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.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Jehovah-Jireh
58-0127 §36
But in Orient, how they make a covenant, they take an animal, and they slay this animal. And they stand between the dead pieces of the body ... the pieces of the dead body, rather, and as they stand between these pieces, they write the covenant: "I agree to do such, and such, and such." And then they tear it apart. One man takes one piece, one another, and they hold their hands and swear: if this covenant is broken, let their bodies be like the dead beast. But when that covenant is recognized, confirmed, both of th...
Faith
56-0427 §23
Notice then, Abraham called by election, and God giving him the covenant of grace unconditionally. You know, when God makes a covenant with man, man breaks his covenant. You make a promise to God, nine times out of ten you'll not do it. When God made a covenant with man in the garden of Eden: "This you do and if you do this..." There's an "if" in it. Man turned right back around it and broke his covenant with God. God was determined to save man. So instead of saying "if," He was no "if" to Abraham: "I have." You se...
Seals 9: Questions and Answers on the Seals
63-0324M §104
QUESTION: When was the covenant of Daniel 9:27 confirmed for a week? One-half of it was confirmed, the covenant, when Jesus Christ was on earth preaching to the Jews. He never went to the Gentiles at all. And He told His disciples, "Don't go to the Gentiles." That was to Jews alone. And He preached for three and a half years---that's half of the seventieth week, now, as Daniel said He would do. Now remember, He was firmly vindicated to the Jews, but their eyes were blinded to bring in this space of the Gentiles. Ca...
Jehovah-Jireh
57-0612 §34
In the days of Abraham, and in the Orient, the way they made a covenant, they taken a beast, and they killed it, and split it in two, just like you see Abraham doing for God's covenant. And they split the covenant in two. Then they write out their agreement, and then they take that, and tear it apart, give it to one and to the other. And they take a oath over this dead body: If they break this covenant, let them be as this dead beast was. What an oath. And the only way this covenant can be manifested, is for both m...
Jehovah-Jireh, part 1
62-0705 §73
But in the old times, in Abraham's time, the way they made a covenant was kill a sacrifice, and stand between this sacrifice; and then, when they did, they wrote out the covenant on a piece of lamb's skin, then they tore it. One took one piece, and one took the other. Now when this covenant was confirmed and brought together, there was no one could impersonate that. See, it has to dovetail, letter by letter, just exactly the way it was. That shows that the rightful owner of this piece has a part, this is the same c...