Quote Originally Posted by DurbanDude
There was a 3.5 year period surrounding the cross, so I don't know why you are saying "there was no 7 year period or 3 1/2 period surrounding the cross". Jesus was baptised in the Jordan and then 3.5 years later Jesus was crucified. So for 3.5 years Jesus confirmed the Messianic covenant to Israel, and then put an end to sacrifice by being the final sacrificial lamb.
There is nothing written for several centuries after the cross about a 3 1/2 period around Jesus' death. Jesus ministered for under 3 years.

It says "a" covenant not "the" covenant. None of the 69 sevens were split in half by many centuries, nor shall the last one be. "After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing" (Dan. 9.26). It doesn't say after 62 1/2 sevens. God would not confuse us like that. He would be more specific so as not to be the author of confusion. So it is after the 62 sevens Jesus is cut off, not 62 1/2 sevens.

Notice again it says, "And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing." The only Friday Nisan 14 Passover that fits is the day after the 4 day inspection of the Lamb. There are exactly 173,880 days from Neh. 2.1, the declaration to rebuild the temple, to March 28, 33 AD Monday, Nisan 10 (see the Thomas Ice article on the Seventy Sevens). There are 4 days March 28, 29, 30, 31 then Jesus died on the cross April 1, 33 AD. That would put Jesus' death at the age of 37 1/2 since He was born Tishri 15 6 BC.

And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (Dan. 9.26). The people of the future Antichrist come to destroy the city is what follows after Jesus' is cut off. They destroyed the city 70 AD and the Temple was destroyed. This is not a time of 3 1/2 years either.

Then what follows is the future Antichrist and what he does in the final seven: "And he shall confirm a covenant with many for one seven" (v.27).

In today's English, "The ruler will make a treaty with the people [Christians are not 'the people'] for a period of one set of seven, but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings [Jews will reinstitute animal sacrifices in a newly constructed 3rd Temple though against God's will; see the Temple in 2 Thess. 2.4 and Rev. 11.2]. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration, until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him” (Dan. 9.27 NLT).

Jesus doesn't set up a sacrilegious object. Jesus doesn't make a treaty with the people for one seven. This future ruler Antichrist (reanimated Nero) is not Jesus. These are not the terrible deeds of Jesus! God forbid.

How can Jesus confirm a covenant for one seven if He is already dead or cut off in verse 26? "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy...and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week" (Dan. 9.26,27).

Would God ask us to change the plain reading of the text? Never in the gospels do we read something like this: "Jesus confirmed a 7 year covenant with the 12 Apostles as spoken by Daniel." You would think that would be important considering Dan. 9.24-27 is the greatest prophecy of the NT along with Is. 53 and Ps. 22. But we do read "The day is coming when you will see what Daniel the prophet spoke about—the sacrilegious object that causes desecration (Dan. 9.27, 11.31, 12.11) standing in the Holy Place (Reader, pay attention!)" (Matt. 24.15).

The one who makes a covenant is the one whose people destroy the city in 70 AD is the one who breaks the covenant in the future is the one who is on the wings of abomination then and only after all this his end shall come.

If this really was Jesus in which "he shall confirm the covenant" (Dan. 9.27) over 7 years then shouldn't a more clear indication be made such as 'Messiah' or the 'one who was cut off' in Dan. 9.26d instead of the covenant maker in Dan. 9.27a following from the prince who destroys the city?