Daniel 9 · Scripture · Fisherman's Friend

1

In the first year of Darius the son of Assuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans,

ΕΝ τῷ πρώτῳ ἔτει Δαρείου τοῦ υἱοῦ ᾿Ασουήρου ἀπὸ τοῦ σπέρματος τῶν Μήδων, ὃς ἐβασίλευσεν ἐπὶ βασιλείαν Χαλδαίων,

Въ пе́рвое лѣ́то да́рїа сы́на а҆ссꙋи́рова, ѿ пле́мене ми́дска, и҆́же ца́рствова во ца́рствѣ халде́йстѣмъ,

2

I Daniel understood by books the number of the years which was the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremias, [even] seventy years for the accomplishment of the desolation of Jerusalem.

ἐν ἔτει ἑνὶ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ ἐγὼ Δανιὴλ συνῆκα ἐν ταῖς βίβλοις τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν ἐτῶν, ὃς ἐγενήθη λόγος Κυρίου πρὸς ῾Ιερεμίαν τὸν προφήτην εἰς συμπλήρωσιν ἐρημώσεως ῾Ιερουσαλήμ, ἑβδομήκοντα ἔτη.

въ лѣ́то пе́рвое ца́рства є҆гѡ̀, а҆́зъ данїи́лъ разꙋмѣ́хъ въ кни́гахъ число̀ лѣ́тъ, ѡ҆ не́мже бы́сть сло́во гдⷭне ко і҆еремі́и прⷪ҇ро́кꙋ, на сконча́нїе ѡ҆пꙋстѣ́нїѧ і҆ерⷭ҇ли́млѧ се́дмьдесѧтъ лѣ́тъ.

Hippolytus of Rome †235

Since, then, the angel Gabriel also recounted these things to the prophet, as they have been understood by us, as they have also taken place, and as they have been all clearly described in the books of the Maccabees, let us see further what he says on the other weeks. For when he read the book of Jeremiah the prophet, in which it was written that the sanctuary would be desolate seventy years, he made confession with fastings and supplications, and prayed that the people might return sooner from their captivity to the city Jerusalem. Thus, then, he speaks in his account: "In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was king over the realm of the Chaldeans, I Daniel understood in the books the number of the years, as the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishment of the desolation of Jerusalem in seventy years," etc.
Exegetical Fragments - Of the visions of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar

Jerome †420

Verse 2. "I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years concerning which the word of the Lord had come to the prophet Jeremiah, that seventy years would be accomplished for the desolation of Jerusalem." Jeremiah had predicted seventy years for the desolation of the Temple (Jeremiah 29:1-10), at the end of which the people would again return to Judaea and build the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. But this fact did not render Daniel careless, but rather encouraged him to pray that God might through his supplications fulfil that which He had graciously promised. Thus he avoided the danger that carelessness might result in pride, and pride cause offense to the Lord. Accordingly we read in Genesis that prior to the Deluge one hundred and twenty years were appointed for men to come to repentance (Genesis 6:3); and inasmuch as they refused to repent even within so long an interval of time as a hundred years, God did not wait for the remaining twenty years to be fulfilled, but brought on the punishment earlier which He had threatened for a later time. So also Jeremiah is told, on account of the hardness of the heart of the Jewish people: "Pray not for this people, for I will not hearken unto thee" (Jeremiah 7:16). Samuel also was told: "How long wilt thou mourn over Saul? I also have rejected him" (1 Samuel 16:1). And so it was with sackcloth and ashes that Daniel besought the Lord to fulfil what He had promised, not that Daniel lacked faith concerning the future, but rather he would avoid the danger that a feeling of security might produce carelessness, and carelessness produce an offense to God.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

Bede †735

Darius, the son of Astyages, who destroyed the Babylonian Empire with the help of his kinsmen Cyrus, was sixty-two years old when he attacked Babylon. He is called by another name by the Greeks. He took the prophet Daniel and led him into the middle of his court and feted him with every honor. Daniel himself made mention of this Darius: “In the first year of Darius.…” In his chronology, Eusebius counts thirty years from the destruction of Jerusalem to the beginning of the reign of Cyrus, king of the Persians. Julius Africanus, however, counts seventy years. Moreover, Jerome has this to say in his exposition of the prophet Daniel: “The Hebrews pass on a story of this sort up until the seventieth year, when Jeremiah had said that the captivity of the Jews would come to an end. Zechariah also speaks about this at the beginning of his book.”
Book on the Meaning of Time 66

Ishodad of Merv †850

When the time fixed for the captivity is completed, Daniel begins to pray for the return; indeed, he had not dared to pray [to that purpose] before that moment, in order not to press God needlessly and in order not to hear the word that had been addressed to Jeremiah: “Do not pray for this people, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.” But after seeing that the sentence had been executed, he prays with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. At the same time he thought that the Jews might stay a longer time in captivity because of their sins, according to the fact that God had added thirty years to the Jews in Egypt and had reduced [the time for repentance conceded] to the generation of Noah of twenty years and of fifty in the case of the house of Ephrem. Moreover, it is not at the beginning of their fault that the sinners ask questions of the judge but after the punishment.
Commentary on Daniel 9:2

3

And I set my face toward the Lord God, to seek [him] diligently by prayer and supplications, with fastings and sackcloth.

καὶ ἔδωκα τὸ πρόσωπόν μου πρὸς Κύριον τὸν Θεὸν τοῦ ἐκζητῆσαι προσευχὴν καὶ δεήσεις ἐν νηστείαις καὶ σάκκῳ καὶ σποδῷ·

И҆ да́хъ лицѐ моѐ къ гдⷭ҇ꙋ бг҃ꙋ, є҆́же взыска́ти моли́твы и҆ проше́нїѧ въ постѣ̀ и҆ во вре́тищи и҆ пе́пелѣ,

4

And I prayed to the Lord my God, and confessed, and said, O Lord, the great and wonderful God, keeping thy covenant and thy mercy to them that love thee, and to them that keep thy commandments; we have sinned,

καὶ προσευξάμην πρὸς Κύριον τὸν Θεόν μου καὶ ἐξωμολογησάμην καὶ εἶπα· Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς ὁ μέγας καὶ θαυμαστός, ὁ φυλάσσων τὴν διαθήκην σου καὶ τὸ ἔλεός σου τοῖς ἀγαπῶσί σε καὶ τοῖς φυλάσσουσι τὰς ἐντολάς σου,

и҆ моли́хсѧ ко гдⷭ҇ꙋ бг҃ꙋ моемꙋ̀ и҆ и҆сповѣ́дахсѧ и҆ рѣ́хъ: гдⷭ҇и, бж҃е вели́кїй и҆ чꙋ́дный, хранѧ́й завѣ́тъ тво́й и҆ млⷭ҇ть твою̀ лю́бѧщымъ тѧ̀ и҆ хранѧ́щымъ за́пѡвѣди твоѧ̑:

5

we have done iniquity, we have transgressed, and we have departed and turned aside from thy commandments and from thy judgments:

ἡμάρτομεν, ἠδικήσαμεν, ἠνομήσαμεν καὶ ἀπέστημεν καὶ ἐξεκλίναμεν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐντολῶν σου καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν κριμάτων σου.

согрѣши́хомъ, беззако́нновахомъ, нече́ствовахомъ и҆ ѿстꙋпи́хомъ и҆ ᲂу҆клони́хомсѧ ѿ за́повѣдїй твои́хъ и҆ ѿ сꙋдѡ́въ твои́хъ

6

and we have not hearkened to thy servants the prophets, who spoke in thy name to our kings, and our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

καὶ οὐκ εἰσηκούσαμεν τῶν δούλων σου τῶν προφητῶν, οἳ ἐλάλουν ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί σου πρὸς τοὺς βασιλεῖς ἡμῶν καὶ ἄρχοντας ἡμῶν καὶ πατέρας ἡμῶν, καὶ πρὸς πάντα τὸν λαὸν τῆς γῆς.

и҆ не послꙋ́шахомъ ра̑бъ твои́хъ прⷪ҇ро́кѡвъ, и҆̀же глаго́лаша во и҆́мѧ твоѐ ко царє́мъ на́шымъ и҆ кнѧзє́мъ на́шымъ, и҆ ѻ҆тцє́мъ на́шымъ и҆ всѣ̑мъ лю́демъ землѝ.

7

To thee, O Lord, [belongs] righteousness, an to us confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Juda, and to the dwellers in Jerusalem, and to all Israel, to them that are near, and to them that are far off in all the earth, wherever thou has scattered them, for the sin which they committed.

σοὶ Κύριε ἡ δικαιοσύνη, καὶ ἡμῖν ἡ αἰσχύνη τοῦ προσώπου ὡς ἡ ἡμέρα αὕτη, ἀνδρὶ ᾿Ιούδα καὶ τοῖς ἐνοικοῦσιν ἐν ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ καὶ παντὶ ᾿Ισραήλ, τοῖς ἐγγὺς καὶ τοῖς μακρὰν ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ, οὗ διέσπειρας αὐτοὺς ἐκεῖ, ἐν ἀθεσίᾳ αὐτῶν, ᾗ ἠθέτησαν.

Тебѣ̀, гдⷭ҇и, пра́вда, на́мъ же стыдѣ́нїе лица̀, ꙗ҆́коже де́нь се́й, мꙋ́жꙋ і҆ꙋ́динꙋ, и҆ живꙋ́щымъ во і҆ерⷭ҇ли́мѣ, и҆ всемꙋ̀ і҆и҃лю, и҆ бли̑жнимъ и҆ да̑льнимъ во все́й землѝ, и҆дѣ́же разсѣ́ѧлъ є҆сѝ ѧ҆̀ та́мѡ, во ѿверже́нїи и҆́хъ, и҆́мже ѿверго́шасѧ тебє̀, гдⷭ҇и.

8

In thee, O Lord, is our righteousness, and to us [belongs] confusion of face, and to our kings, and to our princes, and to our fathers, forasmuch as we have sinned.

ἐν σοὶ Κύριέ ἐστιν ἡμῶν ἡ δικαιοσύνη καὶ ἡμῖν ἡ αἰσχύνη τοῦ προσώπου καὶ τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν ἡμῶν καὶ τοῖς ἄρχουσιν ἡμῶν καὶ τοῖς πατράσιν ἡμῶν, οἵτινες ἡμάρτομέν σοι.

Тебѣ̀, гдⷭ҇и, є҆́сть пра́вда, на́мъ же стыдѣ́нїе лица̀, и҆ царє́мъ на́шымъ и҆ кнѧзє́мъ на́шымъ и҆ ѻ҆тцє́мъ на́шымъ, и҆̀же согрѣши́хомъ тебѣ̀.

9

To thee, the Lord our God, [belong] compassions and forgivenesses, whereas we have departed [from thee];

Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν οἱ οἰκτιρμοὶ καὶ οἱ ἱλασμοί, ὅτι ἀπέστημεν

Гдⷭ҇ꙋ же бг҃ꙋ на́шемꙋ щедрѡ́ты и҆ ѡ҆чищє́нїѧ, ꙗ҆́кѡ ѿстꙋпи́хомъ ѿ гдⷭ҇а

10

neither have we hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by the hands of his servants the prophets.

καὶ οὐκ εἰσηκούσαμεν τῆς φωνῆς Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν πορεύεσθαι ἐν τοῖς νόμοις αὐτοῦ, οἷς ἔδωκε κατὰ πρόσωπον ἡμῶν ἐν χερσὶ τῶν δούλων αὐτοῦ τῶν προφητῶν.

и҆ не послꙋ́шахомъ гла́са гдⷭ҇а бг҃а на́шегѡ, ходи́ти въ зако́нѣхъ є҆гѡ̀, и҆̀хже дадѐ пред̾ лице́мъ на́шимъ рꙋко́ю ра̑бъ свои́хъ прⷪ҇ро́кѡвъ.

11

Moreover all Israel have transgressed thy law, and have refused to hearken to thy voice; so the curse has come upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

καὶ πᾶς ᾿Ισραὴλ παρέβησαν τὸν νόμον σου καὶ ἐξέκλιναν τοῦ μὴ ἀκοῦσαι τῆς φωνῆς σου, καὶ ἐπῆλθεν ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς ἡ κατάρα καὶ ὁ ὅρκος ὁ γεγραμμένος ἐν νόμῳ Μωυσέως δούλου τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὅτι ἡμάρτομεν αὐτῷ.

