The Greek translations of Daniel 9:24–27 presents a striking divergence from the Masoretic Text (MT), which serves as the foundation for most modern biblical translations. The Book of Daniel circulated in two distinct Greek versions: the Old Greek (OG), and Theodotion (TH). These belong to what is broadly called the Septuagint (LXX). The OG represents an earlier, more paraphrastic translation, while the TH version reflects a later, more literal rendering of a Hebrew text closer to the proto-Masoretic tradition, which ultimately supplanted the OG in both Jewish and Christian canonical traditions (Tov 2001: 145–47; Koch 2005: 434–36).

Textual Variants

In the LES (Lexham English Septuagint), the main text of Daniel is the Old Greek (OG) translation—as found in Codex Vaticanus—while Theodotion’s (TH) version appears separately under the heading “Alternate Text.” Here is the main texts.

Old Greek (OG)

The OG version features a more extensive rendering of verse 27, incorporating elements typically found in verse 25 of the TH. Few manuscripts of this version have been discovered. The Lexham English Septuagint provides this version:

Lexham English Septuagint

²⁴Seventy sevens have been decreed upon your people and upon the city, Zion, to complete the guilt and to deal with the unjust offenses and to wipe away the injustices and to fully understand the vision and to establish everlasting righteousness and to complete the visions and the prophet and to delight in the holy of holies. ²⁵And you will know and understand and rejoice, and you will find commands to respond, and you will build Jerusalem, the city, for the Lord. ²⁶And after seven periods of seven and sixty-two periods of seven, an anointed place will be removed, and it will not be. And a kingdom from among the nations will despoil the city and the holy place along with the anointed one, and his end will come with destructive anger until the set time of the consummation. There will be war upon war. ²⁷And the covenant will be made strong for many, and it will recover again, and it will be built up in breadth and length. And at the end of the appointed times, and after seven periods of seventy appointed times and sixty-two years during the set time of the consummation of war, then the desolation will be taken away when the covenant prevails for many weeks. And at the completion of the period of seven, offering and drink-offering will be taken away, and upon the holy place there will be an abomination of desolation until the end. And a determined final destruction will be rendered upon the one making desolate.

Papyrus 967 (also signed as TM 61933, LDAB 3090) is a 3rd-century CE biblical manuscript, discovered in 1931. Notable for containing fragments of the original Septuagint text of the Book of Daniel, it is one of the oldest known Greek copies of this work.

Codex Chisianus 45 is a biblical manuscript, with its dating varying between the 10th century or the early 14th century. The authenticity of the Greek text in Codex Chisianus has been corroborated by the Syro-Hexaplar Codex (dated 616/7), which contains a Syriac translation of Origen's recension. Originally housed in the Chigi Library in Rome, Codex Chisianus 45 was transferred to the Vatican Library in 1922, where it remains today.

Theodotion (TH)

The TH version presents a more orderly sequence similar to most Hebrew Bibles, and here it is provided as an alternate text in the Lexham English Septuagint. For comparison, the MT-based NASB translation is also included.

Lexham English Septuagint Alternate Texts

²⁴Seventy weeks have been cut for your people and upon the holy city, to complete sin, and to seal sin and to erase wrong-doing and to make atonement for offenses, and to bring eternal righteousness, and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies. ²⁵You will learn and understand: From the going out of the word to answer and to build Jerusalem until an anointed leader, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. And he shall return, and streets and a wall shall be built and the times shall be left desolate. ²⁶ Now, after the sixty two weeks an anointing will be destroyed, and there is no judgment in him. And he will destroy the city and the sacred place together with the coming leader. They will be cut off by a deluge and destruction in battle array until the end of the war that has been cut off. ²⁷ He will fortify a covenant with many weeks, for one and at the half of the week my sacrifice and drink-offering will be removed. And at the temple there will be an abomination of desolations also until the completion of time. A completion will be given upon the desolation.’ ”

Here is the MT based NASB translation for comparison.

Daniel 9:24-27 - NASB

²⁴'Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy [place]. ²⁵'So you are to know and discern [that] from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince [there will be] seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. ²⁶'Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end [will come] with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. ²⁷'And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations [will come] one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.'

Differences

OG’s “end of the week” variant and its extra messianic clauses in v. 27 were deemed secondary elaborations rather than authentic prophecy (Olariu 2023, 420–21)
- In OG, verse 27 is expansive, weaving in extra clauses such as “it will be built up in breadth and length” (καὶ οἰκοδομηθησεται πλάτος καὶ ῥύμα)
- OG places the timing at “the end of the week” (ἐν τέλει τῆς ἑβδομάδος).
- OG’s phrasing often conflates elements of verses 25–27 into a single extended prophecy.
In contrast, TH renders the verse tightly, mirroring the Hebrew sequence with “in the middle of the week” (ἐν μέσῳ τῆς ἑβδομάδος).

Which Version Of Daniel Will We Use?

The study on Daniel on this website will be using the TH off the LXX

Why Theodotion, Not the Old Greek?

