13:1 Christ's Discourse on the Last Days SUMMARY OF MARK 13: The Destruction of the Temple Foretold. The Persecution of the Saints. The Gospel Preached to All Nations. The Awful Calamities of the Jewish Nation. Christ's Coming to Judgment. The Hour When He Shall Come Not Known. Watch, Pray, and Be Ready. As he went out of the temple. This whole discourse is reported most fully by Matthew in Mt 24:1-51, on which see notes. Compare Lu 21:5-38. I only notice here what is peculiar to Mark. 13:3 Peter and James and John and Andrew. Matthew says the disciples came to him privately (Mt 24:3), but does not name them. Asked him privately. Privately probably means apart from the multitude. The destruction of the temple had been publicly foretold (Mt 23:38 24:2). 13:9 Take heed. Not to escape persecution, but to be ready for it. In Matthew's report persecution is foretold, but the injunctions of Mr 13:9-11 are omitted, or rather given in Mt 10:18-20, on which see notes. They shall deliver you up to councils. Jewish courts. Besides the great national council, the Sanhedrin, each principal town had a smaller council, or local Sanhedrin. In the synagogues ye shall be beaten. In every Jewish synagogue there were three magistrates authorized to inflict certain punishments, scourging being one. The number of stripes could not exceed forty (De 25:3); hence they always stopped at thirty-nine. Rulers and kings. Roman officials, such as Felix (Ac 24:24), Festus (Ac 25:4-6), Gallio (Ac 18:2), King Agrippa (Ac 26:1), and Nero (Ac 25:12). 13:18 Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter. Matthew adds, 'neither' on the Sabbath day (Mt 24:20). The reasons for these admonitions to the Jerusalem church are given in the notes on Matthew. The sign given by the Lord for the flight, the environment of the city by the Romans, and the panic that caused their sudden withdrawal, occurred on Tuesday, in October. Hence the flight was neither in the winter, nor on the Sabbath day. 13:30 This generation shall not pass. See PNT Mt 24:34. 13:32 Of that day and [that] hour, etc. When the Son was on earth in the flesh, he voluntarily subjected himself to limitations, among them ignorance of the hour when he would return again to judgment. If he voluntarily knew not, what folly of theologians to fix upon the time. 13:37 Watch. Observe in this chapter the emphasis given to Christ's exhortation, 'Watch' ! Matthew tells us how the Lord sought to impress these lessons of watchfulness and faithfulness still more deeply by the parables of the Ten Virgins (Mt 25:1-13), and the Talents (Mt 25:14-30), and closed all with a picture of the awful day when the Son of man should separate all nations from one another, as the shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats (Mt 25:31-46). | |