Antiochus desecrates the temple
Daniel 11:31; 8:11–13; Matthew 24:15
Antiochus outlawed the Law of Moses. On the 15th of Chislev an altar to the Greek god Zeus was set up on the altar of burnt offering, and ten days later pagan sacrifices were offered in the temple.
“Forces from him will profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and will take away the continual burnt offering. Then they will set up the abomination that makes desolate.”
Daniel 11:31 (World English Bible)
After his humiliation in Egypt, Antiochus sent troops who plundered Jerusalem, tore down its walls, and built a fortress, the Akra, overlooking the temple. Then came a decree that all his peoples must give up their own customs. Keeping the Sabbath and circumcising children were punished by death, copies of the Law were torn up and burned, and Jews were forced to eat pork and sacrifice at pagan altars.
Daniel had foretold that the king's forces would “take away the continual burnt offering” and “set up the abomination that makes desolate” (Daniel 11:31). Jesus later spoke of “the abomination of desolation” as something still to come (Matthew 24:15), and Christians have long seen Antiochus's outrage as a preview of a greater one.
Ancient witnesses outside the Bible
Historical sources, not Scripture.
Dating notes
The 15th of Chislev in the 145th Seleucid year (December 167 BC); the pagan sacrifices began on the 25th. The date shown is the conventional one. Ussher counts the Seleucid years of 1 Maccabees from autumn 312 BC, which puts it a year earlier; he dates it to December 168 BC. Many scholars date the book of Daniel to this crisis and read Daniel 11 as history written after the events; this timeline follows the book's own claim to be earlier prophecy (Daniel 8:1; 10:1) and Jesus' reference to “Daniel the prophet” (Matthew 24:15).