Matthew 24:1-22

Matthew 24:1-22. PREDICTION OF THE FALL OF JERUSALEM

Mark 13:1–end. Luke 21:5-36

This chapter opens with the great discourse of Jesus, which is continued to the end of ch. 25. That discourse contains (1) a prediction of the fall of Jerusalem, (2) a prediction of the end of the world, (3) Parables in relation to these predictions.
It is difficult to determine the limits of the several portions.

(1) Some of the earliest Fathers referred the whole prophecy to the end of the world. (2) Others held that the fall of Jerusalem was alone intended down to the end of Matthew 24:22. (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius.)

In an interesting monograph founded on this view the Rev. W. Sherlock has shown a parallelism between the two divisions:

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM (Matthew 24:5-22).

THE SECOND ADVENT (Matthew 24:23-31).

1. False Christs and false prophets (Matthew 24:5; Matthew 24:11).

1. False Christs and false prophets (Matthew 24:23-24).

2. Persecution and apostasy (Matthew 24:9-10; Matthew 24:12).

2. Dangers even to the elect (Matthew 24:24).

3. Wars, famine, pestilence (Matthew 24:6-7).

3. Distress of nations (Matthew 24:29).

4. Great tribulation (Matthew 24:21).

4. The sun and moon darkened (Matthew 24:29).

5. The abomination of desolation (Matthew 24:15).

5. The sign of the Son of man (Matthew 24:30).

6. The escape of the Christians (Matthew 24:16-18).

6. The salvation of the elect (Matthew 24:31).

(3) Augustine, Jerome, and Beda, followed by Maldonatus, receive this view in a modified form, holding that while the two events were conceived by the Apostles as coincident in point of time, and while our Lord’s words appeared to them to be describing a single great catastrophe, it is now possible in the light of the past history to detect the distinctive references to the first and the second event.

(4) Another arrangement of the prophecy is: (i) A general answer of the question to the end of Matthew 24:14; (ii) a specific reference to the fall of Jerusalem, 15–28; (iii) in Matthew 24:29 a resumption of the subject of (i).