Mark 13:14-19

The Destruction of Jerusalem and the Sacrilege in the Temple (13:14-19).

What the following words mean are made clear firstly by reference to what Jesus said at the beginning of the chapter (Mark 13:2) with the resulting question (Mark 13:3), and secondly by comparison with the book of Daniel. It is from there that the idea of the Desolating Abomination comes in the same passage that speaks of the coming destruction of ‘the city and the sanctuary' (Mark 9:26) (Daniel 9:27 LXX has the same phrase except that ‘desolation' is in the plural. Compare Daniel 11:31). And the original ‘Abomination of Desolation' involved the capture of the city and the desecration of the Temple (Daniel 11:31).

Analysis.

a “But when you see the Desolating Abomination standing where he ought not (let him who reads understand)” (Mark 13:14 a).

b “Then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains” (Mark 13:14 b).

c “And let him who is on the housetop not go down, or enter in to take anything out of his house” (Mark 13:15).

d “And let him who is in the field not return back to take his cloak” (Mark 13:16).

c “But woe to those who are well gone in pregnancy and to those who are breastfeeding in those days” (Mark 13:17).

b “And pray that your flight be not in the winter” (Mark 13:18).

a “For those days will be tribulation such as there has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never shall be” (Mark 13:19).

Note that in ‘a' we have the one who is called the Sacrilegious Desolater, and in the parallel the result of his desolating actions as he stands against the God of creation. In ‘b' those in Judaea are to flee to the mountains, and in the parallel they are to pray that the flight is not in the winter. In ‘c' men are to flee the roofs of their houses without waiting to collect anything, and in the parallel women involved in child birth and child nurturing are to flee their homes just as they are. Centrally in ‘d' those working in the fields are not even to bother about their cloaks because of the urgent need to escape.