Bible Question:

Is there biblical proof that there is a gap between Daniel's 69th week and 70th week?

Bible Answer:

Are there Bible verses that answer the question, “Is there a gap between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel?” The answer is yes. There are two parts to the answer. The first part explains that the seventy weeks prophesy the end of the universe. The second part of the answer demonstrates that a gap exists between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel.

Is there a gap between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel?

To Bring in Everlasting Righteousness

The key to discovering if there is a gap between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel is to carefully read Daniel 9:24. The verse tells us that at the end of the seventy weeks several things stop and something else will begin. Here is the verse.

“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. Daniel 9:24 (NASB)

It says that at the end of the seventy weeks, wrong doing, sin, and atonement for guilt will come to an end. At that time, everlasting righteousness will begin. So, has that occurred yet? Obviously, everlasting righteousness has not started, and sin still exists. Also, wrongdoing is still occurring. This means that Daniel’s 70th week has not yet occurred. Everlasting righteousness does not exist yet.

Gap Between the 69th and 70th Week

Next, we know that Daniel’s 69th week has already occurred. At the end of the sixty-nine weeks, Christ died on the cross. Notice that the seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks in verses 25 and 26 equals sixty-nine weeks.

“So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. Daniel 9:25-26 (NASB)

The sixty-nine weeks started on Nisan 1, 3317 or February 27, 444 B.C.  The sixth-nine weeks of the prophecy takes us to Nisan 6, 3793 or the afternoon of March 24, A.D. 33. Daniel 9:25-26 says that at the end of the sixty-nine weeks the Messiah would be cut off. And Jesus died on Nisan 1 or April 1 in the year A.D. 33.

But since everlasting righteousness does not exist yet, that means Daniel’s 70th week has not yet occurred. Therefore, there is a gap between the sixty-ninth week and the seventieth week. We are still waiting for the seventieth week to start.

Conclusion

Jesus clearly teaches that in the middle of the 70th week, the abomination of desolation will occur. Then He describes the last half of the week or 3.5 years as a time of great tribulation (Matthew 24:21). At the end, the second coming of Christ occurs. Christ sets up His kingdom. At the end of the millennial kingdom, wrongdoing and sin cease and everlasting righteousness occurs.

So if the 69th week has already occurred and everlasting righteousness has not yet started, the 70th week is still in the future. Daniel 2 also requires a gap in the prophecy between verses 43 and 44.