DANIEL'S 70 WEEKS — WHERE DOES THE GAP COME FROM?
Daniel 9:24–27 is one of the most important—and most debated—prophecies in the Old Testament.
Many prophecy charts use these four verses to teach that God planned 70 “weeks” for Israel, but stopped the prophetic clock after the 69th week. The final week is then moved thousands of years into the future and identified with a seven-year Great Tribulation.
That interpretation may be familiar.
But before accepting the chart, we should ask a simpler question:
Is the gap actually in Daniel's prophecy?
Let's read first and conclude later.
WHY WAS DANIEL PRAYING?
Daniel's prophecy begins with Jeremiah.
Daniel writes:
“I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.”
— Daniel 9:2
Jerusalem had been destroyed. The temple was in ruins. God's people were in exile.
Jeremiah had prophesied that this exile would last seventy years, and Daniel realized those seventy years were nearing their end.
So Daniel prayed.
He confessed Israel's sins and asked God to restore Jerusalem:
“Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name.”
— Daniel 9:18
That is the setting.
Daniel is not asking when the world will end.
He is asking about Jerusalem, Israel's sin, and God's promises.
GOD ANSWERS DANIEL
While Daniel is praying, Gabriel comes with an answer:
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city...”
— Daniel 9:24
Daniel had been thinking about seventy years.
God now tells him about seventy sevens.
Whatever conclusions we eventually reach about the details, the prophecy concerns Daniel's people and Jerusalem and moves toward something much greater than simply rebuilding the city.
Look at what the seventy sevens will accomplish.
WHAT ARE THE 70 WEEKS SUPPOSED TO ACCOMPLISH?
Daniel 9:24 gives six purposes:
“to finish transgression,
to put an end to sin,
to atone for wickedness,
to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up vision and prophecy
and to anoint the Most Holy Place.”
Before constructing a timeline, stop here.
What event in the Bible deals decisively with sin, atonement, and everlasting righteousness?
The language points us toward the saving work of Christ.
That should affect how we read everything that follows.
THE PROPHECY POINTS TO THE ANOINTED ONE
Gabriel continues:
“From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’”
— Daniel 9:25
Seven plus sixty-two equals sixty-nine.
And where do those sixty-nine sevens lead?
To the Anointed One.
The Hebrew word behind “Anointed One” is mashiach—the word from which we get Messiah.
Whatever difficulties remain in calculating the chronology, the direction of the prophecy is unmistakable.
Daniel's prophecy is moving toward the Messiah.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE 69 WEEKS?
Now we reach the crucial sentence:
“After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.”
— Daniel 9:26
Notice what Daniel says.
The Messiah comes.
Then the Messiah is cut off.
That is remarkably consistent with what happened to Jesus.
Instead of receiving an earthly throne from His contemporaries, Jesus was rejected and crucified.
But Daniel isn't finished.
JERUSALEM WILL AGAIN BE DESTROYED
Daniel continues:
“The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.”
— Daniel 9:26
This is especially striking because Daniel had been praying about the restoration of Jerusalem.
God tells him Jerusalem will indeed be restored—but destruction will come again.
Jesus later warned that Jerusalem and its temple would once again be destroyed.
Speaking of the temple, He said:
“Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
— Matthew 24:2
In A.D. 70, Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.
Daniel's prophecy therefore moves through Messiah, His death, and another destruction of Jerusalem.
NOW WE COME TO THE BIG QUESTION
Where is the seven-year tribulation separated from the first 69 weeks by thousands of years?
Daniel says:
7 weeks + 62 weeks + 1 week = 70 weeks.
A common dispensational interpretation places the first 69 together, then inserts a long period—the present Church age—before allowing the 70th week to begin.
The 70th week then becomes a future seven-year tribulation.
But here is the question we should ask:
Where does Daniel say the prophetic clock stops?
Daniel does not say:
“After the sixty-ninth week there will be an indefinite period lasting thousands of years.”
Nor does he say:
“The seventieth week will occur shortly before the end of the world.”
If a gap belongs in the prophecy, we should be able to demonstrate it from the text rather than bring it to the text.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE FINAL WEEK?
Daniel 9:27 says:
“He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering.”
This is where interpretation becomes especially important.
Who is “he”?
