A cryptic designation found in Matt. 24:15 , borrowed from Daniel ( 11:31 ; 12:11 ), where the corresponding phrase appears as “abomination that maketh desolate.” Daniel predicted a great desecration of the Temple by an alien power in an attempt to substitute a false system of worship for that of the true God. The Gr. bdelugma teµs ereµmoµseoµs , “abomination of desolation,” in Matt. 24:15 is identical with the LXX translation ( MS 88) of the Heb. shiqquÆs\ shomem in Dan. 12:11 . In Dan. 11:31 shiqquÆs\ meshoÆmem is rendered bdelugma ereµmoµseoµs ( MS 88). (Compare the LXX bdelugma toµn ereµmoµseoµn, “the abomination of desolations,” in Dan. 9:27 ; and hamartia ereµmoµseoµs, “transgression of desolation,” in Dan. 8:13 ; both of which doubtless are to be identified with the bdelugma teµs ereµmoµseoµs of Dan. 11:31 and 12:11 .) The Heb. shiqquÆs\ , “abomination,” is a common OT term describing an “idol deity” (e.g., Deut. 29:17 ; 2 Kings 23:24 ; 2 Chron. 15:8 ; Eze. 37:23 ). Such idol “abominations” set up in the Temple at Jerusalem in OT times were said to defile, or pollute, it ( Jer. 7:30 ; Eze. 5:11 ). The Heb. shamem , a form of which is translated “desolation” (more literally, “something that makes desolate”), is used of the devastation caused by an invading army ( Jer. 12:11 ), a scene that creates a sense of horror in a person beholding it ( Jer. 18:16 ). The Heb. peshaÔ , “transgression,” in the parallel expression “transgression of desolation” in Dan. 8:13 , is used of acts of apostasy and rebellion against God (see Amos 2:4 , 6 ; Micah 1:5 ).
Interpretation. About 100 B.C. the writer of 1 Maccabees (see 1:54 , 59 ; cf. 6:7 ) identified the “abomination of desolation ( bdelugma ereµmoµseoµs )” as an idol altar erected by Antiochus Epiphanes upon the altar of burnt offering at the Temple in Jerusalem in 168 B.C. Josephus, about A.D. 70, similarly applied Daniel’s prophecy to “an idol altar” built “upon God’s altar” (Jos. Ant. x. 11. 7 [Loeb, 272–276]; xii. 5 [Loeb, 253]). In Matt. 24:15 ( cf. Luke 21:20–22 ) Christ applies it to the Romans, who, 40 years later, in A.D. 70, invested Jerusalem and burned the Temple, and in A.D. 130 ordered a shrine to Jupiter Capitolinus to be erected in its place ( Cambridge Ancient History , Vol. xi, p. 313). Medieval Jewish expositors such as Ibn Ezra likewise applied it to the work of the Romans in the first century A.D. (L. E. Froom, Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers , vol. 2, pp. 210, 213). Irenaeus, Origen, and other Christian writers of the early centuries applied it to a future antichrist ( ibid. , vol. 1, pp. 247, 320, 366), as did later medieval Catholic writers such as Villanova and Olivi ( ibid. , pp. 752–754, 773). Pseudo Joachim applied it to the popes of his day ( ibid. , p. 728). Wyclif ( ibid. , vol. 2, p. 58), Huss ( ibid. , p. 118), Luther ( ibid. , pp. 272, 277, 280), and numerous Protestant commentators identified it with the papacy or with doctrines or practices of the papal church. William Miller and probably most Millerite preachers did the same. Most modernist Protestant commentators apply the “abomination of desolation” to the idolatrous worship instituted by Antiochus Epiphanes, while fundamentalist commentators regard Antiochus Epiphanes as a prototype of the man of sin to come in the future.
Seventh-day Adventist Interpretation. Uriah Smith, pioneer SDA expositor, applied ( Review and Herald 37:84, Feb. 28, 1871) the “overspreading of abominations” in Dan. 9:27 to the events of A.D. 70 under pagan Rome, and the “abomination of desolation” to the papacy. Specifically identifying “the daily” of Dan. 8:11 ; 11:31 ; 12:11 as “paganism” in the Roman Empire, and the “abomination of desolation” as the papacy, Smith applied the taking away of “the daily” and the setting up of “the abomination of desolation” in its place to the establishment of papal supremacy upon the dissolution of the Roman Empire, a process he considered to be complete by A.D. 538 and a state of affairs continuing for 1,260 years, to the imprisonment of Pope Pius VI in 1798 (on the basis of Dan. 7:25 and 12:7 ). Smith identified the little horn of Dan. 8 as Rome in its two phases, pagan and papal ( Daniel and the Revelation [1882 ed. ], p. 202).
Contemporary SDA expositors of prophecy similarly identify the “abomination of desolation” with unscriptural papal teachings and practices-such as the Roman sacrifice of the mass, the confessional, the veneration of the virgin Mary, priestly celibacy, and hierarchical structure of the church—but, while some hold Smith’s view of “the daily,” others understand “the daily,” for which these unscriptural practices were substituted, to refer, in the application of Daniel’s prophecy to Christian times, to the ministry of Christ as our great high priest in the heavenly sanctuary. They equate the “little horn,” or “king of fierce countenance” ( Dan. 8:9–14 , 23 ), who sets up the “transgression of desolation,” and the “king of the north” of Dan. 11 and 12 , who sets up the “abomination of desolation,” with the “man of sin,” “mystery of iniquity,” or “Wicked [one]” of 2 Thess. 2:2–12 ; with the “antichrist” of 1 John 2:18 ; with the leopardlike beast of Rev. 13 , and with “mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth” of Rev. 17 . The “abomination” set up by the apostate power thus referred to consists of its unscriptural teachings and practices that cause a “falling away” (literally, “apostasy”) from the truth revealed in Scripture ( 2 Thess. 2:3 , 9–12 ); of its “blasphemies” ( Rev. 13:1 , 5 , 6 ); and of the “wine” of Babylon ( Rev. 17:2 ). In the historic Protestant tradition, SDA s understand that the Church of Rome and its unscriptural teachings constitute the fulfillment in history of these prophecies.