As he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings!”
Parallel Translations
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As he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings!”
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And as he went out of the temple one of his disciples sayde vnto him: Master se what stones and what byldynges are here.
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And as he went out of the Temple, one of his disciples said vnto him, Master, see what maner stones, and what maner buildings are here.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Mark 13:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Matthew 24:1-51 Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on his way. His disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all of these things, don’t you? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down.” As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many astray. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren’t troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are the beginning of birth pains. Then they will deliver you up to oppression, and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name’s sake. Then many will stumble, and will deliver up one another, and will hate one another. Many false prophets will arise, and will lead many astray. Because iniquity will be multiplied, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved. This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. “When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in his house. Let him who is in the field not return back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days! Pray that your flight will not be in the winter, nor on a Sabbath, for then there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be. Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened. “Then if any man tells you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or, ‘There,’ don’t believe it. For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones. “Behold, I have told you beforehand. If therefore they tell you, ‘Behold, he is in the wilderness,’ don’t go out; or ‘Behold, he is in the inner rooms,’ don’t believe it. For as the lightning flashes from the east, and is seen even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, that is where the vultures gather together. 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 sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. “Now from the fig tree learn this parable. When its branch has now become tender, and produces its leaves, you know that the summer is near. Even so you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away, until all these things are accomplished. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. “As the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 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 ship, and they didn’t know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and one will be left. Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come. “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes. Most certainly I tell you that he will set him over all that he has. But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards, the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t expect it, and in an hour when he doesn’t know it, and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.
- Ezekiel 11:22-23 Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them. The glory of the God of Israel was over them above. Yahweh’s glory went up from the middle of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city.
- Ezekiel 7:20-22 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein. Therefore I have made it to them as an unclean thing. I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a plunder; and they will profane it. I will also turn my face from them, and they will profane my secret place. Robbers will enter into it, and profane it.
- Ezekiel 8:6 He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they do? Even the great abominations that the house of Israel commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you will again see yet other great abominations.”
- Ezekiel 10:4 Yahweh’s glory mounted up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of Yahweh’s glory.
- Ezekiel 10:19 The cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight when they went out, with the wheels beside them. Then they stood at the door of the east gate of Yahweh’s house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
- Malachi 3:1-2 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!” says Yahweh of Armies. “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap;
- Luke 21:5-36 As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said, “As for these things which you see, the days will come, in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.” They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?” He said, “Watch out that you don’t get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is at hand.’ Therefore don’t follow them. When you hear of wars and disturbances, don’t be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won’t come immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake. It will turn out as a testimony for you. Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict. You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death. You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake. And not a hair of your head will perish. “By your endurance you will win your lives. “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.” He told them a parable. “See the fig tree and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see it and know by your own selves that the summer is already near. Even so you also, when you see these things happening, know that God’s Kingdom is near. Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things are accomplished. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. “So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly. For it will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth. Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (27 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The destruction of the Temple, city, and whole nation…
The destruction of the Temple, city, and whole nation is aforetold, and the troubles of the Church, but yet there are annexed many comforts, and last of all, the end of the world is described.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1 And as he went out of the temple,…
1 And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!
Ver. 1. What manner of stones, &c.] Huge stones, and so cunningly cemented, as it were inoculated, the one into the other, that a man would have thought, and sworn almost, that they had been all but one entire stone. {a} Josephus writeth of these stones, that they were fifteen cubits long, twelve high, and eight broad.
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{a} Quasi tota moles ex unico ingenti lapide in tantam magnitudinem consurgeret.
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 The perishing nature of the splendid and gay things…
The perishing nature of the splendid and gay things of this world, are fitter objects for the meditation of such as are Christ’s disciples, than the splendour and magnificence of them, especially when they are the privileges of a sinful people. Sin will undermine and blow up the most famous structures. It is a good thing for Christians not to set their hearts upon them. See Poole on "Mat 24:1-2".
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 Our blessed Saviour being now ready to depart from…
Our blessed Saviour being now ready to depart from the temple; never more, after this, entering into it; and his disciples shewing him with wonder and admiration the magnificent structures and buildings thereof, apprehending that in regard to its invincible strength it could not be destroyed, or that at least, in regard to its incredible magnificence, it was a great pity it should be destroyed; they say to Christ, Master, Behold what buildings are here; Not considering how sin would undermine and blow up the most famous structures. Sin brings cities and kingdoms, as well as particular persons, to their end; not one stone of that magnificent structure, says Christ, shall remain unpulled down: which threatening was exactly fulfilled after Christ’s death, when Titus, the Roman emperor, destroyed the city, burnt the temple, and Turnus Rufus, the general of his army, ploughed up the very foundation on which the temple stood: thus was the threatening of God fulfilled, Zion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become an heap Jer 26:18.
Learn hence, 1. That sin has laid the foundation of ruin in the most flourishing cities and kingdoms. That the threatenings of God are to be feared, and shall be fulfilled, whatever appearing improbabilities there may be to the contrary. It is neither the temple’s strength nor beauty that can oppose or withstand God’s power.
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 We may here see,
We may here see,
I. How apt many of Christ's own disciples are to idolize things that look great, and have been long looked upon as sacred. They had heard Christ complain of those who had made the temple a den of thieves; and yet, when he quitted it, for the wickedness that remained in it, they court him to be as much in love as they were with the stately structure and adorning of it. One of them said to him, "Look, Master, what manner of stones, and what buildings are here, Mar 13:1. We never saw the like in Galilee; O do not leave this fine place."
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II. How little Christ values external pomp, where there is not real purity; "Seest thou these great buildings" (saith Christ), "and admirest thou them? I tell thee, the time is at hand when there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down," Mar 13:2. And the sumptuousness of the fabric shall be no security to it, no nor move any compassion in the Lord Jesus towards it. He looks with pity upon the ruin of precious souls, and weeps over them, for on them he has put great value; but we do not find him look with any pity upon the ruin of a magnificent house, when he is driven out of it by sin, for that is of small value with him. With what little concern doth he say, Not one stone shall be left on another! Much of the strength of the temple lay in the largeness of the stones, and if these be thrown down, no footstep, no remembrance, of it will remain. While any part remained standing, there might be some hopes of the repair of it; but what hope is there, when not one stone is left upon another?
III. How natural it is to us to desire to know things to come, and the times of them; more inquisitive we are apt to be about that than about our duty. His disciples knew not how to digest this doctrine of the ruin of the temple, which they thought must be their Master's royal palace, and in which they expected their preferment, and to have the posts of honour; and therefore they were in pain till they got him alone, and got more out of him concerning this matter. As he was returning to Bethany therefore, he sat upon the mount of Olives, over against the temple, where he had a full view of it; and there four of them agreed to ask him privately, what he meant by the destroying of the temple, which they understood no more than they did the predictions of his own death, so inconsistent was it with their scheme. Probably, though these four proposed the question, yet Christ's discourse, in answer to it, was in the hearing of the rest of the disciples, yet privately, that is, apart from the multitude. Their enquiry is, When shall these things be? They will not question, at least not seem to question, whether they shall be or no (for their Master has said that they shall), but are willing to hope it is a great way off. Yet they ask not precisely the day and year (therein they were modest), but say, "Tell us what shall be the sign, when all these things shall be fulfilled? What presages shall there be of them, and how may we prognosticate their approach?"
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Matt. xxiv, 1; Luke xxi, 5.
Matt. xxiv, 1; Luke xxi, 5.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple, 1, 2.
CHAPTER XIII.
Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple, 1, 2.
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His disciples inquire when this shall be, and what previous
sign there shall be of this calamity, 3, 4;
which questions he answers very solemnly and minutely, 5-27;
illustrates the whole by a parable, 28, 29;
asserts the absolute certainty of the events, 30, 31;
shows that the precise minute cannot be known by man, 32;
and inculcates the necessity of watchfulness and prayer, 33-37.
NOTES ON MARK XIII.
Verse 1. See what manner of stones] Josephus says, ANT. b. xv. chap. 11: "That these stones were white and strong, FIFTY feet long, TWENTY-FOUR broad, and SIXTEEN in thickness." If this account can be relied on, well might the disciples be struck with wonder at such a superb edifice, and formed by such immense stones! The principal contents of this chapter are largely explained in the notes on Matt. 24:, and to these the reader is requested to refer.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Mar 13:1-2. See what manner of stones, &c. —…
Mar 13:1-2. See what manner of stones, &c. — Our Lord, in the conclusion of his lamentation over Jerusalem, (Mat 23:38-39,) had declared that the temple should never be favoured with his presence any more; a declaration which, doubtless, appeared very strange to the disciples, and affected them much. For which reason they stopped him as he was going away, and desired him to see what a fine, sumptuous building the temple was: insinuating, probably, that they were surprised to hear him talk of leaving it desolate, for that so rich and glorious a fabric ought not to be deserted rashly. Jesus said, There shall not be left one stone upon another — This superb building, which you behold, adorned with huge stones of great beauty, shall be razed to the very foundation. It seemed exceedingly improbable that any thing like this should happen in that age, considering the peace of the Jews with the Romans, and the strength of their citadel, which forced Titus himself to acknowledge that it was the singular hand of God which compelled them to relinquish fortifications which no human power could have conquered. Bishop Chandler justly observes, “That no impostor would have foretold an event so unlikely and so disagreeable.” — Defence of Christianity, pp. 472, 473. Add to this, that it was not usual with the Romans to destroy either the cities or the temples of the countries they conquered. And with regard to this temple, Josephus tells us, (Bell., Mar 7:9,) that Titus having held a council of his generals, who were for burning the temple, declared that he would by all means save that edifice as an ornament to the empire. But God had determined and declared that it should be destroyed. Accordingly, the soldiers burned it without paying any regard to Titus’s orders. See notes on Mat 24:42.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain What manner of stones - The stones here referred…
What manner of stones - The stones here referred to were those used in the building of the temple, and the walls on the sides of Mount Moriah, on which the temple stood. The temple was constructed of white marble, and the blocks were of a prodigious size. Josephus says that these stones were, some of them, 50 feet long, 24 feet broad, and 16 feet in thickness.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain Mark Chapter 13
Mark Chapter 13
In chapter 13 the Lord takes up much more the service of the apostles in the circumstances that would surround them, than the development of the dispensations and the ways of God with respect to the kingdom-a point of view more presented in Matthew, who treats of this subject.
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It will be observed, that the disciples’ question takes only a general view of the subject which pre-occupied them. They ask when the judgment upon the temple and all these things shall be fulfilled. And from Mar 13:9-13, although some circumstances found in Mat 24:1-51 are included, the passage relates even more to that which is said in Mat 10:1-42. It speaks of the service which the disciples would accomplish in the midst of Israel, and in testimony against persecuting authorities, the gospel being preached in all nations before the end came. They were, as preachers, to fill the place which Jesus had occupied among the people, only that the testimony was to extend much farther. It would be in the face of all possible suffering and most trying persecutions.
But there would be a moment when this service should end. The well-known sign of the abomination that maketh desolate would point it out. They were then to flee. These would be the days of unparalleled distress, and of signs and wonders, which, if it were possible, would deceive the very elect. But they were forewarned. Everything should be shaken after that time, and the Son of man should come. Power should take the place of testimony, and the Son of man should gather together His elect (of Israel) from all parts of the earth.
It appears to me that in this Gospel, more than in any other, the Lord brings together the judgment on Jerusalem then at hand, and that which is yet to come, carrying the mind on to the latter, because He is here more occupied with the conduct of His disciples during those events. Israel, the whole system into which the Lord had come, was to be set aside provisionally, in order to bring in the assembly and the kingdom in its heavenly character, and afterwards the millennium-that is, the assembly in its glory and the kingdom established in power-when the legal system and Israel under the first covenant should be finally set aside. At these two periods the general position of the disciples would be the same; but the events of the latter period would be definitive and important, and the Lord speaks especially of them. Nevertheless that which was the most imminent, and which, for the present, set aside Israel and the testimony, required that a warning should be addressed to the disciples on account of their immediate danger; and they receive it accordingly.
The effort of the Jews to re-establish their system at the end, in despite of God, will but lead to open apostasy and definitive judgment. This will be the time of unequalled affliction, of which the Lord speaks. But from the time of the first destruction of Jerusalem by Titus until the coming of the Lord, the Jews are considered as set aside and under this judgment, in what degree soever it may have been accomplished.
The disciples are commanded to watch, for they know not the hour. It is the conduct of the disciples in this respect which is here especially before the eyes of the Lord. It is of this great day, and the hour of its arrival, that the angels and even the Son, as Prophet, know not. For Jesus must sit at the right hand of God until His enemies are made His footstool, and the time of His rising up is not revealed. The Father has kept it, says Jesus, in His own power. See Act 3:1-26, where Peter proposes to the Jews the Lord’s return. They rejected his testimony; and now they wait for the full accomplishment of all that has been spoken. Meantime the servants are left to serve during the Master’s absence. He commanded the porter in particular to watch. They knew not at what hour the Master would come. This applies to the disciples in their connection with Israel, but at the same time it is a general principle. The Lord addresses it to all.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 9. Jesus’ Departure from the Temple. His Retirement to…
9. Jesus’ Departure from the Temple. His Retirement to the Mount of Olives; and His Address concerning the Last Things. Mar_13:1-37
(Parallels: Matthew 24, 25; Luk_21:5-38; Revelation)
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1 And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! 2And Jesus answering,1 said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. 3And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, over against the temple, Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, asked him privately, 4Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled? 5And Jesus answering them, began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you: 6For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 7And when ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. 8For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles:2 these are the beginnings of sorrows. 9But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them. 10And the Gospel must first be published among all nations. 11But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate;3 but whatsoever shall be given you12 in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. Now, the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. 13And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet,4 standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains: 15And let him that is on the house-top not go down into the house,5 neither enter therein, to take anything out of his house: 16And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment. 17But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! 18, 19 And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter. For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation, which God created, unto this time, neither shall be. 20And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened21 the days. And then, if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not: 22For false Christs6 and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. 23But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things. 24But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light. 25And the stars of heaven shall fall,7 and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. 26And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds, with great power and glory. 27And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. 28Now learn a parable of the fig-tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know8 that29 [the] summer is near: So ye, in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. 30Verily I say unto you, That this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. 31Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. 32But of that day, and that hour, knoweth no man, 33 no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray:9 for ye know not when the time Isaiah 34 For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work; and commanded the porter to watch. 35Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the36 cock-crowing, or in the morning: Lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. 37And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
See Matthew.—In our Gospel, the time and situation in which Christ delivered His great eschatological address present themselves, as is the case with Matthew. Upon Tuesday evening, immediately after His departure from the temple, the first introductory words were exchanged between Jesus and His disciples. Jesus declared Jerusalem’s destruction. Thereupon He seats Himself in the circle of His most trusted followers upon the Mount of Olives, and reveals the eschatological import of Jerusalem’s being destroyed. Hence it is exceedingly probable that this revelation by Jesus is a night-speech, or rather midnight address, succeeding the night-conversation which He had held upon His evening walk to Bethany, on the summit of Olivet, sitting opposite to the temple.
The three chief divisions of the address are, by all the Evangelists, distinctly enough marked: 1. The universal eschatological world-course to the end; 2. the destruction of Jerusalem, with its succeeding days of trouble and contest, or the succeeding period of the Church of the Cross (the Christian Church), which period may be regarded also as a distinct division; 3. the indication and commencement of the world-end. The beginning of the first part is marked by Jesus’ warning against being seduced by the pseudo-Christs (Mark, Mar_13:5); the end by the promise, “He who endureth,” etc. (Mar_13:13). The beginning of the second part is indicated in Mark and Matthew by the reference to the abomination of desolation; in Luke by the investing of the city (Luk_21:20): the close is here shown by the words, “For in those days shall be,” etc. (Mark, Mar_13:19); in Luke, Mar_13:23, the statement is—a time of wrath upon Israel. The interval between the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, distinguished as the period of mitigated judgment, is brought forward in the words, “Except the Lord had shortened those days” (Mark, Mar_13:20): the close, according to Mark, is given in the exclamation, “Behold, I have foretold you all things;” according to Matthew, in the words, “Where the body is,” etc. The chief point in this statement regarding the interval, in Mark and Matthew, is the warning against the false Christs; in Luke, the sufferings of the Jews, the treading under foot of Jerusalem, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. The beginning of the section upon the world-end is brought most prominently forward by Mark—“In those days” (Mar_13:24); Matthew similarly; Luke, with a short καὶ ἔσται, a Future, which is connected with the Preterite of the fulfilment of the times of the Gentiles. All three Evangelists mark the end of this period as the deliverance of the faithful. The Son of Man, according to Matthew and Mark, appears and sends forth His angels to gather in His chosen. Luke makes this known in the words, Lift up your heads, for your salvation draweth nigh. To this succeeds the practical application of the speech in the parable of the fig-tree. The eschatological discourse of Mark’s Gospel agrees most with Matthew; yet it is on the whole shorter, in particular points more circumstantial, and picturesque. Particularly strong is the call in Mark to foresight, to attention, and watchfulness, Mar_13:5; Mar_13:9; Mar_13:23; Mar_13:33; Mar_13:35; Mar_13:37. The comparative characterization, however, will be most appropriately added to the consideration of the various sections. For the literature upon this portion, see Matthew. Worthy of special notice is Ebrard’s tract: Adversus erroneam nonnullorum opinionem, qua Christi discipuli existimasse perhibentur, fore, ut universale judicium ipsorum œtate superveniret, Erlangen, 1842.
Footnotes:
[1]Mar_13:2.—’Αποκριθείς is wanting in B., L., Versions, Tischendorf, Meyer; found in A., K., Lachmann, Fritzsche; ὦδε before λιθος supported by B., D.; received by Griesbach, Lachmann; omitted in A. and Tischendorf.]
[2]Mar_13:8.—Lachmann and Tischendorf, on the authority of B., D., L., have omitted καὶ ταραχαί. Meyer would retain the words, and says, they have been left out by mistake; the scribe’s eye running forward to the αρχαί following.
[3]Mar_13:11.—Μηδέ μελετᾶτε, omitted by B., D., L., Tischendorf; Meyer would retain them.
[4]Mar_13:14.—Τὸ ῥηθὲν ὑπὸ Δανιὴλ τοῦ προφήτου, wanting in B., D., L., Coptic, &c. It is easy to see how they might be interpolated from Matthew; but their omission would be difficult to explain.
[5][Mar_13:15.—B., L. omit εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν. Lachmann brackets it.]
[6]Mar_13:22.—Tischendorf omits, improperly, ψευδόχριστοι καί. So D.
[7]Mar_13:25.—A., B., C., &c., read, ἔσονται ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ πίπτοντες. Lachmann, Tischendorf.
[8]Mar_13:28.—A., B., D., L., Δ.: γινώσκεται.
[9]Mar_13:33.—B., D. omit καί προσεύχεσθε; Lachmann and Tischendorf follow.
A. The Occasion. Mar_13:1-4
(Parallels: Mat_14:1-3; Luk_21:5-7)
Mark brings before us a single speaker, who pointed out to the Lord the splendor of the temple; while Luke speaks of several, Matthew of the disciples in general. One might imagine it was Andrew who furnished in this manner the occasion, entering as he did this time into the circle of the intimate few. If it were not he, then it was most probably Peter. What the disciples bring before the Lord—interceding, so to speak, for the temple—is, according to Matthew, the building itself (the structure being perhaps, in some part, in process of reconstruction); according to Luke, the beautiful stones and the gifts; according to Mark, the greatness of the stones and structures. Braune: According to Josephus, the stones were, in part, twenty-five ells long, twelve broad, eight high. The thought that such a building should be destroyed, was too sad for them; and the precious stones alluded to by Luke, the consecration-presents of piety, upon the walls and in the courts, testified to a continued respect for the temple. The reply of the Lord is here very lively, Dost thou see these buildings? The seat upon the Mount of Olives is marked as a position over against the temple. Of the circle of the disciples who interrogate the Lord, we learn this only, that they are His trusted friends, and that Andrew was on this occasion present, in addition to Peter, James, and John. The two questions, regarding the destruction of Jerusalem, and the sign of the end of the world, given by Matthew, are likewise given by Mark, yet in a different form.
Mar_13:2. One stone upon the other—Meyer: “There would not be one stone left upon another, which should escape, in the further prosecution of the work of destruction, being torn down.” But this is the depicting of a regular breaking down of a house, in which the chief thing is to separate one stone from another, down to the very last. Here, on the contrary, we have the picture of a violent destruction, in which many stones, as all know, remain lying upon one another, yet is each torn from his place and broken. In other words, καταλύεσθαι refers not merely to the mass of the temple, but also to the single stones: the temple should be so thoroughly destroyed, that each stone should be destroyed. Of course this strong expression is not to be pressed literally.
Mar_13:3. Over against the temple.—The summit of Olivet made a vis-à-vis to the temple’s pinnacle. See books of travel.—And Andrew.—See Matthew.
Mar_13:4. When shall these things be, and what, etc.—The subject of the two distinct questions is here indicated in a twofold manner: ταῦτα and ταῦτα πάντα; ἔσται and μέλλῃ συντελεῖσθαι.—When all these.—Not once more the destruction of Jerusalem (Meyer). By Grotius and Bengel, πάντα ταῦτα is referred to the whole world. We understand it of all things which formed part of the Jewish regime, and which, according to the view of the disciples, were connected with the destruction of Jerusalem.
B. The World’s Course to the World’s End in general. The Last Things of the Christian, or the Christian Signature of the End of the World.
Mar_13:5-13.
(Parallels: Mat_14:4-14; Luk_21:8-19.)
Mark begins again with an ἤρξατο λέγειν. The warning against the pseudo-Christs is common to all the Synoptics. Luke alone has the addition, that the time draws near: the indication of the chiliastic (millenarian) element. The representation of the wars of the nations is in Mark the shortest. The signs of the world’s development are given by Luke most complete: earthquakes, famines, pestilences, terrors, and signs in the heavens. Mark, with Matthew, omits the terrific things and signs in heaven, also the pestilences, and has instead ταραχαί, pointing out (from the Roman stand-point) chiefly the political condition of the world. After Mark has with Matthew denoted this as the beginning of sorrows, we have a second, Take heed unto yourselves, introduced. And now he depicts more fully than Matthew the persecutions of the Christians, giving, as does Luke, a view of these which had been already given by Matthew in the instructions to the Apostles, Mar_10:17-18. These were very weighty words for the Roman Christians, at a time when the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, in Rome, was about to take place. Then, as early as the 10th verse, he gives the concluding statement of Matthew regarding the preaching of the Gospel in all the world; and appends the rules of conduct for the persecuted, which we find in Mat_10:19. To this succeeds the presaging of fraternal hatred, and the detestation of the Christians, occurring Mat_10:21. None the less does the concluding portion of that statement form here the conclusion: He who endureth, etc. Matthew has this final word once again in this passage; and this circumstance, as well as the connection between Mark and Luke, speaks for Mark’s accuracy, and proves that all the various portions recorded by him have their proper place in this address. The words, Mat_24:10-12, are omitted by Mark, probably because they are implied in the statements already made.
Mar_13:5. Take heed lest, etc.; for many shall come.—This warning against pseudo-Christs, pseudo-Christianities, false prophets, and false prophecies, being placed at the head, denotes that it is an essential point of view from which to contemplate Christian eschatology.
Mar_13:7. But the end shall not be yet.—Meyer: “The end of the calamities, not of the world.” But the end of the calamities is really the end of the world.
Mar_13:8. Troubles (terrifying confusions), ταραχαί,—Mark alone gives this. The word denotes primarily a shock, or commotion (Joh_5:4); then a commotion of mind, overwhelming, a fright; and hence, with respect to political circumstances, public terrifying confusion, anarchical conditions of states, tumults, etc.
Mar_13:9. Ye shall be beaten.—The question is, whether the construction be, Ye shall be delivered up to councils and synagogues, shall be beaten, etc. (Luther, Meyer), or as in the English text, with Bengel and others. Against this latter construction, Meyer says, the idea of motion lies not in δαρήσεσθε, but it does in εἰς. Meyer says, further, the scourging took place regularly in the synagogues. Then it is certainly a striking picture of fanatic maltreatment, if it had been already inflicted upon the way to the synagogues (Act_6:12; Act_21:30-31). According to Meyer’s construction, in councils and synagogues, we have a tautology. The view, however, is this: The trial and condemnation took place in the councils or ecclesiastical courts, which were annexed to the synagogues; and the condemned were then led into the synagogues, or congregations, to be beaten: fanaticism could not, however, restrain itself: they were scourged even on their way thither.—For a testimony against them.—See Matthew.
Mar_13:10. Among all nations.—A result of the above-mentioned martyrdom. Through sufferings the Gospel was to be spread among all peoples. This is, accordingly, the end of their trials. Not till this be fulfilled does the end of the woes come, as distinguished from the ἄρχαι.
Mar_13:11. When they shall lead you.—Rules for conduct. Above, it was Take heed; here, Take no thought.—Be on your guard against the seductions of the pseudo-Christs; be not anxious because of the threats of open foes. “Μελετᾶτε, the regular word for the committing to memory of a speech; see Wetstein; the opposite of extempore.” Meyer. Comp. Matthew. Take no thought, how or what, as the more objective mode of Matthew puts it. Here equally a double prohibition in a more subjective form: Take no thought beforehand; do not trouble yourselves on account of it.—For it is not ye that speak.—See Matthew.
