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This phrase "abomination of desolation" (KJV, NASB, NKJ), "desolating sacrilege" (RSV, NRS), or "desolation of desolation" (NIV)—which appears five times in the Bible, translates the Hebrew expression, שִׁקּוּצִים מְשֹׁמֵם, shiqqutsim meshomem (sometimes, as here, without the definite article). It is first mentioned in Dan 9:27; in it Daniel prophesizes the coming of "a prince" who shall establish in a wing of the temple this "abomination of desolation." This prediction is repeated in 11:31 and 12:11. The expression describes an object that is utterly hateful to God, something that desecrates and makes unclean but, in this case, with appalling and devastating horror ("of desolation"). The expression (this time in Greek, τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως, tó bdelygma tes eremoseos, Matt 24:15; Mk 13:13) is echoed by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse when he points out to his disciples that the arrival of this "abomination of desolation" will be one of the signs of "end of the age." Different commentators differ in their understanding of what specific historical event it refers to (for some views of this, see the Full Article [or Open in SPanel]). However, notes David Wenham, "The fact that the neuter noun bdelugma (abomination) has a masculine participle hestekota (standing) with it suggests to many people that the abomination is a person in some shape or form." In this connection, he has also been identified as the Antichrist.
Further Reading & Resources:
David Wenham, "Recent Study of Mark 13: Part 1," TSF Bulletin 71 (Spring 1975):6-15.
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Michael P. Theophilos, "The Abomination of Desolation in Matthew 24:15," Tyndale Bulletin 60.1 (2009): 157-160.
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