What is the abomination of desolation?
In Daniel (9:27, 11:31, 12:11) the phrase originally pointed to Antiochus IV's pagan altar erected in the Jerusalem temple in 167 BC. Jesus reuses the language in Mark 13 and Matthew 24, which most readers apply to the AD 70 destruction of the temple, the antichrist of the end times, or both.
What the text actually says
The phrase 'abomination of desolation' (Hebrew shiqqutz mesomem, Greek bdelygma tes eremoseos) occurs in Daniel three times and is picked up by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse. Each occurrence is anchored to a specific event or pointed forward to one.
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and 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, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.Daniel 9:27 (KJV)
And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.Daniel 11:31 (KJV)
And 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.Daniel 12:11 (KJV)
But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains.Mark 13:14 (KJV)
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:)Matthew 24:15 (KJV)
What the primary sources say
Three primary sources beyond Daniel illuminate the phrase: 1 Maccabees gives the original referent, Josephus describes the AD 70 desecration, and the early church fathers debate the prophetic horizon.
1 Maccabees, written in the late 2nd century BC, reports that on the fifteenth day of Chislev in 167 BC, Antiochus IV Epiphanes erected a 'desolating sacrilege' (Greek bdelygma eremoseos, the same phrase as in the Septuagint Daniel) on the altar in the Jerusalem temple. This was almost certainly a pagan altar to Zeus Olympios or a statue of Zeus, set on top of or in place of the bronze altar of burnt offering. This is the historical event Daniel 11:31 most directly points to.
2 Maccabees describes the same event in greater detail: the temple was renamed for Zeus Olympios, pigs were sacrificed, and traditional Jewish observance was prohibited under threat of death. The Jewish-Hellenistic conflict that the desolation triggered is the immediate background of the Maccabean revolt.
Josephus, an eyewitness, describes the events of AD 70 when the Roman armies under Titus broke into the temple, burned it, and offered sacrifices to their standards in the temple court. Josephus does not use Daniel's exact phrase, but early Christian readers (and Josephus himself in other works) saw the events of AD 70 as a second, intensified fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy.
Eusebius, writing in the early 4th century, explicitly identifies the abomination of desolation in Mark 13 and Matthew 24 with the Roman destruction of the temple in AD 70. He reads Jesus's prophecy as fulfilled in the events Josephus describes.
Jerome takes the futurist reading: Daniel 9:27's abomination of desolation, in its final horizon, points to the antichrist of the end times. He preserves the AD 70 reading as a typological intermediate fulfillment but reads the ultimate referent as eschatological.
The reconciliation attempts
Four readings cover the major positions. The first is the historical-original reading; the second and third are the dominant Christian options; the fourth tries to hold all of them at once.
Antiochus IV only (preterist)
Daniel's phrase points solely to the 167 BC desecration by Antiochus IV. Jesus's reuse of the phrase in Mark 13 and Matthew 24 is then a fresh prophetic warning about the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem, not a 'fulfillment' of Daniel. On this reading, Daniel 11 was composed during the Maccabean crisis (see the Daniel dating question) and Jesus picks up the language to point at a parallel disaster about to come on Jerusalem.
AD 70 fulfillment
Daniel's prophecy has its original referent in Antiochus and its final fulfillment in AD 70, when the Romans desecrated and destroyed the temple. This is Eusebius's reading and the standard reading in much of patristic and Reformed exegesis. The Olivet Discourse predicts the AD 70 events and Jesus is explicit that the abomination of desolation is the trigger for the disciples to flee Judea.
Future antichrist (futurist)
Jesus's use of the phrase points past AD 70 to a future desecration by the antichrist at the end of the age. Daniel's seventieth week (9:27) is read as an end-times event, often associated with Paul's 'man of lawlessness' in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. This is the dominant reading in modern dispensationalist and much popular evangelical theology.
Both / typological
Antiochus, AD 70, and a final eschatological desecration are all in view, each as a stepped fulfillment of a single prophetic pattern. This reading, common in patristic exegesis and in many traditional Catholic and Eastern Orthodox commentaries, treats prophecy as multi-layered: the historical event (Antiochus) is a type, AD 70 is a second-layer fulfillment, and the antichrist is the final horizon.
Where the consensus is and isn't
Where there is consensus: Daniel 11:31's abomination of desolation refers to Antiochus IV's 167 BC desecration of the Jerusalem temple. This is fixed by 1 Maccabees 1:54 and 2 Maccabees 6 and is not disputed. Jesus's reuse of the phrase in Mark 13:14 and Matthew 24:15 is also undisputed at the textual level; the dispute is over what historical or future event Jesus is pointing at.
Where there is not consensus: whether Jesus's prophecy is fulfilled in AD 70, in a future antichrist, in both, or in some other event. The preterist reading and the futurist reading have been live since at least the time of Jerome, and most major traditions accept some form of layered or typological reading. The phrase itself is stable; the eschatology is not.
Where to read it in Deep Bible
Read the three primary passages with the Maccabean and AD 70 context surfaced inline:
Related questions
Other contested-passage treatments that touch on the same primary sources or interpretive issues:
Frequently asked
What did Antiochus IV do to the temple?
According to 1 Maccabees 1:54 and 2 Maccabees 6, Antiochus IV Epiphanes erected a pagan altar (likely to Zeus Olympios) on or in place of the altar of burnt offering in the Jerusalem temple in 167 BC, sacrificed pigs there, and prohibited traditional Jewish observance under threat of death. This desecration is the original referent of Daniel 11:31's abomination of desolation.
How does the AD 70 destruction relate to the prophecy?
Josephus describes Roman soldiers under Titus sacrificing to their standards in the temple court before burning the building in AD 70. Early Christian readers, including Eusebius (Demonstratio Evangelica 8.2), identified this with Jesus's prophecy in Mark 13 and Matthew 24. Many readers treat AD 70 as either the primary fulfillment or as a typological middle step pointing forward to a future event.
Is the abomination of desolation a future event?
The futurist reading, with deep roots in Jerome's Commentary on Daniel and in modern dispensationalist theology, holds that Daniel's prophecy points past AD 70 to a future desecration by the antichrist. Paul's 'man of lawlessness' in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 is often read together with Daniel and the Olivet Discourse to support this reading.