Daniel 9:27 Is About Messiah

Not a Future Antichrist. The Futurist View Is a Jesuit Invention.

The Actual Reading

Daniel 9:26-27

"And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself."
Verse 26: The subject is MESSIAH. He is cut off (crucified) for others, not for himself.
"And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week."
Verse 27a: "He" = same subject from the previous verse. Messiah confirms the covenant.
"And in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease."
Verse 27b: In the middle of the prophetic week, Messiah's death ends the sacrificial system. The veil tore.
"And for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate."
The abomination that followed: Rome destroyed the temple in 70 AD. Fulfilled.

The grammar is plain. Daniel 9:26 names the subject: Messiah. Daniel 9:27 says "He." In Hebrew grammar, the pronoun refers to the nearest antecedent. That antecedent is Messiah. There is no antichrist figure introduced anywhere in Daniel 9.

The Covenant Confirmed

"This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many." Matthew 26:28

Daniel 9:27 says "He shall confirm the covenant with many." Matthew 26:28 says the blood of the new covenant is "shed for many." The same word. The same event. Yahusha confirmed the covenant through His blood. This is not a future peace deal with an antichrist. It is the New Covenant.

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Yahuah; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." Hebrews 8:10

In the Midst of the Week

Yahusha's ministry lasted approximately 3.5 years. He was "cut off" (crucified) in the middle of the prophetic week. At the cross, sacrifice and offering were made obsolete.

~27 AD
Ministry begins. Yahusha baptized. The prophetic week starts. The covenant is being confirmed through His teaching and miracles.
~30 AD
Crucifixion. In the midst (middle) of the week, after 3.5 years. Sacrifice and oblation cease. The veil of the temple tears from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51).
~34 AD
Stephen martyred. The gospel turns to the Gentiles (Acts 7). The remaining 3.5 years of the prophetic week complete. The covenant confirmed "with many" now includes all nations.
70 AD
Temple destroyed. Rome demolishes Jerusalem. "The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (Daniel 9:26). The abomination of desolation fulfilled exactly as Yahusha prophesied in Matthew 24:15 and Luke 21:20.

Two Interpretations

Historicist (Original Protestant View)

  • "He" = Messiah. The subject from Daniel 9:26 continues into 9:27.
  • Covenant = New Covenant. Confirmed through the blood of Yahusha (Matthew 26:28).
  • Middle of the week = the Cross. 3.5 years of ministry, then crucifixion.
  • Sacrifice ceases = fulfilled at Calvary. The veil tore. Animal sacrifice became obsolete.
  • This prophecy is FULFILLED. Held by Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wycliffe, Huss, and every early Reformer.

Futurist (Jesuit Counter-Reformation View)

  • "He" = a future antichrist. Inserted into the text despite no antichrist being named in Daniel 9.
  • Covenant = a peace deal with Israel. No Scripture calls any antichrist covenant a "confirming."
  • Middle of the week = antichrist breaks a treaty. Completely invented. No biblical basis.
  • 7-year tribulation. The "week" is ripped from its context and placed in the far future.
  • Invented in 1590 by Jesuit Francisco Ribera to deflect Protestant identification of the Papacy as the beast.

How This Error Entered Protestantism

The futurist interpretation of Daniel 9:27 did not come from Scripture study. It came from a deliberate counter-Reformation strategy designed to protect the Papacy from being identified as the beast of Revelation.

1590 Francisco Ribera (Jesuit)

Wrote a commentary on Revelation proposing that most prophecy was FUTURE, not historical. Moved the Antichrist from the current Pope to some future figure. Futurism was born as a Jesuit tool.

1826 S.R. Maitland

Reintroduced Ribera's futurism to England. The Jesuit interpretation began crossing into Protestant scholarship.

1830s Edward Irving

Prophetic conferences spread futurism further. The pre-tribulation rapture concept gained traction alongside it.

1830-1882 John Nelson Darby

Systematized dispensationalism. Created the framework that separates Daniel's 70th week from the other 69 and places it in the future. No Reformer before him held this view.

1909 C.I. Scofield

The Scofield Reference Bible embedded futurism directly into Protestant study Bibles. Millions of believers now read the Jesuit interpretation in their margin notes.

1970s-2000s Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye

"The Late Great Planet Earth" and the "Left Behind" series popularized futurism to the masses. The Jesuit counter-Reformation interpretation became mainstream evangelical doctrine.

The result: modern evangelicals hold a Jesuit interpretation of prophecy and do not know it. They are waiting for a future antichrist instead of recognizing the one that has been sitting in Rome for 1,500 years. The beast successfully redirected attention away from itself.

LeRoy Edwin Froom documented this entire transmission in his work "Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers."

The Key Question

Ask yourself: if every Protestant Reformer for 400 years identified Daniel 9:27 as being about Messiah, and the Papacy as the beast, what changed? The Bible did not change. The prophecy did not change. What changed was the interpretation, and it was changed deliberately by Jesuits to protect Rome.

"Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Messiah; and shall deceive many." Matthew 24:4-5
How Futurism Entered Protestantism The Beast System