Mar_13:13. He that shall endure.—Meyer explains by the context: In confessing My name. Compare the διὰ τὸ ὄνομά μου. Nevertheless, the endurance refers to the entire state of trial, which they should pass through faithfully; of course, confessing Christ. It is from sufferings that confession receives its name, as the Confession.
C. D. The Destruction of Jerusalem, and the interval between this and the End of the World; or, the World’s Course to the End from the predominating point of view of the Jewish Theocracy. Mar_13:14-20; Mar_13:21-23
(Parallels: Mat_14:15-21; Matthew 22-28; Luk_21:20-23; Luke 24.)
The presage of the destruction of Jerusalem is given more briefly than by Matthew, still in biblical form; not as in Luke, who declares plainly the besieging and destruction of the city. The direction to flee is the same as in Matthew, only more exact. From the command, Pray that your flight be not in winter, he leaves out the additional statement of Matthew, Nor yet upon the Sabbath, as it was less easy to be comprehended by the Roman Christians. The description of this one great tribulation is expressed in a richer dress than by Matthew. In describing the appearance of the false Christs and prophets, he omits the details: If they say, Lo, he is in the wilderness, etc.; also the picture of the last judgment, the lightning, and the eagles. On the other hand, his conclusion is in the highest degree impressive: ὑμεῖς δὲ βλέπετε, Mar_13:23.
Mar_13:14. Where it ought not.—See Matthew.
Mar_13:19. Shall be affliction.—The very days themselves. Stronger expression: It will be the characteristic of those days that they are tribulation itself.—From the beginning of the creation, which God created.—This not a merely stronger emphasizing of the conception, Creation. The κτίσις which God created, forms an opposition to the κτίσις of men, the city Jerusalem and her hierarchy, which was now falling, while the former should endure. Similar is the expression regarding the elect: Whom God hath chosen,—who are, and shall remain, chosen. And just so we have a twofold reference to the shortening of the days: Although they are the days of vengeance, He has shortened them as such, and made them endurable. See Matthew.
Mar_13:23. But take ye heed.—Ever-repeated emphasizing of the greatness of the temptation.
E. The End of the Cosmos. Mar_13:24-27.
(Parallels: Mat_24:29-31; Luk_21:25-28.)
Mark, as well as Matthew, draws a very sharply defined distinction between the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the time when the sign of the end of the world shall appear. Mark: After that tribulation (the destruction of Jerusalem), in the period of the shortened days. Here he has omitted the εὐθέως of Matthew. The fall of the stars he expresses differently from Matthew. He passes over the picture of men’s consternation at the appearance of the Son of Man, which Matthew gives; also the summons of the great trumpets. And the expression, “From one end of heaven to the other,” runs, in his narrative, “From the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.”
Mar_13:24. After that tribulation.—Meyer holds that, according to Mark, the appearing of the Son of Man should occur immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem. According to the text, however, after the destruction, follow only “those days,” and these endurable. Between those days and that day is a great difference, which Meyer’s exegesis has not noticed.
F. The Parable of the sudden irruption of the Catastrophe, and the Exhortation to Watchfulness. Mar_13:28-37.
(Parallels: Mat_24:33-50; Luk_21:29-36.)
To the end of Mar_13:32, Mark writes to quite the same import as Matthew; then, however, a different statement comes in: Of that day and that hour know not the angels, neither the Son. At this point the three Synoptics separate and take different ways. Matthew represents the Lord as here pointing back to the days of Noah, as being symbols of the days of the world’s end. The surprise of that day is depicted by him in a particular way. The parable of the midnight has its characteristic point in the coming thief; and, succeeding this, is another parable of the lord who, in coming home, surprises his servants. Mark has the exhortation, Watch, for ye know not, etc., which is found in Matthew. But then he adds a parable, peculiar to himself, of the lord going away upon a journey, appointing special duties to his trusted servants: and in this parable the chief person is the lowest servant, the porter, who must keep watch; while Matthew makes him the steward, who had charge of the house. It is evident that the parables are distinct. Matthew selected the steward, because watchful honesty seemed to him the chief thing; Mark selected the porter, because honest watchfulness seemed to him the chief thing. Matthew may have had before him, in his selection, the picture of the Jewish high-priest; and Mark, the picture of a porter attached to some noble Roman house. Mark notices the different hours in which the master may return, marking them out sharply by the statement of the divisions of the night. Luke brings prominently forward the common danger to man,—the heart must not be overcharged, etc.; the momentous day is compared by him to a snare (παγίς). Mark concludes with the word, Watch!
Mar_13:28. That the summer.—“Τὸ θέρος, also in Test. xii. Patr., is the symbol of the Messianic time.” Meyer.
Mar_13:30. This generation.—According to Meyer, the (then) present generation. See Note on Matthew. The generation which has these signs under observation. Had the generation of that time been meant, then the end of the time at least could have been specified; while Christ says, on the contrary, the day and the hour knoweth no man.
Mar_13:32. Neither the Son.—An admission, which Meyer, in considering the human limitations in which the Son of Man moved on earth, places in its due position. Athanasius says, Jesus did not know as a human being; Augustine, He did not know it to impart to His disciples. For other interpretations, consult Meyer. Respecting our own in pretation, Meyer judges falsely or inaccurately. We assume that the Son, as God-man, knew not that day in His present daily consciousness, because He willea not to pass beyond the horizon of His daily task to reflect upon that day (see Lange’s Leben Jesu, ii. 3, p. 1280); because He preferred, accordingly, the limiting horizon of His holy, human observation and knowledge, which widened from day to day, to a discursive pedantic polyhistory, or preternatural pretension of knowing everything, the dim opposite of dynamic omniscience. Self-limitation in the knowledge of all chronological, geographical, and similar matters, is quite different from an absolute “limitation” of the theanthropic omniscience of Jesus. See Matthew.
Mar_13:34. As a man taking a far journey.—According to Meyer, a part of a speech, “made up of the different rôles which formed the links between the several heads of the speech.” Why not a special parable? Or, is a porter or a guard of a house formed by uniting the roles of a house-proprietor and a house-steward? and out of a thief and a master of a house do we get, again, a master of a house? We assume, simply, a distinct, though connected, parable. In Matthew, the householder himself is first, then the steward, summoned to watch; in Mark, the house-watch or porter, to guard the house.—As a man taking, etc.—The anantapodoton [i.e., the apodosis to be supplied] is found simply in the omitted ἐστί. It is as with a man who took a journey. The whole emphasis falls then upon the finite verb, in accordance with the participles following, viz., upon the injunction which the lord gave the porter to watch.—Authority to his servants.—A proof that we have here to do with another parable. The parable of the servant, to whom the highest authority was entrusted, is recorded by Matthew.—And commanded the porter to watch.—After he had given all the orders concerning the internal affairs, he gives finally, at the door, to the porter, the additional command to watch: this is the point of the parable. Contemplating them with reference to the Church this side of eternity, the porters are, of course, the Apostles of Christ, together with the body of Christians,—a different aspect from that in which the servant of Christ may be preëminently considered a steward.
Mar_13:35. At even, or at midnight.—The four night-watches. See Winer, Nachtwache (Night-watch); the author’s Commentary on Matthew; Wieseler, Chronol. Synopse, p. 406. The uniform thought is, The Lord comes in the night-season, in a dark, sad time; and it is not known in what stadium or moment of this time. He comes quite unexpected. From different stand-points, these periods (ὀψέ=9 o’clock; μεσονύκτιον=12; ἀλεκτοροφωνία=3; πρωί̈=6) may denote the same unexpectedness:—the evening, the evening of the old world (Mat_20:8); the midnight, the frame of mind of the slumbering Church (Mat_25:6); the cock-crow, the voice of the watchers (Isa_21:11); the morning, the dawn of Christ’s appearing, the breaking into day of the new world (Mal_4:2).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Comp. the parallel in Matthew.—It is significant that Mark gives prominence to the size and strength, Luke the beauty, Matthew the restoration and apparent theocratic rebuilding, of the temple. All this could not save it.
2. The eschatological speech of the Lord, the germ of John’s Apocalypse; the New Testament exposition and form of the Old Testament ideas and symbols; the opposite and corrective of all apocryphal Apocalypsism (Comp. Lucke, Versuch einer vollständiger Einleitung in die Offenbarung des Johannes und in die apokalyptische Literatur überhaupt, Bonn, 1848; Auberlen, Der Prophet Daniel und die Offenbarung Johannes, 2d ed. Basel, 1857.10) The eschatological hymns. Eschatology in dogmatic theology.
3. Neither the Son.—Comp. the topic Agnoetism in the History of Doctrine. Dogmatic theology has not reached the point of being able to do perfect justice to the œconomic and dynamic import of the Son’s not knowing. In order to succeed in this, we must not carry the old human finiteness into the Logos, which men have deemed to be a further development of dogmatic theology; but we must do justice to the fact, that His divine nature transforms His human finiteness into the theanthropic condition and mode. Leo the Great says, “Humana augens, divina non minuens.” No safety can lie in the “minuere divina.” Not to know, and ignorance, are two entirely distinct things.
4. The strong emphasizing of Christ’s exhortation, Watch!—According to this Petrine gospel, Christ’s servants, above all Peter, should be the doorkeepers not so much of heaven as of the Church on earth, and should keep her awake, watching for the day of judgment.
5. Three is the number of the Spirit, four the number of the world. At the revelations of His personal spirit, Christ was attended by three trusted friends; at the unveiling of the world’s fate He has four.
6. Josephus, De Bello Jud., should be used with this passage; particularly the history of the destructon of Jerusalem. See Von Raumer’s Palästina; also Braune, p. 353.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
See Matthew.—General thoughts upon the entire passage.—Homily upon the Lord’s speech concerning the end of the world, according to the preceding division.—The Judge has already announced Himself.—The last judgment in its presages: 1. The one great presage: the destruction of Jerusalem; 2. the continuous presages: the days of less terror in the New Testament seasons of trial; 3. the last presage, as signal.—The world’s state and course between two great judgments, the destruction of Jerusalem (the symbolical end of the world), and the real end of the world in a place of judgment: 1. The picture of the state itself; 2. the misapprehension of the state. The world does not observe the forbearance, the administration, the approach of justice-dispensing righteousness.—The coming of Christ in our time with the baptism of the Spirit and of fire: 1. A true coming; 2. reminds us of His first coming; 3. an indication of His last coming.—The final words of Christ in His speech upon the end of the world: 1. Take heed unto yourselves; 2. Beware; 3. Watch.—The last day, a day which makes all things clear.—The day of the great revelation and the great appearance: 1. The great revelation of the old appearance (the phenomenal and visionary world); 2. the great appearance of the old revelation.
Upon A. Mar_13:1-4.
See Matthew.—The exit of Jesus from the temple of His people: 1. A decisive step; 2. a melancholy farewell; 3. a decisive token; 4. the certain pledge of the rebuilding.—The prospect from the Mount of Olives of the temple and the city; or, the great difference between the sensuous (æsthetic) and a spiritual prospect from the Mount.—The Lord’s repeated survey of the city from the Mount of Olives: 1. A look of a compassionate heart, during which the tears fall, Luk_19:41; Luke 2. a look of the solemnly earnest spirit in which the tears must disappear (here).—Jesus sitting in the circle of His four disciples upon the Mount of Olives; or, the night-conversation on the end of the world and the judgment, ever sad, yet solemnly joyous, because of its anticipations.—The great mystic discourse upon the last time: 1. Much overlooked; 2. much falsified; 3. ever of force; 4. ever efficacious; or, 1. in the world ever falsified and darkened; 2. in the Church continually illuminated and deepened.
Starke:—Bibl. Wirt.:—Men’s degeneracy, to be bewitched with the seeming reality of this world, and to forget, what they should necessarily consider, the statements of God’s word.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—If the wind of God’s judgments storm around, there is nothing so firm, nothing so magnificent, as not to be torn down and destroyed. How many thousands of the fairest cities, of the most gorgeous palaces, of the most impregnable castles, have experienced this, lying now, because of their sins, in heaps!—Is this the city of which men say, It is the all-beauteous, on account of which the whole land rejoices, etc.? Lam_2:15; Lam_2:17.—Canstein:—When we gaze upon great and glorious structures of this world, let us ever remember that a time will come when these shall be no more, and that nought is abiding but that which is not seen, 2Co_4:18.—At the house of God judgment must take its beginning, 1Pe_4:17.—It is edifying to speak of the divine judgments, of the destruction of all that is splendid, yea, of the end, even, of this present world.
Rieger:—In the minds of the disciples these two things [rather, these three, the destruction of the temple, Christ’s future, and the world’s end,] must have become confused, or they must at least not have been able to distinguish between them accurately [still in some measure. See above.] Just as now, in our belief of the future coming of the Lord to judge the quick and dead, many things also are united into one, which, nevertheless, the result itself might separate into distinguishable representations and periods.—The Lord Jesus, in His answer, has not explained it so fully, etc., because Jerusalem’s judgment was such a famous symbol and earnest of the end of the world.
Braune:—Comp., regarding the speedy coming of the Lord, Isa_13:6; Eze_30:3; Joe_2:1; Mat_16:27; Php_4:5; 1Pe_4:7; 1Jn_2:18; Rev_1:3; Rev_3:11. Quotation from Hamann’s writings: “The death of every man is the time when the revelation of the Lord’s coming is partly fulfilled to the soul. In this sense, it is literally true that the time of fulfilment is near.” In the fragments of Jerusalem the last judgment is reflected.
Schleiermacher:—It was His object to represent all the institutions of the old covenant as something dedicated to destruction, in order to direct their attention by so much the more to the spiritual.—Hence we have to mark, that everything external in the Christian community is nothing else, and can and should be nothing else, than a shell, a covering in which the spiritual presents itself and works.—We find that the striving after externalism was soon renewed in the Christian Church.
Brieger:—The temple was the pride of the blinded people.—The destruction of Jerusalem is in a certain measure to be understood as a world-judgment. It befalls that people, namely, who for two thousand years had represented the human race. In the downfall of Jerusalem is depicted the downfall of the whole world (as in the exit of the Christians from Jerusalem is depicted the great deliverance of the believers in the last time).
Upon B. Mar_13:5-13.
The foresight and fearlessness which the Lord enjoins upon His people in looking for His coming (or the end of the world): 1. Foresight in respect to the deceptive delusions of false Christs (spiritual delusions); fearlessness as to the threatening terrors of war and all the world-plagues (temporal terrors). 2. Foresight as to the enemies of the gospel, and as to their treachery; fearlessness as to the gift of tongues, and the power to reply. 3. Foresight as to temptations thrown in our way by our nearest relatives and the world; fearlessness as to the certain deliverance of the enduring Christians.—Take heed that no man deceive you; or, Antichrist comes before Christ comes, 2 Thessalonians 2—The succession of signs: 1. False signs, and yet signs [false Christs, Mar_13:6]. 2. Weak signs, and yet sad signs [the wars; the end not yet, Mar_13:7]. 3. Stronger signs: national, political, terrestrial, physiological revolutions [the beginning of the woes, Mar_13:8]. 4. Striking signs [persecutions of Christians, Mar_13:9]. 5. The decisive sign [the gospel is preached among all people throughout the world].—The contradictory nature of the signs: 1. Signs which do not appear terrible, but enticing, and yet are to the utmost terrible; signs which appear to the utmost terrible, and yet are not Song of Solomon 2. Saddening signs. 3. The great, joyful signs, Mar_13:10.—The great rules for our conduct, in looking forward to the last time, and in the midst of its signs: 1. Foresight; 2. fearlessness; 3. simplicity and a spiritual walk; 4. steadfastness.—The Lord’s faithful admonitions.—There is an overcoming of these troubles.
Starke:—In His teaching, Christ has regard not so much to what He knows, as to what is useful to, and necessary for, His hearers.—It does not behove us to know time and hour, but to observe the signs antecedent to the judgments of God.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Alas! how many good men has the pretence of Christ’s name,—viz.: false hopes, outward show, seeming representations, fleshly accessories, etc.,—already misled, that they have fallen away into sad by-paths, and have been ruined!—The doctrine of the Last Things no useless doctrine.—Quesnel:—He who properly understands this present world, how it is disposed and what end it shall meet, is always self-possessed regarding it, and is terrified by nothing.—Wilt thou save thyself from the awful judgments of God, then be not anxious regarding the judgments and wrath of man.—The gospel-trumpet must be blown before the archangel’s trumpet is heard.—Cramer:—God will not forsake His own people in the time of persecution.—In the defence of the truth, we must not look at our own weakness, nor the foes’ might and strength, but we must consider the power of the truth and God’s promise.—Osiander:—Imagine not thou art not bound to learn aught, etc—Quesnel:—Faith gives us as many fathers, brothers, and sisters, as there are Christians; unbelief changes those friends whom nature has given us into enemies, betrayers, and executioners.—The most dangerous temptation is that which comes from parents.—Osiander:—It is a mark of false religion that it is blood-thirsty.—The end crowns.—Gerlach:—No man can reckon more certainly upon the assistance of the Holy Spirit than those who confess Jesus’ name in the time of their utmost peril.—Stier:—The end is patience, the saints’ weapon (Rev_13:10; Rev_14:12), as the beginning is foresight (Matthew 4).—Braune: 2Ti_4:16-17.—The end comes not before the Gospel has finished its course. The nearer this completion approaches, the more certainly is the Lord’s coming near.—Schleiermacher:—We should expect no other than Christ.—All may perish; we are sure that He and His kingdom will remain.—Brieger:—The Lord’s communication includes in itself the nearest and the most remote; hence He speaks to those nearest, and to those farthest from Him.—As the hate of the world witnessed for Him, so does He witness for His own people.—The final winding-up is to be introduced by means of the Gospel.—The being saved is of the same import as being received to glory.—Gossner:—He who possesses the rights of a citizen of heaven, can remain unterrified though it should storm beneath heaven.
Upon C. D. Mar_13:14-23.
See Matthew.—Even in His great judgments is God’s mercy revealed: 1. It warns of the judgments, and indicates the signs of their coming; 2. it opens a way of escape, and exhorts to use that way in flight; 3. it points to prayer as the means to mitigate that judgment; 4. it has its eye fixed upon innocent sufferers; 5. it breaks the judgment off, and puts bounds to it, for the sake of the elect; 6. it warns against falling away to Antichrist, as the falling beneath the heaviest, the most fearful judgment.—The abomination of desolation, or the judgment inflicted on the holy place, a great admonitory sign: 1. The sign of the end of a now hoary period (and form of belief; or of a long series of judgments, which point forward to the last judgment); 2. the sign of a decisive separation between an old and new period; 3. the prognostic of a new period.—The prophet Daniel; or, the eternal spirit of the Lord in the old covenant, has foretold the end of the old covenant. (See Isa_66:3; Jer_31:31; Eze_36:26; comp. 2Co_3:13; Heb_8:7-8).—The Spirit of the Permanent in the Church is the prophet of the downfall of her transitory forms (especially in the Middle Ages).—Whoso readeth, etc.: The old Scripture-word shows to all time the signs of the present and the future.—The flight to the mountains: The entire life of the Christians is a fleeing to the mountains.—In a season of distress, the saving of the trifling and the unessential (the clothes) has as its result the loss of the great and the essential (the life and soul): 1. The fact (in conflagrations, in times of war, in political convulsions, in times of religious crises). 2. The reason: because the small and trifling is the net which keeps men entangled in the old system and its judgment (Lot’s wife, the Jews, the Middle Ages).—Woe to those with child, etc.: The Lord’s compassion towards the special sufferers among mankind in the judgments inflicted on the specially sinful part of mankind.—The alleviations of the divine judgments which God has given to men: 1. Compassion (Mar_13:17); 2. prayer (Mar_13:18); 3. the steadfastness of the elect (Mar_13:20).—For the sake of the elect, whom God has chosen, God endures the world in sparing patience (see Rom_9:22).—The surest signs of the judgment which runs through the New Testament period of grace are the false Christs, the signs of the false Christs, and the hopes placed in them: 1. Among the Jews; 2. among Christians themselves.—The tendency to believe in false Christs is the most awful result of the rejection of Christ that is to be seen in the life of Israel, Joh_5:43.—The great temptations of the period which is hastening to its end: 1. Perceived beforehand; 2. declared beforehand; 3. overcome beforehand.—Foresight regarding the lying pseudo-Christian system, the salvation of Christianity in the last days.—Foresight the first and last means in preserving faithfulness during the last days.—Caution: 1. Regarding excited preachers who pretend to make Christ visible in themselves or in others, in this or that person or thing (See here or there); 2. regarding persons who will attest themselves as new saviours by means of deceptive signs and wonders (2Th_2:10-11; Rev_13:13).—The end of the world’s history: unceasing self-confusion, self-blinding, and self-separation of the great majority from Christianity, and self-abandonment to pseudo-Christian systems.
Starke:—Cramer:—If we see even the greatest distress awaiting us, we should not allow ourselves by this to be turned aside from God and His love.—In public, national calamities, the majority think only of saving their goods and lives; few are anxious to make sure of their souls and salvation.—Quesnel:—By far the most useful flight in the day of divine wrath is to flee the fleeting pleasures of the world, and escape from conformity to it, Psa_90:11.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—God spares even this wicked world for the sake of His elect.
Rieger:—Sad periods in the world’s course are turned to their own benefit by false prophets.—Lisco: Take heed unto yourselves;—an exhortation applicable to much more than the external danger of temptation, seduction, and falling away.—Braune:—Luke, Mar_13:22-23; Deu_28:15; Mal_4:1. Lo, here is Christ,—a voice which allures to itself; or there,—a voice which, unpartisan-like, points to others, and is accordingly still more dangerous—these voices are not to lead disciples astray.—Signs and troubles are no certain marks of Christ and His prophets: they are only indications of the connection of the individual with the spiritual world; they may be indications either of light and truth, or of darkness and lies.—Prove the spirits, whether they be of God.
Schleiermacher:—When we see how many imperfections have appeared in the Christian Church, one might be easily tempted to say, The light is not yet the right light. The true believer is, however, assured that the Christian faith has no share in all these imperfections; that it is the natural ruin of mankind alone which is the fountain of these, and this cannot all at once be removed.—God’s kingdom is the spiritual temple of God, which needs not the external, and is raised above all external accidents, and which, where it has been once built, must endure to the end of days.
Brieger:—Not in the winter. It is well known that Jerusalem was destroyed in August.—The same sin, rejection of the Holy One, which brought Israel to its downfall, will cause the world’s overthrow, so soon as its measure is filled.—The urging of precaution appears so much the less needful, inasmuch as He Himself says, it is impossible to deceive them. We may explain this in the following manner: God’s acts do not exclude men’s action, but include it (and that, too, not in the form of natural compulsion, but of the bond of love).—Gossner:—How must we ever fear to give our adherence to a false Christ!
Upon E. Mar_13:24-27
See Matthew.—The last day according to the Lord’s announcement: 1. The great day of death, when the lights of heaven grow pale; 2. the judgment-day, when the Crucified appears in the glory of the world’s Judges 3. the great feast-day, when the Lord gathers His chosen by His angels from all ends of this and the other world.—Man’s calamity completes itself at the end in the world’s calamity.—As the sun was darkened at Christ’s death, so will the entire starry world belonging to this earth grow dark in the death-hour of aged humanity.—The stars will fall from heaven. With mankind, not merely the earth, but also the planetary system which belongs to earth according to its old form, shall be dissolved, and assume a new shape.—When sun, moon, and stars shine no more, will Christ appear, and illuminate with His brightness the last day.—The last day the grand day of festival for perfected Christianity: 1. The creature-lights grow pale; the Lord appears as the festive light of His own day; 2. the impersonal being of the world disappears;11 the glorified personality of Christ appears, and manifests His personal kingdom; 3. the wicked are shut out, and have vanished; and all pure spirits are united; 4. Heaven’s angels are the servants at the feast: all the elect shall be assembled who are upon the earth and in heaven.—The last day is, for the chosen of the Lord, the dawn of their blessed immortality, Job_19:25.
Starke:—Quesnel:—O wished-for day of the elect! O long-desired purification, through which they shall be gathered by Jesus into the union of His body, His Spirit, and His glory!—Osiander:—Should we die in a strange land, yet shall we be assuredly gathered to Christ, our Head, at the last day, 2Co_5:10.
Braune:—Rev_1:1; Rev_22:6 [“Shortly, quickly”]; Hag_2:6-8 [“Yet once, it is a little while”]; Ecc_12:2; Isa_14:12 [“How art thou fallen”]; Isa_34:4 [“All the host of heaven shall be dissolved”].—The destruction of the creature will be an exodus into eternity.—Stier:—To the end of heaven. “Because earth and heaven now incline wonderfully to one another.”
Brieger:—Eze_32:7-8; Joe_2:3-4; Dan_7:13; Act_1:11; Heb_1:14; Mat_13:41-42.—Bauer:—These violent things are only the heralds in the Lord’s service.
