readeth, let him understand,) with child, and to them that give 16 Then let them which be in suck in those days! Judea flee into the mountains: 17 Let him which is on the house-top not come down to take anything out of his house: 20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath-day: 21 For then shall be great trib18 Neither let him which is inulation, such as was not since the the field return back to take his | beginning of the world to this time, clothes. no, nor ever shall be. 19 And wo unto them that are 22 And except those days should the whole country lay in all the horrors of a bloody anarchy; see notes to ver. 21. 17, 18. Strong, hyperbolic expressions, urging them to be instant in their flight. Let him which is on the housetop not come down, &c., but hasten away. The houses of the Jews, like those in the same country at the present day, had flat roofs, on which the inhabitants spent much of their time; and as these roofs were often connected, they afforded a communication from one part of the city, or village, to another. THis clothes. Properly his tunic or robe,-a loose, flowing garment thrown over the other dress, but laid aside in the labors of the field. ix. 27; xi. 31; xii. 11; where "the abomination that maketh desolate," or, as the Septuagint renders it, "the abomination of desolations," is expressly connected with the desolation of the temple and city. Josephus says, (Ant. x., ch. xi. 7,) that Daniel here foretold the desolation of his country by the Romans, as well as by Antiochus Epiphanes; and such was probably the general opinion of the Jews. The Roman armies were an abomination to the Jews, for they were idolaters, and carried with them the ensigns as well as the rites of idolatry; that they also made desolate, needs not be shown. Standing in the holy place. Not in the city itself, but on the ground immediately "compassing" it, (see Luke,) which also was regarded as holy. 19, 20. Woe unto them that, &c. BeJerusalem was accordingly besieged by cause their condition would be an imthe Roman general, Cestius Gallus, in pediment to their flight, and expose Oct., A. D. 66, who even penetrated them to peculiar distress in the general into the lower town, and might then, commotion. That your flight be not says Josephus, have taken the whole in the winter, (when subsistence would city, had he persevered. But, appre- be difficult.) Snow often falls in the hending treachery, and insidiously dis-hill-country of Palestine, and the cold suaded by some of his officers, he suddenly retreated, to the astonishment of the Jews themselves. J. War, II., ch. xix. 6-9. Thus, Jerusalem was spared nearly four years longer, and abundant opportunity afforded the Christians to flee from the city and country; and this was probably the time of their flight, mentioned by Eusebius; see notes on ver. 13. 16. Them which be in Judea, &c. Not only those that should be in Jerusalem, but all the Christians in Judea, were then to flee, as it appears from Eusebius (see notes to ver. 13) they actually did. Josephus says that "many of the most eminent Jews now swam away from the city, as from a ship when it was going to sink." J. War, II., ch. xx. 1, and ch. xix. 6. From this time till the overthrow of the city, is sometimes so great as to endanger life. Neither on the sabbath-day, when the traditions of the Jews did not allow them to travel more than about two-thirds of a mile, except on extraor dinary occasions; nor even then, without many hindrances. 21. For then, &c. That is, from that time onwards, till the actual destruction of the city; for this, it is said, in verse 29, was to take place "immediately after the tribulation," &c. If the compassing of Jerusalem by armies, ver. 15, was the attack made by Cestius, A. D. 66, this "tribulation," it would seem from the order of the prophecy, must have been in the four following years, including the final siege of the city, and ending with its capture, A. D. 70. At any rate, the whole of this period was one of indescribable dis : be shortened, there should no flesh | shall shew great signs and wonbe saved but for the elect's sake ders; insomuch that, if it were posthose days shall be shortened. sible, they shall deceive the very elect. 