11, 12. (a) After the preaching was accomplished, what could come upon Jerusalem? (b) What words of Jesus, in Mark 13:14-20, show whether the “beginning of pangs of distress” was to serve as final notice that Jerusalem’s end was dangerously near?

¹¹ After the foretold preaching of God’s kingdom was accomplished world wide, the “end” could be expected to come upon Jerusalem and its temple. Well, then, after this preaching work and after the occurrence of the things that were to be a “beginning of pangs of distress,” would there be some special indication that “the end” was at last near at hand for Jerusalem and its temple? Yes, and Jesus foretold what that indication would be and what Christians who were in the endangered territory were to do without delay. According to Mark 13:14-20, Jesus went on to say:

¹² “However when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation standing where it ought not (let the reader use discernment), then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains. Let the man on the housetop not come down, nor go inside to take anything out of his house; and let the man in the field not return to the things behind to pick up his outer garment. Woe to the pregnant women and those suckling a baby in those days! Keep praying that it may not occur in wintertime; for those days will be days of a tribulation such as has not occurred from the beginning of the creation which God created until that time, and will not occur again. In fact, unless Jehovah had cut short the days, no flesh would be saved. But on account of the chosen ones whom he has chosen he has cut short the days.”

13. (a) According to the accounts of Mark and Matthew, what was then to come upon Judea and Jerusalem? (b) According to Luke’s account, whose vengeance was then to be expressed, and whose wrath to be vented?

¹³ In view of that prophecy, the province of Judea, including its religious capital Jerusalem, was to have a tribulation such as it had not had before and would not have again. In the account of Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 24:21, 22 it is called a “great tribulation.” According to the account as given in Luke 21:22, 23, Jesus said: “These are days for meting out justice, that all the things written may be fulfilled. . . . For there will be great necessity upon the land and wrath on this people.” Those “days” would be ones of “great tribulation” that is justly due. They would be “days for meting out justice,” or, literally, “days of vengeance,” this being the “vengeance” upon the part of God. It would be God’s “wrath” that would be expressed upon the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem. Jesus Christ was here fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1, 2 by proclaiming the “day of vengeance on the part of our God.”​—See Kingdom Interlinear at Luke 21:22.

14. To avoid destruction with Jerusalem, what were Jewish Christians in Judea and Jerusalem to do, and when?

¹⁴ From possibly being destroyed in this “great tribulation” the Jewish Christians in Judea and Jerusalem were to flee with the utmost speed. When? As soon as they saw the situation arise around Jerusalem by which they would understand “that the desolating of her has drawn near.” (Luke 21:20) But who would do this “desolating” of Jerusalem? Evidently those “encamped armies” with which the city would be “surrounded.” Such means of causing desolation Jesus called a “disgusting thing,” according to Mark 13:14, where Jesus is reported as saying: “However, when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation standing where it ought not (let the reader use discernment), then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains.”

15, 16. (a) What is the place where the “disgusting thing” ought not to stand? (b) As what kind of a city was Jerusalem then regarded, and did this status save her from destruction?

¹⁵ What, though, is the place where the “disgusting thing” ought not to be standing? A disgusting thing has no right to be in a place that is considered holy; and that is what Matthew 24:15, 16 calls the place, saying: “Therefore, when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place, (let the reader use discernment,) then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains.” That holy place was Jerusalem and its immediate environs.

¹⁶ For instance, Matthew 4:5 and Mt 27:53 speak of Jerusalem as being “the holy city.” After the Jews revolted in 66 C.E. and the Roman legions under General Cestius Gallus were routed, the Jews at Jerusalem minted some new silver shekels on which, on one side, were inscribed the words “Jerusalem the Holy.” But the holy status that Jerusalem had enjoyed up until the martyrdom of Jesus Christ just outside her walls did not save her from being desolated in the year 70 C.E. nor even her temple that was specifically considered holy. (Acts 21:28) The agency by which God was going to execute “vengeance” was the “disgusting thing.”

17, 18. (a) This “disgusting thing” was foretold by which prophet, and where in the Hebrew text of the prophecy? (b) Where is that expression also used in the Greek Septuagint Version text?

¹⁷ It is important to note that the “disgusting thing that causes desolation” is the one that was spoken of “through Daniel the prophet.” (Matt. 24:15) Doubtless the apostles of Jesus Christ knew what was foretold about “the disgusting thing that is causing desolation” in the Hebrew text of the Bible in Daniel 11:31 and Da 12:11. And since the life accounts of Jesus Christ as given by Matthew and Mark were written in Greek, their reference to “the disgusting thing that is causing desolation” would also include the Greek Septuagint Version’s reading of Daniel 9:27, where the similar Greek expression occurs and where we read:

¹⁸ “Now one week shall confirm a covenant for many and in the half of that week My sacrifice and libation shall be taken away. And upon the temple shall be an abomination of the desolations, and at the end of a time, an end shall be put to that desolation.”​—The Septuagint Bible, by Charles Thomson; see also Bagster’s.

19. (a) Thus the “disgusting thing” had a connection with what, and so why was it fitting for Jesus to mention it? (b) How, though, did the Hebrew text of Daniel 9:27 read?

