Mark 13:14

And when ye see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not (let him that readeth understand), then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains. Then let them that are in Judaea flee unto the mountains.

The abomination of desolation ... This paragraph through Mark 13:23 has a double application to the approaching destruction of the Holy City and to the second coming of Christ. As Cranfield expressed it:

Neither an exclusively historical nor an exclusively eschatological interpretation is satisfactory; ... we must allow for a double reference, for a mingling of historical and eschatological.[27]

We shall study the passage as it applies to both.

I. As applied to the approaching historical disaster to be wrought in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple:

There is no way to avoid a reference here to the prophecy of Daniel, quoted here by the Son of God with the admonition "Let him that readeth understand." The scholar's assumption that these latter words were injected by Mark and interpolated by Matthew cannot be true (Matthew 24:15-17). Cranfield allowed this interpretation as altogether legitimate. Daniel 9:27 is the key to the synoptics on this point:

Abomination of desolation ... This means "the abomination that maketh desolate,"[28] and as noted above is quoted from this passage in the book of Daniel:

Therefore, UNDERSTAND THE MATTER and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon the people and upon the holy city, and to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. KNOW THEREFORE AND UNDERSTAND, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 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 (wrath) shall be poured upon the desolate (Daniel 9:23-27, KJV).

Let him that readeth understand ... See capitals in above quotation where the equivalent of these words appears twice, the same being sufficient grounds for the conclusion that they were spoken by Jesus Christ who indubitably referred to this passage by his use of this very admonition. Therefore, we reject the position of McMillan who thought that "It is Mark, not Jesus, who said, `Let the reader understand.'"[29] This prophecy from Daniel, and the Saviour's undeniable reference to it here, as also confirmed by the parallel in Matthew, requires that a little further attention be devoted to this remarkable passage from Daniel.

DANIEL'S PROPHECY OF THE END

It should not be lost on the student that by these words Christ placed the stamp of divine authority upon the prophecy of Daniel, nor should anyone be troubled by critical allegations to the contrary. As Tom U. Fauntleroy said, "Is it possible that men of wisdom and understanding should look to the devil for proof and confirmation of the Bible which pronounces the sentence of death upon him?"[30]

This prophecy pinpointed the exact date of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

In the seventh year of Artaxerxes, Ezra and his companions left Babylon and came to Jerusalem (for the purpose of rebuilding it, with the undeniable implication that the king had given such an order). That was in B.C. 458. Starting with this date, the end of the 490 years is A.D. 32, and the end of the 69 weeks (equivalent to 483 years) is A.D. 25.[31]

This means that Daniel prophesied the beginning of the ministry of the Messiah as 25 A.D. It was however, "in the midst of the week," that is, the week of Messiah's ministry, that Messiah would be cut off, thus pinpointing the length of Jesus' ministry as three and one-half years. Christ was crucified on April 6, A.D. 30 (see article in Mark 15), cutting short the projected week (seven years) of his ministry by some two years and nine months, making his death to have been "in the midst of the week."

To finish the transgression ... refers to finishing of the apostasy of Israel, that they should "fill up the measure of their fathers" (Matthew 23:32).

To make an end of sins... means to provide the remedy for them.

To make reconciliation for iniquity ... refers to the atonement.

To bring in everlasting righteousness ... This is the righteousness of Christ, brought in through his death on the cross.

And to anoint the Most Holy ... refers to the setting forth of the Messiah and his universal recognition as the Christ of glory.

The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary ... A reference to the armies of Caesar who should destroy Jerusalem and the temple.

And the end thereof shall be with a flood ... The end of Jerusalem shall be with a flood of terrors.

He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week ... Christ shall confirm the new covenant by his teachings and vicarious death, not for a full week, but finishing it in the midst of the final week of the seventy.

And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease ... The death of Christ nullified and abrogated the daily sacrifices and oblations (Hebrews 10:11).

For the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate ... When the grossest of vile abominations should finally come into the Holy Place, God would make an end of it. (See article above in this chapter, re: "Why God Destroyed the Temple)."

Even until the consummation ... refers to the same period of time as that mentioned in Luke 21:24 and Romans 11:15, that is, "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." "An end shall be set sometime to the desolation of Zion, although that end may coincide with the end of all things."[32]

In view of the above, there is no wonder why Jesus referred to the passage, nor is there any wonder at the rage and screams of unbelievers who would like to deny the whole prophecy of Daniel if they could. We rest in the supreme assurance that Jesus believed it and here quoted from it! (See Matthew 24:25).

