Chú giải Kinh Thánh

And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.

Departed from the temple — Never to return more to it. In Ezekiel 9:3 ; Ezekiel 10:4 ; Ezekiel 10:18-19 ; Ezekiel 11:22-23 , God departs by degrees, and still as he goes out, some judgment comes in; and when he was quite gone, then followed the fatal calamity in the utter ruin of the city and temple. So it was then, and so it was now, according to that Hosea 9:12 ; "Woe also to them when I depart from them." So Jeremiah 6:8 ; "Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul be disjointed from thee, lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited." Whatever therefore we do, let us retain Christ with us; lay hold on him, as Magdalene did, take him by the feet, as the Shunamite did the prophet, as the Shulamite held her spouse; constrain him to stay with us, as the two disciples going to Emmaus; cry

" Vespera iam venit, nobiscum Christe maneto:

Extingui lucem ne patiare tuam. "

To show him the buildings of the temple — As thinking by that goodly sight, haply, he might be moved to moderate the severity of that former sentence of leaving their house desolate unto them, Matthew 23:38 . True it is, that Herod (to get the people’s good will, which yet he could never do) had been at a wonderful charge in building and beautifying the temple. Josephus the Jew (Antiq. xv. 14) tells us that for eight whole years together he kept 10,000 men at work building it; and that for magnificence and stateliness, it exceeded Solomon’s temple, if his words exceed not the truth of the matter. This the disciples fondly thought would work upon our Saviour to reverse his former sentence, as above said; but his thoughts were not as their thoughts. Animo magno nihil magnum, With great spirits, nothing is great, saith Seneca. The bramble reckoned it a great matter to reign over the trees; not so the vine and olive,Judges 9:15; Judges 9:15 .

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And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

There shall not be left here, … — This was afterwards fulfilled, when the temple was so set on fire by Titus’ soldiers, that it could not be quenched by the industry of man. Titus (it is said) would have preserved the temple, as one of the world’s wonders, from being burnt, but could not; such was the fury of the soldiers, set to work by God doubtless. And when, upon the taking of the city and temple, the army saluted him emperor, and many others by way of congratulation sent him crowns and garlands, he, by a memorable example of modesty, refused them, saying, that he had done nothing more than lent his hands and help to God, who declared his fierce wrath against that sinful people. Non sese illa fecisse, sed Deo iram suam declaranti manus suas commodasse. (Pareus.) And when Julian the apostate, to spite the Christians, permitted and encouraged the Jews to rebuild their temple at his charge, and they attempted it accordingly, they were hindered from heaven by a mighty earthquake, together with balls of fire issuing out of the ground works, and consuming the builders. There are those who say, that at the same time the temple at Delphi was utterly overthrown by earthquakes and thunderbolts, and could never since be repaired. When Phocas the murderer sought to secure himself by building high walls, he heard a voice from heaven telling him that though he built his bulwarks never so high, yet sin within would soon undermine all. Εαν υψοις τα τειχη εως ουρανου ενδον το κακον ευαλωτος η πολις . Cur. We may say the same to the Jesuits, telling us so often in their writings de magnitudine Ecclesiae Romanae, that be they never so high set, God, for their abominations, will abase them. It is observed of Rome, that since it became the pope’s seat, it was never besieged by any, but it was sacked and ransacked. See its destiny elegantly and emphatically set forth, Revelation 18:21 .

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And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

Came unto him privately, saying — Because it was dangerous to speak publicly of the destruction of the temple, as the examples of Jeremiah and Stephen show. Howbeit, Micah the Morashite prophecied in the days of Hezekiah, saying, "Zion shall be ploughed, …, and the mountain of this house shall be as the high places of a forest," Jeremiah 26:18 . And God stirred up many faithful witnesses to cry out against Rome in her ruff (pride), and to foretell her ruin. In the year 1159 lived Johannes Sarisburiensis, who reproved the pope to his face, and wrote his Polycraticon, wherein he freely taxeth all the Romish hierarchy. Bernard also told the bishops of his time, that they were not teachers, but seducers, not pastors, but impostors, not prelates, but Pilates, … And a certain painter, blamed by a cardinal for colouring the visages of Peter and Paul too red, tartly but fitly replied, that he painted them so, as blushing at the lives of their successors.

The sign of thy coming — viz. To destroy the temple.

And of the end of the world — Which they thought could not possibly outlast the temple. As they were wont to say in the primitive Church, Absque stationibus non staret mundus (Tertul.), the world could not stand if God’s people did not stand before him in prayer. Semen sanctum statumen terrae, as Tremellius reads Isaiah 6:13 .

