Friday 19 June 2009

Daniel 9:24-25 Symbolism of seven or seventy weeks


24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
-Daniel 9:24-25King James Version (KJV)

Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10], at sacred-texts.com
 
..."seven" is a holy number, as was said and shown before (...at n. 84-87). "In seven days" signifies the Lord's coming into the world, also His coming into glory, and every coming of the Lord in particular. It is an attendant feature of every coming of the Lord that it is a beginning to those who are being regenerated, and is the end of those who are being vastated [devastation : a renewal or purification through the burning away or destruction of evil attributes.] ...Just so when the Lord came into the world-the church at that time was in its last state of vastation, and was then made new. [2] That these things are signified by "in yet seven days" is evident in Daniel: Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people, and upon the city of thy holiness, to consummate the transgression, to seal up sins, and to purge away iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the ages, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies. Know therefore and perceive, from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks (Dan. 9:24-25). Here "seventy weeks" and "seven weeks" signify the same as "seven days" namely, the coming of the Lord. But as here there is a manifest prophecy, the times are still more sacredly and certainly designated by septenary [of or pertaining to the number seven or forming a group of seven] numbers. It is evident then not only that "seven" thus applied to times signifies the coming of the Lord, but that the beginning also of a new church at that time is signified by the "anointing of the holy of holies" and by Jerusalem being "restored and built." And at the same time the last vastation is signified by the words, "Seventy weeks are decreed upon the city of holiness, to consummate the transgression, and to seal up sins." [3] So in other places in the Word, as in... Daniel: The heart of Nebuchadnezzar shall they change from man, and the heart of a beast shall be given unto him, and seven times shall pass over him (Dan. 4:16, 25, 32), denoting in like manner the end of vastation, and the beginning of a new man. [4] The "seventy years" of Babylonish captivity represented the same. Whether the number is "seventy" or "seven" it involves the same, be it seven days or seven years, or seven ages which make seventy years. Vastation was represented by the years of captivity; the beginning of a new church by the liberation and the rebuilding of the temple... [5]... From these and many other passages (as ...Rev. 15:1, 6-7; 21:9), it is evident that "in seven days" signifies the beginning of a new church, and the end of the old...
 
 

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