1. Some commentators discern in shiqquts meshomem ("abomination of desolation") a mocking pun on the name Baal Shamen (making it "abomination of Shamen"); see, e.g., Ernest C. Lucas, Daniel (AOTC; Leicester: Apollos, 2002), 245. Incidentally, this hitherto little known cult crept back into international attention in early September 2015 when the Islamic State (IS) bombed and demolished the remains of one of its finest temples in Palmyra in Syria.
2. 1 Maccabees dates its events according to "the year of the kingdom of the Greeks" (1:10). After the death of Alexander the Great his massive kingdom was divided among his generals. 312 BC was the year the Seleucid inaugurated their rule in Asia, "the year of the kingdom of the Greeks"; "year 145" is, therefore, 167 BC.
3. The relief and re-dedication of the Temple has ever since been celebrated annually by the Jews as the Feast of Channukah, the "Feast of Dedication" in Jn 10:22.
4. F. F. Bruce says, "And to make the point even more unmistakable, he [the author, Mark] violated Greek grammar so as to make the desolating sacrilege personal . . ." (New Testament History (New York: Anchor Books, 1972), 257.
5. Suetonius's account of Gaius's reign is well-worth reading. It is published on its own as a small little booklet of just 58 pages as Caligula (Penguin Little Black Classics, No.17; London: Penguin, 2015).
6. This is according to Philo who kept an account of the delegation; The Embassy to Gaius (###).
7. We have to remember that mail between Palestine and the Roman capital took many weeks, even in the best of weather, to get through each way.
8. There is evidence that the fire that destroyed the Temple began accidentally, whatever Titus's ultimate intentions. So thorough was the destruction of the Temple that the only remains left of the Herodian Temple are the underground chambers and parts of the retaining walls, the most famous stretches of which is the Western Wall (Wailing Wall).
9. Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations (New York: Vintage Books, 2007), 431-2. Vespasian kept the Torah and purple Temple curtains as personal trophies.
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