Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 29:1 (NA 2024)
Article: Matthew’s “Abomination Of Desolation”
Author: Ryan E. Meyer

DBSJ 29 (2024) p. 3

Matthew’s “Abomination Of Desolation”

Ryan E. Meyer1

Introduction

In response to his disciples’ questions on the Mount of Olives, Jesus gives his Olivet Discourse (OD) addressing the coming destruction of the temple, his παρουσία, and the end of the age (Matt 24:3). As part of his response, Jesus says, “So when you see standing in the holy place, ‘the abomination of desolation’ [τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως] spoken of through the Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matt 24:15–16).2 This article, while not seeking to address all of the questions surrounding the enigmatic τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως, aims to advance the ongoing scholarly debate slightly by interacting with the work of Michael P. Theophilos, who has written the latest monograph on the identity of Matthew’s τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως.3 As the discussion below seeks to demonstrate, Theophilos has made an important contribution by emphasizing how τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως would have been understood against the OT backdrop of Israel’s covenant unfaithfulness and the resulting First Jewish War in AD 66–74.4 Theophilos’s argument is similar to others who argue that it is the Jewish people themselves who committed the abomination in the first century. In addition to a critique of some of these arguments, I briefly make a positive argument for an interpretation that differs in some respects from Theophilos but also includes some of his strengths. To accomplish both of these goals, we will (1) briefly review the state of the question, (2) examine the literary context of the passage, and (3) take a closer look at the language of the

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immediate context in and around 24:15. This article assumes that the Evangelist accurately records Jesus’s teaching (his ipsissima vox) and that our Lord, sitting on the Mount decades before the Jewish War, is accurately telling his disciples what will occur in the future.5 In Matthew 24:36, Jesus reminds us that, speaking as a human prophet, his knowledge was ...