Upon F. Mar_13:28-37
See Matthew.—The fig-tree with its late leaves is also a picture of the onward-hurrying judgment, upon the guilty Church (Mar_11:12), upon the unrepentant Church (Luk_13:6), upon the fickle Israel (Hos_9:10).—The fig-tree according to its varied signification: 1. The early figs, the formation of fruit before the leaves shot forth: the early conversion of Israel and the elect. 2. The fig-tree unfruitful in the rich vineyard: a dying professing Church (and this is true of individuals) in the midst of the ever-living kingdom of God. 3. The fig-tree unfruitful, and yet pretentious with its leaves on the roadside; or, a church (congregation) without spiritual fruit, in the hypocritical covering of pious forms, fallen under judgment. 4. The blooming fig-tree, a prognostic of the summer’s harvest; or, the theocratic, ecclesiastical, and cosmical indications of judgment as presages of the approach of the final judgment.—The holy certainty of believers respecting the day of the Lord strengthened and elevated through their ignorance of the time and hour: 1. The certainty, a. as to signs, b. as to His speedy coming, c. as to His unexpected coming, d. His coming during the life of a living Christian generation, e. in order to the destruction of the world, f. in order to fulfil His declaration respecting the necessity of watching. 2. Strengthened and increased through their ignorance: a. an ignorance regarding the day and the hour, to which He had voluntarily subjected Himself for their sakes; b. an ignorance regarding the time, to which He had subjected them for His own sake.—Christ’s not knowing rests upon His knowing rightly [in a natural manner], or upon the holy extension of His range of vision12.—What Christ may not know, what angels cannot know, Christians should not wish to know.—The last day, the deep secret of the Father: Of the Father in His Creator-fulness, and in His gracious design; 2. of the Father in His preparing grace, and in His commands to the Song of Solomon 3. of the Father in the greatness of His patience, and the majesty of wrath.—The knowledge of Christ in itself exalted above the knowledge of men and of angels, is, on our behalf, a circle of holy self-limitation within the Father’s omniscience.—Because He cannot deny anything to His own, He has denied Himself a knowledge of this.—The holy and useful uncertainty of the Church regarding the last day is to be compared with the holy useful uncertainty of individual men regarding the day of their death.—Through this holy uncertainty, we should be certain of our own salvation. Every day should for the Christian bear something like the appearance of the last day.—Christianity is a door-keeper’s office, as regards the future coming of the Lord.—Christ’s alarm-call, or summons to all Christians for all time to watch!—Slumbering, in respect to the Lord’s coming, is a danger fraught with death; while watchfulness is a fundamental condition of life.—Christianity is a constant living in the experience of judgment and redemption: 1. Judgment: a. a coming from judgment [Lange alludes, apparently, to the rise of Christianity at the time Judaism was subjected to judgment. Translator], b. an acting under judgment, c. a preparing for judgment. 2. Redemption: a. from the time onward, that the work of redemption was ended, b. proceeding under the cheering hope of redemption, c. looking forward to redemption.
Starke:—Spring is a beautiful image: in the shrubs bursting into life, we are reminded of the coming of Christ, of the glorious judgment day, and the joyful resurrection from the dead.—Quesnel:—Who is certain that he is not sooner to appear before God, his Judge, than summer is to come? If he meet not God to be condemned, the joyful everlasting summer will follow.—We have seen many things in our lives pass away: is that not a proof that all things fade away?—God has concealed from all creatures the time of His judgments; hence is many a one ruined in his calculation.—Beware of security! watch and pray!
Braune:—Heaven and earth pass as leaves upon the world-stem in the harvest of the world-season: God’s people are the sap, and God’s word the power, which carries new life to all.—Jam_5:7-8 : “I do not know.” Will it be too hard for thee to say this? If so, Christ is not thy Lord.—The watching of the Christian must be also prayer (and active watchfulness will be at the same time prayer).—Brieger:—The kingdom of God, which will at last appear in power and glory, is to be compared with the joy-fraught summer.
Footnotes:
[10]“Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation of St. John, viewed in their mutual relationships,” Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark.
[11][Does this mean: The kingdom of materialism, or that “flesh and blood” which cannot inherit the kingdom of God?—Ed.]
[12][Lange’s thought seems to be, that the voluntary ignorance of Christ, which was a part of the voluntary humiliation to which the divine nature was subjected in its onion with the human, was for the purpose of making possible a gradual growth in His theanthropic consciousness. For, had there been from the instant of the miraculous conception (the punctum temporis when the union of the two natures began) onward through infancy, childhood, and youth, the omniscient consciousness of the eternal Logos, of course it would have been contradictory to say that Christ, the God-man, “increased in wisdom” (Luk_2:52), or that He did not know the time of the last judgment.—Ed.]
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.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain § 118. — JESUS FORETELLS THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM,…
§ 118. — JESUS FORETELLS THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, AND DISTINGUISHES IT FROM THE FINAL JUDGMENT, Mar_13:1-37.
(See notes on Mat_24:1 to Mat_25:30.)
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 Ch. Mar_13:1-13. Prophecies of the Destruction of Jerusalem
Ch. Mar_13:1-13. Prophecies of the Destruction of Jerusalem
1. And as he went] Leaving the Temple, He passed with His Apostles down the eastern steps toward the valley of the Kidron. As they were passing on,
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one of his disciples] invited His attention to the marvellous structure they were quitting, to the enormous size of its marble blocks, the grandeur of its buildings, and the gorgeous gifts with which, though still unfinished, it had been endowed (Luk_21:5). Josephus tells us that while some of the stones were forty-five feet, most were thirty-seven and a half feet long, twelve feet high, and eighteen broad. Jos. Bell. Jud. v. 6. 6; Ant. xv. 11. 3.
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 (1) One of his disciples.—Note St. Mark’s vivid way…
XIII.
(1) One of his disciples.—Note St. Mark’s vivid way of giving the very words of the disciple, instead of saying with St. Matthew that they “came to show” the buildings of the Temple.
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Here, again, the juxtaposition of narratives in St. Mark gives them a special point. The “stones” of Herod’s Temple (for it was to him chiefly that it owed its magnificence) were of sculptured marble. The “buildings,” or structures, included columns, chambers, porticos that were, as St. Luke tells us (Luk_21:5), the votive offerings of the faithful. The disciples gazed on these with the natural admiration of Galilean peasants. In spite of the lesson they had just received—a lesson meant, it may be, to correct the tendency which our Lord discerned—they were still measuring things by their quantity and size. They admired the “goodly stones” more than the “widow’s mite.” They were now to be taught that, while the one should be spoken of throughout the whole world, the other should be destroyed, so that not a vestige should remain. We cannot say who spoke the words, but it is at least probable that it came from one of the four who are named in Mar_13:3.
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 And as he went forth out of the temple,…
And as he went forth out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him Master, behold, what manner, of stones and what manner of buildings! This would be in the evening. According to St. Luke, (Luk_21:37) our Lord, during the early part of this week, passed his nights upon the Mount of Olives, taking his food at Bethany with Martha and Mary, and spending his days in the temple at Jerusalem, teaching the people. It is most probable that he left the temple by the golden gate on the east, from whence the view of the temple would be particularly striking. We learn from St. Matthew (Mt 24) that our Lord had just been predicting the fall of Jerusalem. It was, therefore, natural for the disciples to call his attention at that moment to the grandeur and beauty of the building and its surroundings. The temple at Jerusalem was one of the wonders of the world. Josephus says that it wanted nothing that the eye and the mind could admire. It shone with a fiery splendor; so that when the eye gazed upon it, it turned away as from the rays of the sun. The size of the foundation-stones was enormous. Josephus speaks of some of the stones as forty-five cubits in length, five in height, and six in breadth. One of the foundation-stones, measured in recent times, proved to be nearly twenty-four feet in length, by four feet in depth. But all this magnificence had no effect upon our Lord, who only repeated the sentence of its downfall
Vers. 1, 2. The downfall of the temple.
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Our Lord"s ministry in the temple was now over. Within those precincts he had taught the teachable, he had rebuked the selfish and profane, he had received the homage of the children, he had healed the afflicted, and he had denounced and warned the unfaithful and the hypocritical. How strange the contrast between the early days, when Jesus had taken his place in the midst of the rabbis, "both hearing them, and asking them questions," and these later days, when the same edifice witnessed his keen and truceless conflicts with the leaders of the nation, whose errors he exposed and whose vengeance he incurred! It was as Jesus left the gorgeous and consecrated building that his disciples, with national pride and affection, pointed out to his eyes the magnificence of the temple, the stupendous stones of which it was composed, and the costly gifts with which it was adorned. Upon this suggestion, Jesus uttered the prediction, which he could not have uttered without emotions of disappointment and distress, "Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left here one stone upon another, which shall not be thrown down.
I NOTHING EARTHLY AND HUMAN, HOWEVER STATELY AND SACRED, IS IMPERISHABLE. It was, no doubt, a splendid spectacle to which his disciples directed the gaze of Jesus. "They stopped to cast upon it one last lingering gaze, and one of them was eager to call his attention to its goodly stones and splendid offerings those nine gates overlaid with gold and silver, and the one of solid Corinthian brass yet more precious; those graceful and towering porches; those beveled blocks of marble, forty cubits long and ten cubits high, testifying to the toil and munificence of so many generations; those double cloisters and stately pillars; that lavish adornment of sculpture and arabesque; those alternate blocks of red and white marble, recalling the crest and hollow of the sea-waves; those vast clusters of golden grapes, each cluster as large as a man, which twined their splendid luxuriance over the golden doors. They would have him gaze with them on the rising terraces of courts the court of the Gentiles, with its monolithic columns and rich mosaic; above this, the flight of fourteen steps which led to the court of the women; then the flight of fifteen steps which led up to the court of the priests; then, once more, the twelve steps which led to the final platform, crowned by the actual holy, and holy of holies, which the rabbis fondly compared for its shape to a couchant hen, and which, with its marble whiteness and gilded roofs, looked like a glorious mountain whose snowy summit was gilded by the sun" (Farrar). Majestic, however, as was the edifice, sacred as were its purposes, ennobling as were its associations, the temple at Jerusalem was not indestructible. All things finding their foundation upon this changing earth, all things reared and fashioned by human hands, are transitory and perishing. Nothing continueth in one stay. "The solemn temples," like "the great globe itself," are destined to decay and destruction. The material perishes, and that which is spiritual alone abides.
II AN UNFAITHFUL NATION"S GLORY IS, IN THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD, MADE THE SYMBOL OF ITS SHAME. There was nothing which the Jews so valued and reverenced as their temple and all the paraphernalia of the temple-worship. The national life seemed to flow from that sacred spot as from a beating heart. Not only was it, in its situation, its structure, its services, priesthoods, and sacrifices, itself most majestic and imposing; but to the Hebrew mind it was the expression of the peculiar interest and favor of the Supreme. How could the Israelite think, without a shudder of horror and dismay, of the time when the noble building should be laid in the dust; when the chants should be silenced, the altars be overturned, the priests be slain, and the services and offerings be no more? Yet this was the doom which the last and greatest Prophet now foretold a doom which they might have averted by timely repentance and by cordial faith, but which their rejection of the Christ of God made certain and irrevocable. Thus was Israel smitten in the most vulnerable, the most sensitive point; thus was the rule of the righteous Lord awfully and sublimely vindicated; thus was a lesson of Divine government and human subjection thereto published for the benefit of all generations to come.
III ALL THAT IS MATERIAL IN RELIGION IS DESTINED TO VANISH AND DISAPPEAR. The temple at Jerusalem was the temple of the Lord; yet it served a temporary purpose, and when this purpose was accomplished it was superseded by the temple of the Lord"s Body, and by the imperishable temple constituted by consecrated spiritual natures, and inhabited by the Holy Spirit of God. Human nature is such that men are prone to lay stress upon the outward, the visible, the tangible, the material. Even the truly religious are in danger of regarding the vestment of religion rather than the form it clothes, of hallowing places, observances, offices, and institutions. But Christ"s whole teaching is a protest against this natural error and folly. The temple of Jerusalem disappeared; but its disappearance, so far from ruining the prospects and crippling the power of religion, was, in reality, the occasion of placing religion upon a sounder basis, and giving to religion a world-wide and an everlasting sway. Let not men cling too closely to the form; it is the spirit which quickeneth; it is the spirit which endures.
IV SPIRITUAL TEMPLES ALONE ENDURE FOR EVER. Even the destruction of Jerusalem and its sacred buildings did not involve a universal ruin. What was good in Judaism, what was vital and hopeful in Israel, still survived. There were truths which outlasted the forms in which they had been embodied. There were pure and faithful souls which outlived the institutions amidst which and by means of which they had been called to virtue, to piety, to God. A new Israel arose, as it were, out of the ashes of the old. A temple statelier and sublimer, based upon a more enduring foundation, and rising to loftier spiritual heights, sprang into glorious being, as the armies of Titus levelled the glory of Moriah with the ground.
The living stones of which this heaven-born fabric is composed can never crumble, and the services of this sanctuary shall never cease. Time and space are spurned; earthly forces are powerless; this temple groweth "a holy temple unto the Lord." It is imperishable, because it is spiritual; it is eternal, because it is Divine.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR Vers. 1, 2. Temple admiration.
In the case of the Jews a natural and venial fault, if not carried to excess. Esteemed the type and pattern of architectural excellence, and one of the wonders of the world. Herod"s rebuilding was on a scale of magnificence unknown to their ancestors. The essential features of the temple of Solomon were restored, but these were "surrounded by an inner enclosure of great strength and magnificence, measuring, as nearly as can be made out, one hundred and eighty cubits by two hundred and forty, and adorned by porches and ten gateways of great magnificence; and beyond this, again, was an outer enclosure, measuring externally four hundred cubits each way, which was adorned with porticoes of greater splendor than any we know of attached to any temple of the ancient world; all showing how strongly Roman influence was at work in enveloping with heathen magnificence the simple templar arrangements of a Shemitic people" (Smith"s "Dictionary of the Bible"). Josephus, in his "Antiquities," 15:11, 3, speaks of stones "each in length twenty-five cubits, in height eight, in breadth about twelve;" and in the "Wars," 5:5, 6, of some of the stones as forty-five cubits in length, five in height, and six in breadth." Many of these were of sculptured marble. The reply of Jesus may be read either affirmatively or interrogatively, or with a mixture of both assertion and question. The apodosis is, "There shall not be left here stone upon stone," etc. Thus their lingering gaze is quietly but grandly rebuked, and their thoughts directed with solemn, practical earnestness to the Divine future in which all that pomp of masonry and decoration was to have no place.
I THE NATURAL MIND IS MOST IMPRESSED BY WHAT IS GREAT AND BEAUTIFUL IN OUTWARD APPEARANCE. The simple Galilean peasants were carried away with enthusiastic admiration of the princely buildings, so unparalleled in their experience. To such an extent was this the case that they were in danger of being ensnared.
1. Sensuous admiration is easily confounded with spiritual attachment. The mind, in order to correct this error, must dwell on the spiritual truths of which external objects are but the symbols, and realize that, whilst the latter shall pass away, the former must endure for ever.
2. The world, in its sensuous totality, is similarly pregnant with temptation to the soul that has not learnt to look through the visible into the invisible and eternal.
II THAT WHICH FAILS OF ITS DIVINE IDEA, OR OPPOSES THE DIVINE PURPOSE, SHALL BE DESTROYED. The splendid building upon which they were gazing had ceased to minister to the higher spiritual life of the people, and had, through its officers and representatives, rejected the Son of God. It had thereby sealed the warrant of its own extinction: not one stone should stand upon another. So is it with the individual, institution, or nation which fails to realize its chief end.
1. This is penal. There was no process of natural decay, no growing beautiful with age the sensuous slowly merging into the spiritual; no succession of normal changes ensuring expansion, adaptation, and continuity; but sudden, awful destruction, accompanied by unheard-of misery. God must witness to his righteousness even in judgment. The soul that sins shall die.
2. It is in order to give place to a worthier realization of the Divine will. The house not made with hands" was nearer when this external sanctuary, which had been defiled, was removed. "The hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth". (Joh_4:21-24) Not until the temple had been destroyed would the temple"s Lord make advent to the world. Judgment must begin at the house of God. (1Pe_4:17) "But on all these points the first and great question is not what is to be done, but who is to do it. Is the reform of the Church to be consigned entirely to politicians and economists, w ho only look at the goodly stones and gifts of the temple, some with an anxious, others with a greedy eye, and care nothing about the service of the sanctuary nor the edification of the worshippers? Or will any part of the work be put into the hands of sincere and zealous and enlightened lovers of the Church? In the latter case we may securely hope for the best. In the other, it is to be feared that, if beneficial changes ever take place, they will have been purchased by great losses and a disastrous experience" (Thirlwall," Letters," vol. 1 p. 107). M.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 1-37. Watching.
This chapter relates almost exclusively to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Yet in its testimony to the Divine power of foretelling future events, it has its evidential value to all students of the person of our Lord; while its central and simple lesson, Watch! the day of your Lord"s coming ye know not," may be profitably reiterated with frequency in the ears of all. One of the disciples, on passing out of the temple, drew the attention of the Master to the massiveness and grandeur of its building. How great! how stable! how wondrous! In this, as in so many instances, he saw what they saw not; and his thoughts were not as theirs. It must have been to their great surprise that he declared, "There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Sad and doleful words follow, as strikingly in contrast to the expectations of his questioners as were the former. The eager desire to know "when shall these things be," was met by threats of deception, war, earthquakes, and famines, the mere presages of trouble, to be followed by personal afflictions, persecutions, hatreds, and deaths, mingled with the uttermost national and religious confusion. The dire symbols were, "the sun shall be darkened," "the moon shall not give her light," "the stars shall be falling from heaven." We who read these words with the picture of Jerusalem"s destruction before us, and in the light of modern Jewish history, see a depth of meaning in them which, the words being words of prophecy, the disciples failed to see. Pitifully do our hearts move towards Israel according to the flesh, and pray for the lifting up of the veil that is upon their eyes, that they in a true sense may see and believe." The lesson is founded upon this prediction of judgment. In interpreting it in its application to ourselves we must see that it teaches
I THE EXTREME PERILOUSNESS OF HINDERING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN BY UNFAITHFULNESS. The Jew was favored as was no other nation under heaven. Fidelity to the great trust reposed in that people would have been attended with unmeasured Divine blessing; while unfaithfulness resulted in the direst calamity and judgment. Who shall describe the bitterness to Israel of those dread days? A free and wider diffusion of the spiritual kingdom followed. But Israel, in giving birth to a gospel of blessing to the nations, suffered throes of travail "such as there hath not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and," happily, "never shall be.
II IN OUR IGNORANCE OF THE TIMES OF GREAT AND SUDDEN CHANGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, OUR HIGHEST WISDOM IS A DILIGENT ATTENTION TO THE DUTY OF THE HOUR. The hour is always uncertain when the Lord cometh to judgment. The indolent spirit that is deluded into neglect because there is no sign of his coming, will be inevitably found "sleeping." How often has the Church been lulled thus to slumber! How often have the most responsible trusts been unfaithfully held! Times of judgment awake the sleepers often to find their work neglected or undone. The watching spirit that momentarily devotes itself to the doing of the Lord"s will is the only safe spirit. Such a spirit is never surprised, never taken unawares. It matters not when "the lord of the house cometh," whether "at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning." The watching servant hails and rejoices in his lord"s approach.
III THE CERTAINTY OF THE FINAL RECOGNITION OF HUMBLE, FAITHFUL, CONTINUOUS SERVICE.
1. The gracious words of warning stimulate to effort.
2. The help of the Divine Spirit is comfortingly promised to the suffering. "It is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
3. The perseveringly patient one shall reap in due time. "He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
4. The scattered ones whom cruel persecution has driven into all lands shall finally be restored, and the felicities of the heavenly life compensate for the sufferings of earth. "He shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven." The Lord"s one command, holding all within itself, is "Watch? "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. G.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-13. Prophetic adumbrations.
I "MATERIAL TEMPLES, POLLUTED BY MEN"S SINS, MUST PERISH.
II "THE TEMPLE OF HUMAN MINDS, PURIFIED BY THE DIVINE SPIRIT, WILL ABIDE FOR EVER" (Godwin).
III THE EDUCATION OF ILLUSIONS. (See F. W. Robertson"s sermon on "The Illusiveness of Life!") God in history is God in disguise. To detect his presence is not always easy. Surface and show are constantly taken for truth and reality.
IV VAGUE TROUBLES PRECEDE GREAT CHANGES. We live in restless times. "Something is in the air." We know not what is meant; but something is meant. The beginning of a process must not be mistaken for the end.
V A MORAL PRINCIPLE AND PURPOSE LIES IN ALL CHANGE. This is the secret leaven which occasions all the ferment. Deep was the truth expressed by the philosopher when he said, "War is the father of all things." Or in the myth, conflict and love are close companions. In convulsed times, be sure Divine love is profoundly working. Persecution represents the expiring struggles of error and its fellow, passion.
VI THE CONSTANT HEART NEED FEAR NO EVIL. Nothing can bring us peace but loyalty to principle. Nothing can exempt us from unmanning fears but the sense that truth is on our side. The only secret of eloquence lies here. There is no salvation for the coward, the untrue, and the disloyal. For the true heart there is salvation from every possible danger. J.
HOMILIES BY J.J. GIVEN Vers. 1-13. Parallel passages: Mat_24:1-14 Luk_21:5-19. Unexpected events,
I PROPHECIES.
1. Distribution of prophetic intimations. Great diversity of opinion prevails in regard to the predictions contained in this chapter. About one part of it, however, there is unanimity; the early portion contains, as all admit, a prophecy about the destruction of the temple which was literally and actually fulfilled within forty years after it had been uttered. The remainder of the chapter is understood by the majority of interpreters to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the end of the world or present dispensation. In relation to this second part there are many divergent theories, but these in the main are reducible to two:
(1) that which regards these two subjects as separately and successively exhibited; and
(2) that which maintains their coexistence throughout, and according to which they. are so blended and intermingled that separation is all but impossible.
2. Practical observations. There is
(1) the duty of diligently studying prophecy, as a very important and deeply interesting portion of the Divine Word; thus St. Peter says, "We have the Word of prophecy made more sure; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place" (Revised Version). But while the study of prophecy is a pleasing duty, we may not forget that it is attended with special difficulties arising from the very nature of the subject. It is evident that the design of prophecy would be frustrated if it were fully understood beforehand; in such a case men would be found desirous, some of antedating, others of defeating, the predicted events.
(2) In the study of prophecy we must not strive to be wise above what is written, nor lean too much to our own understanding. We are to have in recollection that "the secret things belong unto the Lord: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and our children for ever." In our attempts at the interpretation of unfulfilled prophecy, in addition to diligent comparison of Scripture under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, we are to pursue the study as far as possible along the lines of prophecies already fulfilled.
(3) Two uses of fulfilled prophecy are obvious. One is the corroboration of the truth of God"s Word, and so a strong confirmation of our faith in that Word; the second is a guarantee for the future from the past. The predictions which have been already and actually fulfilled warrant the expectation that such as still wait for fulfillment shall one day be most certainly accomplished; and then shall the light shed by Divine providence shine so brightly on those portions of the Divine Word now mysterious, that they shall appear plain and clear as noonday.
4. Character of the disciplesobservation. The object which the disciples had in view, when they called the attention of their Master to the great stones of the temple, is not quite clear. We may consider their remark a casual one, called forth by the sight of such huge structures such immense stones, measuring, according to Josephus, some of them twenty-five cubits in length, eight in height, and twelve in breadth; others forty-five cubits in length, five in height, and six in breadth. Or perhaps the numerals in case of the cubits, in both the passages of Josephus, should be the same, namely, twenty-five. The sight of stones of such vast dimensions, of enormous marble blocks, of the gorgeousness and grandeur of the buildings, would justify their remark; still the sight of all these would not vindicate it from being somewhat superficial and commonplace, natural enough to Galilean peasants, and such as might be made by very unsophisticated persons. We may perhaps be warranted, therefore, in reading a deeper meaning into their observation. Might it not be that the thought occurred to them that an edifice of such splendor and magnificence would be no way unsuitable to, nor unworthy of, Messiah"s reign and of the temporal kingdom which they still clung to?
5. The point of time at which the observation was made. Jesus was leaving the temple, and leaving it for the last time. What solemn thoughts must have occupied his mind as he bade farewell to that beautiful sanctuary! How different they must have been from those of his disciples, in whatever way their words are to be understood! He is now turning his back for ever on the national temple, long the center of Jewish worship, with its august shrine, where the Shechinah glory had appeared above the cherubim, where the Divine presence in visible symbol had been manifested, where the most solemn acts of religious service had been performed, and where the one living and true God had been worshipped, while polytheism had prevailed in the nations all around. Now, however, the spirit of the theocracy was gone, Judaism had fallen into decrepitude, the national temple still stood in all its splendor; but the great Inhabitant was about to take his departure. The Messenger of the covenant had come suddenly to his temple; but with his rejection and death already determined on, life and light and liberty were on the eve of departing for ever, and the kingdom about to pass into other and more worthy hands. The disciples, who, like other Jews, still indulged the daydream of a worldly kingdom and political independence in connection with Messiah, must have been more than surprised by our Lord"s reply. Their pleasant fancies are dispelled; to their fondest aspirations a rude shock is given. They are startled, stunned, and silenced. Stone not left upon stone that shall not be loosened from its place and thrown to the ground! anal all this affirmed with the utmost positiveness of assertion! What can it mean? They roll the matter over in their thoughts; they reflect, but cannot persuade themselves that the words are to be understood in their strict, unfigurative sense. The statement is past their comprehension.
