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The abomination of desolation (or desolating sacrilege) is a term found in the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. It also occurs in 1 Maccabees and in the Synoptic Gospels of the New Testament. The Hebrew term (transliterated) is šiqqǔṣ mišômēm(שִׁקּוּץ מְשׁמֵם); the Greek equivalent is τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως.
In both biblical and rabbinic Hebrew, the word “abomination” is a familiar term for an idol, and therefore may well have the same application in Daniel, which should accordingly be rendered, in agreement with Ezra 9:1-4 “motionless abomination” or, also, “appalling abomination”. The suggestion of many scholars—Hoffmann, Nestle, Bevan, and others—that as a designation for Jupiter it is simply an intentional perversion of his usual appellation “Baal Shamem” (“lord of heaven”) is quite plausible, as attested by the perversion of Beelzebub into “Βεελζεβούλ” (Greek version) inMark 3:22, as well as the express injunction found in Tosef., ‘Ab. Zarah, vi. (vii) and Babli ‘Ab. Zarah, 46a that the names of idols may be pronounced only in a distorted or abbreviated form.
Biblical occurrences
Daniel
The phrase “abomination of desolation” is found in three places in the Book of Daniel, all within the literary context ofapocalyptic visions.
Daniel 9:27 “And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate; and even unto the full end, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate.
“Daniel 11:31 “And forces shall stand on his part, and they shall profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and shall take away the continual burnt-offering, and they shall set up the abomination that maketh desolate.
“Daniel 12:11 “And from the time that the continual burnt-offering shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand and two hundred and ninety days.”1 Maccabees 1:54 “Now the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred forty and fifth year, they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar, and builded idol altars throughout the cities of Juda on every side;”
1 Maccabees
According to 1 Macabees 1:54, the abomination was erected on the altar of burnt offering.
1 Maccabees 1:54 “Now the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred forty and fifth year, they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar, and builded idol altars throughout the cities of Juda on every side;”
1 Maccabees 6:7 “Also that they had pulled down the abomination, which he had set up upon the altar in Jerusalem, and that they had compassed about the sanctuary with high walls, as before, and his city Bethsura.”
Synoptic Gospel
In the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark, the term is used by Jesus in the Olivet discourse. In the Matthew account, Jesus is presented as quoting Daniel explicitly. In the Gospel of Mark, the phrase “spoken of by Daniel the prophet” is absent in the Codex Sinaiticus.
Matthew 24:15-16 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”Mark 13:14 “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
“In Luke’s version of Jesus’ warning, the abomination is not mentioned, and the sign that it is time to flee Jerusalem is explicitly said to be that Jerusalem would be surrounded by armies.
Luke 21:20-21 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the town depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it”
Views
Historicism
Rabbinical literature
The rabbis as a whole consider that the expression refers to the desecration of the Second Temple (Herod’s Temple) by the erection of a Zeus statue in its sacred precincts by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Some rabbis, however, see in it an allusion to Manasseh, who is reported to have set up “a carved image … in the house of God”.
Church Fathers
Church Father John Chrysostom understood this to refer to the armies that surrounded Jerusalem and the factions fighting within it which preceded the destruction of the city.
Modern Biblical scholarship
The 1 Maccabees usage of the term points to the actions of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the mid-2nd century BC. Specifically, he set up an altar to Zeus in the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and sacrificed swine on it around the year 167 BC. Many modern scholars believe that Daniel 9:27, 11:31 and 12:11 are examples of vaticinium ex eventu (prophecies after the event) relating to Antiochus.
Many modern Biblical scholars conclude that Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14 are prophecies after the event about the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Roman general Titus. Some scholars, including Hermann Detering see these verses as a vaticinium ex eventu about Emperor Hadrian’s attempt to install the statue ofJupiter Capitolinus on the site of the ruined Jewish Temple in Jerusalem leading to the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132-135 AD.
Preterism
Preterists believe that Jesus quoted this prophecy in Mark 13:14 as referring to an event in his 1st century disciples’ immediate future, such as the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
One commentator relates the prophecy to the actions of Caligula c. 40 AD when he ordered that a golden statue depicting himself as Zeus incarnate be set up in the Temple in Jerusalem. This prospect however, never came to fruition since he was assassinated in 41 AD along with his wife and daughter.
Peter Bolt, head of New Testament at Moore Theological College, believes that the abomination of desolation in Mark 13 refers to the crucifixion of the Son of God; in other words, Jesus is referring to his own impending death.
Futurism
Interpreters with a futurist perspective think that Jesus’ prophecy deals with a literal, end-times Antichrist. Futurists consider the abomination of desolation prophecy of Daniel mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14 to refer to an event in the future, when a 7 year peace treaty will be signed between Israel and a world ruler called “the man of lawlessness” or the “Antichrist”.
Premillenialist futurists like Arthur Pinkin his work The Antichrist attribute vast portions within the Old and New Testament to this future figure.
Mixed
Multiple fulfillments
Methodist theologian Adam Clarke and Anglican bishop Thomas Newton interpret the abomination of desolation as a proverbial phrase that could include multiple events “substituted in the place of, or set up in opposition to, the ordinances of God, his worship, his truth, etc.” This allows for some or all of the examples in the following (incomplete) list to be viewed as partial fulfillments of this prophecy simultaneously:
-the re-dedication of the Temple to Zeus by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 167 BC,
-the worship of the Roman Standards on the Temple Mount under Titus in 70 AD and
-the building of the Dome of the Rock by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan in 691 AD.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Joseph Smith translation of Matthew states (in verse 12) that the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel is the destruction of Jerusalem (first in AD 70). Later (in verse 32) it states that the abomination of desolation will be fulfilled again when Jerusalem is subject to much destruction before the Second Coming of Christ.
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