DID YOU KNOW?

Daniel 11:31 says forces will profane the Temple and set up "the desolating sacrilege." Which event do most scholars match it to?

The answer

Antiochus IV, 167 BC. In that year the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlawed Judaism in Judea and set up an altar to Zeus in the Jerusalem Temple. Daniel 11 follows the kings after Alexander in close detail, up to this act. Most scholars use that to date the visions to around this time.

Why it’s interesting

The same act set off the Maccabean revolt. The book's visions side with "the wise" (Daniel 11:33), who teach the people and suffer for it. That circle, not the Maccabees' fighters, may be where the book came from.

Scholarly consensus

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