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Adam Clarke (1837)
"Verse 15. The abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel— This abomination of desolation, St. Luke, (
Luke 21:20,
21,) refers to the Roman army; and this abomination standing in the holy place is the Roman army besieging Jerusalem; this, our Lord says, is what was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, in the ninth and eleventh chapters of his prophecy; and so let every one who reads these prophecies understand them; and in reference to this very event they are understood by the rabbins. The Roman army is called an abomination, for its ensigns and images, which were so to the Jews. Josephus says, (War, b. vi. chap. 6,) the Romans brought their ensigns into the temple, and placed them over against the eastern gate, and sacrificed to them there. The Roman army is therefore fitly called the abomination, and the abomination which maketh desolate, as it was to desolate and lay waste Jerusalem; and this army besieging Jerusalem is called by St. Mark,
Mark 13:14, standing where it ought not, that is, as in the text here, the holy place; as not only the city, but a considerable compass of ground about it, was deemed holy, and consequently no profane persons should stand on it." (
Adam Clarke's Commentary On Matthew 24)
Ernest Renan (1897)
"The Romans planted their standards in the place where the sanctuary had stood, and, as was their custom, offered them worship" (
Antichrist, p. 260)
Irenaeus: “Now I have shown in the third book, that no one is termed God by the apostles when speaking for themselves, except Him who truly is God, the Father of our Lord, by Whose directions the temple which is at Jerusalem was constructed for those purposes which I have already mentioned; in which temple the enemy shall sit, endeavoring to show himself as Christ, as the Lord also declares: ‘But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, which has been spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place… let those which are in Judea flee to the mountains…’ “ (
Against Heresies, V. xxv. 2).
Hippolytus of Rome: “As also it was announced to Daniel: ‘And one week shall confirm a covenant with many. And in the midst of the week it shall be that the sacrifice and oblation shall be removed” -- that the one week might be shown to be divided into two. The two witnesses, then, shall preach three years and a half; and Antichrist shall make war upon the saints during the rest of the week, and desolate the world, that was it written may be fulfilled: ‘And they shall make the abomination of desolation for a thousand two hundred and ninety days.’” (
Fragments from Commentaries).
Lactantius: “But that king will not only be most disgraceful in himself, but he will also be a prophet of lies; and he will constitute and call himself God, and will order himself to be worshipped as the son of God; and power will be given him to do signs and wonders, by the sight of which he may entice men to adore him. He will command fire to come down from heaven, and the sun to stand and leave his course, and an image to speak; and these things shall be done at his word; by which miracles even many of the wise shall be enticed by him. Then he will attempt to destroy the temple of God, and persecute the righteous people; and there will be distress and tribulation, such as there never has been from the beginning of the world” (
Divine Institutes, V. 17).
Justin Martyr: “…I will mention to you other words also spoken by the blessed David, from which you will perceive that the Lord is called the Christ by the holy spirit of prophecy; and that the Lord, the Father of all, has brought Him again from the earth, setting Him at His own right hand, until He makes His enemies His footstool; which indeed happens from the time that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, after He rose from the dead, the times now running on to their consummation; and
he who Daniel foretells would have dominion for a time, times, and a half, is even already at the door, about to speak blasphemous and daring things against the Most High” (
Dialogue With Trypho, xxxii).
Victorinus: “’And he shall make fire come down from heaven in the sight of men.’ Yes, (as I also have said), in the sight of men… He shall cause also that a golden
image of Antichrist shall be placed in the temple at Jerusalem, and that the apostate angel should enter, and thence utter voices and oracles. Moreover, he himself shall contrive that his servants and children should receive a mark on their foreheads, or on their right hands, the number of his name, lest anyone should buy or sell them. Daniel had previously predicted his contempt and provocation of God. ‘And he shall place,’ says he, ‘his temple within Samaria, upon the illustrious and holy mountain that is at Jerusalem, an image such as Nebuchadnezzar had made (
Dan. 11: 45). Thence here he places, and by and by here he renews, that of which the Lord, admonishing His churches concerning the last times and their dangers, says: ‘But when ye shall see the contempt which is spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, let him who readeth understand’” (
Matt. 24: 15). (
Commentary on the Apocalypse).