И҆ ве́сь і҆и҃ль престꙋпѝ зако́нъ тво́й, и҆ ᲂу҆клони́шасѧ є҆́же не послꙋ́шати гла́са твоегѡ̀: и҆ прїи́де на ны̀ клѧ́тва и҆ заклѧ́тїе впи́саное въ зако́нѣ мѡѷсе́а раба̀ бж҃їѧ, ꙗ҆́кѡ согрѣши́хомъ є҆мꙋ̀.

12

And he has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, [by] bringing upon us great evils, such as have not happened under the whole heaven, according to what has happened in Jerusalem.

καὶ ἔστησε τοὺς λόγους αὐτοῦ, οὓς ἐλάλησεν ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς κριτὰς ἡμῶν, οἳ ἔκρινον ἡμᾶς, ἐπαγαγεῖν ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς κακὰ μεγάλα, οἷα οὐ γέγονεν ὑποκάτω παντὸς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατὰ τὰ γενόμενα ἐν ῾Ιερουσαλήμ.

И҆ ᲂу҆ста́ви словеса̀ своѧ̑, ꙗ҆̀же гл҃а на ны̀ и҆ на сꙋдїи̑ на́шѧ, и҆̀же сꙋди́ша на́мъ, навестѝ на ны̀ ѕла̑ѧ вели̑каѧ, ꙗ҆ковы́хъ не бы́сть под̾ всѣ́мъ небесе́мъ, по (всѣ̑мъ) бы́вшымъ во і҆ерⷭ҇ли́мѣ,

13

As it is written in the law of Moses, all these evils have come upon us: yet we have not besought the Lord our God, that we might turn away from our iniquities, and have understanding in all thy truth.

καθὼς γέγραπται ἐν τῷ νόμῳ Μωυσῆ, πάντα τὰ κακὰ ταῦτα ἦλθεν ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς, καὶ οὐκ ἐδεήθημεν τοῦ προσώπου Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν ἀποστρέψαι ἀπὸ τῶν ἀδικιῶν ἡμῶν καὶ τοῦ συνιέναι ἐν πάσῃ ἀληθείᾳ σου.

ꙗ҆́коже є҆́сть пи́сано въ зако́нѣ мѡѷсе́овѣ, всѧ̑ ѕла̑ѧ сїѧ̑ прїидо́ша на ны̀: и҆ не помоли́хомсѧ лицꙋ̀ гдⷭ҇а бг҃а на́шегѡ, ѿврати́тисѧ ѿ непра́вдъ на́шихъ, и҆ є҆́же смы́слити во все́й и҆́стинѣ твое́й (гдⷭ҇и).

14

The Lord also has watched, and brought the evils upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his work which he has executed, but we have not hearkened to his voice.

καὶ ἐγρηγόρησε Κύριος καὶ ἐπήγαγεν αὐτὰ ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς, ὅτι δίκαιος Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ποίησιν αὐτοῦ, ἣν ἐποίησε, καὶ οὐκ εἰσηκούσαμεν τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ.

И҆ ᲂу҆бꙋди́сѧ гдⷭ҇ь бг҃ъ на ѕло́бꙋ на́шꙋ и҆ наведѐ сїѧ̑ на ны̀, ꙗ҆́кѡ првⷣнъ гдⷭ҇ь бг҃ъ на́шъ во все́мъ дѣѧ́нїи свое́мъ, є҆́же сотворѝ, и҆ не послꙋ́шахомъ гла́са є҆гѡ̀.

15

And now, O Lord our God, who broughtest thy people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and madest to thyself a name, as [at] this day; we have sinned, we have transgressed.

καὶ νῦν, Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, ὃς ἐξήγαγες τὸν λαόν σου ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου ἐν χειρὶ κραταιᾷ καὶ ἐποίησας σεαυτῷ ὄνομα ὡς ἡ ἡμέρα αὕτη, ἡμάρτομεν, ἠνομήσαμεν.

И҆ нн҃ѣ, гдⷭ҇и, бж҃е на́шъ, и҆́же и҆зве́лъ є҆сѝ лю́ди твоѧ̑ ѿ землѝ є҆гѵ́петскїѧ рꙋко́ю крѣ́пкою и҆ сотвори́лъ є҆сѝ себѣ̀ самомꙋ̀ и҆́мѧ, ꙗ҆́коже де́нь се́й, согрѣши́хомъ, беззако́нновахомъ.

16

O Lord, thy mercy is over all: let, I pray thee, thy wrath turn away, and thine anger from thy city Jerusalem, [even] thy holy mountain: for we have sinned, and because of our iniquities, and those of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach among all that are round about us.

Κύριε, ἐν πάσῃ ἐλεημοσύνῃ σου ἀποστραφήτω δὴ ὁ θυμός σου καὶ ἡ ὀργή σου ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεώς σου ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ ὄρους ἁγίου σου, ὅτι ἡμάρτομεν, καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἀδικίαις ἡμῶν καὶ τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ καὶ ὁ λαός σου εἰς ὀνειδισμὸν ἐγένετο ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς περικύκλῳ ἡμῶν.

Гдⷭ҇и, всѣ́мъ поми́лованїемъ твои́мъ да ѿврати́тсѧ ꙗ҆́рость твоѧ̀ и҆ гнѣ́въ тво́й ѿ гра́да твоегѡ̀ і҆ерⷭ҇ли́ма, ѿ горы̀ ст҃ы́ѧ твоеѧ̀: ꙗ҆́кѡ согрѣши́хомъ непра́вдами на́шими и҆ беззако́нїемъ ѻ҆тє́цъ на́шихъ, і҆ерⷭ҇ли́мъ и҆ лю́дїе твоѝ во ᲂу҆кори́знꙋ бы́ша во всѣ́хъ ѡ҆кре́стныхъ на́съ.

17

And now, O lord our God, hearken to the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine on thy desolate sanctuary, for thine [own] sake, O Lord.

καὶ νῦν εἰσάκουσον, Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, τῆς προσευχῆς τοῦ δούλου σου καὶ τῶν δεήσεων αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐπίφανον τὸ πρόσωπόν σου ἐπὶ τὸ ἁγίασμά σου τὸ ἔρημον ἕνεκέν σου, Κύριε·

И҆ нн҃ѣ, гдⷭ҇и, бж҃е на́шъ, ᲂу҆слы́ши моли́твꙋ раба̀ твоегѡ̀ и҆ проше́нїе є҆гѡ̀, и҆ ꙗ҆вѝ лицѐ твоѐ на ст҃и́лище твоѐ ѡ҆пꙋстѣ́вшее, тебє̀ ра́ди, гдⷭ҇и.

18

Incline thine ear, O my God, and hear; open thine eyes and behold our desolation, and that of thy city on which thy name is called: for we do not bring our pitiful case before thee on [the ground of] our righteousness, but on [the ground of] thy manifold compassions, O Lord.

κλῖνον ὁ Θεός μου τὸ οὗς σου καὶ ἄκουσον· ἄνοιξον τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς σου καὶ ἰδὲ τὸν ἀφανισμὸν ἡμῶν καὶ τῆς πόλεώς σου, ἐφ’ ἧς ἐπικέκληται τὸ ὄνομά σου ἐπ’ αὐτῆς, ὅτι οὐκ ἐπὶ ταῖς δικαιοσύναις ἡμῶν ῥιπτοῦμεν τὸν οἰκτιρμὸν ἡμῶν ἐνώπιόν σου, ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ τοὺς οἰκτιρμούς σου τοὺς πολλούς, Κύριε.

Приклонѝ, гдⷭ҇и, бж҃е мо́й, ᲂу҆́хо твоѐ и҆ ᲂу҆слы́ши, ѿве́рзи ѻ҆́чи твоѝ и҆ ви́ждь потребле́нїе на́ше и҆ гра́да твоегѡ̀, въ не́мже призва́сѧ и҆́мѧ твоѐ, ꙗ҆́кѡ не на на́шѧ пра̑вды (ᲂу҆пова́юще) поверга́емъ моле́нїе на́ше пред̾ тобо́ю, но на щедрѡ́ты твоѧ̑ мнѡ́гїѧ, гдⷭ҇и.

19

Hearken, O Lord; be propitious, O Lord; attend, O Lord; delay not, O my God, for thine own sake: for thy name is called upon thy city and upon thy people.

εἰσάκουσον, Κύριε, ἱλάσθητι Κύριε, πρόσχες Κύριε καὶ ποίησον· μὴ χρονίσῃς ἕνεκέν σου, ὁ Θεός μου, ὅτι τὸ ὄνομά σου ἐπικέκληται ἐπὶ τὴν πόλιν σου καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν λαόν σου. -

Оу҆слы́ши, гдⷭ҇и, ѡ҆чⷭ҇ти, гдⷭ҇и, вонмѝ, гдⷭ҇и, и҆ сотворѝ, и҆ не закоснѝ тебє̀ ра́ди, бж҃е мо́й, ꙗ҆́кѡ и҆́мѧ твоѐ призва́сѧ во гра́дѣ твое́мъ и҆ въ лю́дехъ твои́хъ.

20

And while I was yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sins and the sins of my people Israel, and bringing my pitiful case before the Lord my God concerning the holy mountain;

Καὶ ἔτι ἐμοῦ λαλοῦντος καὶ προσευχομένου καὶ ἐξαγορεύοντος τὰς ἁμαρτίας μου καὶ τὰς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ λαοῦ μου ᾿Ισραὴλ καὶ ριπτοῦντος τὸν ἔλεόν μου ἐναντίον τοῦ Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ μου περὶ τοῦ ὄρους τοῦ ἁγίου

Є҆ще́ же мѝ глаго́лющꙋ и҆ молѧ́щꙋсѧ и҆ и҆сповѣ́дающꙋ грѣхѝ моѧ̑ и҆ грѣхѝ люді́й мои́хъ і҆и҃лѧ, и҆ припа́дающꙋ съ моле́нїемъ мои́мъ пред̾ гдⷭ҇емъ бг҃омъ мои́мъ ѡ҆ горѣ̀ ст҃ѣ́й є҆гѡ̀:

21

yea, while I was yet speaking in prayer, behold the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, [came] flying, and he touched me about the hour of the evening sacrifice.

καὶ ἔτι ἐμοῦ λαλοῦντος ἐν τῇ προσευχῇ καὶ ἰδοὺ ἀνὴρ Γαβριήλ, ὃν εἶδον ἐν τῇ ὁράσει ἐν τῇ ἀρχῇ, πετόμενος καὶ ἥψατό μου ὡσεὶ ὥραν θυσίας ἑσπερινῆς.

