xiii. 1–2. Announcement of the Destruction of the Temple: cf. Matt. xxiv. 1–2; Luke xxi. 5–6.

1. as he went forth out of the temple. The work of another day being finished, he was again leaving the temple courts, and, as we may infer, turning towards Bethany. It is probable that the visit of the Greeks recorded by John (xii. 20–36) took place immediately before this departure from the temple. These Greeks could not enter the court of the women. This explains perhaps their request to see Jesus. In the outer court they might see him; but they could not pass beyond that.

one of his disciples. He is not named, but he may have been Peter, the usual spokesman, or Andrew, as in Mark xiii. 3.

behold, what manner of stones and what buildings! The Herodian temple was of extraordinary magnificence and architectural grandeur. The blocks of stone used in its construction were of a magnitude that staggers the modern Western mind. Josephus speaks of the stones of part of it as being ‘each in length twenty-five cubits, in height eight, in breadth about twelve’ (Antiq. xv. xi. 3), and of some of them as being ‘forty-five cubits in length, five in height, and six in breadth’ (Jewish War, v. v. 6). It was not strange that the disciples, as they were leaving it now and looked upon its glories, called the Master’s attention to its mass and splendour, the stupendous blocks of marble of which it was built, the grandeur of its various parts, its courts and gates and colonnades and the votive offerings (the ‘gifts’ of Luke xxi. 5), such as the golden vine presented by Herod the Great, with which it was enriched. Their action may have been prompted by something just said by Jesus, perhaps by his lament over Jerusalem and the words about ‘the desolation of the house’ with which, according to Matthew’s Gospel (xxiii. 37–39), he closed his denunciations of the scribes and Pharisees. [Salmond, 1906]

Seest thou these great buildings? Did the speaker’s eye rest with pride and wonder on the structure that made Jerusalem famous over the world? It was to gaze upon a different spectacle shortly.

there shall not be left here one stone upon another. Some of the great stones of the underbuilding yet remain. But of the structure on which the disciples now looked nothing is left standing. The destruction that has overtaken the great temples of ancient Egypt is less utter by far than is the case with the temple of the Jews. When Titus captured Jerusalem he left the work of demolition to be completed by the tenth legion, and it was done so thoroughly that ‘no one visiting the city,’ says Josephus, ‘would believe it had ever been inhabited’ (Jewish War, vii. i. 1). Jesus took up the announcement of ancient prophecy which declared that Zion was to be ‘plowed as a field,’ and Jerusalem to ‘become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest’ (Mic. iii. 12), and in forty years after he spoke his word was fulfilled to the letter. [Salmond, 1906]

as he sat on the mount of Olives. On his way to Bethany Jesus had now crossed the Kidron and was sitting somewhere on the path up the mount of Olives. Here he paused and sat down to there was the Divine purpose of the providence which permitted them to rest, with the temple full in his view. Seen from this position the magnificent structure so splendidly placed must have been a grand and glorious spectacle.

asked him privately. Four of the Twelve come up to him as he sits (whether acting of themselves or chosen for the purpose by their brethren is not explained), and apart from the rest address certain questions to him. They are the two pairs of brothers who were the first called, and they are named in the order in which they appear in the record of the selection and ordination of the apostles. [Salmond, 1906]

Tell us, when shall these things be? The questions were suggested by what Jesus had just said of the overthrow of the massive buildings on which they had been looking. The first of the two questions was about the time when these things’ (that is, the predicted destruction of the temple) were to come about. The second question was about the sign,’ some visible portent or signal which they expected to be given and by which they might know the events in question to be near. They speak as if only one sign, a definite and unmistakable token, was in their thoughts. Matthew represents the questions as touching not only the destruction of the temple, but Christ’s own ‘coming’ and the ‘end of the world,’ or ‘consummation of the age’ (xxiv. 3). The nearer event is thus taken as coincident with the remoter, and the one is regarded as included in the other. [Salmond, 1906]

Take heed that no man lead you astray. In his reply, Jesus has regard first to the question about the sign. But he mentions no single sign such as the four spoke of. And before he addresses himself to either question he delivers a solemn caution, one which he also repeats as he proceeds, to the questioners themselves. Their first necessity was to look to themselves and their own peril — a peril against which they might be helpless if their minds were taken up by questions about times and signs. That was the danger of being beguiled and ‘led astray’ by pretentious, religious impostors. [Salmond, 1906]

many shall come in my name. The possibility of being seduced from their faith—that is the first thing on which they require instruction and forewarning. And the danger was great, because in these searching and calamitous times there would be many false teachers, who would come ‘saying, I am he,’ that is, claiming to be the Messiah. Josephus speaks more than once of such false prophets and impostors, and mentions one by name- Theudas (Antiq. xx. v. 1; Jewish War, ii. xiii. 4). The case of Simon Magus, who gave himself out to be ‘some great one’ and was taken by the Samaritan multitude to be that power of God which is called Great’ (Acts viii. 9, 10), is also in point. [Salmond, 1906]

wars and rumours of wars. Times of unrest and political commotion were before them. In point of fact, during the thirty or forty years preceding the fall of Jerusalem the Holy Land was in a peculiarly unsettled condition. It was a period of risings, riots, and deepening conflict with the Roman power.

be not troubled: these things must needs come to pass. They were not to take these things as the sign of the end or become disquieted by them. Such commotions were only in the natural course of these things that in the Divine purpose have to come, and things that may come at any time in the present condition of the world. [Salmond, 1906]

for nation shall rise against nation. In spite of these wars and rumours of wars the end will not be yet, and for the reason that there are other things which must happen before that- struggles among the nations, earthquakes, famines. Luke adds ‘pestilences,’ and ‘terrors and great signs from heaven (xxi. 11). Notice the sententiousness of Mark’s statement, there shall be earthquakes in divers places; there shall be famines.’ Compare the terms in which both in O. T. prophecy and in the non-canonical Apocalypses announcements of judicial visitations of God are given (e. g. Isa. viii. 21; Jer. xxiii. 19; Ezek. v. 12: Book of Enoch, i. 6; 4 Esdras xvi. 36-40). In Acts xi. 28 reference is made to the prophecy of famine ‘signified by the Spirit’ by Agabus, and its fulfilment in the time of Claudius.

these things are the beginning of travail. Such political convulsions and national disasters are not to be taken for the ‘end’ itself. They are, however, ‘the beginning of travail’-the pangs by which the new order of things, the regeneration’ (Matt. xix. 28) will be ushered in. This word ‘travail’ is of rare occurrence in the N. T. In its literal sense it is used in 1 Thess. v. 3; in a figurative sense it is found here, in Matt. xxiv. 8, and (with reference to death) in Acts ii. 24. Cf. also Paul’s description of the whole creation as travailing in pain together until now, waiting for the event by which it shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption’ (Rom. viii. 21, 22). In the Rabbinical literature mention is made of the ‘pangs’ or ‘travails of Messiah’ -the name given to the calamities by which the Advent of Messiah was to be heralded. [Salmond, 1906]

But take ye heed to yourselves. A repetition of the caution already given (xiii. 5), but with reference to another kind of peril. False teachers, wars, disasters, portents-others might busy themselves with these, and try to discover ‘signs’ in them. But it should not be so with his disciples. Their first care should be directed to themselves and the trials that may shake their own faith.

councils: lit. Sanhedrins. Not only the great council of Jerusalem, therefore, but also the local councils, the bodies which had the power of discipline in Jewish towns, judicial courts consisting of the elders of the synagogues. Whether in the case of the Twelve or in that of others, this announcement had not long to wait for its fulfilment (Acts iv. 5, 13, v. 21, 27; vi. 12, Stephen; xxiii. 1, Paul).

and in synagogues shall ye be beaten: or, ‘and into synagogues, ye shall be beaten.’ The ecclesiastical courts proper. In each synagogue there was a subordinate official called the ‘minister, the Chazzan who was the servant of the congregation. This official had not only to see to the production of the copy of the Scriptures at public worship and to its removal again, but was also charged with the duty of maintaining order, and had the power of scourging. See Paul’s case (2 Cor. xi. 24).

governors: that is, rulers less than royal, the name being given in the N. T. to the official representatives of the Imperial power in the provinces-procurators, proconsuls, and the like (1 Pet. ii. 14), and specially to the Roman Procurator of Judæa (Matt. xxvii. 2).

kings: supreme rulers, whether kings of particular states or Roman Cæsars. Paul had to stand before the governors Felix and Festus, before the king Agrippa (Acts xxvi. 1-32), and before the emperor Nero (2 Tim. iv. 16).

for a testimony unto them. To bear witness for Christ — there was the Divine purpose of the providence which permitted them to be dragged before these various tribunals, Jewish and Roman. Luke gives the other side of this purpose—‘It shall turn to you for a testimony’ (xxi. 13). [Salmond, 1906]

