ABOMINATION
This word is used, (1.) To express the idea that the
Egyptians considered
themselves as defiled when they ate with strangers (Gen. 43:32). The
Jews
subsequently followed the same practice, holding it unlawful to eat
or drink
with foreigners (John 18:28; Acts 10:28; 11:3).
(2.) Every shepherd was "an
abomination" unto the Egyptians (Gen. 46:34). This aversion to
shepherds, such
as the Hebrews, arose probably from the fact that Lower and Middle
Egypt had
formerly been held in oppressive subjection by a tribe of nomad
shepherds (the
Hyksos), who had only recently been expelled, and partly also
perhaps from this
other fact that the Egyptians detested the lawless habits of these
wandering
shepherds.
(3.) Pharaoh was so moved by the fourth plague, that while
he
refused the demand of Moses, he offered a compromise, granting to
the
Israelites permission to hold their festival and offer their
sacrifices in
Egypt. This permission could not be accepted, because Moses said
they would have to sacrifice "the abomination of the Egyptians" (Ex.
8:26); i.e., the cow or ox, which all the Egyptians held as sacred,
and which they regarded it as sacrilegious to kill.
(4.) Daniel (11:31), in that section of his prophecies
which is generally interpreted as referring to the fearful
calamities that were to fall on the Jews in the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes, says, "And they shall place the abomination that maketh
desolate." Antiochus Epiphanes caused an altar to be erected on the
altar of burnt-offering, on which sacrifices were offered to Jupiter
Olympus. (Comp. 1 Macc. 1:57). This was the abomination of the
desolation of Jerusalem. The same language is employed in Dan. 9:27
(comp. Matt. 24:15), where the reference is probably to the
image-crowned standards which the Romans set up at the east gate of
the temple (A.D. 70), and to which they paid idolatrous honours.
"Almost the entire religion of the Roman camp consisted in
worshipping the ensign, swearing by the ensign, and in preferring
the ensign before all other gods." These ensigns were an
"abomination" to the Jews, the "abomination of desolation." This
word is also used symbolically of sin in general (Isa. 66:3); an
idol (44:19); the ceremonies of the apostate Church of Rome (Rev.
17:4); a detestable act (Ezek. 22:11).
| Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary |