“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein. For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
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“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein. For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.”
Parallel Translations
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“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.
Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein.
For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people.
They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves;
men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
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And when ye se Ierusalem beseged with an hoste then vnderstonde that the desolacion of the same is nye.
Then let them which are in Iewrye flye to the mountaynes. And let them which are in the middes of it departe oute. And let not them that are in other countreis enter ther in.
For these be the dayes of vengeance to fulfill all that are written.
But wo be to them that be with chylde and to them that geve sucke in those dayes: for ther shalbe greate trouble in the londe and wrath over all this people.
And they shall fall on the edge of the swearde and shalbe leed captive into all nacions. And Ierusalem shalbe trooden vnder fote of the gentyls vntyll the tyme of the gentyls be fulfilled.
And ther shalbe signes in the sunne ad in the mone and in the starres: and in the erth the people shalbe in soche perplexite that they shall not tell which waye to turne them selves. The see and the waters shall roore
and menes hertes shall fayle them for feare and for lokinge after thoose thinges which shall come on the erth. For the powers of heven shall move.
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And when ye see Hierusalem besieged with souldiers, then vnderstand that the desolation thereof is neere.
Then let them which are in Iudea, flee to the mountaines: and let them which are in the middes thereof, depart out: and let not them that are in the countrey, enter therein.
For these be the dayes of vengeance, to fulfill all things that are written.
But woe be to them that be with childe, and to them that giue sucke in those dayes: for there shalbe great distresse in this land, and wrath ouer this people.
And they shall fall on the edge of the sword, and shalbe led captiue into all nations, and Hierusalem shalbe troden vnder foote of the Gentiles, vntill the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Then there shalbe signes in the sunne, and in the moone, and in the starres, and vpon the earth trouble among the nations with perplexitie: the sea and the waters shall roare.
And mens hearts shall faile them for feare, and for looking after those thinges which shall come on the worlde: for the powers of heauen shall be shaken.
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Cross-references (96)
- Isaiah 13:10 (v25) For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not…
- Romans 11:25 (v24) For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening…
- Joel 2:30-31 (v25) I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon…
- Revelation 11:2 (v24) Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy…
- Revelation 6:12-14 (v25) I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon…
Show all 92 cross-references
- Isaiah 63:18 (v24) Your holy people possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
- Luke 19:43 (vv20, 23) For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side,
- Isaiah 24:23 (v25) Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for Yahweh of Armies will reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and glory will be…
- Ezekiel 32:7-8 (v25) When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and make its stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon won’t give its…
- Daniel 12:1 (v25) “At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there will be a time of trouble, such…
- Daniel 12:7 (v24) I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and…
- 2 Peter 3:10-12 (vv25–26) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be…
- Daniel 9:27 (vv20, 24) He will make a firm covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week he will cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. On…
- Isaiah 13:13-14 (v25) Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in Yahweh of Armies’ wrath, and in the day of his…
- Isaiah 51:15 (v25) For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. Yahweh of Armies is his name.
- Amos 8:9-10 (v25) It will happen in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear…
- Acts 2:19 (v25) I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath: blood, and fire, and billows of smoke.
- Revelation 20:11 (v25) I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
- Psalms 93:3-4 (v25) The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves. Above the voices of many waters,…
- Isaiah 5:5 (v24) Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it…
- Daniel 8:13 (v24) Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who spoke, “How long will the vision about the continual…
- Mark 13:24 (v25) But in those days, after that oppression, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light,
- Mark 13:26 (v25) Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
- Matthew 24:29 (vv25–26) But immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the…
- Psalms 46:3 (v25) though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling.
- Isaiah 66:19 (v24) “I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to…
- Deuteronomy 28:65-67 (v26) Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but Yahweh will give you there a trembling…
- Isaiah 22:4-5 (v25) Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people. For…
- Hosea 9:7 (v22) The days of visitation have come. The days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the man who is…
- Malachi 1:11 (v24) For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my…
- Mark 13:14 (v20) But when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand),…
- Mark 15:33 (v25) When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
- Isaiah 5:30 (v25) They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress. The light is…
- Isaiah 65:12-16 (v22) I will destine you to the sword, and you will all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you didn’t answer. When I spoke, you…
- Jeremiah 4:23 (v25) I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void, and the heavens, and they had no light.
- Leviticus 26:36 (v26) “ ‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf…
- Isaiah 34:8 (v22) For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
- Isaiah 63:4 (v22) For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come.
- Isaiah 66:12 (v24) For Yahweh says, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you will…
- Jeremiah 51:6 (v22) “Flee out of the middle of Babylon! Everyone save his own life! Don’t be cut off in her iniquity; for it is the time of Yahweh’s vengeance.…
- Lamentations 1:15 (v24) “The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me. He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has…
- Micah 7:4 (v25) The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come;…
- Matthew 27:45 (v25) Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
- 2 Peter 2:9 (v22) the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
- Lamentations 4:10 (v23) The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Daniel 9:24-27 (v22) “Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make…
- Matthew 24:15 (v20) “When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let…
- Matthew 24:19 (v23) But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days!
- Mark 13:17 (v23) But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babies in those days!
- Mark 13:19-20 (v22) For in those days there will be oppression, such as there has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until…
- Mark 13:25 (v26) the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.
- Luke 21:7 (v20) They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?”
- Luke 23:29 (v23) For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never…
- 2 Peter 3:7 (v22) But the heavens that exist now and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and…
- Deuteronomy 28:32-34 (v26) Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all day long. There will…
- Deuteronomy 28:56-57 (v23) The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness,…
- Deuteronomy 32:43 (v22) Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries, and will…
- Psalms 149:7-9 (v22) to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of…
- Isaiah 61:2 (v22) to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
- Jeremiah 6:1 (v21) “Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the middle of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa and raise up a signal on Beth…
- Zechariah 11:1-3 (v22) Open your doors, Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars. Wail, cypress tree, for the cedar has fallen, because the stately ones are…
- Malachi 4:1 (v22) “For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes…
- Matthew 1:22 (v22) Now all this has happened that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,
- Romans 2:5 (v22) But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:16 (v23) forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.
- Hebrews 10:26-27 (v26) For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain…
- Hebrews 10:26-31 (v23) For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain…
- James 5:1 (v23) Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.
- 1 Peter 4:17 (v23) For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey…
- Genesis 19:17 (v21) It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the…
- Genesis 19:26 (v21) But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
- Exodus 9:20-21 (v21) Those who feared Yahweh’s word among the servants of Pharaoh made their servants and their livestock flee into the houses. Whoever didn’t…
- Leviticus 26:14-33 (v22) “ ‘But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments, and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors…
- Numbers 16:26 (v21) He spoke to the congregation, saying, “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be…
- Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (v22) But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which…
- Deuteronomy 29:19-28 (v22) and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the…
- Deuteronomy 32:34 (v22) “Isn’t this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?
- Psalms 69:22-28 (v22) Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let…
- Proverbs 22:3 (v21) A prudent man sees danger and hides himself; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it.
- Jeremiah 35:11 (v21) But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, we said, ‘Come! Let’s go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans,…
- Zechariah 14:1-2 (v22) Behold, a day of Yahweh comes, when your plunder will be divided within you. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and…
- Matthew 21:41 (v23) They told him, “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the…
- Matthew 21:44 (v23) He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust.”
- Matthew 24:16 (v21) then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
- Mark 13:15 (v21) and let him who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter in, to take anything out of his house.
- Luke 17:31-33 (v21) In that day, he who will be on the housetop and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Let him who is in the field…
- Luke 19:27 (v23) But bring those enemies of mine who didn’t want me to reign over them here, and kill them before me.’ ”
- Hebrews 9:12-17 (v23) nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained…
- Hebrews 13:16 (v23) But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
- Revelation 18:4 (v21) I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don’t…
- Deuteronomy 28:64-68 (v24) Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods which…
- Jeremiah 37:12 (v21) then Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to receive his portion there, in the middle of the people.
92 distinct cross-references across this passage (96 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (22 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv20, 23, 24, 25, 26 The final destruction of the whole city is foretold.
The final destruction of the whole city is foretold.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv20–26 20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with…
20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
Ver. 20. Jerusalem compassed with armies] By Cestius Gallus, a little before that fatal siege by Titus. So God gave his people this sign, to take best course for their own safety.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv20, 23, 25 After our Saviour’s ascension, the seditions amongst the Jews…
After our Saviour’s ascension, the seditions amongst the Jews were so many, and they rebelled so often against the Romans, during the governments of Felix, Festus, Albinus, and Florus, that the Romans resolved wholly to destroy them, and to that purpose Titus Vespasian was sent with an army against them, who took the city. Our Saviour foresaw, that when that time should come there would be some vain persons full of stomach for their liberties, that would be prophesying their deliverance, and encouraging them to hold out to the last. He warns his disciples to give no credit to them, for God would certainly deliver the city into their hands; therefore he advises them, as soon as they should see the city besieged, they should all shift for themselves as first as they could, for there was no true ground to hope for any deliverance. The time of God’s vengeance was come, when God would most certainly fulfil against that place whatsoever he had foretold against it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v20 The sense is this: "As soon as ye shall…
The sense is this: "As soon as ye shall see the Roman army appear before the city of Jerusalem, (called by St. Matthew and St. Mark, The abomination of desolation, that is, the army which is such an abomination to you, and the occasion of such desolation wherever it goes,) then let every one that values his own safety fly as far and as fast as he can, as Lot fled from the flames of Sodom: and be glad, if by flight he can save his life, though he lose all besides."
Learn thence, that when Almighty God ia pouring forth his fury upon a sinful people, it is both a lawful and necessary duty, by flight to endeavor to shelter ourselves from the approaching calamity and desolation: When ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, flee to the mountains.
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Observe farther, the dreadful relation that our Saviour here gives of those desolating calamities which were coming upon Jerusalem, partly from the Romans army without, and partly from the seditions and factions of the zealots within, who committed such outrages and slaughters, that there were no less than eleven hundred thousand Jews slain, and ninety-seven thousand taken prisoners. They that bought our Saviour for thirty pence, were now themselves sold thirty for a penny. Now did the temple itself become a sacrifice, a whole burnt-offering, and was consumed to ashes.
Observe lastly, what encouragement Christ gives to all his faithful disciples and followers: he bids them look up, and lift up their heads, when these calamities came upon others; look up with confidence and joy, for your redemption, salvation, and deliverance, then approaches. God had a remnant, which he designed should survive that destruction, to be a holy seed; these are called upon to look up with cheerfulness and joy, when the hearts of others were failing them for fear. And thus shall it be at the general day of judgment, (of which Jerusalem’s visitation was a type.)
Lord, how will the glory and terror of that day dazzle the eyes, and terrify the hearts, of all the enemies of Christ; but delight the eyes and rejoice the hearts of all that love and fear him, that serve and obey him: then may the friends of Christ look up, and lift up their heads, for their full redemption draweth nigh.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v20 Having given them an idea of the times for…
Having given them an idea of the times for about thirty-eight years next ensuing, he here comes to show them what all those things would issue in at last, namely, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the utter dispersion of the Jewish nation, which would be a little day of judgment, a type and figure of Christ's second coming, which was not so fully spoken of here as in the parallel place (Mt. 24), yet glanced at; for the destruction of Jerusalem would be as it were the destruction of the world to those whose hearts were bound up in it.
I. He tells them that they should see Jerusalem besieged, compassed with armies (Luk 21:20), the Roman armies; and, when they saw this, they might conclude that its desolation was nigh, for in this the siege would infallibly end, though it might be a long siege. Note, As in mercy, so in judgment, when God begins, he will make an end.
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II. He warns them, upon this signal given, to shift for their own safety (Luk 21:21): "Then let them that are in Judea quit the country and flee to the mountains; let them that are in the midst of it" (Of Jerusalem) "depart out, before the city be closely shut up, and" (as we say now) "before the trenches be opened; and let not them that are in the countries and villages about enter into the city, thinking to be safe there. Do you abandon a city and country which you see God has abandoned and given up to ruin. Come out of her, my people."
III. He foretels the terrible havoc that should be made of the Jewish nation (Luk 21:22): Those are the days of vengeance so often spoken of by the Old Testament prophets, which would complete the ruin of that provoking people. All their predictions must now be fulfilled, and the blood of all the Old Testament martyrs must now be required. All things that are written must be fulfilled at length. After days of patience long abused, there will come days of vengeance; for reprieves are not pardons. The greatness of that destruction is set forth, 1. By the inflicting cause of it. It is wrath upon this people, the wrath of God, that will kindle this devouring consuming fire. 2. By the particular terror it would be to women with child, and poor mothers that are nurses. Woe to them, not only because they are most subject to frights, and least able to shift for their own safety, but because it will be a very great torment to them to think of having borne and nursed children for the murderers. 3. By the general confusion that should be all the nation over. There shall be great distress in the land, for men will not know what course to take, nor how to help themselves.
IV. He describes the issue of the struggles between the Jews and the Romans, and what they will come to at last; in short, 1. Multitudes of them shall fall by the edge of the sword. It is computed that in those wars of the Jews there fell by the sword above eleven hundred thousand. And the siege of Jerusalem was, in effect, a military execution. 2. The rest shall be led away captive; not into one nations, as when they were conquered by the Chaldeans, which gave them an opportunity of keeping together, but into all nations, which made it impossible for them to correspond with each other, much less to incorporate. 3. Jerusalem itself was trodden down of the Gentiles. The Romans, when they had made themselves masters of it, laid it quite waste, as a rebellious and bad city, hurtful to kings and provinces, and therefore hateful to them.
V. He describes the great frights that people should generally be in. Many frightful sights shall be in the sun, moon, and stars, prodigies in the heavens, and here in this lower world, the sea and the waves roaring, with terrible storms and tempests, such as had not been known, and above the ordinary working of natural causes. The effect of this shall be universal confusion and consternation upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity, Luk 21:25. Dr. Hammond understands by the nations the several governments or tetrarchies of the Jewish nation, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee; these shall be brought to the last extremity. Men's hearts shall fail them for fear (Luk 21:26), apopsuchontōn anthrōpōn - men being quite exanimated, dispirited, unsouled, dying away for fear. Thus those are killed all the day long by whom Christ's apostles were so (Rom 8:36), that is, they are all the day long in fear of being killed; sinking under that which lies upon them, and yet still trembling for fear of worse, and looking after those things which are coming upon the world. When judgment begins at the house of God, it will not end there; it shall be as if all the world were falling in pieces; and where can any be secure then? The powers of heaven shall be shaken, and then the pillars of the earth cannot but tremble. Thus shall the present Jewish policy, religion, laws, and government, be all entirely dissolved by a series of unparalleled calamities, attended with the utmost confusion. So Dr. Clarke. But our Saviour makes use of these figurative expressions because at the end of time they shall be literally accomplished, when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their powers not only shaken, but broken, and the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up, Pe2 3:10, Pe2 3:12. As that day was all terror and destruction to the unbelieving Jews, so the great day will be to all unbelievers.
VI. He makes this to be a kind of appearing of the Son of man: Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory, Luk 21:27. The destruction of Jerusalem was in a particular manner an act of Christ's judgment, the judgment committed to the Son of man; his religion could never be thoroughly established but by the destruction of the temple, and the abolishing of the Levitical priesthood and economy, after which even the converted Jews, and many of the Gentiles too, were still hankering, till they were destroyed; so that it might justly be looked upon as a coming of the Son of man, in power and great glory, yet not visibly, but in the clouds; for in executing such judgments as these clouds and darkness are round about him. Now this was, 1. An evidence of the first coming of the Messiah; so some understand it. Then the unbelieving Jews shall be confined, when it is too late, that Jesus was the Messiah; those that would not see him coming in the power of his grace to save them shall be made to see him coming in the power of his wrath to destroy them; those that would not have him to reign over them shall have him to triumph over them. 2. It was an earnest of his second coming. Then in the terrors of that day they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, and all the terrors of the last day. They shall see a specimen of it, a faint resemblance of it. If this be so terrible, what will that be?
VII. He encourages all the faithful disciples in reference to the terrors of that day (Luk 21:28): "When these things begin to come to pass, when Jerusalem is besieged, and every thing is concurring to the destruction of the Jews, then do you look up, when others are looking down, look heavenward, in faith, hope, and prayer, and lift up your heads with cheerfulness and confidence, for your redemption draws night." 1. When Christ came to destroy the Jews, he came to redeem the Christians that were persecuted and oppressed by them; then had the churches rest. 2. When he comes to judge the world at the last day, he will redeem all that are his, from all their grievances. And the foresight of that day is as pleasant to all good Christians as it is terrible to the wicked and ungodly. Their death itself is so; when they see that day approaching, they can lift up their heads with joy, knowing that their redemption draws nigh, their removal to their Redeemer.
