Was Daniel 9:27 Fulfilled in Jesus’ Earthly Ministry?

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Was the “prince who is to come” is Jesus Christ who was spoken of earlier in the immediate context? Daniel 9:26-27 perhaps more literally reads as follows:

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 desolate.”

Although vs. 26-27 do seem to strongly point to the actions of Caesar Titus, could these verses also be worded in such a way that they could also refer to the actions of Jesus Christ as well?  (See Daniel 9:24-27 Commentary: Daniel 9 Miraculously Fulfilled!)  Perhaps there is a kind of double fulfillment intended?  If there is a focus on Jesus in these verses then, of course, there may be no gap in the seventy-sevens with this interpretation.

Let’s investigate vs. 26-27 with Jesus Christ in focus. Verse 26 reads, “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.”  Who are the people of the prince who is to come who “shall destroy the city and the sanctuary”? Verse 26 could refer to the actions of the Roman army who destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple and/or it could also refer to the actions of the saints.  As explained in the commentary on Revelation, the plagues of Revelation and the fall of Babylon were the result of God answering the prayers of the martyred saints for vengeance for their unjust deaths.  Here we can see how “the people of the prince who is to come . . . destroy[s] the city and the sanctuary” either through the actions of the Roman army or by way of the prayers of the saints for justice.

Verse 27 reads, “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.” Modern scholars believe that Jesus’ ministry as it is recorded in the Gospels was also three and a half years long.  At the end of Jesus’ three-and-a-half-year ministry, Jesus was crucified as a sacrifice for sin.  After Jesus’ death and resurrection, those ceremonial aspects of the Law regarding animal sacrifice were fulfilled at the cross.  Thus in the middle of the “seven” or three and a half years into His ministry, Jesus “put an end to sacrifice and offering.” (Jessie E. Mills, Jr., Daniel Fulfilled Prophecy, (Bradford, PA: International Preterist Association, Inc., 2003), 149.) I believe that the story does not end there. What about the seven-year covenant mentioned in v. 27?  I believe that the final three-and-a-half-year period comprising the seven-year interval mentioned in v. 27 seems to have been fulfilled in the three-and-a-half-year ministry of the two witnesses of Revelation 11.  How could the final three-and-a-half years of v. 27 be fulfilled in the earthly ministry of the two witnesses?  See the preterist commentary on Revelation 11 for a comprehensive explanation.

The second half of verse 27 states, “And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolate.”  What is being made desolate? Perhaps it is the city of Jerusalem and the Temple by acts of war as mentioned above? The desolation of the Temple in v. 27 could also refer to the departure of the Shekinah or Spirit of God from the Temple.  In Matthew 23:38 Jesus says, “Behold your house is being left to you desolate.”  Maybe the desolation of the Temple in Daniel 9:26-27 and Matthew 23:38 refers to the departure of the Spirit of God, the Shekinah, from the Temple.  And if it is the Temple that is made desolate either by acts of war or the departure of the Spirit of God or both, then maybe the Temple is also referred to in the latter half of v. 27 when it says, “And on the wing of abominations shall come one [Jesus] who makes desolate [departure of Shekinah or destruction of the Temple], until the decreed end is poured out on the desolate [the Temple]”?

Although it is possible that Daniel 9:27 could be about Jesus, this idea becomes less likely when we look at related verses like Matthew 24:15-16 and 2 Thessalonians 2:4:

“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” (Matthew 24:15-16.)

“He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4.)

In Matthew 24:15-16 we see that the abomination that causes desolation is standing idolatrously in the holy place of the Temple. And in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 we learn that it is the Lawless One who seemingly performs this act as he “sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”  Daniel 9:27 reads, “And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”  In light of Matthew 24:15-16 and 2 Thessalonians 2:4 it seems that it is the Lawless One that sets up the abomination that causes desolation in the Temple, not Jesus.

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