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As title says, is it true the book of Daniel says that the Messiah will arrive before the destruction of the second temple?

I see this justification being used by Christians in order to claim Judaism is a false religion and/or 'you rejected the Messiah.'

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Many Christian attempts to read about their Messiah in the Jewish Bible are based on incorrect translations and misunderstandings of the Jewish way of reading the Bible (Tanakh) through its commentators.

In the specific case of Daniel chapter 9 and Christians reading the text to coincide with the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem, R Bentzion Kravitz here explains at length there are multiple compounding mistakes, e.g.,

  • the text speaks of periods of seven years, not weeks, rendering Christian calculations invalid
  • the word משיח (Moshiach) means there 'an anointed one,' not the Messiah/Jesus
  • the years being spoken about in the Bible are lunar with regular intercalations of months, not solar years

See the original for the full explanation.

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    It's important to note, that there are 27 books in the Greek Testament. NONE of them quote Daniel 9! Not any of the authors of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Not in the letters of Paul. Not in the letters of Peter. No one in first century Christianity thought that was important enough to mention an alleged prophecy about the exact year the Messiah was going to get killed? The answer is, that they knew basically, that any attempt to apply Daniel 9 to Jesus, is erroneous. It's only through mis-translations and misinterpretations, that they attempt to confuse uneducated Jews today.
    – IsraelReader
    Mar 5, 2019 at 22:33

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