The Christian Scriptures' understanding of Daniel 9

by Doug Mason 3 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • Doug Mason
    Doug Mason

    A search of the www shows a long list of sites devoted to the “70 sevens” prophecy at Daniel 9. This prophecy is notable for the specific time periods, people and events it foretells.

    Using a range of starting events and dates, most of these interpretations of the prophecy land on some event in the ministry of Jesus Christ and on his death. This interpretation is lauded by them as proof that Jesus Christ is the prophesied promised Messiah.

    If the prophecy specifically points to Jesus Christ, why did no NT writer use Daniel 9 in this way? The NT writers were quite prepared to freely reapply so many other OT passages to Jesus, yet not one writer applied Daniel 9 to him. Why?

    Hint #1. The apostle Paul, who died in 64 CE before the destruction of Jerusalem, at 2 Thessalonians 2 applied Daniel 9:26-27 (also 11:31, 45; 12:11) to events as imminent, but still future.

    Hint #2. The Gospels were written after the Roman attacks on Jerusalem (66-70 CE). When they referred to the prophecy, with Matthew clarifying that Mark meant Daniel, they applied it to that the destruction of Jerusalem.

    What does this tell us?

    Doug

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  • wobble
    wobble

    It tells us Doug that yet again we cannot find a prophecy that really pointed to Jesus, and that no one in the very early church saw the 70 weeks that way.

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  • Farkel
    Farkel

    It tells me that the book of Daniel is a bunch of bullshit, but I've already written extensively about that. According to noted scholar the book was written about 300 years AFTER most of the evidents it allegedly "predicted"; most notably, the rise and fall of the 4 world empires.

    Farkel

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  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    True, but it's historically important bullshit, if you care about the history of Judea in the second century BC during the worst crisis the Jews had experienced since the Babylonian exile. As a book completed during the crisis itself (as was the Animal Apocalypse, another important source), it yields information found nowhere else about what was going on inside Judea during the Syrian Wars. I regard it as the most fascinating book in the Bible. Not on account of its abuse by later Christian interpreters, but for what it reveals about Jewish history and processes of literary redaction.

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