“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.”
(Daniel 9:27)
Is
this
passage talking about Christ’s work establishing and
ratifying the New
Covenant or a future anti-Christ?
Historically,
Daniel
9:27 was believed to be a prophecy about the New
Covenant. In the
present, primarily due to Dispensational theology,
what was seen as the fulfillment
of the glorious work of Christ, the understanding
has not been reversed, making
the prophecy into futuristic speculation about an
anti-Christ. In this study, a
classic commentary and a current source will provide
the approach to the text
in question to learn if it is about Christ and His
establishment of the New
Covenant. The futuristic approach to the text is
prophetic speculation. If the
text is indeed about Christ’s work in the First
Century, turning the subject of
the text into the work of an anti-Christ seems
almost blasphemous.
A bio about the classic
commentator:
Matthew
Poole
was Born in York, England, in 1624 and educated at
Emmanuel College in
Cambridge. He became minister of St.
Michael-le-Quernes, London, in 1648 and
devoted himself to the Presbyterian cause.
C. H. Spurgeon said of Poole's
commentary:
“If
I must have
only one commentary, and had read Matthew Henry as I
have, I do not know but
what I should choose Poole. He is a very prudent and
judicious commentator...
not so pithy and witty by far as Matthew Henry, but
he is perhaps more
accurate, less a commentator, and more an
expositor.”
Poole
is
considered one of the great Puritans, and few names
will stand so high as
Poole's in the Biblical scholarship of Great
Britain.
Matthew
Poole's
Commentary
explains the
Daniel text as follows:
He:
this”
he
is not Titus
making truce with the Jews, which he did not, though
he endeavoured to persuade
them that he might spare them. I say then with
Graser, Mede, and others, that
this he is the Messiah, and the covenant he confirms
is the new testament or
covenant, called therefore the covenant of the
people, Isaiah 42:6 49:8; and
the Angel of the covenant, Malachi 3:1; and the
Surety of the covenant, Hebrews
7:22; and the ancient rabbins called the Messias xrk
a middle man, or middle
man between two.
Quest.
How did
Christ confirm the covenant?
Answ.
1. By
testimony,
(1.)
Of angels,
Luke 2:10 Mt 28;
(2.)
John Baptist;
(3.)
Of the wise
men;
(4.)
By the saints
then living, Luke 1:2;
(5.)
Moses and
Elias, Matthew 17:3;
(6.)
Pharisees, as
Nicodemus, John 3:2;
(7.)
The devils
that confessed him.
2.
By his
preaching.
3.
By signs and
wonders.
4.
By his holy
life.
5.
By his
resurrection and ascension.
6.
By his death
and bloodshed.
Shall
confirm the
covenant; rybgh
he shall corroborate
it, as if it began before his coming to fail and be
invalid.
With
many; noting
hereby the paucity of the Jewish church and nation,
compared with the great
increase and enlargement by believing Gentiles
throughout all nations and ages
of the world, Isaiah 11:9 49:6 53:11,12 54:2,3 Mr
16:15 Acts 13:46: q.d. With
many Jews first and last, and with many more of the
nations, yea, with the many
whom the rabbins and Pharisees despise as the
rabble, the common people, Isaiah
42:3 Matthew 21:31 John 7:48,49 1 Corinthians
1:26,27.
For
one week; by a
figure, take the greater part of the whole, he
shall, though rejected by the
chief and bulk of the Jewish nation, yet make the
new testament prevail with
many in that time, i.e. at the latter end of the
seventy weeks.
The
sacrifice and
the oblation to cease; zebach
and mincha,
bloody and unbloody, to cease.
i.e. all the Jewish rites, and Levitical ceremonious
worship, i.e. by the
burning of the temple before the city was taken, for
they were only to offer
sacrifice in the temple, nor had they wherewithal in
the siege. Yet is there
more in it than this, viz. that the Lord Jesus, by
his death, and by the
execution of his wrath, and abrogate and put an end
to this laborious service,
and made it to cease forever.
For
the
overspreading of abominations, he shall make it
desolate; desolate for the
wing, for the manifold and great abominations
stretching, and our text hath it
well overspreading. This abomination was the Roman
army with their eagles, and
with their superstitious rites in approaching to
besiege and subdue any place;
and this is executed by Christ upon them, Matthew
22:7, when he is called a
King sending forth his armies, and destroying the
murderers that destroyed him,
and burning their city, and their coming is Christ’s
coming, Malachi 3:1,2Jo
21:22 Jam 5:7; therefore it is said here,
he
shall make it
desolate. Even until the consummation, and that
determined shall be poured upon
the desolate: here all this is made the effect of
God’s decree, and therefore
irrevocable. This word shomen
notes
that this people were bewitched, sottishly
superstitious, wanderers, banished,
the astonishment and scorn of the world; all which
did justly and dreadfully
befall them, and they verify it to this day.
