Daniel9:27 Speaks of "the Covenant", Meaning It Existed Before That Material Time. Which Covenant Is This?
1) Direct Answer
It is the New Covenant—God’s everlasting covenant promised to the fathers and confirmed by the Messiah in His own blood. He began confirming it in His earthly ministry, was “cut off” in the midst of the week, and by His one sacrifice caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease before God.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Daniel 9:27 says, “He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” It says confirm, not create. That points to a covenant already promised.
- Jesus identified it: “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many” (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20). Notice the echo of Daniel’s “with many.”
- It is God’s own covenant—the New Covenant promised to Israel and rooted in the promises to Abraham.
- The prophets foretold this covenant: “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31-34). “I will give thee for a covenant of the people” (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8). “I will make an everlasting covenant with them” (Ezekiel 37:26).
- The New Testament states plainly that Christ came to confirm what God had promised: “Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers” (Romans 15:8). And the covenant “was confirmed before of God in Christ” (Galatians 3:17).
- Galatians 3:17 speaks of “the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ,” showing this covenant already existed in promise form and is confirmed in the Messiah.
- “In the midst of the week” He caused sacrifice to cease by offering Himself once for all: “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second… by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:9-14). Before God, that ended the temple sacrifices’ standing.
- Isaiah spoke of the “many”: “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11). That matches Daniel’s “with many.”
And the remaining half-week goes back to Israel: the two witnesses prophesy 1,260 days (three and a half years) to that nation (Revelation 11:3). That completes the confirmation to the remnant of Israel.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Daniel says confirm the covenant, not make a new political treaty. So it must be God’s covenant already foretold.
- Only Christ’s death actually made sacrifice and oblation cease in God’s sight; that fits the “midst of the week.”
- “With many” lines perfectly with Jesus’ words, “shed for many,” and Isaiah’s “justify many.”
- Christ ministered about three and a half years to Israel, was cut off in the midst; the final three and a half years are completed to Israel under the two witnesses.
- Therefore, the “he” is the Messiah confirming God’s covenant, not an antichrist making a mere political agreement.
Short Reinforcing Statement
So the covenant in Daniel 9:27 is the New Covenant—everlasting, promised by the prophets, confirmed by the Messiah in His blood, ending the old sacrifices, and finished to Israel’s remnant in the last half of the week.