Daniel's Seventy Weeks: Revelation or Reproduction?
William Branham’s sermons on Daniel’s seventy weeks present the interpretation as divinely revealed insight, yet detailed comparison shows close dependence on Clarence Larkin’s earlier published chronology. By examining identical dates, calculations, and explanatory methods, this analysis explores how inherited dispensational material was later reframed as supernatural revelation, raising questions about authority, interpretation, and the use of Scripture.
William Branham’s later sermons on Daniel’s “seventy weeks” present the interpretation as the product of divine revelation rather than historical study. However, a close comparison between Branham’s sermon material and Clarence Larkin’s published treatment of Daniel reveals extensive overlap not only in general interpretive framework, but in specific chronological data, numerical calculations, and explanatory logic. The parallels extend beyond shared dispensational assumptions to include identical dates, calendar conversions, and solutions to well-known chronological discrepancies associated with Daniel 9.[1]
Beyond questions of literary dependence, the comparison raises significant theological concerns regarding method and authority. In Scripture, prophetic interpretation is consistently grounded in the public text of revelation and is subject to communal testing and correction (Isa. 8:20; Acts 17:11; 1 Cor. 14:29). By contrast, Branham’s exposition of Daniel 9 progressively shifts from acknowledged study of existing commentators to claims of divinely granted certainty, effectively insulating his conclusions from critical evaluation. This move reframes interpretive agreement as spiritual discernment and disagreement as blindness, a posture that stands in tension with the New Testament model of accountable teaching and shared doctrinal reasoning (Gal. 1:8–9; 2 Tim. 2:15).
Additionally, Branham’s handling of Daniel’s seventy weeks introduces broader eschatological distortions by repurposing a prophecy explicitly “determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city” (Dan. 9:24) as a structural framework for church history. Daniel 9 itself contains no reference to a Gentile church age, a sequence of ecclesial epochs, or a narrowing remnant extracted from Christian history. Those concepts are derived instead from later theological systems and are retroactively imposed upon the text. When such constructions are then presented as newly revealed truth rather than inherited interpretation, the authority of Scripture is subtly displaced by the authority of the interpreter, contrary to the biblical warning against adding to or redefining prophetic revelation (Deut. 4:2; Prov. 30:5–6; Rev. 22:18–19).
This has been a week of tremendous study. Yesterday, all day, I hardly moved from the room, trying to study. And it’s something in the last time, a many of the old-timers here, that I taught, I just said, "In here belongs the seventy weeks of Daniel,” but I did not try to attack it, to explain it. But this time, by the grace of God, I have taken upon myself to try to ask grace before God, that I might bring it to the people. And in here I’m finding things that I do not know one thing about. 33 And, then, I—I’ve been reading Dr. Larkin’s book, Dr. Smith’s book, Dr. Scofield’s notes, different commentaries from men everywhere, and yet I cannot put theirs together to make it come out right. See? So, this week I’m planning on, been visiting the library in Kentucky, on some of the ancient astronomy of the calendars and times, and picking up from the libraries, and so forth, all the ancient books that I can, and to what little I can do, and having my trust solemnly in Jesus Christ to reveal it to me. {...} and having my trust solemnly in Jesus Christ to reveal it to me, because I do not want it to say, "I know this, and I know that."
Branham, William. 1961, July 30. Gabriel's Instructions To Daniel (61-0730M).
The following side-by-side comparisons place Branham’s statements alongside corresponding passages from Larkin’s work in order to evaluate the degree of dependence between the two. The purpose is not merely to note theological similarity, but to assess whether Branham’s presentation represents an independent revelatory insight or a rearticulation of previously published material that was later reframed as supernatural disclosure.
Branham
Now, the prophet Daniel had been in Babylon for sixty-eight years. You who wants to run references back, and save yourself some of the time, that I’ve had to—to looking it up. Sixty-eight years! He went into captivity in b.c. 606, and when the vision came to him was—was b.c. 538. 538 from 606, leaves sixty-eight. Sixty-eight years he had been in Babylon, amongst heathens, and still had the victory.
