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1 Maccabees describes what it considers the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy about a desolating sacrilege, when Antiochus IV erected a pagan altar on the temple's altar of burnt offering in 167 BCE.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Daniel 11:31
Hebrew Bible
29 At an appointed time he will again invade the south, but this latter visit will not turn out the way the former one did. 30 The ships of Kittim will come against him, leaving him disheartened. He will turn back and direct his indignation against the holy covenant. He will return and honor those who forsake the holy covenant. 31 His forces will rise up and profane the fortified sanctuary, stopping the daily sacrifice. In its place they will set up the abomination that causes desolation. 32 Then with smooth words he will defile those who have rejected the covenant. But the people who are loyal to their God will act valiantly. 33 These who are wise among the people will teach the masses. However, they will fall by the sword and by the flame, and they will be imprisoned and plundered for some time.
1 Maccabees 1:54
Deuterocanon
52 Many of the people, everyone who forsook the law, joined them, and they did evil in the land; 53 they drove Israel into hiding in every place of refuge they had. 54 Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-fifth year, they erected a desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding towns of Judah, 55 and offered incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. 56 The books of the law that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. 57 Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant, or anyone who adhered to the law, was condemned to death by decree of the king.
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Notes and References
"... This passage stands as the earliest interpretation of the phrase in Daniel. The reference is to the disruption of the Jewish cult by Antiochus Epiphanes and involves a structure placed on the great altar of sacrifice. The nature of that structure is disputed: Josephus says that the king also built a pagan altar upon the temple-altar and slaughtered swine thereon, thereby practising a form of sacrifice neither lawful nor native to the religion of the Jews. This testimony is partially supported by 2 Macc 6:5, which says that the altar was covered with abominable offerings that were forbidden by the laws ..."
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