и҆ є҆щѐ глаго́лющꙋ мѝ въ моли́твѣ, и҆ сѐ, мꙋ́жъ гаврїи́лъ, є҆го́же ви́дѣхъ въ видѣ́нїи мое́мъ въ нача́лѣ, парѧ́щь, и҆ прикоснꙋ́сѧ мнѣ̀, а҆́ки въ ча́съ же́ртвы вече́рнїѧ,

Irenaeus †202

This passage reveals to us … that there is one and the same God the Father, who was declared by the prophets but made manifest by Christ. The Lord confirmed those things Daniel prophesied about the end, when our Lord said, “When you see the abomination of desolation that was told by Daniel the prophet.” The angel Gabriel explained the visions to Daniel. This Gabriel is both the archangel of the Creator (Demiurge) and the one who proclaimed to Mary the coming and incarnation of Christ. Thus, most clearly, it must be one and the same God who sent the prophets and who sent forth his Son and called us to recognize him.
Against Heresies 5:25.5

Tertullian †220

This was the evening fast, which offers a richer prayer to God, since it takes place with fasting during the evening.
On Fasting 10

Hippolytus of Rome †235

"And, behold, the man Gabriel ... flying." You see how the prophet likens the speed of the angels to a winged bird, on account of the light and rapid motion with which these spirits fly so quickly in discharge of orders.
Exegetical Fragments - Scholia on Daniel

Jerome †420

Verse 21. "While I was still speaking in my prayer, behold the man Gabriel, whom I had seen at the beginning of the vision." He calls the previous vision preceding this one the beginning. The effect of his prayer was considerable, and the promise of God was fulfilled which says, "While thou art yet speaking, lo, I am at hand" (Isaiah 58:9). And Gabriel appears not as an angel or archangel, but as a man (vir), a term used to indicate the quality of virtue rather than specifying his sex.
"...he quickly flew to me and touched me at the time of the evening sacrifice." It is stated that he flew, because he had made his appearance as a man. It is said that it was at the time of the evening sacrifice, in order to show that the prophet's prayer had persisted from the morning sacrifice even unto the evening sacrifice, and that God for that reason directed His mercy towards him.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

Augustine of Hippo †430

Let them read that Daniel says, “And behold, the man Gabriel.” But why do we delay to shut up their mouths with another most evident and weighty proof, where no angel is mentioned individually or humankind in the plural, but rather the angels in their entirety are mentioned, namely, when it is said that through the angels not just any old word was spoken, but the law itself was given? Certainly, none of the faithful doubts that God gave Moses the law so that the people of Israel might be made subject to it, but nonetheless the law was given through angels. Thus Stephen says, “You received the law proclaimed by angels, and yet you do not keep it.” What is more evident than this? What is stronger and with such authority? The law was given to that people in the proclamations of the angels, but the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ was arranged and foretold through the law. Christ himself, the Word of God, was in a marvelous and indescribable manner in the angels, in whose proclamation the law was given. Thus he says in the Gospel, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me also, for he wrote about me.” Therefore, the Lord was speaking then through the angels; through the angels the Son of God, the one who would be the mediator between God and humankind, arranged his coming from the seed of Abraham so that he could find those who would receive him and confess themselves guilty, inasmuch as their failure to keep the law had made them transgressors.
On the Trinity 3:10

Isidore of Seville †636

Gabriel is translated from Hebrew into our tongue as “might of God.” Wherever God’s power or might is shown, Gabriel is sent. Therefore, also at that time, when the Lord was about to be born and triumph over the world, Gabriel came to Mary and announced him who had humbly agreed to come to defeat the powers of the air.
Etymologies 7:5

Julian of Toledo †690

As is clear to all, Daniel himself gave the name of the very angel in the book of his prophecy, when he learned from the angel those mysteries of the weeks that would take place concerning the birth of Christ.… According to the Gospel, the wonderful name of the very angel was found to have been given again in these times, for the same angel told Zechariah, “I am Gabriel and I stand before God.”
On the Confirmation of the Sixth Age 2:1

22

And he instructed me, and spoke with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to impart to thee understanding.

καὶ συνέτισέ με καὶ ἐλάλησε μετ’ ἐμοῦ καὶ εἶπε· Δανιήλ, νῦν ἐξῆλθον συμβιβάσαι σε σύνεσιν·

и҆ вразꙋми́ мѧ, и҆ глаго́ла ко мнѣ̀, и҆ речѐ: данїи́ле, нн҃ѣ и҆зыдо́хъ ᲂу҆стро́ити тебѣ̀ ра́зꙋмъ:

23

At the beginning of thy supplication the word came forth, and I am come to tell thee; for thou art a man much beloved: therefore consider the matter, understand the vision.

ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς δεήσεώς σου ἐξῆλθε λόγος, καὶ ἐγὼ ἦλθον τοῦ ἀναγγεῖλαί σοι. ὅτι ἀνὴρ ἐπιθυμιῶν εἶ σύ· καὶ ἐννοήθητι ἐν τῷ ρήματι καὶ σύνες ἐν τῇ ὀπτασίᾳ.

въ нача́лѣ моли́твы твоеѧ̀ и҆зы́де сло́во, и҆ а҆́зъ прїидо́хъ возвѣсти́ти тебѣ̀, ꙗ҆́кѡ мꙋ́жъ жела́нїй є҆сѝ ты̀, размы́сли ѡ҆ словесѝ и҆ разꙋмѣ́й во ꙗ҆вле́нїи.

Ephrem the Syrian †373

“So consider the word, which I will speak,” that is, investigate and weigh carefully the meaning and the strength of the proposed vision; and in those things that I am about to tell you about it, contemplate a sort of expressed image of the future events.
Commentary on Daniel 9:23

Jerome †420

Verse 23. "'From the very beginning of thy prayers the word went forth and I myself have come to show it to thee, because thou art a man of desires.'" That is, at the time when thou didst begin to ask God, thou didst straightway obtain His mercy, and His decision was put forth. I have therefore been sent to explain to thee the things of which thou art ignorant, inasmuch as thou art a man of desires, that is to say a lovable man, worthy of God's love - even as Solomon was called Idida (var: Jedida) or "man of desires." (Song of Solomon 5:16) I have been sent because thou art worthy, in recompense for thine affection for God, to be told the secret counsels of God and to have a knowledge of things to come.
"'Thou therefore pay heed to the word and understand the vision.'" Thus Daniel is told, "Pay diligent heed, in order that thou mayest hear and understand what thou seest." We too should do this, for our eyes have been blinded by the shadows of ignorance and the darkness of sins.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

Theodoret of Cyrus †458

The Lord … sent me to convey the future to you. For your part, give precise attention to what is said; what will be said is too profound for a human being (the meaning of “understand what is in the vision”), that is, what will be said in riddles, and requires of you precise attention for grasping it. Now, riddles occur when divine realities are spoken and written, the purpose being to prevent what is revealed to the holy ones becoming clear to everyone; after all, familiarity breeds contempt.
Commentary on Daniel 9:22-23

24

Seventy weeks have been determined upon thy people, and upon the holy city, for sin to be ended, and to seal up transgressions, and to blot out the iniquities, and to make atonement for iniquities, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal the vision and the prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy.

ἑβδομήκοντα ἑβδομάδες συνετμήθησαν ἐπὶ τὸν λαόν σου καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἁγίαν σου τοῦ συντελεσθῆναι ἁμαρτίαν καὶ τοῦ σφραγίσαι ἁμαρτίας καὶ ἀπαλεῖψαι τὰς ἀνομίας καὶ τοῦ ἐξιλάσασθαι ἀδικίας καὶ τοῦ ἀγαγεῖν δικαιοσύνην αἰώνιον καὶ τοῦ σφραγίσαι ὅρασιν καὶ προφήτην καὶ τοῦ χρῖσαι ἅγιον ἁγίων.

Се́дмьдесѧтъ седми́нъ сократи́шасѧ ѡ҆ лю́дехъ твои́хъ и҆ ѡ҆ гра́дѣ твое́мъ ст҃ѣ́мъ, ꙗ҆́кѡ да ѡ҆бетша́етъ согрѣше́нїе, и҆ сконча́етсѧ грѣ́хъ, и҆ запеча́таютсѧ грѣсѝ, и҆ загла́дѧтсѧ непра̑вды, и҆ ѡ҆чи́стѧтсѧ беззакѡ́нїѧ, и҆ приведе́тсѧ пра́вда вѣ́чнаѧ: и҆ запеча́таетсѧ видѣ́нїе и҆ прⷪ҇ро́къ, и҆ пома́жетсѧ ст҃ы́й ст҃ы́хъ.

Clement of Alexandria is referenced above by Jerome (AD 420) †215

24–27
The learned scholar Clement, presbyter of the church at Alexandria, regards the number of years as a matter of slight consequence, asserting that the seventy weeks of years were completed by the span of time from the reign of Cyrus, King of the Persians, to the reign of the Roman emperors, Vespasian and Titus; that is to say, the interval of four hundred and ninety years, with the addition in that same figure of the two thousand three hundred days of which we made earlier mention. He attempts to reckon in these seventy weeks the ages of the Persians, Macedonians, and Caesars, even though according to the most careful computation, the number of years from the first year of Cyrus, King of the Persians and Medes, when Darius also bore rule, up to the reign of Vespasian and the destruction of the Temple amounts to six hundred and thirty.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

Tertullian is referenced above by Jerome (AD 420) †220

24–27
We may learn what Tertullian had to say on the subject by consulting the book which he wrote against the Jews (Contra Judaeos), and his remarks may be set forth in brief: "How, then, are we to show that Christ came within the sixty-two weeks? This calculation begins with the first year of Darius, since that was the time when the vision itself was revealed to Daniel. For he was told: 'Understand and conclude from the prophesying of the command for me to give thee this reply...' Hence we are to commence our computation with the first year of Darius, when Daniel beheld this vision. Let us see, then, how the years are fulfilled up to the advent of Christ. Darius reigned nineteen years; Artaxerxes forty years; the Ochus who was surnamed Cyrus twenty-four years; Argus, one year. Then Darius II, who was called Melas, twenty-one years. Alexander the Macedonian reigned twelve years. And then after Alexander (who had ruled over both the Medes and the Persians, after he had conquered them, and had established his rule in Alexandria, calling it after his own name), Soter reigned there in Alexandria for thirty-five years, and was succeeded by Philadelphus, who reigned for thirty-eight years. After him Euergetes reigned for twenty-five years, and then Philopator for seventeen years, followed by Epiphanes for twenty-four years. Furthermore the second Euergetes ruled for twenty and nine years, and Soter for thirty-eight years. Ptolemy for thirty-seven years, and Cleopatra for twenty years and five months. Furthermore Cleopatra shared the rule with Augustus for thirteen years. After Cleopatra Augustus reigned forty-three years more. For all of the years of the reign of Augustus were fifty-six in number. And let us see (variant: we see) that in the forty-first year of the reign of Augustus, who ruled after the death of Cleopatra, Christ was born. And this same Augustus lived on for fifteen years after the time when Christ was born. And so the resultant periods of years up to the day of Christ's birth and the forty-first year of Augustus, after the death of Cleopatra, come to the total figure of four hundred and thirty-seven years and five months. This means that sixty-two and a half weeks were used up, or the equivalent of four hundred and thirty-seven years and six months, by the day when Christ was born. Then eternal righteousness was revealed, and the Saint of saints was anointed, namely Christ, and the vision and prophecy were sealed, and those sins were remitted which are allowed through faith in Christ's name to all who believe in Him." But what is the meaning of the statement that the "vision and prophecy are confirmed by a seal"? It means that all the prophets made proclamation concerning Himself, saying that He was going to come and that He would have to suffer. Hence we read shortly thereafter in this Tertullian passage, "The years were fifty-six in number; furthermore, Cleopatra continued to reign jointly under Augustus..." It was because the prophecy was fulfilled by His advent that the vision was confirmed by a seal; and it was called a prophecy because Christ Himself is the seal of all the prophets, fulfilling as He did all that the prophets had previously declared concerning Him. Of course after His advent and His passion (variant; the passion of Christ), there is no longer any vision or prophecy (variant: or prophet) which declares that Christ will come. And then a little later Tertullian says, "Let us see what is the meaning of the seven and a half weeks, which in turn are divided up into a subsection of earlier weeks; by what transaction were they fulfilled? Well, after Augustus, who lived on after Christ's birth, fifteen years elapsed. He was succeeded by Tiberius Caesar, and he held sway for twenty-two years, seven months and twenty-eight days. In the fifteenth year of his reign Christ suffered, being about thirty-three when He suffered. Then there was Gaius Caesar, also named Caligula, who reigned for three years, eight months and thirteen days. Nero reigned for nine years, nine months and thirteen days. Galba ruled for seven months and twenty-eight days; Otho for three months and five days; and Vitellius for eight months and twenty-eight days. Vespasian vanquished the Jews in the first year of his reign, bringing the number of years to a total of fifty-two, plus six months. For he ruled for eleven years, and so by the date of his storming Jerusalem, the Jews had completed the seventy weeks foretold by Daniel."
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

