seven weeks

by Truth and Life 6 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Truth and Life

  And you should know and have the insight [that] from the going forth of [the] word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Mes·si´ah [the] Leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks.

  I would like to know what all your thoughts are, as to these seven weeks.When did they start and end. Their beginning and end mark what? When frist studying with one of Jehovah's witnesses, I asked this question.I was told it meant nothing, but was put there to confuse the wicked.I have my ideas, but I would like to hear yours.
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  Narkissos

  Welcome.

  This translation, indeed, makes no sense of the first seven weeks. But although it is based on a long tradition of textual transmission and interpretation (cf. already the Greek version of Theodotion), it doesn't do justice to the passage. Compare the NRSV:

  Know therefore and understand: from the time that the word went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince, there shall be seven weeks; and for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with streets and moat, but in a troubled time.

  One most likely interpretation is that the first seven weeks, i.e. 49 years, corresponds approximately to the time of the exile (not 70 years, go figure), from Jeremiah's prophecy to Cyrus' decree. Here the anointed prince might be Cyrus himself, or, more likely, the high priest of the restoration, Joshua. The 62 weeks that follow are devoted to the gradual (and unsatisfactory from the author's pov) reconstruction of Jerusalem, leading to the decisive week of the Seleucid/Maccabean crisis in the 2nd century BC.
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  JCanon

  This is a symbolic prophecy fulfilled several times in regard to the first and second coming. Basically, the 70 weeks are broken up into one, seven and 62 weeks. But it works out differently in application for the 70 weeks involved with the first and second coming.

  The first-coming 70 weeks are from 455 BCE to 36 CE. The second-coming 70 weeks are from1506 to 1996. The second-coming 70 weeks is calculated simply by counting down 70-week periods from 36 CE down to our day. Per the "7 times" prophecy, whether you date the fall of Jerusalem in 607, 587 or 529 BCE, you still end up with a 20th century date: 1914, 1934 or 1992. So the 70 weeks involved with the second coming, regardless has to be from 1506 to 1996. Of course, if the messiah is to arrive during the 70th week then it would have to be a date between 1989 and 1996 and 1992 is the only date that falls within that 7-year period. Take from that what you wish.

  But you specifically asked about the fulfillment of the seven weeks, which is a 49-year period. It works out that for the first-coming 490 years it happens to be significant for the first 49 years. That is, the return of the Jews to their homeland and the restoration of the temple. 49 years ends about the time Nehemiah leaves his governorship to king Artaxerxes in his 32n year:

  Ezra 13: 6 And during all this [time] I did not happen to be in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Ar·ta·xerx´es the king of Babylon I came to the king, and sometime later I asked leave of absence from the king.

  That's the only significant thing I see related to the first 49 years after the Jews return.

  As for the second-coming 490-year fulfillment, the 7 weeks clearly refer to a similar period of restoration, when the Jews return to their homeland in 1947. As I noted, to calculate the 70 weeks for our day, or the closest 490 years to the date of the second return (1914,1934,1992) we simply calculate 490-year periods from 36CE, the date we know ends the 490-years of the first 70 weeks. The cut-off of the messiah is significant in relation to the great tribulation after 62 weeks. 62 weeks into the last 490 years brings us to 1940, since 62 weeks is 434 years. If the Jews were to be restored during the last 49 years beginning in 1947, then the 1-week in this case would be from 1940-1947 and is the week of the "great tribulation" when two-thirds (Zech 13:8) of the Jews involved in the area of WWII would be exterminated by the "disgusting thing that causes desolation" which is Gog of Magog, that is, the natural descendants of Magog, the descendant of Japheth, Noah's eldest son.

  So in direct answer to your question, contrary to the fact that these seems to confuse others, the seven weeks for the first coming would be the first 49 years after their return to palestine, and the seven weeks for the second coming 70 weeks is also the first 49 years after return from exile beginning in 1947. In relation to the 70 weeks, though, the return occurs in the first 49 years for the first coming 455-406 BCE, and it occurs during the last 49 years for the second coming 1947-1996 AD.

  The significance of the Jews' return on a jubilee year is highlighted in the chart below:

  http://www.geocities.com/siaxares/jcovwk1996G.GIF (Jewish Covenant Week Chart)

  There are multiple fulfillments to many prophecies, including the 70 weeks prophecy, including fulfillment by the messiah at the first and second coming and the Jewish nation as it fulfills the messiah, so there are three applications to work out.