23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and tress, with the Jews; Galilee and Samaria ravaged by Vespasian, A. D. 67, and nearly one hundred thousand of the inhabitants put to the sword, so that many villages were utterly depopulated; Perea invaded and conquered, A. D. 68; and, more wretched than all, Judea, under a reign of terror surpassing even that of the French Revolution, was invaded by the Idumeans from without, distracted with the fiercest, bloodiest factions within, overrun by immense hordes of robbers and murderers, A. D. 67, 68, who openly committed their massacres in the very streets of the cities and villages; and, at length, the country subdued by Vespasian, in A. D. 69. Then came the siege of Jerusalem, with its unequalled horrors. From March, A. D. 70, to the following September, multitudes without number, who had come up to the feast of the Passover, were caged within the narrow circuit of the walls, butchered by the swords of the mad factions within, as well as of the Romans without; or wasting away under a famine that at length drove mothers to devour their own children. More than one million perished in the siege and capture of the city. J. War, 11., ch. xx., to vi., ch. ix. Josephus says, "It appears to me that the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of time, sink in comparison with those of the Jews." "Neither did any other city suffer such misery, nor did any age ever breed a generation inore fruitful in wickedness." J. War, Pref. 4, v. ch. x. 5. ¶ From the beginning of the world. World,-kosmos, (zógμos.) 22. Had not this tribulation been brought to a speedy end, all the inhabitants, Christians who had fled to the mountains, as well as Jews who remained behind, must have perished by famine or slaughter; as will be evident to every reader of Josephus. T For the elect's sake. The believers, who are so often, in the New Testament, called 25 Behold, I have told you before. 26 Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the the elect, or chosen. Those days shall be shortened. Accordingly, the Jews themselves madly hastened the end of the struggle, by their mutual slaughters and devastations. After the unexpected retreat of Cestius, "there were disorders and civil wars in every city; and all those that were at quiet from the Romans, turned their hands one against another." J. War, Iv., ch. iii. 2. While Titus was advancing to Jerusalem, the three factions within the city were daily butchering each other, and burning the store-houses of provisions; "as if," says Josephus, "they had done it on purpose to serve the Romans, by destroying what the city had laid up against the siege, and by thus cutting off the nerves of their own power. So they were taken by means of the famine, which it was im possible they should have been, unless they had prepared the way for it by this procedure." J. War, v., ch. i. 4. They continued this work of self-destruction, even during the siege, slaying great numbers, and burning entire streets. J. War, v., ch. iii-vi. Finally, they deserted their strong holds; so that when Titus took the city, and beheld the strength of its fortifications, he exclaimed, "We certainly have had God for our assistant in this war, and it was no other than God who drove the Jews out of these fortifications; for what could the hands of men, or any machines, do towards overthrowing these towers!" J. War, vi., ch. ix. 1. [See note on Mark. xiii. 30.] 23. Then. In the time of that tribulation; or, perhaps, reverting indefinitely to the whole period thus far described, as preceding the destruction of Jerusalem. 24-26. We have accounts of many such impostors in Judea, at the period referred to. An Egyptian false prophet, about A. D. 58, led four thousand out into the desert; Acts xxi. 38; and also persuaded a multitude in Jerusalem to desert; go not forth behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. 27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. go with him to the mount of Olives, whence he would make the walls of the city fall down at his command. Jos. Ant. xx., ch. viii. 6. In the same passage, Josephus mentions other impostors, who prevailed on many to follow them into the desert, where they would show wonders and signs. Another impostor, about A. D. 60, seduced a multitude, "promising them freedom and deliverance from the miseries they were under, if they would but follow him as far as the desert." Ant. xx., ch. viii. 10. In all these cases, the deluded followers were slain or dispersed by the Roman troops. In the siege of Jerusalem, A. D. 70, a false prophet persuaded the people that "God commanded them to ascend the temple, and that they should receive signs of their deliverance;" but the temple was burned that very day, and all his followers perished. Josephus also says, that, in the siege, "there was a great number of false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose on the people, who announced to them that they should wait for deliverance from God; and this was in order to keep them from deserting." J. War, vi., ch. 1, 2. One reason why these pretended deliverers, or Messiahs, were so readily believed, was, the strong persuasion among the Jews at this time, that their Messiah was then to appear. J. War, vi., ch. v. 4. If possible, they shall deceive the very elect. There was no natural impossibility of their deceiving the Christians; otherwise Christ would not have taken so much care to forewarn his disciples. He "foretold" them, in order to secure them against such deception. 