Luke did not mention "abomination of desolation," except by inference, saying, "And when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that her desolation is at hand" (Luke 21:20). From this, it has often been concluded that the "abomination of desolation" referred to the Roman ruin of the city and temple; but from Daniel's prophecy it is clear that the armies were not primarily the abomination but rather the instrument of desolation that should follow the "overspreading abominations," the two being closely related of course. The Roman armies were a sign from without, but the abomination was a sign from within the temple itself. Josephus relates how:

There was a certain ancient oracle of those men (the Jews), that the city should be taken and the sanctuary burnt, by right of war, when a sedition should invade the Jews, and their own hand should pollute the temple of God.[33]

That such a sedition and pollution actually occurred at the hand of Jews themselves is clear. See item (10) under "Why God Destroyed the Temple," above in this chapter. They filled the entire temple with dead bodies, and the sanctuary became a "refuge and shop of tyranny."[34] We agree with Bickersteth that "their outrages against God were the special cause of the desolation of Jerusalem ... the abomination that filled up the measure of their iniquities and caused the avenging power of Rome to come down upon them and crush them."[35]

Thus there were two phases of the abomination that desolated Jerusalem: (1) the utter reprobacy of the Jews themselves in filling the Holy of Holies with dead bodies, etc.; and (2) the avenging wrath of the Roman armies. The Jews made the sanctuary desolate morally; the Romans made it desolate by their ruthless destruction of it. Therefore the New Testament writers warned both Jews and Christians concerning the approach of such a disaster.

Eusebius tells how the Christians fled from Jerusalem on the occasion when the Romans most unpredictably lifted the siege, without any apparent reason, how they fled to Pella, established the church there, and how not one of them lost his life during the awful siege. The army of Titus was commanded by Cestius Gallus, who for some unexplainable reason lifted the siege, providing the Christians a chance to flee. Josephus said, "Cestius removed his army, and having received no loss, very unadvisedly departed from the city."[36]

Having now examined this remarkable verse (Mark 13:14) as it applied to the destruction of Jerusalem, we shall view it again in the larger context of its application to the End of all things.

II. Mark 13:14 as prophetic of the consummation of all things.

We have already noted the dual nature of this entire chapter as predicting on the one hand the historical overthrow of the Holy City, and also on the other hand predicting the Second Advent of Christ and the final judgment, the first event being also a type of the second.

The abomination that made the temple desolate is a prophecy of the "man of sin" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-10), or Antichrist; and, as, Cranfield said, "The curious use of the masculine is perhaps further support of this interpretation."[37] The teaching is that the church of Christ shall suffer a pollution from within, becoming within itself corrupted and evil; a great apostasy shall come. And, although the medieval church is there may indeed be a greater and more terrible fulfillment yet future. The sacrifice of a sow on the sacred altar by Antiochus Epiphanes was an "abomination that made desolate"; but Christ did not view that as the final fulfillment of Daniel 9:27; there was to be a final abomination that would result in the total destruction of the city and temple.

In the same manner, whatever "Antichrist" may have appeared in the historical church, the ultimate fulfillment might indeed be something far more terrible. As Sanner thought, "Jesus was seeing in the demise of the Holy City a picture of later judgments, and finally the end of all things."[38]

Let him that readeth understand ... This repeated admonition from the great passage in Daniel was not a statement by that prophet, but a statement of God through that prophet, and directed to him primarily that he should concentrate upon thoroughly understanding the vision and accurately reporting it. So here; these are not the words of Mark at all, but the words of Jesus paraphrasing Daniel's prophecy and indicating that careful concentration and study of the prophecy is demanded. Failure to obey this injunction has led to the mistaken view that Christ understood the overthrow of Jerusalem and the Second Advent to be simultaneous. Even in Jesus' words, as Mark recorded them, "There is discernible a certain restraint, which leaves room for the possibility that the impending ruin of Jerusalem may be followed by other crises before the End comes";[39] but in Daniel a very long time, equivalent to the "times of the Gentiles," is plainly stated as following the abominations that accompanied the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus' appeal to that prophecy, in context, shows clearly that he did not view the event of 70 A.D. and the final coming as simultaneous. The critical scholars could have seen this if they had not been blinded by the prejudice that these words "Let him that readeth, etc." are an exclamation by Mark, slavishly "copied" by Matthew! There has been nothing that ever came out of radical criticism quite as ridiculous as such a view. Christ thought of his hearers constantly as "readers" of God's word, another instance of it being found in the question he asked of a certain lawyer, "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" (Luke 10:26).

[27] C. E. B. Cranfield, op. cit., p. 402.

[28] E. Bickersteth, op. cit., p. 198.

[29] Earle McMillan, op. cit., p. 157.

[30] Tom U. Fauntleroy, a private manuscript (Paducah, Kentucky, 1974).

[31] J. E. H. Thompson, The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1962), p. 276.

[32] Ibid., p. 269.

[33] Josephus, op. cit., p. 758.

[34] Ibid., p. 746.

[35] E. Bickersteth, op. cit., p. 199.

[36] Josephus, op. cit., p. 702.

[37] C. E. B. Cranfield, op. cit., p. 402.

[38] A. Elwood Sanner. op. cit., 5:383.

[39] C. E. B. Cranfield, op. cit., p. 402.