How can we understand the SDA interpretation of Daniel 9:26?

The SDA understanding was the traditional understanding before historical criticism and dispensationalism became the dominant views. (See Fathers). In that article, Paul Tanner refers to it as the historic-messianic interpretation because it presents the entire prophecy of Daniel 9 as fulfilled by the first century A.D. and because the Messiah (Dan 9:25-26) is identified as Jesus Christ. In contrast, Tanner refers to the dispensational interpretation as the eschatological-messianic interpretation. The historical-critical interpretation is a non-messianic interpretation.

Your question is about verse 26 - Does the destruction of the city and sanctuary take place during this period in time?

No. The prophecy promised to Israel and Jerusalem 490 years (Dan 9:24). Therefore, Jerusalem would not be destroyed during the 490 years.

In the traditional interpretation, the first 483 years end with Jesus’ baptism.

The 490 years are regarded as an extension of God’s covenant with Israel.

The last week is the last seven years of that covenant. It began with Jesus' baptism. The first 3½ years were Jesus’ personal ministry. God’s covenant with Israel did not come to an end when Jesus died. For example:

1. When He died, he said, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34).
2. After He died, God gave the Holy Spirit, but He gave the Spirit only to Jews and the apostles preached to Israel, in Jerusalem, “repent” (Acts 2:38-39; 3:17-19).

During the last 3½ years, God maintained His covenant with Israel by sending His Spirit to them and them alone.

The prophecy does not specify a specific event for the end of the 490 years, but since it is an extension of God’s covenant with Israel, the 490 years came to an end when the covenant came to an end. That was about 3½ years after Jesus died when the Jews rejected the Holy Spirit by killing His Spirit-filled messengers (Acts 7:59).

There-after, God sent His Spirit for the first time to non-Jews (Acts 10:44).

Jerusalem was destroyed about 35 years after the end of the 490 years. For an explanation of the traditional interpretation, see Historical-Messianic Interpretation.

Seventh Day Adventist Robert Wood gives this information on Daniel 9:26.

The “threescore and two weeks” or 434 literal years, also mentioned in the previous verse, begins after the “seven weeks” or 49 years mentioned in verse 25 which brings us to the same date, 27 A.D.[57] when Christ was anointed by baptism. Sometime after that date, Jesus would be “cut off,[58] but not for himself . . .” meaning: “He died the just for the unjust, . . . Tho innocent and undeserving of punishment, our Substitute and Surety was brought under the curse and condemnation that should have been ours.”[59]

Now, as we look back retrospectively on what happened, the same “people[60] of the prince” who were instrumental in Christ’s crucifixion in 31 A.D. also came and destroyed “the city and the sanctuary” in 70. A.D. by what Gabriel called an overwhelming “flood,” a great, irresistible army of Rome, represented by the “dreadful,” devouring, breaking, stamping “fourth beast” of Daniel 7:7, 19, 23. It was the most guilty of all “the transgressors” of Daniel 8:23 who had not yet “come to the full.” This all happened, we can suppose, mid shaft of the “legs of iron” in Daniel 2:33.

So, the “in the year 70 AD . . . The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberious Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem” which “was the decisive event in the ‘First Jewish-Roman War’ followed by the fall of Masada in 73 AD.”[61]

But, that was only the beginning of “a series of revolts by the Jews against the Roman Empire.” The second was the “Kitos War (115-117)” and the third is called the “Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135).”[62] Interestingly, the “Arch of Titus, depicting and celebrating the sack of Jerusalem and the Temple, still stands in Rome.”[63] But, in spite of the ongoing Jewish resistance even after the fall of Jerusalem, Gabriel predicted their revolts would be fruitless, observing that “desolations are determined” or decreed [64] in which their final destruction at “the end of the war” were inevitable.

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