And the gospel must first be preached unto all the nations. The world-wide extension of the ‘glad tidings’ must precede the ‘end.’ This, too, is in the Divine purpose—it ‘must;’ there is a moral necessity for it. Even before the destruction of Jerusalem, Paul could say that *‘from Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyricum’ he had ‘fully preached the gospel of Christ’ (Rom. xv. 19), and that his mission took him next to the far west, into Spain (Rom. xv. 24, 28). [Salmond, 1906]

anxious beforehand; an expressive word, of which this is the one occurrence in the N.T. It conveys the idea of the distraction caused by anxiety about what may happen or what ought to be done. The Master knew how his disciples would be filled with natural fears when they were called to answer for themselves before these judicial tribunals, especially the unfamiliar courts in which the dreaded Roman authorities sat. He arms them against these distractions by giving them the assurance of Divine help to meet exceptional trials of their mental resources and their courage.

it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. When the time to make their defence came, the Spirit of God would be their spokesman or give them what they ought to say—the matter and the words alike. In Luke this assurance is given in more particular terms, recalling the ancient promise to Moses (Exod. iv. 11, &c.)—‘I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to withstand or to gainsay’ (xxi. 15). This promise of special help is given not with a view to ordinary speech, but with reference to the exceptional case of appearances before governors and kings. Their Inspirer and Advocate is alternatively Jesus himself, as in Luke, or ‘the Holy Ghost’ as in Mark. In ancient Jewish prophecy the possession of the spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, was one of the titles of the Messiah and the Messianic age (Isa. xi. 2, xlii. 1, lxi. 1; cf. Mic. iii. 8; Joel ii. 28; Ezek. xxxvi. 26). Hence Jesus’s followers are here said to receive this gift. ‘He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit’ (1 Cor. vi. 17). Cf. 1 John ii. 20, 27, and the ‘spirit of wisdom’ of the Book of Wisdom (i. 5). In the O. T. the ‘spirit’ is usually represented as a power proceeding from God and communicated by Him. In the two instances in which the particular term ‘holy spirit’ occurs, the meaning is larger and more definite. In Ps. li. 11, the ‘holy spirit’ appears as the principle or power of sanctification; in Isa. lxiii. 10, 11 the ‘holy spirit’ is a spirit in which God acts in some way personally, and that is on the way to be conceived of as a personal power. But we have not in the O.T. the full and definite doctrine of the personal Spirit of God that is contained in the great N.T. phrase ‘the Holy Spirit’ or ‘Holy Ghost,’ and has so large a place in the distinctive teaching of the N.T. [Salmond, 1906]

brother shall deliver up brother. Terrors of constituted authorities are not the worst they have to face. They will suffer from the more bitter and insidious persecution of friends, from the cruel treacheries even of those related to them by the closest ties of nature.

and cause them to be put to death: the margin of the R.V. puts it simply and directly, ‘put them to death.’ But the idea seems to be ‘shall work their death,’ and it is well expressed by the Rheims Version. In the Jewish councils they had scourgings to fear. But when they came into the hands of the Roman authorities they should have to look for the death penalty. [Salmond, 1906]

ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. These words are given in all three Gospels, and without variation. They mean not only that the disciples shall be hated, but that they shall continue to be hated. Their first and last offence, the thing that shall constantly count against them beyond all else, shall be the fact that they are Christians. In Peter’s Epistle to the scattered Asiatic churches we already hear of suffering ‘as a Christian’ (1 Pet. iv. 16). The early Christian writers speak, one after another, of suffering ‘for his name’ (Polycarp, Epistle to the Philippians, 8), of ‘the name’ being taken as sufficient evidence against one (Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 4), or of ‘the confession of the name’ being the one thing needed to bring public odium and death (Tertull. Apol. 2).

he that endureth to the end. The phrase ‘to the end’ here does not refer to the crisis of the end, the destruction of Jerusalem, or the end of the world, which the four had spoken about; it refers to the end of the individual’s endurance—an endurance sustained all through. The endurance in question also is not the passive virtue of patience, in our sense of bearing things without murmur or resistance, but the manlier and more positive grace of perseverance or steadfastness. This grace has a large place in the N.T., most especially in the Epistles of Paul and the Book of Revelation (Jas. i. 3, 4; 1 Pet. ii. 20; Heb. xii. 1; Rom. v. 3, 8, &c., viii. 25; 1 Thess. i. 3; 2 Thess. i. 4; iii. 5; Rev. i. 9, ii. 2, 3, iii. 10, xiii. 10, &c.). Josephus uses it of the indomitable constancy of the heroes of the Maccabean struggle (Antiq. xii. vi. 7). Luke gives this part of our Lord’s caution a notable turn: ‘In your patience ye shall win your souls’ (or, ‘lives,’ xxi. 19). [Salmond, 1906]

xiii. 14–23. The Sign of the Fall of Jerusalem: cf. Matt. xxiv. 15–25; Luke xxi. 20–24.