VIII. Here is one word of prediction that looks further than the destruction of the Jewish nation, which is not easily understood; we have it in Luk 21:24 : Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 1. Some understand it of what is past; so Dr. Hammond. The Gentiles, who have conquered Jerusalem, shall keep possession of it, and it shall be purely Gentile, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, till a great part of the Gentile world shall have become Christian, and then after Jerusalem shall have been rebuilt by Adrian the emperor, with an exclusion of all the Jews from it, many of the Jews shall turn Christians, shall join with the Gentile Christians, to set up a church in Jerusalem, which shall flourish there for a long time. 2. Others understand it of what is yet to come; so Dr. Whitby. Jerusalem shall be possessed by the Gentiles, of one sort or other, for the most part, till the time come when the nations that yet remain infidels shall embrace the Christian faith, when the kingdoms of this world shall become Christ's kingdoms, and then all the Jews shall be converted. Jerusalem shall be inhabited by them, and neither they nor their city any longer trodden down by the Gentiles.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv20–26 And they shall fall by the edge of the…
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword,.... Or "mouth of the sword", an Hebraism; see the Septuagint in Jdg 1:8. The number of those that perished by the famine and sword, were eleven hundred thousand (f):
and shall be led away captive unto all nations; when the city was taken, the most beautiful of the young men were kept for the triumph; and those that were above seventeen years of age, were sent bound into Egypt, to labour in the mines; many were distributed through the provinces, to be destroyed in the theatres, by the sword or beasts; and those that were under seventeen years of age, were led captive to be sold; and the number of these only, were ninety-seven thousand (g):
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and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles; the Romans, who ploughed up the city and temple, and laid them level with the ground; and which spot has been ever since inhabited by such as were not Jews, as Turks and Papists: and so it will be,
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled; that is, till the fulness of the Gentiles is brought in; until the Gospel is preached all over the world, and all God's elect are gathered in out of all nations; and then the Jews will be converted, and return to their own land, and rebuild and inhabit Jerusalem; but till that time, it will be as it has been, and still is possessed by Gentiles. The word "Gentiles", is left out in one of Beza's exemplars, and so it is likewise in the Persic version.
(f) Joseph. de Belio Jud. l. 7. c. 49. & Euseb. Hist. Eccl. l. 3. c. 7. (g) Ib.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv21, 22, 24, 25 Let them that are in the midst of it…
Let them that are in the midst of it - Where Jerusalem stands (that is, they that are in Jerusalem) depart out of it, before their retreat is cut off by the uniting of the forces near the city, and let not them that are in the adjacent countries by any means enter into it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv22, 24, 25, 26 Verse 22. These be the days of vengeance] See…
Verse 22. These be the days of vengeance] See Clarke on Mt 24:21.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv20, 24, 25 Luk 21:20-21. And when ye shall see Jerusalem encompassed…
Luk 21:20-21. And when ye shall see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, &c. — The admonition here given to them who were in the midst of Jerusalem to depart out of it, and to them who were in the countries not to enter thereinto, shows that the encompassing of Jerusalem with armies, spoken of in the prophecy, was such as would permit the inhabitants to flee out of it, and those who were in the countries to enter into it. Behold here the wonderful prescience of Jesus! Cestius Gallus, in the beginning of the war, invested Jerusalem, and took Betheza, or the lower town. Josephus, (Bell., Luk 2:24,) says, “If he had continued the siege but a little longer, he would have taken the city. But, I think, God being angry with the wicked, would not suffer the war to end at that time. For Cestius removed his army, and having received no loss, very unadvisedly departed from the city.” And, chap. 25. of the same book, he further informs us, that “immediately after Cestius’s departure, many of the principal Jews daily fled from the city as from a sinking ship.” Among these, we may believe there were numbers of the Christians, who, remembering their Master’s admonition, and foreseeing what was to happen, embraced the opportunity thus afforded them of fleeing out of Judea, and so escaped the general ruin, as their Master had promised them, Mat 24:13; Luk 21:18. To this agrees what Eusebius tells us, (Hist., Luk 3:5,) “That the people of the church in Jerusalem, being ordered by an oracle, given to the faithful in that place, left the city before the war, and dwelt in a city of Perea, the name of which was Pella.” This oracle, of which he speaks, seems to have been our Lord’s prophecy and admonition, to which every circumstance of the history perfectly agrees.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv22, 24, 26 Days of vengeance, &c. These are truly the days…
Days of vengeance, &c. These are truly the days of vengeance; days, that will arise to punish this people for having spilt the blood of the Lord. (Ven. Bede)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v25 Second Part (Luk_21:25-36)
Second Part (Luk_21:25-36)
(Parallel to Mat_24:29-41; Mar_13:24-37.)
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25And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars [in sun and moon and stars]; and upon the earth distress [anxiety] of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring [nations in perplexity concerning a roaring of sea and waves7]; 26Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven [the heavens] shall be shaken. 27And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory28[great power and glory]. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. 29And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; 30When they now shoot forth [have put forth], ye see and know [seeing it ye know] of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. 31So likewise ye, when ye see these things come [coming] to pass, knowye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. 32Verily I say unto you, This generationshall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. 33Heaven and earth shall pass away; but mywords shall not pass away. 34And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting [or, revelling], and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. 35For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36Watch ye therefore,8 and pray always [ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ], that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass [are coming], and to stand before the Son of man.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk_21:25. And there shall be signs.—The Saviour does not now turn back again to the point of time of the destruction of Jerusalem, but He states what shall take place after the καιροὶ ἐθνῶν shall have been fulfilled. The consecutiveness of this delineation is plainly enough indicated by the καί of Luke, and it is purely arbitrary to assert (De Wette) that the Evangelist avoids the εὐθέως of Matthew because he wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem. The variation is simply connected with the freer form of the redaction of this discourse of our Lord in Luke, to which it is at the same time to be ascribed that he, since he writes for the Gentile Christians, does not speak of the flight on the Sabbath, of the shortening of these days, and of the false Jewish prophets, while he also does not so particularly specialize further σημεῖα, as is done by Matthew and Mark. As respects, moreover, the signs themselves, there is as little reason (Starke) to understand by the sun Antichrist, by the moon and the stars antichristian teachers, as (Besser and others) without any proof to understand the stars metaphorically of mighty princes, and the roaring sea of the tumult of nations. Other views we find given by Lange on the parallel in Matthew. Why do we not rather simply believe our Lord at His word, that His παρουσία will be accompanied with cosmic revolutions, whose actual course can be as little calculated as their possibility can be denied a priori? It was known even from the Old Testament that fearful signs in the realm of nature would herald the day of the Lord, see, e. g., Jer_4:23; Joe_2:30, &c. Commonly such delineations are ascribed to the poetry of prophecy, and certainly it would betray little taste and little intimacy with the style of the Holy Scriptures if one upon such dicta would build a definite theory as to the future destiny of the heavenly bodies. But, on the other hand, we learn even by the extension which natural science has gained in our days to recognize the limitation of human science even, in this sphere, and the genuine cosmologian and theologian will be modest enough not here too rashly to take the word “impossible” upon his lips. We are wanting in any fixed hermeneutic rule to determine proprio marte what is here to be understood literally and what tropically; only the event will determine where in this case lie the boundaries between imagination and reality.
On the earth anxiety of nations.—This allusion to the profound anxiety which shall fill the human world, is peculiar to Luke. The same thought is further developed, Rev_6:12-15, and has in itself psychological probability, without here supposing believers to be entirely excluded. As in the animal world important alterations in the atmosphere are instinctively perceived, as often an inexplicable presentiment of a terrible calamity, whose breaking in is feared, makes even the most courageous pale with terror; so does our Lord give us to expect that an obscure presentiment of great events shortly before His Parusia will weigh like heavy Alps on many a heart. Luke speaks of ἀπορία ή̓χους (see notes on the text) as an indication of that to which the anxiety and perplexity of the nations has relation. The roaring of the sea and waves, that is, reminds even those who do not live in expectation of the coming of the Son of Man, of terrible things, nevertheless, which are about to come upon the earth, while their evil conscience testifies to them that they have the worst to expect therefrom. The allegorical expositors of Scripture here only understand again the sea of nations, apparently because they find it a little apocryphal that the ocean, at the approach of the mortal hour of this visible creation, should roar somewhat more heavily than wont. We, for our part, find the physical signs in the sea not more improbable than those in the moon and the stars
Luk_21:26. Men’s hearts failing them for fear, ἀποψύχειν, that is, not only grow rigid (De Wette) or fall into swooning, but, as Hesychius interprets = ἀποπνευματίζεσθαι. What even now not unfrequently happens by a very high degree of heat, anxiety, or sorrow, that the tension of the moment has the loss of life as a consequence, will then especially no longer be classed among the rare casualties; no wonder, since even the powers of heaven shall be shaken, “perhaps the sustaining and working forces of the heavenly system, with their influences for the earth, so that the Lord finally comprehending all together, means to say, ‘Everything together shall give way and finally fall to pieces, 2Pe_3:10-12. ” Stier. According to De Wette, this phrase from Matthew, forsooth, limps behind, but an exegesis which does not feel that just by this terrible word the sufficient explanation of the just-portrayed anxiety is given, appears itself not to stand upon a wholly good footing.
