What Are Daniel’s 70 Weeks?
Updated 2026-10-08 · Scripture UnsealedBased on Lawrence Kirk’s supplied master document.
Sign in to save this studyKey Scriptures
The biblical explanation
Seventy weeks and the day-year principle
Seventy weeks contain 490 days. The interpretation presented here reads this symbolic prophetic period as 490 years, comparing the day-year examples in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6. This application is a hermeneutical conclusion, not a rule that every biblical day means a year.
The decree in 457 BC
The chronology presented here begins with Artaxerxes’ decree in Ezra 7, dated to 457 BC. Daniel 9:25 connects the period with a decree to restore and build Jerusalem. Other interpreters choose different decrees or chronologies.
Messiah, the cross, and the final week
In this chronology the 69 weeks, or 483 years, reach AD 27 and Christ’s baptism. The middle of the final week reaches the crucifixion around AD 31; Christ’s sacrifice brings the sacrificial system’s purpose to fulfillment (Hebrews 9–10). These dates are historical applications, not dates explicitly stated in these passages.
AD 34 and the 2,300 years
Acts 6–8 records Stephen’s stoning and the widening gospel mission. The chronology presented here associates these developments with the close in AD 34 and understands the seventy weeks as cut off from the longer 2,300-day period in Daniel 8. This is a connection drawn between the chapters, not a date explicitly stated in Acts.
7 weeks
457–408 BC
62 weeks
408 BC – AD 27
1 week
AD 27–34 · cross AD 31
Alternative interpretations
Futurist final week
Some Christians separate Daniel’s seventieth week from the preceding weeks and place it in a future tribulation.
Other historical chronologies
Other readings use different decrees, dates, or historical identifications for the prophecy.
How Seventh-day Adventists Understand This
Seventh-day Adventists apply the day-year principle and the 457 BC starting point to a continuous seventy-week period. Their chronology associates AD 27 with Christ’s baptism, about AD 31 with the cross, and AD 34 with Stephen’s stoning and the wider gospel mission, and connects the period with Daniel 8. These dates and connections are interpretations.
Related studies
What Does 666 Mean?
Who Is the Antichrist?
Who Is the Man of Sin?
What Are the 2,300 Days?
What Happened in 1844?
Sources and further reading
Bible
- Ezra 7
- Daniel 9:24–27
- Numbers 14:34
- Ezekiel 4:6
- Matthew 3:13–17
- Acts 6–8
- Hebrews 9–10
Looking to Jesus
Salvation is God’s gift by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not earned by works (Ephesians 2:8–10). Open the Bible. Read the context. Compare Scripture with Scripture. Examine the evidence. Test every conclusion. Follow Jesus.