by Doug Mason 2 Replies latest watchtower bible
Awake! for July 2012 claims that the "seventy weeks" prophecy at Daniel 9 predicted the year when Jesus would be baptised and anointed by God.
My Study of that article and its claim is available at:
http://www.jwstudies.com/Is_Awake_accurate_about_Messiah_s_anointing.pdf
Criticisms and corrections are greatly appreciated.
Doug
In the JWs' 'defense' (well, not really) Christianity in general has incorrectly co-opted a re-interpretation of Daniel 9. A few years back, it took me all of ten minutes to research the basics to indicate the real meaning of the 'prophecy', which was actually written after the fact in the 2nd century BCE. Anyone who claims that Daniel 9 points to Jesus is either dishonest or lazy.
The earliest commentators however were close to understanding the oracle correctly. Hippolytus understood that the anointing was sacerdotal wrt to the Temple, with the first anointed one identified as Jeshua son of Jozedek. He also correctly understood that this figure comes at the end of the seven weeks, and not at the end of sixty-nine weeks as the Theodotionic text he utilized has it.
