TTR SEVENTY-WELEKS PROPIIECY OF DANIEL 9:24-27. .. 25
year cycles.
In the Animal Apocalypse, which recapitulates the story of God’s people from
creation in the figures of animals, the period of time between exile and the
Maccabean revolt (1 Enoch 89:59-90:25) is governed by seventy shepherds, each
having an “appointed time” (89:64). The Apocalypse of Weeks briefly covers the
same narrative but periodized as a series of seven weeks. Both apocalypses
conclude with the ushering in of a more ideal era, when 1t can be said that “the
Lord of the sheep rejoiced” over the animals (90:38) and when “there shall be
clected the elect ones of righteousness from the eternal plant of righteousness, to
whom shall be given sevenfold instruction concerning all his flock” (93:10),
respectively.
Seder Olam Rabbah 1s a post-Second Temple sabbatical chronology that builds
on this tradition in response to Christian chronology.?> The book’s commentary
on Daniel interprets the seventy weeks as referring to “70 sabbatical periods from
the destruction of the first Temple to the destruction of the second Temple”
(chap. 28).26 Of course, this interpretation leaves “167 years of Jewish history . . .
unaccounted for,” but the rationale for this chronology is explamed based on
purported biblical examples of countdowns to destruction commencing with prior
destructions.?’
Based solely on the mntertextual evidence, it 1s indeterminable whether all these
chronological similarities reflect an influence on, or a common source between,
the aforementioned sources and Daniel 9:24-27. But hypothesizing a common
source goes beyond the existing documentary evidence. Regardless, the fact
remains that the concept of historical periodization necessary to calculate the
seventy weeks as ending in the first century AD was available at that time, for it 1s
well represented in the available contemporary literature. Accordingly, the
Apocryphon of Jeremiah implicitly calculates the seventy weeks as weeks of
For further examples offered in the course of arguing for Daniels mfluence on
Jubilees, see James M. Scott, Orn Earth as in Heaven: The Restoration of Sacred Time and Sacred
Space in the Book of Jubikes (1.eiden: Brill: 2005), 93-192.
Heinrich W. Guggenheimer, Seder Olam: The Rabbinic View of Biblical Chronology
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), x11.
26Tbid., 242.
>Tbid., 244. Chapter 28 of Seder Olam Rabbah concludes, “And why does the
Scripture say 70 weeks? That the Divine decree was before the 70 years. Similarly, 1t says
(Gen. 6:3): ‘his days shall be 120 years.” And it says (Gen. 7:3): ‘In year 600 of Noah’s life.’
It 1s impossible to say so; but the Divine decree was issued 120 years before. Similarly, 1t
says (Is. 7:8): ‘In another 65 years, Ephraim will no longer be a people.” That was in year
four of Ahaz. It 1s impossible to say so, but the Divine decree was issued mn the time of
Amos, two years before the earthquake, as it 1s said (Amos 7:11): ‘So said Amos, Jeroboam
will die by the sword and Israel will certainly be exiled from its land” (ibid., 242-243).