Daniel 9:26 The Prince

Edited 12-12-23.
Daniel 9:26, “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 the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

Now, let me paraphrase the above to understand better what’s meant. Then we can follow that up with the scriptural evidence the Holy Spirit has placed (with carefully chosen and placed words) in the text.

Daniel 9:26, “After 434 years shall Jesus the Jewish Messiah divorce himself from the Jews and the land (this in 31 A.D. the year of his crucifixion) but not for himself: (note the colon, not a period) it would be to atone for the sins of ALL people, Jews, and Gentiles. The people, the Gentiles, are those ruled by the prince (the prince speaks of Jesus.)

Revelation 1:5, “Jesus Christ – the prince (lower case) of the king of the earth.”

It was the Lord who sent the Gentiles, speaking of Titus and the Roman armies, who were used as God’s instrument of judgment. They were sent to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D. The end (meaning the temporary cutting off of the Jews except for a small remnant) will cease at the end of the seven years of tribulation when Jesus Christ returns to destroy all his enemies and the enemies of the Jews. And (or but) until the end of this 2000 Year war (with the Jews and their enemies,) destructions (places laid waste) have been decreed by God.”

The LORD sent the Assyrians led by Shalmaneser to destroy the ten Northern tribes; King Nebuchadnezzar and his armies to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 B.C., then in 70 A.D. he sent Titus and his armies to punish the Jews, destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D.

Jesus is not only called Messiah the Prince, the Prince of peace; he is also, according to Revelation 1:5, “The prince of the kings of the earth.” Take note that the lower case “prince” agrees with the lower case used in Daniel.

Jesus, as the prince, has power over all earthly kings, princes, and rulers. All are limited in their counsels and authority by him, and can overrule all, are accountable to Him, and used by him to inflict his judgments.

These kings were sent to fulfill God’s will as determined and prophesied. Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, the Caesars, the Catholic armies, the German forces of Hitler, and now the armies of Islam have all been sent by God as judgment against the Jews and the land.

Another example is found in Job 1:12 and 2:5. God gave Satan the power to take what he would from Job but is told not to touch Job’s life. The devil had to obey the command of God, and he did.

Follow-up article on the above:

In many Bibles, the colon that comes after “himself:” in the King James Bible has been changed to a period in the Douay Version of the Bible (Catholic): The New World Translation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses: The Amplified Bible: New International Bible: Thompson Chain Reference Bible, The Reformation Study Bible, and others.

The K.J.B. uses a colon, as does the Geneva Bible. I have at home an 1806 Bible composed by Matthew Henry, which uses a semicolon, and a 1905 Self-Interpreting Bible that uses a semicolon.

Let me quote R.C. Sproul’s introduction in The Reformation Study Bible that closes Daniel’s verse with a period.

Dr. Sproul wrote, “The Geneva Bible published in 1560, carefully designed to be accurate and understandable. It being the 1st English Bible to use verse divisions, as “most profitable for memory” —- It “Dominated the English-speaking world for a hundred years. Shakespeare used it. The King James Bible was published in 1611 but did not supplant the Geneva Bible until fifty years later. The Pilgrims and Puritans carried the Geneva Bible to the shores of the New World. American colonists were reared on the Geneva Bible. They read it, studied it, and sought to live by its light.

Daniel 9:26, “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: (colon) and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

Would using a period, colon, or semicolon after the word (himself) make any difference in the interpretation and understanding of Daniel 9:26? First, look at the differences between a period, colon, and semicolon.

A period is a punctuation mark indicating a complete stop, placed at the end of declarative sentences and other statements thought to be finished; also called a full stop. Every sentence without an exclamation or a question must end with a period. The vast majority of sentences are called declarative statements— statements that say something and, therefore, end in a period. Full stop explains itself: a full stop, as a full or perfect point, is not an imperfect point or stop. It is hard to believe there is any other case in life in which a thing so small as the period carries so much force.

The most common use of the colon (:) is to inform the reader that what follows the colon proves, explains, defines, describes, or lists elements of what preceded it. In modern American English, a complete sentence goes before a colon, and what follows that colon will prove, explain, define, or describe what has just been written.

The semicolon (;) is a punctuation mark that separates major sentence elements. A semicolon is used between two closely related independent clauses, provided a coordinating conjunction does not already join them. The prince is not Titus or some future antichrist, but Jesus, who is, “The prince of the kings of the earth.”

Phillip Laspino www.seekfirstwisdom.com