Hippolytus of Rome is referenced above by Jerome (AD 420) †235

24–27
But Hippolytus has expressed the following opinion concerning these same weeks: he reckons the seven weeks as prior to the return of the people from Babylon, and the sixty-two weeks as subsequent to their return and extending to the birth of Christ. But the dates do not agree at all. If indeed the duration of the Persian Empire be reckoned at two hundred and thirty years, and the Macedonian Empire at three hundred, and the period thereafter up to the birth of the Lord be thirty years, then the total from the beginning of the reign of Cyrus, King of the Persians, until the advent of the Savior will be five hundred and sixty years. Moreover Hippolytus places the final week at the end of the world and divides it into the period of Elias and the period of Antichrist, so that during the three and a half years of the last week the knowledge of God is established. And as for the statement, "He shall establish a compact with many for a week" (Daniel 9:27), during the other three years under the Antichrist the sacrifice and offering shall cease. But when Christ shall come and shall slay the wicked one by the breath of His mouth, desolation shall hold sway till the end.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

Hippolytus of Rome †235

24–27
12. After his confession and supplication, the angel says to him, "Thou art a man greatly beloved: "for thou desirest to see things of which thou shalt be informed by me; and in their own time these things will be fulfilled; and he touched me, saying, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon the holy city, to seal up sins and to blot out transgressions, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy; and thou shalt know and understand, that from the going forth of words for the answer, and for the building of Jerusalem, unto Christ the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks."
13. Having mentioned therefore seventy weeks, and having divided them into two parts, in order that what was spoken by him to the prophet might be better understood, he proceeds thus, "Unto Christ the Prince shall be seven weeks," which make forty-nine years. It was in the twenty-first year that Daniel saw these things in Babylon. Hence, the forty-nine years added to the twenty-one, make up the seventy years, of which the blessed Jeremiah spake: "The sanctuary shall be desolate seventy years from the captivity that befell them under Nebuchadnezzar; and after these things the people will return, and sacrifice and offering will be presented, when Christ is their Prince."
14. Now of what Christ does he speak, but of Jesus the son of Josedech, who returned at that time along with the people, and offered sacrifice according to the law, in the seventieth year, when the sanctuary was built? For all the kings and priests were styled Christs, because they were anointed with the holy oil, which Moses of old prepared. These, then, bore the name of the Lord in their own persons, showing aforetime the type, and presenting the image until the perfect King and Priest appeared from heaven, who alone did the will of the Father; as also it is written in Kings: "And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do all things according to my heart."
15. In order, then, to show the time when He is to come whom the blessed Daniel desired to see, he says, "And after seven weeks there are other threescore and two weeks," which period embraces the space of 434 years. For after the return of the people from Babylon under the leadership of Jesus the son of Josedech, and Ezra the scribe, and Zerubbabel the son of Salathiel, of the tribe of David, there were 434 years unto the coming of Christ, in order that the Priest of priests might be manifested in the world, and that He who taketh away the sins of the world might be evidently set forth, as John speaks concerning Him: "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!" And in like manner Gabriel says: "To blot out transgressions, and make reconciliation for sins." But who has blotted out our transgressions? Paul the apostle teaches us, saying, "He is our peace who made both one;" and then, "Blotting out the handwriting of sins that was against us."
16. That transgressions, therefore, are blotted out, and that reconciliation is made for sins, is shown by this. But who are they who have reconciliation made for their sins, but they who believe on His name, and propitiate His countenance by good works? And that after the return of the people from Babylon there was a space of 434 years, until the time of the birth of Christ, may be easily understood. For, since the first covenant was given to the children of Israel after a period of 434 years, it follows that the second covenant also should be defined by the same space of time, in order that it might be expected by the people and easily recognised by the faithful.
17. And for this reason Gabriel says: "And to anoint the Most Holy." And the Most Holy is none else but the Son of God alone, who, when He came and manifested Himself, said to them, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me; " and so forth. Whosoever, therefore, believed on the heavenly Priest, were cleansed by that same Priest, and their sins were blotted out. And whosoever believe it not on Him, despising Him as a man, had their sins sealed, as those which could not be taken away; whence the angel, foreseeing that not all should believe on Him, said, "To finish sins, and to seal up sins." For as many as continued to disbelieve Him, even to the end, had their sins not finished, but sealed to be kept for judgment. But as many as will believe on Him as One able to remit sins, have their sins blotted out. Wherefore he says: "And to seal up vision and prophet."
18. For when He came who is the fulfilling of the law and of the prophets (for the law and the prophets were till John), it was necessary that the things spoken by them should be confirmed (sealed), in order that at the coming of the Lord all things loosed should be brought to light, and that things bound of old should now be loosed by Him, as the Lord said Himself to the rulers of the people, when they were indignant at the cure on the Sabbath-day: "Ye hypocrites, doth not each one of you loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? and ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound these eighteen years, be loosed on the Sabbath-day? " Whomsoever, therefore, Satan bound in chains, these did the Lord on His coming loose from the bonds of death, having bound our strong adversary and delivered humanity. As also Isaiah says: "Then will He say to those in chains, Go forth; and to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves."
19. And that the things spoken of old by the law and the prophets were all sealed, and that they were unknown to men, Isaiah declares when he says: "And they will deliver the book that is sealed to one that is learned, and will say to him, Read this; and he will say, I cannot read it, for it is sealed." It was meet and necessary that the things spoken of old by the prophets should be sealed to the unbelieving Pharisees, who thought that they understood the letter of the law, and be opened to the believing. The things, therefore, which of old were sealed, are now by the grace of God the Lord all open to the saints.
20. For He was Himself the perfect Seal, and the Church is the key: "He who openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth," as John says. And again, the same says: "And I saw, on the right hand of Him that sat on the throne, a book written within and without, sealed with seven seals; and I saw an angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? "and so forth. "And I beheld in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, a Lamb standing slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne. And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four-and-twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having harps and golden vials full of incense, which is the prayers of the saints. And they sing a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood." He took the book, therefore, and loosed it, in order that the things spoken concerning Him of old in secret, might now be proclaimed with boldness upon the house-tops.
21. For this reason, then, the angel says to Daniel, "Seal the words, for the vision is until the end of the time." But to Christ it was not said "seal," but "loose" the things bound of old; in order that, by His grace, we might know the will of the Father, and believe upon Him whom He has sent for the salvation of men, Jesus our Lord. He says, therefore, "They shall return, and the street shall be built, and the wall; "which in reality took place. For the people returned and built the city, and the temple, and the wall round about. Then he says: "After threescore and two weeks the times will be fulfilled, and one week will make a covenant with many; and in the midst (half) of the week sacrifice and oblation will be removed, and in the temple will be the abomination of desolations."
22. For when the threescore and two weeks are fulfilled, and Christ is come, and the Gospel is preached in every place, the times being then accomplished, there will remain only one week, the last, in which Elias will appear, and Enoch, and in the midst of it the abomination of desolation will be manifested, viz., Antichrist, announcing desolation to the world. And when he comes, the sacrifice and oblation will be removed, which now are offered to God in every place by the nations. These things being thus recounted, the prophet again describes another vision to us. For he had no other care save to be accurately instructed in all things that are to be, and to prove himself an instructor in such.
Exegetical Fragments - Of the visions of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar

Julius Africanus (as quoted by Jerome, AD 420) †240

24–27
The chapter which we read in Daniel concerning the seventy weeks contains many remarkable details, which require too lengthy a discussion at this point; and so we must discuss only what pertains to our present task, namely that which concerns chronology. There is no doubt but what it constitutes a prediction of Christ's advent, for He appeared to the world at the end of seventy weeks. After Him the crimes were consummated and sin reached its end and iniquity was destroyed. An eternal righteousness also was proclaimed which overcame the mere righteousness of the law; and the vision and the prophecy were fulfilled, inasmuch as the Law and the Prophets endured until the time of John the Baptist (Luke 16), and then the Saint of saints was anointed. And all these things were the objects of hope, prior to Christ's incarnation, rather than the objects of actual possession. Now the angel himself specified seventy weeks of years, that is to say, four hundred and ninety years from the issuing of the word that the petition be granted and that Jerusalem be rebuilt. The specified interval began in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, King of the Persians; for it was his cupbearer, Nehemiah (Neh. 1), who, as we read in the book of Ezra, petitioned the king and obtained his request that Jerusalem be rebuilt. And this was the word, or decree, which granted permission for the construction of the city and its encompassment with walls; for up until that time it had lain open to the incursions of the surrounding nations. But if one points to the command of King Cyrus, who granted to all who desired it permission to return to Jerusalem, the fact of the matter is that the high priest Jesus and Zerubbabel, and later on the priest Ezra, together with the others who had been willing to set forth from Babylon with them, only made an abortive attempt to construct the Temple and the city with its walls, but were prevented by the surrounding nations from completing the task, on the pretext that the king had not so ordered. And thus the work remained incomplete until Nehemiah's time and the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes. Hence the captivity lasted for seventy years prior to the Persian rule. At this period in the Persian Empire a hundred and fifteen years had elapsed since its inception, but it was the one hundred and eighty-fifth year from the captivity of Jerusalem when Artaxerxes first gave orders for the walls of Jerusalem to be built. Nehemiah was in charge of this undertaking, and the street was built and the surrounding walls were erected. Now if you compute seventy weeks of years from that date, you can come out to the time of Christ. But if we wish to take any other date as the starting point for these weeks, then the dates will show a discrepancy and we shall encounter many difficulties. For if the seventy weeks are computed from the time of Cyrus and his decree of indulgence which effectuated the release of the Jewish captives, then we shall encounter a deficit of a hundred years and more short of the stated number of seventy weeks. If we reckon from the day when the angel spoke to Daniel, the deficit would be much greater. An even greater number of years is added, if you wish to put the beginning of the weeks at the commencement of the captivity. For the kingdom of the Persians endured for two hundred and thirty years until the rise of the Macedonian kingdom; then the Macedonians themselves reigned for three hundred years. From that date until the sixteenth (i.e., the fifteenth) year of Tiberius Caesar, when Christ suffered death, is an interval of sixty years. All of these years added together come to the number of five hundred and ninety, with the result that a hundred years remain to be accounted for. On the other hand, the interval from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes to the time of Christ completes the figure of seventy weeks, if we reckon according to the lunar computation of the Hebrews, who did not number their months according to the movement of the sun, but rather according to the moon. For the interval from the one hundred fiftieth year of the Persian Empire, when Artaxerxes, as king thereof, attained the twentieth year of his reign (and this was the fourth year of the eighty-third Olympiad), up until the two hundred and second Olympiad (for it was the second year of that Olympiad which was the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar) comes out to be the grand total of four hundred seventy-five years. This would result in four hundred ninety Hebrew years, reckoning according to the lunar months as we have suggested. For according to their computation, these years can be made up of months of twenty-nine (variant: twenty-eight) and a half days each. This means that the sun, during a period of four hundred ninety years, completes its revolution in three hundred sixty-five days and a quarter, and this amounts to twelve lunar months for each individual year, with eleven and a fourth days left over to spare. Consequently the Greeks and Jews over a period of eight years insert three intercalary months (embolimoi). For if you will multiply eleven and a quarter days by eight, you will come out to ninety days, which equal three months. Now if you divide the eight-year periods into four hundred seventy-five years, your quotient will be fifty-nine plus three months. These fifty-nine plus eight-year periods produce enough intercalary months to make up fifteen years, more or less; and if you will add these fifteen years to the four hundred seventy-five years, you will come out to seventy weeks of years, that is, a total of four hundred and ninety years.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

Origen of Alexandria is referenced above by Jerome (AD 420) †253

24–27
When Origen came to deal with this chapter, he urged us to seek out what information we do not possess; and because he had no leeway for allegorical interpretation, in which one may argue without constraint, but rather was restricted to matters of historical fact, he made this brief observation in the tenth volume of the Stromata: "We must quite carefully ascertain the amount of time between the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, and the advent of Christ, and discover how many years were involved, and what events are said to have occurred during them. Then we must see whether we can fit these data in with the time of the Lord's coming."
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

