Daniel 9:26 does not say that a messiah will be killed. Daniel 9 is not about "the" messiah either. There are two "messiahs" (anointed ones) mentioned in this Daniel 9 The first messiah is Cyrus -- the Babylonian Emperor -- who gave the word to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. Ezra: 1:1 - 2: "And in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, at the completion of the word of the L-rd from the mouth of Jeremiah, the L-rd aroused the Spirit of Cyrus, the king of Persia, and he issued a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also in writing, saying: "So said Cyrus, the king of Persia, 'All the kingdoms of the earth the L-rd G-d of the heavens delivered to me, and He commanded me to build Him a House in Jerusalem, which is in Judea.." Y'shayahu / Isaiah 44:28, 45:1 G-d "says of Cyrus, "He is My shepherd, and all My desire he shall fulfill," and to say of Jerusalem, "It shall be built, and the Temple shall be founded." . . . So said the L-rd לִמְשִׁיחוֹ֮ / to His messiah, to Cyrus, whose right hand I held, to flatten nations before him, and the loins of kings I will loosen, to open portals before him, and gates shall not be closed." His messiah. Cyrus. Then hundreds of years pass -- and Daniel foresees the destruction of the Second Temple and the Jews again exiled -- and the appearance of an evil messiah who will be part of that destruction. . . Neither of these messiahs was Jesus -- and one was "the" messiah. It is this second messiah, the one who indeed had to be alive at the time of the Temple's destruction (Jesus had been dead at least 40 years) -- but it does not mean he was killed. Daniel 9:26: "Then, after the sixty-two septets (הַשָּׁבֻעִים֙ / ha-shavuim) , an anointed one (messiah) will be cut off and will exist no longer; the people of the prince will come and destroy the city and the Sanctuary; but his end will be (to be swept away as) in a flood. Then, until the end of the war, desolation is decreed." Remember that Hebrew is based on root words? The root for this word is כָּרַת. Most root words are three letters -- vowels, prefixes and suffixes create new words using the "starting" word and sometimes joining two words together to form a new word -- they all, at the heart, have the meaning of the root word. A prefix may change it to add prepositions For example ו / vav as a prefix to a word can add "and he" or "and" to a word. ל / lamed as a prefix means "to" or "for" -- in Hebrew the word מֶלֶךְ / melech means king. If you add a ל / lamed prefix the word is לְמֶלֶךְ / l'melech (to a king). Words created from "roots" are similar -- they all contain the basic meaning of the core word -- just a variation on it. Realizing that consider the root of יִכָּרֵ֥ת / y'kareit which is the word from the root כָּרַת - kareit. The root word, כָּרַת - kareit, can be used to speak of someone being killed whereas the descending word יִכָּרֵ֥ת / y'kareit does not refer to a physical death, but to being "cut off" (excommunicated if you will) from G-d. But here is the thing -- and the very reason Christians should never, ever want to associate Daniel 9 with Jesus. . . Whatever iteration of the word כָּרַת - kareit or words created from it - only used to speak of the demise (whether by death or excommunication) of EVIL people. EVIL PEOPLE are כָּרַת - kareit. Any missionary associating this term with Jesus are ipso facto stating that Jesus was evil. Does Daniel speak of someone being killed (even an evil person)? No. Depending on how the root is used (various tenses for example) it can be connected with killing. An example of an iteration meaning killed / cut off see Shmuel Alef / 1 Samuel 20:15: "And you shall not discontinue your kindness from my household forever, and not even when the L-rd תַכְרִ֧ת / cuts off David's enemies, each man from upon the face of the earth." Killed. The word in Daniel 9 however, is יִכָּרֵ֥ת / y'kareit ("binyan" in Hebrew). "yikaret" is the 3rd-person, masculine, singular conjugation of the root verb כָּרַת - kareit -- in the future tense in the niph'al stem, which is the reflexive passive verb construct. Cut off, not killed. The Hebrew is יִכָּרֵ֥ת / y'kareit which can not be translated as "killed." It means to be cut off by G-d, not men. You are so evil you are removed (excised / excommunicated) from G-d. There is another big problem in most Christian mistranslations of Daniel 9:26: A proper translation says: "an anointed one (messiah) will be cut off and will exist no longer." Since Christians believe Jesus was resurrected and still exists in some form this sentence won't "work." Jesus exist no longer? Not acceptable! Ergo they change the meaning. Completely. Most Christian translations have he will be cut off “but not for himself" -- as if the messiah in question is innocent and is cut down because of others. This is not what the passage says. The Hebrew is וְאֵ֣ין לֹ֑ו / v'ayn Lo and it means "he'll have nothing," or possibly "he is nothing." He is nothing. He "won't be." He will not exist (having been spiritually cut off from G-d). . . Being nothing is very different from a mistranslation that says the person was cut off “but not for himself." Daniel's evil messiah is so horrible he will be יִכָּרֵ֥ת / y'kareit (cut off by G-d, not men -- not killed, but removed from G-d by G-d) and וְאֵ֣ין לֹ֑ו / v'ayn Lo -- there's nothing to him. . . One