Daniel 9:25-27 and Messiah the Prince

“Which of the following statements (if any) are FALSE?” 

1.  Daniel’s 70 Weeks consists of a total of 490 years ... (70 x 7) = 490 years 

2.  Daniel’s Prophetic Time Clock regarding the Messiah’s appearing recorded a full 69 Weeks had been fulfilled ... (69 x 7) = 483 years 

3.  Daniel’s Prophetic Time Clock of 70 Weeks did not Stop until after the Messiah was crucified (Cut Off) 

4.  The Messiah was not Cut Off until after 69^1/2 Weeks – 69 Weeks UNTIL He came plus His ministry of 3^1/2 years ... (69 x 7) + 3.5 = 486.5 or 486^1/2 years  

5.  Therefore, (490 - 486.5) = 3.5 or 3^1/2 years remaining of the 490 original years of Daniel’s 70 Weeks

In light of the above, how can it be mathematically possible for there to be a full 7 years (1 Week) of Daniel’s 70^th Week remaining to be fulfilled in respect to the two following Scriptures? 

Daniel 9:25
    Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto (until) [Strong’s Hebrew 5704 - `ad] the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks...

Strong’s Hebrew 5704 - `ad
properly, the same as '`ad' (5703) (used as a preposition, adverb or conjunction; especially with a preposition); as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with):--against, and, as, at, before, by (that), even (to), for(-asmuch as), (hither-)to, + how long, into, as long (much) as, (so) that, till, toward, until, when, while, (+ as) yet.

Daniel 9:26
    And after [Strong’s Hebrew 310] threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off... 

Hebrew 310, Strong’s - 'achar
from Hebrew 309 ('achar); probably the hind part; generally used as an adverb or conjunction, after (in various senses) :- after (that, -ward), again, at, away from, back (from, -side), behind, beside, by, follow (after, -ing), forasmuch, from, hereafter, hinder end, + out (over) live, + persecute, posterity, pursuing, remnant, seeing, since, thence [-forth], when, with. 

Therefore, if it was 69 full Weeks UNTIL the Messiah came, and as history records He ministered 31/2 additional years AFTER the 69 Weeks, then how could He have been ‘Cut Off’ at the exact ending of 69 Weeks.  To this end, if His ministry surpassed in any length of time 69 Weeks then He had automatically entered into Daniel’s 70^th Week.  That being said, then how could there be a full 7 years of Daniel’s 70^th Week remaining to be fulfilled - there is not?   

The true understanding is after the full completion of 69 Weeks (483 yrs.) the Messiah was then to be Cut Off.  Meaning that before the Crucifixion of the Messiah could take place a full 69 Weeks had to elapse first.  Then the Messiah’s Cutting Off was AFTER the full completion of the 69^th Week. 

If we then analyze and evaluate the timeline events of Jesus' arrival and Crucifixion, the ‘Crucifixion’ must actually have taken place AFTER the full completion of the 483 years of Daniel’s 69^th Week, as stated.  Thus, the Crucifixion was indeed outside of the 69^th Week.  So what does the Hebrew Scripture itself say? 

In Dan. 9:26 the translated Hebrew word (Karath) ‘shall be cut off’ is used in this Passage as a Hebrew Imperfect denoting a future action to be contiguously completed AFTER the completion of the 69^th Week..  

Therefore, the only logical alternative is that the Messiah ‘officially’ arrived at the closing of the finite 69^th Week and was Crucified at some point during the 70^th Week.  To this end, do we then simply ignore Scripture and suggest that the Crucifixion of the Messiah was NOT part of the 70 Weeks calculations as some insist?  God forbid, NO! 

This is exactly what Dan. 12:1-2, 6-7 reveals – there is ONLY 3^1/2 years of Daniel’s 70^th Week remaining hence, the time, times, and a half time, GT.  As such the Rapture/Resurrection of the Dead will occur AFTER the GT. 

The atonement CROSS of Yeshua stopped the prophetic time clock in the middle of the 70^th Week.

To reiterate, how could the Messiah not have come on the scene UNTIL 69 full Weeks had expired, ministered 31/2 years, then been ‘Cut Off’ AFTER 69 Weeks, without entering into Daniel’s 70^th Week.  Where is the logic? 