Luk_21:27. And then.—Here also, as in Matthew and Mark, the personal coming of the Messiah at the very time when the whole visible creation threatens to sink into a chaos. According to Matthew, there is finally seen first the sign of the coming of the Son of Man, afterwards Himself. According to Mark and Luke, on the other hand, the appearance of the Messiah upon the clouds—Mark in the plural, Luke in the singular—is immediately beheld, while these two are silent as to the σημεῖον. For the principal views as to the latter, see Lange on Mat_24:30. It may be very well supposed that the cloud of light itself which bears Him and the glory which surrounds Him might be this σημεῖον. Compare the assurance of the angels at the Ascension, which Luke alone has preserved to us, Act_1:11, that the Lord shall come again even so (οὑ̔τως) as (ὅν τρόπον, i. e., ἐν νεφέλη, Luk_21:9) they had seen Him go towards heaven. The mention of the appearance and activity of the angels at the last day, we find only in Matthew and Mark ad loc. [and in almost all the passages in the first three Gospels in which our Lord refers to the day of judgment.—C. C. S.] On the other hand, Luke lays emphasis on the practical side of the matter, the expectation and joy with which the disciples of our Lord, who are conceived as then still living upon the earth, shall behold the approach of these things. This again is genuinely Pauline, comp. Rom_8:19-23.
Luk_21:28. And when these things begin to come to pass.—There is not the least reason for understanding by τούτων exclusively what is last named, the coming of the Son of Man in His δόξα. This manifestation is in a certain sense the work of a moment, and when this shall have come to pass, then is the redemption of His own not only near (ἐγίζει), but really present. Rather are we to understand thereby all previous tokens, which are named Luk_21:25-26, and which must necessarily endure for some time (therefore also ἀρχομένων). These same events which the world shall gaze on with helpless terror, must be for believers an awakening voice to joyful hope and expectation, since these very ὠδῖνες prove that the birth-hour of their salvation comes with every moment nearer and nearer. The heads which hitherto had often been bowed under all manner of misery and persecution, must then be lifted up, comp. Rom_8:19; Jam_5:8.
Luk_21:29. And He spake to them a parable.—Here also, as in Luk_21:10, Luke appears as narrator, while with Matthew and Mark the tone of discourse continues undisturbed. The latter is internally more probable. The former is a new proof of the greater freedom of Luke’s redaction. Moreover, the mention of all the trees, with and beside the fig-tree, is peculiar to him. Perhaps our Lord speaks here especially of a fig-tree, because this had served Him so frequently as a type of the Israelitish people, Mar_11:12-14; Luk_13:6-9. But that He here also speaks of that symbolical fig-tree, in other words, that He designates the reviving Israel as a prophet of His near approach (Stier), appears to us quite as unproved as that the Lord means to allude to the amarum and venenatum quiddam in the sap of the fig-leaves, and adduces the incrementa malignitatis, as presages of His coming (Ebrard). In both cases the mention at least of all the trees would be quite incongruous, and we therefore consider it as better to assume that He spoke so especially of the fig-tree because He wished to designate it as a special kind of tree, in distinction from the others.
Luk_21:30. When they now put forth.—Designedly Luke expresses himself here somewhat less definitely than Matthew and Mark, because he does not intend to bring into prominence the specific peculiarity of the fig-tree, whose leaves develop themselves at the same time with the setting of the fruit, but only has in mind that which is common to all trees. With the various kinds of trees the putting forth of leaves is the token of approaching summer; whoever sees the one knows then of himself that the other is at hand.—Ἀφ̓ ἑαντῶν, “etiamsi nemo vos doceat.” Bengel.—The kingdom of God.—Here, of course, agreeably to the whole text, definitely apprehended as regnum gloriœ.
Luk_21:32. This generation shall not pass away.—For a statement of the different views with reference to the signification of ἡ γενεὰ αύ̓τη, see Lange, ad loc. The explanation that our Lord had in mind the generation then living is certainly the least artificial, while every other gives immediate occasion to the conjecture that it has arisen from the perplexity as to how to bring the prophecy into agreement with the fulfilment. It may be asked, however, whether the words έ̓ως ά̓ν πάντα γένηται cannot be understood in such a sense that they make the explanation of γενεά as designation of that generation at all events possible. By πάντα we have no longer to understand the destruction of Jerusalem in itself, which now already lies behind our Lord’s view, nor yet His παρουσία itself, for in the following verse there is again mention of a passing away of heaven and earth, but we have to understand the presages of His coming which He had just indicated symbolically, as, for instance, in the image of the putting forth of the leaves of the trees. These presages now occupy necessarily a certain period of time (ἀρχομένων, Luk_21:28, and γίνεσθαι, used of things of this sort, is an elastic idea, by which not only that which is momentary, but also that which is successive, is expressed). So must, therefore, the explanation be permitted, “until all things shall have begun to come to pass,” all things, that is, which are to serve as the previous signs of His coming; and this was really the case during the life of the contemporaries of our Lord, who in the destruction of Jerusalem saw the type of the approaching end of the world. He will therefore say: This generation shall not pass away without the beginning of the end of the world here foretold you having come to pass in the actual destruction of Jerusalem. Our Lord by no means says that everything which was to take place before the τέλος will be omnibus numeris absolutum atque ad finem perductum before a generation of men will have passed. The question cannot be merely what γίνεσθαι signifies in itself, but what it is to signify in this connection. An explanation of this verse, it is true, in which no difficulty at all remains, and every appearance of arbitrariness is avoided, we, alas, even at this day, are not acquainted with.
Luk_21:33. Heaven and earth shall pass away.—After the discourse has risen to this height, there would ensue a dreary anti-climax, if we would recognize in these words only a figurative designation of the destruction of the Jewish state. Our Lord points evidently to the destruction of the earthly economy, which shall be followed by the appearance of a new heaven and a new earth, 2Pe_3:8-14, and gives assurance therewith that even then, when an entirely new order of things shall have come in, His words, in particular the promises of His coming, then first fully understood and fulfilled, would not cease to remain words of life for all His own. “They will approve themselves as eternal in an eternal church, and that one of eschatological character.” Lange.
Luk_21:34. And take heed to yourselves.—The eschatological discourse in Matthew and Mark is concluded with a description of the unexpected coming of the Parusia, and a parabolic allusion to watchfulness, which we have already met with in Luke in a somewhat different form, chs. 12 and 17 Instead of this he has another conclusion, which, indeed, entitles us to inquire whether the Evangelist, in a freer form, has condensed the main substance of the admonitions given Mat_24:43-51, or whether our Lord on this occasion used these very words. However this may be, his rendering has so much the more value, as it in some measure takes the place of the missing parable of the Ten Virgins, which, according to Matthew, was delivered this same evening by our Lord, but has been passed over by Luke. With deep wisdom our Lord ends His eschatological discourse by leading His disciples back into their own hearts, since their view had involuntarily lost itself in the far future, and in thinking upon the universal historical character of the events here foretold, they might very easily lose out of mind in how strict a connection this Parusia stood with their personal salvation. With a faithful and earnest προσέχετε, He begins to use the expectation of His coming for their sanctification, as He had just before, Luk_21:28, applied it to their consolation. He warns them that their hearts be not burdened as by a spirit of deep sleep. This might come to pass through three things: κραιπάλῃ, heaviness and dizziness, such as drunkenness of yesterday gives, μέθῃ, drunkenness, which makes them for to-day unfit to reflect maturely upon their highest interests, and μερίμναις βιωτικαῖς, which would plague them for to-morrow, and impel them too strongly to labor for the meat that perisheth. The one, as well as the other, would be able to rob them of the clearness and sobriety of mind with which they should await the coming of their Lord. Not only should that which is entirely unlawful be avoided, but also that which is relatively lawful used with wisdom, in the consciousness that they in no case could reckon upon it for a long time; for the great day was to be, even for them, the servants of the Lord, an unexpected one, αῖφνίδιος ἐπιστῇ, comp. 1Th_5:3, while it would come upon other inhabitants of the earth, especially those who were living on in careless quiet, without fellowship with Christ, as a snare. The tertium comparationis lies as well in the unexpectedness as in the ruinousness of such snares as are commonly used for ravening beasts. Ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς καθημένους, here emphatic for a designation of quiet and comfortable sitting, comp. Amo_6:1-6, in which they, therefore, are taken at once, as soon as only the snare is thrown out upon them. See also Jer_25:29; Rev_18:7-8.
Luk_21:36. Watch ye … always.—Comp. Mar_13:37 : ἐν παντὶ καιρθ͂ may be referred quite as well to ἀγρυπνεῖτε as to δεόμενοι. The former is probable, on account of the antithesis, and the uncertainty of the Parusia in Luk_21:35, which requires an unremitting watch. Watching and praying are here also, as in Mat_26:41; 1Pe_4:7-8, joined together. Δεόμενοι,ἵνα,κ.τ.λ. indicates the frame of mind in which they must be found watching and waiting; καταξιωθῆτε, comp. Luk_20:35; 2Th_1:5, not “become worthy,” sensu morali, but to be accounted worthy, sensu forensi, digni habiti atque declarati, sc. a Deo. The word appears in the same sense Act_5:41.
To escape all these things, πάντα ταῦτα, here, as in Luk_21:32, especially of the premonitions of the Parusia considered exclusively on their terrifying side; for to escape the Parusia itself (which is first alluded to in the immediately following expression) is indeed for friend and foe impossible. He escapes τὰ μέλλοντα, who is not carried away by persecutions, brought to apostasy by misleaders, or robbed of courage by trial. (The genuineness of ταῦτα is doubtful; it is rejected by Tischendorf and accepted by De Wette; it has little influence on the sense, since, at all events, our Lord means no other future things than these of which He had just spoken.) On the other hand, they must desire above all things to appear before the Son of Man, σταθῆναι έ̓μπροσθεν, κ.τ.λ. It may, indeed, signify, “to pass the trial,” as in Rom_14:4, but at the end of this discourse it is very probable that our Lord will designate therewith something higher: the fearless appearance, the composed standing before His throne, in order to view Him, to serve Him, and to glorify Him. “The ἐπισυναγωγή of believers is meant, and this, as it appears, of the living, because as a condition the escaping of all the tribulations is named, 1Th_4:17; 2Th_2:1; Mat_24:31.” De Wette. This σταθῆναι is, therefore, not only the beginning, but also the substance, of the highest happiness, the opposite of which is portrayed, Psa_1:5; Nah_1:6; Rev_6:16-17.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It is of high significance that our Lord ends His prophetical office, immediately before His last suffering, with such an eschatological discourse. The course which our Saviour’s teaching has taken during His public life, shows the type of the natural course of development of Christian dogmatics. As He had appeared with the preaching of faith and conversion, so ought at all times the practical questions to come first. But as He did not leave the earth without having also disclosed the secrets of the future, so a Dogmatics which, in reference to the έ̓σχατα, takes an indifferent or sceptical position, is in itself imperfect, and like a mutilated torso. It lies in the nature of the case that Christian eschatology, the more the course of time advances, must become less and less an unimportant appendix, and more and more a locus primaries of Christian doctrine.
2. Whoever asserts that the expectation of a personal, visible, glorious return, which shall put a decisive end to the present condition of things, belongs only to Jewish dreamings, which one from a Christian spiritualistic position may look down upon with a certain lofty disparagement, is here contradicted by our Lord in the most decided manner.
3. What our Lord here announces in reference to the termination of the history of the world is only drawn in strong and broad lines. It is no picture that already contains all the traits of the image of the future complete, but a sketch with which the more detailed painting is outlined, which afterwards could be elaborated by the hand of the apostles. He who believes in the unity of the Spirit in our Lord and His first witnesses, cannot be hindered from seeking in the Apostolic Epistles, or in the Revelation, for the answer to many questions which this eschatological discourse leaves yet remaining for us. Not easily will any one be able to show in this last a conception for which the fundamental thought is not more or less contained in this eschatological discourse, and which, therefore, might not be named, with entire justice, a further explanation and completion of the same. So is the Pauline doctrine of the restoration of Israel only the development of the germ which we find here, Luk_21:24; so is the Apocalyptical image of the convulsions of the realm of nature which shall accompany the coming of the Lord, only the development of the eschatological foundation thoughts already given here. The eschatology of the apostles is related to that of our Lord as the nobly unfolding plant to the bud swelling with sap; not as the subsequently clouded sun to its earlier brilliancy.
4. “The soul works on the body, and there is no member or part of the body that does not feel with the soul. So shall the Lord that shall come work upon all creatures, and they shall not be able to withdraw themselves from His working. Even before His visible appearance will the creatures become aware that the time of His coming is at hand. The lifeless creation, that bends itself without opposition to His almighty will, and men, who can oppose themselves with their impotent will to His almighty will,—both shall be seized with the terrors that hasten on before His appearance. The heaven and the sea, and on earth men, shall have forebodings of that which is to come. There rests upon the prophesyings of our Lord concerning the end,—threatening as they are, terrible as they sound,—nevertheless an obscurity by which their terrible impression is augmented. They wait for their literal and most striking interpretation, for their fulfilment. Before this comes, God’s hand itself has veiled them in a twilight which yields to no human endeavor; but when the fulfilment comes, man shall not only clearly know how fully it fits the prophecy, but also how the prophecy fits the fulfilment,—how they shall, as it were, exactly cover one another.” Löhe.
5. Although, our Lord in this eschatological discourse does not speak expressly of His Divine nature and dignity, it contains so powerful and incomparable a self-testimony of Christ, that it is utterly impossible not to ascribe to Him who so speaks a superhuman character. Nothing is to be compared with the quiet majesty of that word: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” Scoffers think exactly the opposite—namely, that heaven and earth shall remain; the words of our Lord, on the other hand, be forgotten and exposed as lies, 2Pe_3:3 seq.—Yet our Lord, who apparently delays the promise, will not rest until it is all fulfilled. Patiens quia œternus.
6. The eschatological discourse is also remarkable on this account, that it shows that a connection according to the intent of our Lord exists and must exist between πίστις and γνῶσις. The example of the apostles and the teaching of the Master show anew: there cannot possibly be any talk of γνῶσις so long as no πίστισ precedes it. Non intelligere ut credas, sed credere ut intelligas. Where faith however is living, it feels to a certain extent the necessity of also knowing the secrets of the future. Our Lord satisfies this need, so far as the receptivity of His people permits Him, and while the σημεῖα of His coming are only images of terror and riddles to the unbelieving, believers are at the same time the γνωστικοί, who know what these things denote, and whither they tend. Their faith has, therefore, become a knowing; but, on the other hand also, this knowing, which is still very limited and only in part, leads again to faith, and must end in ever firmer faith, hope, and waiting. Per fidem ad intellectum, per intellectum ad firmiorem fidem.
7. The eschatological discourse of our Lord may be considered as a type of a fitting and edifying treatment of future things for all preachers. Let us consider well how closely this doctrine of His coheres also with the prophetic words of Scripture; how the chief strokes of the picture are placed in a clear light, while points of a subordinate importance remain veiled in an unprejudicial obscurity; how He, above all, delivers this teaching not for the satisfaction of an idle curiosity, but uses it directly for the admonition, for the consolation, and for the sanctification of His own. It admits of no doubt that had the impending end of the history of the world been always written of and spoken of in this way, much less offence would have been taken, and also much less offence would have been given.
8. It is not impossible that our Lord on this occasion uttered the so-called unwritten expression of which Justin Martyr, in Tryph. Luke 47, makes mention with the simple words: διὸ καὶ ὁ ἡμέτερος Κύριος Ἰ. Χρ. εῖ̓πεν and which has all the internal traces of genuineness: “In that in which I shall find you, therein will I judge you.”
9. Compare on this Pericope the Dies irœ.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The visible creation must perish before the heaven and the new earth appear.—The joy of the world perishes often before the end of the world.—If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?—The day of Christ at once a day of terror and of glory.—The different temper in which men go towards and look towards this day: 1. While unbelief yet mocks, faith mourns; 2. while unbelief fears, faith hopes; 3. while unbelief despairs, faith triumphs.—The ordinary laws of nature are abolished when the kingdom of Christ celebrates its highest triumphs.—The coming of the Son of Man: 1. Seen by all eyes; 2. surrounded by heavenly glory; 3. greeted by the redeemed with joy.—Even nature prophesies of the approaching summer of the kingdom of God.—How much the Christian, by attentive observation of the kingdom of nature and of grace, can know of himself.—The knowledge of the hour which has struck in God’s kingdom: 1. Its grounds; 2. its degree; 3. its limits.—The contemporaries of our Lord, even in their lifetime, witnesses: 1. Of the most glorious event; 2. of the most terrible event, that ever the earth has see.—What is perishable and what remains.—Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away: 1. The sublimity; 2. the truth; 3. the comfort; 4. the serious depth, of this utterance.—What the word of our Lord shall continue for His people, even after the end of the world.—What is the greatest danger to which the disciple of the Lord is exposed at the approach of the day of His coming?—He that is full of wine cannot be full of the Holy Spirit, Eph_5:18.—The day of the Lord comes unawares;—woe to the man whom it finds wholly unprepared !—How the best preparation for the coming of the Lord consists: 1. In watchfulness; 2. in activity; 3. in thoughtfulness.—They who sit down in selfishness and carelessness, will be not less surprised by the end than they that pass the night at their wine.—Watching and praying must we await the Lord’s coming.—Nothing higher can the praying Christian desire than: 1. To escape the destruction that lights upon others; and 2. to stand with all His people before the Son of Man.
Starke:—They that have not feared God in their life, shall melt away for terror in the end.—Many weighty things have already come to pass on earth, but the weightiest is yet to be looked for.—Quesnel:—Whoever has despised Jesus in His humility, will see Him against his will in His majesty.—There comes at last a time when we shall be redeemed from all that is a burden to us, 2Ti_4:18.—The earthly-minded regard the spring as the most convenient time for their lust and desire, but true Christians as a type of the glory and resurrection of the children of God.—The summer a beautiful image of eternal blessedness.—God does not let the race of the ungodly perish till all is come to pass, which serves as the proof of His righteousness, and for their punishment.—True Christians who seek that which is above in heaven are as the birds of the heaven who, because they are not on earth, have nothing to fear from the nets of the fowler.—Brentius:—Because man does not know his time, he must learn wisely to accommodate himself to the time.—It is God alone that can make us worthy and ready for the enjoyment of His everlasting glory.—Watching and praying men ever keep together.
On the Pericope:—Fuchs:—Concerning the return of Christ and the hour of death: 1. For the ungodly, terrible; 2. for believers, joyful.—Lift up your heads: 1. In good days, and thank the Lord; 2. in evil days, and trust the Lord; 3. in the last days, and be joyful in hope.—Herberger:—Concerning the last Advent of Jesus and the flower-buds of the last day.—Otho:—The last judgment.—Fresenius:—The redemption of Jesus Christ in its different aspects: 1. The procuring of salvation; 2. the preparation of salvation; 3. the complete revelation of salvation.—Ahlfeld:—Behold the King cometh to thee in might and glory.—Couard:—Christian-mindedness in evil times.—Souchon:—The comfort and admonition of Christ’s prophecy of His coming.—Stier:—The day of the Lord’s return: 1. How; and 2. whereto it is placed before our eyes.—Ranke:—How we have to receive our Lord’s prophecy of His coming again: 1. With deep reverence; 2. with great joy; 3. with holy seriousness.—Rautenberg:—The course of the gospel among the terrors of the time.—Gaupp:—The coming again of our Lord a strong incitement to a godly life, for: 1. It awakens the spirit to a living hope; 2. it inspires in all believing hearts sweet comfort even in the dreariest condition of the kingdom of God; 3. it admonishes most deeply to become worthy, by prayer and watchfulness, to stand before the Son of Man.—Cl. Harms:—The setting forth of the coming of our Lord is seasonably done even in the Advent season: 1. It awakens sleepers; 2. shakes the presumptuous; 3. helps the wavering to a decision; 4. strengthens the weak in faith.—Kraussold:—The coming of our Lord at the end of days: 1. A coming to judgment, and moreover; 2. a terrible and glorious; 3. an undoubtedly certain, coming, and therefore; 4. a coming for which we should perseveringly wait in joyful faith.—Staudt:—How believers demean themselves at the coming of Christ: 1. As attentive observers of the tokens of this coming; 2. as joyful spectators of these mutations in the world; 3. as those delivered out of all judgments.—Dr. A. Bomhard:—The established heart of the believing Christian.—B. Steger:—Of the joyful and blessed freedom of the perfectly righteous.
Footnotes:
[7]Luk_21:25.—According to the reading of Tischendorf, [Lachmann, Meyer, Tregelles, Alford,] ἐν ἀπορία ἤχους [instead of ἠχούσης, Recepta], which is sufficiently supported by A., B., [Cod. Sin.,] C., L., M., [R.,] X., Cursives, [Vulgate, Syriac,] &c.
[8]Luk_21:36.—With Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Tregelles, Alford,] we read δέ instead of the οῦ̓ν of the Recepta, according to B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] Itala.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv20, 23, 24, 25 by armies--encamped armies, that is, besieged: "the abomination of…
by armies--encamped armies, that is, besieged: "the abomination of desolation" (meaning the Roman ensigns, as the symbols of an idolatrous, pagan, unclean power) "spoken of by Daniel the prophet" (Dan 9:27) "standing where it ought not" (Mar 13:14). "Whoso readeth [that prophecy] let him understand" (Mat 24:15).
Then . . . flee, &c.--EUSEBIUS says the Christians fled to Pella, at the north extremity of Perea, being "prophetically directed"; perhaps by some prophetic intimation still more explicit than this, which still would be their chart.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv20, 24, 25, 26 § 115.—PHARISEES, HERODIANS, AND A SCRIBE QUESTION JESUS. JESUS…
§ 115.—PHARISEES, HERODIANS, AND A SCRIBE QUESTION JESUS. JESUS RETURNS A QUESTION, Luk_21:20-38.
See notes on Mat_22:15-46; Mar_12:12-37.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv20–26 20. Jerusalem compassed with armies] See on Luk_19:43, and…
20. Jerusalem compassed with armies] See on Luk_19:43, and Jos. B.J. v. 2, § 6, 12. Some regard this as the “abomination that maketh desolate.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv20–26 (20-24) When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies.—See…
(20-24) When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies.—See Notes on Mat_23:15-21; Mar_13:14-19. This is St. Luke’s equivalent, possibly chosen as more intelligible for his Gentile readers, for “the abomination of desolation,” which we find in St. Matthew and St. Mark. As far as it goes, it favours the view that he and others saw the “abomination” in the presence of the invading armies. On the other hand, it is possible, accepting, as we must accept, the thought of a substituted phrase, that we have one which, while it gives a partial explanation, fails to exhaust the meaning of the darker and more mysterious phrase. The occurrence of the word “desolation” in the latter clause of the verse, obviously favours the hypothesis now suggested.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv20, 24, 25 Vers. 20-24. The true signs which his people are…
Vers. 20-24. The true signs which his people are to be on the watch for.
And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. This is to be the sign that the end has come for temple, city, and people. Wars and rumors of wars, physical portents, famine and pestilence succeeding each other with a terrible persistence, all these will, in the forthcoming years, terrify and perplex men"s minds, presages of something which seems impending. But his people are to bear in mind that these were not the immediate signs of the awful ruin he was foretelling. But when the holy city was invested, when hostile armies were encamped about her then this would surely come to pass, and some of these very bystanders would behold it then, and not till then, let his people take alarm. Let them at once and at all cost flee from temple and city, for there would be no deliverance, God had left his house, given up the chosen people. "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles" (ver. 24). It is probable that these solemn words of the Master, becoming, as they did, at a comparatively early date, the property of the Church, saved the Christian congregations in Palestine from the fate which overtook the Jewish nation in the last great war. Clearly warned by Jesus that the gathering of the Roman armies in the neighborhood of Jerusalem was the unmistakable sign of the end of the Jewish polity, the Christian congregations fled to Pella beyond Jordan. The Jews never ceased to the last trusting that deliverance from on high would be vouchsafed to the holy city and temple. The Christians were warned by the words of the Founder of their faith words spoken nigh forty years before the siege that the time of mercy was hopelessly past.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v20 Luk 21:20 - Luk 21:36.
Luke
WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE?
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Luk 21:20 - Luk 21:36.
This discourse of our Lord’s is in answer to the disciples’ double question as to the time of the overthrow of the Temple and the premonitory signs of its approach. The former is answered with the indefiniteness which characterises prophetic chronology; the latter is plainly answered in Luk 21:20.
The whole passage divides itself in four well-marked sections.
I. There is the prediction of the fall of Jerusalem {Luk 21:20 - Luk 21:24}.
The ‘sign’ of her ‘desolation’ was to be the advance of the enemy to her walls. Armies had been many times encamped round her, and many times been scattered; but this siege was to end in capture, and no angel of the Lord would stalk by night through the sleeping host, to stiffen sleep into death, nor would any valour of the besieged avail. Their cause was to be hopeless from the first. Flight was enjoined. Usually the inhabitants of the open country took refuge in the fortified capital when invasion harrowed their fields; but this time, for ‘them that are in the country’ to ‘enter therein’ was to throw away their last chance of safety. The Christians obeyed, and fled, as we all know, across Jordan to Pella. The rest despised Jesus’ warning-if they knew it,-and perished.
Mark the reason for the exhortation not to resist, but to flee: These are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.’ That is to say, the besiegers are sent by God to execute His righteous and long-ago-pronounced judgments. Therefore it is vain to struggle against them. Behind the Roman army is the God of Israel. To dash against their cohorts is to throw one’s self on the thick bosses of the Almighty’s buckler, and none who dare do that can ‘prosper.’ Submission to His retributive hand is the only way to escape being crushed by it. Chastisement accepted is salutary, but kicking against it drives the goad deeper into the rebellious limb.
So great is the agony to be, that what should be a joy, the birth of children, will be a woe, and the sweet duties of motherhood a curse, while the childless will be happier than the fugitives burdened with helpless infancy. We should note, too, that the ‘distress’ which comes upon the land is presented in darker colours, and traced to its origin, in {God’s}’wrath’ dealt out ‘unto this people.’ Happier they who ‘fall by the edge of the sword’ than they who are led ‘captive into all the nations.’
