b Among the first-​century Jews, there was a general understanding that this prophecy would be fulfilled in their own time. (Luke 3:15) In his work De Termino Vitae (Concerning the End of Life), a 17th-​century rabbi, Menasseh ben Israel, wrote: “Some would accept those 70 weeks as meaning that after their end the Messiah would come who would constitute them rulers of the whole world. Indeed, all who took up arms against the Romans at that time held that opinion.”