The "Abomination of desolation" was the pagan sacrifices with which the 2nd century BCE Greek king Antiochus IV replaced the twice-daily offering in the Jewish temple, or alternatively the altar on which such offerings were made. The expression was taken up by the authors of the gospels in the context of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in the 1st century CE, with Mark giving Jesus a speech concerning the Second Coming, adding a reference to Daniel, and Luke giving a description of the Roman armies ; in all three it is likely that the authors had in mind a future eschatological event, and perhaps the activities of some anti-Christ.
The Book of Daniel originated as a set of folktales among the Jewish community in the late 4th to early 3rd centuries BCE. At that time a lamb was sacrificed twice daily, morning and evening, on the altar of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, but Antiochus IV, the king of the Greek Seleucid dynasty which then ruled Palestine, put an end to it in 167 BCE. The visionary chapters of Daniel, chapters 7-12, were added to the Book of Daniel at this time in order to reassure Jews that they would survive in the face of this threat. In Daniel 8 one angel asks another how long "the transgression that makes desolate" will last; Daniel 9 tells of "the prince who is to come" who "shall make sacrifice and offering cease, and in their place shall be an abomination that desolates"; Daniel 11 tells the history of the arrogant foreign king who sets up the "abomination that makes desolate"; and in Daniel 12 the prophet is told how many days will pass "from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that desolates is set up..." One of the more popular older views was to see in the "abomination" a contemptuous deformation of the Phoenician deityBaal Shamin, the "Lord of Heaven"; Philo of Byblos identified Baal Shamin with the Greek sky godZeus, and as the temple in Jerusalem was rededicated in honor of Zeus according to 2 Maccabees 6:2, older commentators tended to follow Porphyry in seeing the "abomination" in terms of a statue of the Greek sky-god. More recently, it has been suggested that the reference is to certain sacred stones that were fixed to the Temple's Altar of Sacrifice for the purposes of pagan worship, since the use of such stones is well-attested in Canaanite and Syrian cults. Both proposals have been criticized on the basis that they are too speculative, or dependent on flawed analysis, or not well-suited to the relevant context in the Book of Daniel; and more recent scholarship tends to see the "abomination" as a reference to either the pagan offerings that replaced the forbidden twice-daily Jewish offering, or the pagan altar on which such offerings were made.
New Testament
In 63 BCE the Romans captured Jerusalem and Judea became an outpost of the Roman Empire, but in 66 CEthe Jews rose in revolt against the Romans as their ancestors had once done against Antiochus. The resulting First Jewish–Roman War ended in 70 CE when the legions of the Roman general Titus surrounded and eventually captured Jerusalem; the city and the temple were razed to the ground, and the only habitation on the site until the first third of the next century was a Roman military camp. It was against this background that the gospels were written, Mark around 70 AD and Matthew and Luke around 80-85; it is almost certain that none of the authors were eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus. Chapter 13 of Mark's gospel is a speech of Jesus concerning the end of time, the return of theSon of Man, and the advent of the Kingdom of God, signaled by the appearance of the "abomination of desolation." It begins with Jesus in the temple informing his disciples that "not one stone here will be left on another, all will be thrown down;" the disciples ask when this will happen, and in Jesus tells them: "hen you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains..." Mark's terminology is drawn from Daniel, but he places the fulfilment of the prophesy in his own day, inserting a plea to the reader to "understand", and underlining this in Mark 13:30 by stating that "this generation will not pass away before all these things take place." While Daniel's "abomination" was probably a pagan altar or sacrifice, the grammar in Mark uses a masculine participle for "standing", indicating a concrete historical person: several candidates have been suggested, but the most likely is Titus. Mark was one of the sources used by the authors of Matthew and Luke. follows Mark 13:14 closely: "So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains", but unlike Mark he uses a neutral participle instead of a masculine one, and explicitly identifies Daniel as his prophetic source. drops the "abomination" entirely: "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 city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it." In all three it is likely that the authors had in mind a future eschatological event, and perhaps the activities of some anti-Christ.