A gleam of hope shoots through the stormy prospect, for the treading down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles has a term set to it. It is to continue ‘till the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.’ That expression is important, for it clearly implies that these ‘times’ are of considerable duration, and it thus places a period of undefined extent between the fall of Jerusalem and the subsequent prophecy. The word used for ‘times’ generally carries with it the notion of opportunity, and here seems to indicate that the break-up of the Jewish national existence would usher in a period in which the ‘Gentiles’ would have the kingdom of God offered to them. The history of the world since the city fell is the best comment on this saying.
II. Since the ‘times of the Gentiles’ are thus of indefinite duration, they make a broad line of demarcation between what precedes and what follows them.
Clearly the prophecy in Luk 21:25 - Luk 21:27 is separated in time from the fall of Jerusalem, and it is no objection to that view that the separation is not more emphatically pointed out by our Lord. These verses distinctly refer to His last coming to judgment. Luk 21:27 is too grand and too distinctly cast in the mould of the other predictions of that coming to be interpreted of His ideal coming in the judgments on the city.
The ‘signs in sun and moon and stars’ may refer in accordance with a familiar symbolism, to the overthrow of royalties and dominions; the sea roaring may, in like manner, symbolise agitations among the people; but the ‘cloud’ and the ‘power and great glory’ with which the Son of man comes, can mean nothing else than what they mean in other prophetic passages; namely, His visible appearance, invested with the shekinah light, and wielding divine authority before the gaze of a world.
The city’s fall, then, was the initial stage of a process, the duration of which is undefined here, but implied to be considerable, and of which the closing stage is the personal coming of Jesus. The same conclusion is supported by Luk 21:28, which treats that fall as the beginning of the fulfilment of the prophecy.
III. That verse forms a transition to the section containing the illustrative parable and the reiteration of the assurance that Christ’s words would certainly be fulfilled.
The disciples might naturally quake at the prospect, and wonder how they could face the reality. Jesus gives them strong words of cheer, which apply to all dreaded contingencies and to all social convulsions. What is a messenger of destruction to Christless men and institutions is a harbinger of full ‘redemption’ to His servants. Earthquakes but open their prison doors and loose their bands, they should not shake their hearts.
Historically the fall of Jerusalem was a powerful factor in the deliverance of the Church from Jewish swaddling-bands which hampered its growing limbs. For all Christians the destruction of what can perish brings fuller vision and possession of what cannot be shaken. To Christ’s friends, all things work for good. So the parable which at first sight seems strangely incongruous becomes blessedly significant and fitting. The gladsome blossoming of the trees, the herald of the glories of summer, is a strange emblem of such a tragedy, and summer itself is a still stranger one of that solemn last judgment. But the might of humble trust in Him who comes to judge makes His coming summer-like in the light and warmth with which it floods the soul, and the rich fruitage which it produces there.
Observe, too, that the parable confirms the idea of a process having stages, for the lesson of the blossoming fig-tree is not that summer has come, but that it is nigh.
The solemn assurance in Luk 21:32, made more weighty by the ‘Verily I say,’ seems at first sight to bring the final judgment within the lifetime of the generation of the hearers. But it is noteworthy that the expression ‘till all things are fulfilled’ is almost verbally identical with that in Luk 21:22, which refers only to the destruction of Jerusalem, and is therefore most naturally interpreted as having the same restricted application here. The difference between the two phrases is significant, since in the former the certainty of fulfilment is deduced from the fact of ‘the things’ being written-that is, they must be accomplished because they have been foretold in Scripture,-whereas in the latter Christ rests the certainty of fulfilment on His own word. That majestic assurance in Luk 21:33 comes well from His lips, and makes claim that His word shall outlast the whole present material order, and be fulfilled in every detail. Think of a mere man saying that!
IV. Exhortations corresponding to the predictions follow.
Christ’s revelation of the future was neither meant to gratify idle curiosity nor to supply a timetable in advance, but to minister encouragement and to lead to watchfulness. Whether ‘that day’ {Luk 21:34} is understood of the fall of Jerusalem or of the final coming of the Lord, it will come ‘as a snare’ upon men who are absorbed with the earth which they inhabit. They will be captured by it, as a covey of birds in a field busily picking up grain, are netted by one sudden fling of the fowler’s net. A wary eye would have saved them.
The exhortation is as applicable to us, for, whatever are our views about unfulfilled prophecy, death comes to us all at a time which we know not, as the Book of Ecclesiastes, using the same figure, says; ‘Man knoweth not his time . . . as the birds that are caught in the snare.’ Hearts must be kept above the grosser satisfactions of sense and the less gross cares of life, being neither stupefied with gorging earth’s good, nor preoccupied with its gnawing anxieties, both of which are destructive of the clear realisation of the certain future. We are to preserve an attitude of wakefulness and of expectancy, and, as the sure way to it, and to clearing our hearts of perishable delights and shortsighted, self-consuming cares, we are to keep them in a continual posture of supplication. If our study of unfulfilled prophecy does that for us, it will have done what Jesus means it to do; if it does not it matters little what theories about its chronology we may adopt.
The two stages which we have tried to point out in this passage are clearly marked at the close, where escaping ‘all these things that shall come to pass’ and standing ‘before the Son of man’ are distinguished. True, both stages were to be included in the experience of Christ’s hearers, but they are none the less separate stages.
Luke’s version of this great discourse gives less prominence to the final coming than does Matthew’s, and does not blend the two stages so inextricably together; but it gives no hint of the duration of the ‘times of the Gentiles,’ and might well leave the impression that these were brief. Now in this close setting together of a nearer and a much more remote future, with little prominence given to the interval between, our Lord is but bringing His prophecy into line with the constant manner of the older prophets. They and He paint the future in perspective, and the distance, seen behind the foreground, seems nearer than it really is. The spectator does not know how many weary miles have to be traversed before the distant blue hills are to be reached, nor what deep gorges lie between.
Such bringing together of events far apart in time of fulfilment rests in part on the fact that there have been many ‘days of the Lord,’ many ‘comings of Christ,’ each of which is a result on a small scale of the same retributive action of the Judge of all, as shall be manifested on the largest scale in the last and greatest day of the Lord. Therefore the true use of all these predictions is that which Christ enforces here; namely, that they should lead us to prayerful watchfulness and to living above earth, its goods and cares.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On v25 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXIV. The Second…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXIV. The Second Coming of Christ].
