Peter Gentry and Daniel’s Seventy Weeks

James Grant pointed me this morning to this interesting article on Daniel’s Seventy Weeks.

Peter J. Gentry, Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has an article in the recentSouthern Baptist Journal of Theology titled, “Daniel’s Seventy Weeks and the New Exodus.” You can download the pdf here. He surveys the whole book and focuses upon Daniel’s Seventy Weeks. His conclusion:

The vision of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks, then, can be explained simply. It refers to a period of seventy sabbaticals or periods of seven years required to bring in the ultimate jubilee: release from sin, the establishment of everlasting righteousness and consecration of the temple. During the first seven sabbaticals the city of Jerusalem is restored. Then for sixty-two sabbaticals there is nothing to report. In the climactic seventieth week, Israel’s King arrives and dies vicariously for his people. Strangely, desecration of the temple similar to that by Antiochus Epiphanes in the Greek Empire is perpetrated by the Jewish people themselves resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem. These events are fufilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the coming king. His crucifixion is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices and the basis of the New Covenant with the many. His death is “not for himself,” but rather vicarious. The rejection of Jesus as Messiah and desecration of him as the true Temple at his trial by the High Priest result in judgment upon the Herodian Temple carried out eventually in A.D. 70. The notion of a gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week is contrary to a vision of chronological sequence. The prophecy is remarkable both for its precision and imprecision as it fits the events concerning Jesus of Nazareth.