Question: Please comment on Daniel 12:11-12.
Answer: I will first look at Daniel 12:11-12. The full text of these verses is as follows: “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.”
Frankly I have not studied a great deal on these verses and may not be able to give much satisfaction to the inquirer on it. However, since this question has come in, I have done considerable research on this and have come up with some points which I hope will be some help to the inquirer even if they may not entirely satisfy him.
The time elements here date from the time the daily sacrifice was taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate was set up. There were 1290 days and 1335 days both dating from this same beginning point. In the 8th chapter of Daniel, verses 8 through 26 give a vision Daniel had of a “little horn” that came up out of another horn and waxed “exceeding great” and tells what he did, etc. In verse 11, it speaks of him taking away the daily sacrifice and casting down the place of his sanctuary. In verse 13, he speaks of the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation. It is from the time that this happened that we have the key to the two time periods in the verses in question. Therefore I shall endeavor to establish the identity of this king of fierce countenance and when he did his dirty work against the people of God.
In the book, The Cleansing of the Sanctuary, by D. S. Warner and H. M. Riggle, Bro. Warner deals at considerable length with this prophecy of Daniel 8 and inserts lengthy quotes form Josephus and the Maccabees. Josephus was a highly accredited Jewish historian of the first century and quite contemporary with Christ and the apostles. The Maccabees lived and wrote at an earlier period before Christ and furnished much valuable information and history of the Jews that was not available from other sources.
On page 29 of The Cleansing of the Sanctuary, is a quote from Josephus’ Wars for the Jews, Chapter 1, Book 1, describing a king by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes and described his doings like this: Antiochus “came upon the Jews with a great army, and took their city by force, and slew a great multitude…. He also spoiled the temple, and put a stop to the constant practice of offering a daily sacrifice of expiation for three years and six months….
“Now Antiochus was not satisfied either with his unexpected taking of the city, or with its pillage, or with the great slaughter he made there; but being overcome with his violent passions, and remembering what he had suffered during the siege, he compelled the Jews to dissolve the laws of their country, and to keep their infants uncircumcised. Also in a quote of Josephus on page 31, it is said that Antiochus emptied the temple of its secret treasures and left nothing at all remaining which cast the Jews into great lamentation and that he forbade them to offer those daily sacrifices which they used to offer to God according to the law.”
If further says that he built an idol altar upon God’s altar and offered swine upon it which was neither according to the law, nor the Jewish religious worship in that country. He also compelled them to build temples, and raise idol altars in every city and village, and offer swine upon them every day. This all makes it clear that Antiochus Epiphanes took away the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination that maketh desolate. If we can find out when he did this, we’ll have the key to Daniel 12:11-12.
According to I Maccabees. 1:54-55: “Now the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred and forty-fifth year, they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar and builded idol altars throughout the cities of Judah on every side; and burnt incense at the doors of their houses and in the streets.” According to I Maccabees. 4:52, Casleu is the 9th month.
Therefore the taking away of the daily sacrifice and setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate occurred in the 145th year, 9th month, and 15th day of the Grecian empire. 1290 from this date would bring us to the 149th year, 4th month, and 15th day. Counting 30 days to the month, these years contain just 360 days. According to I Maccabees. 6:1-16, it was in the 149th year that Antiochus heard of the defeat of his armies of Israel and he took sick and died. According to I Maccabees. 6:1-13, and II Maccabees. 9:1-17, Antiochus heard of the defeat of his armies by Israel in the 149th year, 4th month, and 15th day at which time he fell sick and repented of all the evil he had done against Judea and Jerusalem. This measures the 1290 days from the 145th year, 9th month, and 15 days when the daily sacrifice was taken away the starting point for this calculation.
Then measuring from the same stake, 1335 days (Daniel 12:12) would bring us to the 149th year, 5th month, and 30th day which was the date of Antiochus’ death (he was sick many days). I Maccabees. 6:9. That was the end of this bitter episode in the history of the Jews.
Daniel 11:31 is another reference to the taking away of the daily sacrifice and the abomination of desolation. This was by another power; the Roman Empire which was ruling the world in Jesus’ time. This came to pass in the destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of the Jewish polity. This was an exact carbon copy of what happened in the days of Antiochus, and was carried on in the same way and so needs no further comment here.
