Prophecy · The Scroll's Structure
The Abomination of Desolation
It is the only place in the Gospels where the narrator leans out of the text to the reader: “when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place — whoso readeth, let him understand.” Jesus is citing a phrase with a résumé: spoken three times in Daniel, enacted once already in 167 B.C. when Antiochus set his idol altar on the altar of God — an event Israel never forgot and Hanukkah answers — and yet cited by Jesus, two centuries later, as something His hearers might still see. This page walks the phrase’s three anchors, its attested first fulfillment, and the readings of where it lands last.
“Let Him That Readeth Understand”
— Matthew 24:15-16 — the Gospels' one stage-whisperThe aside is the verse’s strangest feature — a note to the reader, inside words spoken aloud — and the church has always taken it as a flag: something here requires Daniel open on the table. What follows in Matthew is intensely practical — flee, immediately, without going back for a coat — which is how the earliest church took it: when the sign stands where it ought not, the time for interpretation is over.
So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation,’ described by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.That, Let him that readeth understand, is said to call us to the mystic understanding of the place. What we read in Daniel is this; And in the midst of the week the sacrifice and the oblation shall be taken away, and in the temple shall be the abomination of desolations until the consummation of the time, and consummation shall be given upon the desolate. (Dan. 9:27. sec. LXX.)
Jerome· Catena Aurea by Aquinas (420), on Matt 24:15
The abomination of desolation - This is a Hebrew expression, meaning an abominable or hateful destroyer. The Gentiles were all held in abomination by the Jews, Act 10:28. The abomination of desolation means the Roman army, and is so explained by Luk 21:20. The Roman army is further called the abomination on account of the images of the emperor, and the eagles, carried in front of the legions, and regarded by the Romans with divine honors. Spoken of by Daniel the prophet - Dan 9:26-27; Dan 11:31; Dan 12:11, see the notes at those passages.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Matt 24:15 — the A.D. 70 reading's holder
The Three Anchors, and the First Fulfillment
— Daniel's phrase, and its history“in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate”
inside the seventy-weeks prophecy — the midpoint of the final week
“they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate”
in the king-of-the-north sequence — fulfilled to the letter by Antiochus
“from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days”
in the last-days epilogue — with a day-count running past it
“they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar” — Kislev, 167 B.C.: Antiochus IV's idol altar on the altar of burnt offering
the eyewitness record, in the same phrase — the site's Apocrypha shelf carries the book in full
And he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple will come the abomination that causes desolation, until the decreed destruction is poured out upon him.”His forces will rise up and desecrate the temple fortress. They will abolish the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination of desolation.Here Antiochus' actings are described in language which reach beyond him the type to Antichrist the antitype [JEROME] (just as in Ps 72:1-20 many things are said of Solomon the type, which are only applicable to Christ the Antitype); including perhaps Rome, Mohammed, and the final personal Antichrist.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Dan 11:31 — the type/antitype key
Some observe that the word Tammidh, which signifies no more than daily, is only here, and in the parallel place, used for the daily sacrifice, as if there were a designed liberty left to supply it either with sacrifice, which was suppressed by Antiochus, or with gospel-worship, which was suppressed by the Antichrist.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Dan 11:31
Where It Lands Last
— the readings, and who holds eachAntiochus fulfilled Daniel 11:31 so exactly that no serious reader disputes it — which sharpens rather than settles the question, because Jesus treated the abomination as still future in A.D. 30. From there the readings divide.
The three readingsA.D. 70 · the man of sin · both, as type and antitype
A.D. 70:Barnes above reads the abomination as the Roman army’s idolatrous standards in the holy city, on the strength of Luke’s parallel (“when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies”, Luke 21:20) — and the flight Jesus commanded did in fact save the Judean church that generation. The preterist tradition rests here.
The man of sin:the futurist reading — held by the early fathers (Hippolytus and Irenaeus read Daniel’s final week of Antichrist) and this site’s frame — hears Daniel 9:27’s midpoint still ahead: a covenant confirmed and broken, sacrifice stopped, and Paul’s man of sin seated “in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” — the abomination in person.
Type and antitype: the reading JFB states above from Jerome, and the one many careful readers hold: Antiochus the rehearsal, A.D. 70 the near echo, the final desecration still ahead — one phrase, deliberately reused, each fulfillment sharpening the picture of the last.
Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.Paul's man of sin — the abomination with a pronoun.
Then he says, "after sixty-two weeks, times shall be spun out and he shall set forth a covenant with many for one week.
Hippolytus of Rome· Commentary on Daniel 4.35 (235), on Dan 9:27
And he shall confirm the covenant - literally, he shall make strong - והגביר vehı̂gebı̂yr. The idea is that of giving strength, or stability; of making firm and sure.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Dan 9:27
Where It Points
— the desecration, and the Presence it counterfeitsThe abomination is the anti-Shekinah: where the glory of God once stood, something is set upthat demands the worship the glory deserved. Which is why the phrase’s final answer is not a defended temple but a returned Lord — the appearing that destroys the lawless one “with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thess 2:8).
Closing
A phrase with three anchors and a criminal record; a Savior who cited it as unfinished and told His readers to understand. Whatever stands in the holy place at the last, the instruction attached to the sign has never changed: recognize it, and move.