Now we come to the part of Matthew 24 that is surrounded by so much confusion and controversy:
15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.
Matthew 24:15-22 (NKJV)
The word “therefore” in Matthew 24:15 is the key to understanding how it relates to all of the preceding passages. It is called a “conjunctive adverb” and is used to tie independent clauses together. One example of its usage would be, “Someone broke into our house; therefore, we called the police.”
Its use in Matthew 24:15 ties it and the following passages together with all of the preceding passages, meaning Christ is still addressing the questions regarding the destruction of the Temple, and the signs that would precede it, in their generation!
So let’s break Matthew 24:15-22 down a section at a time:
15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.
The phrase “abomination of desolation” has been so improperly defined and taught in the churches in the last century, that the very mention of it immediately conjures images of an evil, end-of-the-world Anti-Christ who enters the Holy of Holies in a new Temple in Jerusalem to declare himself God there! But this is nowhere to be found in the context of Matthew 24! Remember, Christ is describing events that would happen in their generation!
The source of this confusion over Matthew 24:15 revolves around Matthew’s allusion to the Book of Daniel, and the use of the words “abomination of desolation” themselves.
In the case of the latter, it helps to define these words.
The Greek word used for “abomination” is “bdelygma” from the Greek word “bdelusso” meaning a “detestation”, i.e. (special) idolatry. Dictionary.com defines it this way:
abomination –noun
- 1. anything abominable; anything greatly disliked or abhorred.
- 2.intense aversion or loathing; detestation: He regarded lying with abomination.
- 3. a vile, shameful, or detestable action, condition, habit, etc.: Spitting in public is an abomination.
“Anything greatly disliked or abhorred (hated or loathed)” can refer to a person, but it can also refer to people (as in race, sex, nationality or ethnicity), place, thing or condition. The context defines the object of the word “abomination” (that which is hated).
The Greek word for “desolation” is ” ere-mo-sis” from the Greek word “eremoo”, which means “despoliation” or “desolation.”
Dictionary.com defines “despoilation” this way:
Despoilation –noun
- the act of stripping and taking by force
Webster’s online (m-w.com) defines the word in greater detail:
Main Entry: despoliation
Pronunciation: \di-?spo–le–?a–sh?n\
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin despoliation-, despoliatio, from despoliare
Date: circa 1657
- : the action or process of despoiling : spoliation
When you follow the link for the word “spoilation”, you find this definition:
Main Entry: spoliation
Pronunciation: \?spo–le–?a–sh?n\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French spoliacion, Latin spoliation-, spoliatio, from spoliare to plunder — more at spoil
Date: 15th century
- 1 a : the act of plundering b : the state of having been plundered especially in war
- 2 : the act of injuring especially beyond reclaim
The word “desolation”, as defined by Webster’s:
Main Entry: desolation
Pronunciation: \?de-s?-?la–sh?n, ?de-z?-\
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
- 1 : the action of desolating
- 2 a : grief, sadness b : loneliness
- 3 : devastation, ruin <a scene of utter desolation>
- 4 : barren wasteland
Following the link for “desolating”, one finds this definition:
Main Entry: desolate
Pronunciation: \-?la-t\
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): desolated; desolating
Date: 14th century
- : to make desolate: a : to deprive of inhabitants b : to lay waste c : forsake d : to make wretched
When Christ laments over Jerusalem in Matthew 23, he says, “See! Your house is left to you desolate.” That word “desolate” in Matthew 23:38 comes from the same Greek root word (eremos) used in Matthew 24:15 (ere-mo-sis).
In other words, in Matthew 23:38, Christ is saying that Jerusalem is going to be “laid waste” (desolate, despoiled), literally that “no stone would be left on top of another.” Then, in Matthew 24:15, He is warning them of that “abomination” (literally, hated person, place or thing) that would cause the desolation!
Leave it to Luke to interpret Matthew for us again:
20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
Luke 21:20-22 (NKJV)
The Greek word for “desolation” in Luke 21:20 (ere-mo-sis) is the same Greek word used in Matthew 24:15 (ere-mo-sis).
Matthew and Luke are writing about the same event! So what is the “abomination” of which Christ speaks in Matthew 24:15?
Josephus provides two stories that give us critical insight into the mindset of the Jews of Jesus’ day concerning that which they considered “abominable.”
The first happened during the reign of Pontius Pilate as governor of Judea:
But now Pilate, the procurator of Judea, removed the army from Cesarea to Jerusalem, to take their winter quarters there, in order to abolish the Jewish laws. So he introduced Caesar’s effigies, which were upon the ensigns, and brought them into the city; whereas our law forbids us the very making of images; on which account the former procurators were wont to make their entry into the city with such ensigns as had not those ornaments. Pilate was the first who brought those images to Jerusalem, and set them up there; which was done without the knowledge of the people, because it was done in the night time; but as soon as they knew it, they came in multitudes to Cesarea, and interceded with Pilate many days that he would remove the images; and when he would not grant their requests, because it would tend to the injury of Caesar, while yet they persevered in their request, on the sixth day he ordered his soldiers to have their weapons privately, while he came and sat upon his judgment-seat, which seat was so prepared in the open place of the city, that it concealed the army that lay ready to oppress them; and when the Jews petitioned him again, he gave a signal to the soldiers to encompass them routed, and threatened that their punishment should be no less than immediate death, unless they would leave off disturbing him, and go their ways home. But they threw themselves upon the ground, and laid their necks bare, and said they would take their death very willingly, rather than the wisdom of their laws should be transgressed; upon which Pilate was deeply affected with their firm resolution to keep their laws inviolable, and presently commanded the images to be carried back from Jerusalem to Cesarea.
