The ninth chapter in the Book of Daniel
has been a popular item
in the portfolio of
Christian missionaries.  The passage that
is commonly extracted from this chapter
as an example of a “fulfilled messianic
prophecy" is Daniel 9:24-27 because,
according to most Christian translations, it
 contains two direct references to “the
Messiah” (Daniel 9:25-26).  
Using mistranslations and mathematical hocus-pocus,
missionaries transform this passage into a
prophecy that allegedly foretells the
coming of Jesus and hi
s crucifixion.   
The analysis presented in this essay demonstr
ates that the claims
 are inconsistent
with what the Hebrew Bible
teaches.  Moreover, since
these claims also include
references to being anointed,
 the anointing process, as
 defined and applied in the
Hebrew Bible, is cast into
 a template against which the "anointing" of Jesus, as
described in the New Testament, is com
pared in order to test its validity.
II.     C
HRISTIAN AND
J
EWISH
T
RANSLATIONS OF
D
ANIEL
9:25-26
Table II-1 shows side-by-side English rendit
ions and the Hebrew text of the passage
Daniel 9:25-26.  The Hebrew term
ַ
ma
SHI
’ah
) and its respective renditions in
the two translations are
shown in highlighted form

A significant disagreement exists between t
he two translations in their respective
renditions of the noun
ַ
י
.  A study of the app
lications of this term in the Hebrew
Bible helps resolve this issue.
III.     R
EVIEW OF
H
EBREW
T
ERMINOLOGY
According to the Hebrew Bible, the men who were selected to serve as
 high priest

 (
ko
HEN
 ga
DOL
)] and
 king
 [
Í
ֶ
ME
lech
)] had to undergo a ritual anointing
ceremony.  The Hebrew root verb
משׁ
ח
 (
mem-shin-het
), which appears in the
Hebrew Bible 70 times in various conjugations, is used on 63 occasions to describe
an
act of anointing
, i.e., applying a specially prepared oil or compound to someone
or something for the purpose of sanctifi
cation or consecration; and on the seven
remaining occasions, it is used in the cont
ext of covering something with paint or oil
for various other purposes.
Someone who went through the process
of anointing was referred to as
ַ
יח
,
an
anointed one
, in the Hebrew Bible.  The term
ַ
י
, which derives from the root
verb

, is used in the Hebrew Bible on 39
occasions in various declensions and
forms.  The salient point c
oncerning the applications of
ַ
י
 in the Hebrew Bible is
that none of these refer to
the Messiah.  The reason is
that the usage of the noun
ַ
יח
 as the current Hebrew term for Messiah
is a product of the first century B.C.E.
– information that emerged from research
 on the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Around that
time, the Jewish messianic vision experienc
ed a significant paradigm shift from the
3
expectation of an era (i.e.,
the “End of Days”) to an expe
ctation of a Jewish leader
who will deliver Israel (a "Redeemer").  This
 fact alone defeats the claim by Christian
missionaries concerning references
to the Messiah in Daniel 9:25-26.
IV.     A
PPLICATIONS OF THE
N
OUN
ַ
י
 IN THE
H
EBREW
B
IBLE
An analysis of the 39 app
lications of the term
ַ

 (35 nouns and 4 adjectives) in
the Hebrew Bible, and the wa
y these are rendered in most Christian Bibles, provides
biblical evidence that refutes the claims r
egarding its occurrences in Daniel 9:25-26.
Table IV-1 shows the 39 instances of
ַ
יח in the Hebrew Bible.
  Each form of the
term is shown separately along with it
s frequency of occurrence, a pronunciation
guide (CAPS identify the accented syllable), t
he respective Scriptural citations, the
correct English translation, and the respective KJV rendition.  Chapter and verse
citations are from the Hebrew
 Bible; verse numbers in Chri
stian Bibles, if different
from the Hebrew Bible,
are shown in brackets

 كتاب ، بصيغة pdf، تأليف ، وهو من الدراسات الجادة والهامة التي توضح لنا الأخذ والرد بين اليهود والنصارى في أمور العقيدة، ويسلط الضوء على إجابات اليهود على الرسل والمبشرين المسيحيين على مر التاريخ، وكذلك يحدثنا عن النتاج أو الثمرات التي خرج بها المبشرون في مقابل هذه الردود، وغير ذلك من المحاور الهامة التي يتطرق إليها المؤلف في أبواب هذا الكتاب.