Chapter 9 of Daniel contains the greatest of Old Testament prayers. Jews recited it over the centuries on the Day of Atonement, and with better reason than they knew, for verse 24 contains six terms found in the Day of Atonement chapter, Leviticus 16. No other verse in the entire Bible does this. The six terms are transgression, sin, iniquity, Atonement, holy, and seven.

The heart of the chapter is the heart-wrenching petition of the prophet. It contains all the key words that will reappear in the prophetic portion of the chapter. Daniel himself is a key, which helps interpret verses 24–27.

Here was a holy one, against whom no sin is recorded, taking upon himself the sins of his people and interceding on their behalf. He was a prince of Judah, an exile, tempted and tried. He had known what it was to be put in a tomb-like pit, covered and sealed, and yet resurrected to life and liberty as the prelude to a worldwide proclamation. This great prophet and leader of God’s people was praying at the Calvary hour (3:00 p.m.) when Gabriel visited him.

All of this anticipates the New Testament Gethsemane picture, in which the sinless Christ, exile from heaven, tempted and tried, took upon himself the sin of the world and interceded for the guilty. At that time came Gabriel (see Luke 1:26) and strengthened him, as he had done to Daniel long before. All of this casts light on the prophecy of atonement found in verse 24, an atonement to be made by a new Melchizedek—one, who was priest and king—"Messiah the prince."

The beginning of the chapter refers to the approaching end of the seventy years of captivity. It is important to observe that this number is not precise, thus opinions as to the beginning and end of the seventy years differ. Jerusalem had not been destroyed until 587 B.C., and the actual period of captivity for the Jews then taken into exile was only about fifty years, though a minority had been taken almost twenty years earlier.

It is a biblical habit to give round numbers. Examples include the repeated use of "forty years" in Judges, the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1, and 2 Chronicles 36:21. This last passage intimates that there had been a 490-year period over which the sabbatical law for the land had been ignored, but the time was only an approximation.

All of which is important when we remember that the prophecy of verses 24–27 speaks of a period seven times as long as the captivity. Such a number would not be any more precise than the actual time of the exile. Dogmatism about the dates 408 B.C., 27 A.D., 31 A.D., and 34 A.D. has no grounds. (See the SDA Bible Commentary article on New Testament chronology.) The starting date is the decree of Cyrus (see Isa. 44:26, 28; 45:13). The passage is chronography, not precise chronology, just as Matthew is genealogy (a graph, rather than a precise chronology).

The early Adventist expositors taught that there was only a brief period between Daniel 8 and 9. This estimate is not correct, as the actual gap is approximately eleven years. But it was the same angel Gabriel who reappeared, and he explained what had not been made clear in Daniel 8:15–26—the meaning of the justification of the sanctuary. (Well-known scholars, including Lagrange, Gaston, Lange, McKelvey and others have written on the sanctuary as a symbol of the kingdom of God). Verse 24 provides that meaning and comprehends the two advents of Christ—-both inaugurated and consummated eschatology. By the atonement of the cross, the Messiah would put a legal end to sin, transgression, and iniquity, but at his second advent all three would be empirically destroyed.

Although the Messiah’s atonement is central to Daniel 9:24–27, prophetic expositor Uriah Smith repeatedly urged, "Let it be forever fixed in the mind—the atonement was not made on the cross" (The Sanctuary, 276; and Looking Unto Jesus, 237). It took more than one hundred years for Adventists to cast off that heresy. This same Smith believed that the investigative judgment began in 1844 and would be brief (see the Ph.D. thesis of Roy Adams, "The Sanctuary Doctrine," 239).

More than 100 years have passed since the death of Uriah Smith, and more than 150 since the passing of William Miller. Sadly, the Bible Study Guide this quarter shows that we have made little progress in understanding this important chapter, despite the passing of so many decades

On page 74 of the Adult Teachers Guide, much space is given to the supposedly great distinction between the words Chazon and Mareh—words translated as "vision." This is enough to make any Hebraist not paid by the denomination weep. The words are used interchangeably, as anyone who knows English can find out by using a Strong’s Concordance. Chazon refers to the ecstatic experience of prophetic vision, and Mareh to its contents. The latter comes from a root meaning "to see." Mareh is found several times in the later chapters of Daniel and is NOT limited to the detail overheard concerning the twenty-three hundred evening-mornings. O that the brethren might play fair!

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