Now, to lap back our Scriptures for a few moments, we find that Daniel had been in captivity for sixty-eight long years. Think of it! Now, you, and your paper and pencil, that didn’t get it this morning, may pick it up tonight. From a.d. 606 to 538. Take 538 from 606, you got sixty-eight years Daniel had been in…a captive; no church to go to, no sermons to hear, nothing. But he had some books, some scrolls, that a prophet before him had prophesied, and was—was Jeremiah.[2]
Larkin
The first verse of the chapter locates it in the “First Year” of Darius the Median, or the same year as the “Fall of Babylon,” B. C. 538. Daniel had been studying the Prophecy of Jeremiah, and learned from it that the 70 years of “Captivity” of his people were drawing to a close, for the “Captivity” began in B. C. 606, and 68 years had elapsed since then.[3]
Now, I got some writing here that I’d like to read to you as we go by. Now: …the going forth of the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem… Which, was on the 14th day of March. If any of you want to put that down, in the Hebrew you’ll find it called N-i-s-a-n, Nisan, which means “March.” The issue was given on the 14th day of March, b.c. 445, the issue went forth to build, rebuild the temple. You understand it, as you people have read the Scriptures[4]
The date of the “commandment” is given in Nehemiah 2:1 as the month “Nisan” in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, which was the 14th day of March, B. C. 445.[5]
Now, now, Jesus, Messiah, rode into the city of Jerusalem, triumph, on the back of a white mule, on Palm Sunday, April the 2nd, a.d. 30. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, a.d. 30. And now, now, from b.c. 445 to a.d. 30, is exactly four hundred and seventy-five years. But, as we have already seen, that the sixty-nine weeks makes four hundred and eighty-three years. Now, there is where the trouble comes, right there. See? We’ve got only, with the marking of the Bible here, time, only four hundred and seventy-five years. And, actually, it’s four hundred and eighty-three years, a difference of eight years.
Now, God can’t make it miss. If He said it would be so many days, it’s so many days. If He says it’s so much, it’s so much. So what are we going to do? Now, the b.c. 475 to a.d. 30, are Julian or astronomal years, which are three hundred and sixty-five and one-fourth day in—in each. But when we reduce them days to our prophetic calendar…
Our prophetic calendar brings us to three hundred and sixty days, as we use now in the Scriptures. We have exactly four hundred and eighty-three. There it is, four hundred and eighty-three. Here we have exactly proof of the prophecy, exactly the truth. For, from the time of the going forth to build the temple, until the destroying, when they rejected Christ and killed Him in a.d. 33, when Christ was killed, is exactly four hundred and eighty-three years. Now, from the going forth of the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem, was determined seven weeks, which meant forty-nine years. And forty-nine years hit it exactly. Well, from the rebuilding of the temple to the Messiah, was four hundred and thirty-eight years. So, four hundred and thir-…four hundred and thirty-four years. And four hundred and thirty-four (time), forty-nine, makes exactly four hundred and eighty-three years. It hit it on the nose, exactly to the day, from day to day. Amen! There you are.
“Messiah the Prince shall come.” See? Seven times sixty-nine is four hundred and thir-…and—and eighty-four years. Exactly, it hit it on the nose. So, then, we know perfectly, we know exactly, that that Scripture is right. Here it is. But, you see, all these… When God had the antediluvian world and destroyed it by water, and changed the astronomy date; and then let the Romans come in and make up their calendar, which it hits and jumps, and so forth. And I guess, that, even in the encyclopedia where I been reading[6]
The day when Jesus rode in Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem as “Messiah the Prince,” was Palm Sunday, April 2, A. D. 30. Luke 19:37–40. But the time between March 14, B. C. 445, and April 2, A. D. 30, is more than 69 literal “weeks.” It is 445+30=475 years. What explanation can we give for this? We found that the time between the “commandment” to restore and build Jerusalem, and “Messiah the Prince,” was to be 69 weeks, or 69×7=483 days, or if a “day” stands for a year, 483 years. But we found that from B. C. 445 to A. D. 30 was 475 years, a difference of 8 years. How can we account for the difference?
We must not forget that there are years of different lengths. The Lunar year has 354 days. The Calendar year has 360 days. The Solar year has 365 days. The Julian, or Astronomical year, has 365¼ days, and it is necessary to add one day every 4 years to the calendar.
So we see that we are to use in “Prophetical Chronology” a “Calendar” year of 360 days.
According to ordinary chronology, the 475 years from B. C. 445 to A. D. 30 are “Solar” years of 365 days each. Now counting the years from B. C. 445 to A. D. 30, inclusively, we have 476 solar years. Multiplying these 476 years by 365 (the number of days in a Solar year), we have 173,740 days, to which add 119 days for leap years, and we have 173,859 days. Add to these 20 days inclusive from March 14 to April 2, and we have 173,879 days. Divide 173, 879 by 360 (the number of days in a “Prophetical Year”), and we have 483 years all to one day, the exact number of days (483) in 69 weeks, each day standing for a year. Could there be anything more conclusive to prove that Daniel’s 69 weeks ran out on April 2, A. D. 30, the day that Jesus rode in triumph into the City of Jerusalem[7]