CLAIM: Daniel records his prayer for the deliverance of the Jewish people from foreign captivity. This prayer will be used again by the remnant of Israel in the End Times. The angel Gabriel responded to Daniel’s prayer by reassuring him that the Jews would soon be released from Babylonian captivity. He then gives the prophetic message about seventy years that will complete God’s purposes for the Jewish people. In this prophecy, the word “week” refers to a period of seven years (rather than seven days). Thus, seventy weeks equals 490 years. After the initial sixty-nine weeks or 483 years, a “pause” was put on God’s calendar when Jesus the Messiah was to be “cut off”. In the seventieth week or the final seven years of natural history as we know it, the Antichrist or “the prince who is to come” will make a peace treaty with Israel and many nations (v. 27). The first sixty-nine weeks (483 years) was possibly fulfilled from 445 BC to 32 AD.
False.
The Daniel 9 passage deals exclusively with the city and the people. As the city that was rebuilt with “wall and moat” was completely razed in 70AD, with not one stone left on another in the temple area, this is the far end of the time scale for the fulfillment of this prophecy.
Since the first rebuilding was included within the 490 years (seventy sevens or weeks), so would a “re-building”, which likewise is not mentioned. Only the first destruction would fit, since any additional building time would have had to have been accounted for in the 70.
The 70 weeks most likely concluded three and a half years after the crucifixion date, possibly coinciding with the death of Stephen the first martyr or the conversion of Saul or some other event. The fact that no exact terminus is identified should not alarm us. We know the time was up for Jerusalem, and it failed to meet the six criteria, because it was destroyed.
As mentioned elsewhere, it was the 70 weeks that were prophesied, not the fulfillment of the tasks for that week. The unbelieving, not fulfilling those six things did not receive, as Jesus said they missed the time of their visitation.
The notion of a “gap” is widely supported, even for some who claim there was a gap between the crucifixion and the 70AD destruction, but neither are required. The allotted time ended at the 490 years, and failing to receive Christ as Messiah, even in wake of three and a half years of revival through the hands of the apostles and Jesus’ name spreading despite their violence, they still did not repent. Like in the days of Noah, once the door to the ark was shut, and the rain started to fall, it was too late to get on the boat. Certain things, set into motion, once God puts His hand to it, will simply not stop until God takes His hand off. The conclusion that was determined would come, and desolations would continue until that which had been decreed had been poured out upon the desolate, Jerusalem.