Eusebius of Caesarea (as quoted by Jerome, AD 420) †339

24–27
It does not seem to me that the seventy weeks have been divided up without purpose, in that seven is mentioned first, and then sixty-two, and then a last week is added, which in turn is itself divided into two parts. For it is written: 'Thou shalt know and understand that from the issuing of the word (command) that the petition be granted and Jerusalem be built until Christ the Prince there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.' And after the rest which he relates in the intervening section, he states at the end: 'He shall confirm a testimony (covenant) with many during one week.' It is clear that the angel did not detail these things in his reply to no purpose or apart from the inspiration of God. This observation seems to require some cautious and careful reasoning, so that the reader may pay diligent attention and inquire into the cause for this division (variant: vision). But if we must express our own opinion, in conformity with the rest of the interpretation which concerns this present context, in the angel's statement: 'From the issuing of the word that the petition be granted and that Jerusalem be built, until the time of Christ the Prince,' we are only to think of other princes who had charge of the Jewish people subsequent to this prophecy and subsequent to the return from Babylon. That is to say, we are to think of the arkhiereis and pontiffs to whom the Scripture attaches the title of christs, by reason of the fact that they have been anointed. The first of these was Jesus the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and then the rest who had that office up until the time of the advent of our Lord and Savior. And it is these who are intended by the prophet's prediction when it states: 'From the issuing of the word that the petition be granted and Jerusalem be built even unto Christ the Prince there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks.' That is to say, the purpose is that seven weeks be counted off, and then afterward sixty-two weeks, which come to a total of four hundred and eighty-three years after the time of Cyrus. And lest we appear to be putting forth a mere conjecture too rashly and without testing the truth of our statements, let us reckon up those who bore office as christs over the people from the time of Jeshua, the son of Jehozadak, until the advent of the Lord; that is to say, those who were anointed for the high priesthood. First, then, as we have already stated, subsequent to Daniel's prophecy, which occurred in the reign of Cyrus, and subsequent to the return of the people from Babylon, Jeshua the son of Jehozadak was the high priest, and together with Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, they laid the foundations of the temple. And because the undertaking was hindered by the Samaritans and the other surrounding nations, seven weeks of years elapsed (that is to say, forty-nine years), during which the work on the temple remained unfinished. These weeks are separated by the prophecy from the remaining sixty-two weeks. And lastly, the Jews also followed this view when they said to the Lord in the Gospel-narrative: 'This temple was built over a period of forty-six years, and shalt thou raise it up in three days' (John 2:20). For this was the number of years which elapsed between the first year of Cyrus, who granted to those Jews who so desired the permission to return to their fatherland, and the sixth year of King Darius, in whose reign the entire work upon the temple was finished. Furthermore Josephus added on three more years, during which the periboloi (precincts) and certain other construction left undone were brought to completion; and when these are added to the forty-six years, they come out to forty-nine years, or seven weeks of years. And the remaining sixty-two weeks are computed from the seventh year of Darius. At that time Jeshua the son of Jehozadak, and Zerubbabel (who had already reached his majority) were in charge of the people, and it was in their time that Haggai and Zechariah prophesied. After them came Ezra and Nehemiah from Babylon and constructed the walls of the city during the high priesthood of Joiakim, son of Jeshua, who had the surname of Jehozadak. After him Eliashib succeeded to the priesthood, then Joiada and Johanan after him. Following him there was Jaddua, in whose lifetime Alexander, the king of the Macedonians, founded Alexandria, as Josephus relates in his books of the Antiquities, and actually came to Jerusalem and offered blood-sacrifices in the Temple. Now Alexander died in the one hundred and thirteenth Olympiad, in the two hundred thirty-sixth year of the Persian Empire, which in turn had begun in the first year of the fifty-fifth Olympiad. That was the date when Cyrus, King of the Persians, conquered the Babylonians and Chaldeans. After the death of the priest Jaddua, who had been in charge of the temple in Alexander's reign, Onias received the high priesthood. It was at this period that Seleucus, after the conquest of Babylon, placed upon his own head the crown of all Syria and Asia, in the twelfth year after Alexander's death. Up to that time the years which had elapsed since the rule of Cyrus, when computed together, were two hundred and forty-eight. From that date the Scripture of the Maccabees computes the kingdom of the Greeks. Following Onias, the high priest Eleazar became head of the Jews. That was the period when the Seventy translators (Septuaginta interpretes) are said to have translated the Holy Scriptures into Greek at Alexandria. After him came Onias II, who was followed by Simon, who ruled over the people when Jesus the son of Sirach wrote the book which bears the Greek title of Panaretos ("A Completely Virtuous Man"), and which is by most people falsely attributed to Solomon. Another Onias followed him in the high priesthood, and that was the period when Antiochus was trying to force the Jews to sacrifice to the gods of the Gentiles. After the death of Onias, Judas Maccabaeus cleansed the Temple and smashed to bits the statues of the idols. His brother Jonathan followed him, and after Jonathan their brother Simon governed the people. By his death the two hundred and seventy-seventh year of the Syrian kingdom had elapsed, and the First Book of Maccabees contains a record of events up to that time. And so the total number of years from the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, until the end of the First Book of Maccabees and the death of the high priest Simon is four hundred twenty-five. After him John occupied the high priesthood for twenty-nine years, and upon his death Aristobulus became head of the people for a year and was the first man after the return from Babylon to associate with the dignity of high priesthood the authority of kingship. His successor was Alexander, who likewise was high priest and king, and who governed the people for twenty-seven years. Up to this point, the number of years from the first year of Cyrus and the return of the captives who desired to come back to Judaea is to be computed at four hundred and eighty-three. This total is made up of the seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks, or sixty-nine weeks altogether. And during this whole period high priests ruled over the Jewish people, and I now believe that they are those referred to as christ-princes. And when the last of them, Alexander, had died, the Jewish nation was rent in this direction and that into various factions, and was harrassed by internal seditions in its leaderless condition; and that too to such an extent that Alexandra, who was also called Salina, and who was the wife of the same Alexander, seized power and kept the high priesthood for her son, Hyrcanus. But she passed on the royal power to her other son, Aristobulus, and he exercised it for ten years. But when the brothers fought with each other in civil war and the Jewish nation was drawn into various factions, then Gnaeus Pompey, the general of the Roman army, came upon the scene. Having captured Jerusalem, he penetrated even to the shrine in the temple which was called the Holy of holies. He sent Aristobulus back to Rome in chains, keeping him for his triumphal procession, and then he gave the high priesthood to his brother, Hyrcanus. Then for the first time the Jewish nation became tributary to the Romans. Succeeding him, Herod, the son of Antipater, received the royal authority over the Jews by senatorial decree, after Hyrcanus had been killed; and so he was the first foreigner to become governor of the Jews. Moreover when his parents had died, he handed over the high priesthood to his children, even though they were non-Jews, utterly contrary to the law of Moses. Nor did he entrust the office to them for long, except upon their granting him favors and bribes, for he despised the commands of God's law.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

Ephrem the Syrian †373

This means that there will be quietness for your people, so that the transgressions may be finished and the sins expiated through the seventy years of the bondage in Babylon may end, as well as all the crimes of the children of Israel. Again “to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin”: here he also hints at the transgressions and sins of the Gentiles, which will happen in the end of the seventy weeks. “And to atone for iniquity”: and this began from the baptism of John; “to bring everlasting righteousness”: and soon Christ will appear, the Author of justice, who had been announced by the prophets before the centuries, and he will justify then sinners. “To seal both vision and prophet”: certainly Christ fulfilled all the oracles of the prophets with his advent, passion and death, and he showed that they were true through facts. “And to anoint a most holy one”: from the conclusion of this prophecy you will learn this: he endowed the holy ones with holiness.
Commentary on Daniel 9:24

Apollinaris of Laodicea is referenced above by Jerome (AD 420) †382

24–27
On the other hand Apollinarius of Laodicea in his investigation of the problem breaks away from the stream of the past and directs his longing desires towards the future, very unsafely venturing an opinion concerning matters so obscure. And if by any chance those of future generations should not see these predictions of his fulfilled at the time he set, then they will be forced to seek for some other solution and to convict the teacher himself of erroneous interpretation. And so, in order to avoid the appearance of slandering a man as having made a statement he never made, he makes the following assertion - and I translate him word for word: "To the period of four hundred and ninety years the wicked deeds are to be confined as well as all the crimes which shall ensue from those deeds. After these shall come the times of blessing, and the world is to be reconciled unto God at the advent of Christ, His Son. For from the coming forth of the Word, when Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, to the forty-ninth year, that is, the end of the seven weeks, waited for Israel to repent. Thereafter, indeed, from the eighth year of Claudius Caesar onward, the Romans took up arms against the Jews. For it was in His thirtieth year, according to the Evangelist Luke, that the Lord incarnate began His preaching of the Gospel (Luke 1). According to the Evangelist John (John 2 and 11), Christ completed two years over a period of three passovers. The years of Tiberius' reign from that point onward are to be reckoned at six; then there were the four years of the reign of Gaius Caesar, surnamed Caligula, and eight more years in the reign of Claudius. This makes a total of forty-nine years, or the equivalent of seven weeks of years. But when four hundred thirty-four years shall have elapsed after that date, that is to say, the sixty-two weeks, then Jerusalem and the Temple shall be rebuilt during three and a half years within the final week, beginning with the advent of Elias, who according to the dictum of our Lord and Savior (Luke 1) is going to come and turn back the hearts of the fathers towards their children. And then the Antichrist shall come, and according to the Apostle he is going to sit in the temple of God (II Thess. 2) and be slain by the breath of our Lord and Savior after he has waged war against the saints. And thus it shall come to pass that the middle of the week shall mark the confirmation of God's covenant with the saints, and the middle of the week in turn shall mark the issuing of the decree under the authority of Antichrist that no more sacrifices be offered. For the Antichrist shall set up the abomination of desolation, that is, an idol or statue of his own god, within the Temple. Then shall ensue the final devastation and the condemnation of the Jewish people, who after their rejection of Christ's truth shall embrace the lie of the Antichrist." Moreover this same Apollinarius asserts that he conceived this idea about the proper dating from the fact that Africanus, the author of the Tempora... affirms that the final week will occur at the end of the world. Yet, says Apollinarius, it is impossible that periods so linked together be wrenched apart, but rather the time-segments must all be joined together in conformity with Daniel's prophecy.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

