The First Seven weeks

In your article about Daniel’s 70 weeks, you explain that it’s broken up into 3 sections: 7+62+1, but you don’t separate them. You only explain them in 2 separate sections. Why do you combine the 7 with the 62 OR how is the first 7 separate from the 62? There must be some significance to the difference or it would’ve just been 69.

Q. In your article about Daniel’s 70 weeks, you explain that it’s broken up into 3 sections: 7+62+1, but you don’t separate them. You only explain them in 2 separate sections. Why do you combine the 7 with the 62 OR how is the first 7 separate from the 62? There must be some significance to the difference or it would’ve just been 69.

A. I combined the first two because that’s the way Daniel 9 presents them. It makes no mention of why there are three periods, dividing only the second and third by the arrival and execution of the Messiah and the destruction of the city and the sanctuary. Most commentators conclude that the first period of 7 weeks (49 years) represents the time it took to rebuild the Temple after the Babylonian Captivity.