¹⁹ Daniel’s prophecy here, which was given near the end of the seventy years of desolation of Jerusalem, had to do specifically with the city of Jerusalem and the coming of the Messiah. So it was very fitting that Jesus Christ should refer to this particular prophecy, in Matthew 24:15. Hence Daniel’s prophecy here had something to do with the temple rebuilt at Jerusalem, as is set out in the Greek Septuagint rendering of Daniel’s prophecy. It indicates that the “abomination of the desolations,” or “the disgusting thing that causes desolation,” has something to do with the temple of Jerusalem, at which the Messiah was to present himself. The Hebrew text of Daniel’s prophecy, as given in the Masoretic text, reads somewhat differently. The latter part of Daniel 9:27 reads: “And upon the wing of disgusting things [the wing of abominations, Young] there will be the one causing desolation; and until an extermination, the very thing decided upon will go pouring out also upon the one lying desolate.”

20. Whom, therefore, does this prophecy of Daniel 9:26 indicate the “disgusting thing that is causing desolation” to be?

²⁰ The “one causing desolation” was thus to come “upon the wing of disgusting things [or, abominations].” Such a desolator would accordingly be a “disgusting thing that is causing desolation,” or an “abomination of the desolations.” (LXX) What this “thing” caused was desolation to Jerusalem and its temple. This was prophesied in the latter part of the preceding verse (26) of Daniel’s prophecy, which said: “And the city and the holy place the people of a leader that is coming will bring to their ruin. And the end of it will be by the flood. And until the end there will be war; what is decided upon is desolations.” (Dan. 9:26) This prophecy identifies the “abomination of the desolations,” or “the disgusting thing that causes desolation,” as being the “leader that is coming,” together with the “people” whom he leads.

21. Whom does history show to be the “people” and the “leader” that brought desolation, in agreement with Luke 21:20, 21?

²¹ Whom does history show to be the “people of a leader that is coming,” the people that did come after Jesus was anointed as “Messiah the leader” in 29 C.E. and that did bring the city of Jerusalem and the holy place of its temple to ruin and desolation? It was the military “people” under the “leader,” General Titus the son of the Roman Emperor Vespasian. This fact harmonizes with Jesus’ words to his inquiring apostles: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies, then know that the desolating of her has drawn near. Then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains.”​—Luke 21:20, 21.

22. (a) The “encamped armies” around Jerusalem were those of whom? (b) Thus what things mentioned in Daniel’s prophecy and in Jesus’ prophecy are shown to be the same thing?

²² The “encamped armies” that surrounded Jerusalem in the year 66 C.E. and the “encamped armies” that surrounded her in 70 C.E. were, in both cases, armies of the Sixth World Power, namely, of Rome. Those surrounding her in 66 C.E. were the troops brought down from Syria by General Cestius Gallus. After the surprising retreat of these military “people” under General Gallus, the Christian Jews in Jerusalem and Judea acted on Jesus’ advice and began “fleeing to the mountains,” such converted Jews being among God’s anointed “chosen ones.” The “encamped armies” surrounding Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. were the four Roman legions under General Titus, the twelfth legion on the west, the fifth and fifteenth on the north and the tenth on the east. These legions were finally supplemented by a fortified wall built by the Romans all around the city to starve out the resistant Jews. Thus the Roman “encamped armies” as mentioned in Luke 21:20 and the “abomination of the desolations” as mentioned in Daniel 9:27 (LXX) and the “disgusting thing that causes desolation” as mentioned in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14 are the same thing.

23. How can it be shown whether the Roman Empire itself was the “disgusting thing” or not?

²³ So it can be seen that the Roman Empire as the Sixth World Power was not the “disgusting thing that causes desolation.” The Roman Empire had occupied Judea since the time of General Pompey in 63 B.C.E. (except from 40 to 37 B.C.E.) and it had Roman troops stationed in Jerusalem, down to the time that the Christian apostle Paul was mobbed in Jerusalem about 56 C.E. and till the Jewish revolt in 66 C.E. (Acts 21:31 to 23:31) During the few years that the Jews in Judea enjoyed independence following their revolt there were no Roman soldiers in and around Jerusalem.

24. (a) Thus the role of “disgusting thing” was fulfilled by whom specifically? (b) Did this win God’s favor for the desolator?

²⁴ Of course, in 70 C.E. the “encamped armies” under General Titus were the agents of the Roman Empire and did represent that empire, the Sixth World Power. But those “encamped armies,” because of directly doing the desolating work upon the city that was considered “holy” and with which God’s name and worship had been connected, were the “disgusting thing that causes desolation.” Although they were fulfilling the prophecies of Jehovah’s prophets, this did not gain them any favor with him. They were still pagan armies, carrying the Roman military standards that the soldiers worshiped as gods.

4. What came to a full conclusion at Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 C.E., and how can that be shown?

⁴ In the spring of the year 33 C.E. Jesus Christ gave his prophecy on the desolating of the Jewish Jerusalem which showed such unbelief toward him as the Messiah or Christ. He uttered that remarkable prophecy in connection with foretelling the “sign of . . . the conclusion of the system of things.” (Matt. 24:3) The desolating of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. brought an end to a Jewish system of things that has never been restored. The temple that was built for the worship of Jehovah as God has never been rebuilt, and never will be. The priesthood in the family of Aaron the brother of Moses that carried on the religious services at that temple does not exist anymore. No Jew can prove his qualifications as a real member of that priestly family. The national covenant with God, established on the basis of obedience to God’s law as given through the prophet Moses, does. not exist, is not in force anymore. Truly the Jewish system of things with those features came to its full conclusion with the desolating of ancient Jerusalem in 70 C.E.