Those weeks are literal though. The debate is over what the weeks signify, and the general consensus is a period of 7 years. Maybe we are using the language differently. If the weeks were literal, it would indicate to me that they would be "7 day units." That is the literal definition of a "week."
If you can make weeks not be actually 7 days and still maintain that they are literal, then I can surely say that 40 days and 40 nights don't mean actually 40 days and 40 nights and 1000 years doesn't mean actually 1000 years.
So at last we are in agreement.
SD
you would have a minor point, but I do have a literal translation of those 70 weeks that point to Christ. If you say those 70 weeks are figurative, than you should have an idea of what they refer to. Plus those "70" units are a literal 70 units not 55 or 1236 or 34 units. They are 70 weeks. Now you have yet to show me one example of a figurative use of the debated terms.
JM