Luke 21

Luke 21:4

[a] offerings] The Hebrew קרבן signifies both a gift and the treasury into which the gifts were cast; and so the Greek δῶρα, gifts, here is used for γαζωφυλάκιον, ver. 1; and so Mark xii. 41.

Luke 21:6

As for all these things that make now such a magnificent show, Matt. xxiv. 2, within few years they shall be utterly destroyed and demolished: see note [a] Matt. xxiv.

d when shall this destruction of the temple be, and with it of the Jewish state? and what prognostics of it will be discernible?

e one prognostic, or forerunner of that destruction shall be, that many deceivers shall arise among you, each pretending to be the Messias, and that he will soon deliver you: go ye not—

Luke 21:9

Another forerunner is, that great commotions and tumults there shall be in Judæa before the Ro-

I am he; and the season, ἰγώ εἰμε καὶ ὁ καιρός.

Luke 21:11

13,) moving them to receive the faith also; and by their doing so, Jerusalem shall again be inhabited by Jewish (as well as Gentile) Christians: see note [f] Rev. xi.

Luke 21:12

But first they shall fall foul on the preachers of the gospel and all pure sincere Christians, and bring you before the Jewish consistories and Roman governors for the profession of Christianity. (Rev. vi. 11, and Matt. xxiv. 9.)

Luke 21:13

And this bringing of you before the Gentile powers shall be a means of divulging the gospel to them. (See Mark xiii. 9.)

Luke 21:14

In this case remember what was formerly said to you, (Matt. x. 19. and 30,) and belonged peculiarly to this point of time now spoken of, not to meditate—

Luke 21:15

For I will furnish you with those answers and that conviction to all your adversaries, that they shall not—

Luke 21:18

But whatsoever befall you, treachery, persecution, death itself, ver. 16, 17, be confident of this, that it shall not tend to the least disadvantage, but rather to the greatest gain to you.

The nation shall be raised against the nation, and the kingdom against the kingdom, ‘Erythrocya, Ithro, Iul Ithro, Iul Basilia Iul Basilia.

Luke 21:19

And though some few of you shall suffer death in this cause, and so be eternally crowned by suffering, yet this let me tell you, even for this life, that if ye endure with constancy, and persevere, and fall not off from your profession, that shall of all others be the most probable way of escaping or obtaining deliverance from this sweeping destruction, (Matt. x. 39, and Mark xiii. 13.) 20—23. But when you see Jerusalem besieged by the Romans, (see note [f] Matt. xxiv. 15.) then resolve the destruction of the city is near, and accordingly all that are in it let them fly out of Judæa, and those that are in the confines or regions about Judæa let them take care not to come into it, but (see Rev. vi. 16.) look on it as a place most sadly to be destroyed, on which all the doleful prophecies are now to be fulfilled which have been prophesied against Judæa. conquered by the Romans, Rev. xi. 2. And while this is a doing in Judæa, the gospel shall be preached over the Gentile world, (Matt. xxiv. 14, see Rom. xi. 25,) and being by them received, some effect that shall have among the Jews, by way of emulation, (Rom. xi.

Luke 21:24

[b] captive into all nations] The number of those that in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus died by sword and famine, is said to be eleven millions by Eusebius, Hist. I 3. c. ζ. out of Josephus. Then when the city was taken, the handsomest, saith he, were reserved for triumph, the rest, saith he, that were above seventeen years of age were sent bound to Egypt to be slaves there, others dispersed in the provinces to be torn asunder with wild beasts; those under seventeen sold to merchants of all countries. And of all these the number was ninety-seven thousand.

[c] until the times of the Gentiles] What is the meaning of ἄχρι πληρωθῶσι καιροὶ ἰθνῶν, till the seasons, or times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, may be guessed partly by the importance of the word καιροὶ, seasons, partly of the πληρωθῶσι, fulfilled, partly of the ἄχρι, until. The word καιροὶ vulgarly signifies a season, a time designed and appointed, (according to the notion of the Hebrew word,) or else expected and looked for, and in both respects belongs fitly to the preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, that being a thing that God had so long determined, and so oft foretold, and which, though the Gentiles foresaw not, yet is said to be expected by them, (because all they could desire or expect was really summed up in this,) not only in that prediction of Jacob, where Christ is styled the expectation of the Gentiles, but in St. Paul’s discourse of it, Rom. viii. 19, where the earnest expectation of the creature, that is, the Gentile world, (see note [d] Rom. viii.) is fastened upon this. Then for the πληρωθῶσι, joined to these καιροὶ ἰθνῶν, that sure will bear some proportion with, if it be not parallel to, Rom. xi. 25, where the phrase is very like this here, ἄχρις οὗ τὸ πλήρωμα τῶν ἰθνῶν εἰσίλθῃ, until the time that the fulness of the Gentiles enter. That is there explained to signify the multitude of Gentiles receiving the faith, coming into the church, and so πλήρωμα, fulness, ver. 12, (see note [d] Rom. xi.); and proportionably to that, their seasons being fulfilled will be the preaching that gospel to them, which they shall thus receive, and which was so designed and expected for them. Now for the ἄχρι, until, where it is said, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until these seasons of the Gentiles be fulfilled; the explaining of that will be the further clearing of the whole matter. The treading down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles is not particularly their victory over it by Titus, but their consequent possessing of it, even till Adrian’s rebuilding a part of it, and calling it by his own name Ælia, and inhabiting it with Gentiles;

Luke 21:25

And many prodigies shall be seen in the heavens (see note [f] Rev. vi.) very frightful to all, and there shall be a terrible distress upon all the several parts of Palestine, pressing them that they shall not know what to do, to stay or to forsake their country: see Rev. vi. 15, 16.

Luke 21:26

All men expecting upon the land of Judæa judgments, (see note [a] ch. ii.) even an utter deland, γῆι. world, οἰκουμίτη. HAMMOND, VOL. I. z

Luke 21:27

Thus shall Christ’s regal office, in punishing and avenging the persecutors of him and his disciples, be most gloriously revealed: see Matt. xiii. 26.

[a] deny] The Hebrew רוב signifies both μάχεσθαι, to contend, and ἀντιλήγειν, to contradict; and agreeably to the latitude of the Hebrew, the Greek ἀντιλήγειν is here used for to contend.

Luke 21:28

And when ye see these things thus come to pass, then let all true Christians, apostles, and others, that have so long been persecuted by the Jews, look up, and hold up their heads with cheerfulness, as knowing that to them redemption approacheth, and deliverance from the dangers which encompass them: see note [a] Acts iii., and note [b] Rom. xiii., and note [l] Rom. viii. b put forth leaves, (Matt. xxiv. 32, and Mark xii. 28,) ye see and know— a land, γῆν.