6. Their inquiry. And now they have left the temple courts, descended the side of Moriah, crossed the Kedron, and are seated on a slope of Olivet. What a lovely prospect is there presented to their gaze! Right opposite and full in view was the temple, with its white marble, its roof and pinnacles overlaid with gold, the prodigious stone substructures already the objects of such admiration, all sparkling in the clear light of an Eastern sky. Here was a sight of such surpassing splendor that it was esteemed equal to one of the wonders of the world; a spectacle of such beauty that once seen it remained ever after a part of sight. Here was a prospect corresponding to the eloquent and withal exact words of Milman, when he says, "At a distance the whole temple looked literally like a mount of snow, fretted with golden pinnacles." And was the glory of all this, like ordinary mundane things, to pass so soon away! The disciples naturally desire more information on this stupendous subject; they have by this time recovered somewhat from their surprise. They break silence by trying to ascertain with certainty and preciseness some particulars in regard to the wonderful event predicted, and its consequences, immediate and remote, implied in the expression, "these things an expression erroneously referred by some to the world itself, and by others to the buildings of the temple. They are at once curious and anxious to be informed of the time when what was foretold would be fulfilled; of the sign of the Savior"s coming for the performance of what he had thus predicted; and further, as we are informed by St. Matthew, of the end of the world.
7. Minuteness in details. As usual, St. Mark is most minute in his record of particulars, such as an eye-witness, or one writing the words of an eyewitness, would be most likely to take note of. He tells us here the exact position of our Lord and his disciples on a knoll of Olivet, right over against (katenanti , the kata being intensive) the temple. He also informs us that the disciples who were closest to our Savior on the occasion, or who were most earnest and urgent in their inquiries which they probably repeated (ephrwtwn , imperfect), were Peter and James and John and Andrew. These were the persons who spoke in their own name and that of their brethren acting at once for themselves and the other disciples. There was in this an evident appropriateness. These four disciples, consisting of two pairs of brothers, were the first who had enrolled themselves in the list of discipleship; they were the first of the apostolic band. They had been longest with our Lord, and, it would seem, on the most familiar terms with him; and now they are nearest to him in position, and, on the ground of their close intimacy, venture to put questions from which perhaps the others shrank. Three of these, moreover, had been specially privileged already on two, as subsequently on another and third occasion to accompany our Lord. Long attendance on the Master, as the consequence of early and faithful discipleship, would thus appear to have peculiar advantages, and to elevate, not by merit but by grace, to higher privileges. How important, then, for the young to join themselves early to the ranks of Christ"s disciples, remembering their Creator in the days of their youth, and coming in early childhood to the Savior!
8. Peculiarity in and fulfillment of the prophecy. We may not overlook, or lose sight of, the prediction that led to the inquiries of the disciples, and of these special favourites who represented the wishes of their brethren, as well as their own, on this occasion. The prediction in question is one of the most remarkable on record, if we consider all the circumstances. There was scarcely anything more unlikely at that time than the overthrow of such a stable fabric, where the buildings and substructures were so massive that Titus himself attributed his triumph to the hand of God. The original temple had been built by Solomon, and having stood for four centuries, was destroyed, after the lapse of that period, by Nebuzaradan, commander-in-chief of the forces of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. It was rebuilt by Zerubbabel, at the head of the restored Jews, somewhat more than five centuries before Christ. This was the second temple; and though it was renewed by Herod the Great, and had several magnificent additions made to it by that king, such as a porch with white marble slabs, towers, and so on, it was still known, not as the third, but second temple. The work of renovation commenced by Herod had continued six and forty years, as we learn from the Fourth Gospel, (Joh_2:20) where we read," Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building." It was still much more improbable even if, contrary to all expectation and all reasonable calculation of chances, it should be destroyed, that that destruction would be carried to such an extreme of demolition that no ruins should be left no, not so much as one stone upon another. Other temples have been destroyed by hostile attack, or fallen into decay and yielded to the corroding tooth of time; but their ruins at least remain, while the magnificence of those ruins attracts the visitor, and excites his admiration or astonishment. Witness the far-famed Parthenon or temple of Minerva at Athens, or the temple of Baalbek, or Karnak, or Luxor. But though the Roman general did his utmost to save the temple, it was destroyed by fire; and subsequently the work of demolition was carried out so thoroughly by the tenth legion, under Terentius Rufus, that the temple area and precincts were dug up The peculiarity of the prophecy was its uncommon clearness, distinctness, and definiteness at a time when all the probabilities were against it; while the exactness of its fulfillment has so puzzled infidels, that they have tried to make themselves and others believe that the prediction was post eventum; and, finding that impossible and incredible, others have resorted to such miserable shifts as coincidences, lucky guesses, or skillful prognostications. All in vain; for it remains, and must remain, an irrefragable testimony to the truth of God. There was, besides, the fulfillment of an older prophecy by Micah: "Zion shall be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps.
9. The perspective of prophecy. There is a very general agreement that in the predictions contained in this chapter of St. Mark and corresponding chapters of the other synoptists, the two events of Christ"s coming at the fall of Jerusalem, and of his coming at the end of the world or present dispensation, are combined. While some explain this according to the theory of two applications, one primary and another secondary; and others by the typical theory, one event being typical of another, so that the one description covers both; others again prefer that theory of prophecy according to which it exhibits events without regard to the periods of time or portions of space that intervene between them and separate them from each other; just as in the landscape hill rises above hill, while to the spectator at a distance the valleys that lie between, or the interspaces that separate them, are not seen nor observed, and it is only when the summit of each hill is reached that the interval between it and the next is discernible. So we may conceive it to be with respect to the close of the aiwn which was marked by the fall of Jerusalem, and the completion, or telov , of the present dispensation or current age.
II THE SIGNS SPECIFIED.
1. Enumeration. There is some slight difference in the enumeration of the signs; they are also divided by some into negative and positive. We prefer dividing them into the immediate and more remote, and enumerate them as follows:
(1) False prophets or pretended Messiahs;
(2) wars and rumors of wars, that is, wars actually declared or commenced, and wars threatened or reported as imminent. St. Luke employs, instead of" turnouts," the somewhat different expression of "commotions," or "unsettlements" (apokatastasiav); these are the more remote premonitions, for it is added by St. Matthew and St. Mark, "The end is not yet," while St. Luke has, "The end is not immediately.
(3) Wars on a larger scale, implied in nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom. After these political agitations come physical, as
(4) earthquakes; then other providential events, as
(5) famines, and troubles, the latter word being omitted in some manuscripts and in the Revised Version; also
(6) pestilences. That all these signs preceded the fall of Jerusalem at a greater or less distance from that event, and that, on a still wider area and a still grander scale, they shall precede the winding up of the present dispensation, appears to be the teaching of this portion of Scripture. The intermingling of the predictions relating to the two great events may in some measure be accounted for by the circumstance that the Jews would regard the overthrow of the Jewish state as the signal of, and coincident with, the end of all present things. Other signs of a less general and more personal kind are subjoined, so that we have
(7) persecutions befalling the disciples both in and outside of Judaea; and
(8) sad apostasies and the evils Consequent on such defections, as we learn from the first evangelist; also
(9) the proclamation of the gospel proceeding from Jerusalem and Judea, and its diffusion among all nations, as a witness everywhere to Christ and his salvation.
2. Verification. Scripture itself bears witness to the fulfilment of the first sign; for St. John says, "Even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time;" while Josephus acquaints us with the fact that "the land was overrun with magicians, seducers, and impostors, who drew the people after them in multitudes into solitudes and deserts, to see the signs and miracles which they promised to show by the power of God." Several names, moreover, are expressly mentioned, of such persons as Dositheus, Simon Magus, Theudas, Barchochab; but it is objected that some of these were too early, and others too late, in point of time. In like manner it may be objected to the statement of the Apostle John, that, while it is so distinct in relation to the fact, it is indefinite with respect to the element of time. But if some were too early and others too late, it is not likely that the intervening period had the good fortune of being freed from their presence; while, from the statements of St. John on the one hand and Josephus on the other, we may rightly conclude a succession of pretenders, and quite a number of them all along, as true coin is seldom for long without its counterfeits. The second sign had its verification in the violent deaths of no less than four Roman emperors Nero, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius within a year and a half, and the scenes of tumult and bloodshed consequent thereon; while the Jews were assailed with three threats of wars by Caligula, Claudius, and Nero respectively. There were other rumors of wars, in consequence of Bardanes, and subsequently Volageses, declaring, but not carrying out, war against the Jews; as also by Vitellius, Governor of Syria, declaring war against the Arabian king, Aretas. These two signs were among the more remote, for, as we have seen, it is added, "The end is not yet;" that is, the end of the Jewish polity at the destruction of Jerusalem was not to follow immediately. This caution was subjoined to prevent that state of excitement and alarm which the Apostle Paul, at a subsequent period, found it necessary to allay among the Thessalonians. The third sign may be illustrated by the general character of the period, which the Roman historian Tacitus describes as "rich in calamities, horrible with battles, rent with seditions, savage even in peace itself;" as also by particular catastrophes, as the conflict between the Syrians and Jews at Caesarea, in which twenty thousand of the latter perished; another at Seleucia, in which fifty thousand Jews lost their lives; with others similar at Joppa, Scythopolis, Ascalon, and Tyro, recorded by Josephus in his " Wars of the Jews," a title of itself significant of the state of the times; while Philo makes mention of a serious outbreak between Jews and Greeks in Alexandria, though at a much earlier period. The fourth sign consisted of tremors of the earth, by which towns and cities were often shaken and ruined. These earthquakes were to occur in divers places. Never perhaps, in an equal period of time in the history of our earth, did so many of these fearful convulsions occur, as in the interval between the Crucifixion and fall of Jerusalem. Seneca, in a somewhat rhetorical passage in one of his Epistles, mentions a surprising number of such casualties having occurred in many different quarters, and with the usual disastrous results; in his list of places where earthquakes had taken place are proconsular Asia, Achaia, Syria, Macedonia, Cyprus, and Paphus. Tacitus makes mention of several in different localities in Crete; in Italy, one at Rome and another in Campania; in Phrygia, at Apamea, and Laodicea. Josephus speaks of one in Judaea; and several others are recorded about the same time. Of the fifth sign, or famines, we have the record in the Acts, (Act_11:28) where Agabus foretold "that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar;" and the testimony of Tacitus, Suetonius, and Josephus to similar effect. The whole time of the reign of Claudius appears to have been one of scarcity; that in the ninth year of his reign appears to have been particularly severe. Three other famines occurred in his reign. During this period, Rome, Syria, and Greece suffered most painfully. From the famines we might naturally infer the existence of the sixth sign, or pestilences, even if we had no historical record of their occurrence, according to the old proverb, that "after famine comes pestilence," so neatly expressed in the Greek meta limov . And yet disasters of this kind are recorded one in Babylonia, by Josephus; one in Rome, which swept away thirty thousand persons in one autumn, by Tacitus and Suetonius. The New Testament itself furnishes proof enough, and more than enough, of the persecutions which.were the seventh sign. In Act_4:3-7 we read of the Apostles Peter and John being arrested, thrown into prison, and brought before the Sanhedrim; in Act_5:18 we read that they "laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison," and at the twenty-seventh verse of the same chapter that they "brought them and set them before the council;" in Act_16:23, Act_16:24, that they "laid many stripes upon them Paul and Silas, and cast them into prison," where the jailor "thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks;" in Act_18:12 of Paul being brought to the judgment, and in Act_23:1 of his appearing before the council and being smitten on the mouth, by command of the high priest Ananias. One of the duties of the Chazzan, a minister of the synagogue, was to exercise discipline, and of this Paul had his share, when, as he tells us, "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one;" and again, "Thrice was I beaten with rods." The eiv before "synagogues" is pregnant, implying that they were previously brought into the synagogues and then beaten therein. The distinction that makes eiv refer to the persons present before whose eyes the punishment was inflicted, while en only indicates the place, is more than doubtful. Again, St. Paul affords an exemplification of the succeeding statement that they should "be brought before rulers and kings," having appeared before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa in succession, as recorded in Acts 24-26; also before Nero, as we may infer from 2Ti_4:16, 2Ti_4:17, where he speaks of his first answer, and of being delivered out of the mouth of the lion. Of apostasies, the eighth sign, we have both direct and indirect evidence. The latter is found in the many and earnest warnings which the Epistle to the Hebrews contains against such, while evidence of the former kind is supplied by the heathen historian Tacitus. The rapid progress which the preaching of the gospel had made, notwithstanding all the opposition and hindrances, and cruel persecutions, and sad apostasies, is perhaps the most surprising fact of all; while of this we have such incidental notices as the following: faith is spoken of throughout the whole world," writes St. Paul to the Romans; to the Galatians he writes of his own circuit to Arabia, back to Damascus, and then to the head-quarters in Jerusalem; to the Colossians he says of "the Word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you;" and again, in the same chapter, (Col_1:23) he speaks of the hope of the gospel, and adds, "which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven." Thus was verified the ninth sign.
III THE MORAL LESSONS INTERSPERSED.
1. Practical directions. With the important predictions of this section, and indeed of the whole chapter, practical directions of greatest consequence are blended. Similarly, in the writings of the apostles, we usually find along with exposition of doctrine the enforcement of duty. The principal practical directions of our Lord in this portion of Scripture are mostly of the nature of moral lessons, and are the following: Heedfulness, which is several times repeated in the course of the chapter; needfulness of perseverance; prayerfulness; and watchfulness. Other lessons of great practical importance, though expressed rather as categorical statements or predictions than in the form of directions like those enumerated, are contained in it.
2. The first of these great moral lessons. The first of these lessons occurs in the fifth verse, in the words, "Take heed lest any man deceive you." The same, though slightly altered, and in a somewhat different connection, occurs in the ninth verse, in the words, "But take heed to yourselves;" again, in the twenty-third verse, we read, "But take ye heed;" and once more, in the thirty-third verse, it is set as a preface or introduction to other duties: "Take ye heed, watch and pray." In its first occurrence, it warns the disciples against being deceived by others; in the second, it cautions them in reference to their own deportment; in its third occurrence, it calls on them to do their duty, as the Savior had done his by them in full predictions and directions; while, in its last occurrence in the chapter, its repetition seems designed to add emphasis to the injunctions immediately coming after. This first lesson is as elastic in its application as practical in its nature, which is manifest from the varying context with which it is connected. In its first context in this chapter, it puts us on our guard against deception. As originally applied, it warned the disciples against pretenders to Messiahship competitive claimants to that dignity, or rather personators of Christ himself, alleging they were himself returned again, according to the promise of his second advent. But in principle and spirit it applies to ourselves, and is needed by Christians at all times. In a world like this, where so many things are not what they seem, we are required to be upon our guard. Satan is watching to impose on us with his lies, and deceive us to our destruction; we must beware of him. Sinners are waiting to deceive us by their enticement; we must beware of them, and when they entice us not yield consent. Sin itself contains the very essence of deception. It promises pleasures; but the pleasures of sin last only for a season, and that season is a short one, while during that season, short as it is, they do not satisfy. Often instead of pleasure it brings us pain; and it is always pain in the end. In the second of its occurrences, as above specified, the warning related to the deportment of the disciples themselves, in the extremely trying circumstances in which they would often find themselves placed. Other perils and other unsettling circumstances were of a general nature; their attention is now claimed for those more imminent and more immediately affecting themselves. When arraigned before councils or shamefully maltreated in synagogues, when scourged or scorned, amid indignities and insults and injuries, it behoved them, after their Master"s example, to bear themselves bravely; when they suffered, to forbear threatening; when evil entreated, to bear up with patience and meekness as well as fortitude. When brought before rulers and kings, magistrates of the lowest and highest rank, they are reminded of the duty then especially incumbent on them to be valiant for the truth. They were to take heed to themselves, that no unfaithfulness on their part should mar their message which they had for men, high or low, rich or poor, foes or friends, or induce them to keep back aught of the testimony they had to bear. Nay, more, they were to take heed to themselves lest they should esteem Christ"s yoke a weariness, or duty to him a drudgery; but, on the contrary, to consider it a privilege to have an opportunity to testify to his cause and claims, however perilous or painful the position. In like manner, whenever opportunity is fairly afforded us to present Christ"s claims, or plead his cause, or testify to the truth of his religion, it is incumbent on us joyfully to avail ourselves of it, faithfully to declare the whole counsel of God, to stand up bravely for the truth, and to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
3. The second great moral lesson. The second of these lessons is, as already intimated, the necessity of perseverance. "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." This, in the first instance, was applicable to the apostles, and peculiarly appropriate in their case; but it has a wider scope and more general bearing. It warns against that fickleness which enters on the path of duty with eagerness and seeming earnestness, it may be, but speedily turns aside, as did the Galatians, of whom the apostle had reason to complain, "Ye did run well, but something hindered you." It cautions us against putting our hand to the plough and then turning back, as many do when they realize the arduous nature of the work, or when some discouragement comes in their way, or some formidable obstacle has to be encountered. It urges us to endurance amid the toils, the trials, the troubles, the many perplexities, the sore sufferings, and manifold afflictions which the Christian has to endure during this mortal life and strife. It exhorts us to patience, withal; we are to endure patiently, that is to say, unmurmuringly. Some endure, indeed, but their endurance loses half its virtue through the complaining and frettings that accompany it. Further, it encourages us to-perseverance a manful holding out to the last, and to a brave persistence in the way and work of God, however arduous our task may be, and however difficult or dangerous the path we have to travel. In a word, we are to stand fast in the faith, quit us like men, and be strong." The path of duty here, as elsewhere and often, shall prove the way of safety. If we suffer with him, we shall reign with him; if we bear the cross, we shall wear the crown. "Then steadfast let us still remain, Though dangers rise around, And in the work prescribed by God Yet more and more abound; Assured that, though we labor now, We labor not in vain; But, through the grace of heaven"s great Lord, Th" eternal crown shall gain. J.J.G.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings…
Mar_13:1-2
Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here.
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Men admiring doomed things
What manner of stones, and what buildings are here! An outburst of admiration this. The stones were indeed beautiful. That sacred building was constructed of prodigious blocks of white marble, some of which seem to have been upwards of thirty feet long, eighteen broad, and sixteen thick. They did not view the temple in the light in which Christ viewed it. It is worthy of note that Christ, in His discourse, speaks in a very different spirit of doomed things to what He does of doomed people. Mind was infinitely more interesting to Him than masonry. When He refers to the temple He says, As for these things with an air of comparative indifference; but when He refers to doomed people He weeps, and says, O Jerusalem, etc. The language of Christ and His disciples here will apply-
I. To secular interests, which are doomed things. Markets, governments, navies, and armies are doomed.
II. To artistic productions, which are doomed things.
III. To social distinctions, which are doomed things.
IV. To religious systems, which are doomed things.
V. To the world itself, which is a doomed thing. Why set your hearts on doomed things? (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The destruction of Jerusalem
It is interesting to mark the site and trace the history of edifices built for God, some of which have been signally honoured by Him. The temple at Jerusalem was one of these. It stood contemporary with great events, and was the scene, for four hundred years, of the perpetual sacrifices, those august national solemnities, the divinely appointed services that distinguished the worship of the God of Israel. But that which piety erects, sin often lays in ruins. This temple accomplished its service and shared in the national fall, when the people by whom it had been profaned were carried to their seventy years captivity. The second temple was designated to still higher distinction, inasmuch as it was that which Messiahs feet trod, and within whose walls He joined as a worshipper. What have been the bearings of the destruction of Jerusalem, upon Christianity on the one hand, and Judaism on the other?
I. This event furnished a most striking proof of the truth of our Lords predictions and consequently of His Divine mission and authority.
II. The destruction of Jerusalem served a most important purpose in reference to Christianity, by liberalising the minds of the believers and particularly by emancipating the Jewish converts from the authority of the Mosaic ritual.
III. The destruction of Jerusalem, by weaning the believing Hebrews from their national attachments, and scattering them abroad in the earth, contributed essentially to the diffusion of the knowledge and influence of the gospel. But what are its bearings upon Judaism?
1. Whether the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews is not to be regarded as an act of righteous judgment upon the nation, incurred by the dreadful crime of rejecting the promised Messiah?
2. I ask whether the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple was not a clear intimation of the final abolition of the Mosaic economy? Here only could the sacrifices be offered, so that when it was destroyed, the institution itself was abolished. (H. Gray, D. D.)
The discipline of destruction
For as a physician, by breaking the cup, prevents his patient from indulging his appetite in a hurtful draught, so God withheld them from their sacrifices by destroying the city itself, and making the place inaccessible to all of them. (Warburtons Julian.)
The ruins of the earthly Jerusalem
In the very ruins of the earthly Jerusalem you will find a salutary memorial, not only of the transitory character of all this worlds glory, but of the exchange of the shadow for the substance; of the introduction of that kingdom which is not of this world, and of that temple, built upon everlasting foundations, in which all believers are living stones, fashioned after the model of the chief cornerstone, even Jesus Christ. (H. Gray.)
The religious use of archeology
What is the true religious aspect of archaeology? We must all profit by that warning voice which did for a moment check the enthusiasm of the antiquarian disciple. The admiration for stones and buildings, however innocent and useful, is yet not religion. The regard for antiquity and the love of the past, if pushed to excess, have often been the ruin of religion. Christianity is not antiquarianism, and antiquarianism is not Christianity. There must be times and places when antiquity must give way to truth, and the beauty of form to the beauty of holiness, and the charm of poetic and historic recollections to the stern necessities of fact and duty. It is well to remember that there is something more enduring than the stones of the temple. If archaeology is not everything, it is at least something.
I. It awakens that love of the past which is so necessary a counterpoise to the excitement of the present and the future. I have considered, says the Psalmist, the days of old, the years of the ancient time. They were to him as a cool shade, a calm haven. The study of them carries us back from the days of the man to the days of the child; it opens to us a fresh world; it makes us feel that we do not stand alone in our generation on the earth, but that under God, we are what we are because of the deeds and thoughts of those who have lived before us, and to whom we thus owe a debt which we have constantly to repay to our posterity. How this insight into the past has been increased in our own age. Not only Greeks and Romans, but Egyptians and Assyrians, are familiar to us in this century.
II. The importance of these studies in developing those rarest of Gods gifts to man, a love of truth, and a love of justice-the will and the power to see things as they really are, and in their just proportions to one another.
III. The more thoroughly we can understand these ancient forms, the more eagerly we can restore and beautify ancient buildings, so much the better is the framework prepared for the reception of new thoughts and new ideas. It has been sometimes said that the great periods of building and of admiration for the past have been the precursors of the fall of the religion of the nations which they represented. It has been said, for example, that the burst of splendid architecture under the Herods, immediately preceded the fall of Judaism; that the like display under the Antonii preceded the fall of Paganism; that the like display at the beginning of the sixteenth century preceded the fall of the Church of the middle ages. There is no doubt a truth in this. There is a tendency in an expiring system to develop itself in outward form, when its inward spirit has died away. But this is not at all the whole truth, and the higher truth is something quite different, namely, that these magnificent displays of art, these profound investigations into the past, in those eras of which I have spoken, were part of the same throes, of the same mind and spirit, which accompanied the birth of the new and higher religion, which in each case succeeded. Those Augustan buildings suggested to the apostles hearts the imagery by which they expressed the most sublime of spiritual truths. The chief cornerstone; the stones joined and compacted together; the pillars which were never to be moved; the whole idea of what the apostles called edification,-that most expressive word when we understand it rightly-the architecture, so to speak, of the Christian soul-all these images were drawn from the superb edifices which everywhere rose before the apostles eyes. And so in the last great efflorescence of mediaeval architecture, religion, instead of dying out with that effort, took a third start throughout Europe. Oh! may God grant that the glory of the third temple, the glory of the living temple, may as much exceed the glory of the second, as the glory of the second exceeded the glory of the first! Cast not away the old, but see what it means, see what it embraces, see what it indicates, See what manner of stones and what buildings are here, and then, as in the case of sacred and of ancient words, so also in the case of sacred and ancient edifices, they will become as Luther said of words, not dead stones but living creatures with hands and feet; living stones which will cry out with a thousand voices; stones which will be full of sermons; dry bones which when we prophesy over them, will stand on their feet an exceeding great army; ancient, everlasting gates, which shall turn upon their rusty hinges and lift up their hoary doors that the Lord of Hosts may come in; a heavenly city within the earthly city, a city which hath foundations deeper than any earthly foundations, a city whose builder and maker is God! (Dean Stanley.)
Ruin ever near
Jesus and the disciples of Jesus differ in just this way about the strength and durability of a great many things in this world. The disciples point to the wealth of the millionaire, to the reputation of a man of worldwide fame, to the influence of a popular leader, to the power of a national government, to the strength of some system of wrong; and they say, Behold what manner of stones and what manner of buildings! Jesus says, There shall not be left here one stone upon another. And the word of Jesus never fails. Wealth is no sure support even for the life that now is. The splendid fabric of a fortune, which a man has toiled a life through to give as an inheritance to his family, crumbles in a night, and the millionaires children are beggars, or worse. The man whom all the world honoured has become a by-word of the scoffer and jester. He who swayed multitudes at his will, and who defied the voice of an outraged public sentiment, is a wretched outcast denied help or pity from the very creatures of his influence. A system of iniquity edged in by law, and venerable for ages, is overthrown and swept away as by the breath of Omnipotence. No nation on earth, today, is beyond the possibility of ruin tomorrow. A few pounds of dynamite may scatter the last vestiges of the strongest dynasty. The traditions of the ages, the superstitions of entire races, ignorance, vice, evil in high places, Satan himself, and all his hosts combined, cannot keep one stone on another, when the word of God is spoken for the fabrics fall. If we only really believed this truth, which is as true as any other truth of God, and which has been verified anew before our own eyes again and again in the present generation, how much more restful we should be, and how much more courage we should have. (Sunday School Times.)
