Page 339 - Daniel

Rather than risk a war with Rome, Antiochus, although greatly
displeased, withdrew from Egypt immediately and conceded Egypt to
Roman power. Prophetically, this is indicated in verse 30 by the
statement “For ships of Kittim shall come against him,” usually taken as
a symbolic representation of Roman power that came from the west past

Kittim, the island of Cyprus, which was to the west of his kingdom. The
fleet of Laenas sailed to Egypt after the Roman victory over Perseus of
Macedon near Pydna south of Thessalonica (June 22, 168 B.C.). In the
Septuagint, the expression “ships of Kittim” is translated “the Romans,”

giving the meaning, if not the exact translation, of the prediction.
Disgruntled by his defeat in Egypt at the hands of Rome, Antiochus
Epiphanes seems to have vented his wrath upon the Jewish people. The

history of the period is given in 1 and 2 Maccabees. The added statement
“shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy
covenant” indicates Antiochus’s affiliation with those who sided with
him, who became his favorites and protégés (cf. 1 Macc. 2:18; 2 Macc.
6:1).

In the process of his opposition to the Jews, Antiochus polluted the
holy altar in the temple by offering a sow upon the altar and forbidding
the continuance of the daily sacrifices (cf. 1 Macc. 1:44–54). He also
issued orders that the Jews should cease their worship and erected in the
holy place an idol, probably the image of Zeus Olympius. This represents

placing “the abomination that makes desolate” (v. 31), which Christ
referred to in Matthew 24:15. The parallel prophecy in Daniel 8:23–25
covers the same series of incidents.

This desecration of the temple, in opposition to the Jewish faith,
precipitated the Maccabean revolt that was cruelly suppressed by
Antiochus with tens of thousands of Israelites perishing. The entire series
of incidents, however—including the persecution of Israel, the
desecration of their temple, and the stopping of the daily sacrifice—
although fulfilled historically in Antiochus’s persecution of Israel, is also

prophetic of the future persecution of Israel that will result during the
great tribulation. In Matthew 24:15, where Christ described the
beginning of this tribulation, He linked that still-future event to the
desecration of the temple, indicating it is similar in kind to the past
desecration of Antiochus. Antiochus thus became a type of the future