Matthew 24
HAMMMatthew 24:2
[a] one stone upon another] The full completion of this prophecy of not one stone left on another, is very remarkable in story, which tells us that Turnus Rufus did with a ploughshare tear up the foundations of the temple, and so not leave any part of it underground undissolved, not one stone upon another. See Scaliger’s Canon. Isagog. p. 304.
Matthew 24:3
[b] coming] Παρουσία Χριστοῦ, the presence, or the coming of Christ, is one of the phrases that is noted in this book to signify the destruction of the Jews. See note [a] ch. xvi. A threefold coming of Christ there is: 1, in the flesh, to be born among us; 2dly, at the day of doom, to judge the world, 1 Cor. xv. 23, and in many other places; and beside these, 3dly, a middle coming, partly in vengeance, and partly for the deliverance of his servants; in vengeance visible and observable on his enemies and crucifers, (and first on the people of the Jews, those of them that remain impenitent unbelievers,) and in mercy to the relief of the persecuted Christians. So it is four times in this chapter, vv. 27. 37. 39, and here. So 2 Thess. ii. 1 and 8, when the coming of Christ is said to destroy that wicked one, which it seems should then in a short time be revealed; which therefore, as it agrees with the predictions here of the many Antichrists before this destruction, so it cannot be applicable to that other coming at the end of the world. So James v. 7, 8, where the design being to establish the scattered Jew-Christians, and to give them patience in their present pressures, the only argument is, because the coming of the Lord draws nigh, which being foretold as the season which he that surviveth should escape, (both here in this chap. ver. 13, and ch. x. 22, and Mark xiii. 13,) as when their persecutors (for such were the unbelieving Jews) are destroyed, it must necessarily follow. The nearness of it is therefore the best motive to confirm the patience of any; and is again expressed, ver. 9, by the judge’s standing before the gate, that is, very nigh at hand, ready to enter on the work; and so I conceive it signifies also, 2 Pet. i. 16, as will appear by considering the circumstances of the place, see note [c]; and so, ch. iii. 4 and 12, being a coming, which was within a while to be expected by them; and so 1 John ii. 28, there having been
[c] end of the world] By what hath been said of the meaning of Christ’s coming in this place, will appear also what is the συντίλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος, the conclusion of the age, especially if it be marked, that, instead of these two together, St. Luke, ch. xxi. 7, hath only ταῦτα, these, uniting them into one, What is the sign when these things shall come to pass? and St. Mark, ὅταν μίλλη ταῦτα πάντα συντελεῖσθαι, when all these things shall be concluded, that is, those immediately forementioned, the destruction of the temple, ch. xiii. 4, see note [a] Mark xiii; for the word αἰών literally signifies age, (see note [p] Luke i.,) and is in a manner the English word with the Greek termination, and so is used sometimes for the age of man, all one with γενιά, as Homer, Il. γ’, μινυνθάδιος αἰών, “a short age;” and then συντίλεια will denote the conclusion or shutting up of that age, or the Jewish state, which was to be within that age; according to that of the Jews, that there was a double age, the then present and the future, μίλλων αἰών, the age to come, Isa. ix. 6, which they call the age of the Messias. And so this revenge upon the Jews, the destruction of that people, may be styled the consummation of the age. An eminent place there is in the book of Tobit, which will give light to this, and shew the ground of this phrase in the ordinary speech of the Jews; it is ch. xiv. 5, where Tobit prophesies of three periods, which should fall after his time: 1st, the rebuilding of the temple; God shall again bring them into the land, where they shall build the temple, but not like the first, and that shall continue till the times of that age be fulfilled, that is, the second period, the conclusion or consummation of the age here, the end of the Jewish state. And then after is the glorious Jerusalem, the glorious building spoken of by the prophets, and there described, ver. 6, by the turning of the nations, converting of the Gentiles, and serving God truly, and burying their idols, which is clearly the state of Christianity. Thus when, in Gemara, out of an ancient writing it is said, (Sanhed. c. 11. § 29,) that after 4291 years עולם יתום, “the age shall be consummated,” it is clear that it belongeth to this matter, not to the end of the whole world, but, as they say, to the days of the Messias, which they use to call אחרים הימים, “the last days;” and so Heb. ix. 26, συντίλεια τῶν αἰώνων, the consummation of the ages, in the same sense also: and in that famous place of Daniel, (referred to ver. 14,) ch. ix. 27, he shall make it desolate even until the consummation. So ch. xiii. 40, συντίλεια αἰῶνος τούτου, the conclusion of this age, that famous period of the Jewish state, till which time Christ would not have the wicked heretical professors meddled with or discriminated, but pure believers and impure misbelievers permitted together, that is, the Gnostics (that soon sprung up after Christ’s departure) and the orthodox Christians. And accordingly so it was: these abominable heretics infested the church, and so for some time continued to do under the guise of Christians, though their heresy were a rhapsody of heathenism and Judaism, and all vile practice; only when the time of visitation came, then they were destroyed with the crucifiers of Christ, and then the discrimination was made. Thus b Orosius evidently understands it,
b L. 7. c. 3.
