Athanasius of Alexandria : "[Jesus] breathed on the disciples and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.' " As soon as these things were done, everything was finished. The altar was broken, and the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. And although the city was not yet sacked and destroyed, the abomination of desolation was soon to rest on the temple and the city. The consummation of the ancient ceremonies was at hand. — FESTAL LETTERS 1:8 Jerome : Verse 31. "And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile (Vulgate: that (?) they may defile) the sanctuary of strength, and they shall take away the continual sacrifice, and shall place there the abomination unto desolation." Instead of "arms," another writer has rendered it as "seed," so as to imply descendants and progeny. But those of the other viewpoint claim that the persons mentioned are those who were sent by Antiochus two years after he had plundered the Temple in order to exact tribute from the Jews, and also to eliminate the worship of God, setting up an image of Jupiter Olympius in the Temple at Jerusalem, and also statues of Antiochus himself. These are described as the abomination of desolation, having been set up when the burnt offering and continual sacrifice were taken away. But we on our side contend that all these things took place in a preliminary way as a mere type of the Antichrist, who is destined to seat himself in the Temple of God, and make himself out to be as God. The Jews, however, would have us understand these things as referring, not to Antiochus Epiphanes or the Antichrist, but to the Romans, of whom it was earlier stated, "And war galleys shall come," whether Italian or Roman, "and he shall be humbled." Considerably later, says the text, a king, Vespasian, shall emerge from the Romans themselves, who had come to Ptolemy's assistance and threatened Antiochus. It is his arms or descendants who would rise up, namely his son Titus, who with his army would defile the sanctuary and remove the continual sacrifice and devote the temple to permanent desolation. By the terms siim (Siyyim) and chethim (Kittiym), which we have rendered as "galleys" and "Romans," the Jews would have us understand "Italians" and "Romans." — Commentary on Daniel John Chrysostom : Daniel then went on to show that Antiochus destroyed the Jewish commonwealth and way of life when he said, And through him the sacrifice was disordered by transgression. — DISCOURSES AGAINST JUDAIZING CHRISTIANS 5:7.4 Theodoret of Cyrus : He calls the generals who assist him his "arms," since after the manner of arms they fulfill the commands of the king. Therefore, he will send some to profane the sanctuary of the kingdom, that is, the temple dedicated to almighty God. He will erect an altar to an idol inside of it; he refers to it as the "desolating abomination." The second book of the Maccabees teaches us this when it says, "And about this time Antiochus sent a second expedition to Egypt." … Then he relates how the slaughter proceeded against all his comrades. The dead were numbered at eighty thousand. Shortly thereafter he says again, "Since Antiochus had a hostile disposition against the Jews, he sent the most loathsome Apollonius with an army of twenty thousand against two thousand and ordered them to slaughter everyone in every company they met." And a little later he says again, "Soon thereafter the king sent an Athenian senator to compel the Jews to depart from their ancestral laws and not to conduct themselves any longer by the laws of God but to defile the temple in Jerusalem and to swear by Olympian Zeus." — COMMENTARY ON Daniel 11:31