I. Seventy weeks
II. Explanation of other passages
I. Seventy weeks
Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city. . . . Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. . . . And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah will be cut off. Dan. 9:24–26
Christ became King of the Jews, reigning in Jerusalem in the fulfillment of the seven weeks. In the sixty and two weeks, all of Judea was quiet and without wars. . . . In those “sixty and two weeks,” as the prophet said, and “in the one week,” He was Lord. The half of the week, Nero held sway. In the holy city Jerusalem he placed the abomination. And in the half of the week he was taken away, followed by Otho, Galba, and Vitellius. And Vespasian rose to the supreme power and destroyed Jerusalem and desolated the holy place. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.329
Daniel says that “both the holy city and the holy place are exterminated together with the coming Leader, and that the pinnacle is destroyed unto ruin.” Therefore, we must inquire into the times of the coming of Christ, the Leader. We will trace those times in [the book of] Daniel. . . . Therefore, we demonstrate that Christ came within the sixty-two and one-half weeks. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.158-159
By showing “the number of the years, and the time of the sixty-two and one-half completed weeks,” we have proved that Christ came. That is, He was born at the time predicted. Tertullian (c. 197, W), 3.168
He says, “And for one week he will make a covenant with many, and it will be that in the midst of the week, my sacrifice and oblation will cease.” By “one week,” therefore, he meant the last week that is to be at the end of the whole world. In that week, the two prophets, Enoch and Elijah, will take up the half. For they will preach 1260 days clothed in sackcloth, proclaiming repentance to the people and to all the nations. Hippolytus (c. 200, W), 5.213
“Unto Christ the Prince will be seven weeks,” which make forty-nine years. It was in the twenty-first year that Daniel saw these things in Babylon. Hence, the forty-nine years added to the twenty-one, make up the seventy years, of which the blessed Jeremiah spoke: “The sanctuary will be desolate seventy years.” . . . Now, who is this Christ that he speaks of? Is it not Jesus [i.e., Joshua the high priest] the son of Josedech, who returned at that time along with the people and offered sacrifice according to the Law, in the seventieth year, when the sanctuary was built? Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.180
He says, “And after seven weeks there are other sixty and two weeks.” This period embraces the space of 434 years. For, after the return of the people from Babylon under the leadership of Jesus the son of Josedech, Ezra the scribe, and Zerubbabel the Son of Shealtiel (of the line of David), there were 434 years until the coming of Christ. Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.180
“After sixty-two weeks, the times will be fulfilled, and for one week he will make a covenant with many. And in the midst of the week, sacrifice and oblation will be removed.” . . . For when the sixty-two weeks are fulfilled, and Christ has come, and the Gospel is preached in every place, the times will then be accomplished. Then, there will remain only one week (the last), in which Elijah and Enoch will appear. And in the middle of it, the abomination of desolation will be manifested. This is the Antichrist, announcing desolation to the world. And when he comes, the sacrifice and oblation will be removed, which now are offered to God in every place by the nations. Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.182
II. Explanation of other passages
He whom Daniel foretells would have dominion for a time, and times, and an half, is even already at the door. He is about to speak blasphemous and daring things against the Most High. Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.210
[Daniel] said that there were two thousand three hundred days from the time that the abomination of Nero stood in the holy city, until its destruction. For thus the declaration, which is added, shows: “How long will be the vision, the sacrifice taken away, the abomination of desolation?” Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.334
As these things, then, are in the future—and as the ten toes of the image are equivalent to democracies, and the ten horns of the fourth beast are distributed over ten kingdoms—let us look at the subject a little more closely. . . . The golden head of the image and the lioness denoted the Babylonians. The shoulders and arms of silver, and the bear, represented the Medes and Persians. The belly and thighs of brass, and the leopard, signified the Greeks, who held the sovereignty from Alexander’s time. The legs of iron, and the dreadful and terrible beast, represented the Romans, who presently hold the sovereignty. The toes of the feet that were part clay and part iron, and the ten horns, were emblems of the kingdoms that are yet to rise. The other little horn that grows up among them meant the Antichrist in their midst. The stone that smites the earth and brings judgment upon the world was Christ. Hippolytus (c. 200, W), 5.209-210
War was again made by Ptolemy against Antiochus, and Antiochus met him. For the Scripture says, “And the king of the South will stand up against the king of the North, and her seed will stand up against him.” Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.183
So Daniel has spoken of two abominations. The first is of destruction. The other is of desolation. What is the abomination of destruction, but that which Antiochus established there at the time? And what is the abomination of desolation, but that which will be universal when the Antichrist comes? Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.184