14. But when ye see the abomination of desolation. From these personal warnings Jesus proceeds to speak next of the event in which they may see the real ‘sign’ of the end. ‘Wars and rumours of wars’ in connexion with other parts of the earth are not to be made too much of. But when these touch the Holy City they become significant. The ‘abomination of desolation’ is ‘the abomination that causes desolation.’ This expressive term ‘abomination’ occurs some half-dozen times in the N.T. (Matt. xxiv. 15; Mark xiii. 14; Luke xvi. 15; Rev. xvii. 4, 5, xxi. 27). In the O.T. it is used specially of things belonging to idolatrous worship, e.g., to idols (Deut. xxix. 17), to false gods (Ezek. vii. 20), to Milcom in particular, ‘the abomination of the Ammonites’ (1 Kings xi. 5), to the horrid rites of the heathen practised by Ahaz (2 Kings xvi. 3). The precise phrase ‘the abomination of desolation’ here used by our Lord is one that occurs thrice in the Book of Daniel (ix. 27, xi. 31, xii. 11); and that the Danielic passage is in view here is expressly stated by Matthew, who adds the words ‘which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet’ (xxiv. 15). What is to be understood by the phrase? In the prophecy of Daniel it probably refers to the outrages of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian conqueror, and particularly to the desecration of the temple by placing a heathen altar upon the altar of burnt-offering. In the Apocryphal writings it is quoted in connexion with the erection of an altar to Jove in the Holy of Holies (1 Macc. i. 54). But the phrase ‘the desolation’ of the Holy City and the temple by Rome. For Luke gives this particular form of the desolation: ‘When ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that her desolation is at hand’ (xxi. 20). The Roman eagles were objects of detestation as well as dread to the Jews, because they bore the effigy of the Emperor and inscriptions that were blasphemous to Jewish faith. When, holding the Holy City in their heathen grasp, the Roman eagles lifted over the site of the temple itself—these were ‘the abomination of desolation.’ The R.V. adopts the reading ‘standing where he ought not,’ instead of ‘where it ought not’—a reading which represents the ‘abomination’ as personal—concentrated in the Roman soldiery or in the Roman leader. When this personal embodiment of idolatrous, heathen power was ‘seen there,’ ‘standing where he ought not,’ that is, within the precincts of the temple, the ‘sign’ of the rapidly approaching ‘end’ was to be recognized, and the disciples could not too soon prepare for it. Josephus states that the Romans brought their ensigns into the temple, and placed them over against the eastern gate, and he adds that ‘there they offered sacrifices to them,’ and ‘with the loudest acclamations proclaimed Titus emperor’ (Jewish War, vii. vi. 1).

let him that readeth understand. This parenthetical sentence is thrown in by the Evangelist himself, or it may be by the compiler of a collection of the Lord’s words used by Mark in the composition of his Gospel, with the view of calling special attention to this significant sentence of the prophetic discourse—the sentence that indicates the ‘sign’ required.

let them that are in Judæa flee. Flight, instant flight without tarrying or looking back, would then be the first duty of the whole Judean people, not of the apostles only. The Christian Jews, we know, did take flight to Pella in Peræa, one of the towns of Decapolis, between Gerasa and Hippos. That was a flight of about 100 miles, which took the fugitives across the hills of Judæa and Moab. Eusebius says that this step was taken in accordance with the warning of a prophetic oracle given to the Christians of Jerusalem before the war began (Eccles. Hist. iii. v. 3). [Salmond, 1906]

on the housetop. The flat roofs of Eastern houses, which were much frequented by the family, being used for purposes of sleep, watching, prayer, worship, &c. (cf. 1 Sam. ix. 25; Neh. viii. 16; Isa. xxii. 1; Jer. xix. 13; Zeph. i. 5; Acts x. 9), were reached by a flight of steps from without. In quitting them there was no need to go within the house, and the fugitive in this great peril was not to delay to do so – — not even with the view of taking any of his goods with him. [Salmond, 1906]

to take his cloke. The labourer might be overtaken by this desolation when he was at work in the fields, and if he would escape he could not risk the loss of time involved even in the simple act of picking up his outer garment, which he had taken off when he set himself to his task. [Salmond, 1906]

not in the winter: when rain and cold and storm would make escape so much more difficult. Matthew adds ‘neither on a sabbath’ (xxiv. 20). The Jew was forbidden to travel on the sabbath beyond a prescribed limit, a sabbath-day’s journey, a distance of about 2,000 ells. Even if Christian Jews overcame their scruples in that matter, they would suffer from the opposition of their strict fellow countrymen. When the crisis came in A.D. 69–70 the Romans encircled the city in October—a season sufficiently good for travel. The decisive operations of the siege were carried through some six months later, in a part of the year which was still more favourable. [Salmond, 1906]