CXIV. THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. aMATT. XXIV. 29-51; bMARK XIII. 24-37; cLUKE XXI. 25-36.
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b24 But in those days, aimmediately after the bthat atribulation of those days. [Since the coming of Christ did not follow close upon the destruction of Jerusalem, the word "immediately" used by Matthew is somewhat puzzling. There are, however, three ways in which it may be explained: 1. That Jesus reckons the time after his own divine, and not after our human, fashion. Viewing the word in this light, the passage at 2Pe_3:4-9 may almost be regarded as an inspired comment with reference to this passage. 2. The terrible judgment upon Jerusalem and the corresponding terror of the judgment day have between them no intervening season of judgment in any way worthy to be compared to either of them. The two periods, therefore, stand with regard to each other in immediate connection. 3. The tribulation which came upon the Jewish people merely began with the destruction of Jerusalem, other woes followed at once, and, coming down through all the centuries of wandering and dispersion, they were yet unfulfilled and incomplete. See Deu_28:58-68] the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall { bshall be falling from heaven, aand the powers of [629] { bthat are in the heavens shall be shaken. [The language is that of the ancient prophets. See Amo_8:9, Joe_2:30, Joe_2:31, Eze_32:7, Eze_32:8. Compare also Rev_6:12-14. Some regard the language as metaphorical, indicating the eclipse of nations and the downfall of rulers, but there are many similar passages of Scripture which constrain us to regard the language here as literal rather than figurative. See 2Pe_3:10, Heb_1:12, Rev_20:11.] c25 And there shall be signs in sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows [We can conceive of nothing which would produce greater mental distress or perplexity than changes in the position or condition of the heavenly bodies. Such changes will be followed by corresponding commotions on our planet, as, for instance, great tidal waves and vast agitation in the ocean]; 26 men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. a30 and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven [The coming and the sign are the same thing. The word "sign" is used in connection with the coming of Christ to indicate that the nature of the coming (that is, the manner of its manifestations) will be fully commensurate with the importance of the event. His first coming in the manger was not so]: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn [The coming will occasion universal mourning in the unprepared, and apparently the majority of people will be in that condition. The term "all" is not, however, to be construed as including all individuals-- 1Th_4:15-17], b26 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in aon the clouds cin a cloud aof heaven bwith great power aand great glory. b27 And then shall he send forth the ahis angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one of heaven to the other. bfrom the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. [To the Jews the trumpet would naturally be [630] associated with the assembling of the people, for silver trumpets were used to call Israel together ( Num_10:1-4, Exo_19:13, Exo_19:16, Exo_19:19, Psa_81:3-5). We are not told why angels are used on this occasion, but they appear to be employed in all the great operations of Providence ( Mat_13:41). The phrases "four winds," etc., indicate that the angelic search shall extend over the entire globe. The language is that which was then used when one desired to indicate the whole earth. It is based upon the idea which then prevailed that the earth is flat, and that it extends outward in one vast plain until it meets and is circumscribed by the overarching heavens.] c28 But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh. [The preliminary death-throes of this present physical universe, which will strike terror to the souls of those who have limited themselves to material hopes, will be to the Christian a reassuring sign, since he looks for a new heaven and a new earth.] 29 And he spake to them a parable: a32 Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh; cBehold the fig tree, and all the trees: 30 when they now shoot forth, ye see it and know of your own selves that the summer is now nigh. 31 Even so ye also, when ye see aall cthese things coming to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh. aknow ye that he is nigh, even at the doors. [As the change of the season in the natural world has its preliminary signs, so the change of conditions in the spiritual realm has its premonitory symptoms. When men see the symptoms which Jesus has described, they will recognize that changes are coming as to the nature of which they can only guess. But the Christian is informed that these changes indicate the coming of the Son of God--a change from a worse to a better season.] 34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, buntil all things be accomplished. [Commentators differ widely as to the import of these words. Godet is so perplexed by them that he thinks [631] they refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, and have been misplaced by the Evangelist. Cook straddles the difficulty by giving a dual significance to all that our Lord has said concerning his coming, so that our Lord in one narrative speaks figuratively of a coming in the power of his kingdom before, during, and right after the destruction of Jerusalem, and literally of his final coming at the end of the world. But this perplexing expression under this theory refers exclusively to the figurative and not to the literal sense of the passage. The simplest solution of the matter is to take the word "generation" to mean the Jewish family or race--and the word does mean race or family-- Luk_16:8. Thus interpreted, the passage becomes a prophecy that the Jewish people shall be preserved as such until the coming of Christ. The marvelous and almost miraculous preservation of the racial individuality of the Jews, though dispersed among all nations, might well become the subject of prophecy, especially when Jesus had just spoken of an event which threatened their very extermination.] 31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. [The disciples had regarded the temple as so permanent that they found it hard to conceive that Christ's words could be fulfilled with regard to it; but he assures them that his predictions and prophecies are the stable and imperishable things. That even the more permanent structure of the heavens is not so abiding as his utterances.] a36 But of that day and bor that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in aof heaven, neither the Son, bbut the Father. aonly. [These words indicate the profound secrecy in which God has concealed the hour of judgment. It is concealed from all people, that each generation may live in expectation of its fulfillment, and we are to watch for the signs, though we may not fully know the times. They also indicate that either by reason of his assumption of our human nature, or by a voluntary act on his part, the knowledge of Jesus became in some respects circumscribed. They also suggest that it is not only idle, but also presumptuous, for men to strive to find out by mathematical calculation and expositions of [632] prophecy that which the Son of God did not know.] 37 And as i were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man. 38 For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, 39 and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. [See Psa_1:5, Mal_3:2.] b33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. 34 It is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch. [Under the figure of the householder and the thief, Jesus appealed to the sense of danger. Under the figure of the servant he appealed to the sense of duty, and under this figure of the porter he appealed to the sense of loyalty. The porter's desire to honor his lord was to make him so vigilant that he would open the door at once upon his lord's appearing.] 35 Watch therefore: for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning [The night was then divided into four watches. See p. 322. Jesus may here refer either to the duration of the world or to the life of the individual. He divides either period into four sections, in accordance with the night watches which were so fully associated with watchfulness]; 36; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. 37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. [This warning message was not for the apostles alone, but for all disciples.]
[FFG 629-634]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv20, 24 Luk 21:20; Luk 21:24 are not included in the…
when
Luk 21:20; Luk 21:24 are not included in the report of the Olivet discourse as given by Matthew and Mark. Two sieges of Jerusalem are in view in that discourse. Luk 21:20-24 refers to the siege by Titus, A.D. 70, when the city was taken, and Luk 21:24 literally fulfilled. But that siege and its horrors but adumbrate the final siege at the end of this age, in which the "great tribulation" culminates. At that time the city will be taken, but delivered by the glorious appearing of the Lord Rev 19:11-21. The references in; Mat 24:15-28,; Mar 13:14-26 are to the final tribulation siege; Luk 21:20-24 to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. In Luke the sign is the compassing of Jerusalem by armies Luk 21:20 in; Mat 24:15; Mar 13:14 the sign is the abomination in the holy place. 2Th 2:4.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv20, 25 A special prophecy concerning Jerusalem:
A special prophecy concerning Jerusalem:
v. 20. And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
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v. 21. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
v. 22. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
v. 23. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! For there shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.
v. 24. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Here is valuable advice for the Christians of Judea at the time of the great catastrophe, which they should heed and follow to the letter. The armies of the Romans would surround the city, coming upon her from all sides. And. this should be the final point of time for the believers to escape out of the city, since this would be at least one of the manifestations of the abomination of desolation. See Mat 24:15-21; Mar 13:14-19. The fact of the presence of the armies in the act of surrounding the city would be the last definite sign of her desolation and destruction, including the ruin of the Temple. At that time those that were in Judea, the believers that lived in this country, should flee to the mountains, for flight was the only means of their deliverance. In the hiding-places of the mountains, in the insignificant villages that were hidden away far from the beaten paths, there would be an opportunity for saving their lives. For those that were in the city of Jerusalem precipitate flight would also be a necessity; for they should not depend upon the strength of its walls or defenses. Those people also that lived in the suburban district or within easy reach of the capital should not be tempted to take refuge within the city to escape the invaders. For such precautions would prove utterly useless in this emergency. For the days that the Lord refers to are the days of vengeance of the Judge of the world. The many warnings that had been sounded by the prophets of old, the repeated admonitions by the preachers of righteousness, had not been heeded, and so the vial of the wrath of God would be poured out in full measure. The stamp of divine retribution was impressed upon the fate of Jerusalem and the Temple, even for heathen eyes. It was a case of the mill’s grinding slowly, but with such terrible thoroughness that not one guilty one escaped. But alas for those that are about to become or have just become mothers! Bitterly the Lord laments their fate, for their condition at that time will not provoke compassion, neither on the part of their friends that might help them to escape, nor on that of the enemies, for they would destroy without mercy. Distress in great measure would be upon the whole land, since everything suffers under the ravages of an invasion; but the wrath of God would strike the people without mercy. His patience was exhausted, and the full bitterness of His just sentence would be carried out upon a foolish and gainsaying generation. The Lord tells exactly how the wrath of God would be manifested. Some of them would fall by the edge, literally, by the mouth of the sword, which would pounce upon them to devour them. Others would be led into captivity among all nations, for a reproach and shame to them until the end of time. According to the account of Josephus, over a million Jews were slaughtered during the siege of Jerusalem and after its fall, and 97,000 were dragged into the provinces as prisoners, mainly into Egypt and Italy. It was a judgment of God without parallel in the history of the world. And Jerusalem, the glory of Israel, was occupied by Gentiles at that time, and has been trodden under foot by strangers to this day. And this will remain so until the times of the Gentiles have been fulfilled, until the full number of the elect from the great mass of the heathen has been gained, until the end of time. The Zionist movement of our days is not taken seriously even by the Jews themselves. The Word of God must stand true. Note: The destruction of Jerusalem by the Gentiles is a type of the attempted destruction of the Church of God by the Antichrist. The Antichrist, the Roman Catholic Pope, has been revealed. He has rendered desolate the temple of God, the Church of Christ, by abrogating true worship, by establishing various kinds of idolatry, by filling the Church with many abominations and offenses, and by shedding the blood of thousands of confessors of Christ. But he has now been set forth in his true colors; the Church has been purged of his errors by the work of the great Reformer, Martin Luther.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv20, 23, 25 Jerusalem surrounded by armies
Jerusalem surrounded by armies
This can be stated in active form. AT: "armies surrounding Jerusalem" (See: Active or Passive)
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that its destruction is near
"that it will soon be destroyed" or "that they will soon destroy it"
flee
run away from danger
in the country
This refers to the rural areas outside Jerusalem, and not to the nation. AT: "outside the city"
enter the city
"enter Jerusalem"
these are days of vengeance
"these are days of punishment" or "this will be the time when God will punish this city"
all the things that are written
This can be stated in active form. AT: "all the things that the prophets wrote in the scriptures long ago" (See: Active or Passive)
will be fulfilled
This can be stated in active form. AT: "will happen" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
Jerusalem
Judea
avenge
written
fulfill
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv20, 21, 22, 24, 25 21:20-24 Jesus was describing the siege and destruction of…
21:20-24 Jesus was describing the siege and destruction of Jerusalem that would take place in AD 70.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.