Gods great judgment on Israel
Privilege and responsibility go hand in hand, and the higher the opportunity, the greater the penalty for neglecting to improve it. The occasion of the uttering of this prediction is suggestive. The Saviour had marvelled at the widows mite; the disciples marvel at the temples magnificence. Forty and six years had the temple been in building, and had not long been completed. Occupying a site which seemed impregnable, its massive structure seemed to defy the destructive arts of war, while the exquisite beauty of its golden roof, of its courts, of its cloisters, of its pillars, of its gates, made it one of the wonders of the world. As today, a visitor to the cathedral of St. Isaacs, at St. Petersburg, would mark outside the great pillars, made of single stones of granite, and within the marvellous pillars of Malachite and Lapis Lazuli, so the twelve point to stones of vast dimensions and beautiful in their veins and workmanship, and ask His admiration at once for these individual stones, and for the whole temple, which, like a jewel, crowned that hill of Zion, which the Psalmist had thought so beautiful for situation. It was a time of peace, for the horrors of war were being forgotten as a troubled dream. The absorption of Judaea in the Roman Empire seemed to promise a degree of security, which would be not an altogether unsatisfactory compensation for the loss of dignity of freedom. Just as our rule in India prevents wars amongst the various nations peopling that continent, so The Roman peace, as it has been termed, prevailed between and blessed the various peoples blended together in the great Roman Empire. The scene was made more impressive by the multitudes from every land who had gathered to the feast, wearing various costumes, speaking various languages. The candid observer would regret the absence of many of the signs of devotion he had hoped to find; but would at the same time indulge the feeling that there must be some vitality in the religion which felt such a mighty attraction to the House of God. A nation so united in what was deepest and holiest could not, he would think, fail to have some future still awaiting it. And whether the cloudless sun gilded the scene of cheerful activity, or the silver light of the passover full moon rested like a benediction on the whole, hope rather than solicitude would fill his heart; and the holiest spot on earth would seem destined to wear an eternal bloom of glory. Unexpected by His hearers, Christs words thrill them with horror. We still feel Christs sayings hard. We still find, on earnest study, that some hard sayings are yet helpful.
1. Taste is not everything in religion. The temple of Jerusalem was perhaps the most beautiful religious building ever raised by men; yet it was built by Herod the Great, a man as wicked in his life as he was exquisite in his taste. And all this beauty is so valueless in Gods sight that, costly and marvellous as it was, it had no endurance, but like the grass of the housetop, which withereth afore it groweth up, the world had hardly time to marvel at its aspect before they lamented its end. The true beauty of a church is that of hearts: the kindly thought, the gracious prayer, the consecrated life.
2. There is only one thing that can give endurance-righteousness. Where it is absent, nothing can secure man, city, or institution from a grave fate. So the Saviour begins His teaching on the judgment of Jerusalem. Was it any wonder that, sickened with the thought of such calamity, Christ could not enjoy the outward beauty of the temple as others did? (R. Glover.)
Christs double prophecy
The difficulty in explaining this discourse of our Lord lies in the appropriateness of its terms to two distinct and distant events,-the end of the world and the destruction of Jerusalem. But whether we assume, with some interpreters, that the one catastrophe was meant to typify the other; or, with another class, that the discourse may be mechanically divided by assuming a transition, at a certain point, from one of these great subjects to the other; or, with a third, that it describes a sequence of events to be repeated more than once, a prediction to be verified, not once for all, nor yet by a continuous progressive series of events, but in stages and at intervals, like repeated flashes of lightning, or the periodical germination of the fig tree, or the reassembling of the birds of prey whenever and wherever a new carcass tempts them; upon any of these various suppositions it is still true that the primary fulfilment of the prophecy was in the downfall of the Jewish state, with the previous or accompanying change of dispensations; and yet that it was so framed as to leave it doubtful until the event, whether a still more terrible catastrophe was not intended. However clear the contrary may now seem to us, there was nothing absurd in the opinion which so many entertained that the end of the world and of the old economy might be coincident. This ambiguity is not accidental, but designed, as in many other prophecies of Scripture. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.)
Beauty of Jerusalem
When I stood that morning on the brow of Olivet, and looked down on the city crowning those battlemented heights, encircled by those deep and dark ravines, I involuntarily exclaimed, Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. And as I gazed, the red rays of the rising sun shed a halo round the top of the castle of David; then they tipped with gold each tapering minaret, and gilded each dome of mosque and church, and at length bathed in one flood of ruddy light the terraced roofs of the city, and the grass and foliage, the cupolas, pavements, and colossal walls of the Haram. No human being could be disappointed who first saw Jerusalem from Olivet. (Dr. Porter.)
Trouble just ahead
The chapter now coming under our perusal for two Sundays in succession, is not easy of interpretation in a good many of its particulars, because the suggestions of doctrine glide so imperceptibly and fitfully between the predictions of Jerusalems downfall and the prophecies of the worlds end that we cannot always fix their exact application. It appears as if it might be as well on the present occasion to occupy ourselves with what is plain and practical, and not lose our time in speculation upon what is not certainly revealed.
I. We learn, in the beginning, that Jerusalem was openly announced as doomed to fall before it fell. Some specific incidents were related beforehand which would test the prophetic power of Jesus Christ there at once, and put within reach of His disciples a confutation or a confirmation of His claims. It hardly needs to be stated, for the whole matter is so familiar, that the predictions of this citys overthrow showed that our Lord spoke with a perfect knowledge of the events He mentioned as coming on the earth. The site of that old town is a well-known fact; no one thinks of disputing the locality. The historic books of the Jews tell how Jerusalem was overthrown by the Romans. Any one can ask and answer whether the stones are large, whether they are in position or not. The city lies on heaps. Mount Zion is ploughed. The temple is gone. Those vast walls are scattered. Some few stones of prodigious size yet remain in what were the foundations of the edifices, and in the cavernous substructions underground. No one can pass out of the modern Jaffa gate, and push on around along the declivity of Zion till he enters again the gate of Stephen, without unconsciously saying to himself, See what manner of stones!
II. We learn, next, as we continue to read the verses (verses 3, 4), that it is lawful to inquire for the time of fulfilment of scriptural prophecy. It is not right to attempt to set it, but if it can be ascertained, so much the better for our understanding, and in that direction our duty lies. Christ makes no rebuke for what some consider their curiosity. On the contrary, He tells them most important facts concerning the great times coming.
III. We learn also, just here, that there will be one special token of the worlds end which will not fail: the gospel must first be published among all nations (verse 10): Very carefully chosen is this phraseology. We are not told that all the nations are to be converted by the gospel before the true Christ shall come again, but that they are all to hear it. It would seem as if it could not be a difficult thing to decide so evident a fact as this assumes, whenever it should occur. Most of us would, no doubt, be surprised to learn how many of the nations on the face of the earth have, really, already heard the tidings of salvation; and it is not impossible that the joyous moment is very nigh. It is time, certainly, to be thoughtful. It is within the memory of almost all of us that the fixed, and with some good old men the stereotyped, prayer for monthly concert, for many a year, was that God would open China to the gospel, and break down the barriers in Japan. Now there is in all the world nothing in the way except the hardness of mens hearts. Growth has been made in evangelizing effort that startles us when we think of it. Lately, the sudden conversion of nations in a day, as once seemed to be the case in Madagascar, has come to appear less and less strange. Spiritual uprisings of whole peoples at a time have been recorded in our generation.
IV. We learn, also, that when the end of the world draws nigh, it will be heralded and accompanied with most dire convulsions and troubles (verses 19, 20).
VI. So we are ready for our final lesson from the passage: man need to prepare for such a day as this before it shall prove to be too late. It is easy for us to see now the relevancy of what has been given us as the golden text (Pro_22:3), A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself. There is but one refuge for any human soul: Christ is our hiding place; He will preserve us from trouble (Psa_32:7). If we believe in Him, we are safe. It is revealed in the Scriptures that the coming of our Lord to judge the world will find men in a condition of apathy and listlessness. They will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, as they were in Noahs time (Mat_24:37-39). They will be buying and selling, planting and building, as they were in Lots time (Luk_17:28-30). Better for us who are studying to know Gods will this impressive hour to call on the Lord at once, and be secure. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Chapter 13
Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13:1-7 (Mar_13:1-7)
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THINGS PERISHING AND THINGS STABLE
"And as He went forth out of the temple, one of His disciples saith unto Him, Master, behold, what manner of stones and what manner of buildings! And Jesus said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left here one stone upon another, which shall not be thrown down. And as He sat on the Mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked Him privately, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when these things are all about to be accomplished? And Jesus began to say unto them, Take heed that no man lead you astray. Many shall come in My name, saying, I am He; and shall lead many astray. And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be not troubled: these things must needs come to pass: but the end is not yet." Mar_13:1-7 (R.V.)
NOTHING is more impressive than to stand before one of the great buildings of the world, and mark how the toil of man has rivaled the stability of nature, and his thought its grandeur. It stands up like a crag, and the wind whistles through its pinnacles as in a grove, and the rooks float and soar about its towers as they do among the granite peaks. Face to face with one of these mighty structures, man feels his own pettiness, shivering in the wind, or seeking a shadow from the sun, and thinking how even this breeze may blight or this heat fever him, and how at the longest he shall have crumbled into dust for ages, and his name, and possibly his race, have perished, while this same pile shall stretch the same long shadow across the plain.
No wonder that the great masters of nations have all delighted in building, for thus they saw their power, and the immortality for which they hoped, made solid, embodied and substantial, and it almost seemed as if they had blended their memory with the enduring fabric of the world.
Such a building, solid, and vast, and splendid, white with marble, and blazing with gold, was the temple which Jesus now forsook. A little afterwards, we read that its Roman conqueror, whose race were the great builders of the world, in spite of the rules of war, and the certainty that the Jews would never remain quietly in subjection while it stood, "was reluctant to burn down so vast a work as this, since this would be a mischief to the Romans themselves, as it would be an ornament to their government while it lasted."
No wonder, then, that one of the disciples, who had seen Jesus weep for its approaching ruin, and who now followed His steps as He left it desolate, lingered, and spoke as if in longing and appeal, "Master, see what manner of stones, and what manner of buildings."
But to the eyes of Jesus all was evanescent as a bubble, doomed and about to perish: "Seest thou these great buildings, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down."
The words were appropriate to His solemn mood, for He had just denounced its guilt and flung its splendor from Him, calling it no longer "My house," nor "My Father's house," but saying, "Your house is left unto you desolate." Little could all the solid strength of the very foundations of the world itself avail against the thunderbolt of God. Moreover, it was a time when He felt most keenly the consecration, the approaching surrender of His own life. In such an hour no splendors distract the penetrating vision; all the world is brief and frail and hollow to the man who has consciously given himself to God. It was the fitting moment at which to utter such a prophecy.
But, as He sat on the opposite slope, and gazed back upon the towers that were to fall, His three favored disciples and Andrew came to ask Him privately when should these things be, and what would be the sign of their approach.
It is the common assertion of all unbelievers that the prophecy which followed has been composed since what passes for its fulfillment. When Jesus was murdered, and a terrible fate befell the guilty city, what more natural than to connect the two events? And how easily would a legend spring up that the sufferer foretold the penalty? But there is an obvious and complete reply. The prediction is too mysterious, its outlines are too obscure; and the ruin of Jerusalem is too inexplicable complicated with the final visitation of the whole earth, to be the issue of any vindictive imagination working with the history in view.
We are sometimes tempted to complain of this obscurity. But in truth it is wholesome and designed. We need not ask whether the original discourse was thus ambiguous, or they are right who suppose that a veil has since been drawn between us and a portion of the answer given by Jesus to His disciples. We know as much as it is meant that we should know. And this at least is plain, that any process of conscious or unconscious invention, working backwards after Jerusalem fell, would have given us far more explicit predictions than we possess. And, moreover, that what we lose in gratification of our curiosity, we gain in personal warning to walk warily and vigilantly.
Jesus did not answer the question, When shall these things be? But He declared, to men who wondered at the overthrow of their splendid temple, that all earthly splendors must perish. And He revealed to them where true permanence may be discovered. These are two of the central thoughts of the discourse, and they are worthy of much more attention from its students than they commonly receive, being overlooked in the universal eagerness "to know the times and the seasons." They come to the surface in the distinct words, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away."
Now, if we are to think of this great prophecy as a lurid reflection thrown back by later superstition on the storm-clouds of the nation's fall, how shall we account for its solemn and pensive mood, utterly free from vindictiveness, entirely suited to Jesus as we think of Him, when leaving forever the dishonored shrine, and moving forward, as His meditations would surely do, beyond the occasion which evoked them? Not such is the manner of resentful controversialists, eagerly tracing imaginary judgments. They are narrow, and sharp, and sour.
1. The fall of Jerusalem blended itself, in the though of Jesus, with the catastrophe which awaits all that appears to be great and stable. Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, so that, although armies set their bodies in the gap for these, and heroes shed their blood like water, yet they are divided among themselves and cannot stand. This prediction, we must remember, was made when the iron yoke of Rome imposed quiet upon as much of the world as a Galilean was likely to take into account, and, therefore, was by no means so easy as it may now appear to us.
Nature itself should be convulsed. Earthquakes should rend the earth, blight and famine would disturb the regular course of seed-time and harvest. And these perturbations should be the working out of a stern law, and the sure token of sorer woes to come, the beginning of pangs which would usher in another dispensation, the birth-agony of a new time. A little later, and the sun should be darkened, and the moon should withdraw her light, and the stars should "be falling" from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens should be darkened. Lastly, the course of history should close, and the affairs of earth should come to an end, when the elect should be gathered together to the glorified Son of Man.
2. It was in sight of the ruin of all these things that He dared to add, My word shall not pass away.
Heresy should assail it, for many should come in the name of Christ, saying, I am He, and should lead many astray. Fierce persecutions should try His followers, and they should be led to judgment and delivered up. The worse afflictions of the heart would wring them, for brother should deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children should rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. But all should be too little to quench the immortality bestowed upon His elect. In their sore need, the Holy Ghost should speak in them: when they were caused to be put to death, he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
Now these words were treasured up as the utterances of One Who had just foretold His own approaching murder, and Who died accordingly amid circumstances full of horror and shame. Yet His followers rejoiced to think that when the sun grew dark, and the stars were falling, He should be seen in the clouds coming with great glory.
It is the reversal of human judgment: the announcement that all is stable which appears unsubstantial, and all which appears solid is about to melt like snow.
And yet the world itself has since grown old enough to know that convictions are stronger than empires, and truths than armed hosts. And this is the King of Truth. He was born and came into the world to bear witness to the truth, and every one that is of the truth heareth His voice. He is the Truth become vital, the Word which was with God in the beginning.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 1. As he went forth out of the temple.…
1. As he went forth out of the temple. This whole discourse is reported most fully by Matthew, chapter 24, on which see notes. Compare Luke 21:5–38. I only notice here what is peculiar to Mark.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Mar_13:8. Beginnings of sorrows.—Beginning of travail-pangs—the throes that are…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mar_13:8. Beginnings of sorrows.—Beginning of travail-pangs—the throes that are to issue in the regeneration of the world.
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Mar_13:9. Render: But look ye to yourselves; for they shall deliver you unto sanhedrins and unto synagogues; ye shall be beaten; and at-the-bar-of governors and kings ye shall stand on account of Me, for a testimony to them. Meaning of last clause: an opportunity will be given you of proclaiming the truth in the hearing of the highest in the land—those who, in the ordinary course of things, would be unlikely to come in contact with peasants of Galilee.
Mar_13:11. Take no thought beforehand.—Entertain no solicitude as to what, etc. Neither do ye premeditate.—Omitted in many first-rate MSS. and versions. Probably a marginal explanation of preceding clause, which eventually crept into the text.
Mar_13:13. He that shall endure unto the end.—“Here is the cardinal virtue of fortitude, the cheerful hardihood and loyal sense of duty, evinced by Christ’s faithful soldier and servant in meeting all shocks of temptation and all assaults of our enemies; for ὑπομένειν often means to bide the brunt of encounter in battle.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mar_13:1-13
(PARALLELS: Mat_24:1-14; Luk_21:5-19.)
The destruction of the Temple.—
I. The function of a prophet.—Of the three characters, Prophet, Priest, and King, which are united in the person of Christ, the first is that in which He was commonly regarded while He lived among men. The original authority of a prophet is grounded, not on the truth of his declarations concerning future events, which can never be ascertained till the accomplishment of those events, but on the proofs of his Divine mission which he offers to his immediate hearers—the signs and wonders which, in connexion with the purity of his doctrine and the holiness of his life, plainly prove him to be a teacher come from God, a prophet at least, if not more than a prophet. When, however, the miracles have done their work, and convinced the men of that generation of the prophetic character of him who performs them, there still remains the test of prophecy, strictly so called—the predictions, if the prophet have uttered any such, relating to future events, to be accomplished in due season. Many such predictions might be gathered out of our Lord’s discourses, and compared with the course of subsequent events, from the time of their delivery unto this day. None, however, will be found more interesting or more convincing than those which He delivered relating to the destruction of that very city and Temple in or near which they were uttered.
II. The prediction of Christ concerning the Temple.—Jerusalem might be called, at that time, a prosperous and flourishing city, not indeed independent, but rather strengthened than weakened by that protection which was extended over it by the Roman power. It was surrounded with lofty walls, along which numerous strong towers were erected at certain distances, according to the best methods of fortification then practised. High above all rose the Temple, at once temple and fortress, to the buildings of which belonged those immense stones which were pointed out to Christ by His disciples on this occasion. Could a finer opportunity have been offered of delivering that prediction which He had always intended to leave behind Him of the approaching destruction of both city and Temple? Or could that destruction have been announced in terms better adapted to sink down into the ears of His disciples? When a building, especially one of the size and massive construction of the Temple, is suffered to fall into decay, its destruction is slow and gradual; and long after the more perishable portions have disappeared the walls remain standing, to shew the form and dimensions of the structure when entire. Even when these have fallen down the foundations continue unimpaired; and no degree of dilapidation, nothing but extreme violence and a deliberate intention to destroy, can ever reduce such an edifice to the state here described. It is manifest, therefore, and must have been manifest to Christ’s hearers, that He spoke of no ravages of time, no process of decay, but of brute force and hostile assaults, when He used this image.
III. The fulfilment of this prediction.—Pass over a period of forty years, and view Jerusalem, as had been foretold of it, compassed with armies, the armies of the Romans under Titus. After several delays, occasioned by the unsettled state of the Roman Government, Vespasian was at last confirmed in the imperial throne, and his son Titus was sent to command the armies in Judea. The days of Jerusalem were now numbered. Failing to take the city by assault, Titus proceeded to surround the entire compass of it with a wall, thereby fulfilling a part of our Lord’s description (Luk_19:43). The inhabitants being thus without the possibility of escape, and all supplies being cut off, the accomplishment of the rest of the prophecy could not be far off. It was hastened by the conduct of the people themselves. Instead of uniting, as one man, in the defence of the city, they weakened themselves by mutual factions and divisions, insomuch that within the short space of five months the city was taken, and the work of destruction begun. It is recorded that Titus himself was very desirous of preserving the Temple as a monument of Roman power and prowess, but was unable to restrain his own soldiers, who, in the heat and excitement of victory, set fire to it, and resisted all attempts to extinguish the conflagration. The preservation of these great buildings being thus rendered impossible, we read that the Roman general, foiled in his first design, now gave orders to complete the demolition both of the city and Temple by actually digging up and levelling the foundations of them; thus, almost literally, leaving “not one stone upon another.”
Lessons.—
1. How differently would things strike us if we could only look forward a few years! What a world of changes do we live in! Desire and seek after “durable riches,” a “building of God,” a “good foundation laid up in store against the time to come.”
2. In connexion with the punishment inflicted on Jerusalem, reflect on our own responsibility as having succeeded to those privileges of which the Jews were dispossessed. Beware of defiling “the temple of the living God.”
3. Where is this temple to be seen in its perfection? Not, will each of us be ready to reply, not in me, nor in my sin-stained, blood-guilty soul. When I look into myself I see a temple indeed, but a temple in ruins; a shrine from which the Divinity has departed; a perverse will, unruly passions, wayward and unsanctified affections; in a word, of that noble fabric which was dedicated to God in baptism, and has been since adorned with so many “gifts of the Holy Ghost,” not one stone is left upon another. I see, and mourn; but I do not despair. The tears of the Christian over the breaches and decays of his spiritual temple are the appointed means by which, under God, those breaches are to be healed, and the whole building restored to its original use, and, if possible, to more than its original beauty.—F. Field, LL.D.
Warning, promise, and encouragement.—There is nothing in these words to encourage speculation, much to induce and strengthen that practical temper and habit, the habit of duty and loyal obedience, in which there lives far more real religion than in all the pious and laborious conjectures good men have framed, and which they sometimes attempt to palm off as infallible certainties on an astonished Church, or world.
I. The warning I take to be that we are to wait with patience for the orderly providential unfolding of the Divine counsel, instead of impatiently jumping at hasty and misleading conclusions. The conceited temper which speaks as though it had been admitted to the secret council-chamber of heaven; the curious temper which is for ever prying into futurity, and busies itself with speculation instead of with the rules of holy living and the problems of obedience; the hasty temper which is impatient for results, and wants to see trees bearing fruit as soon as they are planted; and the faithless temper which is always seeking proofs and signs, and confounds seeing with believing, are all rebuked by this grave and kindly warning.
II. The promise I take to be that to all faithful and obedient souls, thus waiting with patience on God amid many tribulations and disappointments, too occupied with duty and service to let their hearts grow sick with hope deferred, a Divine guidance and help will be vouchsafed, answering to every need. Loyalty to Christ under hard conditions, and when we fall on evil times, will expose us to many tribulations—to loss, contumely, and the alienation of friends. But these very tribulations are part of the discipline by which God is making us constant and making us perfect, by which He is preparing us for salvation and life. And meantime, even in our darkest hours and most dejected moods, He is with us to guide and sustain us, to teach us what to say and what to do.
III. The encouragement I take to be that the tribulations of this present time are designed to usher in, to prepare for us and to prepare us for, a better time, a golden age, which shall have no end. This regeneration is our great hope, our great encouragement, under the toils, often unrequited, of time, under all its changes and catastrophes, under the oppressive sense of its manifold evils, sorrows, wrongs. We look for a time, we believe it to be the purpose of God that a time shall come, in which evil will be overcome of good, and death be swallowed up of life, in which not we alone shall be blessed, but all men will be drawn into the service, love, and peace of God. And if we really believe this to be the end to which the love and providence of God are pressing forward through all the vicissitudes and tribulations of time, for the joy set before us, we may well rejoice in our tribulations and toils, even though we do not know when the end will be reached, or what will be the signs of its approach.—S. Cox, D.D.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mar_13:1-2. The spiritual temple.—
1. The world admires a stately and magnificent temple; but the temple which attracts the eyes and the heart of Christ, as worthy of God and framed by His Spirit, is a heart which resembles that of this poor widow, a heart consecrated by charity, wherein God makes His abode, and in which this virtue worships Him, sacrifices itself to Him, mourns continually in His presence, and there feeds upon His Divine Word.
2. Christ bears with the simplicity of His disciples, who would have Him admire a temple of which He was Himself the model, and which was only a figure of His body; but He makes use of this simplicity to instruct them, to take off their minds from this visible temple, and to give them a foresight of that justice which He was to exercise upon this building, on account of the Jews. Nothing of that which is to be destroyed is worthy to be the true temple of God. It is in a poor and humble heart that Hedelights to dwell.—P. Quesnel.
Mar_13:5-13. This prophecy a proof of Christ’s Divinity.—This prophecy is one of the clearest and surest in the Bible, and has ever been regarded by Christians as a decisive proof of the Divine mission of their Lord. In a time of peace He predicted war. When there were only visible signs of prosperity, He foretold speedy destruction. When the disciples were few, He declared that the gospel would soon be proclaimed to distant nations. When the apostles were about to forsake Him, seeking safety by flight, He said that ere long many would be willing to die for His name. When there were no outward indications of success, He spoke with perfect confidence of the establishment of His kingdom. He taught the disciples that its nature was different from their hopes, being more excellent; and the means of its promotion different from their expectations, being more effective. Knowing that after two days He should be crucified, and declaring this to the disciples, He expressed to them the full assurance of the triumph of His kingdom, by means of which the history of the world afforded no example; and of their salvation, through sufferings which they feared to anticipate. He gave them that knowledge, and only that, which was useful to them; and referred to their coming trials with the firmest faith and the most tender sympathy. He announced the retribution which would come on His adversaries, without any personal resentment, stating it to be the righteous judgment of God, but manifesting compassion even for those whose sins brought upon themselves destruction. Such were the words of Jesus; and His words were fulfilled. Looking only to this one prophecy, we say with those who witnessed the Crucifixion, “Truly this is the Son of God.”—J. H. Godwin.
