Synopsis- Daniel 8 introduces the 2300 year prophecy. Daniel 9 picks up with the 2300 year prophecy being explained. 70 weeks equaling 490 days (prophetic years). Read on--
Daniel Chapter 9 verse 24
'Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.'
Such are the first words the angel utters to Daniel, toward imparting to him that instruction which he came to give. Why does he thus abruptly introduce a period of time? We must again refer to the vision of chapter 8. We have seen that Daniel, at the close of that chapter, says that he did not understand the vision. Some portions of that vision were at the time very clearly explained. We therefore inquire what it was which Daniel did not understand, or, in other words, what part of the vision was there left unexplained.
In that vision four prominent things are brought to view:
(1) The Ram;
(2) The He-goat;
(3) The Little Horn;
(4) The period of the 2300 days.
The symbols of the ram, the he-goat, and the little horn were explained.
Nothing, however, was said respecting the time. This must therefore have been the point which he did not understand; and as without this the other portions of the vision were of no avail, he could well say, while the application of this period was left in obscurity, that he did not understand the vision.
If this view of the subject is correct, we should naturally expect, when the angel completed his explanation of the vision, that he would commence with the very point which had been omitted; namely, the time. And this we find to be true in fact. After citing Daniel's attention back to the former vision in the most direct and emphatic manner, and assuring him that he had now come forth to give him understanding in the matter, he commences upon the very point there omitted, and says, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city."
But how does this language show any connection with the 2300 days, or throw any light upon that period? We answer: The language cannot be intelligibly referred to anything else; for the word here rendered DETERMINED SIGNIFIES "CUT OFF" and no period is given in the vision here referred to from which the seventy weeks could be cut off but the 2300 days of the previous vision.
How direct and natural, then, is the connection. Daniel's attention is fixed upon the 2300 days, which he did not understand, by the angel's directing him to the former vision; arid he says, "Seventy weeks are cut off."
Cut off from what? - The 2300 days, most assuredly.
PROOF may be called for that the word rendered DETERMINED SIGNIFIES TO CUT OFF.
An abundance can be given. The Hebrew word thus translated is nehhtak. This word, Gesenius, in his Hebrew Lexicon, CUT OFF defines as follows: "Properly, to CUT OFF; tropically, to divide; and so to determine, to decree." In the Chaldoe-Rabbinic Dictionary of Stockius, the word nehhtak is thus defined: "Scidit, abscidit, conscidit, inscidit, exscidit - to CUT, to CUT AWAY, to CUT TO PIECES, to CUT or engrave, to CUT OFF." Mercerus, in his Thesaurus, furnishes a specimen of Rabbinical usage in the phrase, hhatikah shel basar, "a piece of flesh," or "a cut of flesh." He translates the word as it occurs in Dan. 9:24, by "praecisa est," is CUT OFF. In the literal version of Arias Montanus, it is translated"decisa est," is CUT OFF; in the marginal reading, which is grammatically correct, it is rendered by the plural, "decisae sunt," are CUT OFF. In the Latin version of Junius and Tremellius, nehhtak (the passive of hhathak) is rendered "decisae sunt," are cut off. Again, in Theodotion's Greek version of Daniel (which is the version used in the Vatican copy of the Septuagint, as being the most faithful), it is rendered by sunetmhqhsan (sunetmethesan), were CUT OFF; and in the Venetian copy by tetmhntai, (tetmentai), have been cut. The idea of cutting off is preserved in the Vulgate, where the phrase is "abbreviatae sunt," are shortened.
"Thus Chaldaic and Rabbinical authority, and that of the earliest versions, the Septuagint and Vulgate, give the single signification of cutting off, to this verb."
"Hengstenberg, who enters into a critical examination of the original text, says, 'But the very use of the word, which does not elsewhere occur, while others much more frequently used were at hand if Daniel had wished to express the idea of determination, and of which he has elsewhere, and even in this portion availed himself, seems to argue that the word stands from regard to its original meaning, and represents the seventy weeks in contrast with a determination of time (en platei) as a period cut off from subsequent duration, and accurately limited.' " - Christology of the Old Testament, Vol. II, p. 301, Washington, 1839.
Why, then, it may be asked, did our translators render the word determined, when it so obviously means cut off? The answer is, They doubtless overlooked the connection between the eighth and ninth chapters, and considering it improper to render it cut off, when nothing was given from which the seventy weeks could be cut off, they gave the word its tropical instead of its literal meaning. But, as we have seen, the construction, the context, and the connection require the literal meaning, and render any other inadmissible.
