1“At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there will be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. 2Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3Those who are wise will shine as the brightness of the expanse. Those who turn many to righteousness will shine as the stars forever and ever. 4But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many will run back and forth, and knowledge will be increased.”
5Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on the river bank on this side, and the other on the river bank on that side. 6One said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be to the end of these wonders?”
7I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever that it will be for a time, times, and a half; and when they have finished breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things will be finished.
8I heard, but I didn’t understand. Then I said, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these things?”
9He said, “Go your way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. 10Many will purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined, but the wicked will do wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.
11“From the time that the continual burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there will be one thousand two hundred ninety days. 12Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred thirty-five days.
13“But go your way until the end; for you will rest, and will stand in your inheritance at the end of the days.”
Jesus' reference to "the 'abomination of desolation,'" recorded in Mark 13:14, is part of His response to the disciples' question about the timing of end-time events. It concerned not only the time of the temple's destruction but the sign by which the fulfillment of prophetic events leading up to the return of Christ ("all these things") could be recognized (v. 4). Jesus' teaching, in response, has been called The Olivet Discourse (compare Matt 24-25). In Mark 13:5-8, He describes the mere "beginning of birth pangs" as a time marked by the coming of many false messiahs and global political upheaval. Addressing His disciples as representatives of the nation Israel, Jesus warned of persecution Jews could expect, in verses 9-13. His reference, in verse 14, to the "abomination of desolation" is an allusion to Daniel 11:31 and 12:11, and speaks of a desecration of the Jerusalem temple that causes desolation (Matt 24:15).
This prophecy was fulfilled typically by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the king of Syria, whose coming was predicted in Daniel 8:23-25. He outlawed circumcision, the offering of daily sacrifices, and the observance of Israel's feasts, set up an image of Zeus in the holy place and sacrificed a pig on the sacred altar in 167 B.C. But Jesus spoke of a greater desecration of a future temple by Antichrist, found in Dan 9:24-27, at the mid-point of the seventieth week of Daniel, a period of seven literal years of tribulation that will yet come upon the earth. The Antichrist will set up an image of himself in a rebuilt temple, and demand that he be worshipped (Rev 13:12, 15; 14:9). It is this ultimate abomination of desolation that signals the onset of the "great tribulation" (Matt 24:21; "the time of Jacob's trouble," Jer 30:7) before the glorious return of Christ (Matt 24:29ff). Paul speaks of the Antichrist, calling him the “man of sin” in 2 Thessalonians 2.