What If Daniel 9:27 Is About Jesus and the Cross?

For years, many have assumed Daniel 9:27 points to a future Antichrist and a rebuilt temple. But what if we’ve missed the greater fulfillment? What if Daniel 9:27 is about Jesus and the Cross? What if Gabriel’s message to Daniel is about Jesus and the Cross—the moment when a new covenant was confirmed—when endless animal sacrifices ended forever? When the temple veil that separated men from God was torn down, opening a way for everyone to come into the presence of God?

In this article, we explore how the events surrounding Jesus’ scourging and beating, mocking and crucifixion would have been viewed by God as an abomination. And how for Jesus to be “set up” and beat up in a “wing of the temple” fmay have fulfilled this pivotal prophecy in full.

Seventy sevens are decreed upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy.

This prophecy is for the Jew, Jerusalem, to put an end to their transgressions and sins, atone for their iniquities, usher in righteousness forever, complete all vision and prophecies (no more prophets or new prophetic words) and anoint the Messiah. 

What if Daniel 9:27 is about Jesus and the cross and the Passover lamb? For those who believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah, then He has fulfilled the six objectives listed in Daniel 9:24.

First, Jesus brought an end to transgression for those who believe. At the cross, He broke the power of sin and rebellion. His final cry, “It is finished” (John 19:30), signaled the completion of His mission to deal with human transgression once and for all. As Paul wrote, “He appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26).

Second, Jesus made an end of sins—not that sin ceased to exist, but that the penalty and power of sin were fully addressed through His atoning sacrifice. John the Baptist declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). And Hebrews 10:12 affirms, “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.”

Third, He made atonement for iniquity. This is the heart of the gospel. Jesus became the once-for-all sacrifice that covered and cleansed the guilt of all who believe, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy that “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities… and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5–6). Paul echoes this truth in Romans 3:25: “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood—to be received by faith.”

Fourth, Jesus brought in everlasting righteousness. Through His death and resurrection, righteousness is now available to all—apart from the law. “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law… through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Romans 3:21–22). As Paul writes again, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Fifth, Jesus sealed up vision and prophecy. God’s revelation to humanity reached its climax in Christ. “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets… but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). Jesus is the final and full Word (John 1:1, 14). While some prophecies remain to be fulfilled, no new prophetic word or messenger is needed or will come, save the Two Witnesses. “Do not add to His words, or He will rebuke you and prove you a liar” (Proverbs 30:6). And Revelation 22:18–19 gives a clear warning about adding further revelation to what has already been given.

Sixth, Jesus anointed as the Most Holy. He is the “Holy One of God” (John 6:69), anointed with the Holy Spirit and power (Acts 10:38). As our eternal High Priest (Hebrews 7:24–25), He entered not a man-made sanctuary, “but into heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence” (Hebrews 9:24). In Jesus, the Most Holy is no longer a location, but a Person—the Word made flesh who tabernacled among us (John 1:14).

So while not every person or nation has yet embraced Him, Daniel 9:24 finds its complete fulfillment in Jesus—for all who believe. He accomplished every part of the prophecy.

Let’s examine what the text actually says about the prince, setting aside later interpretations, and look at the nouns and pronouns of Daniel 9:26-27.

“… until the Anointed One (an anointed one), the ruler comes, there will be…”
“… the people of the ruler who will come will destroy…”
“And he will make a firm [a] covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing (extremity, edge) of abominations (detested thing) [will come] one who makes desolate (to be desolated or appalled) even until a complete destruction, one (destruction?) that is decreed (to cut, sharpen, decide), is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

In Hebrew narrative, when you introduce a character with a title and use that same title again, you’re referring to the same person—this is basic grammar, not interpretation

For centuries, many have assumed that Daniel 9:27 refers to a future Antichrist defiling a rebuilt Jewish temple. But what if we’ve been reading something into the text that isn’t there?

The original Hebrew never uses the word Temple in this verse. That detail alone invites a fresh look. What if the true abomination wasn’t the desecration of a building, but the appalling treatment of Jesus, God’s Son, and His death (destruction). What if the one that is decreed (by God’s will) is “poured out” in death and Jesus’ death brings the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem?  Daniel writes:

And after the sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, and nothing (remains) for Him (to do).

What if Daniel 9:27 is about Jesus and the cross, not a future temple? “Shall be one who makes desolate.” This phrase is derived from מְשֹׁמֵם (məshōmēm)  and is a participle form of the Hebrew root שָׁמֵם (shamem), which means:

• To devastate
• To lay waste
• To cause horror or astonishment
• To make uninhabitable
• To leave in ruin, desolate

This word is often used in the prophets when describing:

• Total destruction of a city or land,
• Spiritual defilement (especially when tied to idolatry or sacrilege),
• Judgment from God resulting in abandonment and ruin.

Jesus says:

“Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (Mark 13:1–2 ) “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19)

Note who brings or incites this destruction—not Jesus or the Antichrist, but the religious leaders of His day. They are the ones who reject Jesus as their Messiah. They are the ones who turn Him over to the ruler of the people to come. They are the ones who invite God’s wrath that leads to the destruction of their Temple, Jerusalem, and nation. Daniel 9:27… hum…?

“Would that you, even you (Jerusalem), had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Now read with fresh eyes how Daniel foresaw what Jesus prophesied over Jerusalem and the Temple.

And the people of a prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end shall be with a flood, and until the end, war—desolations are decreed.

Who brings desolations? That is the question and controversy.

In reading Daniel 9:25–27 this way, we see that the abomination of desolation echoes back to the days of the Maccabees, when the Seleucid ruler—a Hellenistic Greek king—Antiochus IV Epiphanes defiled the Temple by forcing priests to sacrifice swine on the altar and eat unclean meat—an abominable act that desecrated the holy place.

But note how Jesus and the Gospel writers never connect Daniel 9:24-27 with Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Maccabees. There is perhaps a reference to Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Daniel, but that prophecy is found in Daniel 11:28-31.

Where Will (Did) the Abomination of Desolate Occur?

Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, And said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and they smote him with their hands. (John 19:1–3)

In the middle of the “seven“—three and a half years into Jesus’ ministry—on the prophesied day, Roman soldiers led Jesus inside the governor’s palace—the Praetorium. There they mocked Jesus, flogged Him until his back back ran red with blood, beat Jesus with his staff, hit him with their fists, and spit on Him.  All this took place in a “palace” attached to the Temple Mount: a wing and extremity of the Jewish center of worship. There, the Messiah—the Son of God—became the sacrificial Lamb of God. Daniel 9:27

Roman soldiers knelt before Him, jeering in mockery, “Hail, King of the Jews.” This grotesque parody of worship, staged in the shadow of the Holy of Holies, became the ultimate rejection of the true Messiah—delivered up by His own people. From the Father’s perspective, this was the abomination. Daniel 9:27

Forty years later Roman soldiers would complete the desolation of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, but the city’s downfall began that Friday morning before Passover.

Jesus rose from the tomb on Sunday morning and put an end to sacrifice, offerings, and sin. By His shed blood, He ushered in everlasting righteousness and atoned for wickedness. He sealed up all vision, prophecy, and the Law. He is the anointed “most holy.”

And He is coming back—perhaps sooner than we think. Daniel 9:27