The 70 Weeks

2. Captivity began in 606 B.C.; ended in 536 B.C. Ezra 1:1- 2 ; II Chron. 36:22-23.

3. Isaiah's Prophecy of Cyrus as the liberator of God's people. Isa. 44:26 through 45:2.

5. Emphasis in Christianity is joy rather than the sorrow of fasting. Matt. 9:14-7.

5. God's just punishment according to the covenant promise. 9:11-12; Lev. 26:14-33; Deut. 28:15.

9. An appeal to YHWH for restoration on the basis of God's mercy rather than man's merit 9:17-19.

2. The answer is obviously freedom from captivity and permission to return to their land by the decree of Cyrus in Ezra 1:1-2.

B. Subjects of the 70 Weeks: "your people & your city" 9:24, meaning the Jews and Jerusalem and the only things under consideration here (nothing else!).

2. As stated before, the subject matter in these verses is "your people and your holy city." That is the Jews and Jerusalem. Nothing else is under consideration.

(b). Thus, their sin reached its measure or full level as in Gen. 15:16, but this might be more to the next point. See Gen. 15:16, 1st Thess.2;15-16 and Matt. 23:34-39..

(b) Jesus became sin for us. He took our sins on Himself. 2 Cor. 5:21__. "He made Himself who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf." Thus Jesus came to abolish sin by means of the cross. "He condemned sin in the flesh." (Romans 8:3) 1st John 3:8__"The Son of God appeared for this purpose that He might destroy the devil."

F. Premillennialists say that the "Jews" must quit sinning to fulfill the prophecy and that since they have not quit sinning the 70 weeks have not be concluded. But---Jesus is the only man that put an end to sin in the life of man; and sin is put to and end in our lives if we are in Jesus, for our sins are continually forgiven (Romans 4:6-8).

Those who are not use to reading me, the LXX is the Greek Septuagint or Greek Old Testament.

a. Definition: "ghahtam__"to seal up or to close"__this could be a synonym for shut-up above or might mean to seal up for punishment.

Deut. 32:34 "Is it not laid up in store with Me, sealed up in my treasures? Vengeance is mine and retribution.

Job 14:17___ "My transgression is sealed up in a bag; You number my steps. Do you not watch over my sin; you seal up my iniquity."

1st Peter 3:18___"For Jesus also died for sins once and for ll, the just for the unjust."

Heb. 9:26__"But now once at the consummation (the end) He has been manifested to put away sin by sacrifice of Himself."

d. Sin is also summed up in the death of Christ in the sense that the Jews reached the worst level of sin possible, that was then stored up and ready to be punished.

I. To make atonement for iniquity. LXX reads: to blot out and make atonement.

a. Definition: make atonement for iniquity means to cover iniquity so that it cannot be seen; thus to forgive sin and reconcile the sinner to God. Jer. 18:23___"Do not forgive their iniquity or blot out their sin." Psa. 65:3__"As for our transgressions, you did forgive them."

b. Applied to Jesus and Jesus alone, not to the end of the world. Heb. 9:28___"so Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many shall appear a second time, not to bear sin, to those who eagerly await Him, for salvation." The LXX on Psa. 65:3 and Dan. 9:24 (with prep. ek-uses the world hilasmos, verb form), which is found in 1st John 2:2___"and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins: and not our sins only but the whole world."

Another family word is found in Romans 3:25__(the word for mercy seat or place of propitiation)__who God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith."

a. Definition__to be everlasting can only be divine since divine is eternal.

1) O.T. prophets predicted the coming of the King of Righteousness who was to establish an eternal kingdom and uphold it with righteousness. Isa. 9:6-7; 11:1-4; Jer. 23:5-6, "He will be called the "Lord of Righteousness."

2) Isaiah 51:5-9 says that "righteousness" will be "forever" and equates this eternal righteousness with "salvation."

3) He obtained eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12) to give us eternal salvation (Heb.5:9) which must be based on eternal righteousness (2nd Cor. 9:9).

4) "Through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life for all men." Romans 5:18 "T hrough the obedience of the One, the many will be made righteous Rom. 5:19.

a. Definition: same word as "seal up sin" and seal up the prophecy book in Daniel 12:4.

b. Jesus came to fulfill all OT prophecy. Matt. 5:17. If all OT prophecy was not fulfilled in Jesus, then we are still under the law of Moses.

c. In Jesus and His apostles, prophecy and vision came to an end which proves that the 70 weeks must have ended with Jesus.

Once again, if Jesus was not the fulfillment of the 70 Weeks prophecy, we must still be under the law of Moses.

1. Messiah is to be cut off after 62 weeks Heb. 9:26; therefore the crucifixion of Christ must occur during the 70th week or after it. Premillennialist are thus wrong in placing the 70th week after the crucifixion of Christ and place the same within the first 69 weeks rather than after it as the texts states.

Jesus said that the Roman army fulfilled this passage in Matt. 24:15-17 and Lk. 21:20.

The Jews provoked Romans to kill the Christ; later they will provoke the Romans to destroy Jerusalem, which they did in 70 A.D.

