seventy years the Most Holy Place shall be desolate [Jeremiah 25:11] from the captivity which happened to them under Nebuchadnezzar and after these things the people shall return and the sacrifices and offerings of Christ their ruler shall be offered. But of which Christ does he speak, except Jesus son of Josedek, who returned together with the people at that time, and in the seventieth year, after the Most Holy Place was built, he offered a sacrifice according to the law? […]

And so in order that the time when he is about to come may be shown which the blessed Daniel desired to see, he says, "And after seven weeks another sixty-two weeks," [Daniel 9:25] which encompasses the time of four hundred and thirty-four years. For after the people returned from Babylon their ruler Jesus son of Josedek and Ezra the scribe and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, who was from the tribe of Judah, four hundred and thirty-four years occurred, until the advent of Christ, so that the Priest of priests was shown in the world and he who took away the sins of the world was clearly demonstrated as John says concerning him, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." [John 1:29] Similarly Gabriel also says, "and to erase unrighteousness and for sins to be atoned," [Daniel 9:24] But who erases our unrighteousness? Paul the apostle teaches you saying, "He himself became our peace, who has made the two one and who broke up the dividing wall, enmity in the flesh, having abolished the law of commandments in the decrees of the Law," [Ephesians 2:14-15] and "having erased our sins which were written against us, which were opposed to us, and taking it from our midst, affixing it to the cross," [Colossians 2:14] and so "to erase unrighteousness and for unrighteousness to be atoned." [Daniel 9:24] But who are they whose unrighteous are atoned except they who believe in his name and through good works are these atoned before his presence? Because after the people returned from Babylon four hundred and thirty and four years occurred until the generation of Christ, it is easy to perceive what has been set before. […]

But Hippolytus has expressed the following opinion concerning these same weeks: he reckons the seven weeks as prior to the return of the people from Babylon, and the sixty-two weeks as subsequent to their return and extending to the birth of Christ. But the dates do not agree at all. If indeed the duration of the Persian Empire be reckoned at two hundred and thirty years, and the Macedonian Empire at three hundred, and the period thereafter up to the birth of the Lord be thirty years, then the total from the beginning of the reign of Cyrus, King of the Persians, until the advent of the Savior will be five hundred and sixty years. Moreover Hippolytus places the final week at the end of the world and divides it into the period of Elias and the period of Antichrist, so that during the three and a half years of the last week the knowledge of God is established. And as for the statement, "He shall establish a compact with many for a week" (Daniel 9:27), during the other three years under the Antichrist the sacrifice and offering shall cease. But when Christ shall come and shall slay the wicked one by the breath of His mouth, desolation shall hold sway till the end.

He shall say to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built. That was, both in prophecy and in history, the most famous decree for the building of Jerusalem; nay, it should seem, this going forth of the commandment (which may as well be meant of God's command concerning it as of Cyrus's) is the same with that going forth of the commandment mentioned

And it is the clearest, brightest, prophecy of the Messiah, in all the Old Testament. Daniel's Confession and Prayer. 1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-run:26w-of-46

Know, therefore, and understand,....

"The thing was done this very day; the proclamation of liberty to the Jews was signed this morning, just when thou wast praying for it;" and now, at the close of this fast-day, Daniel had notice of it, as, at the close of the day of atonement, the jubilee-trumpet sounded to proclaim liberty. The haste he made to deliver his message: He was caused to fly swiftly,

Know, therefore, and understand - Hengstenberg renders this, “and thou wilt know and understand;” and supposes that the design of Gabriel is to awaken the attention and interest of Daniel by the assurance that, if he would give attention, he would understand the subject by the explanation which he was about to give. So also Theodotion renders it in the future tense. The Hebrew is in the future tense, and would probably convey the idea that he might, or would know and understand the matter.

Nagid is applied to Titus, only as representative of Christ, who designates the Roman destruction of Jerusalem as, in a sense, His coming (Mt 24:29-31; Messiah denotes His calling; He is to "be cut off, and there shall be nothing for Him." (So the Hebrew for "not for Himself," Da 9:26, ought to be translated).

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem - The foregoing events being all accomplished by Jesus Christ, they of course determine the prophecy to him. And if we reckon back four hundred and ninety years, we shall find the time of the going forth of this command. Most learned men agree that the death of Christ happened at the passover in the month Nisan, in the four thousand seven hundred and forty-sixth year of the Julian period. Four hundred and ninety years, reckoned back from the above year, leads us directly to the month Nisan in the four thousand two hundred and fifty-sixth year of the same period; the very month and year in which Ezra had his commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, (see Ezr 7:9), to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. See the commission in Ezra 7:11-26 (note), and Prideaux’s Connexions, vol. 2 p. 380. The above seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years, are divided, in Ezr 7:25, into three distinct periods, to each of which particular events are assigned. The three periods are: - I. Seven weeks, that is, forty-nine years. II. Sixty-two weeks, that is, four hundred and thirty-four years. III. […]

Gabriel proceeds to give Daniel the most astonishing four verses in the entire Bible: 24, 25, 26, and 27.