|
The common understanding of this passage among many Christian commentators is that the 'forces mustered by him'- means an enemy of God;'and they', that is, the enemy's army or followers, will defile the sanctuary, meaning the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. They will ban sacrificial offerings to God by the Jews, and they will place an image of a false deity on the Jewish altar. This image is an abomination that brings desolation to the Temple. (65:1) Some scholars maintain that Daniel's prophecies concerning the abomination of desolation actually occurred when Antiochus IV, the king then ruling the Seleucid dynasty, captured Jerusalem and placed a pagan idol (Hellenistic statue) on the altar in the Jerusalem Temple, which desecrated its holy precinct. (65:2) they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar, and builded idol altars throughout the cities of Juda. (l Macc.1:54) (65:3) However, as many Christian scholars have noted, this interpretation alone, based as it is on pre-Christian events, does not appear to account for the apparent relationship that Christ indicates (Matt. 24:15) exists between Daniel's prophecies and the Apostles' questions concerning future events (Matt. 24:3).
(65:4)
|