Matthew 24:4
To this double question, (concerning the time and the signs of this approaching destruction,) and first to the last part of it, what forerunners there should be of this destruction upon the Jews, Jesus gave answer thus, by saying unto them—
Matthew 24:5
One sign or forerunner is this; There shall arise among you many false Christs, Jews taking upon them to be the Messias expected, and accordingly calling the people to come after them as assertors and vindicators of the liberties of the Jews (see note [d]), and each of them shall have many followers associating themselves to them.
Matthew 24:6
And a second sign is great rumours and discourses of wars, which will be apt to fright and discourage you; but these will be panic terrors, precursory only to that great and sad ruin that shall follow, but not yet.
[d] end] What τὸ τίλος, the end, signifies, is expressed by St. Chrysostom, τίλος Ἱεροσολύμων, “the end of Jerusalem,” the same that before by Christ’s coming, and the end of the age. So ver. 14, Then shall the end come, to wit, when the gospel having been preached through all the cities of Judæa successively, the apostles turn to the Gentiles, as it is in the beginning of that verse. So Mark xiii. 7, the place directly parallel to this; so Luke xxi. 9 also, and 1 Pet. iv. 7, τὸ τίλος πάντων, the end of all things, that is, of the Jewish state, wherein those of the dispersion to whom he wrote were so particularly concerned; and it is observable, that as there, when the end of all things, that is, that fatal destruction was at hand, there was actually ἐν ὑμῖν, among them, the πύρωσις, ver. 12, that is, a combustion or conflagration, to wit, that of civil broils caused by the unbelieving Jews and heretical Gnostics against the orthodox and pure Christians; so here, before this coming of the end, the nation shall rise against the nation, &c., ver. 7, that is, there should be these civil commotions and wars among them, which did indeed so hasten their ruin, and make it so cruel when it came. Thus also, 1 Thess. ii. 16, where, upon the filling up the measure of their sins, the wrath of God is said to have come hastily upon those Jews εἰς τὸ τίλος, to a πανολεθρία, or total destruction of them; for though it were not then actually done, when that Epistle was writ, yet it was so certainly decreed against them, that it is said in the aorist indefinitely, it hath overtaken them already, that is, will speedily overwhelm them. Thus is the phrase used by Ezekiel, ch. vii., An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land, ver. 2; and 3, Now is the end come upon thee; and ver. 6, An end is come, the end is come, all to the destruction of the Jews, not to the end of the whole world. See note on Acts ii. 6. Now whereas it is here said that all must come to pass, but the end is not yet, it follows yet manifestly from hence that the false Christs mentioned, ver. 5, must be some persons that came before that period which is here called the end, that is, before the approach of the Romans to destroy Jerusalem, soon after the ascension of Christ. Of this kind is that Theudas which is mentioned by Eusebius in the time of Claudius, not he that is referred to by Gamaliel, Acts v. 36, (for he is there said to have been before Judas Galileus, which was in the days of the taxing, that is, about the time of the birth of Christ, see Euseb. l. 1. c. 5.) but another later Theudas, which, though Eusebius by incognitancy affirm to be the same which is mentioned by Gamaliel before Judas, yet he out of Josephus places him in the time of the prefecture of Fadus, that is, in Claudius’s reign. And of this Theudas saith Josephus, that, “being a sorcerer, he persuaded a great multitude to bring all their goods and follow him to the river Jordan, which he promised to divide by his commands, and
c Eccl. Hist. lib. ii. c. 4.
