Daniel 11:21-45 “And in his place shall arise a vile person, to whom they will not give the honour of royalty; but he shall come in peaceably, and seize the kingdom by intrigue. … (30) For ships from Cyprus shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and return in rage against the holy covenant, and do damage. "So he shall return and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. (31) And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation. (32) Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. … (44) But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. (45) And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.”
The next key event that we will discuss is the event called the Abomination of Desolation. In the third year of Cyrus King of Persia (536 BC)[1], an angel appeared to Daniel and, among other things, he spoke about two future incidents which He referred to as “the Abomination of Desolation”. The first incident, which we will discuss in this section, is recorded in the above-quoted passage of scripture. The second incident, which we will discuss in a later section, is recorded in Daniel Chapter 12. The context of the above passage is that the angel had appeared to Daniel and given him a very detailed account of future political struggles and wars; covering the period from the time of the Persian Empire in the year 536 BC, to the Hellenistic period in the year 164 BC, specifically dealing with the conflicts that would arise between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic Empires. The reason the angel gave Daniel such detailed information, was because those events would have a direct impact on the nation of Israel during that period. And so the angel described, in chronological sequence, certain key events that would take place between the Persian Empire and its successor, the Grecian Empire. He then went on to describe key events that would take place between two of the empires that succeeded the Grecian Empire, i.e. the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaic Kingdom. All of the events described by the angel came to pass exactly as the angel predicted, and all events have been historically verified. Because it falls outside the scope of this teaching, however, we will not discuss every event foretold by the angel. Nevertheless, because of its relevance, we will discuss the above-quoted exert of the angel’s narrative. In this passage, the angel described certain events that took place in Judea during the reign of the last king of that period, i.e. during the reign of King Antiochus Epiphanes. Historical records reveal to us that King Antiochus Epiphanes reigned over the Seleucid Empire from the year 175 BC to the year 164 BC, and Judea was incorporated into the Seleucid Empire during that time[2]. The key event that I want to highlight from this passage, is the angel’s mentioning of an incident which he called the Abomination of Desolation. Because this event occurred between the ending of the Old Testament scriptures in the year 430 BC and the beginning of the New Testament scriptures in the year 6 BC[3], there is no scriptural account of the event called the Abomination of Desolation. And so in this section, we will only discuss the historical account of this event. Historical records reveal to us that in the year 167 BC, the Jews revolted against the Seleucid rule. And so just as the angel predicted in this passage, in response to their rebellion, King Antiochus Epiphanes sent his armies into Judea and Jerusalem and put an end to the daily sacrifice in the temple. King Antiochus Epiphanes then went on to defile the temple, by placing an image of Zeus in the temple and offering a pig on the altar[4]. This was the incident referred to by the angel as the Abomination of Desolation. It was not long after this event that King Antiochus died suddenly in the year 164 BC. Shortly after King Antiochus Epiphanes’ death, in the year 163 BC, the Jews held a feast of dedication in celebration of the cleansing of the Second Temple from the Abomination of Desolation that had taken place. It was as a result of that event, that the Jewish Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) was introduced to the Jewish calendar[5]. Although the feast of Hanukkah wasn’t one of the feasts listed in the Law of Moses, it was nevertheless acknowledged by the Lord. We know that, because we have an account of the Lord Jesus observing the feast of Hanukkah when He was on the earth (John 10:22). As an aside, the first Abomination of Desolation committed by King Antiochus Epiphanes and the subsequent cleansing of the Second Temple, is a type and shadow of that which is still to come; for as we will see later in this series, the second Abomination of Desolation will be committed by the anti-Christ in the Third Temple, after which the Third Temple will also be cleansed by the Lord Jesus at the outset of His millennial reign.
Michael E.B. Maher
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