They
that will
curiously search further into the seventy weeks and
other numbers in Daniel,
and have leisure and skill, let them read Graserus,
L’Empereur, Wasmuth, Mede,
Willet, Wichmannus, Sanctius, Rainoldus, Pererius,
Derorlon, Broughton,
Liveleius, Helvicns, Calovius, Geierus. &c. Read
also Joseph Med. p. 861,
&c., and Bail. p. 180, &c. This scripture
shows the coming of the
Messiah so clearly, his sufferings, and the wrath of
God so severely upon the
Jews for it, that it thoroughly confutes their
unbelief; and fully confirms our
faith in Jesus Christ.” (1)
Geneva Study Bible
“And
he {a} 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 {b}
cease, {c} and for the overspreading
of abominations he shall make it desolate, even
until the consummation and that
determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
(a)
By the
preaching of the Gospel he affirmed his promise,
first to the Jews and after,
to the Gentiles.
(b)
Christ
accomplished this by his death and resurrection.
(c)
Meaning that
Jerusalem and the sanctuary would be utterly
destroyed because of their
rebellion against God, and their idolatry: or as
some read, that the plague
will be so great, that they will all be astonished
at them.”
Gary DeMar provides insight on
how to
understand the text:
“The
beginning
point would be indicated by the commandment to
restore Jerusalem (v. 25), an
event that was accomplished, a century after Daniel,
in the reign of the
Persian, Artaxerxes I (465–424 B.C.), under Nehemiah
(444 B.C.). But there had
been an earlier attempt, in the same reign, to
restore the city’s walls, which
had been thwarted by the Samaritans (Ezra 4:11–12,
23). This attempt seems to
have been made under Ezra (458 B.C.; cf. 9:9), on
the basis of the extended
powers granted him in Artaxerxes’ decree (7:18, 25,
even though nothing
explicit is said about restoring Jerusalem). Daniel
then went on to predict
that from this commandment, to the Messiah, would be
―seven weeks, and three
score and two weeks‖ (9:25), or 69 weeks of years,
equaling 483 years. From 458
B.C. this brings one to A.D. 26, the very time which
many would accept for the
descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus Christ and the
commencement of His incarnate
ministry.” (2)
DeMar continues:
“Verses
26 and 27
then describe how, in the midst of the final week
(that is, of the last seven-year
period, and therefore in the spring of A.D. 30), He
would bring to an end the
Old Testament economy by His death. There could
hardly have been a more
miraculously accurate prediction than was this! The
490 years then conclude
with the three and a half years that remained,
during which period the
testament was to be confirmed to Israel (cf. Acts
2:38). It terminated in A.D.
33, which is the probable date for the conversion of
Paul. At this point the
Jews, by their stoning of Stephen, in effect cut
themselves off from the
eternal blessings of inheritance under the newer
testament (cf. Rev. 12:6, 14);
and shortly thereafter, within that generation, the
Romans destroyed Jerusalem,
A.D. 70.” (3)
Jeffrey
S.
Krause from his thesis at Liberty University School
of Religion of the Bible,
A Historical
Survey of the Daniel’s
“Seventy Weeks” and its Complete Fulfillment
within the Generation of Christ:
Daniel 9:24-27 Exegesis:
“Having noted the
identity of the ―anointed one, the prince‖ already
in verse 25, it is now
necessary to demonstrate the identity of the
―prince‖ of verse 26. In Dan.
9:24-27, ―the Prince‖ is said to bring in ―everlasting
righteousness‖ and to ―atone for iniquity. Here, the
―anointed one‖ (the
Prince) will be ―cut off‖ (v. 26), and the people of
the ―Prince‖ will destroy
the city and bring an ―end to sacrifices.‖ The ―end
to sacrifices‖ follows the
―firm Covenant‖ made with the many for one week.
This account, then future, is
undoubtedly speaking of the life and ministry of the
―anointed Prince‖ Jesus
Christ. First, contextually, there is no warrant to
assume that ―the people of
the prince to come‖ is the ―Anti-Christ. There is
nothing in the text that
allows the insertion of an unqualified individual.
Rather, the Lord Jesus is
referred to as the ―Prince‖ (dygn– hgoumenou)and the ―Messiah‖ or
―anointed one‖ (xyXm-cristou)both individually (v.
