What is the "covenant" mentioned in Daniel 9:27, and who confirms it? Contextual Frame: Daniel 9 and the Seventy-Week Oracle Daniel 9:24-27 forms a single, tightly knit prophecy that lays out a 70 “week” (šābuʿîm, literally “sevens”) program for Israel and Jerusalem. Verse 27 closes the unit and therefore must be read as the climax of a time-line that has already brought us from (1) the decree to rebuild Jerusalem (v. 25), through (2) the appearance and death of “Messiah the Prince” (v. 26a), and (3) the city-sanctuary destruction of A.D. 70 by “the people of the prince who is to come” (v. 26b). The immediate literary subject that precedes the pronoun “he” in v. 27 is still Messiah (v. 26a), not the destroying people (who are plural). Option 1: The Covenant Is the New Covenant Ratified by Messiah (Primary Reading) 1. Grammar: The nearest antecedent for “he” is “Messiah” (v. 26), not “the people.” Hebrew syntax favors the singular masculine subject already in view. 2. Thematic cohesion: Daniel’s prayer in vv. 4-19 is built around God’s covenant promises to Israel (v. 4), so Gabriel’s response naturally ends with how those covenant promises will be made firm. 3. Inter-textual echoes: • Isaiah 53:11-12—“the many” are justified by the Servant’s atoning work. • Jeremiah 31:31-34—announcement of a “new covenant” for Israel. • Matthew 26:28—“This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” • Romans 15:8—“Christ has become a servant to the circumcised to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs.” • Hebrews 9:15—Christ is “mediator of a new covenant.” 4. Timeline fit: Using the well-attested decree of Artaxerxes I to Ezra in 457 B.C. (Ezra 7) as the starting point, 69 “weeks” (483 prophetic years of 360 days) land in A.D. 27–30, the period of Jesus’ baptism and public ministry. Half a “week” later (3½ years) His crucifixion “caused sacrifice and offering to cease” by rendering the Temple rites theologically obsolete (Hebrews 10:10-14). 5. Mid-week cessation: The rent veil recorded in Matthew 27:51 physically marked the end of sacrificial validity. The Temple remained standing until A.D. 70, but from God’s perspective the offerings had already ceased to be efficacious. Option 2: The Covenant Is a Future Seven-Year Treaty Engineered by a Final Antichrist (Secondary Reading Held by Many Evangelicals) 1. Pronoun switch: “He” is taken as the coming prince of v. 26b (the singular leader of the previously mentioned “people”). 2. Eschatological framework: Linking Daniel 9:27 to Daniel 11:36-45 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, Antichrist begins with diplomacy toward Israel, then desecrates a future Temple midway through a final seven-year Tribulation. 3. Terminus: This view reserves the final “week” for the consummation immediately preceding Christ’s second coming. Historical Corroborations for the Messiah Reading 1. A.D. 30 crucifixion: Tacitus (Annals 15.44) and Josephus (Ant. 18.3.3) establish Jesus’ death under Pontius Pilate. 2. A.D. 70 destruction: Titus’ campaign is the very event Daniel 9:26 foretells, confirming the sequence “Messiah cut off → city and sanctuary destroyed.” 3. Patristic voices: Early interpreters such as Hippolytus (On Christ and Antichrist §19-24) and Eusebius (Dem. Ev. VIII.2) identified Christ as the covenant-confirmer long before modern critical or dispensational systems developed. Historical Corroborations for the Antichrist Reading 1. Second-century Epistle of Barnabas (ch. 4) and later Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. 5.25) speak of a future deceiver desecrating a temple, providing early precedent for a futurist “abomination.” 2. Revelation 11–13 portrays forty-two months (3½ years) of persecution, giving canonical space to a broken seven-year pact motif. Chronological Mechanics: How the “Week” Fits Whether one sees the “week” as literal years (Messiah view) or future prophetic years (Antichrist view), both models use a 360-day biblical year already implicit in Genesis 7–8 and explicitly calculated in Daniel 7:25; 12:7,11. Final Synthesis The natural flow of Daniel 9, the lexical force of gābar, the unbroken manuscript line, the New Testament ratification by Jesus’ own words, and the contiguous A.D. 70 fulfillment combine to identify the covenant in Daniel 9:27 most cogently as the New Covenant, and the one who “confirms” it as Messiah Jesus Himself. A secondary, futurist application that views the verse as foreshadowing Antichrist’s sham treaty is possible but derivative. In either scenario, Daniel 9:27 stands as incontrovertible evidence that God’s redemptive program is on schedule and that the risen Christ is both guarantor and judge of history. |
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