Nonetheless, it is mathematically impossible for the Messiah to have come after the completion of 69 Weeks, ministered 31/2 years, and then been cut off at the ending of 69 Weeks.  He would have had to come and died immediately upon arrival to fulfill this theory.   

Additionally, another question of concern is “Can we be sure that the ‘HE’ referred to in Daniel 9:27 is actually the man Antichrist?”  Besides Daniel 9:27 there are NO other Scriptures throughout the entire Bible that suggests a Seven (7) years Tribulation, Seven (7) years Pre-Tribulation Rapture or a Seven (7) years reigning man Antichrist – by contrast all other eschatology purports only 31/2 years. 

Therefore, we hereby suggest that it is Yeshua Jesus the Messiah that is referenced as the 'HE' in Daniel 9:27.

Messiah the Prince (Yeshua Jesus) came to fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant with the Jews first, and thus by His ‘Cutting Off’ death He did also by de facto means ‘Cut a Covenant’.  The essence of the Hebrew word Karath is the ‘cutting off/cutting down of the life of the sacrificed’, in the making of a New Covenant. 

karath, Hebrew 3772, Strong’s
karath, kaw-rath'; a primitive root; to cut (off, down or asunder); by implication to destroy or consume; specifically to covenant (i.e. make an alliance or bargain, origin by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces) :- be chewed, be con- [feder-] ate, covenant, cut (down, off), destroy, fail, feller, be freed, hew (down), make a league ([covenant]), × lose, perish, × utterly, × want.

This is exactly what Jesus did by shedding His own Blood in fulfillment of the eternal Abrahamic Covenant (the coming Promised Seed) to the Jews. 

Mark 14:24
And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.

Moreover, Daniel 9:26 reveals the Messiah would be 'Cut Off' but not for Himself: however, this is NOT  transliterated correctly in the KJV.  The 'but not for himself' in the actual Hebrew texts reads v'ayn lo, and literally means "he has nothing" or "he shall have nothing".  This prophecy reveals that the Jews would reject their Messiah and His offer of Eternal Salvation rendering His ministry to them in vain.  Scripture reveals,

Isaiah 53:3
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Matthew 21:42
Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Luke 9:22
Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.

John 1:11
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

In addition, the Hebrew word for Confirm 'gabar' further reveals personal characteristics of Jesus in its meaning which suggests the coming Messiah would be a strong, brazen  'Insolent' individual who would 'Strengthen' through His utilization of the forceful power of the Holy Spirit the Abrahamic Covenant.  When we review some of the statements that Jesus declared to both the Sadducees and the Pharisees we see His insolent character and disdain for traditionally held Jewish beliefs.

Matthew 12:34
O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

Matthew 23:33
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

Mark 7:13
Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Going forward, there appears to be a clear conflict between suggesting that the ‘he’ of Daniel 9:27 is referring to a seven (7) years Antichrist, whereas in Revelation chpt. 13, it is recorded that the Antichrist will exist for only a period of 31/2 years.  

I suggest that Yeshua Jesus Himself fulfilled the first half of Daniel’s 70^th Week whenever He was ‘Cut Off’ in the Middle of the Week, from among the living, following His 31/2 years ministry to the Jews and His subsequent crucifixion.  Following His death AFTER Daniel’s 69^th Week, at 691/2 Weeks Daniel’s, prophetic time clock stopped with the remaining 31/2 years to start again at the beginning of the ‘Great Tribulation’ following the ‘revealing’ of the man Antichrist as stated in 2 Thes. 2:3. 

Meanwhile, after Jesus was ‘CUT OFF’ in the Middle of the Week at the behest of His own people (the Jews), experiencing crucifixion He fulfilled the Mosiac Covenant and thereby brought to an end God’s required necessity of a Holy Temple and a Daily Sacrifice.  

