A glimpse of Jesus from the Tanakh is found in the book of the prophet Daniel. Daniel 9:24-27 reads.
24 “Seventy ‘sevens’a are decreed for your people and your holy city to finishb 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.c
25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decreed to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One,e the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.f The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’g In the middle of the ‘seven’h he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.i”j
There has been much discussion on how to understand and apply an interpretation to this text and the mathematical formula in the dating of these Seventy “Sevens” of Daniel. Yet in spite of all of this we can still gather some relevant information in applying an understanding of the scripture as it relates to the Messiah or Moshiach the “Anointed One”.
Jesus was a historical figure who occupied a certain geographical location at a specific point in time in history. This is not questioned or denied even among secular historians. He also lived and interacted within the Jewish community in respect to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. We find him at 12 years of age discussing matters with the teachers of the law in the temple precincts and then at the conclusion of His life upon taking his last breath He declared regarding His redemptive work as being “Finished” and then the veil within the temple was torn. The conclusion is that Jesus existed during the time of the temple and He prophesied to the future event of the impending judgment on Jerusalem in which the city and the temple would be destroyed which happened in 70 A.D. when the Romans ransacked the city. This destruction did not occur during the life of Jesus but 40 years after his death. You can read about this in Matthew 23:37 extending into Chapter 24.
Daniel 9:24 uses words that compliment and describe the significance of this “Anointed One’s” reign or the inauguration of His rein.
The dating of the weeks is symbolic of years which is how it has been interpreted by some Christian and Jewish resources. So this prophetic utterance would have taken us directly to the time that Yeshua or Jesus lived on the earth.
Even the famed Jewish commentator Rashi who lived around the 11th century and who is respected as Judaism’s first and foremost commentator on the Talmud applied this interpretation to this same period of time but to the wrong person. He saw Herod Agrippa as the anointed one rather than Jesus.
In conclusion who else in history existed as a Messianic figure who was labeled “King of the Jews” and died or was cut off just prior to the destruction of the city and the temple which till this very same day has not been rebuilt or restored?
How to have a relationship with God
Other Links