Many modern prophecy systems identify him as a future Antichrist.
But the preceding verses have been talking about the Anointed One and then about the people of a coming ruler.
So we should not simply assume the identity.
We need to ask what the rest of Scripture tells us about covenant, sacrifice, and Messiah.
WHO CONFIRMS THE COVENANT?
Daniel says:
“He will confirm a covenant with many...”
Now listen to Jesus at the Last Supper:
“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
— Matthew 26:28
The similarity deserves attention.
Daniel:
covenant — many
Jesus:
covenant — many
That does not settle every chronological question by itself.
But surely it deserves consideration before we automatically assign Daniel 9:27 to a future Antichrist.
WHO PUT AN END TO SACRIFICE?
Daniel also says that sacrifice and offering will cease.
What does the New Testament say happened because of Christ's sacrifice?
Hebrews says:
“He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”
— Hebrews 7:27
And:
“We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
— Hebrews 10:10
Then Hebrews reaches an extraordinary conclusion:
“And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.”
— Hebrews 10:18
The physical sacrifices continued in Jerusalem until A.D. 70.
But after Jesus offered Himself, they no longer had any saving purpose.
The reality had arrived.
The shadow had given way to Christ.
WHAT ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK?
This is one place where we should be careful.
Some interpreters understand the middle of Daniel's final week as pointing toward the death of Jesus, after approximately three and a half years of ministry.
That is possible, but Daniel does not give us the date of Jesus' baptism or explicitly say, “The middle of the week is the crucifixion.”
So we shouldn't claim more than the text allows.
What we can say with confidence is that Daniel connects the final period with Messiah, covenant, and the ending of sacrifice—themes the New Testament repeatedly connects with Jesus.
That is much firmer ground.
THEN WHY DO SOME INTERPRETERS INSERT A GAP?
The gap is necessary if the 70th week must describe events still future to us.
If the final week contains a future Antichrist and a future seven-year tribulation, then the week obviously could not have followed the first 69 in the ordinary sequence.
Therefore the prophetic clock must stop.
The question, however, is not whether a gap can be inserted.
The question is whether Daniel tells us to insert one.
That's the difference between beginning with a system and beginning with the text.
JESUS ALSO POINTED BACK TO DANIEL
Jesus referred to:
“the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel...”
— Matthew 24:15
So Daniel's prophecy should not be isolated from Jesus' teaching.
And what event was Jesus discussing?
The destruction of Jerusalem.
He told His disciples:
“When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.”
— Luke 21:20
That gives us an important interpretive anchor.
Jesus Himself connected Daniel's language of desolation with events surrounding Jerusalem.
LOOK AT THE STORY DANIEL ACTUALLY TELLS
Without importing a prophecy chart, Daniel 9 gives us this movement:
Israel sins.
↓
Jerusalem is destroyed.
↓
Daniel prays for restoration.
↓
Jerusalem will be rebuilt.
↓
The Anointed One comes.
↓
The Anointed One is cut off.
↓
Covenant and sacrifice become central to the final week.
↓
Jerusalem and the sanctuary are again destroyed.
That sequence fits remarkably well with the story that unfolds from Daniel to Jesus and finally to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
WHAT DANIEL 9 DOES NOT SAY
Daniel 9 never mentions:
a secret rapture of the Church
the Church being removed from the earth
a seven-year Great Tribulation at the end of world history
a future Antichrist making a peace treaty with modern Israel
a rebuilt third temple
the restoration of animal sacrifices
a thousand-year earthly reign of Christ
Some of those ideas may be argued from other passages.
But they should not be attributed to Daniel 9 unless Daniel actually says them.
READ FIRST. CONCLUDE LATER.
Daniel 9 is not primarily a timetable for twenty-first-century headlines.
It begins with Israel's sin and Jerusalem's destruction.
It moves toward the coming of the Anointed One.
The Anointed One is cut off.
The prophecy speaks of covenant, sacrifice, and atonement.
And Jerusalem and its sanctuary face destruction again.
Those themes lead us directly toward Jesus and the events surrounding His first coming.
So before putting thousands of years between Daniel's 69th and 70th weeks, there is one question worth asking:
Where does Daniel tell us to put the gap?
If the gap is not in the text, we should be very careful about putting it there.
Read First. Conclude Later.