For those days shall be tribulation. A strong and significant description of the terrors of that fateful time—the days themselves would be one long tribulation. Josephus speaks of the miseries of the siege of Jerusalem as surpassing the ‘misfortunes of all men from the beginning of the world,’ and draws a harrowing picture of the densely crowded city, smitten by the engines of war, rent by sedition, scourged by pestilence and famine: of its houses and streets filled with multitudes of the dead too vast to be removed; of the barbarities daily enacted in it, of its maddened and remorseless assassins who stalked through it, of its miserable and famished inhabitants ground to the dust by cruel hunger and all manner of violence and wretchedness, until the food of war fed the instincts of humanity that mothers snatched the food out of the mouths of husbands and children. Six hundred corpses were thrown over the wall (Josephus, Jewish War, vi. ix. 3). [Salmond, 1906]

except the Lord had shortened the days. That is, in His own Divine counsel. We know from history that the siege began in the year 70 A.D.; that decisive operations against the walls of the city containing the temple were commenced in May; that the tower of Antonia was taken on June 11; that the temple was fired on July 15; that Titus entered the city about September 12; and that the destruction of life during these months was so great that if the time had been prolonged none would have been left alive. According to Josephus 97,000 of the besieged actually survived all these horrors. But over 1,100,000 perished (Jewish War, v. iii. 1, vii. viii. 4, vi. ix. 3).

but for the elect’s sake, whom he chose, he shortened the days. Josephus speaks of Titus as fired with a great eagerness to bring the siege to an end, and tells us how in three days he surrounded the city with a wall five miles long and planted with strong garrisons. By these human instrumentalities, the vast energy of the besiegers and the infatuations of the besieged, God fulfilled His counsel in the shortening of the days, and did this for the elect’s sake. This great term of grace ‘the elect’ is not to be thinned down into a mere equivalent for ‘the righteous.’ The ‘elect,’ indeed, are the good men in the nation, but they are more than that—they are those whom God ‘chose’—the objects of His choice and recognition in His eternal purpose. The word has a great history in Scripture and a great place in the vocabulary of grace. In the O.T. it designates those whom God has placed in a peculiar relation to Himself, the covenant-people generally, or the true Israel who are according to His purpose (Ps. cvi. 6; Isa. xliii. 1; xlv. 20, lxv. 9). In the N.T. it means God’s chosen ones, the select ones from among the ‘called,’ as in the Gospels, or, as in the Epistles, those ‘foreknown and predestinated by God and therefore called’ (Rom. viii. 29, 30), those elect absolutely (Rom. viii. 33), the ‘elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,’ that is, the elect whose choice out of the world has its foundation in the Divine foreknowledge (1 Pet. i. 1, 2). [Salmond, 1906]

false Christs and false prophets. The warning against false teachers (xiii. 6) is now repeated in fuller and more definite terms. The time of the ‘end’ is to be marked by the emergence of religious impostors and deceivers assuming to be prophets and Messiahs. The ‘false Christ’ or pseudo-Messiah is one who pretends to be Messiah, as distinguished from the ‘antichrist,’ the foe of Christ, of whom John writes (1 John ii. 22, iv. 3; 2 John 7). The ‘false prophets,’ not unknown in O.T. times (Zech. xiii. 2; 2 Pet. ii. 1), were a more frequent phenomenon than the ‘false Christs’ in N.T. times, as we see in the case of Bar-jesus (Acts xiii. 6) and the statement of John (1 John iv. 1). They were yet to bring special seasons of danger and trial, and in the primitive Church appears from what is said in the earliest Christian literature (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 11). In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus had already charged his disciples to ‘beware of false prophets,’ and had described them in scathing terms as coming to the unwary ‘in sheep’s clothing’ while inwardly they were ‘ravening wolves’ (Matt. vii. 15).

shall shew signs and wonders. This is an element of greater danger, not noticed in the case of the impostors previously referred to (xiii. 6). ‘Signs and lying wonders’ are also mentioned as part of the working of Satan in the ‘lawless one’ who is to come before the Second Advent of Christ (2 Thess. ii. 1–12). ‘Signs’ are things pointing beyond themselves to something else; ‘wonders’ are portents, phenomena out of the common order (cf. Exod. vii. 11, 22; also Deut. xiii. 1, xxviii. 46, xxix. 3, xxxiv. 11; Ps. cxxxv. 9, &c.). The miracles of our Lord are sometimes called ‘wonders’ in the N.T., especially in the Book of Acts (ii. 22, 43, iv. 30, v. 12, vi. 8, xiv. 3, xv. 12), but elsewhere more usually ‘signs’ and ‘powers.’ Josephus reports how false prophets arose who persuaded multitudes to go with them into the desert to see them work signs and wonders there.

