Daniel 9:27

"In contrast to the rather clear fulfillment of Daniel 9:25-26, Daniel 9:27 is an enigma as far as history is concerned; and only futuristic interpretation allows any literal fulfillment." [Note: Ibid.]

The nearest antecedent of "he" is "the prince who is to come" (Daniel 9:26). Titus made no covenant with Israel, so who is in view? Apparently a future ruler of the revived or reorganized Roman Empire, the little horn of chapter 7, is in view. This seems preferable to taking the antecedent of "he" as Messiah, since Jesus Christ did not do the things predicted of the prince here. Young held that Christ is the prince, and He fulfilled what Daniel predicted, in that He put the covenant of grace into effect at the time of His death, and abolished the sacrifices of the old dispensation. [Note: Young, pp. 213-17, 220-21.] If the little horn of chapter 7 is in view, as seems preferable, this means that the seventieth week does not follow the sixty-ninth week immediately. Such a break in prophetic chronology has precedent in the predictions of Messiah’s first and second advents (Isaiah 61:1-2). Another evidence of a break between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks, is the fact that there was a 37-year gap, between Messiah’s cutting off in A.D. 33, and the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Yet Daniel presented both of these events as after the sixty-ninth week and before the seventieth week. Thus there must be a break in the chronology after the sixty-ninth week. [Note: See McClain, pp. 31-45, for additional proofs of a gap.]

This future ruler, according to Gabriel, will make a covenant with "the many" for one week (seven years). "The many" evidently refers to Daniel’s people (Daniel 9:24), ethnic Jews (cf. Daniel 11:39; Daniel 12:2). After three and one-half years, this Antichrist will terminate the sacrifices and offerings that he permitted these Jews to offer. Their ability to offer these sacrifices indicates that they will be back in the land worshipping at a rebuilt temple.

"The wing of abominations" may be a reference to a wing of the temple that is particularly abominable because of idolatry, possibly the pinnacle or summit of the temple. [Note: Young, p. 218; Whitcomb, p. 134.] Another interpretation takes "wing" figuratively, and sees Antichrist descending vulture-like on his prey. [Note: Archer, "Daniel," p. 118.] Perhaps the simplest explanation is to take "on the wing of" in the sense of "with." Apparently the prince will appear in the Jerusalem temple when he ends the sacrifices.

Daniel 12:11 refers to a future stopping of the Jewish sacrifices, forty-two months before Messiah returns to the earth. Revelation 13:4-7 also describes this future ruler in harmony with what Gabriel revealed here. Jesus warned of him, too, in Matthew 24:15-28, as did the Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, and the Apostle John in 1 John 2:18. The complete destruction decreed by God and poured out on this prince will come, according to these passages, when Messiah returns to the earth.

Students of this passage who do not take this verse as predicting future events usually adopt one of the following interpretations. [Note: See also Baldwin’s additional note on some interpretations of the seventy sevens, pp. 172-78.] Liberal commentators believe that the events in the seventieth seven, as well as those in the preceding sixty-nine sevens, happened in a loose sense after the Maccabean persecution of the second century B.C. [Note: E.g., Montgomery, pp. 400-401.] Orthodox Jewish scholars usually take the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 as the fulfillment of this verse. Many amillennialists understand the seventieth week to represent what has happened since Jesus Christ’s first advent and what will continue until His second advent. [Note: E.g., Young, pp. 208-209; and Leupold, pp. 431-40.] Some amillennialists take the seventieth seven as seven literal years beginning with Jesus’ public ministry and ending about three and one-half years after his death. [Note: E.g., Philip Mauro, The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation, pp. 70-71.] Dwight Pentecost articulated the standard premillennial, pretribulational interpretation.

"This seven-year period will begin after the Rapture of the church (which will consummate God’s program in this present Age). The 70th ’seven’ will continue till the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. Because Jesus said this will be a time of ’great distress’ (Matthew 24:21), this period is often called the Tribulation." [Note: Pentecost, "Daniel," p. 1364. See also The New Scofield .. . ., p. 913.]

The strongest argument for a literal fulfillment of the events predicted in Daniel 9:27, is that the events predicted in Daniel 9:24-26 were fulfilled literally.

"The ’abomination of desolation’ set up by Antiochus is not the ultimate fulfillment of Daniel 9:27 because (a) Antiochus does not fit the time sequence given in that verse, and (b) long after the time of Antiochus, Jesus said Daniel’s prophecy of the abomination of desolation was still future (Matthew 24:15-16)." [Note: Dyer, in The Old . . ., p. 719.]