26) and in connection with one
another (v. 25). As it has been demonstrated, verse
25 connects these two
titles ―anointed one, the Prince‖ with verse 26
referencing the individual
titles of
―anointed one‖ (crisma)and ―people of the
Prince to come‖ (hgoumenwtwercomenw).These accounts are
describing the same individual in
the person of the Messiah Himself. Again, in the
LXX, verse 25 reads ―cristouhgoumenou‖ with verse 26 rendering
the same Messiah the Prince
in individual fashion; ―crismakaikrimaoukestinenautwkaithnpolinkaitoagiondiafqereisuntwhgoumenwtwercomenw...‖
Meaning, there is
exegetically no warrant to
alter the identity of the latter prince from that of
the first. The ESV
rendering of verses 25-26 proclaims;”
Know
therefore and understand that
from the going out of the word to restore and build
Jerusalem to the coming of
an anointed one, a prince, there shall be
seven weeks. Then for
sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares
and moat, but in a troubled
time.26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an
anointed one shall
be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of
the prince who is
to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
Its end shall come with a
flood, and to the end there shall be war.
Desolations are decreed.17
“Noting
thee afore mentioned text, the first instance of the
―anointed one, a prince‖
as noted, is undoubtedly speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. However, those in
the Dispensational community wish to assert the
latter citation of ―the prince‖
as future Anti-Christ. But the question must be
asked, what is the contextual
warrant for such an insertion? Where does this
previously unmentioned,
unqualified character come from on a contextual and
exegetical basis? Separated
by only one verse and 29 words in the ESV, the
―anointed one‖ Jesus Christ is
again mentioned in verse 26. Likewise, only one
verse and forty-four words
later, the ―prince, who was previously recognized as
the Messiah in verse 25,
is again mentioned. It was the Messiah, the Prince
who did in fact establish a
―firm Covenant‖ (v. 27) with the many in Matthew
26:26-28;”
Now
as they were eating, Jesus took
bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to
the disciples, and said,
"Take, eat; this is my body." And he took a cup, and
when he had given
thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all
of you, for this
is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out
for many for the
forgiveness of sins. (Emphasis Added)18
“Point in fact, even the Greek wording
is identical between the LXX and the N.A. 27, with the
former reading; ―kaidunamwseidiaqhkhnpollois‖
(And he shall strengthen covenant with the many – Dan.
9:27, LXX) and the
latter rendered as ―διαθήκης
τὸ
περὶ
πολλῶν“
(the
new
covenant, the one for many – Matt. 26:28, N.A. 27).19
This is a
perfect correspondence that points to the verse 26
―Prince‖ as the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself (the one who will make Covenant).
Hence, fulfillment is seen
within the Biblical witness where the Lord Jesus, via
His then pending
sacrifice, made Covenant with the many who will
believe or rather, the elect of
God.”
Next,
Daniel 9:26 declares that the ―cristou‖ would be cut off; the
very message that the four
Gospels relay to the reader. Jesus was point in
fact, cut off in the
middle of the final week, with the duration of His
ministry lasting three and
one half years. This cutting off was His crucifixion
by the nation that
rejected Him, the people of Israel; "Shall I crucify
your King?" The
chief priests answered, "We have no king but
Caesar."16 So
he delivered him over to them to be crucified.20
“The
―end of sacrifices‖ was symbolized in Matt. 27:51
with the tearing of the Temple curtain; ―And
behold, the curtain of the
temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the
earth shook, and the rocks
were split. However,
it was not until the
destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, when Herod’s
Temple was destroyed, an act
that ended the sacrificial system, that this
prophecy was fully consummated
(within the very generation of Jesus’ prediction);
as prophesied by the Lord
Jesus in Matt. 23:38-24:34 and in particular,
Matt:24:1-2;”
Jesus
left the temple and was going
away, when his disciples came to point out to him
the buildings of the temple.
But he answered them, “You see all these, do you
not? Truly, I say to you,
there will not be left here one stone upon another
that will not be thrown
down.”
“This is the very same Temple21
that Jesus exited after pronouncing the ―Seven Woes
upon Israel and
proclaiming;”
Therefore
I send you prophets and wise men and
scribes, some of whom you
will kill and crucify, and some you
will flog in your
synagogues and persecute from
town to town, so that on you
may come all the righteous blood shed on
earth, from the blood of
innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of
Barachiah, whom you
murdered between the sanctuary and the
altar.
Truly,
I say to you, all these
things will come upon this generation.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the
city that kills the prophets and stones those who
are sent to it! How often
would I have gathered your children together as a
hen gathers her brood under
her wings, and you would not! See,
your house is left to
you desolate. For I tell you, you will
not see me again, until you say,
'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'
(Emphases Added) 22
“Hence,
clarity is found in the disciple’s question; "Tell
us, when will these
things be, and what will be the sign of your coming
and of the close of the
age?" Meaning, when will be the end of the Jewish
age or economy.”
