Bible Commentaries
Mark 13

Verses 1-37

XIII 1-37 Prophecy of the Destruction of the Temple and of the Coming of the Son of Man; cf. Mt chh 24-25; Luke 21:5-36; Luke 17:20-37—This prophecy, the longest discourse of Christ recorded in Mk, is usually referred to as the Eschatological Discourse or Synoptic Apocalypse. It was spoken in reply to the question of the disciples about the time of the destruction of the temple, 4, and in it Christ tells of signs preceding that event and also speaks of the coming of the Son of Man. The chief problem in interpreting the discourse is to determine whether certain passages should be understood of the destruction of the temple and events connected with it, or of the coming of the Son of Man as Judge at the end of the world.

A majority of writers at the present day hold that Christ dealt both with the destruction of the temple and the coming of the Son of Man in final judgement in this prophecy. Some writers contend that the manner in which the predictions concerning these two events are combined in a single prophecy, with abrupt transitions from one theme to the other, shows that Christ believed that the destruction of the temple and the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the world would be contemporaneous.

Most modern Catholic exegetes hold that the evidence of the discourse itself indicates that Christ made an important distinction between the two events. The destruction of the temple would be preceded by signs which would serve as a warning to the disciples to escape from impending disaster,

14-17. This local calamity, from which they could escape by flight elsewhere, would come to pass ’before this generation passes away’,30. Christ, however, gave no information about the time of the coming of the Son of Man, 32. That event would be sudden and unexpected. It would concern ’the elect . . . from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven’, 27. There would be no warning signs. Constant readiness is demanded—’Take heed, watch. For you know not when the time is’, 33. While Christ did not reveal the time of the Second Coming, his words convey sufficient information to put the disciples on their guard against identifying it with the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. In their minds, the overthrow of the temple and the end of the world were closely linked (cf. 13:4; Matthew 24:3). Christ, by insisting that the time of the Parousia is tincertain, while at the same time declaring that the destruction of the temple would take place before ’this generation passes away’ and also by prescribing different attitudes for his followers in relation to these events, intended to dispel the confusion in the Apostles’ minds; cf. Lagrange, Saint Marc, 332354; id. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, 2, 170 ff.; Grand maison , Jésus-Christ, 3, 61-96, 251-9; Bonsirven, Les Enseignements de Jésus-Christ, 330-55.

Some prefer to interpret the intermingling of themes and sudden transitions from one to the other as an instance of the lack of perspective which is a wellknown feature of the prophecies of the OT. Because of the absence of perspective, the prophecies do not bring into clear tell time-interval between future events in the way that history sets out events of the past in their chronological sequence. On this theory, Christ would have accommodated himself here to the limitations of ordinary prophetical utterance without in any way implying that the destruction of the temple and his own Second Coming would take place in the same period. But if it be admitted that the prophecy has a twofold theme, the considerations put forward in the preceding paragraph would seem to exclude this explanation.

A number of ancient writers and some moderns do not admit that Christ spoke of two distinct themes in this prophecy. Some hold that throughout the discourse Christ has primarily in mind the coming of the Son of Man at the last Judgement. It is difficult to see how this interpretation can be reconciled with the question of the disciples, 4, and the words of Christ, 14-19. Even if it be granted that the destruction of the temple is a symbol which prefigures the end of the world, it seems to be quite clear that this local calamity in Jerusalem and Judaea is treated as an independent event with its own importance and significance, and not merely as a symbol of a greater upheaval at the end of the world.

Another explanation, which hitherto had few supporters, has recently been restated and strengthened with fresh arguments by A. Feuillet; cf. RB 55 ( 1948) 481-502; 56 ( 1949) 61-92, 340-64; 57 ( 1950) 62-91, 180-211. He holds that the prophecy deals throughout with the single theme of the destruction of the temple. The coming of the Son of Man ’in the clouds with great power and glory’, 26, is not to be taken as Christ’s coming at the Parousia, but as the inauguration or his reign, the coming of the kingdom in power; cf.Mark 8:39; Mark 14:62; Daniel 7:13. This coming is the counterpart of the judgement of condemnation inflicted on the Jewish nation in the destruction of the temple and the calamitous events connected with it. With the disappearance of the temple, the ancient economy, already abrogated by Christ’s death, comes to an end, and the new era of universal salvation, ’the times of the nations’, Luke 21:24, is inaugurated. Further references to this interpretation will be found in the Commentary.