if possible, the elect. Solemn, closing statement of the greatness of the peril from the imposing and insidious efforts of these pseudo-Christs and pseudo-prophets. ‘Even the elect!’—beyond that boldness and mad endeavour cannot go. [Salmond, 1906]

But take ye heed. Third delivery of the same personal charge. [Salmond, 1906]

xiii. 24–27. The End and the Coming of the Son of man: cf. Matt. xxiv. 29–31; Luke xxi. 25–28.

24. But in those days, after that tribulation. The ‘tribulation’ is the ‘sign’ of ‘the end.’ The ‘end’ itself now becomes the subject, and the vision of the siege and fall of the Holy City passes into the vision of the ultimate dispensation and the Coming of the Son of Christ. In Luke there is no note of time to connect the one with the other. In Matthew the relation of one to the other is most definitely given as one of immediate succession—‘immediately after the tribulation of those days.’ In Mark the relation is given in more general terms. The ‘end,’ marked by ‘that tribulation,’ is the vision of the destruction of Jerusalem, but to come ‘after that tribulation,’ yet ‘in those days,’ is the vision of the Advent. The word ‘those days’ is here described as belonging generally to the same critical and momentous period in which the overthrow of the Jewish order takes place. The latter event is given as the prelude of the former, the removal of the old order which prepares for the entrance of the new.the sun shall be darkened. This portent and the others which are mentioned belong, therefore, to the further ‘end’ and the Advent. The terms are not to be taken literally and particularly, but in a wide and general sense. They are of the same order as the large, imaginative terms of O.T. prophecy, the symbolism of which they follow. The O.T. prophets employed such imagery in their announcements of judicial interventions of God in the history of nations, great political convulsions, the overthrow of kingdoms, and exceptional changes of other kinds, such as the dispensation of the Spirit in the last days (Joel ii. 28–32; Acts ii. 16–21). ‘The stars of heaven,’ says Isaiah, ‘and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine’ (xiii. 10). This is the prophet’s way of declaring the certain overthrow of Babylon. So with the fall of Edom (xxxiv. 4). In the same way, Amos speaks of the fall of the northern kingdom (viii. 9). And Ezekiel, when he foretells the doom of Egypt, does it in this form: ‘When I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God’ (xxxii. 7, 8). In each case extraordinary physical phenomena, eclipses, earthquakes, and the like, are the figures of Divine acts effecting great changes in Church or State, and the terms are to be interpreted as the language of symbolism, not of literal fact. [Salmond, 1906]

the powers that are in the heavens. That is, the heavenly bodies generally, the same as the ‘host of the heavens’ in Isa. xxxiv. 4. Luke adds a description of the effect produced by these portents on the spectators—‘men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world’ (xxi. 26). [Salmond, 1906]

And then shall they see the Son of man coming. This announcement of the actual coming is introduced in Matthew’s Gospel by the words ‘and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven’ (xxiv. 30). This has been taken by some to mean the Advent itself, and by others to indicate a vision of the Cross seen in the heavens. Others have sought to identify this sign with the appearing of angels, or with the vision of the star of the Messiah, as if the reference were to the prophecy of Balaam (Num. xxiv. 17). But this is beside the question. The thing that was to be the signal of the coming is left undefined, and no clue is given by which to identify it.

in clouds with great power and glory. The words take us back to Daniel’s vision of the coming ‘with the clouds of heaven, one like unto a son of man’ (vii. 13). Daniel’s vision referred to the advent of the kingdom of God, the imperishable kingdom of the saints, the kingdom of the regenerate Israel that was to take the place of the cruel, godless world-empires. The ‘clouds’ are part of the imagery which expresses the heavenly order of his new kingdom. Elsewhere in the O.T. the ‘clouds’ are often used as figures of the descent of God, and His intervention on behalf of His people (cf. Isa. xix. 1; Ps. xviii. 11, 12, xcvii. 2). The imagery is to be similarly understood here. But that this Parousia or second coming is to be a real, objective event, however difficult it may be to us to conceive it, appears to be indicated with sufficient distinctness in various passages of the N.T. (Matt. xxiv. 33, 37, 39; 1 Thess. ii. 13, iv. 15, v. 23; 2 Thess. ii. 1; Jas. v. 7; 2 Pet. i. 16, iii. 4, &c.). Here, too, Jesus clearly identifies himself with the figure in Daniel’s prophecy, and the title ‘Son of man’ by which he had designated himself with the ‘son of man’ in Daniel. In him, therefore, the king of Israel and the representative of man, and in his kingdom, was the vision to have its highest and final fulfilment. [Salmond, 1906]

send forth the angels. The ‘ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation’ (Heb. i. 14). Matthew adds ‘with a great sound of a trumpet’ (xxiv. 31)—words recalling those used of the giving of the law (Exod. xix. 16).

