Covenant Attack and Suffering Teachers

A second southern campaign turns into sanctuary violence

At the time appointed he shall return and come toward the south, but it shall not be as the former or as the latter. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him. Therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant. So shall he do; he shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

Arms shall stand on his part, they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, take away the daily sacrifice, and place the abomination that maketh desolate. Such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries, but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. They that understand among the people shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help, but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. Some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end, because it is yet for a time appointed.

Teachers suffer; victims are not to blame

This is the chapter's tightest sanctuary scene: stopped tamid, polluted holy place, desolating abomination, insiders corrupted by flattery, and maskilim who give understanding while they fall. The strong historical horizon is Antiochus IV's coercion of Judean worship. Ships of Chittim are commonly heard as western, often Roman, interruption of his Egyptian plans.

The abomination does not justify violence against another religion. Falling teachers do not prove that the faithful always escape, and suffering here is not the victims' fault. North and south still are not modern blocs, and this crisis is not a warrant for antisemitism or for retaliatory holy war.