1-4 Occasion of the Prophecy; cf.Matthew 24:1-3; Luke 21:5-7—Herod the Great had undertaken the restoration of the temple in an attempt to win the favour of the Jews. The splendour of the buildings and the dimensions of the huge blocks of stone used in the work of reconstruction are described at length by Jos., Ant. 15, 11, 3; B.J. 5, 5, 1-2. Christ’s prophecy was fulfilled to the letter when Titus, after the capture of Jerusalem in a.d. 70, ordered that the city and temple should be razed to the ground; cf. Jos., B.J. 7, 1, 1. 4. The first question of the Apostles refers to the destruction of the temple. In the second question the words ’all these things’ have been taken commonly as an indication that the Apostles visualized the destruction of the temple as part of a greater upheaval, the end of the world; cf.Matthew 24:3. Feuillet maintains that the form of the Apostles’ second question, even as found in Mt, does not necessarily imply that they intended to ask about the time of the end of world as a distinct subject. The expressions used might be understood of the Messianic age; cf. RB 55 ( 1948) 486; 56 ( 1949) 344-7.

5-13 Advice for Times of Distress; cf.Matthew 24:4-14; Luke 21:8-10—Christ did not reply immediately to the questions put to him. He took occasion first to warn the Apostles against the dangers of deception by false Messiahs and to remind them of the difficulties which they would encounter in preaching the Gospel. Such advice was necessary lest they should be led astray by the expectation that the end of the world, with the coming of the Son of Man in glory, was at hand. In the period between the death of Christ and the fall of Jerusalem many impostors arose and took advantage of the intense Messianic expectations of the time to promise a decisive intervention of God (cf. Lagrange, Le Messianisme, 21 ff.). The same period was marked by wars in the Roman Empire, disturbances in Palestine, earthquakes and famines (cf.Acts 11:28; Jos., Ant. 20, 5, 2-3). Tacitus ( Hist. I, 2-3) describes it as an age ’rich in calamities, made terrible by battles, torn by civil strife, cruel even in its peace. Four emperors perished by the sword. Three civil wars, many, foreign wars . . .’; (cf. Jos. BJ Proem.2). Christ’s words apply in the first instance to the trials of this troubled period before the fall of Jerusalem.

8b. These things are the beginning of birth-pangs. The trials of which Christ has spoken are only the beginning: the great tribulation, 19, is still to come. The figure of the pains of childbirth contains an element of consolation. Just as the pangs of childbirth are followed by joy that ’a man is born into the world’, John 16:21 f., so the trials which reached their climax in the fall of Jerusalem will lead to joy. They are the pangs accompanying the birth of a new world, the kingdom of God on earth; cf. Lagrange, Saint Marc337, 9-13. Christ’s followers will be subjected to persecutions and will incur the hatred of Jews and Gentiles (cf.Matthew 10:16-23), but they will have the special assistance of the Holy Spirit when they are summoned before tribunals to answer for their faith in Christ and their preaching of the Gospel of salvation. If they remain faithful to the end, they will save their souls. 10. The immediate context suggests that ’first’, p??+?t??, is not to be interpreted as ’before the end of the world’. Christ is still speaking of the period of the ’beginning of birth-pangs’. The preaching of the Gospel to all the nations can be explained as the evangelization which had already taken place in the Apostolic age before the fall of Jerusalem; cf.Romans 1:5, Romans 1:8; Romans 10:18; Lagrange, Saint Matthieu461. Feuillet ( RB 55 [ 1948] 492-3) points out that the bringing of the Gospel to the nations should be envisaged particularly as the evangelization of Jews dispersed throughout the Roman empire. As God’s chosen people, they would have the opportunity, before the catastrophe of a.d. 70, of knowing the Gospel.

