Bible Commentaries

Matthew 24:1,2 Christ foretells the destruction of the temple.

Matthew 24:3-31 He showeth what signs and calamities shall go before

it; and what shall happen at the time of his coming.

Matthew 24:32-35 By a parable of the fig tree he marketh the certainty

of the prediction.

Matthew 24:36-41 No man knoweth the day and hour, which shall

come suddenly.

Matthew 24:42-51 We ought therefore to watch, like good servants who

expect their master’s coming.

See Poole on "Matthew 24:2".

Ver. 1,2. Mark saith, Mark 13:1,2, one of his disciples. Luke saith, Luke 21:5, some. Mark saith, the disciple said, Master, what manner of stones and what buildings are here! Luke saith, they spake how the temple was adorned with goodly stones and gifts. All three evangelists agree in the substance of our Saviour’s reply. Christ had now done his work in the temple, where he never came more, and was going toward the Mount of Olives, where we shall find him in the next verse. His disciples, either one of them or more, probably one in the presence of the rest, either doubting (considering the structure of the temple) whether it could be destroyed, or at least thinking it pity that so famous a structure should come to ruin, come to him, admiring the stones and buildings. Most think this was the temple builded by Zerubbabel, almost six hundred years before, though it received great additions by Herod (for we have no record that that temple was ever destroyed). Incredible stories are related about the dimensions of the stones, and the ornaments of it. Our Saviour saith unto them,

Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another; that is, this brave, goodly temple shall be utterly ruined. Nor (if we may believe other histories) did this prophecy fail as to the letter of it. Titus, the Roman emperor, taking Jerusalem, about forty years after this, commanded his soldiers to spare the temple when they entered the city, but they in their rage burnt of it what was of a combustible nature; and Turnus Rufus, left general of his army when he went away, drew a plough over it, as God had said. Jeremiah 26:18 Micah 3:12, Zion shall be ploughed like a field. And when after this Alippius, by the command of Julian the apostate, attempted the rebuilding of it, with the help of the Jews, it is reported by divers, that balls or globes of fire rose up from the foundations, destroyed many of the workmen, and made the place inaccessible for any further such attempts. So justly are the Divine threatenings to be feared, whatever improbability of the contrary appeareth to us. We are very apt to be taken with the glistering prosperity of sinners, but we ought to measure the duration of it from the revelations of the Divine will, not from our own reason or fancy; to remember the temple of Jerusalem. There are no places so strong but an almighty God is able to destroy, and sin is enough to blow up. We may also observe how little God values splendid houses of prayer when they are made dens of thieves.

See Poole on "Matthew 24:4".

Ver. 3,4. Mark saith, Mark 13:3-5, And as he sat upon 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 all these things shall be fulfilled? And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you. Luke saith, Luke 21:7,8, And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived. Mark names the disciples which came to our Saviour privately, Peter, James, John, and Andrew. They seem to propound three questions to him:

1. What should be the sign of the destruction of Jerusalem?

2. Of his coming?

3. Of the end of the world?

It is probable they might send these four to propound these questions to our Savour. Three of them being such to whom Christ had showed signal and special favour before. Some doubt whether the questions propounded were three or two; if but two, the coming of Christ must either be the same with the first, or with the last. Those who understand Christ’s coming as a distinct period from the other two, think that the disciples refer to that secular kingdom which they fancied that the Messiah should exercise in the world. They desire to know the signs of these times, that is, prognostic signs, which might beforehand instruct them that the time was nigh, even at hand. They name two things there which time hath told us were to be at more than sixteen hundred years’ distance one from the other, for historians tell us that Jerusalem was destroyed within seventy or seventy-one years after our Saviour’s birth, within less than forty years after this discourse; but it is probable that they put them together, as believing that Jerusalem should not be destroyed till the day when Christ should come to judge the world, and that the end of the world and of the Jewish state should come together. And as we all are naturally curious to know things that are to come, so these disciples were in this thing particularly curious, having some particular apprehensions of the coming and kingdom of Christ, according to the mistaken notion which the Jews had of that kingdom which their expected Messiah should exercise in the world. Our blessed Lord at another time, Acts 1:7, told them it was not for them to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. He therefore giveth them no such certain signs of these things, as they could from them certainly conclude the particular time; but yet gives them some signs from whence they might conclude, when they saw them, that the time was hastening; which signs, though some have distinguished, appropriating those in the former part of the chapter to the destruction of Jerusalem, and those in the latter part to the day of judgment, yet they rather seem in our Saviour’s discourse mixed together; and time, which is the best interpreter of prophecies, must expound them to us. The destruction of Jerusalem is a thing past many hundreds of years since; so as by those histories which we have partly in holy writ, partly in other authors, it will not be hard to pick out what our Saviour intended for signs of that destruction, though there are some signs which were common signs both of that destruction and of the end of the world, and it is agreed by divines that the destruction of Jerusalem was a type of the destruction of the world, and therefore most of the signs are common to both. Paul was brought to Rome in the beginning of the reign of Nero, Acts 27:1-44. Other historians tell us he and Peter were put to death about the end of his reign; within a year or two after Jerusalem was destroyed. Our Saviour prefaces his discourse of these signs with a usual caution to his disciples,

Take heed that no man deceive you.

Mark hath the same, Mark 13:6 Luke saith, Luke 21:8, Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not after them. Our Saviour seemeth to have given this as a sign common both to the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, though possibly before the destruction of Jerusalem, while the Jews were in expectation of a Messiah as a temporal prince or deliverer, there were more of them than afterward, for every one who could get a party together to colour his sedition and rebellion, gave out himself to be the Christ. Of this number are said to have been Theudas, and Judas of Galilee, mentioned by Gamaliel, Acts 5:36,37. Amongst these some also reckon the Egyptian mentioned Acts 21:38, and Simon Magus, who gave out himself to be some great one, and the people accounted him the great power of God. Such there have been, and probably may be more toward the end of the world. Many were deceived by the impostors: Christ warns his disciples concerning them.

See Poole on "Matthew 24:8".

See Poole on "Matthew 24:8".

Ver. 6-8. Mark hath the same, Mark 13:7,8. Luke hath also much the same, Luke 21:9-11, only he addeth, fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. Interpreters think this prophecy did chiefly respect the destruction of Jerusalem, for the time from our Saviour’s death to that time was full of seditions and insurrections, both in Judea and elsewhere. The truth of our Saviour’s words as to this is attested by Josephus largely, from the eleventh chapter of his second book of the Wars of the Jews to the end of the fourth book. Besides that there were great wars between Otho, and Vitellius, and Vespasian, the Roman emperor who succeeded Nero, we read of one famine, Acts 11:28, which Agabus there prophesied should be in the time of Claudius Caesar. Of earthquakes in several places mention is made in divers histories. Our Saviour tells them that these things should be, but the end should not be presently, which any one that will read Josephus’s history of the Wars of the Jews, will see abundantly verified upon the taking of Jerusalem by the Roman armies.