Commentators sometimes call today's passage the "little Apocalypse." This name is clearly connected with the fact that Jesus' account here of the end times recalls some descriptions of the "great Apocalypse," the Book of Revelation of John. And still, the differences between them are no fewer than the similarities...
Commentators sometimes call today's passage the "little Apocalypse." This name is clearly connected with the fact that Jesus' account here of the end times recalls some descriptions of the "great Apocalypse," the Book of Revelation of John. And still, the differences between them are no fewer than the similarities. The chief difference is that Jesus tells His disciples about events that will occur during the lifetime of the first generation of Christians. The only exception is the conclusion of the account, which describes Christ's return in glory, verses 29-31. Jesus, as we see, connects it with the events of 70 AD, when, as a result of the anti-Roman uprising raised by the Zealots, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans after a long siege, and Jews were forbidden to settle in Judea, verse 15. By the "abomination of desolation" spoken of in the Book of Daniel, Jesus clearly means the desecration and destruction of the Temple by Roman soldiers when they took the city.
However, as the eyewitness to these events, the historian Flavius Josephus, reports, Christians and Pharisees left the city before the siege began, and the Christians, as we see, were in this case following a direct instruction from their Teacher, verses 16-20. Those who remained in the city, judging by the testimony of the same Flavius Josephus, really did suffer the terrible disasters about which Jesus had warned His disciples, verse 21. The uprising was preceded by a period of feverishly intense messianic expectations, when claimants to messiahship appeared literally every day. It is no accident that Jesus found it necessary to warn the disciples against being carried away by such false messiahs, verses 23-25. But the good news of the true Messiah had been heard throughout the Roman Empire even before 70 AD, verse 14.
Here a natural question arises: if Jesus' account concerns events that took place in the first decades of Christian history, how should we understand His words about the end of history, which was to come after those events? Jesus' account was so well known to the first generation of Christians that those who survived the catastrophe of 70 AD were in complete bewilderment: everything predicted by the Teacher had come true, and still He was not returning. Meanwhile Jesus Himself said nothing about dates: He only pointed to the events of 70 AD as the end of earthly history. Everything further evidently unfolds as part of some other process, no longer defined by this history.
Another history begins: the history of the Kingdom entering the world. It is a history in which each of us will have to take part in one way or another. And exactly what that participation will be depends only on us.
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24:15 When ye see the abomination of desolation - Daniel's term is, The abomination that maketh desolate, Dan 11:31; that is, the standards of the desolating legions, onwhich they bear the abominable images of their idols: Standing in the holy place - Not only the temple and the mountain on which it stood, but the whole city of Jerusalem, and several furlongs of land round about it, were accounted holy; particularly the mount on which our Lord now sat, and on which the Romans afterward planted their ensigns. He that readeth let him understand - Whoever reads that prophecy of Daniel, let him deeply consider it. Mar 13:14; Luk 21:20; Dan 9:27.
24:16 Then let them who are in Judea flee to the mountains - So the Christians did, and were preserved. It is remarkable that after the Romans under Cestus Gallus made their first advances toward Jerusalem, they suddenly withdrew again, in a most unexpected and indeed impolitic manner. This the Christians took as a signal to retire, which they did, some to Pella, and others to Mount Libanus.
24:17 Let not him that is on the house top come down to take any thing out of his house - It may be remembered that their stairs used to be on the outside of their houses.
24:19 Wo to them that are with child, and to them that give suck - Because they cannot so readily make their escape.
24:20 Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter - They did so; and their flight was in the spring. Neither on the Sabbath - Being on many accounts inconvenient; beside that many wouldhave scrupled to travel far on that day. For the Jews thought it unlawful to walk above two thousand paces (two miles) on the Sabbath day.
24:21 Then shall be great tribulation - Have not many things spoken in the chapter, as well as in Mar 13:14 etc, Luk 21:21 etc a farther and much more extensive meaning than has been yet fulfilled?
24:22 And unless those days were shortened - By the taking of Jerusalem sooner than could be expected: No flesh would be saved - The whole nation would be destroyed. But for the elect's sake - That is, for the sake of the Christians.
24:23 Mar 13:21; Luk 17:23.
24:24 They would deceive, if possible, the very elect - But it is not possible that God should suffer the body of Christians to be thus deceived.
24:27 For as the lightning goeth forth - For the next coming of Christ will he as quick as lightning; so that there will not be time for any such previous warning.
24:28 For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles he gathered together - Our Lord gives this, as a farther reason, why they should not hearken to any pretended deliverer. As if he had said, Expect not any deliverer of the Jewish nation; for it is devoted to destruction. It is already before God a dead carcass, which the Roman eagles will soon devour. Luk 17:37.
24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days - Here our Lord begins to speak of his last coming. But he speaks not so much in the language of man as of God, with whom a thousand years are as one day, one moment. Many of the primitive Christians not observing this, thought he would come immediately, in the common sense of the word: a mistake which St. Paul labours to remove, in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. The powers of the heavens - Probably the influences of the heavenly bodies. Mar 13:24; Luk 21:25.
24:30 Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven - It seems a little before he himself descends. The sun, moon, and stars being extinguished, (probably not those of our system only,) the sign of the Son of man (perhaps the cross) will appear in the glory of the Lord.
24:31 They shall gather together his elect - That is, all that have endured to the end in the faith which worketh by love.