Mark 13:1-37
1 And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!
2 And Jesus answering said unto him,Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,
4 Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?
5 And Jesus answering them began to say,Take heed lest any man deceive you:
6 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.a
9 But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.
10 And the gospel must first be published among all nations.
11 But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
12 Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.
13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:
15 And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house:
16 And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment.
17 But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
18 And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.
19 For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.
20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.
21 And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not:
22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
23 But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.
24 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
25 And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.
26 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
27 And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.
28 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:
29 So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.
30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.
31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
34 For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
35 Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
36 Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
Mark 13:2. There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. When the Chaldeans burned the temple, that part called Solomon's porch escaped demolition; this favour however, small as it was, did not extend to the second temple. A Turkish mosque now succeeds the sanctuary; and the hill of Zion, once the repose of the ark, is now a fortress.
Mark 13:3. Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately. This is an addition to Matthew 24. The stones alluded to were of white and other marbles, prodigiously massive and exquisitely beautiful. The augurs of its total destruction were therefore words of thunder in the ears of men who had been taught, that the temple must abide for ever.
Mark 13:8. Nation shall rise against nation. From the rebellion of the Jews against the Romans, to the dissolution of the empire, wars arose in succession like the swells of the ocean; and the jews themselves, being an expatriated race, became seditious, and were slaughtered in numberless cities. But before the expulsion of the jews, our Saviour adds,
Mark 13:10. The gospel must first be published among all nations, for a witness and a testimony. The gentile nations must be illuminated by its glory, so as to compare the prophecies with the correspondent events; and those respecting the jews especially are so striking as to carry direct conviction of the inspiration of Moses and the prophets beyond all disputation. Deuteronomy 28:49; Daniel 9:24. The predictions of our Saviour respecting the jews and Jerusalem were so impressive, that the wit of Porphyry could only say that the predictions were written after the events. Proof sufficient to us, that the truth of prophecy is the pillar on which the church is built, a rock which remains when the heavens shall be no more. See more on Acts 8:4; Psalms 19; Romans 10:18.
Mark 13:14. When ye shall see the abomination of desolation [spoken of by the prophet Daniel.] Some think, that the expletive was copied from Matthew's gospel, because it is not in the Latin version. The sense is, when the Roman armies, with their eagles and idols, shall enter the holy land to suppress the rebellion, then know that the Hebrew sun shall be darkened. Let those eagles be a signal to the church for general flight to the eastern hills, and deserts of Arabia.
Mark 13:32. Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, nor the angels which are in heaven. The note of Poole in the Synopsis is, that certain fathers understand these words of the fall of Jerusalem, as it would seem from the question of the disciples, when shall those things be?
Neither the Son, but the Father. St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome are of opinion, that these words were foisted into the text from the Arian copies; because St. Matthew, whom St. Mark closely follows, has not these words, though he treats of some things more fully, and in others intersperses several occurrences.
But though most of the modern versions admit this adjection as genuine, the substance of what the critics teach is, that it is one thing to speak of the Son, as to his divine Essence, and another to speak of him as the Messiah by office. The word Father regards the divinity or godhead, and the word Son, still keeping the Messiah in view, regards his humanity, in which he grew in wisdom, and in favour both with God and men. Considering then the word Son as Messiah, the passage in John 5:19 pertinently applies here, as it regards the illumination and endowments of his humanity. “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things for as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man.”
In these views the Saviour considers himself as a servant, come to do the will of the Father, receiving all his instructions from him, and acting in perfect obedience to his will in all things. The argument then is simply this, that the day and hour of the future judgment is in the sealed book of the deity, and must not be declared, that men may freely pursue the path of duty, till the day of final scrutiny burst on the world at once. The enquiry is foreign to the deity of Christ, who, as God, has declared in doctrine and in parables the glories of his future advent. He reigns till all his enemies shall become his footstool; and who in his times, καιροις ιδιοις, his own times, shall show who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 1 Timothy 6:15.
Mark 13:35. Watch ye therefore. See on Luke 12:35, where the narration is more copious.