"Abomination of desolation" is a phrase from the Book of Daniel describing the pagan sacrifices with which the 2nd century BCE Greek king Antiochus IV replaced the twice-daily offering in the Jewish temple, or alternatively the altar on which such offerings were made. In the 1st century CE it was taken up by the authors of the gospels in the context of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in the year 70, with Mark giving Jesus a speech concerning the Second Coming, adding a reference to Daniel and giving a description of the Roman armies ("But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies..."); in all three it is likely that the authors had in mind a future eschatological (i.e., end-time) event, and perhaps the activities of some antichrist. Book of Daniel Chapters 1–6 of the Book of Daniel originated as a collection of folk tales among the Jewish community in the late 4th to early 3rd centuries BCE. At that time, a lamb was sacrificed twice daily, morning and evening, on the altar of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. In 167 BCE, Antiochus IV, the king of the Greek Seleucid dynasty which then ruled Palestine, put an end to the practice. In reaction to this, the visionary chapters of Daniel, chapters 7–12, were added to reassure Jews that they would survive in the face of this threat. In Daniel 8, one angel asks another how long "the transgression that makes desolate" will last; Daniel 9 tells of "the prince who is to come" who "shall make sacrifice and offering cease, and in their place shall be an abomination that desolates"; Daniel 11 tells the history of the arrogant foreign king who sets up the "abomination that makes desolate"; and in Daniel 12 the prophet is told how many days will pass "from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that desolates is set up". One of the more popular older views was to see in the "abomination" a contemptuous deformation (or dysphemism) of the Phoenician deity Baal Shamin, the "Lord of Heaven"; Philo of Byblos identified Baal Shamin with the Greek sky god Zeus, and as the temple in Jerusalem was rededicated in honor of Zeus (according to 2 Maccabees 6:2), older commentators tended to follow Porphyry in seeing the "abomination" in terms of a statue of the Greek sky god. More