What was the one part of the vision given that was not explained (see especially Dan. After all, what else could this period be “cut off” from but another, and longer, time prophecy? Read Daniel 8:1-27.
Since Daniel 8 presents the 2,300-years prophecy, whose starting point is not given in Daniel chapter 8, it logically follows that when the next chapter (Daniel chapter 9) talks about 490 years as “determined” or “cut off”, they can be “cut off” only from the 2,300 prophetic years mentioned in the previous chapter. Although the word translated as “determined” is not used anywhere else in the Bible, it is found in Jewish literature, and it means “cutting off” from something longer. The word “determined” found in Daniel 9:24, “Seventy weeks are determined”, literally means, “Seventy weeks are cut off”.