Matthew 24:7
For there shall be a third change, yet farther preparatory to it, great broils and civil wars and commotions among yourselves, (see ver. 9, and note [d] on Luke xxi.) famines and pestilences, &c. thorough all Judæa.
[e] nation] The Greek word ἴθνος here, which we render nation, and the Latin gens, (answerable to the Hebrew אמה,) are the originals from whence the words ethnick (or heathen) and Gentile come; and by the customary acception of the words for the other nations of the world exclusively, and in opposition to the Jews then and Christians now, it comes to pass that the word nations is ordinarily thought to signify all other people of the world, but never the Jews. But this is a mistake, thus casually and causelessly occasioned; for there were several divisions of Palestine, (as they were before ἴθη πολλά, Deut. xv. 6, many nations and great, ch. ix. 1, which were the Jews now possessed of) Judæa, and Galilee, and Ituræa, and Abylene; and each of these is properly called ἴθνος, nation, and so βασιλεία, kingdom, too, there being several tetrarchs over them, Luke iii. 1. So Ecclus. l. 26, there being mention of δύο ἴθη, two nations, Samaria is presently specified to be one of them. And so here and Luke xxi. 10, the phrase nation against nation, (and in like manner kingdom against kingdom,) may well denote civil intestine commotions in Palestine, perhaps one of these tetrarchies against another, or else one of these against itself, as civil wars are intestine breaches in the same city or nation; and so certainly the very phrase is used, 2 Chron. xv. 6, where, as an expression of the great vexations of the Jews, ver. 5, it is added, nation was destroyed of nation, city of city, where the Greek reads πολεμῆσει ἴθνος εἰς ἴθνος, nation shall fight (as here shall rise) against nation. In this sense we find not only the word nation in the singular appropriated by some adjunct to Judæa, (as our nation, Luke vii. 5; our place and nation, John xi. 48; the nation of the Jews, Acts x. 22; this nation, Acts xxiv. 2. 10; thy nation, John xviii. 35; and my nation, Acts xxiv. 17, xxvi. 4, xxviii. 19,) but without any such adjunct, τὸ ἴθνος, the nation, Luke xxiii. 14, and John xi. 50, 51, 52, and even in the plural, the word nations used in the prophets for Palestine. So, psalm ii. 1, the בְּרִית, or nations, and people, that oppose Christ, are, I conceive, the Jews in their consultation against him; and so it is interpreted and applied peculiarly to them, Acts iv. 25. 27, where they are called ἴθη, καὶ λαός, the nations and people, and more distinctly, ver. 28, (divided from Herod and Pontius Pilate,) the nations and people of Israel. And so when of Jeremy it is said that he was ordained a prophet unto the nations, Jer. i. 5, the Jews sure are at least one of those nations. So ch. iv. 16, mention to the nations, that is, to the Jews; for by that which follows in the next words, publish against Jerusalem, it appears to be a prophecy against that people. So ch. xxv. 11, these nations, that is, the Jews, shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years, the precise time of the Jewish captivity. So when (Matt. xii. 15) it is said that Christ withdrew from Capernaum, and (Mark iii. 7) it is specified that it was to the sea of Galilee, upon that is applied to him by St. Matthew that of Isa. xlii. 1, that he shall declare judgment to the Gentiles, or nations, and in him shall the ἴθη, nations trust, that is, the Jews in Galilee and the adjacent cities of Tyre and Sidon, &c. which came out and were healed of him, Mark iii. 8, when the Pharisees consulted to destroy him, Matt. xii. 14. So Lam. i. 1, when of Jerusalem it is said that she was great among the
Matthew 24:8
These are the signs of the approach of those sad pangs, (which shall bring forth deliverance to my disciples that adhere fast to me, but utter destruction to the obdurate Jews,) yet only of the approach, for there are other forerunners still behind.
Matthew 24:9
For first it shall fall heavy on you disciples; the orthodox Christians shall be every where delivered up by the unbelieving Jews to imprisonment and death itself, and be hated and persecuted by them in all quarters of Judea, and wherever else they are dispersed: see note [e].
Matthew 24:10
And then many Christians shall by their sufferings be discouraged from following me any longer, and to secure themselves shall betray other their fellow Christians, and deal maliciously against them.
Matthew 24:11
And this shall be an opportunity for another sort of false teachers to arise, (see note [d], and 2 Thess. ii. 3, and note [a] on 1 John ii.) the Gnostics; followers of Simon Magus, who by two allectives, first, promise of immunity from the present persecutions, then, by allowing carnal liberties, shall corrupt and inveigle many Christian professors.
Matthew 24:12
And by reason of the extreme sharpness of the persecutions great multitudes shall fall off from Christianity to that sect of the Gnostics who profess not to have so much love or zeal to Christ as to acknowledge or confess him in time of persecution. See note on Luke ii. 6.
Matthew 24:13
But the event shall prove this prudential compliance of theirs and denying of their persecuted profession to be the greatest folly in the world, this very design of avoiding dangers shall ingulf them into them, and (as for salvation hereafter, so) for security, sure the way surest to attain to both is the constant adhering to Christ without wavering: see note [h] on ch. x. and ver. 39.
Matthew 24:14
And after this there shall be but one prognostic more, viz., that the disciples shall depart and preach the gospel to them that are more likely to receive it. After the Jews’ rejecting the gospel it shall be removed from them and preached to the Gentiles, and then speedily shall this destruction come. See 2 Thess. ii. 3.
Matthew 24:15
And therefore to proceed from the signs to the thing itself, from the forerunners to this actual sad coming of mine in vengeance upon the crucifers, observe what I now say unto you: As soon as ever ye
[f] abomination] That the βδελυγμα ἑρημώσεως ἱστὸς ἐν τόπῳ ἁγίῳ, abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, is the Roman army besieging Jerusalem, may appear. 1, by the parallel place, Luke xxi. 20, where before that admonition of, Then let those that are in Judæa fly to the mountains, &c. (which here follows immediately, and so demonstrates it to be this very matter,) these words are set, When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. 2dly, By the agreeableness of the words to this sense, and consonance of them to that other expression in St. Luke. For the βδελυγμα ἑρημώσεως doth (by an Hebraism, imitated by the writers of the New Testament) signify an abominable, heathen, profane, wasting company of soldiers, or the like; so in the place of Daniel (here referred to) it is clear, ch. ix. 27, with the abominable armies he shall make it desolate, the word abominable being ordinarily applied to the then polluted and idolatrous heathen world, of which the Romans were a principal part, whose armies were to work this desolation on Jerusalem. Agreeable to which it is what Artemidorus hath said in his Oneirocritics, l. 2. c. 20, that γύπες, vultures or eagles, (the very creatures to which in this place the Roman armies are compared, ver. 28,) signify in his art ἐχθροὺς ἐναγεῖς καὶ μιαροὺς, wicked abominable enemies, the very paraphrase of βδελυγμα here; this army, by which the desolation is wrought, is therefore expressed by this. And the standing of it in the holy place, is the situation of it about Jerusalem, for so ἐν signifies on or among, or close to that place, to wit, the bounds of that city, which is so oft called the holy city, or place. And so these words, though at first sight somewhat distant from it, signify no more than that heathen army about Jerusalem. And when in St. Mark it is said to stand, ὅπου οὐ δεῖ, where it ought not, that refers to the separation made by God of the Jews from all other the heathen people, which were not to come to that place, which is therefore called holy, in respect of that separation from all others. That by this prophecy in Daniel is meant the παντελὴς φθορὰ καὶ ἀφανισμὸς ἔσχατος, the total destruction and final ruin of the temple, see Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 5.
Matthew 24:16
[g] flee into &c.] How exactly the several passages of story in Josephus agree with these predictions will easily be discerned by comparing them, particularly that which belongs to this place of their flying to the mountains, &c. For when Gallus besieged Jerusalem, and without any visible cause, on a sudden raised the siege, what an act of God’s special providence was this, thus to order it, that the believers or Christian Jews being warned by this siege, and let loose (set at liberty again) might fly to the mountains, that is, get out of Judæa to some other place! Which that they did accordingly appears by this, that when Titus came some months after and besieged the city, there was not one Christian remaining in it. This same thing is observed by Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 5, and that the people of the church in Jerusalem (that is, the Christians there) κατὰ τινα χρησμὸν &c. “according to an oracle delivered by revelation to some honest men among them, commanding them to go over Jordan to a city called Pella,” did all remove thither, and left Jerusalem without any Christians in it at their destruction; and this he refers to read at large in
Matthew 24:17
[h] housetop] The buildings of Judæa had generally δώματα, plain roofs, fit to walk upon, and converse in, as cloisters paved with stones to that purpose. See Gerson tract. in Magnif. p. 975, whence, saith he, is that of the psalmist, I am become as a sparrow on the housetop, walking solitary there. Of this whole passage, that it belongs to the Jews in Jerusalem, see Cæsarius, Dial. 4. ἀποκρισ. 196: Τὴν μιλλουσαν Ἰουδαίοις φυγὴν προφημῶν, &c.: “Christ foretelling the future flight of the Jews, commands them to fly to the mountains, for after Vespasian, Titus arising, utterly demolished and depopulated Jerusalem, destroyed the Jews, the men with the sword, the children by dashing them against the ground, cutting up them that were with child, with all kind of death and destruction blotting out those fighters against God. And it happened that the city was taken on the sabbath day, all the people staying at home to observe the sabbatic rest, and this in the winter also, and so none could avoid or escape the destruction. He that was on the housetop endeavoured to hide himself, and so preferring life before possessions, would not take any thing out of his house. He that was in the field or country about, did not only not return to his house, but fled as far as he could, seeing the burning and taking of the city.”
Matthew 24:20
This will be a sad condition indeed if it chance to fall out in the time of winter, when long and hasty journeys are most miserable; or if on a sabbatic year, a time of the greatest scarcity, (for though there was a promise in the law, on their obedience, that the rest of the seventh year should bring no scarcity upon them, but that the year before should be blest with a double plenty, yet now that their disobediences had ripened them for their utter ruin the continuance of this miraculous mercy was not to be expected,) for in such a year it is to be expected that those by whom ye pass will have no more than they use for their own necessities, nothing to spare for you, (at least to provide for such multitudes flying all at once,) who yet must not stay to carry any thing with you, ver. 17. And yet these difficulties, whatsoever they are or can be, you must venture on, rather than stay in Jerusalem or thereabouts.
Matthew 24:21
For on them that are left in Jerusalem shall fall a more miserable siege, and other consequent pressures, than ever was or shall be heard or read of in the world.
Matthew 24:22
Such as if it should continue long it would destroy every Jew that is in the land, and in all other places also. But that the prophecies might be fulfilled which foretold that a remnant should survive this destruction, the time of this heavy distress shall not be long, but the city being besieged and taken, the armies of the Romans shall be gone, and the
sabbath, caßbdrp. no flesh should escape.
[i] no flesh] By no flesh here is meant none of all the Jews, so saith St. Chrysostom, πᾶσα σάρξ, that is, Ἰουδαικὴ, all flesh, that is, all the Jews; that is, that the sharpness of this war from the Romans without, and of the zealots within, that killed all that were averse from war, was such, that if it had continued, εἰ ἐπὶ πλῖον ἐκράτησε κατὰ τῆς πόλεως, “if it had gone on further against the city,” all the Jews every where πρόρριζον ἀπώλυντο, “had been destroyed utterly.”
Ib. [k] elect] The ἐκλεκτοί here are those few, whom God had determined to preserve out of that common destruction, the believers among the Jews. These are the remnant, so oft mentioned by the prophets, that they should escape, λείμμα κατ’ ἐκλογὴν, the remnant according to the election of grace, Rom. xi. 5. So ver. 7, ἡ ἐκλογή, this remnant of the Jews have obtained that, which the rest, being obdurate and senseless, obtained not. Of this word see note [c] 1 Pet. ii.
Matthew 24:23
Then in the time of that distress and flight if any shall persuade you that here is he that shall deliver you, (that is, the Messias, that shall free you from this distress,) if any shall put you in any hope of any deliverer, see that you do not heed or follow after any such.
Matthew 24:24
For at this third season a third sort of false Christs shall arise, (see note [d]) assuming to be sent by God to deliver you, and false prophets there shall be to persuade you to betake yourselves to these false Christs, and these betwixt them shall pretend working of miracles, and giving you signs to draw you after them, and (coming in a nick of time so advantageous for that turn, when your danger appears to you so great and formidable, and so promise of deliverance so welcome) they will be likely to draw many after them, even the most sincere persevering Christians, if it were possible for any deceit to work upon them.
Matthew 24:25
Therefore let this premonition of mine forearm and secure you against this danger.
Matthew 24:26
When therefore the news shall come that there is in the wilderness an eminent person, which will fight your battles, deliver you from the Roman yoke—such was Simon, who had gathered an army of forty thousand, and was in the desert country of Judaea—be sure you go not forth after him, give no ear to such rumours; or if they shall tell you that there is in such a frontier town, or place of defence, or in such a stronghold within the city of Jerusalem, (for there John with his zealots fortified himself,) this deliverer, or Messias, or leader for you; depend not on any such relief, nor forslow your flight, ver. 17, upon confidence that he shall do any thing for you.
[l] secret chambers] Ταμεία, saith Hesychius, signify ἀπόκρυφα οἰκήματα, secret dwellings, possibly such where men could gather company together undiscernibly, and so raise armies secretly, as others (which designed it openly) in the wilderness, ver. 5. But it is more likely that ταμεῖον being taken ordinarily for a magazine or storehouse, the word may so signify here, places for ammunition and arms, some frontier towns in the borders of that kingdom, where men and arms lay in store for defence. Agreeable to this is that of Hesychius in the word ταμίαι, that they are οἱ τῶν δημοσίων χρημάτων καὶ πάντων τῶν κοινῶν προστάται, καὶ φύλακες ταμυῦχοι, “the keepers and governors, and storers of the public monies, and all else that was common.” And accordingly the ἀπόκρυφα οἰκήματα before, may most probably denote such houses of store, underground cellars, &c.
Matthew 24:27
All such deceits may prove ruinous to you; for this judgment and vengeance upon the Jews shall come so as that it cannot be avoided; but it shall at the same time fall upon several parts of the land, or in a moment, like lightning, fly from one corner to another; this day a great slaughter of Jews in this place, to morrow in another a great way off.
Matthew 24:28
And there is no preventing of it by getting into any place of appearing safety, for wheresoever the Jews are, there will the Roman armies (whose ensign is the eagle, and who will have a sagacity to
[m] eagles] The explication of this verse will depend upon two things; 1. that the eagle was the ensign of the Roman militia; so
HAMMOND ANNOTT. M
Matthew 24:29
This distress shall make short work with this nation; for immediately upon this which I have now foretold you, the temple, the city of Jerusalem, and the rest of the cities of Judæa, and that whole people, shall be shrewdly shaken, all the whole government, civil and ecclesiastical, shall be destroyed.
[n] the powers of heaven] Δύναμις ordinarily signifieth an host or army, and δυνάμεις οὐρανοῦ, answerable to צבאות השמים, the powers or the hosts of heaven, are the sun, moon, and stars, that move and shine there. These are used in prophetic, that is, figurative writings, to denote the then church of God, the people of the Jews, (according as the temple is called the camp, and all things in it are expressed by that metaphor of a militia;) so when Dan. viii. 10, it is said of the little horn, It waxed great even against the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them; there is little doubt but the Jews are meant there by the host of heaven, for otherwise it would not be very intelligible of the stars of heaven, how they should be cast down to the ground, and stamped on, save only in this sense, as Jerusalem is said elsewhere, Luke xxi. 24, to be trodden under foot by the Gentiles. According to this notion of this phrase, all the rest of this verse will be interpretable; that the sun, that is, the temple; the moon, that is, Jerusalem the chief city; and the stars, that is, the rest of the lesser cities, and so altogether making up the host of heaven; that is, the whole nation and church of the Jews, shall be brought down from the flourishing condition which they had formerly enjoyed, many cities, Jerusalem particularly, utterly
h Lib. iv. 58. M 2
Matthew 24:30
And this shall appear to be a signal punishment upon the Jews, and they shall with sorrow (though too late) take notice of it as a notable act of revenge of the crucified Christ upon those that were thus guilty of his death: (see premonition to the Revelation.)
Matthew 24:31
And he shall, as with an herald and a loud sounding trumpet, gather together all the persevering believers, that remnant whom he purposed to preserve from this destruction, wheresoever they are in any part of Judæa, (see Rev. vii. 12,) and rescue them from this common calamity: see ver. 40, 41, and Rev. vii. 3, 4, &c.
Matthew 24:32
Now as by the sight of a fig tree, the softness of the branch and budding out of leaves, ye know and discern that the winter is now past, and the summer is nigh approaching;
Matthew 24:33
So in like manner resolve ye that these are most certain and infallible signs, by which, when you see them, you may conclude that this coming of the Son of man, for the destruction of the Jews and your rescue and deliverance, is near at hand.
Matthew 24:34
Of both which I now assure you, that in the age of some that are now alive shall all that hath been said in this chapter be certainly fulfilled: (see note [l] on ch. xxiii., and note [c] on Luke xviii. 7.)
Matthew 24:35
What I say is immutably firm and sure, the whole world shall be destroyed sooner than one word that I have now delivered shall prove otherwise.
Matthew 24:36
But of the point of time when this judgment shall come (see note [a] on Heb. x., and 2 Peter iii. 10.) none but God the Father knows that, (see note [b] on Mark xiii.) and that must oblige you to vigilancy, and may sustain you in your trials, (when you begin to faint by reason of persecutions from the Jews, ver. 12, which this is to set a period to,) by
Between this and the 32d ver. the Gr. and Lat. MS, inserts these words: Ἀρχομένων δὲ τούτων γινέσθαι ἀναβλήψατε, &c., as it is in Luke xxi. 28, And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.
Matthew 24:37
But this judgment on the Jews shall be like that on the old world in respect of the unexpectedness of it: see Luke xvii. 20. 38, 39. For as in the age before the deluge the judgment had been preached six score years together, and at last Noah, by building of an ark, did visibly forewarn them of the flood approaching, yet the people went on secure and unmoved in their course, knew not so much as of his embarking till the very minute that the flood surprised them, and destroyed every person but Noah’s family, that made use of the means prescribed them by God; so shall it be in this approaching destruction on this nation. 40, 41. Then shall there be many acts of God’s providence discerned in rescuing one from that calamity wherein another is destroyed, especially that of departing out of Judæa, ver. 16, which the believers generally did at Gallus’s raising the siege, (see note [g]) the rest staying behind, and so being destroyed. Two persons in the same field together shall be thus discriminated in their fate; two women grinding together, or turning of a handmill, one of them shall stay, and be destroyed, and the other that was in the same place and danger with her shall, as by the angel that hurried Lot out of Sodom, or otherwise by some invisible disposition of that Providence which waits on his faithful servants, be rescued from that destruction, ver. 31.
Matthew 24:42
This judgment then being so near, and yet so uncertain when the time will be, it will become every one to be vigilant every minute, that he may be of the number of those to whom those strange deliverances are promised, that is, a faithful, constant, obedient servant of Christ’s, not tempted from his service by any terrors: see ver. 13.
Matthew 24:43
For certainly any man that were thus forewarned of a thief that would break into his house at such a time is mad if he do not provide a guard to secure it against that time.
Matthew 24:44
And then by the same reason, when the time is so uncertain, and the being ready at that time so necessary, you are obliged to be alway on your guard, expecting every hour.
¹² apprehended, and the other dismissed, ναρολαμβάνεται, καὶ ὁ εἰς ἀφίεται. ¹³ this you
do know, ἰκεῖνο γινώσκει.