Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 65:3 (Sep 2022)
Article: Approximate Fulfillment As The Key To Reconsidering The Decree Of Cyrus As The Beginning Point Of Daniel’s 70 Weeks
Author: David Larson

JETS 65:3 (September 2022) p. 491

Approximate Fulfillment As The Key To Reconsidering The Decree Of Cyrus As The Beginning Point Of Daniel’s 70 Weeks

David Larson*

^* David Larson is Northeast Regional Field Director for International Students, Inc., 19 Besemer Road, Ithaca, NY 14850. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: Apart from chronological factors, the decree of Cyrus has much to commend it as the terminus a quo of Daniel’s 70 weeks. However, its inability to provide chronological verification of the first 69 weeks has led many evangelical scholars to prefer a later decree as the starting point. One approach that seems to have been largely overlooked is using literal but approximate fulfillment to defend the decree of Cyrus as the starting point of the 70 weeks. It is proposed that the first 69 weeks were fulfilled literally, but approximately, beginning with the decree of Cyrus. It will be demonstrated that approximate fulfillment is consistent with the nature of chronological prophecy and is even to be preferred over minutely exact fulfillment. It will also be shown that the exact chronological fulfillment proposed by those who use the decree of Artaxerxes’s 20th year as the starting point does not prove the correctness of their view.

Key words: 70 weeks, Daniel 9, prophecy, eschatology, Cyrus, biblical chronology

In Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks, the terminus a quo is stated to be “the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem” (Dan 9:2). From the issuing of this decree “until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’”1 Various identifications of this decree have been proposed, including the decree of Cyrus’s first year (Ezra 1:1–4), the decree of Artaxerxes’s 7th year (Ezra 7), and the decree of Artaxerxes’s 20th year (Neh 2).2 Liberal scholars of the historical-critical school typically identify the decree (דבר) as the word of the Lord through Jeremiah in Jeremiah 25, referred to by Daniel in Daniel 9:2.3 In this view, the 70 years and the 70 weeks share the same starting point and thus overlap.4

JETS 65:3 (S...