What I can say is that one traditional Christian interpretation of the last of the seventy weeks when the sacrifices would stop (Daniel 9:27 “
and he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease”) is, ever since Origen and Eusebius, as a prophecy about Christ; in fact, this is where the oft-repeated idea of Jesus being out in public for three and a half years (something the Gospels are very vague about: some interpret the Synoptics as presenting a one-year ministry, while a literal reading of John, who speaks of three Passovers, produces a two-year period) comes from, i.e. “
midst of the week” = half a week = three days and a half = three years and a half.
Therefore it is written, “
and in the midst of the week shall be taken away sacrifice and libation;” (Daniel 9:27) and it is clear that with the Passion was forcibly taken from them * sacrifice and libation, when according to the Evangelical Scripture “
the veil of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottom” (Matthew 27:41).
- Eusebius, Prophetic Eclogues 3.46
This was also the opinion that John Calvin and Martin Luther held:
The Prophet now subjoins,
He will make to cease the sacrifice and offering for half a week. We ought to refer this to the time of the resurrection. For while Christ passed through the period of his life on earth, he did not put an end to the sacrifices; but after he had offered himself up as a victim, then all the rites of the law came to a close. By the words “sacrifice and offering” the Prophet implies all ceremonies, a part being put for the whole; as if he had said, after Christ had offered up one eternal sacrifice, all the customary ceremonies of the Law were abolished; for otherwise Christ’s death would have been superfluous, had he not put an end to all the old shadows of the Law. Although the sacrifices were continued for many years after Christ’s death, yet we can no longer call them “legitimate,” for no reason can be offered why the sacrifices of the Law should be pleasing to God, except their reference to that heavenly pattern which Moses saw on the mount. (Exodus 25:40) Hence, after Christ had appeared and expiated all the sins of the world, it became necessary for all sacrifices to cease. (Hebrews 8:5)
- John Calvin, Commentary on Daniel Volume 2, Lecture 52
The Prophet Daniel desired to know the definite time when this should come to pass, but he could not learn it, and although the angel pointed out a definite time, it was nevertheless too dark for the prophet to understand, hence he said before: But at last, at the last time, you shall see everything, that is, your prophecy, that is to be revealed to you, shall transpire at the end of time. For when Christ sent out the Gospel through the ministry of himself and of the Apostles, it lasted three or three and a half years, that it almost amounts to the calculation of Daniel, namely the 490 years. Hence he also says, Christ shall take a half a week, in which the daily offerings shall cease; that is, the priesthood and reign of the Jews shall have an end; which all took place in the three and a half years in which Christ preached, and was almost completed in four years after Christ, in which the Gospel prospered the most, especially in Palestine through the Apostles (that when they opened their mouth, the Holy Ghost fell as it were, from heaven, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles), so that a whole week, or seven years, established the covenant, as Daniel says; that is, the Gospel was preached to the Jews, of which we spoke before. Now, when the time came that a new message or sermon began, there must also begin a new kingdom, that is, where Christ rules spiritually in our hearts through the Word and faith. If this is now to continue, then the other must be set aside and has no more authority and must cease. This is the part of the prophecy of the prophets, which Christ is explaining.
- Martin Luther, Sermon for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity; Matthew 24:15-28 6
In fact, while some of the Church Fathers seem
to have understood the prophecy as (partly) referring to the end times - especially the latter parts of the prophecy - others also thought that they were already fulfilled.
Another interpretation more familiar (at least, if you hang around the right circles…) nowadays is that the
"he" who would make the sacrifices cease actually refers to the Antichrist. St. Hippolytus of Rome and Apollinarius of Laodicea held this opinion:
For when the threescore and two weeks are fulfilled, and Christ is come, and the Gospel is preached in every place, the times being then accomplished, there will remain only one week, the last, in which Elias will appear, and Enoch, and in the midst of it the abomination of desolation will be manifested, viz., Antichrist, announcing desolation to the world. And when he comes, the sacrifice and oblation will be removed, which now are offered to God in every place by the nations. These things being thus recounted, the prophet again describes another vision to us. For he had no other care save to be accurately instructed in all things that are to be, and to prove himself an instructor in such.
- Hippolytus, On Daniel 2.22*