27, 28. His coming would not be like that of these false Christs, merely in the desert, or secret chambers, so that it could be said, lo here, or there; but like the lightning which lights up the whole horizon, (see Luke,) his coming would be over all the face of the land. Or, to change the figure, whithersoever 28 For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gath ered together. 29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars the carcass of the Jewish nation extended abroad, to the same extent would his coming be seen, like a multitude of eagles devouring the dead body. There is, perhaps, no allusion intended to the eagles on the Roman standards; much less, any reference to the direction in which the Roman army approached, from east to west,-which indeed does not appear to have been the course it took. The coming of, &c. Parousia, (nagovoía.) The Jews were accustomed to call any interposition of divine Providence an appearing, (epiphaneia, èлuqúveia,) or coming (parousia) of God. This 29-31. A representation, in prophetic style, of the end, the actual dissolution of the Jewish state; when, as Luke expresses it in plainer language, the Jews should "fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem be trodden down of the Gentiles," &c. fixes the event referred to. The bold, Asiatic figures here, though frequently mistaken for literal description, are no other than the Old Testament prophets habitually used in predicting the overthrow of a kingdom, or a national revolution. Thus, Isaiah represents the fall of Babylon, by the darkening of the stars, the constellations, the sun and moon, the shaking of the heavens, and the removing of the earth out of her place, (xii. ;) and, again, the destruction of Idumea, by the dissolving of the host of heaven, the rolling of the heavens together as a scroll, and by the falling of the stars like figs from a fig-tree, (xxxiv. ;) Ezekiel, the fall of Egypt, by covering the heavens, and darkening the stars, sun and moon, (xxxii.;) Joel, the devastation of locusts, by the shaking of the earth and heaven, and the darkening of the sun, moon and stars; and the destruction of Jerusalem, by the turning of the sun into darkness and the moon into blood, (ii.) See, also, Ps. xviii.; Dan. viii. 10, &c. Even the Latin poets, though their shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken : 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32 Now learn a parable of the usual style is by no means so hyper-throw of his enemies; see next verse. bolical as that of the Asiatics, run into similar figures when describing great calamities. See Ovid. Met. xv. 782; Virgil. Georg. i. 462. "Coming in the clouds of heaven," is poetic imagery, often employed by the prophets, in describing signal manifestations of divine Providence; see Deut. 29. Immediately after the tribula- xxxiii. 26; Ps. xviii. 9-13; Isa. xix. tion, and before the end of the genera-1; Dan. vii. 13; Rev. i. 7. tion in which Christ spoke; see ver. 34. Accordingly, it is well known that the destruction of the Jewish state, and the dispersion of the people, "led captive into all nations," A. D. 70, followed immediately the tribulation just described, and in the life-time of some of the disciples. Shall the sun be darkened-heavens shall be shaken. Figures that should probably be taken together, as forming simply the usual imagery in propnecies of similar events, (see above,) and that should not be separately applied, as has often been done, making the sun the Mosaic religion, the moon the Jewish government, &c. &c. ¶ Powers of the heavens: same as the hosts or armies of heaven, a poetical imagery often used by the prophets. 31. He shall send his angels. Alluding indirectly, perhaps, to the ministry of his preachers, which should then spread abroad so widely; though we must not forget that the highly poetic imagery of heavenly powers is still continued, as is evident from the rest of the expressions in this verse. The general fact referred to, in the verse, is manifestly this: that there should be a great and public ingathering of converts, in all nations over the face of the earth, from the time when the Jewish nation should be destroyed. It would be a time of relief, of "redemption," to the Christians, as Luke expresses it, so that they should "look up, and lift up their heads." ¶ With a trumpet of great sound. Imagery taken from the custom of the Jews to call the people 30. The sign of the Son of together, or to proclaim their jubilee, man in heaven. Manifest evidences &c., by the sound of trumpet; Lev. xxv. of his agency, in these judgments 9; Num. x. 2; Judg. iii. 27; vi. 34. from heaven. There may be an al-¶ From the four winds- the other. lusion, here, to the taunting request That is, from every quarter throughthe Jews had sometimes made, that he out the world. would show them "a sign from heaven," Matt. xvi. 1; xii. 38; such a sign they might at length discover, in the terrible retribution coming