Jerome †420

24–27
Verses 24-27. "'Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished, and everlasting justice may be brought to bear, and that the vision and prophecy may be fulfilled that the Holy One of the saints may be anointed. Know therefore and take note that from the going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ the prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, and the street shall be built again, and the walls, in distressing times. And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain, and (the people that shall deny Him) shall not be His. And a people, with their leader that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And the end thereof shall be devastation, and after the end of the war there shall be the appointed desolation. And he shall confirm the covenant with many in one week; and in the middle of the week both victim and sacrifice shall fail. And there shall be in the Temple the abomination of desolation, and the desolation shall continue even unto the consummation and the end.'" Because the prophet had said, "Thou didst lead forth Thy people, and Thy name was pronounced upon Thy city and upon Thy people," Gabriel therefore, as the mouthpiece of God, says by implication: "By no means are they God's people, but only thy people; nor is Jerusalem the holy city of God, but it is only a holy city unto thee, as thou sayest." This is similar to what we read in Exodus also, when God says to Moses, "Descend, for thy people have committed sin" (Exodus 32:7). That is to say, they are not My people, for they have forsaken Me. And so, because thou dost supplicate for Jerusalem and prayest for the people of the Jews, hearken unto that which shall befall thy people in seventy weeks of years, and those things which will happen to thy city.
I realize that this question has been argued over in various ways by men of greatest learning, and that each of them has expressed his views according to the capacity of his own genius. And so, because it is unsafe to pass judgment upon the opinions of the great teachers of the Church and to set one above another, I shall simply repeat the view of each, and leave it to the reader's judgment as to whose explanation ought to be followed. In the fifth volume of his Tempora ["Chronology"], Africanus has this to say concerning the seventy weeks (and I quote him verbatim): "The chapter which we read in Daniel concerning the seventy weeks contains many remarkable details, which require too lengthy a discussion at this point; and so we must discuss only what pertains to our present task, namely that which concerns chronology. There is no doubt but what it constitutes a prediction of Christ's advent, for He appeared to the world at the end of seventy weeks. After Him the crimes were consummated and sin reached its end and iniquity was destroyed. An eternal righteousness also was proclaimed which overcame the mere righteousness of the law; and the vision and the prophecy were fulfilled, inasmuch as the Law and the Prophets endured until the time of John the Baptist (Luke 16), and then the Saint of saints was anointed. And all these things were the objects of hope, prior to Christ's incarnation, rather than the objects of actual possession. Now the angel himself specified seventy weeks of years, that is to say, four hundred and ninety years from the issuing of the word that the petition be granted and that Jerusalem be rebuilt. The specified interval began in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, King of the Persians; for it was his cupbearer, Nehemiah (Neh. 1), who, as we read in the book of Ezra, petitioned the king and obtained his request that Jerusalem be rebuilt. And this was the word, or decree, which granted permission for the construction of the city and its encompassment with walls; for up until that time it had lain open to the incursions of the surrounding nations. But if one points to the command of King Cyrus, who granted to all who desired it permission to return to Jerusalem, the fact of the matter is that the high priest Jesus and Zerubbabel, and later on the priest Ezra, together with the others who had been willing to set forth from Babylon with them, only made an abortive attempt to construct the Temple and the city with its walls, but were prevented by the surrounding nations from completing the task, on the pretext that the king had not so ordered. And thus the work remained incomplete until Nehemiah's time and the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes. Hence the captivity lasted for seventy years prior to the Persian rule. At this period in the Persian Empire a hundred and fifteen years had elapsed since its inception, but it was the one hundred and eighty-fifth year from the captivity of Jerusalem when Artaxerxes first gave orders for the walls of Jerusalem to be built. Nehemiah was in charge of this undertaking, and the street was built and the surrounding walls were erected. Now if you compute seventy weeks of years from that date, you can come out to the time of Christ. But if we wish to take any other date as the starting point for these weeks, then the dates will show a discrepancy and we shall encounter many difficulties. For if the seventy weeks are computed from the time of Cyrus and his decree of indulgence which effectuated the release of the Jewish captives, then we shall encounter a deficit of a hundred years and more short of the stated number of seventy weeks. If we reckon from the day when the angel spoke to Daniel, the deficit would be much greater. An even greater number of years is added, if you wish to put the beginning of the weeks at the commencement of the captivity. For the kingdom of the Persians endured for two hundred and thirty years until the rise of the Macedonian kingdom; then the Macedonians themselves reigned for three hundred years. From that date until the sixteenth (i.e., the fifteenth) year of Tiberius Caesar, when Christ suffered death, is an interval of sixty years. All of these years added together come to the number of five hundred and ninety, with the result that a hundred years remain to be accounted for. On the other hand, the interval from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes to the time of Christ completes the figure of seventy weeks, if we reckon according to the lunar computation of the Hebrews, who did not number their months according to the movement of the sun, but rather according to the moon. For the interval from the one hundred fiftieth year of the Persian Empire, when Artaxerxes, as king thereof, attained the twentieth year of his reign (and this was the fourth year of the eighty-third Olympiad), up until the two hundred and second Olympiad (for it was the second year of that Olympiad which was the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar) comes out to be the grand total of four hundred seventy-five years. This would result in four hundred ninety Hebrew years, reckoning according to the lunar months as we have suggested. For according to their computation, these years can be made up of months of twenty-nine (variant: twenty-eight) and a half days each. This means that the sun, during a period of four hundred ninety years, completes its revolution in three hundred sixty-five days and a quarter, and this amounts to twelve lunar months for each individual year, with eleven and a fourth days left over to spare. Consequently the Greeks and Jews over a period of eight years insert three intercalary months (embolimoi). For if you will multiply eleven and a quarter days by eight, you will come out to ninety days, which equal three months. Now if you divide the eight-year periods into four hundred seventy-five years, your quotient will be fifty-nine plus three months. These fifty-nine plus eight-year periods produce enough intercalary months to make up fifteen years, more or less; and if you will add these fifteen years to the four hundred seventy-five years, you will come out to seventy weeks of years, that is, a total of four hundred and ninety years."
Africanus has expressed his views in these very words which we have copied out. Let us pass on to Eusebius Pamphili, who in the eighth book of his Euangelike Apodeixis [the full title was Euangelikes Apodeixeos Proparaskeue or "Preparation for the Demonstration of the Gospel"; the Latin title is Praeparatio Evangelica] ventures some such conjecture as this: "It does not seem to me that the seventy weeks have been divided up without purpose, in that seven is mentioned first, and then sixty-two, and then a last week is added, which in turn is itself divided into two parts. For it is written: 'Thou shalt know and understand that from the issuing of the word (command) that the petition be granted and Jerusalem be built until Christ the Prince there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.' And after the rest which he relates in the intervening section, he states at the end: 'He shall confirm a testimony (covenant) with many during one week.' It is clear that the angel did not detail these things in his reply to no purpose or apart from the inspiration of God. This observation seems to require some cautious and careful reasoning, so that the reader may pay diligent attention and inquire into the cause for this division (variant: vision). But if we must express our own opinion, in conformity with the rest of the interpretation which concerns this present context, in the angel's statement: 'From the issuing of the word that the petition be granted and that Jerusalem be built, until the time of Christ the Prince,' we are only to think of other princes who had charge of the Jewish people subsequent to this prophecy and subsequent to the return from Babylon. That is to say, we are to think of the arkhiereis and pontiffs to whom the Scripture attaches the title of christs, by reason of the fact that they have been anointed. The first of these was Jesus the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and then the rest who had that office up until the time of the advent of our Lord and Savior. And it is these who are intended by the prophet's prediction when it states: 'From the issuing of the word that the petition be granted and Jerusalem be built even unto Christ the Prince there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks.' That is to say, the purpose is that seven weeks be counted off, and then afterward sixty-two weeks, which come to a total of four hundred and eighty-three years after the time of Cyrus. And lest we appear to be putting forth a mere conjecture too rashly and without testing the truth of our statements, let us reckon up those who bore office as christs over the people from the time of Jeshua, the son of Jehozadak, until the advent of the Lord; that is to say, those who were anointed for the high priesthood. First, then, as we have already stated, subsequent to Daniel's prophecy, which occurred in the reign of Cyrus, and subsequent to the return of the people from Babylon, Jeshua the son of Jehozadak was the high priest, and together with Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, they laid the foundations of the temple. And because the undertaking was hindered by the Samaritans and the other surrounding nations, seven weeks of years elapsed (that is to say, forty-nine years), during which the work on the temple remained unfinished. These weeks are separated by the prophecy from the remaining sixty-two weeks. And lastly, the Jews also followed this view when they said to the Lord in the Gospel-narrative: 'This temple was built over a period of forty-six years, and shalt thou raise it up in three days' (John 2:20). For this was the number of years which elapsed between the first year of Cyrus, who granted to those Jews who so desired the permission to return to their fatherland, and the sixth year of King Darius, in whose reign the entire work upon the temple was finished. Furthermore Josephus added on three more years, during which the periboloi (precincts) and certain other construction left undone were brought to completion; and when these are added to the forty-six years, they come out to forty-nine years, or seven weeks of years. And the remaining sixty-two weeks are computed from the seventh year of Darius. At that time Jeshua the son of Jehozadak, and Zerubbabel (who had already reached his majority) were in charge of the people, and it was in their time that Haggai and Zechariah prophesied. After them came Ezra and Nehemiah from Babylon and constructed the walls of the city during the high priesthood of Joiakim, son of Jeshua, who had the surname of Jehozadak. After him Eliashib succeeded to the priesthood, then Joiada and Johanan after him. Following him there was Jaddua, in whose lifetime Alexander, the king of the Macedonians, founded Alexandria, as Josephus relates in his books of the Antiquities, and actually came to Jerusalem and offered blood-sacrifices in the Temple. Now Alexander died in the one hundred and thirteenth Olympiad, in the two hundred thirty-sixth year of the Persian Empire, which in turn had begun in the first year of the fifty-fifth Olympiad. That was the date when Cyrus, King of the Persians, conquered the Babylonians and Chaldeans. After the death of the priest Jaddua, who had been in charge of the temple in Alexander's reign, Onias received the high priesthood. It was at this period that Seleucus, after the conquest of Babylon, placed upon his own head the crown of all Syria and Asia, in the twelfth year after Alexander's death. Up to that time the years which had elapsed since the rule of Cyrus, when computed together, were two hundred and forty-eight. From that date the Scripture of the Maccabees computes the kingdom of the Greeks. Following Onias, the high priest Eleazar became head of the Jews. That was the period when the Seventy translators (Septuaginta interpretes) are said to have translated the Holy Scriptures into Greek at Alexandria. After him came Onias II, who was followed by Simon, who ruled over the people when Jesus the son of Sirach wrote the book which bears the Greek title of Panaretos ("A Completely Virtuous Man"), and which is by most people falsely attributed to Solomon. Another Onias followed him in the high priesthood, and that was the period when Antiochus was trying to force the Jews to sacrifice to the gods of the Gentiles. After the death of Onias, Judas Maccabaeus cleansed the Temple and smashed to bits the statues of the idols. His brother Jonathan followed him, and after Jonathan their brother Simon governed the people. By his death the two hundred and seventy-seventh year of the Syrian kingdom had elapsed, and the First Book of Maccabees contains a record of events up to that time. And so the total number of years from the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, until the end of the First Book of Maccabees and the death of the high priest Simon is four hundred twenty-five. After him John occupied the high priesthood for twenty-nine years, and upon his death Aristobulus became head of the people for a year and was the first man after the return from Babylon to associate with the dignity of high priesthood the authority of kingship. His successor was Alexander, who likewise was high priest and king, and who governed the people for twenty-seven years. Up to this point, the number of years from the first year of Cyrus and the return of the captives who desired to come back to Judaea is to be computed at four hundred and eighty-three. This total is made up of the seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks, or sixty-nine weeks altogether. And during this whole period high priests ruled over the Jewish people, and I now believe that they are those referred to as christ-princes. And when the last of them, Alexander, had died, the Jewish nation was rent in this direction and that into various factions, and was harrassed by internal seditions in its leaderless condition; and that too to such an extent that Alexandra, who was also called Salina, and who was the wife of the same Alexander, seized power and kept the high priesthood for her son, Hyrcanus. But she passed on the royal power to her other son, Aristobulus, and he exercised it for ten years. But when the brothers fought with each other in civil war and the Jewish nation was drawn into various factions, then Gnaeus Pompey, the general of the Roman army, came upon the scene. Having captured Jerusalem, he penetrated even to the shrine in the temple which was called the Holy of holies. He sent Aristobulus back to Rome in chains, keeping him for his triumphal procession, and then he gave the high priesthood to his brother, Hyrcanus. Then for the first time the Jewish nation became tributary to the Romans. Succeeding him, Herod, the son of Antipater, received the royal authority over the Jews by senatorial decree, after Hyrcanus had been killed; and so he was the first foreigner to become governor of the Jews. Moreover when his parents had died, he handed over the high priesthood to his children, even though they were non-Jews, utterly contrary to the law of Moses. Nor did he entrust the office to them for long, except upon their granting him favors and bribes, for he despised the commands of God's law."
