Bible Commentaries

And ¹ 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]!

(1) The destruction of the temple, city, and whole nation is foretold, and the troubles of the Church: but yet there are many comforts added, and last of all, the end of the world is described.

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 ^a testimony against them.

(a) When they hear you preach it will be a most evident witness against them, so that they will not be able to pretend that they do not know.

But when they shall lead [you], and deliver you up, ^b take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither ^c 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.

(b) We are not forbidden to think beforehand, but we are willed to beware of that pensive carefulness by which men discourage themselves, which proceeds from distrust and lack of confidence and sure hope of God's assistance. {See (Matthew 6:27) }

(c) By any kind of made-up and cunning type of story to tell.

And ye shall be hated of all [men] ^d for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

(d) For me.

But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, ^e standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:

(e) When the heathen and profane people shall not only enter into the temple, and defile both it and the city, but also completely destroy it.

For [in] ^f those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.

(f) This is an idiom which the Hebrews use and it has a great power in it, for it shows us that during that entire time one misery will follow another in such a way as if the time itself was very misery itself. So the prophet Amos says that the day of the Lord will be darkness; (Amos 5:20).

² But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

(2) The latter day is not to be searched for curiously, which day the Father alone knows: but let us rather take heed that it does not come upon us unaware.