But (ζ) another event, which would mark the close of the seventy year-weeks, was to be "the anointing of a Most Holy."
Theodotion and the ancient translators render it "_a_ Holy of Holies." But throughout the whole Old Testament "Holy of Holies" _is never once used of a person_, though it occurs forty-four times.[611] Keil and his school point to 1 Chron. xxiii. 13 as an exception; but "_Nil agit exemptum quod litem lite resolvit._"
In that verse some propose the rendering, "to sanctify, as most holy, Aaron and his sons for ever"; but both the A.V. and the R.V. render it, "Aaron was separated that he should sanctify _the most holy things_, he and his sons for ever." If there be a doubt as to the rendering, it is perverse to adopt the one which makes the usage differ from that of every other passage in Holy Writ.
Now the phrase "most holy" is most frequently applied to the great altar of sacrifice.[612] It is therefore natural to explain the present passage as a reference to the reanointing of the altar of sacrifice, primarily in the days of Zerubbabel, and secondarily by Judas Maccabæus after its profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes.[613]
2. But in the more detailed explanation which follows, the seventy year-weeks are divided into 7 + 62 + 1.
(a) At the end of the first seven week-years (after forty-nine years) Jerusalem should be restored, and there should be "an Anointed, a Prince."[614]
Some ancient Jewish commentators, followed by many eminent and learned moderns,[615] understand this Anointed One (_Mashiach_) and Prince (_Nagîd_) to be Cyrus; and that there can be no objection to conferring on him the exalted title of "Messiah" is amply proved by the fact that Isaiah himself bestows it upon him (Isa. xlv. 1).
Others, however, both ancient (like Eusebius) and modern (like Grätz), prefer to explain the term of the anointed Jewish high priest, Joshua, the son of Jozadak. For the term "Anointed" is given to the high priest in Lev. iv. 3, vi. 20; and Joshua's position among the exiles might well entitle him, as much as Zerubbabel himself, to the title of _Nagîd_ or Prince.[616]
(β) After this restoration of Temple and priest, sixty-two weeks (_i.e._, four hundred and thirty-four years) are to elapse, during which Jerusalem is indeed to exist "with street and trench"--but in the straitness of the times.[617]