The same Eusebius offered another explanation also, and if we wanted to translate it into Latin, we should greatly expand the size of this book. And so the sense of his interpretation is this, that the number of years from the sixth year of Darius, who reigned after Cyrus and his son, Cambyses, - and this was the date when the work on the temple was completed - until the time of Herod and Caesar Augustus is reckoned to be seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks, which make a total of four hundred eighty-three years. That was the date when the christ, that is to say, Hyrcanus, being the last high priest of the Maccabaean line, was murdered by Herod, and the succession of high priests came to an end, so far as the law of God was concerned. It was then also that a Roman army under the leadership of a Roman general devastated both the city and the sanctuary itself. Or else it was Herod himself who committed the devastation, after he had through the Romans appropriated to himself a governmental authority to which he had no right. And as for the angel's statement, "For he shall establish a compact with many for one week (variant: "a compact for many weeks"), and in the midst of the week the sacrifice and offering shall cease," it is to be understood in this way, that Christ was born while Herod was reigning in Judaea and Augustus in Rome, and He preached the Gospel for three years and six months, according to John the Evangelist. And he established the worship of the true God with many people, undoubtedly meaning the Apostles and believers generally. And then, after our Lord's passion, the sacrifice and offering ceased in the middle of the week. For whatever took place in the Temple after that date was not a valid sacrifice to God but a mere worship of the devil, while they all cried out together, "His blood be upon us and upon our children" (Matthew 27:25); and again, "We have no king but Caesar." Any reader who is interested may look up this passage in the Chronicle of this same Eusebius, for I translated it into Latin many years ago. But as for his statement that the number of years to be reckoned from the completion of the temple to the tenth year of the Emperor Augustus, that is, when Hyrcanus was slain and Herod obtained Judaea, amounts to a total of seven plus sixty-two weeks, or four hundred eighty-three years, we may check it in the following fashion. The building of the temple was finished in the seventy-sixth Olympiad, which was the sixth year of Darius. In the third year of the one hundred and eighty-sixth Olympiad, that is, the tenth year of Augustus, Herod seized the rule over the Jews. This makes the interval four hundred and eighty-three years, reckoning up by the individual Olympiads and computing them at four years each. This same Eusebius reports another view as well, which I do not entirely reject, that most authorities extend the one week of years to the sum of seventy years, reckoning each year as a ten-year period. They also claim that thirty-five years intervened between the passion of the Lord and the reign of Nero, and that it was at this latter date when the weapons of Rome were first lifted up against the Jews, this being the half-way point of the week of seventy years. After that, indeed, from the time of Vespasian and Titus (and it was right after their accession to power that Jerusalem and the temple were burned) up to the reign of Trajan another thirty-five years elapsed. And this, they assert, was the week of which the angel said to Daniel: "And he shall establish a compact with many for one week." For the Gospel was preached by the Apostles all over the world, since they survived even unto that late date. According to the tradition of the church historians, John the Evangelist lived up to the time of Trajan. Yet I am at a loss to know how we can understand the earlier seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks to involve seven years each, and just this last one to involve ten years for each unit of the seven, or seventy years in all.
So much for Eusebius. But Hippolytus has expressed the following opinion concerning these same weeks: he reckons the seven weeks as prior to the return of the people from Babylon, and the sixty-two weeks as subsequent to their return and extending to the birth of Christ. But the dates do not agree at all. If indeed the duration of the Persian Empire be reckoned at two hundred and thirty years, and the Macedonian Empire at three hundred, and the period thereafter up to the birth of the Lord be thirty years, then the total from the beginning of the reign of Cyrus, King of the Persians, until the advent of the Savior will be five hundred and sixty years. Moreover Hippolytus places the final week at the end of the world and divides it into the period of Elias and the period of Antichrist, so that during the three and a half years of the last week the knowledge of God is established. And as for the statement, "He shall establish a compact with many for a week" (Daniel 9:27), during the other three years under the Antichrist the sacrifice and offering shall cease. But when Christ shall come and shall slay the wicked one by the breath of His mouth, desolation shall hold sway till the end.
On the other hand Apollinarius of Laodicea in his investigation of the problem breaks away from the stream of the past and directs his longing desires towards the future, very unsafely venturing an opinion concerning matters so obscure. And if by any chance those of future generations should not see these predictions of his fulfilled at the time he set, then they will be forced to seek for some other solution and to convict the teacher himself of erroneous interpretation. And so, in order to avoid the appearance of slandering a man as having made a statement he never made, he makes the following assertion - and I translate him word for word: "To the period of four hundred and ninety years the wicked deeds are to be confined as well as all the crimes which shall ensue from those deeds. After these shall come the times of blessing, and the world is to be reconciled unto God at the advent of Christ, His Son. For from the coming forth of the Word, when Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, to the forty-ninth year, that is, the end of the seven weeks, waited for Israel to repent. Thereafter, indeed, from the eighth year of Claudius Caesar onward, the Romans took up arms against the Jews. For it was in His thirtieth year, according to the Evangelist Luke, that the Lord incarnate began His preaching of the Gospel (Luke 1). According to the Evangelist John (John 2 and 11), Christ completed two years over a period of three passovers. The years of Tiberius' reign from that point onward are to be reckoned at six; then there were the four years of the reign of Gaius Caesar, surnamed Caligula, and eight more years in the reign of Claudius. This makes a total of forty-nine years, or the equivalent of seven weeks of years. But when four hundred thirty-four years shall have elapsed after that date, that is to say, the sixty-two weeks, then Jerusalem and the Temple shall be rebuilt during three and a half years within the final week, beginning with the advent of Elias, who according to the dictum of our Lord and Savior (Luke 1) is going to come and turn back the hearts of the fathers towards their children. And then the Antichrist shall come, and according to the Apostle he is going to sit in the temple of God (II Thess. 2) and be slain by the breath of our Lord and Savior after he has waged war against the saints. And thus it shall come to pass that the middle of the week shall mark the confirmation of God's covenant with the saints, and the middle of the week in turn shall mark the issuing of the decree under the authority of Antichrist that no more sacrifices be offered. For the Antichrist shall set up the abomination of desolation, that is, an idol or statue of his own god, within the Temple. Then shall ensue the final devastation and the condemnation of the Jewish people, who after their rejection of Christ's truth shall embrace the lie of the Antichrist.\" Moreover this same Apollinarius asserts that he conceived this idea about the proper dating from the fact that Africanus, the author of the Tempora, whose explanation I have inserted above, affirms that the final week will occur at the end of the world. Yet, says Apollinarius, it is impossible that periods so linked together be wrenched apart, but rather the time-segments must all be joined together in conformity with Daniel's prophecy.
The learned scholar Clement, presbyter of the church at Alexandria, regards the number of years as a matter of slight consequence, asserting that the seventy weeks of years were completed by the span of time from the reign of Cyrus, King of the Persians, to the reign of the Roman emperors, Vespasian and Titus; that is to say, the interval of four hundred and ninety years, with the addition in that same figure of the two thousand three hundred days of which we made earlier mention. He attempts to reckon in these seventy weeks the ages of the Persians, Macedonians, and Caesars, even though according to the most careful computation, the number of years from the first year of Cyrus, King of the Persians and Medes, when Darius also bore rule, up to the reign of Vespasian and the destruction of the Temple amounts to six hundred and thirty.
When Origen came to deal with this chapter, he urged us to seek out what information we do not possess; and because he had no leeway for allegorical interpretation, in which one may argue without constraint, but rather was restricted to matters of historical fact, he made this brief observation in the tenth volume of the Stromata: "We must quite carefully ascertain the amount of time between the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, and the advent of Christ, and discover how many years were involved, and what events are said to have occurred during them. Then we must see whether we can fit these data in with the time of the Lord's coming."
We may learn what Tertullian had to say on the subject by consulting the book which he wrote against the Jews (Contra Judaeos), and his remarks may be set forth in brief: "How, then, are we to show that Christ came within the sixty-two weeks? This calculation begins with the first year of Darius, since that was the time when the vision itself was revealed to Daniel. For he was told: 'Understand and conclude from the prophesying of the command for me to give thee this reply...' Hence we are to commence our computation with the first year of Darius, when Daniel beheld this vision. Let us see, then, how the years are fulfilled up to the advent of Christ. Darius reigned nineteen years; Artaxerxes forty years; the Ochus who was surnamed Cyrus twenty-four years; Argus, one year. Then Darius II, who was called Melas, twenty-one years. Alexander the Macedonian reigned twelve years. And then after Alexander (who had ruled over both the Medes and the Persians, after he had conquered them, and had established his rule in Alexandria, calling it after his own name), Soter reigned there in Alexandria for thirty-five years, and was succeeded by Philadelphus, who reigned for thirty-eight years. After him Euergetes reigned for twenty-five years, and then Philopator for seventeen years, followed by Epiphanes for twenty-four years. Furthermore the second Euergetes ruled for twenty and nine years, and Soter for thirty-eight years. Ptolemy for thirty-seven years, and Cleopatra for twenty years and five months. Furthermore Cleopatra shared the rule with Augustus for thirteen years. After Cleopatra Augustus reigned forty-three years more. For all of the years of the reign of Augustus were fifty-six in number. And let us see (variant: we see) that in the forty-first year of the reign of Augustus, who ruled after the death of Cleopatra, Christ was born. And this same Augustus lived on for fifteen years after the time when Christ was born. And so the resultant periods of years up to the day of Christ's birth and the forty-first year of Augustus, after the death of Cleopatra, come to the total figure of four hundred and thirty-seven years and five months. This means that sixty-two and a half weeks were used up, or the equivalent of four hundred and thirty-seven years and six months, by the day when Christ was born. Then eternal righteousness was revealed, and the Saint of saints was anointed, namely Christ, and the vision and prophecy were sealed, and those sins were remitted which are allowed through faith in Christ's name to all who believe in Him." But what is the meaning of the statement that the "vision and prophecy are confirmed by a seal"? It means that all the prophets made proclamation concerning Himself, saying that He was going to come and that He would have to suffer. Hence we read shortly thereafter in this Tertullian passage, "The years were fifty-six in number; furthermore, Cleopatra continued to reign jointly under Augustus..." It was because the prophecy was fulfilled by His advent that the vision was confirmed by a seal; and it was called a prophecy because Christ Himself is the seal of all the prophets, fulfilling as He did all that the prophets had previously declared concerning Him. Of course after His advent and His passion (variant; the passion of Christ), there is no longer any vision or prophecy (variant: or prophet) which declares that Christ will come. And then a little later Tertullian says, "Let us see what is the meaning of the seven and a half weeks, which in turn are divided up into a subsection of earlier weeks; by what transaction were they fulfilled? Well, after Augustus, who lived on after Christ's birth, fifteen years elapsed. He was succeeded by Tiberius Caesar, and he held sway for twenty-two years, seven months and twenty-eight days. In the fifteenth year of his reign Christ suffered, being about thirty-three when He suffered. Then there was Gaius Caesar, also named Caligula, who reigned for three years, eight months and thirteen days. Nero reigned for nine years, nine months and thirteen days. Galba ruled for seven months and twenty-eight days; Otho for three months and five days; and Vitellius for eight months and twenty-eight days. Vespasian vanquished the Jews in the first year of his reign, bringing the number of years to a total of fifty-two, plus six months. For he ruled for eleven years, and so by the date of his storming Jerusalem, the Jews had completed the seventy weeks foretold by Daniel."
As for the view which the Hebrews hold concerning this passage, I shall set it forth summarily and within a brief compass, leaving the credibility of their assertions to those who asserted them. And so let me put it in the form of a paraphrase (paraphrastikds) in order to bring out the sense more clearly. "O Daniel, know that from this day on which I now speak to thee (and that was the first year of the Darius who slew Belshazzar and transferred the Chaldean Empire to the Medes and Persians) unto the seventieth week of years (that is, four hundred and ninety years) the following events shall befall thy people in stages. First of all, God shall be appeased by thee in view of the earnest intercession thou hast just offered Him, and sin shall be canceled out and the transgression shall come to an end. For although the city at present lies deserted and the Temple lies destroyed to its very foundations , so that the nation is plunged into mourning, yet within a fairly short time it shall be restored. And not only shall it come to pass within these seventy weeks that the city shall be rebuilt and the Temple restored, but also the Christ, who is the eternal righteousness, shall be born. And so shall the vision and the prophecy be sealed, with the result that there shall be no more any prophet to be found in Israel, and the Saint of saints shall be anointed. We read concerning Him in the Psalter: 'Because God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows' (Psalm 45:7). And in another passage He says of Himself: 'Be ye holy, for I also am holy' (Lev. 19:2). Know therefore that from this day on which I speak to thee and make thee the promise by the word of the Lord that the nation shall return and Jerusalem shall be restored, there shall be sixty-two weeks numbered unto the time of Christ the Prince and of the perpetual desolation of the Temple; and that there shall also be seven weeks in which the two events shall take place which I have already mentioned, namely that the nation shall return and the street shall be rebuilt by Nehemiah and Ezra. And so at the end of the weeks the decree of God shall be accomplished in distressing times, when the Temple shall again be destroyed, and the city taken captive. For after the sixty-two weeks the Christ shall be slain, and the nation who shall reject Him shall go out of existence" - or, as the Jews themselves put it, the kingdom of Christ which they imagined they would retain shall not even be. And why do I speak of the slaying of Christ, and of the nation's utter forfeiture of God's help, since the Roman people were going to demolish the city and sanctuary under Vespasian, the leader who was to come? Upon his death the seven weeks or forty-nine years were complete, and after the city of Aelia was established upon the ruins of Jerusalem, Aelius Hadrian vanquished the revolting Jews in their conflict with the general, Timus Rufus. It was at that time that the sacrifice and offering (ceased and) will continue to cease even unto the completion of the age, and the desolation is going to endure until the very end. We are not, say the Jews, greatly impressed by the fact that the seven weeks are mentioned first, and afterwards the sixty-two, and again a single week divided into two parts. For it is simply the idiomatic usage of the Hebrew language, as well as of antique Latin, that in quoting a figure, the small number is given first and then the larger. For example, we do not, according to good usage say in our language, "Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years"; on the contrary the Hebrews say, "Abraham lived five and seventy and one hundred years". And so the fulfilment is not to follow the literal order of the words, but it shall be accomplished in terms of the whole sum, taken together. I am also well aware that some of the Jews assert that as for the statement about the single week, "He shall establish a covenant with many for one week," the division is between the reigns of Vespasian and Hadrian. According to the history of Josephus, Vespasian and Titus concluded peace with the Jews for three years and six month. And the three years and six months are accounted for in Hadrian's reign, when Jerusalem was completely destroyed and the Jewish nation was massacred in large groups at a time, with the result that they were even expelled from the borders of Judaea. This is what the Hebrews have to say on the subject, paying little attention to the fact that from the first year of Darius, King of the Persians, until the final overthrow of Jerusalem, which befell them under Hadrian, the period involved is a hundred and seventy-four Olympiads or six hundred ninety-six years, which total up to ninety-nine Hebrew weeks plus three years - that being the time when Barcochebas, the leader of the Jews, was crushed and Jerusalem was demolished to the very ground.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE

