Chaim ben Yaakov wrote:Dougg-

We read 9:24 as "from the going forth of the word UNTIL an annointed one is 7 weeks". Do you find any reason to dismiss this understanding, because historically, Jeremiah's word dates to the destruction in 586BCE and Cyrus' decree was 49-52 years (~7weeks) later than that.
Sorry Chaim, for not having responded to your question right away smiley: wink.  (I highlighted part of Chaim's text)


Yes, I do have a reason to dismiss that understanding by Judaism.     The text doesn't say it will be 7 weeks until messiah in a sentence by itself. 

That sentence contains two periods of time.     Which,  besides Judaism's claim, 7 weeks plus 62 weeks could not have referred to Cyrus, either.     Nor is it reasonable to think it took 434 years to rebuild the streets and moat.    So Cyrus is eliminated by the two periods of time in one sentence....as the rebuilding of the streets and moat, to have taken 434 years is an unreasonable interpretation.

The text.......(from the Jewish link Tanach)   btw, Chaim says "an" anointed one, the link translation says "the".

25And you shall know and understand that from the emergence of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed king [shall be] seven weeks, and [in] sixty-two weeks it will return and be built street and moat, but in troubled times.

It did not take 7 weeks (till Cyrus as Judaism says)  plus 62 weeks (69 weeks or 483 years) to (re)build street and moat.    That's unreasonable to interpret that it took 62 weeks after Cyrus, 434 years, to rebuild street and moat.    Jerusalem was fully functional before Jesus's time.   I mean if Jews believe that the little horn in Daniel 8, who stops the temple sacrifices was Antiochus IV, for example.

Judaism, imo, has an incorrect interpretation.    It would be from the time of Daniel's prayer, 7 weeks, 49 years, to have all of the commands and permissions finished (the last being Artaxerxes) to rebuild the streets and moat.   Restoration of the city is basically what it is saying (it doesn't give the time for how long the restoration would take in the text).

Then 62 weeks, 434 years, after all the commands and permissons have be rendered,  till messiah.    As it says in the one sentence, 7 weeks and 62 weeks, total, from the time the word went forth to rebuild Jerusalem, till messiah.

The text simply does not says it will be 7 weeks then period,  messiah has come, as one sentence.     And then another sentence that after the messiah, sixty two weeks later, 434 years, the street and moat will be rebuilt - in Judaism's way of thinking it took 434 years for the rebuild.     

26And after the sixty-two weeks, the anointed one will be cut off, and he will be no more, and the people of the coming monarch will destroy the city and the Sanctuary, and his end will come about by inundation, and until the end of the war, it will be cut off into desolation.
Verses 25 and 26, when combined, indicates one anointed one.   Because it is the same period of time 62 weeks in both verses 25 and 26.

Judaism's ratonale is to isolate the messiah in verse 25 from being the messiah in verses 26 - but, imo, it doesn't work because it is unreasonable to think that it took 62 weeks, 434 years, to rebuild the city.

The messiah arrives in Jerusalem after the 62 weeks and 4 days later is cutoff, my interpretation.     I don't understand how Judaism's interpretation could work, because there is nothing in the text about a second messiah's arrival.....the messiah cutoff.

My Lord, what a morning, when the stars begin to fall - Judith Durham