70 in the bible (including the Daniel 25 prophecy)

Have you noticed the number 70 is found throughout the bible in both the old and new testament? Here I unpack some of those and attempt to explain why the number is used and draw connections between it's use in various places in the bible, with a particular focus on its use in the book of Daniel, chapter 9.

In a prior video I had discussed the number 12 in the bible It is found most prominently as the number of tribes, which form the basic structure of the Old Testament, And as the number of disciples of Jesus, who founded the early church Well, it turns out the number 70 is involved there too.

Recall when the twelve tribes, or at that time, just the sons, of Israel, entered Egypt? As you might imagine, they weren't children at the time, and it wasn't just Israel's immediate family that went into Egypt, it was his extended family including grandchildren, and did you know their were a total of 70 of them at that time? And fast forward a bit to the 12 disciples, or followers of Jesus. It appears Jesus had a sort of inner circle of 3 disciples he was closest to, including James, John and Peter. Well, he also had a sort of outer circle of followers that weren't as close as the 12, and guess how many there were? Yep, 70. So in this way it appears 70 is connected to the number 12 as this size of this next outer ring from both the tribes and the disciples.

It's used several other places in the Hebrew scriptures for the number of sons prominent leaders had, or the number of leaders of Israel, and in other symbology, but why 70?

One reason is it is described as the life span of a man. Psalm 90:10 The years of our life are seventy Isaiah 23 Seventy years, like the days of one king As a sort of an addendum I also discuss the mathematical or scientific basis or significance for the significance as it relates back to the ancient year of 12 months of 30 days each for 360 days/year.

The number is perhaps most prominent in the prophecy recording in the book of Daniel, chapter 9. I describe how the '70 weeks' in this chapter corresponds to 490 years of disobedience by Israel, 70 years of captivity in Babylon, and 70 'weeks' of years until the Messiah comes and sets everything right.

I conclude by noting the fulfillment and significance of this prophecy, and about how Isaac Newton wrote about it. Hope the video is helpful, take care, -Matthew