gather together his elect. The ‘elect’ are now claimed as his own—‘his elect,’ the elect of the Son of man. The day of redemption is the day of gathering in from all the four winds of the open manifestation of his kingdom in its completeness and glory (cf. 2 Thess. ii. 1). [Salmond, 1906]

xiii. 28–37. Lesson of the Fig-tree and Final Warnings: cf. Matt. xxiv. 32–42; Luke xxi. 29–36.

28. Now from the fig tree learn her parable. The fig-tree one of the commonest trees in the country, has already served as the occasion for solemn warnings and counsels (Mark xi. 13, 14, 20–26). He makes a similar use of it again. ‘Her parable,’ that is, the lesson she suggests. The ‘parable’ here is one of the class of minor, partial parables, an illustration or analogy.when her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves. This is the case of a fig-tree of ordinary growth, not an abnormal specimen with a deceptive shew of leafage before the proper time. The branches have their hard external covering softened or made ‘tender’ by the moistures of spring, and the sap circulates freely through them. Then they begin to shew their greenness, the leaves bursting their sheaths. That is the token of the approach of summer, the earliest token of it. (Cf. Song of Songs ii. 11–13.) [Salmond, 1906]

so ye: the disciples should not be less discerning in their particular sphere of things than the ordinary man is in the matter of the seasons.

he is nigh: rather,‘it is nigh,’ that is, the decisive event referred to, left thus in its unexplained mystery and awe. even at the doors. Cf. Jas. v. 9. His disciples ought to be able to recognize the significance of the events spoken of, and discern in them the beginnings of the consummation. [Salmond, 1906]

This generation shall not pass. The word ‘generation’ is to be taken in its usual sense, the sense which it has in Matt. xxiii. 36 and in the Gospels generally—the body of men then living. Jesus turns at this point from the question of the sign to that of the time, and intimates that the things, all of them, of which he has been speaking, would take place before his contemporaries should all have departed this life. Matthew and Luke state the statement practically in the same terms. [Salmond, 1906]

my words shall not pass away. Jesus had previously claimed permanence for the law (Matt. v. 18; Luke xvi. 17). He now ascribes to his own words a permanence more enduring than heaven or earth is destined to have—an everlasting validity and stability. Cf. Isa. xl. 6–8, li. 6, 8, lxi. 1; 1 Pet. i. 24, 25. [Salmond, 1906]

But of that day or that hour. The ‘day’ and the ‘hour’ here are the time of the Lord’s return—the conclusive, judicial day, elsewhere called ‘the day,’ ‘that day’ (1 Thess. v. 4; 1 Cor. iii. 13); ‘the last day’ (John vi. 25, vi. 39, 40, 44, 54; xi. 24), ‘the day of wrath’ (Rom. ii. 5), ‘the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, by Jesus Christ’ (Rom. ii. 16), ‘the day of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. i. 8), ‘the day of Jesus Christ’ (Phil. i. 6), ‘the day of Christ’ (Phil. i. 10, &c.).

knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son. The precise time of this return is hidden from all but the Father. It is one of the things he hath ‘set within his own authority’ (Acts i. 7). The negatives here are absolute and exclusive, ‘no one, not even the angels, nor yet the Son.’ That angelic knowledge is not unlimited is not difficult to understand, and it is indicated elsewhere (Eph. iii. 10; 1 Pet. i. 12). But the peculiarity of the present passage is that the Son himself is coupled with the angels in this declaration of nescience. The declaration is made, too, by the Son himself, and in terms most definite and unqualified. It is the ascription of a real nescience, not of an ignorance operating in one part of his personality and not in the other, nor an ignorance simply assumed for a certain purpose while a real omniscience remained latent, nor yet the pseudo-ignorance that meant that, while he knew this particular thing as he knew all things, he had no commission from his Father to communicate it to others. Nor is there any difficulty in accepting the statement as it stands. The limitation in knowledge was only a part of the larger and more mysterious limitation implied in the Incarnation, and in that subjection of our Lord to the ordinary laws of growth, physical, mental, and moral, which is affirmed of him in the N.T. (Luke ii. 40, 52; Heb. v. 8). Nor is such a nescience as is here attributed to him, a lack of knowledge of matters of times and seasons, inconsistent in any way with his perfect sinlessness. There are multitudes of things that are morally neutral, the knowledge or the ignorance of which makes us neither better nor worse in the moral nature. [Salmond, 1906]

