Matthew 24

Chap. XXIV. Ver. 1—28. Christ foretels the utter destruction of the temple and city.—This second temple, (so called,) as repaired and beautified by Herod, though not equal to that of Solomon, was certainly a very grand and splendid building; and must appear the more so to the apostles, who, being chiefly fishermen of Judea, had none of them, probably, at this time, seen any of the elegant buildings of Greece or Rome. So solid and durable also appeared the materials of which it was formed, that when their Master spake of its overthrow, they immediately connected it with the end of the world, and with the day of judgment: our Lord, therefore, in the manner of the double prophecies of the Jews, connects these events in the following discourse, making the one typical of the other.

To begin with the former, namely, the destruction of Jerusalem, Bp. Newton, in his valuable dissertations, has shown the most striking correspondence between the several predictions and the corresponding events, as related by Josephus: and a series of so many surprising coincidences, is perhaps unparalleled in the history of prophecy, and of the world: our room will admit only of very brief particulars. Josephus, it should be remembered, was contemporary with the events, and saw what he describes; nor is he opposed by any conflicting evidence; but, on the contrary, is confirmed by Tacitus, and other Pagan writers. In the preceding chapter, we find Jesus in the temple, reproving the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, and other crimes.

Now he had left the temple, and was seated opposite to it, on the mount of Olives, when his disciples, having withdrawn from the multitude, came privately to inquire of him, “When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Our Lord, in reply, cautions them against being deceived by false Christs and false prophets, who should show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect. He foretels wars and rumours of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places; persecutions, betrayals, and hatred; the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place; and the necessity of flight for those in Judea to the mountains, without delay, even from the house-top or the field. He describes the unparalleled tribulation of those days, and the shortening thereof for the elect’s sake; the appearance of false Christs and false prophets, and the coming of the Son of man as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; and concludes with the proverbial expression, “Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.”

Ver. 29—51. Farther predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem.—Another set of images are next adopted from Isaiah and Joel, and are certainly the most sublime and beautiful that nature furnishes. The Jewish government is compared to the heavenly bodies, which are all represented as extinguished, and the whole political hemisphere as clothed in darkness and mourning.

We have already, in a former volume, quoted, in illustration of this imagery, the sentiments of Sir Isaac Newton and Bishop Lowth, on this subject. (See our notes on (Isaiah 24:21); xxxiv. 4.) It has been customary to apply these passages to the end of the world, and to the day of judgment, and certainly the language is worthy of such an august event; but, as we are told most expressly and most solemnly, that the then present generation should not pass away till all these things should be fulfilled, we feel ourselves compelled (with Dr. Doddridge) to apply this language, in the first place, to the destruction of Jerusalem, though we feel no objection to its more distant reference to the final judgment, which double application is quite in harmony with the typical prophecies of the Old Testament.

But what then, it may be asked, can be intended by ‘the sign of the Son of man in heaven?’ The Old Testament frequently speaks of the Almighty as coming in the clouds of heaven, to administer his judgments. See (Psalms 18:7-12). And the same imagery is used by the prophet Daniel, in reference to Messiah’s receiving his kingdom at his ascension: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days,…. and there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom,” &c. ((Daniel 7:13-14).) And this we conceive to be the very sign here referred to; namely, the description given by Daniel of Messiah’s “coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory,” to receive his kingdom from the Father. The following verse, which speaks of Messiah’s sending his angels with the sound of a great trumpet, will apply equally to the sending forth his messengers (or apostles) with the gospel trumpet, to convert the world; and to sending forth the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, to awaken the dead, and summon them to judgment.

But that the words refer, in their immediate and primary sense, to the former, as already mentioned, there can be no reasonable doubt, from the following words, “This generation shall not pass till all these things shall be fulfilled.”

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXIV. Ver. 1. To show him the buildings of the temple.—Their mass and beauty.

Ver. 2. One stone upon another.—Some of these stones are said to have been as much as forty-five cubits long, five high, and six broad; yet were not only broken and dislodged, but the very ground on which they were erected was dug up, and afterwards deepened by one Turnus Rufus. [Cæsar gave orders that they should demolish the whole city and temple, except the three towers Phaselus, Hippicus, and Mariamne, and a part of the western wall; all the rest was laid so completely even with the ground, by those who dug it up from the foundation, that there was nothing left to make those who came thither believe it had ever been inhabited.]—Bagster.

Ver. 3. The end of the world—i. e. the end of the present age, or period of the world. The Jews were accustomed to dispute concerning the two ages of the world, viz. the present age or world, i. e. the age antecedent to the coming of the Messiah, and the age or world to come, when the Messiah should come in majesty to establish his kingdom, and should introduce a new era, distinguished by knowledge, liberty, piety, and felicity of every kind.—Wars and rumours—That is, wars at home, and rumours of wars abroad.

Ver. 9. Then shall they deliver.—(We have ample evidence of the fulfilment of this prediction in the Acts of the Apostles, but we have a more melancholy proof of it in the persecutions under Nero, in which fell, besides numberless others, those two great champions of our faith, St. Peter and St. Paul. It was, as Tertullian says, a war against the very name.)—Bagster.

Ver. 10. Be offended—i. e. desert and abandon his cause.

Ver. 17. On the house-top.—A traveller of the name of Williams has remarked, that the houses in Judea “are all flat-roofed, and communicate with each other; (so that) a person might proceed to the city walls, and escape into the country, without coming down into the street.” Orient. Cust. No. 1210.

