From The Message of Daniel by Dale Ralph Davis…

If you pry open that can of problems, you ask…

  1. What are these sevens or weeks?
  2. Just weeks, or weeks of years?
  3. Are they to be taken literally (of 490 years) or in some symbolic way?
  4. How are we to understand the fulfilment of the purpose clauses (e.g., to bring an end to rebellion, etc.) in verse 24? - Are they fulfilled in a decisive way in Christ’s first advent?
    • Or do they point to an ultimate fulfilment in the wake of his second advent?
  5. Is the most holy at the end of verse 24 a place or possibly a person?
  6. What word (to restore and rebuild Jerusalem) is meant in verse 25a?
    • Is it some prophetic word (e.g., of Jeremiah)?
    • Is it Cyrus’ decree of 538 BC (Ezra 1:1–4)?
    • Or that of Artaxerxes I in 458 BC (Ezra 7)
    • Or that of the same king in 445 BC (Neh. 2:1–8)?
  7. Is the anointed one of verse 25a referring to the Messiah or to some other leader?
  8. Are the sixty-two weeks (25b) a distinct segment of time?
  9. Or are they to be combined with the preceding seven weeks, so that the anointed one of verse 25a actually comes after sixty-nine weeks?
  10. When verse 26a speaks of after the sixty-two weeks, does it mean the rest of the verse describes what happens in the seventieth week (cf. 27) or does it imply a hiatus between the sixty-two segment and the “last” week?
  11. Who is the anointed one who is cut off in verse 26?
  12. Is he identical to the anointed one of verse 25?
  13. Who is the leader who is coming in verse 26b?
  14. Does “its” end in verse 26c refer to the end of the city and sanctuary?
  15. Or should it be ʻhis end’, referring to the leader who is coming?
  16. Who is the he who makes a firm covenant in verse 27a?
  17. The anointed one/Messiah or the leader who is coming?
  18. What sort of covenant is it?
  19. Is it beneficial or detrimental?
  20. Is it positive or negative when sacrifice and offering stop in verse 27b?

One could add to this collage of queries. What does all this mean? It means that if you are driving home late at night and tune in to “The Prophecy Hour” on your radio and hear the preacher refer to “what is perfectly clear in Daniel’s seventy-weeks prophecy”, you know he hasn’t read the text carefully!