THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION. In Dan. ix. 27, DC= rpt.?; literally, the abomination of the desolater, which, without doubt, means the idol or idolatrous apparatus which the desolater of Jerusalem should establish in the holy place. This appears to have been a prediction of the pollution of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes, who caused an idolatrous altar to be built on the altar of burnt offerings, whereon unclean things were offered to Jupiter Olympius, to whom the temple itself was dedicated. Josephus distinctly refers to this as the accomplishment of Daniel's prophecy; as does the author of the first book of Maccabees, in declaring that they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar'—cixoS6mio-ap TO T713 Epnp,th I•EWs E7fl Tb Oueiaors)piov (1 Mace. i. 54 ; vi. 7 ; 2 Mace. vi. 2-5; Joseph. Antly. xii. 5, 4 , 7, 6). The phrase is quoted by Jesus, in the form of TO [35Atrybca xis (Matt. xxiv. 15), and is applied by him to what was to take place at the advance of the Romans against Jerusalem. They who saw 'the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place' were enjoined to flee to the mountains.' And this may with probability be referred to the advance of the Roman army against the city with their image crowned standards, to which idolatrous honours were paid, and which the Jews regarded as idols. The unexpected retreat and discomfiture of the Roman forces afforded such as were mindful of our Saviour's prophecy an opportunity of obeying the injunction which it contained. That the Jews themselves regarded the Roman standards as abominations is shewn by the fact that in deference to their known aversion, the Roman soldiers quartered in Jerusalem forbore to introduce their standard into the city : and on one occasion, when Pilate gave orders that they should be carried in by night, so much stir was made in the matter by the principal in habitants, that for the sake of peace the governor was eventually induced to give up the point (Joseph. Antig. xviii. 3, t). Those, however, who suppose that ' the holy place' of the text must be the temple itself, may find the accomplishment of the prediction in the fact that, when the city had been taken by the Romans, and the holy house destroyed, the soldiers brought their standards in due form to the temple, set them up over the eastern gate, and offerea' sacrifice to them (Joseph. Bell. jua'. vi. 6, 1); for (as Havercamp judiciously notes from Tertul Han, Apol, c. xvi. 162) ' almost the entire religion of the Roman camp consisted in worshipping the ensigns, swearing by the ensigns, and in preferring the ensigns before all the other gods.
Nor was this the last appearance of the abomi nation of desolation, in the holy place : for, not only did Hadrian, with studied insult to the Jews, set up the figure of a boar over the Bethlehem gate of the city (ilia Capitolina) which rose upon the site and ruins of Jerusalem (Euseb. Chron. 1. i. p. 45, ed. 1658), but he erected a temple to Jupiter upon the site of the Jewish temple (Dion Cass. lxix. 12), and caused an image of himself to be set up in the part which answered to the most holy place (Nicephorus Callist., iii. 24). This was a consummation of all the abominations which the iniquities of the Jews brought upon their holy place. J. K.
We believe,' says Havernick, that of all the meanings of '1)Z that are sufficiently supported, none so commends itself as that of bonier, properly of a garment, e. g.., 1 Sam. xv. 27 ; Nun... xv. 36 ; Es. v. 3 ; Zech. viii. 23 ; Hag. ii. I ; then secon darily of places, regions of the earth, hence rrom InNri, the ends, limits, uttermost parts of the earth, Job xxxvii. 3 ; xxxviii, 13 ; Is. xi. 12 ; Es.
vii. 2. (LXX. 7r74pu.yes 71S -ris, the extremity of the earth). According to this In would denote here extremitas regionis, the utmost point or part of a district or of a place, and onnpv nniv, on the utmost height of abomination, i.e., on the highest place where abomination could be com mitted. But the highest point in Jerusalem was the Temple, and it must be it which is thus desig nated here. We admit that this meaning would be obscure before the fulfilment of the prediction ; but this we hold to be only a characteristic feature of such predictions. . . . As respects the form 1:2=1:, most interpreters take it as nomen pangei piale for destruction f but this is against the usage of the form elsewhere in Daniel (xi. 31), and the meaning is brought out much more vividly and poetically by our construction. On the summit of abomination is a destroyer,' probably collec tively for destroyers' in general. . . . According to this explanation there can be no doubt that the LXX. have already rightly given the meaning of the passage when they translate Kai &I rd lepdv f Se X,r a TmV larm, and so the Syr. Ambros. Somewhat different from this is Theodotion, Kai tat rourots (these two words are wanting in the Vati can Codex) Eat ro lepdv p.a risimpc.icrecos (Cod. Vat. rio'v ipmutho-ewp), and so Jacob of Edessa (Ap. Bugati, p. 15t), only that he seems to have read Kat 47)Awo-is. The Peshito gives crugto \\10 firn 'on the wings of abhorrence,' and this Ephraern refers to the Romish eagles. The Vulg., Et erit in templo abominatio desolationis ; Ven., Keori. rrripvyos /35007/hara ifnmotio.' Commentar lib. Daniel in loc. Some codices read 9:70 lin) (see Kennicott, Bib. Ifeb. in loc.; De Rossi Var. Lent. P. iii.) This agrees with the reading of the LXX. and St. Jerome, as also of the Memph itic and Sahidic versions, and with the citation of the Evangelists. It may be a mere correction ; but there is a curious fact urged by Michaelis which seems to give it some weight. Josephus in record ing the destruction of the Arx Antonia says, that the Jews thus made the temple building a square, not considering that it was written in the prophecies that the city and temple should be taken when the temple was made four square (De Bell. 7rea'. vi. 5, 4). To what prediction the historian here refers has always appeared obscure, and his whole state ment has been perplexing. But Michaelis argues that if the reading of Dan. ix. 27 was in his day that given above, the difficulty is solved ; for we have only to suppose he read the last word (riptV) in which case the meaning would be and ,•: in the temple shall he who cuts off (from )"vp) be a desolator.' (Orient. u. Exeget. Bibliothek p. 194). If we may take Josephus as a repre sentative of the common opinions of his country men, they must have regarded these predictions as finding their fulfilment not merely in the acts of Antiochus Epiphanes, but also in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans (Anal. X. 7). As against the opinion that is to be understood of idolatrous objects carried by heathens into the Temple, it has been objected that this word desig.
nates idols only as adopted by the Jews. But this is wholly unfounded, as r Kings xi. 5, 2 Kings axiii. 13, and other passages abundantly shew. Indeed the word is always used objectively to designate that which is an abomination not in, but to the parties spoken of.—W. L. A.