Mar_13:5-6. The danger of being led astray.—It is quite as important not to be led astray by false religious teachers as by any other class of deceivers or deceived; and there is quite as much danger in this line as in any other. Sincerity on our part is no guard against deception or wandering; nor is sincerity a safeguard to a religious teacher. Those who are themselves both honest and sincere would lead us astray if we followed them in their wrong path. There is danger of our being led astray by the sermons we hear, the papers or the books we read, the counsel or example of those whom we have supposed to be godly, or by the impulses or convictions of our own minds and hearts. There is such a thing as conscientious error-teaching and devil-serving. The warning of Jesus is, that ye take heed that no man lead you astray in doctrine or morals, through holding up a false standard of conduct, or a false interpretation of God’s Word.
Mar_13:6. “I am Christ.”—Imposture will always take its clue from antecedent reality; its work is that of distortion, not of invention (Act_19:13; 2Ti_2:18; 2Pe_3:16).—J. Miller.
Mar_13:11. Divine source of apostolic sufficiency.—Christ chose poor fishermen to shew that however insufficient soever He received them, yet He received them into such a school, such an university, as would deliver them back into His Church, made fit by Him for the service thereof. Christ needed not man’s sufficiency; He took insufficient men. Christ excuses no man’s insufficiency; He made them sufficient (Mar_16:20; Act_4:13; Exo_4:10-12; 2Co_4:7).—John Donne, D.D.
Mar_13:12. Christianity the cause of division.—As Christianity gives birth to and cherishes the most perfect love, so it calls forth the most bitter hatred. It calls forth a love which is above nature, because it makes men love their enemies. Contrariwise it calls forth a hatred which is unnatural; for it made, and yet makes, men hate and betray, and, if they can, destroy their own flesh and blood. Thus we read that the Emperor Domitian, in his hatred of the Christian name, slew Flavius Clemens and his niece, or near relation Flavia Domitilla; the Emperor Maximin martyred Artemia, his own sister; and Diocletian slew his own wife and other relatives. St. Barbara also was killed by her own father; and if we had a full martyrology of obscure Christians, we should find multitudes of others similarly betrayed by their own flesh and blood. We are told by Indian missionaries that as soon as converts are baptised they become objects of hatred to their nearest relatives; even their wives often desert them. Now if this be so in a country where Christianity is the religion of the rulers, what would it be if heathenism were unchecked in its power of persecution?—M. F. Sadler.
Mar_13:13. Incentives to perseverance.—
1. Of all afflictions and troubles, those are the most comfortable to suffer and endure which are suffered for Christ.
2. By these kinds of sufferings we glorify God, and bring honour to the name of Christ, and credit to the gospel, more than by any other sufferings.
3. It is a most honourable thing unto us, yea, the greatest glory that may be in this world, to suffer anything for Christ.
4. Consider how much Christ has suffered for us, and for our salvation; how great reproach and shame; what bitter pain and torment of soul and body; and let this move us patiently and willingly to suffer any persecution and trouble for His sake.
5. Consider how much wicked men suffer in the practice of sin, and to satisfy their wicked lusts, and let this move us to suffer any persecution for Christ.
6. Consider the great and excellent reward promised to those who endure for Christ’s sake.—G. Petter.
Persecution a trial to perseverance.—There are persecutions and persecutions—great and bloody persecutions such as a Nero or a Decius could inaugurate on an imposing scale; and, as we know, petty persecutions, which are all that is permitted to the native ferocity of the persecuting temper by the milder manners of a more civilised age. But persecution, whatever its scale, is a trial to perseverance. Persecution is in any case friction; and, as we all know, friction, if only it be continued long enough, brings movement to a standstill, unless there be a new supply of the impelling force. Men who have done much for Christ have given up at the last under the stress of relentless persecution. And perhaps petty persecutions are more trying to perseverance, in some ways, than great ones. Men who have not flinched from the axe or from the stake will yield to the incessant worry of domestic or local tyranny—to the persecutions which make home wretched, or the office, or the shop, or the dormitory wellnigh intolerable. Why do we pray in the Church service that “the evils which the craft and subtlety of the devil or man worketh against us be brought to naught, and, by the providence of God’s goodness, may be dispersed?” It is that we, His servants, “being hurt by no persecutions, may evermore give thanks unto Him in His holy Church.” In other words, it is because persecution involves a serious risk to perseverance.—Canon Liddon.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 13
Mar_13:7-8. The sorrows of war.—The conqueror of Bonaparte at Waterloo wrote, on the day after June 19th, to the Duke of Beaufort: “The losses we have sustained have quite broken me down, and I have no feeling for the advantages we have acquired.” On the same day, too, he wrote to Lord Aberdeen: “I cannot express to you the regret and sorrow with which I look round me and contemplate the loss which I have sustained, particularly in your brother. The glory resulting from such actions, so dearly bought, is no consolation to me, and I cannot suggest it as any to you and his friends; but I hope that it may be expected that this last one has been so decisive as that no doubt remains that our exertions and our individual losses will be rewarded by the early attainment of our just object. It is then that the glory of the actions in which our friends and relations have fallen will be some consolation for their loss.” He who could write thus had already attained a greater victory than that of Waterloo; and the less naturally follows the greater.
Mar_13:13. Endurance.—There was a period during the battle of Königgrätz when the attack of the Prussians seemed hopeless. Across the stream and up the long slope the battalions poured, only to be again and again repulsed by the Austrian army, and yet again and again they returned to the attack. And what was the secret that encouraged their persistence? An observer of the battle from a tall tower, at this crisis, looked eastward along the range of elevated ground which was the stronghold of the Austrians, and in the distance, from the edge of a wood, his eye caught the gleaming of bayonets. A strong body of Prussians had outflanked the Austrians, and was advancing rapidly on the rear of their position, and it was the knowledge of this flank movement of the other division of their army that gave courage and endurance to those Prussians who attacked in front. Just thus the Christian, though often disappointed with his failures in the spiritual life, yet persists in his efforts, for he knows that the irresistible force of God’s power will come to the help of His tried and tempted servants.
Constancy.—Some dyes cannot bear the weather, but alter colour presently; but there are others that, having something that gives a deeper tincture, will hold. The graces of a true Christian hold out in all sorts of weather, in winter and summer, prosperity and adversity, when superficial counterfeit holiness will give out.—R. Sibbes.
Perseverance.—“I know the way to heaven,” said little Minnie to little Johnny, who stood by her side, looking at a picture-book. “You do?” said little John. “Well, won’t you tell me how to get there?” “Oh yes! I’ll tell you. Just commence going up, and keep on going all the time, and you’ll get there. But, Johnny, you must not turn back.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain Matthew 24; Matthew 25; Mark 13; Luke 21. It…
CHAPTER 20
COMING OF THE LORD
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Matthew 24; Matthew 25; Mark 13; Luke 21. It is now in the afternoon, on Wednesday, preceding the arrest of our Savior about midnight the ensuing day, and His crucifixion the Friday following. He had spent the morning preaching to the multitudes on the Temple Campus, bidding a final adieu to the temple and its holy environments, prophesying the desolation of the temple, city, and land, and assuring them that they will see Him no more until they shall say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord;” i.e., till He comes in His glory, and the elect remnant, gathered from the ends of the earth, will thus salute their Savior, Brother, King. Having preached to the Greeks at the gate as He came out, now He goes away to the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. We are gratified to have. this wonderful sermon, which, at this time and place, He preached to His disciples about His return to the earth, recorded by three of His faithful amanuenses. As we proceed we will endeavor, aided by the Spirit, to give you the full benefit of this triple record. Mat 24:1 : “Jesus having gone out, departed from the temple; and His disciples came to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple.” From Mount Olivet we enjoy, not only a conspicuous view of Jerusalem, but especially of the entire Temple Campus, containing thirty-five acres, occupied by many great and valuable buildings now, and more at that time.
Luk 21:5. “Certain ones speaking concerning the temple that it was ornamented with beautiful stones and offerings, He said, The days shall come in which not a stone shall be left upon a stone, which shall not be thrown down.” In that day they had no banks, gold and silver and other valuables being frequently hidden away for safe-keeping. When the city was destroyed, the Roman soldiers tore up the very foundations of the temple, searching for hidden treasures, thus verifying this prophecy of Jesus.
Mar 13:3. “He, sitting on the Mount of Olives in front of the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Him privately” ( Mat 24:3), “Tell us when these things shall be, and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and the end of the age.” E. V. says “the end of the world.” Our Lord did not say kosmos, “world,” but aion, “age.” The same word means time. The E. V. translation, “end of the world,” has given currency to the popularidea that this world is going to have an end and be consumed — i.e., annihilated, blotted out of existence — which is contradictory of Scripture, which plainly teaches another age following this (Mat 12:32, and Heb 6:4), the glorious Millennial Theocracy succeeding the present age, which will also be followed by the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21), when this lost planet (Luke 15) shall take its place with Other celestial worlds, the especial reward of the meek (Mat 5:5), to possess, shine, and shout with the unfallen angels forever.
“And Jesus, responding, said to them, Beware lest any one may deceive you. For many will come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and will deceive many.” I am a personal witness to the fulfillment of this prophecy, several persons in the last score of years having actually claimed to be Christ. Soon after His ascension, many made their appearance in Palestine, and other Oriental countries, claiming to be Christ e.g., Theudas; Simon Magus, Marchocab, and others. As the times of our Lord’s second coming draws nigh, doubtless many false Christs will arise.
“And you will be about to hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not shaken: for it behooveth all these things to take place, but the end is not, yet.” Pretty soon it was rumored that the Emperor Tiberius, and after him Caligula and Nero, were going to make war on the Jews, as they threatened them because of the commotions prevalent among them. Here you see that Jesus puts them on their guard against the idea that those terrible Jewish wars, commotions, and revolutions, which put an end to the Jewish state and Church at the expiration of forty years should be mistaken by them as ominous of the end of the age, which will not come till Jesus in person returns.
“For nation shall rise up against nation and kingdom; there shall be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. But all these are the beginning of birth-pangs.” Odinon (“sorrows,” E. V.) literally means “birth- pangs” — i.e., the pains and acute sufferings characteristic of parturition — and has a deep significance as here used by the Savior. The awful death- agonies of the drowning antediluvians proved the birth-pangs of the new- born postdiluvian world. The terrible death-shock when the destroying angel winged his flight into every Egyptian home, slaying the first-born, was the birth-pangs of a great nation, as Israel that very hour issued from the dark womb of. Egyptian slavery, and took her place among the nations of the earth. So the awful death-roll of a million Jews, when the Romans destroyed the city, was the birth-pangs of the glorious Gospel Dispensation, unfurling the banner of Redeeming Grace to the whole Gentile world. In a similar manner, the death-agonies of the human powers, when the Ancient of Days shall descend and execute righteous judgments against all the usurpers of His royal throne, shaking down the false claimants and clearing the way for the coronation of His Son, King of Kings and Lord of lords (Dan 7:9), deluging the world with blood and heaping it with mountains of the dead (Revelation 16-19), will prove the birth-pangs of the glorious millennium, restoring Eden back to earth, and imprisoning Satan in the dungeons of the pandemonium.
Mar 13:9. “But you, take heed to yourselves; for they will deliver you up into the Sanhedrins, and you shall be beaten in the synagogues.” You see, those are Jewish punishments. “And you shall stand before governors and kings for My name’s sake, for a testimony unto them.” These are Gentile punishments. Paul, in Cyprus, testified before Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul, and was instrumental in his conversion. He also testified before Felix, at Caesarea, who rejected his testimony. The martyrdom of Stephen, soon after Pentecost, lifted the flood-gate, and poured in on them rivers of blood, the Jews making every possible effort to exterminate them. This world is no friend to grace. The apostles all suffered martyrdom among the Gentiles except the two Jameses.
Mar 13:11. “And when they may lead you forth, delivering you up, do not be solicitous what you shall say, nor premeditate; but whatsoever may be given unto you in that hour, speak this: for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Ghost.”
Luk 21:15. “For I will give unto you a. mouth and wisdom, which all those who are opposed shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.” This has been literally verified by the martyrs in all ages, pagan Roman historians certifying that the executioners, in the bloody work; of martyrdom, were frequently so convicted by the testimony of the dying saints that they confessed Christ on the spot, becoming willing and heroic subjects of the martyr’s fate.
Luk 21:16-17 . “And you shall be delivered up by your parents, brothers, kindred, and. friends; and they will put some of you to death.
And you shall be hated by all for my name’s sake.” During the martyr ages; most shocking scenes, as above described, were common, the nearest relatives of consanguinity testifying against one another as the only way of escape from bloody death, since the persecutors would take the whole family if they did not thus deliver up the confessors of Christianity.
Mat 24:10. “And then many will be offended;” i.e., backslide, and repudiate Christ, in order to save their lives. This was always the case during the martyr ages, many thus recanting to save their lives, and resuming their places in the Church after the persecutionary wave rolled by. “And they will deliver one another and hate one another. Many false prophets shall rise and deceive many.” A false prophet is a counterfeit preacher, who preaches a religion that lets Adam the First not only live, but have a very good time; while the true Christianity always slays Agag. Carnal, anti-holiness religion is never persecuted, from the simple fact that Satan has no objection to it. “Because iniquity doth abound, the Divine love of many doth wax cold.” While this has had its fulfillment in all ages, its verification has been overwhelming in the last quarter of a century. I can remember well when no man could preach Holy Ghost religion too straight, strong, and hot to suit Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians. O what a change! You will now generally find them, not only in a North Pole atmosphere, but in many instances actually so opposed to fire:: that they can not stand a red-hot testimony. You all see this confirmation of the near approach of the end, Jesus being the Witness. “But he that continueth to the end, the same shall be saved.” Lord, help us to be true, as the promise is only to the finally faithful! “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached throughout the whole world for a testimony to all nations; and then the end shall come.” This is very plain and explicit. He has fortified His disciples against the idea that the end of all things will take place with the destruction of Jerusalem. N. B. — Jesus had in His mind, and at that time saw in panorama, not only the wonderful events coming on so quickly — not only destroying Jerusalem, but annihilating the Jewish polity — but also the end of the age; i.e., the winding up of the gospel dispensation, though the time of the latter, being then a long way off, had not been revealed to Him. Again, you must remember that a few centuries in the Divine mind are but fleeting moments. Consequently the events connected with the destruction of the Jewish State and Church insensibly blend with those transpiring at the end of the Gentile times. Here you see the clear and unequivocal affirmation that the end of the age will come so soon as the gospel of the kingdom shall have been preached to all nations. Two years ago there were regions in Africa and Asia — i.. e., Thibet and Rangoon in the latter, and the Soudan in the former — where no missionary had ever been, so far as we know. Since that time the missionaries have reached all of these countries. So we do not know that there is any nation on the earth now which has never received the gospel, as so many great countries in Asia and Africa, where once the gospel flourished, are now missionary grounds, wrapped in the darkness of idolatry and the False Prophet. You see, as God is the Judge of the witness, we can not ascertain to what extent the gospel must be preached in any nation in order to develop the required testimony. When Jesus returns, in glory to reign over the whole earth, He must have the charter members for His kingdom in every nation, as the different nations of the earth will be perpetuated in their integrity, in the diversified countries which they now occupy, through the millennium. Of course, the saints of bygone ages, who represent these nations that once had the gospel, but have it not now, are not dead, but living in heaven, and ready to return with Jesus, and receive their glorified bodies in the first resurrection, at the beginning of the millennium. (Rev 20:6) For ought we know, they are sufficient : for the Divine testimony in behalf of the nations which they represent. The exceedingly rapid spread of the gospel among the heathen at the present time is certainly a most cheering omen of the Lord’s near coming. While it may seem strange, yet it is true, that the phenomenal apostasy of the Protestant Churches in the last few years is an equally striking fulfillment of the latter-day prophecies (2 Thessalonians 2), and convincing manifestation that the Lord is nigh.
Luk 21:18-19 . “Not a hair of your head can perish. In your patience gain your souls.” What thrilling inspirations to the perseverance of the saints! We actually gain our souls by patiently suffering and toiling to the end, with the blessed assurance that if we will be true, no spiritual detriment whatever shall overtake us.
DOOM OF JERUSALEM AND ESCAPE OF THE DISCIPLES
Mat 24:15-18. “Therefore when you may see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet [Dan 9:27], standing in the holy place, let the one reading take notice then; let those who are in Judea go. to the mountains; and let him who is on the housetop not come down to take things out of his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his garments.” A. D. 66, Gallus, the Roman general, laid siege to Jerusalem, succeeded, A. D. 68, by Vespasian, the emperor, who was succeeded by his son Titus, A. D. 71, who prosecuted the war to its awful end, as the Jews were divided into bloody factions, and were killing one another, and would not surrender to the Romans. Read Josephus, and you will find the horrors of the siege beggared all description — famine raging, people dying in piles; pestilence, arising from the putrefying corpses, sweeping the city with the besom of destruction far more terrific than the sword, which was also devouring them on all sides, till a solid million perished, and a million more were sold into slavery, the city utterly destroyed and left without an inhabitant. After fifty years a Roman colony was founded on the memorable site where Jerusalem once stood, even the name being dropped, and the new Roman city was called Elia Capitolina the ensuing two centuries, till the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, who came thither, revived the city, and restored the sacred name, Jerusalem. When the Roman armies effected all entrance through the walls, they at once set up their battle-flags on the Holy Campus, on the summit of. Moriah, taking possession of the temple and all the holy places. This was the “abomination of desolation” — “abomination,” because the Roman gods were pictured on it, and the soldiers worshipped them as they looked on the flags; and “desolation,” because those battle-flags meant the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus notified His disciples that the moment they saw these Roman battle-flags floating from the pinnacles of the temple, they should all recognize it as the signal for, them to make their escape. Their flight was to be so sudden that, if on the housetop, they were not. to come down. N. B. — You can now run all over Jerusalem on the flat roofs of the houses, as the narrow streets are overarched, the buildings being continuous, jam up to the wall, which is a part of the contiguous edifice. Consequently they could run to the wall on the roofs of the houses and pass down, thus making their escape, which must be sudden and expeditious, or they would be intercepted and detained. This is a vivid symbolism of the rapture of. the saints at the end of the age.
Luk 21:22. “Because these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all things which have been written.” Josephus says that a sword, suspended from the pinnacle of the firmament, was visible in the blue sky, hanging over the city a whole year before this awful siege. He also says that a strange man walked upon the walls of the city some time before the siege, crying aloud, “Woe, woe to Jerusalem!” continuing. there to walk and utter this awful sentence of coming doom till a stone struck him and he fell dead.
Mat 24:19-22. “Woe to those who are in gestation and nursing in those days!” The pure, tender heart of His unfallen humanity thus gives expression to the deepest sympathy in behalf of all thus encumbered in those terrible perils. “Pray that your flight may not be in a storm, nor on the Sabbath.” Jerusalem is only forty miles from the great sea, two thousand miles long and continuous from: the ocean of five thousand miles, thus giving the western storms a tremendous sweep, and the city is five thousand feet above the sea-level. Consequently storms at Jerusalem are terrible. I was in one which, as they all do, had come from the sea. Though they have but little effect on the stone houses, I found it difficult to stand and move about. Besides, these storms are not only wind, but rain, carried from the sea which is so nigh. Again, they were not protected with clothing as we are, there being no factories in that day. As to the Sabbath, so punctiliously was it kept in Jerusalem that the gates of the city were closed. Hence the probability of their being shut in. “For then there shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world until now, neither may be.” We do not understand this statement to antagonize the probability of the great Gentile tribulation, as the Jewish was preliminary to it, and really will culminate in it. “Unless those days were shortened, no flesh were saved.”
Mar 13:20. “But on account of the elect, whom He hath elected, He shortened those days.” You must remember, not only some of the elect of grace were there, who doubtless afterward got saved, but a special reference is here made to the elect of Israel, the recipients of the infallible promises of the Abrahamic Covenant, who in due time will be restored, and eventually saved and sanctified, and become the honored recipients of their Brother King, coming in His glory in the last day. They were there in that awful siege and must be saved.
Luk 21:24. “They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captives into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles may be fulfilled.” Much of this wonderful prophetical verse has been fulfilled, while things of profoundest moment are yet in the future. Jerusalem is still trodden down by the Gentiles, but, as you see here, destined to be relieved when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. When our Lord returns on the throne of His glory, the elect of Israel will have possession of Jerusalem, and come again to the front of the world, there to remain. Now, what about these Gentile times?
When did they begin, and when will they end? God’s plan was to rule the world. Man was dissatisfied with Divine rule, rejected the government of God, preferring human administration. When Nebuchadnezzar conquered the world, he captured Jerusalem, and carried away the Jews, B. C. 587. So at that date the last vestige of the Theocracy disappeared, the whole world falling into the hands of a heathen monarch. I doubt not but Nebuchadnezzar was the most competent man in the world to rule it, and consequently God gave it to him when He saw that the people would have human government and reject the Divine. You remember (Daniel 4) how Nebuchadnezzar became so utterly crazy that he vacated his throne, followed the predilections of his boyhood, dwelt among the herds and flocks seven years, so utterly insane that he all this time played king among them, thus illustrating the utter incompetency of any man to rule a nation, a responsibility to which none but God is equal. (Simultaneously symbolizing the Divine interregnum in the world’s government on the part of the Eden Theocracy.) This insanity lasted seven years, which, according to the year-day system of prophetical interpretation thoroughly established in the Bible, — this period, according to lunar time, which is measured by the revolutions of the moon and 354 days in the year, the seven years equal 2748; the planetary chronology, 360 days in the year = 2520;, and the solar time, 365 days in the. year, equal 2555. Now, lot us see how much time has elapsed since the beginning of the Gentile times: B. C. 587+1900=2487. Now, you see, 2487-2478=9. Hence you see, according to lunar time, the times of the Gentiles are just about to run out, only lacking nine years.
Now, if you count the tribulation as Daniel gives it (Dan 12:11-12), 1335-1290=45, the years of the tribulation (which, as you see from the above, are very likely to be shortened, for the sake of the elect of grace as well as that of Israel), 45-9=36. Hence you see, according to lunar time, the tribulation is even now overdue thirty-six years. Planetary time, 2520- 2487=33. Now, 45-33=12. Hence you see, the calendar time makes the tribulation overdue twelve years. Now, the solar time, 2555-2487=68- 45=23. Hence you see that the solar chronology makes the rapture due in 23 years, the calendar chronology makes it overdue 12 years, and the lunar makes the rapture of the saints overdue 36 years. Of course, no man knows the exact chronology, and consequently no human being can ascertain the day of His coming.
“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and from, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Dan 12:4)
When Daniel saw these wonderful visions of the latter days and the end of all things, he was so wrought upon and thrilled with solicitude to understand his own vision that he fainted. You see in this verse that he is commanded to shut up the words and seal the book till the time of the end, when the mystery will be revealed, and “many shall run to and fro,” publishing it to all nations. I gather from the above chronologies, and other Scriptural sources, that we are living now in the “time of the end,” when the Holy Spirit is opening these latter-day prophecies to His saints, who are running to the ends of the earth proclaiming the good news. I have traveled twenty thousand miles within the last year, through Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and of course much of the time on the seas, and with many different nations. I find the saints in all my travels on the outlook for the Lord’s appearing, and publishing the glad news in every land. I am abundantly satisfied, for a thousand good reasons, that we are nearing the close of the “Gentile times” and the wonderful fulfillment of these thrillingly interesting latter-day prophecies. Of course, we appoint no time for our Lord to appear. But it is right and proper, and His positive mandate, for us to be incessantly on the lookout. As our Lord here quotes largely from Daniel, it is impossible to restrict these prophecies to the destruction of Jerusalem, as Daniel’s grand theme is the “end of all things.” While the former is preliminary, the latter is the grand moment of our Lord’s discourse.
Mat 24:23-29. “Then if any one may say, Behold, here is Christ, or there; believe them not. For false Christs and false prophets shall arise, and give forth great signs and wonders, so if possible to deceive even the elect. Behold, I have told you.” Christ did not come in His glorified person at the destruction of Jerusalem. Here He warns His disciples not to be deceived by the bold claimants who arose in those times, or may arise in any other age. Here you see plainly the possibility of deceiving even the elect. Consequently Jesus gives the elect this timely warning to watch and pray, and diligently heed His plain words, which will prove an ample fortification against delusion. “Therefore if they may say to you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not out. Behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe them not.” As many false Christs arose in the Jewish times, so they will in the Gentile times.
