The Seventy Weeks
A precise timeline of 490 years foretelling when the Anointed One would come and be "cut off."
The Prophecy
Daniel 9:24-26
~530 BCE
Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness... After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.
Manuscript Attestation
Eight copies of Daniel found at Qumran; 4QApocryphon of Daniel describes a figure called "Son of God" and "Son of the Most High"; all codices.
Ancient Jewish Interpretation
Talmud Nazir 32b; Yalkut. The Qumran community was deeply interested in Daniel's chronological prophecies.
The Fulfillment
Luke 3:1
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar — when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea... the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. (Luke 3:1-2)
Narrative Context
Daniel's prophecy provides a timeline: the Anointed One would come and then "be cut off" (killed) before the destruction of the city and temple. The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, making any fulfillment necessarily pre-70 CE.
The Evidence
Daniel manuscripts from Qumran confirm the book existed by the 2nd century BCE at latest. The chronological calculation from Artaxerxes' decree (457 BCE) counting 483 years (69 × 7) arrives at approximately 27 CE — the period of Jesus' public ministry. The prophecy also predicts the subsequent destruction of the temple, which occurred in 70 CE — an event documented by Josephus in The Jewish War.