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And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

Take heed that no man deceive you — Try the spirits, and turn from false doctrines, as you would do from a serpent in your way, or from poison in your meats. Deceivers are sly and subtle, and that old serpent, more subtle than them all, catcheth the deceived by the deceiver, as the fisher doth one fish by another, that he may make a prey of them both. These, as harpies, Gr. and Lat. Myth. A fabulous monster, rapacious and filthy, having a woman’s face and body and a bird’s wings and claws, and supposed to act as a minister of divine vengeance. ŒD have virgins’ faces, vultures’ talons; they are ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing, … Shun them therefore, for they will increase to more ungodliness, and their words will eat as doth a gangrene, 2 Timothy 2:16-17 . Theodosius tore the writings of the Arians that were presented to him; a and when he desired to confer with Eunomius, his empress Placilla dissuaded him very earnestly, lest being perverted by his speeches he might fall into heresy.

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For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Shall come in my name — Or, under my name, saying, I am Christ, as Theudas the Egyptian, Judas the Galilean, Acts 5:36-37 . Barhocab, and others of old, who were miserably slain by the Romans. (Joseph. Antiq. xvii. 12, xviii. 20; B. J. ii. 12.) So one Moor in King Edward VI’s time, took upon him to be Christ. So did Hacket in Queen Elizabeth’s time; David George likewise and others in Germany. Here in England, at the Convocation held at Oseney under Stephen Langton, 1206, a certain young man professed himself to be Jesus Christ; showing marks of wounds in his hands, feet, and sides. He brought also two women with him, whereof one took upon her to be our Lady, and the other Mary Magdalene. This counterfeit Christ for his labour was worthily crucified. That I say nothing here of Papists, who desperately deny the Lord that bought them, and wickedly set up Antichrist in his stead (as were easy to prove), who opposeth him not so much in his nature or person, as in his unction and function, and thence also hath his name, Αντιχριστος , non Αθεος , non Αντιθεος .

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And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

See that you be not troubled — μη θροεισθε, or frighted, as soldiers are by sudden alarm. Quid timet hominem homo in sinu dei positus? David was undaunted,Psalms 3:6; Psalms 3:6 ; Psalms 27:3 . He looked not downward on the rushing and roaring streams of dangers that run so swiftly under him, for that would have made him giddy: but steadfastly fastened on the power and promise of God all-sufficient, and was safe. So at the sack of Ziglag, 1 Samuel 30:6 .

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For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

For nation shall rise, … — See here the woeful effects of refusing God’s free offers of grace. They that would have none of the gospel of peace shall have the miseries of war. They that loathed the heavenly manna shall be hungerstarved. They that despised the only medicine of their souls shall be visited with the pestilence. They that would not suffer heart quake, shall suffer earthquake. Or as Bradford the martyr expresseth it, they that trembled not in hearing, shall be crushed to pieces in feeling. As they heap up sin, so they treasure up wrath; as there hath been a conjuncture of offences, so there shall be of their miseries. The black horse is at the heels of the red, and the pale of the black, Revelation 6:4 . God left not Pharaoh, that sturdy rebel, till he had beaten the breath out of his body, nor will he cease pursuing men with his plagues, one in the neck of another, till they throw the traitor’s head over the wall.

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All these are the beginning of sorrows.

All these are the beginning, … — q.d. There yet remain far worse matters than war, -famine, pestilence, earthquakes. Adhuc restant gravissimi partus cruciatus. And yet war is as a fire that feeds upon the people, Isaiah 9:19-20 . Famine is far worse than that, Lamentations 4:9 . Pestilence is God’s evil angel,Psalms 78:49-50; Psalms 78:49-50 . Earthquakes are wondrous terrible, and destructive to whole cities, as to Antioch of old, and to Pleurs in Italy of late, where fifteen hundred men perished together. A conflux of all these abides the condemners of Christ’s gospel. The holy martyrs, as Saunders, Bradford, Philpot, …; the confessors also that fled for religion in Queen Mary’s days acknowledged (as Ursinus relates) that that great inundation of misery came justly upon them, for their unprofitableness under the means of grace which they had enjoyed in King Edward’s days. "When I first came to be pastor at Clavenne," saith Zanchy, "there happened a grievous pestilence, that in seven months’ time consumed 1200 persons." Their former pastor, Mainardus, that man of God, had often foretold such a calamity for their popery and profaneness: but he could never be believed, till the plague had proven him a true prophet; and then they remembered his words, and wished they had been warned by him. When the Protestants of France began to grow wanton of their peace and prosperity, to jangle among themselves about discipline, and to affect a vain frothy way of preaching, then came the cruel massacre upon them. (Melch. Adam. in Vita Bulling.)

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