George,
You wrote: The fact that Mk.13:14 & Mt.24:15 (explicitly) could interpret
Dan.11:31 as a
prediction of some still future event (probably connected with the Roman
seige of Jerusalem) provides some canonical warrant for seeing Daniel as yet
unfulfilled prophecy.
When Christ referred to "the abomination which causes desolation, spoken of
through the prophet Daniel," in Matt.24:15 and Mark.13:14, he was applying
those words of Daniel to the Roman armies which would desolate Jerusalem in
AD 66-70. These two verse's parallel passage, Luke 21:20, makes this fact
quite clear. In doing so Jesus was referring to Dan. 9:26,27. For there
Daniel prophesied of a "ruler who will come" who he said would will "destroy
the city and the sanctuary." Daniel said this ruler would "set up an
abomination that causes desolation." This ruler, the one who would lead
Rome's armies in their desolation of Jerusalem, was General Titus who later
became the Emperor of Rome.
Though Daniel 11:31 and 12:11 also refer to an "abomination which causes
desolation," we cannot say with nearly as much certainty that Jesus was also
referring to those passages of Daniel when he spoke the words recorded in
Matt.24:15 and Mark.13:14. The "abomination that causes desolation" spoken of
in Daniel 9:27 clearly refers to an abomination that would bring about a
desolation after the time of Christ. It is not at all clear that the
abominations spoken of in Daniel 11:31 and 12:11 refer to an abomination that
would come after the time of Christ.
The prophet Daniel may very well have been foretelling the coming of more
than one "abomination," the first one at the time of Antiochus IV and the
second one at the time of Rome's destruction of Jerusalem.
Mike
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