14-18 The Sign of the Destruction of the Temple; cf.Matthew 24:15-20; Luke 21:20-24—14. This gives the answer to the disciples’ question, 4. ’The abomination of desolation, standing where it ought not’. It is not certain how this sign of the imminent destruction of the temple was fulfilled. The expression ’abomination of desolation’ comes from Daniel 9:27 (cf.Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11) where the prophet is speaking of something which would cause defilement of the temple: cf. Lattey, The Book of Daniel, 91, 101-2. In 1 Mac 1:57 the expression is applied to the profanation of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes who erected a statue of Zeus Olympius within the sanctuary in 168 b.c. Presumably Christ had in mind a sacrilegious profanation of a similar character. It is noteworthy that the Gk text of Mk reads e+?stð?óta (masc.) in apposition to ßde+´???µa (neutr.). This sense-construction may be intended to suggest that the abomination is not an inanimate thing but an intelligent being. A number of authors hold that the invasion of Judaea and the subsequent siege of Jerusalem constituted the abomination of desolation; cf.Luke 21:20. Others find the sign in the crimes committed by the Zealots who seized the temple in a.d. 68 and converted it into a fortress. They murdered two high-priests as well as countless others and caused the cessation of the daily sacrifices; cf. Jos., B.J. 4, 5, 1-3; 6:3; 5, 10, 5. 14b. ’He that readeth, let him understand’. This may be a statement of Christ directing attention to the profound significance of the prophecy of Daniel, 9:27. More probably it is a parenthesis by Mk inviting the reader of the Gospel to pay attention to the practical lesson of Christ’s warning. 15a. According to Eusebius ( HE 3, 5, 3), the Christians, warned by a revelation, fled from Jerusalem before the siege and took refuge at Pella, across the Jordan. 15b-18. These words of Christ emphasize the urgency of the warning to fly from the catastrophe about to overwhelm the city.

19-23 Great Tribulations: False Christs and False Prophets; cf.Matthew 24:21-28—Exegetes are far from unanimous in their interpretation of this passage. Many hold that at 19 there is a transition from events at the fall of Jerusalem to the trials before the end of the world. They argue that it is no longer a question of saving one’s life by flight from a local calamity, but of a great tribulation, 19, from which no one could be saved if the Lord did not shorten the time, 20. In this tribulation it is apparently the eternal salvation of the elect, 20, 22, which is the important issue. The fresh warnings against impostors are taken to imply that the situation is different from that contemplated in 5 ff. On the other hand it is pointed out that Josephus ( BJ Proem. 4) describes the fall of Jerusalem in terms very similar to those used here. Furthermore, 19 f. are logically connected with the preceding verses (cf. ’?à?’ ’for’)—they give the reason for the hasty, flight urged in 15 ff. The most natural break in the discourse appears to be in 23—’Take you heed, therefore: behold I have told you all things beforehand’. The warnings against impostors, 21 f., may be simply a resumption and development of the earlier admonitions. Feuillet ( RB 55 [ 1948] 485) notes the correspondence between ?+?+´ta?, 14, and tóte in 15 and 21, and also between e+?? e+´?e?+´?a??, 17, and a?+? ð+?µe+´?a? e+??e?+??aa 19. This evidence indicates that 14-23 form a unity and that 19-23 deal with happenings at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. 20. ’no flesh (no one) should be saved’. In the context of the destruction of Jerusalem this must be taken in a relative sense, no inhabitant of Jerusalem or Judaea’. ’The elect’ Feuillet ( RB 55 [ 1948] 498-502) holds that ’the elect’ are the remnant of the chosen people whom God will preserve from death in the great catastrophe, so that at least a ’remnant’ (Isaiah 1:9; cf. Kissane, The Book of Isaiah, I, p 10) of the Jewish race would enter the Church; cf.Romans 9:27-29; Romans 11:1-7. For their sake the time will be shortened.

24-27 The Coming of the Son of Man; cf.Matthew 24:29-31; Luke 21:25-28—The language and imagery used in this passage are frequently found in the prophetic and apocalyptic descriptions of God’s intervention in judgement upon cities or nations; cf.Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 24:18 ff.; 34:4; Ez 32:7; Amos 8:9; Joel 2:10, Joel 2:30 f.; Agg 2:22. The language is metaphorical, and the striking imagery of disturbances in the heavenly bodies was intended to suggest the power and majesty of God. Christ makes use of this accepted terminology in order to describe the coming of the Son of Man. His words need not be taken literally as an enumeration of signs in the heavens which will precede the end of the world. They are rather the recognized mode of signifying that God is about to intervene.

