Are We There Yet?
Are We There Yet?
Signs of Things to Come.
For instance: The prophet Elijah.
The Signs of the End.
Jesus describes first the destruction of Jerusalem and instructs his followers what to do when it comes. But he is also proleptically anticipating the events that will precede the eschaton.
The Abomination of Desolation.
So the “desolating sacrilege” is that which is first of all “detestable, abominable” to God and his people (often of idolatry, as here) and second, it “lays waste” or “devastates” the worship of God. This phrase is drawn from Dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11, where it is commonly understood as a prediction of Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), the Syrian king who in 167 BC slaughtered a pig on the altar of burnt offering and erected an idol of Olympian Zeus on the altar in the temple (see 1 Macc 1:54; 2 Macc 6:1–5, 8:17; Josephus, Ant. 18.3.1; 18.8.2–9).
Everyone agrees that he is predicting the destruction of the temple. In this sense the sacrilege would have occurred when the Zealots went into the Most Holy Place (see previous footnote) and when the Romans leveled the temple and its sanctuary. Nolland describes the event as the temple lay in flames, how the Roman army brought its standards into the temple court opposite the eastern gate, made sacrifices to the gods, and declared Titus imperator (Josephus, J.W. 6.316).