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MARK 13:19 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Mark 13:18Mark 13:20
For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.
Because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now — and never to be equaled again — the superlative description of the coming distress (unequaled from creation, never to be equaled again) draws on Daniel 12:1. The scale of the coming destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE — over a million killed according to Josephus, the temple destroyed, the city leveled — fulfills the superlative in the specific context of the Jewish nation and its holy city.

Church Fathers on Mark 13:19

Matthew says, standing 'in the holy place;' but with this verbal difference Mark has expressed the same meaning; for He says 'where it ought not' to stand, because it ought not to stand in the holy place.

Augustine · 4th century · de Con Evan, ii, 77

When we are challenged to understand what is said, we may conclude that it is mystical. But it may either be said simply of Antichrist, or of the statue of Caesar, which Pilate put into the temple, or of the equestrian statue of Adrian, which for a long time stood in the holy of holies itself. An idol is also called abomination according to the Old Testament, and He has added 'of desolation' because it was placed in the temple when desolate and deserted.

Bede · 8th century

Or He means by 'the abomination of desolation' the entrance of enemies into the city by violence.

Theophylact · 11th century
Read all 20 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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