26-27. It is commonly held that the divine intervention in this case is the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the world. Christ, the Son of Man, will then come in glory as the Supreme Judge and gather his elect to himself froin’the whole earth; cf.1 Thessalonians 4:15 f; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53. Against this interpretation Feuillet ( RB 56 [ 1949] 61-82) argues that nothing in the text indicates such a complete change of perspective ’between 19-23 and 24-27. There is no hint of a prolonged interval between the great tribulation and the coming of the Son of Man. On the contrary, the repetition in 24 of the phrase e+?? e+´?e?+´?a?? (cf. 17, 19), and the presence of the time-particle tóte (cf. 15, 20) corresponding to it in 26 and 27, suggest that the coming of the Son of Man will be contemporaneous with the great tribulation. Feuillet finds the key to the meaning in Daniel 7:13-14, to which Christ obviously alludes here. In the prophecy of Daniel the coming of ’one like a son of man with the clouds of heaven’ is a symbol of the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. The destruction of the temple by the Romans is God’s judgement on the chosen people and brings the old order to an end, but it also marks the inauguration of the new era of salvation, the establishment of the Messianic kingdom on earth and its extension to all nations. This is the joyful and consoling aspect of the birth-pangs represented by the destruction of Jerusalem. The gathering of the elect is explained by Feuillet as the entry into the Church of the ’remnant’ of the chosen people who believe in Christ. Together with the great mass of Gentile converts this minority will form the new spiritual Israel, the Church (e+????ðs?+´a = assembly, gathering) founded by Christ. Other passages of Scripture also employ the figure of ’gathering’ to describe Christ’s redeeming mission; cf.John 11:51 f.

28-31 The Parable of the Fig-Tree: the Time of the Destruction of Jerusalem; cf.Matthew 24:32-35; Luke 21:29-33-28-29. When the leaves appear on the figtree men know that summer is near. Similarly, when the disciples see these things coming to pass they will know that it (’the kingdom of God’, Luke 21:31) is at hand. The phrase ’these things’ corresponds to the question of the disciples’ when shall these things be’, 4, and probably refers to the abomination of desolation and the destruction of Jerusalem rather than to the happenings foretold in 5-8. When the disciples see these things coming to pass they will realize that they herald the establishment of the kingdom. Feuillet (art. cit., 83) emphasizes that the purpose of the parable is to bring home to the disciples that the destruction of the city and temple is not an unqualified disaster, inasmuch as to the eyes of faith it spells the coming of the Messianic age. 30. ’This generation’ has been interpreted in a variety of senses: the Jewish nation, the human race, the community of the faithful (the Church), the generation of Jews contemporary with Christ. If Christ is speaking here of the end of the world (ta?+?ta pá?ta ?e+´?ðta?), the meaning would appear to be that the human race, or the Jewish nation, or the Church would still exist at the Second Coming. It is difficult to see the precise force of such a statement or how it fits the immediate context. Probably ’ all these things’ alludes to the destruction of Jerusalem. Christ meant that it would come to pass before the contemporary generation of Jews had passed away; cf. 8:12, 38.’Generation’ frequently has a pejorative sense (cf. ZLG. s.v. ?e?eá), and it may be that it has that nuance in the present context. The destruction of Jerusalem is regarded as the punishment of the evil generation that rejected Christ; cf.Matthew 23:35 f. Not more than forty years elapsed from the time Christ spoke until the fall of Jerusalem in 70 a.d.31. An emphatic declaration of the permanency and truth of all Christ’s teachings.

32-37 The Time of Judgement: the Need for Constant Vigilance; cf.Matthew 24:36-51; Luke 21:34-36-32. Christ has announced the sign which will precede the fall of Jerusalem and foretold that that catastrophe would take place during the lifetime of his contemporaries. Now he declares that no one except the Father ’knows about that day or that hour’. The Arian heretics appealed to this text as proof that Christ did not know the time of the day of Judgement and, therefore, could not be God; cf. Maldonatus, Cominent. on Matthew 24:36. Many modern writers (cf. Feuillet, art. cit., 87) explain the passage in the sense that Christ revealed the general period (this generation) in which the temple would be destroyed but gives no information as to the precise time (the day or the hour). But the opposition here is not simply between a general indication of the period, 30, and a precise date, 32. There appears to be a contrast between two distinct situations. In one case, there will be warning signs and the general period is revealed: in the other, there are no signs and no information is given about the time. Hence the admonition, ’Take heed, watch. For you know not when the time is’, 33. It is unlikely, therefore, that Christ had the same event in view both in 30 and 32. The day and hour of which he spoke was most probably the Day of Judgement; cf.Luke 10:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Timothy 1:12, 2 Timothy 1:18; 2 Timothy 4:8. The statement that the Son, i.e. Christ, does not know the time of the Second Coming is to be interpreted in the sense that it was no part of his Messianic mission to reveal this information to men. Christ, as a divine Person, knows all the secrets of the Godhead, but it was not the will of the Father that he should make known to men the time of the Last Judgement. 33-37. Because the time of Christ’s coming in judgement is not revealed, constant readiness is necessary. This admonition, which is enforced by a parable, was not intended for the Apostles alone—’what I say to you, I say to all watch’, 37.