When the Babylonians had destroyed the Holy City, and Solomon's Temple, and carried the Hebrews into captivity, in the fifth century before Christ, Daniel was praying for his people and earnestly wishing the end of the captivity. The Archangel Gabriel appeared and told him the very year Christ would come, his three and a half years of public life, his death, the destruction of the Temple the ruin of the Jewish nationality, the end of the sacrifices, and the desolation, which will last to the end of the world.
The Hebrews called seven years a week. " Thou shalt also number to thee seven weeks of years, that is to say seven times seven, which together make forty-nine years." (Levit. xxv. 8) The seventy weeks make 490 solar years," that transgression may be finished," by Christ's death and the "Saint of saints may be anointed," that is Christ, which is a Greek word meaning " the anointed."
"From the going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem unto Christ, the prince "—that is from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes' reign (According to Herodotus the word means, "The Great. Warrior.")—the king of Persia gave orders for the Jews to return and rebuild the Holy City. " To Christ the prince," that is to the baptism of Christ when he began his public life, sixty-nine weeks, that is after 486 years. The seven weeks, forty-nine years, was the time they spent in rebuilding the city, the Temple and colonizing the land. "And after 483 years Christ shall be slain," that is in the week after his baptism. And they shall no more be his people who shall deny him in Pilate's Pretorium.
And the Romans with Titus as their leader shall destroy the city and the Temple, and after the end of the Roman war, the appointed desolation, which shall con tinue to the end of the world, as we see to this day the Temple area desolate, where a Jew will not enter.
And Christ shall convert many in one week, that is the last week of his preaching, and in the half of the
week, that is after he has preached three and a half years, the victim and sacrifice will cease to be received by God, for then the Victim they foretold will be crucified.
THE ARCHANGEL GABRIEL'S PROPHECY. - GIVEN 490 YEARS BEFORE CHRIST.
"Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people and upon thy Holy City, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished, and everlasting justice may be brought, and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled, and the Saint of saints may be anointed.
"Know thou, therefore, and take notice, that from the going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ, the prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, and the street shall be built again, and the walls in the straitness of times.
"And after sixty-two weeks, Christ shall be slain, and the people that shall deny him shall not be his. And a people with their leader that shall come, shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be waste, and after the end of the war the appointed desolation.
"And He shall confirm the covenant with many in one week; and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail, and there shall be in the Temple the abomination of desolation, and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation and to the end." (Daniel ix. 24-27.)