on them. ¶ Shall all the tribes of the land. Land, ge, (,) a term often applied to Palestine, or to a particular region; seldom to the earth at large. These "tribes" were, of course, the Jews. T Mourn. Beat their breasts in anguish: such is the force of the original. The Son of man coming-with power and great glory. His power and glory were seen in the utter destruction of the Jewish state and religion, on the one hand, and on the other, in the rapid diffusion of his truth, after the over 32, 33. To illustrate, more familiarly, how promptly "the end" would follow the signs he had specified, and with what certainty the disciples might trace its approach, Christ now frames a parable from the fig-tree, which abounded on the mount of Olives, where they were sitting. Know that it is near, &c. ; namely, the coming of the Son of man, or, as Luke says, "the kingdom of God;" which, though already begun, was not to come with power, till the overthrow of the Jewish polity; see Matt. xvi. 27, 28; Mark viii. 38; ix. 1; Luke ix. 26, 27, &c.* * Dr. Warburton says "this prophecy doth not respect Christ's second coming to judg fig-tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: 33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. 34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. 35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. 36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the 34. Accordingly, Jerusalem was taken, A. D. 70, on the 8th of September, about thirty-seven years after the delivery of this prophecy, while St. John, and probably the greater part of the other apostles, were still alive, as well as multitudes of the first converts and contemporary Jews. With the fall of the city, the conflict ceased, that had raged so long and so terribly; but its scattered embers continued to burn in Judea for about a year and a half af ment, but his first, in the abolition of the Jewish policy, and the establishment of the Christian: that kingdom of Christ which commenced on the total ceasing of the theocracy. For, as God's reign over the Jews entirely ended with the abolition of the temple-service, so the reign of Christ, in spirit and in truth, had then its first beginning. This was the true establishment of Christianity; not that effected by the donations or conversions of Constantine. Till the Jewish law was abolished, over which the Father presided as King, the reign of the Son could not take place; because the sovereignty of Christ over mankind was that very sovereignty of God over the Jews, transferred and more largely extended. This, therefore, being one of the most important eras in the economy of grace, and the most awful revolution in all God's religious dispensations, we see the elegance and propriety of the terms in question to denote so great an event, together with the destruction of Jerusalem by which it was effected. For, in the old prophetic language, the change and fall of principalities and powers, wheth er spiritual or civil, are signified by the shaking of heaven and earth, the darkening the sun and moon, and the falling of the stars; as the rise and establishment of new ones are by procession in the clouds of heaven, by the sound of trumpet, and the assembling together of hosts and congregations." Div. Leg., vol. ii., b. iv. sect. quoted by Bp. Newton. angels of heaven, but my Father only. 37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. terwards, when they went out in the total extinction or díspersion of the rejected race. 35. A form of vehement assertion; the meaning of which, according to the most approved interpreters, is, "Heaven and earth shall sooner pass away, than my word." See Matt. v. 18, for a similar form. See Rosenmüller, Kuinoel, &c. That 36. Of that day and hour. is, the precise time. The phrase ought of separating the two terms, day and to be taken thus, as a whole, instead hour, as some have done. ¶ Knoweth no one. See Mark. Christ did indeed know that it would be before the end of that generation, see ver. 34, but still the precise time was unknown. 37-39. It would be, however, like the days of Noah, in one respect, namely, it would come unexpectedly on the people, notwithstanding the abundant warnings, and overtake them unprepared. Accordingly, we find in every stage of the Jewish war, as related by Josephus, that the multitude were confident of ultimate success, continuing, with a desperate infatuation, to trust in their impostors and false Messiahs, one after another, who promised them the miraculous protection of Heaven. "Now, what did most elevate them in undertaking this war," says Josephus, was an ambiguous oracle that was found also in their sacred writings, that about that time, one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth. The Jews took this prediction to belong to themselves in particular, and many of the wise men were thereby deceived in their determination. However, |