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3
Josephus recounts the story of Pilate and Caesar’s ensigns, which appeared as graven images to the Jews, in his work “The Wars of the Jews”:
Now Pilate, who was sent as procurator into Judea by Tiberius, sent by night those images of Caesar that are called ensigns into Jerusalem. This excited a very among great tumult among the Jews when it was day; for those that were near them were astonished at the sight of them, as indications that their laws were trodden under foot; for those laws do not permit any sort of image to be brought into the city. Nay, besides the indignation which the citizens had themselves at this procedure, a vast number of people came running out of the country. These came zealously to Pilate to Cesarea, and besought him to carry those ensigns out of Jerusalem, and to preserve them their ancient laws inviolable; but upon Pilate’s denial of their request, they fell down prostrate upon the ground, and continued immovable in that posture for five days and as many nights.
3. On the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal, in the open market-place, and called to him the multitude, as desirous to give them an answer; and then gave a signal to the soldiers, that they should all by agreement at once encompass the Jews with their weapons; so the band of soldiers stood round about the Jews in three ranks. The Jews were under the utmost consternation at that unexpected sight. Pilate also said to them that they should be cut in pieces, unless they would admit of Caesar’s images, and gave intimation to the soldiers to draw their naked swords. Hereupon the Jews, as it were at one signal, fell down in vast numbers together, and exposed their necks bare, and cried out that they were sooner ready to be slain, than that their law should be transgressed. Hereupon Pilate was greatly surprised at their prodigious superstition, and gave order that the ensigns should be presently carried out of Jerusalem.
Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 9
Then Josephus provides this account of how Caligula sought to have his statue erected in the Jewish Temple!
Now Caius Caesar (Caligula) did so grossly abuse the fortune he had arrived at, as to take himself to be a god, and to desire to be so called also, and to cut off those of the greatest nobility out of his country. He also extended his impiety as far as the Jews. Accordingly, he sent Petronius with an army to Jerusalem, to place his statues in the temple, and commanded him that, in case the Jews would not admit of them, he should slay those that opposed it, and carry all the rest of the nation into captivity: but God concerned himself with these his commands.
And when they insisted on their law, and the custom of their country, and how it was not only not permitted them to make either an image of God, or indeed of a man, and to put it in any despicable part of their country, much less in the temple itself, Petronius replied, “And am not I also,” said he, “bound to keep the law of my own lord? For if I transgress it, and spare you, it is but just that I perish; while he that sent me, and not I, will commence a war against you; for I am under command as well as you.” Hereupon the whole multitude cried out that they were ready to suffer for their law. Petronius then quieted them, and said to them, “Will you then make war against Caesar?” The Jews said, “We offer sacrifices twice every day for Caesar, and for the Roman people;” but that if he would place the images among them, he must first sacrifice the whole Jewish nation; and that they were ready to expose themselves, together with their children and wives, to be slain. At this Petronius was astonished, and pitied them, on account of the inexpressible sense of religion the men were under, and that courage of theirs which made them ready to die for it; so they were dismissed without success.
Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 10
The stories of the ensigns (“graven images”) of Caesar are important to understand as they relate to Matthew 24 and the “abomination of desolation.” The Jews felt so strongly that any such image that entered Jerusalem was an offense – an “abomination” – so great that they would have died over it rather than accept its presence in the city!
Let that last paragraph sink in: what Josephus is telling us in his history reveals the mindset of the Jews of that time and how they viewed Jerusalem. The ensigns of Caesar would never have had to make it to the Temple to be an affront – an “abomination” – to the Jews. They only would have had to enter the city itself.
This is how Jesus would’ve viewed the city as well.
This is why – when Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew 24 – when they see the “abomination of desolation” in the holy place, to flee. The “holy place” to the Jew of that day was the entire city of Jerusalem, not just the Temple!
The God’s Word translation of the Bible translates Matthew 24:15 this way:
“The prophet Daniel said that the disgusting thing that will cause destruction will stand in the holy place. When you see this (let the reader take note), those of you in Judea should flee to the mountains.
Matthew 24:15-16 (GW)
Again, Luke’s gospel interprets this for us:
“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.
Luke 21:20 (NKJV)
Rome’s legions, carrying ensigns of eagles and Caesar before them, entered the city of Jerusalem in 66 AD. What followed was the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem that would persist for the next three and a half years, followed by the destruction of the city and its temple so complete, that no stone was left on top of another, precisely as Christ had predicted some forty years before.
In the next installment, I’ll detail what the Book of Daniel has to do with this and why it has been improperly applied to a futuristic “end-time” scenario.
Rightly dividing the Word: Matthew 24 