Seventy weeks, then, or 490 days of the 2300, were cut off upon, or allotted to, Jerusalem and the Jews; and the events which were to be consummated within that period are briefly stated. The transgression was to be finished; that is, the Jewish people were to fill up the cup of their iniquity, which they did in the rejection and crucifixion of Christ. An end of sins, or of sin-offerings, was to be made. This took place when the great offering was made on Calvary. Reconciliation for iniquity was to be provided. This was made by the sacrificial death of the Son of God. Everlasting righteousness was to be brought in; the righteousness which our Lord manifested in his sinless life. The vision and the prophecy were to be sealed up, or made sure. By the events given to transpire in the seventy weeks, the prophecy is tested. By this the application of the whole vision is determined.
If the events of this period are accurately fulfilled, the prophecy is of God, and will all be accomplished; and if these seventy weeks are fulfilled as weeks of years, then the 2300 days, of which these are a part, are so many years. Thus the events of the seventy weeks furnish a key to the whole vision.
And the "most holy" was to be anointed; the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. In the examination of the sanctuary, on chapter 8:14, we saw that a time came when the earthly sanctuary gave place to the heavenly, and the priestly ministration was transferred to that. Before the ministration in the sanctuary commenced, the sanctuary and all the holy vessels were to be anointed. Ex. 40:9, 10. The last event, therefore, of the seventy weeks, here brought to view, is the anointing of the heavenly tabernacle, or the opening of the ministration there. Thus this first division of the 2300 days brings us to the commencement of the service in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, as the whole period brings us to the commencement of the service in the second apartment, or most holy place, of that sanctuary.
The argument must now be considered conclusive that the ninth chapter of Daniel explains the eighth, and that the seventy weeks are a part of the 2300 days; and with a few extracts from the writings of others we will leave this point.
The Advent Shield in 1844 said: "We call attention to one fact which shows that there is a necessary 'connection' between the seventy weeks of the ninth chapter, and something else which precedes or follows it, called 'the vision.' It is found in the 24th verse: 'Seventy weeks are determined [are cut off ] upon thy people, . . . to seal up the vision,' etc. Now there are but two significations to the phrase 'seal up.' They are, first, 'to make secret,' and second, 'to make sure.' We care not now in which of these significations the phrase is supposed to be used. That is not the point now before us. Let the signification be what it may, it shows that the prediction of the seventy weeks necessarily relates to something else beyond itself, called 'the vision,' in reference to which it performs this work, 'to seal up.' To talk of its sealing up itself is as much of an absurdity as to suppose that Josephus was so much afraid of the Romans that he refrained from telling the world that he thought the fourth kingdom of Daniel was 'the kingdom of the Greeks.' It is no more proper to say that the ninth chapter of Daniel 'is complete in itself,' than it would be to say that a map which was designed to show the relation of Massachusetts to the United States, referred to nothing but Massachusetts. It is no more complete in itself than a bond given in security for a note, or some other document to which it refers, is complete in itself; and we doubt if there is a schoolboy of fourteen years in the land, of ordinary capacity, who would not, on reading the ninth chapter, with an understanding of the clause before us, decide that it referred to something distinct from itself, called 'the vision.' What vision it is, there is no difficulty in determining. It naturally and obviously refers to the vision which was not fully explained to Daniel, and to which Gabriel calls his attention in the preceding verse, - the vision of the eighth chapter. Daniel tells us that Gabriel was commanded to make him understand the vision (8:16). This was not fully done at that interview connected with the vision; he is therefore sent to give Daniel the needed 'skill and understanding,' - to explain its 'meaning' by communicating to him the prediction of the seventy weeks."
"We claim that the ninth of Daniel is an appendix to the eighth, and that the seventy weeks and the 2300 days, or years, commence together. Our opponents deny this."- Signs of the Times, 1843.
"The grand principle involved in the interpretation of the 2300 days of Dan. 8:14, is that the seventy weeks of Dan. 9:24 are the first 490 days of the 2300 of the eighth chapter." - Advent Shield, p. 49.
"If the connection between the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 and the 2300 days of Daniel 8 does not exist, the whole system is shaken to its foundation; if it does exist, as we suppose, the system must stand." - Harmony of the Prophetic Chronology, p. 33.
Says the learned Dr. Hales, in commenting upon the seventy weeks, "This chronological prophecy was evidently designed to explain the foregoing vision, especially in its chronological part of the 2300 days." - Chronology, Vol. II, p. 517.