Quodvultdeus †450

As the end of the seventy-year period was drawing near, during which Jerusalem would be left desolate, as the Lord had foretold through the prophet Jeremiah, Daniel poured forth his prayer.… The archangel Gabriel came to his aid and told him about the mysteries that would take place. There would be seventy brief weeks among his people and in the holy city so that sin could end and trespasses be sealed up and unrighteousness ended and eternal righteousness brought in. Also the visions of the prophets would end, and the Holy of Holies would be anointed. From the time that this word went out in reply and Jerusalem would be built up would be seven weeks; until Christ, the prince, would come, sixty-two weeks.
The Book of Promises and Predictions of God 2:35

Theodoret of Cyrus †458

Daniel … teaches that God decided that a period of 490 years should be allotted to Jerusalem to enjoy divine gifts as usual until it committed that sacrilegious and fearsome crime—I mean, the crucifixion of the Savior, who is known as Holy of Holies for his being the fount of holiness; he is anointed in his humanity by the Holy Spirit, and seals and confirms the ancient prophecies by fulfilling everything foretold by them and grants forgiveness of sins to those who believe in him.
Commentary on Daniel 9:24

Ishodad of Merv †850

The words “seventy weeks will linger,” that is, until the destruction caused by the Romans. In fact, even though, in the meantime, they are sometimes afflicted, they will not be abandoned completely. Seventy weeks make 490 years; they are calculated from the time when they will come back from Babylon and will begin to build the temple to the year when the Romans will make war against them after the ascension of our Lord.
Commentary on Daniel 9:24

25

And thou shalt know and understand, that from the going forth of the command for the answer and for the building of Jerusalem until Christ the prince [there shall be] seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks; and then [the time] shall return, and the street shall be built, and the wall, and the times shall be exhausted.

καὶ γνώσῃ καὶ συνήσεις· ἀπὸ ἐξόδου λόγου τοῦ ἀποκριθῆναι καὶ τοῦ οἰκοδομῆσαι ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ ἕως χριστοῦ ἡγουμένου ἑβδομάδες ἑπτὰ καὶ ἑβδομάδες ἑξηκονταδύο· καὶ ἐπιστρέψει καὶ οἰκοδομηθήσεται πλατεῖα καὶ τεῖχος, καὶ ἐκκενωθήσονται οἱ καιροί.

И҆ ᲂу҆вѣ́си и҆ ᲂу҆разꙋмѣ́еши ѿ и҆схо́да словесѐ, є҆́же ѿвѣща́ти и҆ є҆́же согради́ти і҆ерⷭ҇ли́мъ, да́же до хрⷭ҇та̀ старѣ́йшины седми́нъ се́дмь и҆ седми́нъ шестьдесѧ́тъ двѣ̀: и҆ возврати́тсѧ, и҆ согради́тсѧ сто́гна и҆ забра̑ла, и҆ и҆стоща́тсѧ лѣ̑та.

26

And after the sixty-two weeks, the anointed one shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in him: and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary with the prince that is coming: they shall be cut off with a flood, and to the end of the war which is rapidly completed he shall appoint [the city] to desolations.

καὶ μετὰ τὰς ἑβδομάδας τὰς ἑξηκονταδύο ἐξολοθρευθήσεται χρῖσμα, καὶ κρίμα οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτῷ· καὶ τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὸ ἅγιον διαφθερεῖ σὺν τῷ ἡγουμένῳ τῷ ἐρχομένῳ καὶ ἐκκοπήσονται ἐν κατακλυσμῷ, καὶ ἕως τέλους πολέμου συντετμημένου τάξει ἀφανισμοῖς.

И҆ по седми́нахъ шести́десѧти двꙋ́хъ потреби́тсѧ пома́занїе {Є҆вр.: мессі́а.}, и҆ сꙋ́дъ не бꙋ́детъ въ не́мъ: гра́дъ же и҆ ст҃о́е разсы́плетсѧ со старѣ́йшиною грѧдꙋ́щимъ, и҆ потребѧ́тсѧ а҆́ки въ пото́пѣ, и҆ до конца̀ ра́ти сокраще́нныѧ чи́номъ, поги́бельми.

Tertullian †220

Now you hesitate to believe what we have stated, although you see that these things have happened. Therefore we ought to seek again the times that were foretold, both as pertaining to the birth and suffering of Christ and the removal of the city Jerusalem, that is, its destruction. Daniel says that the holy city and its sanctuary will be removed when the prince comes and that its pinnacle would be utterly destroyed. The times for the coming of the Christ must be sought again, as we found out in Daniel. When we have made a reckoning of these things, we will prove that he had already come, based on the chronology that had been foretold, the signs that accompanied him, his works and the events that followed him, which would take place after his coming, as had been foretold, so that we might believe that all these predictions had been fulfilled. Daniel had thus foretold about him, so that he showed when and where he would free the nations and in what year after his passion the holy city would be removed.
An Answer to the Jews 8

Primasius of Hadrumetum †560

This is what [Daniel] says when he talks about the seventy weeks: “Seventy weeks will be for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and sixty-two weeks until Christ the prince. After the sixty-two weeks the Christ will be killed, and he will have nothing. And a people with their leader will come and destroy the city and the sanctuary.” A little later: “He will confirm a covenant with many for a week, and in the middle of the week the offering and sacrifice will fail, and there will be an abomination of desolation.” Since these things must be understood to refer to Christ’s first coming, in which those things were done and also received their outcome, nonetheless that portion after the division of the weeks (which he had distributed in a rather secret manner of heavenly inspiration, first making mention of seven, then sixty-two, finally one, which he also divided into two parts), that is, the final week is aptly applied to the end of the first coming of Christ and to the beginning of his second coming. To state it more clearly, I think that it necessarily must apply to both comings in an interpretation that applies harmoniously to both. For after seven and sixty-two weeks the Christ would come and be killed, and he would reprove those who killed him, just as it was said that the same people will not be his. And as for his confirming a covenant with many during one week, one would rightly understand that all the words of the Old Testament and the actions that foretold by type the Christ’s coming have been fulfilled by the truth of his presence, who is the end of the law. Nonetheless, I think that the intention of this week most aptly pertains to the end of the world, since I hear soon thereafter, “And in half a week offering and sacrifice will come to an end.”
Commentary on the Apocalypse 3:11

Ishodad of Merv †850

Theodoret interprets (“the king who will come”) as the foreign kingship and the unlawful doctrine. Others say, “With the king who will come,” meaning with the Christ who will come. Instead of the words “the anointed one shall be killed,” the Jews [say foolishly], “The oil shall be cut off.” Therefore, since there is no oil, and the oil of the anointment does not flow anymore, and it stops and does not proceed anymore, there was nobody to anoint with it both the kings and the priests according to the rule observed since Moses and afterwards. It was necessary that the law come to an end, because without priesthood and without the anointment of all that was anointed under the law, the law itself could not survive anymore. In the same manner, with what will your “anointed prince” be anointed, as there is no oil or ointment? “Its end shall come with a flood” and with destruction just like in the deluge of the generations of Noah.
Commentary on Daniel 9:26

27

And one week shall establish the covenant with many: and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and drink-offering shall be taken away: and on the temple [shall be] the abomination of desolations; and at the end of time an end shall be put to the desolation.

-at the end of time- is questionable, since the original writes ἕως τῆς συντελείας, i.e. -until- the end of time.

И҆ ᲂу҆тверди́тъ завѣ́тъ мнѡ́зѣмъ седми́на є҆ди́на: въ по́лъ же седми́ны ѿи́метсѧ же́ртва и҆ возлїѧ́нїе, и҆ во свѧти́лищи ме́рзость запꙋстѣ́нїѧ бꙋ́детъ, и҆ да́же до сконча́нїѧ вре́мене сконча́нїе да́стсѧ на ѡ҆пꙋстѣ́нїе.

Ephrem the Syrian †373

Certainly this end of the Jews will be by no means similar to their transmigration to Egypt or Babylon; in fact they were dismissed from there after four hundred years, and from here after seventy. This ruin fixed by the decree of God the judge will remain immutable to the end. He shall make a strong covenant with many: Christ will make the Testament holy and firm through one week and half a week, until he removes the victim and the sacrifice. He is the one who set the victim and the sacrifice but who also abolishes them. In their place shall be an abomination that desolates: the Romans, after submitting Judea to their power, placed the eagle, symbol of their emperor, in the temple. And this is what we read: “So when you see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place, as was spoken by the prophet Daniel.” Until the decreed end is poured out on desolation, that is, until the full execution of the divine decrees, the city will be given to oblivion and will lie destroyed and abandoned.
Commentary on Daniel 9:27

Pseudo-Hegesippus †400

But what else did Daniel proclaim? He was prophesying not that which had already been done but that which would take place. What is the abomination of desolation that he proclaimed would take place when the Romans came, unless it is those things that now threaten? What is the oracle that we often mention as having been declared by the most high God, that the city will perish down to its foundation, when their own prince will have been killed at the hands of his fellow tribe members, unless it is that which we now see being fulfilled? And perhaps because it did not please them to keep the temple unstained by innocent blood, it pleases God to purify it by fire.
On the Jewish War by Josephus Flavius 5:2

Bede †735

Christ was killed not immediately after the sixty-two weeks but at the end of the seventieth week. As far as we can figure out, [Daniel] separates this last week from the others, for he was going to say more about this week. Christ was crucified in that week.… The events that follow—the fact that a people and their general would destroy the city and the sanctuary and that its end would be devastation and after the end of the war desolation would be decreed for it—these events do not pertain to the seventy weeks. It had foretold that those weeks extend up to the leadership of the Christ, but still the Scriptures, after foretelling his coming and passion, wanted to show what would take place thereafter to the people who refused to welcome him. He says that Titus would come with the Roman people, who in the fortieth year after the passion of our Lord destroyed the city and the temple so that not even one rock remained on top of another. But having given a taste of these things in anticipation, he soon returns to expounding the week that he had glossed over. “He will confirm a covenant with many during one week,” that is, in that last week in which John the Baptist, our Lord and the apostles converted many to the faith. “And in the middle of the week offering and sacrifice will come to an end.” The middle of this week was the fifteenth year of Tiberias Caesar, when at the baptism of Christ the purification brought by the sacrifices began to grow obsolete, as far as the faithful were concerned. Again that which follows, “In the temple there will be an abomination of desolation, and the desolation will remain until the consummation and the end,” has a view to the era that follows. The history of past generations and the events of our own times confirm the truthfulness of this prophecy.
The Reckoning of Time 9