poken of as to be cut off after the sixty-nine
weeks, to be Jesus Christ.

As to who the "annointed ones" were, the first I think entirely refers
to Cyrus, and the last who was to be "cut off" and have no
successor, may either mean the pious and good Onias mentioned
in the book of Maccabees, who was the last I think of the
legitimate Jewish High Priests, [for after his time History testifies
that several, who had not the right of primogeniture as
descendants of Aaron, obtained the priesthood by force, by
intrigue, and by bribery;] or the last Jewish High Priest, Joshua
[fn74] who perished during the siege of Jerusalem, according to
Josephus. At any rate the anointed one who was to be cut off,
cannot mean Jesus of Nazareth; because this anointed one was
to be cut off in that same week of seven years, in which the city
was destroyed, whereas Jesus was crucified forty years before
that event; a circumstance I insist which excludes any application
of this prophecy to Jesus.

The claims set up for Jesus of Nazareth are moreover evidently
rejected by Daniel's prophecy, even according to Mr. Everett's
interpretation, forasmuch as he did not appear at the expiration of
sixty-nine weeks, but of EIGHTY-FOUR.

And to conclude this discussion, I would observe that Daniel, ch.
iii, in his account of the image [seen in a vision by
Nebuchadnezzar] whose head was of gold, breast and arms of
silver, belly of brass, legs of iron, and feet and toes of iron and
clay, is predicting the empires which have most influenced the fate
of the Hebrew nation; i. e. the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and
Roman, the last represented by "the iron legs," which did indeed
bestride the world; these "iron legs" are represented as
terminating in feet and toes part of iron and part of clay, which
have no natural coherence; i. e. the Roman empire shall be
divided into several kingdoms, partly strong and partly weak: a
prophecy remarkably fulfilled in the history and condition of the
kingdoms of Europe. The prophet goes on to say in ch. ii, that in
the latter days of those kings or kingdoms, [which are yet
subsisting] "the God of Heaven, would set up a kingdom which
should never be destroyed," that of the Messiah. Of course the
kingdom of the Messiah was not to be--not only not till after the
destruction of the Roman empire--but not till the latter days of the
kingdoms which grew up out of the ruins; whereas Jesus Christ
was born in the time of Augustus,