“For as the lightning comes from the east, and shines even unto the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man.” This is a perfect fortification against all the delusions of impostors, which would prove our ruin. Now, you see plainly that you need not heed anybody who says, “He has come; He is in New York, or London, or in the wilderness of Judea.” I have met persons who actually told me thus, certifying that He has come in His glory. You see from His own unmistakable statement, that when He comes, we will all know it, because a great light, like sheet lightning, will suddenly sweep athwart the firmament, lighting up every sky with the splendor of His glory, and flashing into every human eye. “Every eye shall behold Him.” (Rev 1:7)
“For where the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” The vulture belongs to the eagle species, and is evidently here referred to as always voraciously feeding upon carrion. At that time the Jewish State- Church had reached such a culmination of political and ecclesiastical corruption that she was already odorizing the elements, and attracting the vultures from afar. Within forty years those revolutionary fires, then rankling in the deep interior of her putrefying vitals, burst forth into a terrific volcano, disgorging the fiery venom of internal corruption, and transforming into an awful whirlpool, swallowing up her time-honored institutions into the oblivion of an eternal night, and actually annihilating the Jewish polity forever. This awful catastrophe, which overtook and obliterated the Jewish politico-ecclesiasticism, is but the brilliant scintillation of the oncoming conflagration destined to over take the Gentile world.
These eagles emblematize the destroying angels, who shall accompany the Ancient of Days when He shall descend from heaven on the throne of righteous, retributive judgment, sweeping from the earth every rival of His Son. (Dan 7:9-14.)
“Thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.” (Dan 7:10)
It does not take a philosopher to see the patent and indisputable fact that Church and State are rapidly deteriorating. This means something tremendously significant. The accumulation of diseases in a physical body can only end in dissolution. Why should men cry, “Peace, peace,”, when there is no peace? You see political and ecclesiastical corruption increasing on all sides. This is one of the most indubitable omens of the rapidly- approaching end of the Gentile age. We see it in America, to our unutterable sorrow; while in the Old World it is actually inconceivably worse. Every tendency has a culmination, when Divine intervention will produce a reaction. The antediluvians became more and more corruption the flood overtook them. This deterioration continued to develop more and more among the Jews, till the old carcass became so stenchy as to attract the Roman eagles to the carrion banquet. All Scripture points to a similar culmination of the present age. Christian men are everywhere becoming heart-sick of the political and ecclesiastical corruption we see everywhere rampant. Olfactories must be very obtuse not to detect the putrefaction already so alarmingly developed in the body, both political and ecclesiastical. Methinks the vultures of the great tribulation are already flapping their pinions, eager to light down upon the carcass and voraciously devour the prey. Even here, in America, the best country in the world, candid men are everywhere bewailing the political corruption, and recognizing the distressing fact that office and emolument are sought, pre- eminently and recklessly, at the sacrifice of truth, honor, and right.
“Immediately after the desolation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the firmament, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” (Isa 13:9-10, and Joe 3:15)
These allusions to the heavenly bodies are very common among the prophets, the sun symbolizing the kings, the moon the queens, and the stars the subordinate rulers. Heaven frequently means the firmament enveloping the globe. The powers of the heavens — i.e., firmaments — indicate the secular powers, ruling the nations of. the earth. Our Savior here prominently quotes Daniel, who says, “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit.” (Dan 7:9)
Luk 21:25-26 . “There shall be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; commotion of the nations upon the earth in their bewilderment; the sea and the wave roaring; the souls of men failing them, on account of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the world.” In connection with the universal commotions and disturbances of the nations, kings tottering upon their thrones, princes falling from the dizzy heights to which political ambition has climbed, and ecclesiastical rulers appalled with revolution and dismay, Luke here also speaks of strange and extraordinary phenomena of the sea, operating to the augmentation of the universal discomfiture and dissolution, evidently involving the conclusion that oceanic inundations, rolling waves of tremendous and unprecedented altitude over the maritime cities, will doubtless destroy millions. You must remember that these prophecies are parallel with John’s Armageddon. (Revelation 16-19)
Mat 24:30-31. “Then shall the sign of the Son of man appear in the sky.” We must not confound this sign with the Lord Himself, as it is entirely different and distinct. What it is, is not revealed. When He came the first time, He was preceded by the star in the East, seen by the wise men. Analogy certainly favors the conclusion that this sign will be something after the order of that star. As His second coming will be infinitely more demonstrative than the first, doubtless this sign, though of the stellar type, will be like a great comet, sweeping through the sky and leaving its train girdling the globe; lighting up the world, and attracting the gaze of earth’s panic-stricken millions. This sign is evidently identical with the “lightning coming from the east, and shining even unto the west.” (Mat 24:27.) While the sign will precede the personal appearance of our Lord, we know there will be no interval between them, the premonitory sign lingering in the firmament till the glorious King, descending on a white cloud, shall actually again enter the realm of vision, where “every eye shall behold Him.” (Rev 1:7) “Then shall all the tribes of the earth wail, and see the Son of man coming in the clouds of the firmament, with power and great glory.” Having waited through all the long, rolling ages for the “tribes of the earth” to get ready to meet Him with a joyous shout, riding; down on a snowy-white cloud as He went up (Act 1:11), now the centuries have flown, and the appointment of the Father has arrived. The Son in His glory returns, and all the tribes of the earth weep and wail when they see Him. Does this look like the millennium is coming before our Lord comes and brings it? If the millennium were girdling the globe with the glory of God, all the tribes of the earth would run to meet Him with a shout. This is positive proof that the world will get worse to the end, as you see here there will not be so much as a righteous tribe in all the earth, because they shall all see Him, and “wail at Him.”
“And He will send forth His angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from the extremities of the firmaments unto the extremities of the same.” Here you all see the rapture of the saints. Rapture means taking up. The word is here clear and specific — the angels will gather up the elect from every land and clime, from Abel down to the living generation. You. see here all the tribes of the earth will be awfully disappointed, affrighted, and panic-stricken when the Lord appears. But not so with the elect. O what an exultant hour that will be, when the resurrection angels meet the elect, and embrace them in their pinions of light and arms of love! Reader, be sure that you settle this matter without further delay. If a light should flash round the world, and our glorified Savior descend into view, what would you do? Would you join the wailing of all the tribes of the earth, or join the shout of God’s elect? How can I know that I am one of the elect? There is only one way; of election, and that is through “sanctification of the Spirit.” (1Pe 1:2) The Holy Spirit always witnesses to His work in the heart. If sin is dead in you, rest assured, you have already found it out. A dead man never kicks nor strikes back. Plug him full of bullets; and he does not feel them. Entire sanctification is the most knowable of all experiences. It always tells its own story. I tremble for the preacher who opposes our preaching on the coming of the Lord. I am afraid he is not ready, and consequently disquieted by such preaching. To melt is the most inspiring theme. I am looking for Him constantly. “Then are you not disappointed while He tarrieth?” That could not be, since my will is lost in His will. Consequently there is no disappointment.
Luk 21:28. “These things beginning to take placer straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draweth nigh.” Here our Savior represents the widowed Church bowed clown with sorrow during her bereavement, and terribly persecuted by the devil, and all of this time longing, waiting, and watching for the return of her Heavenly Consort. Now: that He actually comes, He rings the shout round the world, “Straighten up your curved back, and lift high your head, for I am here!” Now lie assures us that our redemption is nigh. Do you not know that redemption means the transfiguration of soul and body, even our translation to heaven? O what a glory! What an inconceivable sunburst upon the saints of all ages will the return of our glorified Savior bring to earth l This redemption includes, not only the transfiguration and translation of the living saints, but the glorious resurrection of the dead. Thus the whole body of the Lord’s elect who have trodden the globe from the days of Eden — soul and body — are glorified, the dead raised, and the living translated, and all gloriously transfigured into the similitude of His own glorious body. (Php 3:20) Be sure you take the safe side, and get to where, instead of weeping and wailing, you will meet the Lord with a shout.
Mat 24:32-35. “Learn the parable from the fig-tree: When her branch may be tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh. Thus when you may see all these things, know that it is even at the door.” While no one knows the day of His coming, we must all be very stupid if we do not recognize the “time of the end.” Daniel Says that at the “time of the end,” the book of this latter-day prophecy shall be opened, and “many will run to and fro,” telling its wonderful contents and shouting to the people, “The Lord is nigh!” You see from the parable of the fig-tree that we can know, beyond the possibility of doubt, the time of the end, as every one call tell by the fig-tree that the summer is nigh. Satan’s reign of six thousand years has been a long, dreary night. Praise the Lord, the millennial day is breaking! The morning-star now hails the approaching Sun of righteousness. Uniformly in the Scriptures the Jewish people are represented by a fig-tree, as. in the parable here alluded to. The awful blight came on them when they rejected their Christ, and O how they withered from the face of the earth! Fifteen years ago there were not more than ten thousand Jews in all Palestine. When. I was there last November and December, I was informed by the most knowing people of that country that there are now two hundred thousand-fifty-five thousand in Jerusalem alone, more than all who returned under Nehemiah out of, Babylonian captivity. O how they are making that land to flourish, and the delicious fruits of Canaan to abound wherever they get, it into hand!
“Truly I say unto you, that. This race can not pass away until all things may be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words can not pass away.” The E. V. translation, “This generation shall not, pass,” has puzzled many. Genea, means “race” as well as “generation,” while the verb is in the subjective mode. So you see, with the above translation, the difficulties all get away. As to the firmament and the earth passings away, of course they will in their present form, this being no conflict with the prophetic revelation of the new, heaven (firmament) and new earth. (Revelation 21) The Roman armies did their best to exterminate the Jews. All nations have conspired in the persecution of Abraham’s children. They have endured all conceivable outlawry, disfranchisement, and oppression, scathed and peeled by all the nations of Europe. Yet they are a separate and distinct race of people, numbering seventy millions while all their contemporaries of bygone ages have faded from the face of the earth, and the mighty nations of olden times, who used to meet them on the battle-field, long ago sunk into oblivion. The Jews in every age have been the most industrious, enterprising, and aggressive people in all the world. Robbed of their country, no land beneath the skies on which to rest their weary feet, practical tramps in the earth, they have outstripped all nations in the accumulation of wealth, becoming the richest people in the world, holding the purse of the nations, and ruling their kings by their money power; standing at the front of the learned professions, climbing to the acme of the world’s learning, and leading all the greatest universities of the globe. The Hand of the Almighty is on them. The elect of Israel is among them, and O how wonderfully they are now getting ready for the metropolitanship of the globe during the glorious Millennial Theocracy, When they shall again, as in bygone ages, stand at the front Of the world l How wonderful are the signs of His coming among His own consanguinity! Surely the fig-tree has again begun to revive, and the summer is nigh. Not only among the Jews, but among Moslems, Romanists, and Protestants, the signs of His coming are exceedingly rife.
Mar 13:32. “But concerning that day or hour no one knows; neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, except the Father.” “The periods and epochs hath the Father retained in His own authority.” (Act 1:7) While Jesus saw the entire panorama of the world moving before Him, the time of His coming had not then been revealed to Him by the Father, as it was not necessary, being then a long way off. There is no doubt but Jesus has long known the very time of His glorious coming, it having been revealed to Him since His ascension. You see from this Scripture that all appointments of the time are fanaticism, because neither man nor angel knows it. Yet we should not run into fanaticism on the other horn of the dilemma, and lose our appreciation of the wonderful and glorious latter-day prophecies, which are so helpful to our experiences and so conducive to a tiptoe anticipation of His coming, which is so eminently qualified to make us unworldly, spiritual, heavenly-minded, faithful, and obedient, looking well to our attitude before God, and every moment solving the problem, “Am I ready to meet King Jesus, coming in a cloud?”
Mat 24:37-41. “But as the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of man. For as they were in the days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came and took them all; so shall be the coming of the Son of man.” Only one family was taken up from the earth, fortunate to escape the devouring deluge. Does this look like the world is getting better? You see from this that comparatively few of the world’s population at the time of the Lord’s coming will go up in the cloud, along with the glorious Antitype of Noah’s Ark. The Church (not the sects) is getting better; but the world is like a diseased man, who gets worse till he dies, thus becoming a carcass for the vultures to eat. We are called pessimists by the progressionists, who call themselves optimists. They misrepresent us. A pessimist is one who believes things are getting worse, while the optimist claims that they are getting better. I am both — an optimist on grace, believing that the true saints are getting better and multiplying in the earth; but that the world, like the devil, its god (2Co 4:4), is getting worse, as all finitudes are progressive. While the World is fast moving down to hell, the saints, with joyful expedition; are going up to heaven. Never in all the ages did the people of God enjoy so much light on the Bible, and study it so generally and exhaustively as now. While Noah, a hundred and twenty years, pleaded with the antediluvians to get ready for the coming flood, they treated him with contempt. O what a striking verification do we see in the heedless disregard of this wicked world, with its anti-holiness Churches, and the contempt east upon the Lord’s coming and upon that “holiness without which no man shall see Him,” except to weep and wail!
“Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken, and one is left. Two women grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is left.” Here we have specifications of the rapture again. In this wonderful sermon, which our Savior preached to His disciples on Mount Olivet in the afternoon of the day preceding His arrest by His enemies, we have three distinct judgments: That of the Jews, from which, pursuant to His instructions, the disciples were taken, flying away to the mountains, making their escape to Pella, beyond the Jordan, and surviving to preach the gospel to the world. Then we have the pre-millennial judgment, from which, as you here see, the Lord will take away the elect. (V. 31.) How natural and simple our Savior’s description of the rapture when He comes! Two men, working out on the farm, a saint and a sinner — the former is translated, like Enoch and Elijah; and the latter is left to take chances in the tribulation. Two women are grinding with the little hand-mill in the house, so common in that country
— one is suddenly invested with the transfiguration body and translated, flying up to join the mighty host of saints and angels descending with Him in that majestic cloud, broad as the firmament, and bright as the pure, white light. You will see before we wind up this sermon that the final judgment takes all, leaving none on the earth.
Mar 13:33. “Behold, watch and pray; for you know not when the time is. As a man going away, leaving his house, and giving authority to his servants, and to each one his work, commanded the porter that he must watch.” The porter is the doorkeeper of the Church; i.e., the pastor, evangelist, and Christian worker, who gathers the lost souls from Satan’s kingdom and leads them to Jesus, who is the Door, and thus escorts them into the kingdom of God. Jesus commands this porter to be on the constant outlook for His return.
“Watch therefore: for you know not when the lord of the house cometh, late [i.e., during the large hours; nine to twelve], or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning.” Here our Lord specifies all the time we are likely to sleep, putting us on our guard to be on the constant outlook. David says, “I sleep, but my heart waketh.” So, while the body is wrapped in ambrosial slumber, the soul should be on perpetual outlook for the Lord to come.
“Lest having come suddenly, He may find you: sleeping. But what I say to you, I say to all, Watch,” How dares any one speak or write a word calculated to make people unwatchful for the Lord’s sudden coming? The post-millennialist believes that a thousand years’ millennium has to come in before the appearing of the Lord. Consequently he can not be on the: lookout for Him to come now. Any doctrine or theory which is out of harmony with God’s plain Word is false., He believed: that the millennium had to come and abide a thousand years before the coming of the Lord, I could not look for Him now. I am glad I do not believe that, nor anything else which disqualifies me to obey the positive commandments of Jesus, as I know that everything antagonistical to His plain Word is untrue. I am glad I have no creed to sustain. If the creeds are true, they do not need my poor help; if untrue, they do not deserve it. I have no theory to sustain; and if I had any, I would throw it away, being more than satisfied with the simple Word of the Lord. If you can not get up and preach in such a way as to encourage the people, and exhort them to be on the constant outlook for Jesus to come in His glory with the mighty angels, and take away the elect, you are out of harmony with His plain and unmistakable. Word. Your poor little theories, notions, and creeds will not be mentioned at the judgment- bar, unless to condemn you; but you will be judged by this Word just as it is. It is bad enough for the worldly Churches to preach human creeds and antagonize the Word of God; but holiness people forfeit their shibboleth if they do not take the Bible, all of it, and believe and preach it, fearless of men and devils. If the holiness movement is not on this line, she has forfeited her birthright, and is ready for a decent interment. I am glad that God has a grand army, now girdling the globe, who believe and preach everything written in the blessed Book, and are not going to be intimidated by ecclesiastical autocrats and critics.
Luk 21:34-36. “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts may be burdened with gluttony, and drunkenness, and worldly cares, and that day may come upon you unexpected.” O what valuable and timely admonition! While we have about a hundred thousand drunkards. every year going down to the drunkard’s hell, do you know that we Americans are a nation of gluttons, bringing on a thousand diseases by sheer gormandizing, even holiness preachers paying fifty cents a meal instead of one dime, which would get them all a king could want, while the people of India are starving to death in piles? Will not the holiness people wake up, and give the world an example of temperance, appertaining to eating as well as drinking, teaching them that hygienic living, so indispensable to health and temporal prosperity, and at the same time so conducive to intellectual culture, is harmonious with spiritual illumination and well pleasing in the sight of God? Gluttony, like drunkenness, stupefies the mind, and degrades and brutalizes the body. Do you not know we would be much brighter intellectualists and more efficient preachers if we would live hygienically, and take fasting along with prayer? These brutalizing habits are awfully antagonistic to spirituality; and O, how incompatible with the translation for which we should all be living when the Lord comes I Can we not go along and do our work unencumbered. with. worldly cares, content with food and raiment and constantly looking for the Lord? To say that this is not our appropriate attitude is to reject the plain word of Jesus.
“For as a lasso it will come upon all those sitting down on the face of the whole earth.” Just as the robber, from his hidden retreat, throws the lasso high in the air, dropping it round the body of the unsuspecting traveler, the other end attached to a fleet horse, dashing away and dragging him into the bushes, where, now dead and unconscious, he is robbed, so Jesus says the day of His coming will light on “all the people who are sitting down upon the face of the earth;” not as E. V., conveying the idea that there are no exceptions. Jesus says it will so come on all those who are “sitting down,” thus indicating the attitude of carelessness and unexpectancy; while the elect are watching, not “sitting down,” but Standing on tiptoe, stretching their eyes to catch the first glimpse of the coming glory.
“Watch therefore, praying all the time, in order that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things about to take place, and to stand before the Son of man.” He has already spoken of the terrible troubles, such as the world never saw, even more terrific than Noah’s flood. You see how the angels will gather up the elect. So the matter is lucid and clear. We are to be constantly watching and praying all the time, that we may be found worthy to be translated, like the man taken from the field and the woman from the mill, to meet the Lord in the air. (1Th 4:17)
Mat 24:42-51. “Watch therefore, because you know. not at what hour your Lord cometh.” This is the climacteric commandment, repeated over and over and more frequently than any other. Good reason! If you are watching every moment for your Lord to appear, you will obey all the other commandments, as this is the grandest of all restraints against sin in thought, word, or deed; and at the same time the most potent inspiration to an unworldly, spiritual, holy life. Beware how you tinker with anything calculated to render you unwatchful for the Lord’s immediate appearing! How sadly has this great and prominent doctrine dropped out of the pulpits long ages ago, thus fearfully expediting the alarming worldliness that has been in the Church since the Constantinean apostasy fifteen hundred years ago l It is the glory of the present holiness movement to revive this precious truth, so thrillingly emphasized by the Savior and every New Testament writer, and again bring it to the front, where it stood the first three hundred years of the Christian era. Let no one say that we depreciate entire sanctification. By preaching the coming of the Lord we magnify holiness, which is the only qualification to meet Him.
“Know this, that if the landlord had known at what watch the thief cometh, he would have watched, and not suffered his house to be broken into.”
Here you see our Savior pronounces an awful woe on the unwatchful man. He is the Thief, coming to this wicked world to steal away His bride. The thief comes at midnight, while all are asleep. The bride, who knows her, Lover is coming for her, does not sleep, but keeps awake, watching for Him. I want to be stolen away from this lost world when the Thief cometh.
“Therefore be ye ready, because ye know not the hour the Son of man cometh.” The qualification is entire sanctification, election “through the sanctification of the Spirit,” clearly and abundantly attested by the Holy Ghost. Grace is free, and there is no reason why we should not all be ready. O the awful peril of unreadiness!
“Who then is that faithful and wise servant, whom the Lord placed over His household, to give them their food in season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, having come, shall find so doing. Truly I say unto you, that He will appoint him over all his possessions.” This servant is the preacher, leader, worker, to whom the Lord has committed souls. Now, what is the food which this servant is to give the members of the Lord’s house? It is all the Word of God, faithfully preached, lived, and exemplified. The grand sum and substance are a holy experience, life, and character — constant readiness to meet the Lord; and auxiliary to this, constant outlook for His appearing. Terrible will be the responsibility of the delinquent leader. On the contrary, whom the Lord finds faithful at his post, his people well sanctified, robed, and ready, and looking for the Lord: to come, He is going to confer on him incalculable: honor and glory in the coming kingdom; but not to be viewed from a carnal standpoint, as in the Lord’s kingdom the more you have, the more is left for all the balance; e.g., the loaves and fishes.
“But if the wicked servant may say in his heart, My Lord delayeth coming, and may begin to smite his fellow-servants, and; eat and drink with the drunken.” Here is a pastor in charge who rigidly enforces ecclesiastical law, laying heavy burdens on his people — as Peter says, “Domineering over the heritages;” living luxuriantly; his family moving in the flirtations of worldly dress-parade; persecuting the holiness people; his doors closed against every man who preaches holiness and the Lord’s coming. “The Lord of that servant will come in a day in which he does not expect, and in an hour in which he does not know, and will cut him off, and will appoint his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This man holds his pastoral charge, recognized by his Church and the world as a godly minister of file gospel, till the Lord comes, lifts the mask, and reveals his true character. Then He cuts him off — i. e., takes him out of his position — and appoints him his destiny with. the hypocrites, where he belongs. “Hypocrite” is a Greek word, meaning the actor in a drama, performing his part on the theatrical stage. So this man has been playing preacher all his life, pursuing the ministerial calling as a worldly man would prosecute a laudable employment, for a living. If you do not think we have multitudes of preachers on this line, get on your knees and ask God about it.! tell you their name is legion, who would not preach if their salary was taken away, thus in this simple way revealing their real character. You see this man is cast into the bottomless pit, amid “weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.” Good Lord, help us all to wake up to these momentous realities! I trow, the preacher’s hell is most horrific of all. I have been preaching in my humble way forty and six years. I would certainly rather risk the hell of the gambler or the robber than that of the preacher. How awful for the people, deluded and eternally ruined by his ministry, to meet him in the regions of the damned, gnash on him with their teeth, and help the devils to lash him with firebrands forever! God have mercy on the preacher who fights holiness and the Lord’s coming! O how he needs a mourners-bench!
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Things Temporal and Things Eternal.
Mar 13:31
Things Temporal and Things Eternal.
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I. First, our Lord declares to us, "Heaven and earth shall pass away." By heaven and earth are meant this state of things of which we have experience; this earth as it is an habitation for human beings; the sun as it is a light to us, the moon and the stars as in any way connected with man. We know that we ourselves shall all die; nay, we know also by past experience that nations many times die; and, so far as it is a death to perish utterly from the knowledge of future ages, so there are many generations of the whole human race which in this sense are to us dead. But our Lord’s words go further than this; they tell us that there will be an absolute end of all worldly things whatever, that all the human race shall come to an end.
II. But yet I quite allow that this portion of the text without the other might, and I think would, have very little practical effect. For granting that heaven and earth shall pass away, and that our highest earthly labours are bestowed therefore on that which is perishable, yet still if this perishable is all that we know of, it becomes after all of very great and paramount importance to us; it may be but a poor thing to live, but live we must by the very necessity of our nature, and we must love this life, if we know of nothing better. And therefore simple declarations of the perishableness of earthly things are really of no effect whatever. No man heeds them, or can heed them, for our nature repels them. It is, however, altogether different when we take in the second part of the text, and are told that Christ’s words shall not pass away. For if there be anything in the world eternal, then that which is perishable, even though it may last for many years, or many ages, must become infinitely insignificant in comparison. If some of our works must pass away utterly and some abide for ever, the glory and value of the first becomes as nothing by reason of the greater glory of the second. We have a work that is never to perish, a suffering yielding a multiplied harvest of blessing, if we firmly believe that there are things which shall not pass away.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. v., p. 185.
References: Mar 13:31.—A. Blomfield, Sermons in Town and Country, p. 16; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 193.
Mar 13:33
I. This word watching is a remarkable word; remarkable because the idea is not so obvious as might appear at first sight. We are not simply to believe, but to watch; not simply to love, but to watch; not simply to obey, but to watch. To watch for what? for that great event, Christ’s coming. Do you know the feeling in matters of this life, of expecting a friend, expecting him to come, and he delays? To watch for Christ is a feeling such as this; as far as feelings of this world are fit to shadow out those of another. He watches for Christ who has a sensitive, eager, apprehensive mind; who is awake, alive, quick-sighted, zealous in seeking and honouring Him; who looks out for Him in all that happens, and who would not be surprised, who would not be over-agitated or overwhelmed, if he found that He was coming at once.
II. This then it is to watch; to be detached from what is present and to live in what is unseen, and to live in the thought of Christ as He came once, and as He will come again; to desire His second coming, from our affectionate and grateful remembrance of His first. And this it is in which we shall find that men in general are wanting. What is meant by watching, and how it is a duty, they have no definite idea; and thus it accidentally happens that watching is a suitable test of a Christian, in that it is that particular property of faith and love, which, essential as it is, men of this world do not even profess; that particular property, which is the life or energy of faith and love, the way in which faith and love, if genuine, show themselves.
