From Philip Mauro:
f the true starting point, we can now proceed with confidence to an examination of the
details of the prophecy. But it will be needful, as we go on, to test every conclusion by the Scriptures, and
to exercise care that we accept nothing that is not supported by ample proof.
The prophetic part of the angel’s message begins at verse 24, which, in our AV reads as follows:
“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 and
to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy (place).”
Here are six distinct things which were to happen within a definitely marked off period of seventy sevens
of years (490 years). These six specified things are closely related one to the other, for they are all connected
by the conjunction “and.”
This verse, which is a prophecy complete in itself, gives no information in regard to either the starting
point of the 490 years, or the means whereby the predicted events were to be accomplished. That information,
however, is given in the verses which follow. From them we learn that the prophetic period was to begin to
run “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem”; also that sixty-nine weeks
(seven plus sixty-two) would reach “unto Messiah, the Prince”; and further that “after the three-score and
two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.” It was by the cutting off of the Messiah that the six predictions of verse 24
were to be fulfilled. This should be carefully noted.
Thus we have before us a prophecy of transcendent interest, a predicted stretch of time from the rebeginning of the Jewish nation and the rebuilding of the holy city, down to the culminating event of all history, and of all the ages of time the crucifixion of the Divine Redeemer. These are things which the angels desire to look into (1 Peter 1:12); and surely our hearts should move us to inquire into them, not in a spirit of carnal curiosity, and not with any purpose to uphold a favorite scheme of prophetic interpretation, but with
the reverent desire to learn all that God has been pleased to reveal touching this most important and most sacred matter.
Verses 25–27 also foretell the overwhelming and exterminating judgments — the “desolations” that were
to fall upon the people and the city, and which were to last throughout this entire dispensation.
The first words of verse 25, “Know therefore,” show that what follows is explanatory of the prophecy contained in verse 24 This too should be carefully noted.
It is essential to a right understanding of the prophecy to observe, and to keep in mind, that the six things
of verse 24 were to be fulfilled (and now have been fulfilled) by Christ being “cut off,” and by what followed
immediately thereafter, namely, His resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into heaven. With that
simple fact in mind it will be easy to “understand” all the main points of the prophecy.
These are the six predicted items:
1. To finish the transgression.The “transgression” of Israel had long been the burden of the messages
of God’s prophets. It was for their “transgression” that they had been sent into captivity, and that their
land and city had been made a “desolation” for seventy years.
Daniel himself had confessed this, saying, “Yea, all Israel have transgressed Thy law. even by departing
that they might not obey Thy voice. Therefore the curse is poured upon us” (verse 11). But the angel revealed to him the distressing news that the full measure of Israel’s “transgression” was yet to be completed; that the children were yet to fill up the iniquity of their fathers; and that, as a consequence, God
would bring upon them a far greater “desolation” than that which had been wrought by Nebuchadnezzar. For “to finish the transgression” could mean nothing less or other than the betrayal and crucifixion
of their promised and expected Messiah.
We would call particular attention at this point to the words of the Lord Jesus spoken to the leaders of the
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people shortly before His betrayal; for there is in them a striking similarity to the words of the prophecy
of Gabriel. He said: “Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers…that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth” (Matthew 23:32). In these words of Christ we find first, a declaration
that the hour had come for them “to finish the transgression”; and second, a strong intimation that the
predicted desolations were to come, as a judgment, upon that generation, as appears by the words “that
upon you may come.”
Our Lord’s concluding words at that time have great significance when considered in the light of this
prophecy. He said, “Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation”; and then, as
the awful doom of the beloved city pressed upon His heart, He burst into the lamentation, “O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem,” ending with the significant words, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”
The terrible and unparalleled character of the judgments which were poured out upon Jerusalem at the
time of its destruction in AD 70 has been lost sight of in our day. But if we would learn how great an event
it was in the eyes of God, we have only to consider our Lord’s anguish of soul as He thought upon it. Even
when on the way to the Cross it was more to Him than His own approaching sufferings (Luke 21:28–30).
The apostle Paul also speaks in similar terms of the transgressions of that generation of Jews, who not
only crucified the Lord Jesus, and then rejected the gospel preached to them in His Name, but also forbade that He be preached to the Gentiles. Wherefore the apostle said that they “fill up their sins always;
for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” (1 Thessalonians 2:15–16). For they were indeed
about to undergo God’s wrath “to the uttermost” in the approaching destruction of Jerusalem, and in the
scattering of the people among all the nations of the world, to suffer extreme miseries at their hands.
These Scriptures are of much importance in connection with our present study, and we shall have occasion to refer to them again.
It is not difficult to discern why the list of the six great things comprised in this prophecy was headed by
the finishing of the transgression; for the same act, which constituted the crowning sin of Israel, also
served for the putting away of sin (Hebrews 9:26), and the accomplishing of eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12). They did indeed take Him, and with wicked hands crucified and slew Him; but it was done
“by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). The powers and authorities of Judea
and of Rome, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were indeed gathered together against Him; but
it was to do what God’s own hand and counsel had determined before to be done (Acts 4:26–28). There is
nothing more wonderful in all that has been made known to us, than that the people and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor the voices of their own prophets which were read every Sabbath day,
should have fulfilled them in condemning Him (Acts 13:27). Therefore, among the many prophecies that
were then “fulfilled,” a promise be given to that which forms the subject of our present study.
2. To make an end of sins.On this item we need not dwell at length; for we have already called attention to the marvellous workings of God’s wisdom in causing that the extreme sin of man should serve to accomplish eternal redemption, and so provide a complete remedy for sin for the crucifixion of Christ,
though it was truly a deed of diabolical wickedness on the part of man, was on His own part the offering of
Himself without spot to God as a sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 9:14). It was thus that He “offered the one
Sacrifice for sins forever” (Hebrews 10:12).
We understand that the sense in which the death of Christ made “an end of sins” was that thereby He
made a perfect atonement for sins, as written in Hebrews 1:3, “when He had by Himself purged our
sins’” and in many like passages. It is to be noted however, that the Hebrew word for “sins” in this passage means not only the sin itself, but also the sacrifice therefore. Hence it is thought by some that what
the angel here foretold was the making an end of the sin offering required by the law. That was, indeed,
an incidental result, and it is mentioned expressly in verse 27. But the word used in that verse is not the
word found in verse 24, which means sin or sin offering It is a different word, meaning sacrifice. We conclude, therefore, that the words, “to make an end of sins”, should be taken in their most obvious sense.
NE saw Jesus return in A.D. 70. Neither was the kingdom that the prophets spoke of established at that time in any way, shape, or form.