20 John 19:15 ESV
21 i.e. Herod’s Temple
22 Matt. 23:34-39 ESV. It is
evident from the Lord’s
usage of the second person plural that these events
were to happen to the
people to whom He was speaking with; the Jews of
that generation and era. It is
that current generation that was to suffer the
vengeance of the Lord and whose
house was to be left desolate. The Lord Jesus
capstones this truth by the
words; ―…all these things will come upon this
generation.
“Next,
the text of Daniel 9:24 foretells of the ―prince‖ as
being the one who is to;
―make reconciliation for iniquity and bring in
everlasting righteousness…‖ And
again, this is the very thing that happened due to
the finished work of Christ
Jesus on the cross; by His very act of being ―cut
off. Paul tells the reader;
―For
if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God
by the death of his Son,
much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be
saved by his life‖ (Rom.
5:10 ESV). And again;
―All
this is from God, who through Christ
reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation‖ (2 Cor.
5:18; c.f. 2 Cor. 5:20, Eph. 2:16, Col. 1:20, 22).
Do any orthodox Christians
doubt that Christ’s perfect sacrifice, obtained
through faith, reconciles all
iniquity committed? Justification being a legal
decree by God in declaring the
sinner ―right‖ or ―righteous, points back to the
fulfillment of the Covenant
of Works by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
What Adam did not do, Christ
fulfilled and the sinner is saved by the active
obedience of Christ Himself.23
Likewise, it is Christ’s vicarious suffering that
enacts the ―passive‖ obedience
unto the sinner; an act accomplished on the cross
for the elect. In sum, it is
Christ’s righteousness that covers the
transgressions and iniquities of the
elect. The New Testament saints look back to the
finished work of Christ in
both the active and passive sense. Likewise,
Christ’s active and passive
obedience are retroactive to the Old Testament
saints, who found salvation in
the then coming Messiah. Both of these factors ―make
reconciliation‖ for all
who will believe; an act predicted in (but not
limited to) Daniel 9:24.24”
“Likewise,
it
is ―Messiah the Prince‖ that brought in ―everlasting
righteousness. Isaiah
9:6-7 speaks specifically of the connection to the
enthronement of Jesus Christ
with the bringing in of everlasting
righteousness;”
For to
us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his
government and of peace there
will be no end, on the throne of David and over his
kingdom, to establish it
and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and
forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do
this.25
23 ―Therefore, as one
trespass led to condemnation for
all men, so one act of righteousness leads to
justification and life for all
men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many
were made sinners, so by the
one man's obedience
the many will be made
righteous. ‖ (Rom. 5:18-19 ESV).
24 See Isaiah 53
“Meaning,
it is Christ Himself who is the everlasting
righteousness; it is not the state
or current condition or climate of the world itself.
It is His Kingdom that is
in view in Daniel 9:24 and it is in this Kingdom
where He, the Christ, will be
seated on the throne of David. This is the very
point that Peter makes in Acts
chapter 2:23-36. Jesus is currently seated at the
right hand of the Power in
Heaven and is currently reigning as King and Lord.
The government is currently
upon Jesus’ shoulders via His ascension to the
Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:13-14,
c.f. Matt. 24:30), an event that happened within the
final week of Daniel’s
four hundred and ninety years! Thus, there is
perfect correspondence with both
the atoning sacrifice of Christ and His
righteousness as the covenant head
within His Kingdom. This correspondence transfers to
the Daniel 9:24 text in
perfect harmony. Thus, again the author’s thesis is
confirmed via the Biblical
witness. As previously stated, if there is sound
Biblical evidence to show the
congruent nature of the Seventy Weeks, then this
understanding, based on the
witness of the Bible itself is to be preferred. All
the while noting that the
9:24-27 text shows no sign of a ―gap‖ within the
text itself. Point in fact,
Daniel parallels his prophecy with that of Jeremiah
25:11-13. The Daniel
prophecy is a type of the exile condition that he
himself was in and that
Jeremiah predicted. But one must ask, was there a
―gap‖ or
―parenthesis‖
within
Daniel’s captivity? No there was not! Therefore,
with Daniel’s prophecy
being a type of Jeremiah’s, then the
pattern of Jeremiah 25 would
dictate the nature of Daniel’s prophecy itself. If
there is no parenthesis in
Jeremiah’s prophecy, then there was not to be a
parenthesis within Daniel’s and
the preteristic nature of the prediction is seen and
the current argument is
upheld.”