can see why it is not properly translated -- no Christian would point to Daniel 9:26 and say it is about Jesus if they realized the very messiah they want to claim was Jesus was evil, cut off by G-d and "exists no longer." Missionaries often ask: if the messiah in Daniel 9 wasn't Jesus "who was it?" It surprises them to learn there were many messiahs 2000 years ago. The term relates to one who was properly anointed -- or one who inherited their anointment (to inherit anointing the line had to be unbroken and uncontested. Since there had been no Davidic king for 600 years prior to Jesus the line was "broken" and thus the new messiah / king must be anointed. Jewish priests have continued in an unbroken line from Aaron and did not require personal anointing. Thus Jewish priests, in a sense, are "messiahs." With me? 2000 years ago King Agrippa (the coin is of him) was a messiah. Another "messiah" was the Roman Emperor Titus -- who destroyed the Temple. Obviously Titus was not a Jewish messiah -- but neither was Cyrus! A third possibility was a priest named Yannai. Both were pretty horrible people and either one might "fit" Daniel's claim of an evil messiah alive at the time in question. Rashi, the great Torah commentator, opined that the second, evil, messiah was King Agrippa. He reigned before the Temple's destruction, dying in 44 CE -- about 24 years prior to the Temple's destruction. It upsets missionaries no end that the identity of this second messiah isn't identified with certainty -- but it does not matter. The issue here is Daniel's message and vision -- which came to pass. For a good translation refer to the Artscroll Stone Edition T'nach translation: "In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus of the offspring of Media, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, 9:2. in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, contemplated the calculations, the number of years about which the word of HaShem had come to the prophet Jeremiah, to complete the seventy years since the ruin of Jerusalem. 9:3. I set my face toward the L-rd, G-d, to beseech (with) prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. . . 9:21. I was still speaking in prayer, when the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, was lifted in flight approaching me, at about the time of the afternoon offering. 9:22. He made me understand and spoke with me. He said: Daniel, I have gone forth now to teach you understanding. 9:23. At the beginning of your supplications a word went forth, and I have come to relate it for you are beloved. Contemplate this matter and gain understanding in your vision. 9:24. Seventy septets (שָׁבֻעִ֖ים / shavuim) have been decreed upon your people and upon your holy city to terminate transgression, to end sin, to wipe away iniquity, to anoint the Holy of Holies. 9:25. Know and comprehend: From the emergence of the word to return and to build Jerusalem until the anointment of the prince will be seven septets (שָׁבֻעִ֖ים / shavuim) and for sixty-two septets (וְשָׁבֻעִ֞ים / v'shavuim) it will be rebuilt, street and moat, but in troubled times. 9:26. Then, after the sixty-two septets (הַשָּׁבֻעִים֙ / ha-shavuim) , the anointed one (messiah) will be cut off and will exist no longer; the people of the prince will come and destroy the city and the Sanctuary; but his end will be (to be swept away as) in a flood. Then, until the end of the war, desolation is decreed. 9:27. He will forge a strong covenant with the great ones for one septet (shavuim); but for half of that septet (שָׁב֣וּעַ / shavua) he will abolish sacrifice and meal-offering and the mute abominations will be upon soaring heights until extermination. as decreed will pour down upon the mute (abomination). Footnotes: 9:1 This is Darius the Mede, not Darius the Persian whose parents were King Ahasuerus and Queen Esther. According to the Talmud, this vision took place in the seventieth year after Nebuchadnezzar's subjugation of Jeconiah, eighteen years before the destruction of the Temple. 9:2 See Y'rmiyahu / Jeremiah 29:10. 9:24 Literally "seventy weeks," this phrase refers to seventy times seven years, or 490 years. This refers to the seventy years of exile that have passed from the Destruction of the First Temple until this vision and the entire 420 year period of the Second Temple (Rashi). 9:25. The "septets" (shavuim) refer to full seven-year periods. The prince of this verse is Cyrus, who gave permission to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. He ascended to the throne fifty-two years (seven full septets plus three years) after the exile had begun. From then until the second destruction of Jerusalem was 438 years, or sixty-two septets and four years (Rashi). 9:26. I.e. Agrippa, the last Jewish king, at the end of the Second Temple Era. After his death, the prince of this verse, the Roman Titus, would command the destruction of the Temple, which will not be rebuilt until after the War of Gog and Magog, in Messianic times (Rashi). 9:27. The Roman emperor would make a treaty with the Jewish nation for seven years; but for the second half of that term the Romans would violate that covenant and impede the Temple service. The "mute abomination," i.e., a temple of idolatry, was erected by the emperor Hadrian on the Temple Mount (Rashi).
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