III. Christ warns His disciples of the danger of having their minds drawn off from the thought of Him, by whatever cause; He warns them against all excitements, all allurements of the world; He warns them by the instance of the rich man whose soul was required, of the servant who ate and drank, and of the foolish virgins. When He comes, they will one and all want time; then head will be confused, then eye will swim, then tongue falter, then limbs totter, as men who are suddenly awakened. Year passes after year silently, Christ’s coming is ever nearer than it was, and, as He comes nearer earth, we may approach nearer heaven. Every act of obedience is an approach, an approach to Him who is not far off, though He seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things which hides Him from us. He is behind the material framework; earth and sky are but a veil between Him and us; and the day will come when He will rend that veil and show Himself to us. And then, according as we have waited for Him, will He recompense us.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iv., p. 319.
References: Mar 13:33-37.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 116; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 138.
Mar 13:34
Consider:—
I. The work of the servants. And here we observe: (1) That work is the common duty of all in Christ’s house. (2) This work of Christ’s house is varied to different individuals. (3) Each individual has means for ascertaining his own work.
II. The watch of the porter. The porter must stand at the door of every heart while that heart pursues its work.
III. The bearing of these two duties on each other. If watching were absent work would be: (1) blind and without a purpose; (2) discouraging and tedious; (3) formal and dead. Without work, watching would be: (1) solitary; (2) subject to many temptations; (3) unready for Christ.
J. Ker, Sermons, p. 139.
Christ appointed to His Servants an Authority, a Work, and a Watch.
I. Look first at the Church’s authority. The more we serve, and the lowlier the place we take, the more is the authority given. For, what is authority? Not position, not office, but a certain moral power, the power of truth, the power of the affections, the power of virtue over vice, the power of the true over the false, the power of faith over sight, the essential power of the great Head delegated to all His members, which is ultimately to command the universe? It is your authority to feel as a man who, having found true peace with God, goes about with the ennobling consciousness that He is in the possession of an invaluable treasure. It is your authority, though a poor miserable sinner, to wear the badge, and carry the name, and act under the signet of the King of kings. It is your authority, therefore, to go to every man, to every single man under heaven, in the consciousness that you have received a Divine instruction to this effect, and tell that man of the glorious things of the Gospel of Christ.
II. Every man’s work is special. The authority was general, the work is specific, for He says, "He gave authority to His servants, and to every man his work." It was very kind of our good Master to give us work to do during His absence. For nothing beguiles the time more. Therefore work. The warrant of your election is, that you work. Woe to the man who thinks to eat his Master’s bread and does not work. Woe to the man who would feed upon the promises without the service.
III. In the household of faith, as every man has his ability to work strengthened because he leans upon authority, so every man has his work sweetened by looking at it through the windows of hope, for every workman is a watcher too. There are two ways of watching. There is a watching against a thing we fear, and there is a watching for a thing we love. Most persons when they are told to watch, think chiefly of what they are to watch against; but I conceive it was far more in our Saviour’s mind to bid us to be full of what we are to watch for. For, if we watch against sin, is it not for this very reason, because we are watching for Christ? "I keep the door, that no man may come in; because I am keeping it open that there may be room for Him when He comes."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 129.
The Lord’s Second Coming.
I. A community of monks was established on the shores of the Bosphorus, during the fourth century, called "the sleepless ones." They numbered three hundred, and were divided into six choirs, who sang alternately day and night; without ceasing, their songs of praise arose to that Divine Redeemer who will one day come to be our Judge. Thus with unflagging diligence they looked out for the return of the Bridegroom. Without following the example of those old monks in their giving up worldly business, and their mistaken notion that they were any better because they wore miserable clothes and denied themselves comfortable food and lodging—without following their example in these respects, yet if we are the wise and enlightened generation that we claim to be, we shall give heed to the voice of warning now sounding in the services of Advent, reminding us emphatically that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
II. The image employed in the text, which represents Him as a traveller who has gone into a far country, is one so much in harmony with our human sympathies, that it brings Him very close to our hearts. Jesus has left His people for a season, just as a man leaves his home, to sojourn in a distant land; a man whose letters are devoured with eagerness by the dear ones who are impatiently awaiting his return. The Lord Jesus, for whose coming we are waiting, bids us watch. He only is watching for the Saviour who is zealous in seeking and honouring Him; who daily thinks of his Lord as He came once in great humility, and as He will come again with power and glory.
J. N. Norton, Old Paths, p. 24.
Reference: Mar 13:34-37.—R. M. McCheyne, Additional Remains, p. 243.
Mar 13:35-36
What does the word Watchfulness mean, as used in the Holy Scriptures? It means, being on the look-out, living in expectation of Jesus Christ, doing His work, attending to His charge, occupying ourselves so as to improve the talents, one or more, He has entrusted to us, trying to do the best with our Lord’s money that He may receive His own with interest. In short, watchfulness means leading that sort of life which, were it to be broken off tomorrow, would turn to our great gain.
I. Watchfulness implies that we are looking for Christ, living in expectation of His coming—living, that is, with the recollection of our mortality, as knowing that in any case our time on earth is short, that the day must soon be here when we shall die. The reluctance to think about death is a great stumbling-block to us all. It prevents our making any due preparation against it. They were wiser among the heathen of old, who in the midst of their banquets, used to have carried round the figure of one dead, with this inscription, "Eat and drink, for you will soon be as this."
II. Consider what will be the life of the watchful Christian—of him who is indeed waiting for his Lord. It will be a life of sobriety, a life of active service, a life of patient continuance in well-doing, a life whose end and aim is to be approved by the Master when He cometh. In the parables of the Talents and of the Pounds we have the warning of a soul lost, not for committing gross sins, but simply for inactivity—for keeping its powers laid up, hiding from use its Lord’s money; and surely that is a warning that must come home to many of us. For who of us has laboured as he might for God’s glory and his fellow-creature’s good? Who of us, Were he summoned today, could produce a life of which the greater part of its energies had been turned to work the Lord’s work? Are we not rather chargeable, in our conscience, with the offence of having wasted our Lord’s goods, of having squandered on ourselves, or on mere pleasure, those powers, that wealth, that influence, which were put into our hand to be administered for far higher and nobler ends? Let us watch and pray, that His coming may not take us by surprise. Then we shall be glad and not sorry when the time of our watching is at an end. He will make us full of joy with the light of His countenance.
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches, p. 107.
References: Mar 13:35.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 169. Mar 13:35-37.—D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels, p. 243.
Mar 13:37
The exhortation to watch implies that there is danger, and if our Lord says to all, "Watch," all must be exposed to it. And danger there is; nay, dangers manifold there are on all sides of us.
I. The interests at stake are unspeakably great. Let any opportunity slip, and there is so much lost for eternity. Let all your opportunities slip, and heaven itself is lost. You may seek to enter in, but shall not be able—you shall find the gate shut.
II. We are ever in danger of surprisal. Opportunities of promoting our own spiritual progress, the good of others and God’s glory, often present themselves unexpectedly, and just as unexpectedly pass away; and therefore we must watch. Very frequently, too, temptation presents itself at an unexpected time, and in an unexpected form, and we must watch. Satan meets men when they least expect him, and we ought to watch.
III. Satan ever comes in disguise, and ever adopts that disguise which seems least apt to excite suspicion. He comes to the flock of Christ in sheep’s clothing; sometimes in the clothing of a shepherd; yea, at times he seems transformed into an angel of light. We must watch. That is the condition of our safety. For here we as spiritual beings are in constant danger, and can be preserved only as the birds of the air are preserved, by constant watchfulness.
IV. If you keep in view the one great object our Lord commands us to be looking for, you will be watchful in all things. It is His coming again. He comes to judge the world, and He comes to reckon with each individual. Your Master has gone into a far country. Your eye for the present sees Him not; but you have each a charge given by Him. Each of you has his appointed work. You are to watch for His coming, and at any hour He may come.
W. Nicholson, Redeeming the Time, p. 55.
References: Mar 13:6.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 8; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 280; vol. v., p. 237; J. M. Neale, Sermons for Children, p. 79. Mark 13—W. Hanna, Our Lord’s Life on Earth, p. 418. Mar 14:1-11.—H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man, p. 295. Mar 14:1-72.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 156.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Great Prophecy of the Fall of Jerusalem and of…
Great Prophecy of the Fall of Jerusalem and of the End of the World
1-37. Christ's great prophecy (Mat_24:1; Luk_21:5). See on Mt.
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14. Spoken of by Daniel the prophet] RV rightly omits these words. Let him that readeth understand] Words of the evangelist, not of Jesus, intended to warn Palestinian readers to watch carefully for the fulfilment of this sign, and immediately afterwards to flee for their lives. They do not necessarily indicate, as some think, that the fulfilment was already imminent, and that therefore the date of the Gospel is as late as 66-70 a.d. See on Mat_24:15.
32. Neither the Son] This is the true reading not only here, but in Mat_24:36, where it has been altered in many MSS, probably as being a difficulty to faith. Rightly to understand it, we must remember that Jesus possessed two complete and perfect natures, the divine and the human. In His divine nature He knew all things whatsoever, but in His human nature He knew only such things as He willed to know. And since it was not expedient that we should know the day and the hour of the Last Judgment, He willed to be ignorant of it. This avowed ignorance implies no limitation of Christ's divine nature. Christ had no will but His Father's. When the Father willed to withhold from Him any of His designs, His will was to be ignorant.
The Arians taught that the Son was ignorant even in His divine nature, but Athanasius replied, 'But lovers of Christ recognise that the Word did not say, “I know not,” as being the Word, for He knew; but He thus indicated His humanity, showing that ignorance is part of human nature.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXIII. Destruction of…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXIII. Destruction of Jerusalem].
CXIII. DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM FORETOLD. aMATT. XXIV. 1-28; bMARK XIII. 1-23; cLUKE XXI. 5-24.
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a1 And Jesus went out from the temple [leaving it to return no more], and was going on his way; and his disciples came to him bas he went forth ato show him the buildings of the temple. bone of his disciples saith unto him, Teacher, behold, what manner of stones and what manner of buildings! c5 And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and offerings, he said [The strength and wealth of the temple roused the admiration of the Galilæans. The great stones in its fortifications promised safety from its enemies, and the goodly offerings bespoke the zeal of its friends. According to Josephus, some of the stones were nearly seventy feet in length, twelve feet in height, and eighteen feet in breadth. The same historian tells us of the gifts or offerings which adorned it: crowns, shields, goblets, chain of gold present by Agrippa, and a golden vine with its vast clusters which was the gift of Herod. The temple was built of [619] white limestone, and its beauty and strength made it admired of all nations. It took forty-six years to finish, and ten thousand skilled workmen are said to have been employed in its construction.] { a2 But bJesus aanswered and said unto them, bhim, Seest thou these great buildings? aSee ye not all these things? c6 As for these things which ye behold, averily I say unto you, cthe days will come, in which there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that bwhich shall not be thrown down. [In the very hour when the disciples exulted in the apparent permanency of their glorious temple, Jesus startled them by foretelling its utter destruction, which, within forty years, was fulfilled to the letter. The emperor Vespasian, and his son Titus, after a three years' siege, took Jerusalem and destroyed its temple, A. D. 70. Of the temple proper not a vestige was left standing, but the vast platform upon which it stood, composed partly of natural rock and partly of immense masonry, was for the most part left standing. The destruction of the city and temple, however, was so complete that those who visited it could hardly believe that it had ever been inhabited--Jos. Wars vii. 1.] 3 And as he sat on the mount of Olives, over against the temple [he was in the middle portion of the mountain, for that is the part which is opposite the temple], athe disciples bPeter and James and John and Andrew [on this occasion Andrew was in company with the chosen three when they were honored by a special revelation, but is put last as being the least conspicuous of the four] acame unto him privately, basked him privately, asaying, cTeacher, b4 Tell us, when ctherefore shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when these things are about to come to pass? bto be accomplished? aand what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? [Dismayed by the brief words which Jesus had spoken as he was leaving the temple, these four disciples asked for fuller details. Their question is fourfold. 1. When shall the temple be destroyed? 2. What shall be the signs which precede its destruction? 3. [620] What shall be the sign of Christ's coming? 4. What shall be the sign of the end of the world? Jesus had said nothing of his coming nor of the end of the world; but to these four disciples the destruction of the temple seemed an event of such magnitude that they could not but associate it with the end of all things. Jesus deals with the first two questions in this section, and with the two remaining questions in Act_4:3, Act_5:18, Act_5:40, Act_7:59, Act_8:3, Act_12:1, Act_12:2, Act_14:19, Act_16:19-24, Act_22:30, Act_24:1, Act_25:2, Act_25:3. Peter, James the elder and James the younger, and Paul, and doubtless many more of the apostles suffered martyrdom before the destruction of the temple. Tacitus bears testimony to the hatred and blind bigotry of the age when he speaks of Christians as "a class of men hated on account of their crimes" (Annals, xv. 44). See also Suetonius on Nero 16, and Pliny (Ep. x. 97). For comments on a similar passage see Col_1:23). Of course the language of both Jesus and Paul must be understood with reference to the geography of the earth as then known. Paul's declaration was written about the year A. D. 63, or seven years before the destruction of Jerusalem. His meaning is not that every creature had actually heard the gospel, but that each had been given an opportunity to hear because the gospel had been so universally preached.] 11 And when they lead you i to judgment, and deliver you up, be not anxious beforehand what ye shall speak: c14 Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate beforehand how to answer: 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to withstand or to gainsay. bbut whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye; for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Spirit. [See 2Co_11:13-15, Gal_2:1-4, 1Ti_1:3-7, 1Ti_1:19, 1Ti_1:20, 2Ti_3:8, 2Ti_3:9; Tit_1:10, Tit_1:11, 2Pe_2:1-3, Jud_1:4, Jud_1:8, Jud_1:10, Jud_1:12, Jud_1:16, Jud_1:19.] 12 And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. [The prevalence of sin tempts and encourages the feeble to commit it.] c16 But ye shall be delivered up even by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends; b12 And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father his child; and children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. cand some of you shall they cause to be put to death. [Hatred against Christianity would prove stronger than all family ties.] 17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. [See Dan_4:11], standing in the holy place bwhere he ought not [for comment, see end of the paragraph, Deu_28:49-57, Dan_9:26, Dan_9:27, Dan_12:1, Dan_12:11, Joe_2:2.] b17 But woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days! [because their condition would impede their flight] cfor there shall be great distress upon the land, and wrath unto this people. [The city of Jerusalem was divinely sentenced to punishment for her sins.] 24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all the nations [According to Josephus, one million one hundred thousand perished during the siege, and ninety-seven thousand were taken captive. Of these latter, many were tortured and slain, being crucified, as he tell us, till "room was wanted for the crosses, and crosses wanted for the bodies"]: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. [By comparing this passage with Rom_11:1-36., we find that the times of the Gentiles signify that period wherein the church is made up of Gentiles to the almost exclusion of the Jews. The same chapter shows that this period is to be followed by one wherein the Jew and the Gentile unite together in proclaiming the gospel. This prophecy, therefore, declares that until this union of the Jew and the Gentile takes place, the city of Jerusalem shall not only be controlled by the Gentiles, [625] but shall be trodden under foot--i. e., oppressed--by them. The history of Jerusalem, to this day, is a striking fulfillment of this prophecy.] b18 And pray ye that it ayour flight bbe not in the winter. [Because the flight will be so precipitate that it would necessitate much exposure to the weather, sleeping under the open heaven, etc.] aneither on a sabbath [Jewish tradition limited travel on the Sabbath day to a distance of seven furlongs. The early training of many Christians led them to have scruples about breaking the Sabbath. It is possible that Jesus had these scruples in view, but by no means conclusive, for in fleeing they would need the support and friendship of their Jewish brethren, who would be apt, not only to hinder, but even in those troublous and turbulent days, to show violence to any who openly disregarded the Sabbath. For it must be remembered that the Jews, not being guided by the admonitions of Christ, would regard the sudden flight of the Christians as unnecessarily hasty]: 21 for then { bthose days ashall be great tribulation, bsuch as there hath not been the like from the beginning of the creation athe world bwhich God created until now, and never, ano, nor ever shall be. [These words spoken before the event are strikingly verified by the statements of Josephus written after it. "No other city," says he, "ever suffered miseries, nor did any age, from the beginning of the world, ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness that this was." And again: "If the miseries of all mankind from the creation were compared with those which the Jews then suffered, they would appear inferior." The promise that there shall be no days like it of course excludes the terrors and miseries of the judgment day, since it belongs to celestial rather than terrestrial history. Having now the whole paragraph before us, we are ready to discuss the phrase "abomination of desolation" mentioned in Matt. xxiv. 15 ( Luk_21:20, Luk_21:21) forbids us to make the flight from Judæa subsequent to the flight from Jerusalem, for both flights were to begin when the Romans appeared. Again it should be noted that the phrase "the holy place" is apt to mislead, especially when coupled with Mark's "where it ought not." The words when seen in English cause us to think of some person or thing polluting the sanctuary of the temple by standing in its holy place. But it is evident that the words do not refer to the temple at all. When the New Testament speaks of the holy place in the temple it styles it en too hagioo (in the holy), while the words here are en topoo hagioo (in a place holy). Moreover, after a careful perusal of the LXX. we are persuaded that they used the two terms to distinguish between the holy place in the sanctuary and other holy places, a distinction which the Revised Version recognizes ( Lev_6:16, Lev_6:26, Lev_6:27, etc.). As none but priests could enter [627] the holy place, it is evident that another is meant at Psa_24:3; but in this place the Septuagint gives us en topoo hagioo. We, therefore, conclude that in this place Matthew uses the term "holy place" to designate the holy territory round about the Holy City, and that the combined expression of Matthew and Mark signifies the investiture of the city by the Roman armies and is equivalent to the plainer statement made by Luke. The Roman armies were fittingly called the abomination of desolation, because, being heathen armies, they were an abomination to the Jews, and because they brought desolation upon the country. The sight of them, therefore, became the appointed sign for Christians to quit the city.] 22 And except those days had been shortened, b20 And except the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved [since the Lord is speaking to the Jews, this means that if God had not shortened the siege and restrained the Romans, they would have exterminated the Jewish race]; but for the elect's sake, whom he chose, he shortened the days. athose days shall be shortened. [since the term "elect" in Mat_24:24, Mat_24:31 evidently means Christians, it doubtless means that here, though it may mean that God spared a remnant of the Jewish people because he had covenanted with the patriarchs that they should be his chosen people, for the Jews are also God's elect ( Rom_11:28, Rom_11:29). Moreover, it should be noted that there were few, if any, Christians remaining in the city, and that those who were spared were spared as Jews without discrimination.] b21 And then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ; aor, Here; bor, Lo, there; believe it not: 22 for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show agreat signs and wonders; so as to bthat they may lead astray, if possible, aeven the elect. [For accounts of these lying prophets who appeared before and during the siege, see Josephus, Wars iv., v., vi. Christ warns his followers: 1. Not to be deceived by spurious Christs. 2. Not to believe that he himself has again appeared. This latter warning is further enforced by what follows.] b23 But take [628] ye heed: behold, I have told you all things beforehand. a26 If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the wilderness; go not forth: Behold, he is in the inner chambers; believe it not. 27 For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. [The coming of Christ would be an event needing no herald; every man would see it for himself. See p. 531.] 28 Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. [See pp. 533, 534.]
[FFG 619-629]
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.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Chapter 13
Chapter 13
1. The Destruction of the Temple Predicted. (Mar 13:1-2. Mat 24:1-2; Luk 21:5-6)
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2. The Questions of the Disciples. (Mar 13:3-4. Mat 24:3; Luk 21:7)
3. The Olivet Discourse. (Mar 13:5-37. Mat 24:4-42; Luk 21:8-38)
1. The Destruction of the Temple Predicted. Mar 13:1-2
He went out of the temple for the last time, when one of His disciples called attention to the temple buildings. They were of the most massive construction, some of them still in process of erection. He predicted complete destruction, which was fulfilled later in the year 70. The destruction of Jerusalem is more fully foretold in Luk 21:20-24.
2. The Questions of the Disciples. Mar 13:3-4
Mark gives us their names, which are omitted by Matthew and Luke. What follows is the answer.
3. The Olivet Discourse. Mar 13:5-37
Mark’s report is the briefest, Matthew’s the longest. omitted in Mark are the parables, which have special reference to the Christian profession (Mat 25:1-46) and the judgment of living nations (Mat 25:31-46). These belong in Matthew, but would be out of keeping with the purpose of the Gospel of Mark. The Service of our Lord, as we have seen, is in the foreground. The three characteristic discourses in Matthew nowhere else reported in full are: 1. The Sermon on the mount, which is the Proclamation of the King. 2. The Parable Discourse in Mat 13:1-58, the mysteries of the Kingdom. 3. The Olivet Discourse, Mat 24:1-51; Mat 25:1-46, the future of the Kingdom. But why should there be anything at all in the Gospel of Mark about the future things, such as the end of the age and His Return in Glory, if only the Servant is described? it will be seen that the predictions are in part at least in view of their service. He forewarned them as His servants of what was to come after His departure.
It is not the purpose of this annotated analysis to give an exposition of this discourse. We must ask the reader to turn to our commentary on Matthew. We give here a subdivision of the discourse as contained in Mar 1:1-45) The characteristics of the present age and the end of the age. Mar 13:5-13. (2 The abomination of desolation or the great tribulation which precedes the Second Coming of Christ. Mar 13:14-23. 3) The visible manifestation of Christ. He will come again in clouds as Son of Man not as an humble Servant but as the King of Glory. The regathering of the elect Israel then takes place. Mar 13:24-27. 4) The Signs of His Coming. The budding fig tree is Israel awakening to new national life. Mar 13:28-33. Note that in Mar 13:32 “neither the Son” is added. This statement of our Lord that even He the Son does not know the hour of His return has been used to deny His Deity. All kinds of theories have been invented to explain it. It is explained by the Lord having taken the place of humiliation as a Servant for “the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth.” This is why the statement appears only in Mark. It does not affect the truth of His Person. 5) The solemn exhortation to watch. It behooves the servants to watch during the absence of the Lord.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Christ Foretells the Destruction of Jerusalem and the End…
Christ Foretells the Destruction of Jerusalem and the End of the World.
Prophecy concerning the Temple:
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v. 1. And as He went out of the Temple, one of His disciples saith unto Him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!
v. 2. And Jesus, answering, said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.
The Temple built by Herod to take the place of that erected by the Jews under Zerubbabel and restored and embellished under Judas Maccabaeus, was, so far as outward architectural beauty was concerned, a building, or rather a complex of buildings, of which any nation might have been proud. Beginning in 20-19 B. C. , the sanctuary had been wrecked and rebuilt in about eighteen months, but the other halls and chambers of the Temple had been constructed much more slowly. It took forty-six years to finish all the buildings as planned by Herod, Joh 2:20, but the last stones of the enclosures with their beautiful sculptured work were not put into place until the year 64 A. D. The disciples thus had good reasons for pointing out to Jesus some of the immense stones, fifty feet long, twenty-four broad, and sixteen in thickness, of which Josephus writes, and they could well admire the immense porticoes, with their slender Corinthian columns and the great central buildings, rising almost 180 feet over the Court of the Gentiles, its marble coping and golden ornaments making it by far the most conspicuous edifice in the entire city. Jesus freely admits that the great size and the magnificence of the Temple are unquestioned, but He also knows, according to His prophetic wisdom, what terrible destruction and devastation would be worked here less than four decades hence, that God’s wrath would be poured out upon the city and the Temple in full measure. He knows that the unbelief and the rejection of the Messiah, of His own labor and ministry, would bring upon the Temple such a fate as would vainly seek for a comparison in the history of the world. As for the Temple, not one stone would be left in place upon the other which would not be removed and thoroughly destroyed. This was the beginning of a conversation between Christ and His disciples which was continued on their way over the Mount of Olives, where they stopped for a while, and was probably not ended till they reached Bethany for the night’s lodging.
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 General Information:
General Information:
As they leave the temple area, Jesus tells his disciples what will happen in the future to the wonderful temple that Herod the Great has built.
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the wonderful stones and wonderful buildings
The "stones" refer to the stones that the buildings were built with. AT: "the wonderful buildings and the wonderful stones that they are made of" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone
This question is used to draw attention to the buildings. This can be written as a statement. AT: "Look at these great buildings! Not one stone" or "You see these great buildings now, but not one stone" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Not one stone will be left on another which will not be torn down
It is implied that enemy soldiers will tear down the stones. This can be stated in active form. AT: "Not one stone will remain on top of another, for enemy soldiers will come and destroy these buildings" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Active or Passive)
translationWords
Jesus
temple
disciple
teacher
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 13:1-37 This passage brings to a conclusion the section…
13:1-37 This passage brings to a conclusion the section begun at 11:1. Israel’s failure to produce fruit (11:12-26; 12:38-40) and its leaders’ hostility toward God’s anointed, the Messiah (11:1-11, 27-33; 12:13-17, 18-27), would result in judgment and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
13:1 Leaving the Temple, Jesus was heading to the Mount of Olives (13:3). • look at these magnificent buildings! The sight of the Temple would have been awe-inspiring. It was the largest temple complex in the world, with immense stones. One stone that has been uncovered in the western wall is estimated to weigh 600 tons. With its white stones, gold trim, and the gold-covered roof, the Temple complex looked like a snow-covered mountain; in the sun it was a blinding sight (Josephus, War 5.5.6). The Talmud says that “He who has not seen the temple in its full construction has never seen a glorious building in his life” (Babylonian Sukkah 51b).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.