Daniel - Dating of Messiah/Prince to Come
Timing: 483 YEARS
There are many ways this is calculated -- In Nehemiah 2:1 we see the decree to rebuild, issued in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, (about 445 B.C.) Messiah comes 483 years after the decree to rebuild is issued [Calculated by adding 7 weeks (49 years) + 62 weeks (434 years)] this arrives at about the time of Yeshua's triumphant entry in Jerusalem. Messiah comes 434 years after rebuilding, or 483 years after decree is first issued giving permission to rebuild -- hence 483 years (7 weeks + 62 weeks). Working form earlier permissions to rebuild (Cyrus' earlier decree) arrives at about the birth of Yeshua, instead of near the end of His earthly life. Either way it's calculated, only Yeshua could be Mashiach -- no one else fits into Daniel's timeframe.
Some Problems With Counter Missionary (Jews For Judaism) Arguments Re: Daniel's 70 Weeks
Counter missionaries attempt to say the annointed one removed represents the cohen -- that is, the timing coincides with loss of temple and therefore, loss of temple service by the priests. The main problem is that no matter which way you calculate (using either decree to rebuild) --- the temple destruction is at least 40 - 70 years after the predicted time has passed. This year counting will only get you to lifetime Messiah, and not beyond.
Further, the prediction is chronological: the annointed one is cut off *before* the armies destroy the sanctuary. That would make the distinction between the supposed 'annointed/cohen' prophecy and the separate "sanctuary destroyed' prophecy disappear -- if they were the same event. The destruction of the temple naturally meant end to temple workers, yet Daniel has divided these not only into two separate prophetic events but has shown chronologically that one event occurs before the other. The passage is giving a marker that AFTER annointed one is cut off, the temple and city will then be destroyed. How many years that pass between annointed one being cut off and temple being destroyed aren't given. So, the cohen were not cut off *until* the temple was destroyed and the cohen weren't cut off until after the alloted time for this prediction had passed. The cohen simply do not fulfill the prophecy of the 'annointed one' -- Yeshua does.
Ellen Kavanaugh
"Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Mashiach, the prince, shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, it shall be built again, with plaza and moat, but in times of distress." Daniel 9:25-26