  JCanon
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  Honesty

  What date do I need to divest myself of all non-liquid assets, JC?

  I want to take as much as I can to a place of safety when the Watchtower's demon god takes decisive action against everything that is not JW.
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  Leolaia

  See also the earliest Christian interpretation of the passage in Hippolytus:

  "Having mentioned therefore seventy weeks, and having divided them into two parts, in order that what was spoken by him to the prophet might be better understood, he proceeds thus, 'Until khristos the prince there shall be seven weeks,' which make forty-nine years.... Now what khristos does he mean but Jesus son of Josedek, who then returned with the people and in the 70th year upon the rebuilding of the temple offered sacrifices according to the Law? For all kings and priests are called khristoi" (Hippolytus, On Daniel 2.13-14).

  The Hebrew text is punctuated in a way that precludes a lumping together of the 7 and 62 weeks, which is reflected in Hippolytus' paraphrase of the text, i.e. "Until an anointed leader there shall be seven weeks, and after the seven weeks (meta tas hepta hebdomadas) there shall be another sixty-two weeks". Moreover, the MT's parsing of the text is supported by the parallel between v. 25 and v. 27:

  v. 25: from going-forth word ... until anointed ruler weeks seven AND weeks sixty-two shall-be-restored and shall-be-built square and wall...

  v. 27: he shall confirm covenant to many week one AND half-of week he shall-cease sacrifice and make-present on wing abominations...

  Both have a chiastic structure of A B and B' A', where A = verbal actions and events and B = time units specified in "weeks". The w- "and" that intervenes between the two time units marks the boundary between the conjoined clauses. In the case of v. 27, translations always place the "half week" in a separate clause from the "one week", I have never seen a translation that renders this sentence as: "He shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week and a half week. He shall end sacrifice and... etc." Yet this is what many translations (including the NWT) do with the parallel sentence in v. 25, by rendering it as "...until an anointed prince there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks". The Theodotionic text runs the two time units together in v. 25 by inserting an extraneous kai "and" after both of them:

  Theodotion: v. 25: from delivery of-word ... until anointed-one governing weeks seven and weeks sixty-two AND shall-be-built square and wall...

  This destroys the chiasmatic symmetry of the Hebrew and the parallel with v. 27 (where the Theodotionic text does not insert a kai after the two time periods). The paraphrased text attested by Hippolytus takes the Theodotionic wording and restores the fundamental division between the clauses as it is in the Hebrew:

  Hippolytus: v. 25: ... until anointed-one governing weeks seven AND after the seven weeks another weeks sixty-two [ and shall-be-built square and wall ... ]

  The likely original sense of the text, as Hippolytus recognized, is that the 62 weeks is bracketed by the restoration of the anointed priesthood at one end (i.e. through the anointing of Jeshua ben Jozedek) and its cessation at the other.
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  JCanon

  What date do I need to divest myself of all non-liquid assets, JC?

  I want to take as much as I can to a place of safety when the Watchtower's demon god takes decisive action against everything that is not JW.