The Romans killed the Christ and this abominable act, which the Jews were responsible for, brought on them the destruction of their city by the same Romans they used to kill Jesus. Nero, the abominable emperor persecuted Christians and ordered Jerusalem destroyed. Verse 27 says a complete destruction is decreed on the desolate one. The Actual destruction occured under Vespasian.

Sacrifices and offerings end with the supreme sacrifice of Jesus, once and for all.

God's eternal plan of salvation is here in view. We are looking at an overview of the two different desolations of the Temple in Jerusalem. Much of the history of God's plan of salvation is encapsulated between the events of 586/587 B.C. and 70 A.D. That is the "major" theme to which we are exposed.

A second theme that is just as strong is the relationship between "confessing" and "action."

In the Christian faith and practice there must be a integral connection between confession and action___whether we are speaking about baptism, missions, or peacemaking. Confession involves the grave awareness that alone we are incapable of anything beyond self-interest and self-promotion. Action that is attempted apart from confession of weakness and failure is either unsuccessful or even worse, many times harmful to others. Thus confession is prayer that not only prepares us to listen to God but also to each other. Our confessions to others are acknowledgements that we need each other as well as the realization that we need God. The prayer of Daniel chapter 9 is interesting because it is a communal prayer thus confessing not only to God but to and for the community.

Action then, should arise from confession. That is one of the reasons that the "Society of Friends" (the Quakers) insist that business meetings are actually meetings for worship, for the conduct of business should be about the worship of the Lord just as the Sunday morning assembly. The idea is to seek God's will with mutual discernment, and not merely a human consensus. Thus, the beginning of action is realization of what we cannot do on our own, but also the further realization as to what is possible under the leading of God's Spirit. In this we are now prepared for Daniel chapter 10. The angelic host has engaged the battle before us; we rise from silent listening to God and to each other and join the battle.

iWHAT DO THE ASHES MEAN? Fr. Saunders

The liturgical use of ashes originates in the Old Testament times. Ashes symbolized mourning, mortality and penance. For instance, in the Book of Esther, Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes when he heard of the decree of King Ahasuerus (or Xerxes, 485-464 B.C.) of Persia to kill all of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire (Esther 4:1). Job (whose story was written between the seventh and fifth centuries BC) repented in sackcloth and ashes (Job 42:6). Prophesying the Babylonian captivity of Jerusalem, Daniel (c. 550 B.C.) wrote, "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes" (Daniel 9:3).

In the fifth century B.C., after Jonah's preaching of conversion and repentance, the town of Ninevah proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, and the king covered himself with sackcloth and sat in the ashes (Jonah 3:5-6). These Old Testament examples evidence both a recognized practice of using ashes and a common understanding of their symbolism.

Jesus Himself also made reference to ashes: Referring to towns that refused to repent of sin although they had witnessed the miracles and heard the good news, our Lord said, "If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have reformed in sackcloth and ashes long ago" (Matthew 11:21).

The early Church continued the usage of ashes for the same symbolic reasons. In his book, "De Poenitentia," Tertullian (c. 160-220) prescribed that the penitent must "live without joy in the roughness of sackcloth and the squalor of ashes." Eusebius (260-340), the famous early Church historian, recounted in his "The History of the Church" how an apostate named Natalis came to Pope Zephyrinus clothed in sackcloth and ashes begging forgiveness. Also during this time, for those who were required to do public penance, the priest sprinkled ashes on the head of the person leaving confession.

In the Middle Ages (at least by the time of the eighth century), those who were about to die were laid on the ground on top of sackcloth sprinkled with ashes. The priest would bless the dying person with holy water, saying, "Remember that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return."

After the sprinkling, the priest asked, "Art thou content with sackcloth and ashes in testimony of thy penance before the Lord in the day of judgment?" To which the dying person replied, "I am content." In all of these examples, the symbolism of mourning, mortality, and penance is clear.

Eventually, the use of ashes was adapted to mark the beginning of Lent, the 40 day preparation period (not including Sundays) for Easter. The ritual for the "Day of Ashes" is found in the earliest editions of the Gregorian Sacramentary, which dates at least to the eighth century.

About the year 1000, an Anglo-Saxon priest named Aelfric preached, "We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast."

As an aside, Aelfric reinforced his point by then telling of a man who refused to go to Church on Ash Wednesday and receive ashes; the man was killed a few days later in a boar hunt. Since this time, the Church has used ashes to mark the beginning of the penitential season of Lent, when we remember our mortality and mourn for our sins.

In our present liturgy for Ash Wednesday, we use ashes made from the burned palm branches distributed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. The priest blesses the ashes and imposes them on the foreheads of the faithful, making the sign of the cross and saying, "Remember, man you are dust and to dust you shall return," or "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." As we begin this holy season of Lent in preparation for Easter, we must remember the significance of the ashes we have received: We mourn and do penance for our sins. We again convert our hearts to the Lord, who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation. We renew the promises made at our baptism, when we died to an old life and rose to a new life with Christ Finally, mindful that the kingdom of this world passes away, we strive to live the kingdom of God now and look forward to its fulfillment in heaven.

Fr. Saunders is president of the Notre Dame Institute for Catechetics and associate pastor of Queen of Apostles Parish, both in Alexandria.

Appeared in the Arlington Catholic Herald, February 17, 1990