The Theodotion version is preferred because it represents a careful, literal translation of a Hebrew Vorlage that closely resembled the proto-Masoretic Text, preserving the structure and terminology of the original more faithfully than the Old Greek. Early Jewish and Christian communities recognized this greater fidelity: by the time of Origen and Jerome, Theodotion’s Daniel had largely supplanted the OG in Greek Bibles precisely because it better conveyed the original prophetic sequence and meaning. For this reason, Theodotion is regarded as the most reliable Greek witness to the Hebrew text of Daniel 9 and remains the preferred base text for scholarly study and translation.

See more at Evaluating OG vs. TH Reading

Other Interpretations

Steve Rudd argues that the Masoretic Text was altered by Jewish scribes in the second century AD to obscure the messianic implications of Daniel’s prophecy. He suggests that the LXX preserves an older, unmodified version that was widely accepted in early Christian circles, as evidenced by its inclusion in Codex Vaticanus (350 AD). Following the Temple’s destruction in 70 AD, Jewish scribes deliberately reinterpreted Daniel’s 70 weeks to excise any messianic implications that might link the prophecy to Jesus Christ; his argument goes as follows.

Steve Rudd posits that alterations were made to the Masoretic Text (MT) by Jewish scribes in the second century AD to obscure the messianic implications of Daniel's prophecy. He asserts that the Septuagint (LXX) preserves an older, unmodified version that was widely accepted in early Christian circles, as evidenced by its inclusion in Codex Vaticanus (350 AD).

Rudd argues that Jewish scribes deliberately reinterpreted Daniel's 70 weeks to excise any messianic implications that might link the prophecy to Jesus Christ. His argument includes the following points:

Josephus, in his Wars of the Jews 6.312–313, interpreted the Son of Man from Daniel 7:13 as emerging during the fourth world-empire and identified this figure with Emperor Vespasian. However, Rudd suggests that Vespasian was not "cut off" as the prophetic anointed one is meant to be, indicating a clear deviation from earlier Jewish messianic expectations.
In 160 AD, Rabbi Yose ben Halafta's Seder Olam redefined biblical chronology by compressing what was originally a 657-year period—from the destruction of Solomon’s temple (around 587 BC) to the destruction of Herod’s temple (70 AD)—to align with 70 AD rather than 33 AD, thus avoiding a messianic interpretation that would match the events of Jesus Christ's life. The discrepancy arises because the Seder Olam chronology "cuts" or shortens several important historical periods, such as reducing the Persian Empire's duration from around 205 years to a mere 52 years.
Rudd also points out that the Assumption of Moses (written in 10 AD) has the Messiah coming in 29 AD, an exact match for Jesus Christ to begin his ministry in 30 AD.

Daniel 9:24-27 (LXX, Codex Vaticanus) with commentary by Steve Rudd:

²⁴ Seventy sevens (490 yrs) have been decreed upon your people and upon the city, Zion, to complete the guilt, to deal with the unjust offenses and to wipe away the injustices (blood/cross) and to fully understand the vision (not seal up) and to establish everlasting righteousness and to complete the visions (fulfill) and the prophet and to delight in the holy of holies (church). ²⁵And you will know and understand and rejoice, and you will find commands to respond, and you will build Jerusalem, the city, for the Lord. (Ezra 7:7-26. Start 1st week at decree: 1 Nisan 458 BC) ²⁶ And after (ie. during messianic window 26-33 AD) seven periods of seven (458-409 BC) and sixty-two periods of seven (409 BC - 26 AD), an anointed place will be removed, and it will not be. (Physical Temple abolished, veil torn: Col 2:14). And a kingdom from among the nations (Rome) will despoil the city (Jerusalem) and the holy place (temple) along with the anointed one (Christ), and his end will come (cross) with destructive anger (Ps 2) until the set time of the consummation. (Resurrection) There will be war upon war. (Rev 12: War in heaven while Christ in grave) ²⁷ And the covenant will be made strong for many, and it will recover again, (Resurrection) and it will be built up in breadth and length. And at the end (not the middle of week 70) of the appointed times, and after seven periods of seventy appointed times and sixty-two years during the set time of the consummation of war, then the desolation will be taken away (resurrection) when the (new) covenant prevails for many weeks (after the 70 = eternity). And at the completion of the period of seven (end, not middle at 3.5 yrs), offering and drink-offering will be taken away, (Old covenant abolished) and upon the holy place (physical temple) there will be an abomination of desolation (considered unclean) until the end (33-70 AD). And a determined final destruction (Extinction of Mosaic Judaism in 70 AD) will be rendered upon the one (Jews killed Messiah) making desolate.

Codex Vaticanus, Old Greek

According to ChatGPT, here is the English of the Codex Vaticanus

Verse 1
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans,

Verse 2
in the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood in the books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

Verse 3
And I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

Verse 4
And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, "O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

Verse 5
we have sinned, and committed iniquity, and done wickedly, and rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

Verse 6
neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

Verse 7
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them,

Verse 8
because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

Verse 9
O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

Verse 10
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him;

Verse 11
neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

Verse 12
Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, and have departed, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

Verse 13
And he hath confirmed his words which he spoke against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.

Verse 14
As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.

Verse 15
Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.

Verse 16
And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

Verse 17
O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are round about us.

Verse 18
Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.

Verse 19
O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies.

Verse 20
Now while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;

Verse 21
yea, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

Verse 22
And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.

Verse 23
At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

Verse 24
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Verse 25
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

Verse 26
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

Verse 27
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.