To this end, in Daniel 9:27 it reveals the reason Jesus ended the Mosiac Law was because “...of the overspreading of abomination(s) he shall make it desolate...”  As such, we must NOT confuse the ‘abomination(s)’ of Daniel 9:27 with the ‘abomination that maketh desolate’ of Daniel 11:31, 12:11 and Matthew 24:15.  The former is referring to pluralistic sinful behavioral actions by the Jews while the latter refers to a singular pagan idol object that was placed in the Temple during the reign and invasion of Jerusalem by Antiochus IV Epiphanes.  However, this event prophetically will once again take place, as prophesied by Jesus in Mat. 24:15, when a newly created idol god of the Antichrist's choosing will be erected in the rebuilt Jewish Temple.   

Nonetheless, the Jews unyielding sinfulness and baseless traditions had turned the added Mosiac Covenant into continual acts of abominations in a flagrant affront against God’s commandments.  Angrily, Jesus declared when entering the Holy Temple, 

Matthew 21:13
And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.  

Matthew 23:37-38
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! [38] Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.  

Luke 19:44
And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Thus, as stated earlier, Jesus’ death ended the Mosiac Covenant (Not the eternal Abrahamic Covenant of which we ourselves are heirs) and the necessity of the Daily Sacrifice.  The only thing left for God to then do was to ‘destroy the unnecessary Temple’ – “even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”  This was accomplished following the Jewish Revolt in 67 A.D. against the Romans, resulting in Titus Caesar destroying both Jerusalem and the Holy Temple in 70 A.D.  

We must understand the future pagan Temple that will be Antichrist's in Jerusalem before the Great Tribulation begins (last half of Daniel’s 70^th Week) will be repugnant to God and an affront to the finished work of the Cross of Christ.  Therefore, neither God nor Jesus will have any part in any misguided attempts to reinstitute the finished Mosiac Covenant and the Temple’s Daily Sacrifice. 

Once again, the Messiah’s ‘Cutting Off’ in the middle of Daniel’s 70^th Week ‘Stopped’ the prophetic clock, which will not restart again until the beginning of the eschatological ‘Great Tribulation’ as described in the Book of Revelation – the last 31/2 years of Daniel’s 70^th. 

The start of the last half of Daniel’s prophetic Week will resume with Jesus once again ‘CONFIRMING’ the Abrahamic Covenant with the Jewish people for the very last 31/2 years prior to the battle of Armageddon.  This confirmation will be fulfilled and ratified by the ‘Two Witnesses’ in Jerusalem during the Great Tribulation while the beloved Holy City is being trodden under foot by the Gentiles. 

Rev. 11:2-3
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. [3] And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.  

A note of caution, we must be careful as to the prophetic placement of these ‘Two Witness’ and not place their ministries outside the construct of the last half of Daniel’s 70^th Week in order to suggest a ‘seven (7)’ years Tribulation.  These two men will be given extraordinary powers to Confirm the Abrahamic Covenant (for which Jesus was the Promised Seed to come) with Jerusalem’s Jews and resist the Beast/Antichrist.  Meanwhile, their safety and protection will be guaranteed by Jesus until they have finished their 31/2 years ministry – “And I will give power unto my two witnesses...”  To this end, John the Revelator was told that the ‘Spirit of Prophecy’ is none other than, 

Rev. 19:10
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.  

Moreover, the Confirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant to the eschatological Jews does not limit itself by no means to the Two Witnesses in Jerusalem only.  There is a far more important group of Jews who will be directly under the Divine support and protection of God/Jesus/Holy Spirit Themselves – the Woman (national Israel) who will flee the Dragon into the wilderness for the final half of Daniel’s 70^th Week.  It is here that the Confirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant declaring Salvation to the Jews by and through the Blood of the ‘Promised Covenant Seed’ Yeshua Jesus will have its greatest impact.   

Can we honesty imagine that God/Jesus will personally and divinely cloth, nourish and protect these ‘Remnant Jews’ for 31/2 years without declaring Jesus as the Confirmed Abrahamic Seed unto them?    

Malachi 3:1 (KJV)
¹ Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

Romans 15:8
Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:

Galatians 3:17 (KJV)
¹⁷ And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

Mark 14:24
And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.  

If as Isaiah suggests, that perhaps as many as 1/3 of all the Jews will flee from the Dragon Satan and the Beast/Antichrist into the wilderness seeking God’s Divine protection, then that could reach a conservative estimate of nearly 1 to 2 million Jews – What a Revival!!!  

Of course, we (the Church) will be here to see this because we must also go through the Great Tribulation and the last half of Daniel’s 70^th Week.  

In addition, the Book of Revelation is NOT predicated upon seven (7) years, but rather to phases of time with one being unspecified and the other being specific.  The former unspecified is comprised of a number of Seals broken and Trumpets blown and the latter a distinct and specific 31/2 years hence, last half of Daniel’s 70^th Week.  

Therefore, we cannot be certain as to the amount of time for which the first phase of the Trumpets and Seals exists, we do not know when or if the four angelic horseman of Apocalypse has/will roll out.  Thus, we cannot with any degree of accuracy suggest a seven (7) years Tribulation, etc, etc.  We are therefore left to ‘Watch’ for the Signs, the opening Seals and the blowing Trumpets. 

Thus, when we view the Messiah and the complete fulfillment of the Mosiac Law (NOT the eternal Abrahamic Covenant) as the focus of Daniel 9:24-27, it makes more sense than to project some 2000 years into the future, and interject an Antichrist at this particular point.   

As a fervent student of Bible Prophecy, I cannot stress enough, upon the correct transliteration of this ONE (Daniel 9:27) Scripture hangs all the doctrine of ‘a seven (7) years Tribulation, a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, and a seven (7) years reigning man Antichrist.’  Whether we are right or wrong as to the proper transliteration regarding these concerned Scriptures makes no difference as to our Eternal relationship with Yeshua Jesus, but to be wrong here and misinterpret these two Passages is to forfeit a true understanding of Biblical eschatology.  Are there any other Scriptures throughout the entirety of the Bible that suggests a 7 years Tribulation, etc, etc?   

I too once, not long ago, believed in a seven (7) years Tribulation, etc, etc., and published and taught as much.  However, while I know it is meaningless to others, were it not for a brief eschatological dream I too would have never questioned this wide spread traditional view and began to search the Scriptures to find true validity.  The illusion of the seven (7) years Tribulation, etc., etc. is so well disguised; unless one becomes as the Bereans and searches the Scriptures you will never see it, and this doctrine’s confrontational foundation is rooted in the unfortunate mistranslation of Daniel 9:26-27 and mainly the precise usage of the word Prince or prince.

Once again, in summary Jesus did indeed come to ‘Confirm – strengthen/ratify’ the eternal Abrahamic Covenant with the Jews for a final Week but was Cut Off in the Middle of that Week.  As a result, His work of the Cross fulfilled the Mosaic Law (Old Covenant) and the Daily Sacrifice and Oblation as prescribed under the Mosaic Covenant came to a completed end. 

Romans 15:8
Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:

Hebrews 10:12
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;  

Matthew 9:13
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  

As stated above, Jesus Confirmed in a bold way the Abrahamic Covenant with many Jewish people for the 31/2 years of His ministry. 

Matthew 15:24
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  

Galatians 3:15
Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.

Galatians 3:17
And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

Hebrews 8:6
But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

Hebrews 8:7
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

Hebrews 8:8
For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

Matthew 26:28
For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.  

Mark 14:24
And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.

In closing, Jesus will resume to Confirm the Abrahamic Covenant with the Jews, before the  coming Resurrection/Rapture event at the end of this age.  During the Great Tribulation, last 31/2 years of Daniel’s 70^th Week, Jesus will confirm the covenant with the Woman who flees into the wilderness (Israel) (Rev. 12:6).  In addition, as stated earlier, He will continue the proclamation of God’s plan and the Abrahamic Covenant to the remaining Jews in Jerusalem/Israel that will be proclaimed by His ‘Two Witnesses’ (Rev. 11:3). 

To this end, I suggest there cannot be a ‘Seven Years Tribulation nor Seven Years Antichrist’, which only exists as a result of an unfortunate misinterpretation of Daniel 9:27, and has no other Scriptural support, but rather the last 31/2 years of Daniel’s 70^th Week yet remains to be prophetically fulfilled.