The above is a firm favorite of mine. Note, it describes the fate of Jerusalem. No matter whether you appoint an early or late date to the authorship of Daniel, it happened just like that. It also discusses "an anointed one," the Messiah, to be cut off with nothing for himself. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Then it discusses the destruction of the city: "And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator" (Dan. 9:27 ESV).
This coincides with the Roman invasion and the destruction of the city and temple, whereas the Roman Empire will receive its just desserts in due course. If you work on the chronology of seventy sevens since the reconstruction of Jerusalem, you come up with (70 x 7) = 490 years, the time Jesus are supposed to enter Jerusalem. What a coincidence!
Entirely wrong from start to finish. The book of Daniel (2nd century BCE) refers to events up to and during the reign of Antiochus IV Epihanes. This is very well understood by scholars. The motif was reused in the gospels to refer to different events that the Romans were involved in, but Daniel has nothing to do with the first century or with anything happening now. There were seven ‘weeks’ from 587 BCE to 539 BCE for the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon, and there were a separate 62 ‘weeks’ from 605 BCE (the start of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the gold head of the statue) until 171 BCE when the priest Jason was ‘cut off’ and Antiochus appointed Menelaus, but 3.5 years later (the ‘half of the week’) Antiochus desecrated the temple and banned Jewish worship (168 BCE). Then at the end of that ‘week’ (165 BCE), the temple was rededicated and Antiochus died not much later.
In the botched Christian reinterpretation, Jesus died at the ‘half of the week’, but that’s not when Daniel says the messiah is cut off, Daniel instead says it is the leader bringing destruction on Jerusalem who puts an end to sacrifice at the ‘half of the week’ (which precisely fits Antiochus’ actions). This is conveniently ignored by Christians, as is the fact that their supposed start of the period doesn’t match the reign of Artaxerxes either.