Episode 79 - A deep dive into Daniel’s 70 Weeks prophecy

Doubts Aloud Podcast

Show Notes
We covered the book of Daniel in episode 44 explaining it’s likely ‘forgery’ status and we briefly discussed his 70 Weeks prophecy in that episode. Here Andrew leads us into a deep dive, plunging the murky waters. Indeed, studying the prophecy has been called a ‘dismal swamp’. We discuss how all approaches, apologetic or scholarly, lead to difficulties making “Daniel’s” weird maths fit with historical dates. Needless to say, apologetic claims that the fulfilled prophecy of the 70 Weeks are amazing, arresting and should convert an open minded sceptic don’t convince us.
At the start of the episode we discuss the prophecy made in April 2024 of the near-miss shooting of Donald Trump. In some respects, this is a good match to the church’s treatment of the 70 weeks prophecy.
Links:
Richard Carrier on Daniel (he includes a section on the 70 Weeks):
https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/18242
Key verses: Daniel 9.24-27. (It’s worth reading more for context.)
The clip Andrew gave claiming the 70 weeks verses will convert you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWiJCH07kAg&t=29s
A great scholarly paper from “The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures” by George Athas which outlines the difficulties in trying to get a fit to historical events and suggesting a theory of what the author of Daniel was doing:
https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/download/6231/5259/13824
Trump shooting original April 2024 prophecy (start 11 mins in):
https://youtu.be/Ey0qVzG8_vU?si=5b2U1I8oDSYVFFq8
An apologist discussing the shooting after the event:
https://youtu.be/vsidOPEAERE?si=Js-Gy2UuicT7VwPS
Doubts Aloud Links: