"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression.... 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 [69 weeks, or 483 days]." Dan. 9:24, 25.
The sixty-nine weeks, symbolic time, are 483 years, which were to reach from the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem to Messiah the Prince.
The Time of the Messiah's Coming
The commandment of Artaxerxes to restore and build Jerusalem, as we have seen, went forth in 457 b.c. Reckoning from that date, 483 full years bring us to A.D. 27, when, according to the prophecy, the Messiah should appear.
Messiah means "anointed." The anointing of Jesus, and His manifestation as the Anointed One, was at His baptism:
"Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Matt. 3:16, 17.
Thus Jesus was anointed as the Messiah (see Acts 10:38), and John proclaimed: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29.
When did this baptism and anointing take place? The Gospel of Luke supplies the historical facts for fixing the year:
"In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea," etc. Luke 3:1-3.
Tiberius followed Augustus, who died in A.D. 14. But before the latter's death, Tiberius was associated with him on the throne. Some modern historians date this appointment of Tiberius as Cæsar from A.D. 13; but the "History of Rome," by Dion Cassius, a Roman senator, born in the second century, shows, under events of A.D. 12, that Augustus recognized Tiberius as holding the imperial dignity at that time. (Book 56, chap. 26.) Again, Dr. Philip Schaff says: