When Daniel speaks of it there in Daniel 11:1–45, he is ultimately speaking of the Antichrist at the end. But there is a historical type, too, that Daniel speaks of, who sets up the abomination of desolation historically as a type. That type (all recognize this; there is no dispute about this) is that wicked Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes, whose rule and exploits Daniel describes perfectly many years before Antiochus was ever born. During the Intertestamentary Period (those 400 years in between the Old Testament and the New Testament), Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian king, conquered Israel and plundered it. He also set up an abomination of desolation in the temple in Jerusalem. Antiochus knew that the Old Testament laws of God had said that swine (pigs) were unclean. Therefore, to be as offensive as he possibly could, he offered pigs as sacrifices upon the altar of burnt offerings in the temple of Jerusalem. And he did that as an offering in the worship of the god Zeus. In other words, he turned Jehovah’s temple in Jerusalem into a temple of Zeus. This abomination made desolate the worship of God in the temple. The altar was unclean with the blood of that unclean animal, the swine. An abomination was set up in the house of God as an idol took Jehovah’s place in Jehovah’s own house, the temple of Jerusalem.1
Cory Griess
12 And when the multitude is taken away, his heart shall be exalted, and he shall cast down tens of thousands, but he shall not prevail.