The
Abomination of Desolation:
And
after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be
cut off and shall have
nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come
shall destroy the city
and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a
flood, and to the end there
shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And
he shall make a strong
covenant with many for one week, and for half of the
week he shall put an end
to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations
shall come one
who makes desolate, until the decreed end is
poured out on the desolator.
(Daniel 9:26-27 ESV)26
25 Isa. 9:6-7 ESV
“The
prophetic announcement by the prophet Daniel as
to the nature and end of Geo-political Israel is
here predicted in verses 26-27
of chapter 9. Here the prophet foretells of the
―people of the prince and their
utter destruction of the city and the Temple itself.
As previously noted, there
is no contextual or exegetical basis for
separating the “prince” of verse 26
with that of verse 25. Noting the relationship
between the princes of
verses 25 and 26, it is justified to proclaim that
this is an obvious reference
to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The narrative of
verse’s 26-27 fit within the
character of events foretold by the Lord Jesus
Himself during His earthly
ministry;”
So
when you see the abomination of
desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing
in the holy place (let the
reader understand), then let those who are in Judea
flee to the mountains. Let
the one who is on the housetop not go down to take
what is in his house, and
let the one who is in the field not turn back to
take his cloak. And alas for
women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing
infants in those days!
Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a
Sabbath.27
“In
the afore mentioned passage, the Lord Jesus
references Daniel 9:26-27. Here it
must first be noted that the Lord uses the second
person plural ―you‖ in
reference to His audience. This is consistent
throughout the whole of Matthew
23-24 where the Lord first uses ―you‖ in reference
to the audience of the Jews
to whom He is condemning. Later in Matthew 24, the
Lord uses the second person
plural to describe the disciples in direct relation
to the corresponding and
pending events;”
Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his
disciples came to point out to him the buildings
of the temple. But he
answered them, "You see all these, do you
not? Truly, I
say to you, there will not be left here one
stone upon another that will
not be thrown down. As he sat on the Mount of
Olives, the disciples came
to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will
these things be, and
what will be the sign of your coming and of the
close of the age?" And
Jesus answered them, See that no one leads you
astray. (Emphasis Added)28
26Dan. 9:26-27 ESV
27 Matt. 24:15-20 ESV
28 Matt. 24:1-4 ESV (4)
In closing:
That
Christ
fulfilled, Daniel 9:26-27 is nothing short of
astonishing in light of
the exact details of the prophecy. The Daniel 9
prophecy is the same as
prophecies regarding the “Virgin Birth,” and
Christ’s Crucifixion.
A
fulfilled
prophecy that is as exact in its fulfillment
demonstrates that the Bible is
what it claims to be, the Word of God. No other
religious book can claim and
back it up with detailed precision as to the
fulfillment.
Many
Old
Testament verses refer to the Messiah or His work,
numbering into the
hundreds. Moreover, Jesus fulfilled at least 300
prophecies from the Old
Testament.
Are
there
prophecies in the Bible about the anti-Christ or the
Devil? There are
descriptive texts, but are there prophecies? Why
would there be? The Scriptures
point believers to Christ, not the anti-Christ.
Although, Daniel 9:26-27 is difficult
grammatically to understand. Nevertheless, to make
this into a prophecy of a
coming anti-Christ is fundamentally wrong in the
context of the totality of
Scripture.
In
Matthew
5:17, Jesus said that he came to “fulfill the law and the prophets.” He came to fulfill the Scriptures, all of
which testified of Himself. To interpret Daniel 9:27
as the anti-Christ is to
reject Matthew 5:17. (Bolding and underlining
emphasis mine)
“Study
to
shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy
2:15)
Notes:
1.Matthew
Poole's
Commentary on
the Holy Bible,
Daniel, Vol. 2, (Peabody, Massachusetts,
Hendrickson Publishers, 1985) p.
839.
2.DeMar,
Gary,
Last Day's
Madness: Obsession of
the Modern Church, (Powder Springs, GA:
American Vision, 1999) p. 327.
3.DeMar,
Gary,
Last Day's Madness: Obsession of the Modern Church,
(Powder Springs, GA:
American Vision, 1999) p. 327.
4.Jeffrey
S.
Krause, A
Historical Survey of the
Daniel’s “Seventy Weeks” and its Complete
Fulfillment within the Generation of
Christ, Liberty University School of Religion
Bible 450-B07
Mr.
Kettler
has previously published articles in the Chalcedon Report and Contra
Mundum. He and his wife Marea attend the
Westminster, CO, RPCNA Church. Mr.
Kettler is the author of books defending the
Reformed Faith. Books can be
ordered online at:
https://www.amazon.com/Books-Jack-Kettler/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AJack+Kettler