Commodianus: “Then doubtless the world shall be finished when he shall appear. He himself shall divide the globe into three ruling powers, when, moreover, Nero shall be raised up from hell, Elias shall first come to seal the beloved ones; at which things the regions of Africa and the northern nation, the whole earth on all sides, for seven years shall tremble. But Elias shall occupy the half of the time, Nero shall occupy half. Then the harlot Babylon, being reduced to ashes, its embers shall thence advance to Jerusalem; and the Latin conqueror shall then say, ‘I am Christ, whom ye always pray to;’ and indeed, the original ones who were deceived combine to praise him” (
Instructions, xli).
Tertullian: “Well, but who is the ‘man of sin, the son of perdition,’ who must first be revealed before the Lord comes; ‘who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; who is to sit in the temple of God, and boast himself as being God” (
2 Thess. 2: 3-4). According indeed to our view, he is Antichrist; and it is taught us in both the ancient and the new prophecies, and especially by the apostle John, who says that ‘already many false prophets are gone out into the world,’ the fore-runners of Antichrist, who deny that Christ is come in the flesh, and do not acknowledge Jesus (to be the Christ), meaning in God the Creator” (
Against Marcion, V. xvi).
Origen: “The prophecy also regarding Antichrist is stated in the Book of Daniel, and is fitted to make an intelligent and candid reader admire the words as truly divine and prophetic; for in them are mentioned the things relating to the coming kingdom, and continuing to the destruction of the world… What is stated by Paul in the words quoted from him, where he says, ‘so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God,’ is in Daniel referred to in the following fashion: ‘And on the temple, shall be the abomination of desolations, and at the end of the time an end shall be put to the desolations’ (
Dan. 9: 27). So many, out of a greater number of passages, have I thought it right to adduce, that the hearer may understand in some slight degree, the meaning of holy Scripture, when it gives us information concerning the devil and Antichrist” (
Against Celsus, VI. 46).
Cyril of Jerusalem: “And again he says, ‘Who opposeth and exalteth himself against al that is called God, or that is worshipped;’ (against every God; Antichrist will forsooth abhor the idols), ‘so that he seateth himself in the temple of God’ (
2 Thess. 2: 9). What temple then?
He means the temple of the Jews, which has been destroyed. For God forbid that it should be the one in which we are!” (
Catechetical Lectures, XV. 15).
John of Damascus: “It should be known that Antichrist is bound to come. Every one, therefore, who confesses not that the Son of God came in the flesh and is perfect God and became perfect man, after being God, is Antichrist. But in a peculiar and special sense he who comes at the consummation of the age is called Antichrist. First then, it is requisite that the Gospel should be preached among all nations, as the Lord said, and then he will come to refute the impious Jews… ‘So that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” In the temple of God he said;
not our temple, but the old Jewish temple; for he will come not to us, but to the Jews: not for Christ or the things of Christ: wherefore he is called Antichrist” (
Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, xxvi).
OTHER ABOMINATIONS OF THE TEMPLE
"The first really grave break between the Yishuv [Jewish people] and the Roman Empire came under the Emperor Gaius Caligula (37-41 C.E.) Knowing that the emperor was a fanatic who believed himself to be a god and who accepted the worship of Caesar as his due, the foreign minority at Yavneh (Jamnia) set up an altar to Caesar. The Jews of the city, who would not tolerate idolatry on the soil of Judaea, smashed the altar. The emperor retaliated by ordering, among other things, the erection of an enormous golden image in the Jerusalem Temple itself. When news of the edict spread, it aroused fury throughout the Yishuv: open revolt seemed imminent." -
The Jews in Their Land (David Ben-Gurion Editor)