Verse 26

Daniel 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

What two events are said to occur after the 69 weeks?  Since the majority of scholars who accept Daniel as genuine believe verse 25 refers to Jesus Christ, it logically follows that following the end of the first 69th week (7 + 60 + 2) Christ is "cut off" and Jerusalem and the sanctuary is destroyed by the "prince that shall come." Did both of these events happen literally?  Yes.  But this presents an enormous problem to literal interpreters. 

Messiah was "cut off" within a few days of his appearing; but, the Roman General Titus didn't "destroy the city and the sanctuary" until 70 AD!  There's absolutely no way these two historical events--separated by almost 40 years--could possibly fit into ANY literal 7-year time period.

The Gap Theory

I indicated earlier that some hold to the "continuous fulfillment theory"--that the 70^th week immediately followed the 69^th week and, therefore, ended approximately 7 years after Christ's death.  Unfortunately, that eliminates any possibility of literal fulfillment of the six stated purposes of the prophecy--so what would be the point? 

Futurists, therefore, have theorized a parenthetical time gap of undetermined length between the last two weeks of Daniel's prophecy to account for these two events.  To consistently interpret the final week of years literally (the same as the first 69 weeks) there necessarily must be some gap between the 69^th and 70^th weeks--sufficient to fit in both Messiah's death, and the destruction of the Jewish temple some 40 years later.  Without this parenthetical period, the 70^th week would fizzle out about 39 AD with a dead Messiah, an undestroyed temple, and six unfulfilled promises.  Temporarily pausing the clock between the last two weeks reconciles all three problems and still maintains literal fulfillment of all 70 weeks.  

So is this kosher?  Could there actually be a parenthesis of time hidden inside this (or any) Old Testament prophecy?  A period of time unknown to Old Testament believers in which God stops his timer and temporarily sets this prophecy for Israel aside?  Is it possible there might be other prophecies with time gaps?  Yes. 

The best example of a prophecy literally fulfilled in part, but with the remainder left literally unfulfilled, would be Jesus fulfilling Isaiah 61 in the Synagogue in Nazareth.  Closely compare Luke's account to Isaiah's prophecy (I've numbered the prophetic objectives in each):

Luke 4:17-21 "And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to [1] preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to [2] heal the brokenhearted, to [3] preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to [4] set at liberty them that are bruised, to [5] preach the acceptable year of the Lord.' And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, 'This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears'."

The people were staring at Jesus because they were all familiar with the passage he just read.  They knew Jesus stopped reading mid-sentence and sat down!  Here's the actual passage Jesus was reading as recorded by Isaiah::

Isaiah 61:1-6 "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to [1] preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to [2] bind up the brokenhearted, to [3] proclaim liberty to the captives, and the [4] opening of the prison to them that are bound; to [5] proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, [6] and the day of vengeance of our God; to [7] comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves...."

Notice that in Isaiah's original recording of this prophecy there is absolutely no hint of any time gap between "acceptable year of the Lord" (#5) and "the day of vengeance of our God" (#6)?  Yet, Jesus stopped mid-sentence, claiming He had fulfilled Isaiah's first five objectives in 30 AD!  The entire church age was hidden between "proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" and "the day of vengeance of our God" and no one knew it--because it was a mystery. 

Romans 16:25-26  …revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest….

Ephesians 3:4-6,9  …the mystery of Christ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel….  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

Colossians 1:24-27  …his body…which is the church …even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory

The entire concept of a body of believers--Jew and Gentile, living and dead, separated by both time and space--in Christ, and actually indwelled and sealed by the Holy Spirit was totally foreign to Old Testament thinking.  It was hidden from them, and it's only now that the mystery has been revealed can we look back and see where the body of Christ fits into the prophecies.  The remainder of this Isaiah passage remains literally unfulfilled even today, and will remain unfulfilled until Messiah returns again at the end of the 70th week to conclude what he began two thousand years ago and fulfill the six stated purposes of Daniel's prophecy.

Verse 26 also mentions two princes.  The first is Messiah; the second prince, historically, is Titus who totally destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, then dispersed the entire civilization.  Israel simply ceased to exist in Palestine after that time, and that desolation continued until 1948.