The desolating sacrilege is terminology taken from the book of Daniel (9.27; 11.31; 12.11), where it refers to the heathen altar which Antiochus Epiphanes set up in the Jerusalem Temple in 167 B.C. (1 Maccabees 1.54-58). It is here applied to any forbidden object that may be erected in the Temple in order to defile it. Moffatt translates “the appalling Horror”; An American Translation has “the dreadful desecration”; Good News Translation renders “The Awful Horror.” Other translators will want to convey more accurately the actual meaning of the form, even if it makes for a slightly longer expression. Examples include “the forbidden thing (or, idol) that defiles the Temple” or “the shameful thing that makes God’s things (or, altar) impure.” In some African languages the idea of defilement is expressed as “spoil God’s Temple.”

This shameful thing was spoken of by the prophet Daniel. In many languages an active construction will be better, as with “the shameful thing that defiles God’s temple and which the prophet Daniel spoke about.” For some, “wrote about” will be better. Note, too, that Good News Translation begins a new sentence to translate standing in the holy place. Another way to structure this is “You will see (standing) in the holy place the awful thing that defiles God’s Temple. The prophet Daniel wrote about it.”

Holy place has sometimes been rendered “God’s place” or simply “the Temple.”

Both Matthew and Mark (13.14) include the editorial comment, let the reader understand. Together with Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, a number of other modern translations place the comment within parentheses (so New English Bible and New Jerusalem Bible). Sometimes readers are addressed in third person, as in “Readers should be careful to understand what this means,” but in other languages second person is better; for example “You readers….”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .