According to Matthew 24:15-22, he said: “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,)

22, 23. (a) What, then, was the “holy place” where the abomination that causes desolation ought never to stand? (b) How does Luke’s parallel account indicate that that was really the “holy place”?

²² What, then, was the “holy place” in which the “disgusting thing that causes desolation” was to stand? Well, what place in all Judea was the “holy place”? It was the holy city of Jerusalem and its immediate surroundings. That is the “holy place” where the “disgusting thing that causes desolation” “ought not” to be standing at any time. (Mark 13:14-20) In fact, the parallel account of Evangelizer Luke concerning Jesus’ prophecy plainly names Jerusalem.

25. (a) So the disciples in Judea thus saw what thing standing where it ought not to stand? (b) How had Daniel 9:26, 27 foretold this thing and the desolation it would cause?

²⁵ In this manner the Christian Jews caught sight of the “disgusting thing that causes desolation” standing in a “holy place,” where it “ought not” to stand, when the Roman armies stood on ground considered holy by the Jews around the city, especially when undermining the temple wall. This was the “disgusting thing” foretold in Daniel 9:27. In that verse, after describing events of the seventieth week of years, Daniel goes on to say: “And upon the wing of disgusting things 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.” This desolation of the rebuilt Jerusalem is detailed in the preceding verse Da 9:26(26b), in these words: “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.” Jesus said that Daniel had foretold this “disgusting thing.”