Ver. 18. To take his clothes.—The ancients performed their field-work in summer almost naked. Ibid. No. 1211.

Ver. 20. Neither on the sabbath day.—A sabbath day’s journey was about a mile only. The sense of the verse is, Pray that your flight may be in a time when you are likely to meet with no impediments.

Ver. 22. Except those days should be shortened, &c.—That is, ‘If such times were to continue, no flesh of that nation could be preserved; but for the elect’s sake, those who had believed, or who should believe hereafter, those days were shortened; so that some of the seed of Abraham were preserved to be witnesses of the truth of the gospel, and to be called at last to enjoy its saving blessings.’ Compare (Romans 11:26). Boothroyd. Nothing but a special providence can account for the people not being at this time wholly extirpated.

Ver. 23. Here is Christ.—Rather, “The Christ,” or Messiah.

Ver. 24. False prophets—That is, heretical and corrupt teachers, who should preach another gospel, and another Saviour. See (Galatians 1:6–8).——And shall show great signs and wonders.—This does not necessarily imply the working of real miracles, but only pretensions to such a power, as in the case of Simon Magus, (Acts 8:9–11).—If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.—The words if possible, do not denote a natural, but a moral impossibility: a thing which God will not permit. Boothroyd.

Ver. 26. Behold he is in the desert.—It is remarkable, that several of the impostors named by Josephus assembled their followers in the wilderness, or desert, particularly the Egyptian mentioned by Luke, (Acts 21:38). Another pseudo-prophet enticed a multitude of people into the chambers of the temple, where 6000 miserably perished.

Ver. 27. For as the lightning, &c.—The meaning appears to be, that as this surprising meteor shoots in the same instant from east to west, and pervades the whole horizon, so should the Roman armies, which attend the coming of the Son of man, like a mighty tempest, at once cover the whole land of Israel.

Ver. 28. Wheresoever the carcass is, &c.—We have here a proverbial expression, applied in allusion to the eagles of the Roman standard. Compare (Job 39:30). Mr. Ward, late Baptist missionary in India, remarks, that the vultures in Bengal are highly useful, in devouring the dead bodies of men and beasts; and adds, it is astonishing how swiftly these birds collect, wherever a dead body falls, though one of them should not have been seen in the place for weeks or months before.

Ver. 29. Immediately after.—There is here no doubt as to either the reading or translation of this passage, and as nearly eighteen centuries have passed since this time, it is most certain they cannot primarily apply to the day of judgment. See also ver. 33. By sun, moon, and stars, are meant temporal powers, as kings, princes, high priests, tetrarchs, &c.

Ver. 30. Tribes of the earth.—Doddridge, “Of the land,” meaning the land of Israel.

Ver. 31. His angels—There are angels celestial and terrestrial: the latter are generally styled “messengers;” but the Greek and Hebrew terms are the same for both. In this place both Doddridge and Campbell (with many others) use the term “messengers;” but we confess the change to us appears unnecessary, since we are accustomed to read of the angels of the churches (Revelation 1:20, &c.) as well as of heaven; and we think the equivocal term better preserves the harmony of the double prophecy. With a great sound of a trumpet—See Margin. This is an evident allusion to the Jews’ manner of proclaiming their public festivals; and intends, first the trumpet of the gospel, by which both Jews and Gentiles are summoned to attend the standard of Messiah; and secondly, “the voice of the archangel and the trump of God,” which shall summon all men to the bar of judgment.—They shall gather his elect from the four winds—That is, from all parts of the earth, as was in part fulfilled at the day of Pentecost, (Acts 2:7–11); continues still to be fulfilled in the propagation of the gospel, and shall be finally and completely accomplished in the last days.

Ver. 34. This generation shall not pass, &c.—We cannot but think with Doddridge, that the attempt of some to interpret this of the Jewish nation altogether, instead of the generation then living, as if the words only meant that they should never be extirpated, is a very forced and unnatural interpretation, and therefore not to be justified.

Ver. 35. Heaven and earth shall pass away.—We consider this as a strong assertion, or rather, that all things shall pass away sooner than the word of God shall.

Ver. 37. As the days of Noe—That is, Noah.

Ver. 38. Eating and drinking—That is, feasting, or carousing.—Marrying, &c.—That is, they were forming new connexions in life. So that all the awful predictions of Noah neither disturbed the festivities of the gay, nor interrupted the social plans of the more sober.

Ver. 40. Then shall two.—Doddridge and Campbell, “Two men be (working) together in the field,” &c.

Ver. 41. Two women shall be grinding.—[A handmill composed of two stones; “the uppermost of which is turned round by a small handle of wood or iron that is placed in the rim. When this stone is large, or expedition required, a second person is called to assist; and as it is usual for women alone to be concerned in this employment, who seat themselves over against each other, with the millstone between them, we may see not only the propriety of the expression, (Exodus 11:5), but the force of this.” Dr. Shaw.]—Bagster.

Ver. 51. Cut him asunder.—This punishment has been confounded with being sawn asunder, (Hebrews 11:37), but means, we apprehend, a severe scourging, such as shall “cut asunder” the flesh, and then the servant thus scourged is assigned to a prison, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; that is, sorrow without true repentance; for gnashing of teeth seems to imply presence of evil passions.