Mark 13:14

Immediate Tokens of the Downfall of Jerusalem

14. But when ye shall see Hitherto He had distinctly foretold the destruction of the Holy City, now He gives them tokens which should forewarn them of its approach, and tells them how they may secure their own safety.

the abomination of desolation The reference here is to Daniel 9:27, "and for the overspreading of abominationshe shall make it desolate," or, as it is rendered in the margin, "and upon the battlements shall be the idols of the desolator." The LXX. render it, "and upon the temple the abomination of desolations;" comp. 1Ma 1:54; 2Ma 6:2. Hengstenberg would translate it, "and over the top of abomination comes the desolation."

i. The verb from which the Greek word rendered "abomination" comes means to cause disgust by bad smell or otherwise. Hence it is translated by Tertullian "abominamentum."

ii. In the Septuagint it is specially applied to (a) idols, and (b) things pertaining to idols. Thus in 1 Kings 11:5 "Milcom" (Molech) is called "the abominationof the Ammonites," and in 1 Kings 11:7 "Chemosh" is called "the abominationof Moab." Again Ahab is said (1 Kings 21:26) "to have done very abominablyin following idols," and Ahaz (2 Kings 16:3) to have made "his son to pass through the fire according to the abominationsof the heathen." Comp. also 2 Kings 21:2.

iii. Thus the word passes into the New Testament, where it occurs 6 times. (a) Here; (b) in the parallel, Matthew 24:15; (c) Luke 16:15, "that which is highly esteemed among men is abominationin the sight of God;" and (d) Revelation 17:4, "having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations." Comp. also Revelation 17:5; Revelation 21:27.

iv. The key to the interpretation seems to be supplied by St Luke, who says (Luke 21:20), "And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolationthereof is nigh," and thus shews that it is to be explained in some connection with the Roman legions.

v. Hence (a) Some would understand it to denote the vile abominations practised by the Romans on the place where the Temple stood. (b) Others, the Eagles, the standards of the Roman army, which were held in abomination by the Jews, both on account of the representations of the Emperor which they bore, and because the soldiers were known to offer sacrifice to them. The Roman Eagles, therefore, rising over the site of the Temple, "where they ought not," and "compassing" the city (Luke 21:20), was the sign that the Holy Place had fallen under the dominion of the idolaters, (c) Others again would refer the words not only to the Roman Eagles, but to the outrages of lust and murder perpetrated by the "Zealots," which drove every worshipper in horror from the sacred Courts. See Jos. Bell. Jud. IV. 3. 7. But even this was in consequence of the compassing of the city by the Imperial Legions.

let him that readeth This of course is said parenthetically.

flee to the mountains Compare the flight of Lot from the doomed "cities of the plain" to "the mountains, Genesis 19:17. In accordance with these warnings the Christian Jews fled from Jerusalem to the Peræan town of Pella, a distance of about 100 miles. "Somewhere on the slopes of Gilead, near the scene of Jacob's first view of the land of his descendants, and of the capital of the exiled David, was Pella (identified with Tabathat Fakkil), so called by the Macedonian Greeks from the springing fountain, which likened it to the birthplace of their own Alexander.… From these heights Abner in his flight from the Philistines, and David in his flight from Absalom, and the Israelites on their way to Babylon, and the Christian Jews of Pella, caught the last glimpse of their familiar mountains." Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 330.