1Then I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads, blasphemous names. 2The beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3One of his heads looked like it had been wounded fatally. His fatal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled at the beast. 4They worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
5A mouth speaking great things and blasphemy was given to him. Authority to make war for forty-two months was given to him. 6He opened his mouth for blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, his dwelling, and those who dwell in heaven. 7It was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. Authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation was given to him. 8All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed. 9If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 10If anyone is to go into captivity, he will go into captivity. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, he must be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.
11I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. 13He performs great signs, even making fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the sight of people. 14He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast, saying to those who dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived. 15It was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn’t worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands or on their foreheads; 17and that no one would be able to buy or to sell unless he has that mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. 18Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred sixty-six.
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.