Take ye heed, watch and pray. The disciples, therefore, ‘know not when the time is,’ and the Master cannot disclose it. But this ignorance has its spiritual purpose and use. It should be an incitement to watchfulness and prayer, and so the words are followed by the final charge that will be ready for the Lord’s return at any time. The word used here for ‘watch’ means literally ‘keep awake,’ ‘yield not to sleep,’ and is used with reference to work as well as to prayer (Heb. xiii. 17; Eph. vi. 18). [Salmond, 1906]

It is as when a man, sojourning in another country. Another partial parable or illustration, like the one taken from the fig, enforcing the need of watchfulness. That this is but one of various parables spoken at this time appears from Matt. xxiv, xxv. This one refers to the case of a man ‘away from home,’ as the word means, on his travels, and the special charge given to the ‘porter’ when each of the servants had his own proper work assigned him. In the ‘lord of the house,’ no doubt, we are to see Christ himself leaving the earthly scene of his ministry, departing to his Father, and returning to earth again after an interval left undefined. But it is to go beyond the simple and immediate object of the parable to draw distinctions between the servants and the porter, as if by the former Jesus had in view the disciples or the Church generally, and by the latter specifically the apostolate or the Christian ministry as the body ‘to whom specially belongs the responsibility of guarding the house, and of being ready to open the door to the Master at his return’ (Swete). [Salmond, 1906]

whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning: that is, ‘at any part of day or night.’ The Roman distribution of the twenty-four hours into four watches is followed here, only that instead of the usual terms first, second, third, fourth watch, popular terms are used. Matthew and Luke use more general language here. But the latter in his report of an earlier declaration represents Jesus as speaking of the ‘second watch,’ and ‘the third’ (xii. 38). [Salmond, 1906]

suddenly. . . sleeping. This is a recurrent note in warnings or instructions relating to the Second Advent (ci. Matt. xxv. 5 ; Rom. xiii. 11 ; 1 Thess. v. 6). It is possible that the familiar police arrangements maintained in the temple are in view in the terms of this warning. Watchmen moved about the temple night and day ; a body of Levites did the duty of watching by night at twenty-one point?, according to the Mishna, and the captain of the temple went his rounds to see that the guards were not asleep ; he might come at any hour and surprise those in charge. [Salmond, 1906]

unto all, Watch. This supreme duty of wakeful vigilance is enjoined once more, and the Master’s last word solemnly gives it as a duty applicable not to one class, but to all. Matthew introduces here the great parables of the Ten Virgins, the Talents, and the Judgement, inculcating the same lesson of the need of watchfulness, and with that the need of faithfulness, diligence, and service.

The Discourse on the End. The interpretation of this discourse is by no means easy. It is to be remembered, however, that it is given as a reply to two plain questions; that it is to be taken, therefore, as a plain answer conveyed in terms which the interrogators could understand; and that it is to be read in the light of the familiar ideas and forms of expression characteristic of O.T. prophecy and Jewish Apocalypses. In the fuller version given in Matthew it is clear that the questions and the answer were not confined to one event of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, but embraced the further end—the return of Christ and the close of the whole existing order of things (xxiv. 3). The discourse, as we have it in Mark, appears to have the same scope, and cannot be adequately dealt with on the supposition that nothing more is in view than the fall of Jerusalem. The disciples connected the second coming of Christ and the end of the world or ‘the consummation of the age’ with the destruction of the Holy City and its temple, and in this discourse these events are placed in relation to each other as antecedent and consequent, although the precise ‘day’ or ‘hour’ is left undisclosed. This is in accordance with the genius of O.T. prophecy, which places things in conjunction which are essentially or casually connected, although they may prove to be separated in point of time. The language also in which this discourse runs is of the nature of the large, hyperbolical terms used by the O.T. prophets in their announcements of retributive events, the overthrow of the enemies of the theocracy, &c. The imagery, therefore, is not to be taken literally. Least of all is it to be supposed that the prophecy must have a fulfilment in actual physical phenomena when it speaks of the darkening of the sun and moon, the falling of the stars, the shaking of the powers in the heavens, and the like. [Salmond, 1906]