  Technically, the only clue here in the face of an impending economic crisis is to sort of horde away essentials. Like food supplies and other survival items that you would like to have and expect to run down to the store to get but that won't be there. BTG including all organized religion will be divested of their wealth which gives them power. The Illuminati has been hording billions and trillions over the centuries. Once the econony hits rock bottom, those with wealth will be sitting pretty, safe and secure. But not of the UN changes the monetary standard. The best way to bankrupt the Illuminati and to take their power away is by taking their money away and they can't do that effectively if they don't know where it's hidden. But they won't have to. Most money exchanges are electronic anyway, and if a new money standard is created where everyone has to convert their holdings to a new electronic standard whereafter all financial transactions will be monitored by a huge mainframe, then all illegal funds held by drug dealers and covert societies will suddenly have the value of zero. They certainly can't claim monies they can't justify. And without those illegal funds, they can't very well bride gunrunners or anybody else to help finance wars and conflicts. Same with the Watchtower Society. They can't operate if they've been shut down as an illegal corportation and all their money confiscated. You need money to print magazines. You need offices to operate. All these religious leaders will probably be forbidden to talk to anybody except their relatives. Their power and influence will be gone. That goes for the CIA and MI6 and other organizations that might be influenced by the Illuminati through secret funds. There won't be a cash stash slush fund they can use to get things done. Cash will be worth nothing, nor diamonds nor gold nor anything else. Exchange has to be through the international monies exchange which is all online. Spy novel stuff? Sure! But it's POSSIBLE now and we know the Illuminati's control is via money and they have to be divested. There is no other way to take their stored up monies away from them than to change the money standard. What's scary is it sounds like something Obama would do if he were president, shut down the CIA and all organized religion with the help of the UN, the organization that turns on BTG. Hillary, on the other hand, has been long llinked with the Illuminati and all that secret society stuff. Japan, the US and Russia will ALL give up their authority to the US. No way without an international crisis and a military crisis is not likely uniform enough to do that. But an economic crash would! That affects everybody. So probably you should leave all your "legal assets" in place to get ready to convert them. If you have illegal assets I'd say spend them now on that Caribean Cruise or that trip to the Orient for 10 you had planned for when you retire; you might not be able to claim those funds otherwise. I know when 1975 was the date, there was this suggestion to sell what you had and all that, but that was so you could enter the full-time ministry, etc. maybe to increase your chances for surviving Armageddon. I don't really see that going on here. You see, it will be similar to Noah's day. Noah was in the ark for 7 days before it actually started to rain. Those people probably knew something was coming down when the water ice canopy began to be superheated and convert to dense cloud cover. So they knew ahead of time the doom was impending. Same with Armageddon today. It will be clear, for instance, when BTG goes that the great tribulation and Armageddon is impending. Obviously, there will be that last-minute rush to repent. But it won't matter. BELIEF TOO LATE IS JUST THAT: TOO LATE. So you'll be judged probably for what you were doing last Tuesday (What were you doing by the way? Placing Watchtowers?) Last minute conversions won't count. Whatever you THINK you might do once the great tribulation breaks out to save your own neck, is what you should consider at least trying to do now. It may already be too late, but it's worth trying. Otherwise, I suggest you savor what you won't have in the new order. You know, like a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich (i.e. not sure we'll be eating meat in the new order). JCanon
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  Truth and Life

  Well.... I believe this measurement of seven weeks to be most signifigant. I believe they are the key to something that has been sought by a great many and yet has eluded them all. I will not say more now. The reason? Six or seven years ago,I was commenting on this very site.I brought up things that I had never heard before,neither was anyone else talking about at that time, but were insights given to me by God himself. Not by any man. I was riduculed, called crazy,told to "stop preaching on my web site",ect. So I left. And lo and behold, about a year or so later, there are all my points, one after another, that I had made right here ,on this web site, on a web-site called e-watchman. Im sure you are all familiar. I was very excited, that someone had in fact caught on.I wrote to him in excitement, feeling like I had finally found my lost brother in the faith, someone I could really be united with in Christ. His reaction? Go away buddy.If you have a question, put it in the mail box. Some of the things I had written of ,that are very commonly heard now is.... "The New Order" is never mentioned in scripture. It was Hitler who wanted to establish a "NEW ORDER". And of course we have the New World Order. But the Kingdom of God is a Kingdom, it is never refered to as an order. That the WT organisation has become a living entity in itself that is bigger than even the governing Body.It is a breathing entity that can do no wrong, and can never be critisized. Something that has been put above God himself and is worshipped by JW's. That the Watchtower has misconstrued prophesy so bad as to leave Jehovah's witnesses in a totally unprepared state for what is looming up before us all in the future.That their teaching,that the reign of the beast happened back in 1918 or something, and that people have already recieved the mark of the beast,and telling JW's that all they have to do is be obedient to the organization, ect., ect. and God will provide a miricle,while in fact, Jesus has already told us what to do. That the real fulfillment of nation against nation is yet to come...,ect. You probably also think Im crazy. But the truth is, these things were not discussed back then, not even by Ray Franz,et al. I also had a radio program in California beginning in 1998 covering future bible prophesy. So it is possible to prove . So the truth continues to be covered up. But one day all will be revealed. e-.watchman is about as unfeeling and dry as his sandpaper voice is. I think he thought he was gonna be the new Russell. Be the King of some new reformed witness movement. Look all the money he put forth to promote himself. Is he not simply a mislead fame seeker? Im sorry,but That has been my experience with him. There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed.