Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Part X

In describing the horrible conditions that engulfed Jerusalem during the siege by the Romans in 70 AD, one revered Rabbi makes this point: “From a psychological point of view, Moses describes how first the men, who normally are not as sensitive as the women, give in to hunger and thirst, until eventually, even women, mothers who are the last to allow feelings of self-preservation to allow them to sacrifice their children, see no other way out;¹ [especially seeing that if the children were to survive them in such circumstances, what future could they look forward to?]”²

Jesus also included a warning that such a calamity would be even worse if it occurred during winter or on the Sabbath when traveling any distance is normally forbidden.³ However, during times of crisis they were told: “Our Rabbis teach, that he that is pursued by Gentiles, or by thieves, may profane the Sabbath for the sake of saving his life: and so we find of David, when Saul sought to slay him, he fled from him, and escaped. Our Rabbis say, that it happened that evil writings (or edicts) came from the government to the great men of Tzippore; and they went, and said to Rabbi Eleazar ben Prata, evil edicts come to us from the government, what do you say? ‘should we flee?’ and he was afraid to say to them ‘flee’; but he said to them with a nod, why do you ask me? go and ask Jacob, and Moses, and David; as it is written, of Jacob, ‘and Jacob fled;’⁴ and so of Moses, ‘and Moses fled;’⁵ and so of David, ‘and David fled, and escaped:’⁶ and God says, ‘come my people, enter into your chambers.⁷”⁸

But then Jesus changes tense and looks to the future. Nevertheless, many Bible scholars believe that He is still talking about the coming destruction of Jerusalem. This may become clearer as we go on with what Jesus still had to say.

Verses 21b “Yet there will be greater trouble than has ever happened since the beginning of the world. And nothing as bad as that will ever happen again.”

To this warning by our Lord to His disciples, Chrysostom has this view: “Do not let anyone suppose that Jesus is merely speaking in hyperbole. All you need to do is study the writings of Josephus to learn the truth of these predictions. No one who knows the fact of history can say that Christian believers have exaggerated this tragic history or been any part of trying to see that Christ’s words were fulfilled. For Jesus, Himself was a Jew, a determined and faithful Jew, very zealous. And among believers who lived after Christ, there were many Jews. What then is this man predicting? That these terrors would surpass all tragedy. And indeed no such similar tragedy has ever overtaken any nation.”⁹ This is true as it relates to Jerusalem and the Temple. However, Jews around the world have suffered immensely during certain periods of history.

Chrysostom makes a good point here worth repeating. Jesus was a Jewish prophet speaking to a Jewish audience. They would have no understanding of the coming community of faith who accepted Jesus as the Messiah, with integrated congregations made up of Jews and Gentiles. So there was no way they could project this into the future. However, our Lord knew what was coming, and did not want this warning to be buried in the pages of history books that involved only Jews. That is why as a church, we should see what is in this for us today and take heed. Remember, it will be greater persecution of God’s people than ever before accompanied by greater turmoil among nations than that seen since the time of Abraham.

Verse 22: “But God has decided to make that terrible time short. If it were not made short, life would not be able to go on. But God will make that time short in favor of the people He has chosen.”

The reason why we see this in the future is because of the bookends Jesus puts on this event: “Never worse has happened before and nothing worse will happen again.” And based on the global extent of this destruction that we see in John’s Revelation, were the time of this holocaust not shortened, no one would survive, especially the new Jewish believers in Jesus as the Messiah. Nevertheless, no such destruction had ever happened in Jerusalem before, and none has occurred since, so this destruction is still on hold.

What we see prophesied here by Jesus is very much in line with what Daniel was told, “At that time, Daniel, the great prince Michael will stand up. Michael is in charge of your people. There will be a time of much trouble, the worst time since nations have been on earth. But Daniel, at that time every one of your people whose name is found written in the book of life will be saved. There are many who are dead and buried. Some of them will wake up and live forever, but others will wake up to shame and disgrace forever. The wise people will shine as bright as the sky. Those who teach others to live right will shine like stars forever and ever.”¹⁰ Many Bible scholars take this as a reference to the final resurrection and judgment after the tribulation period.

One Rabbi stated that this last line referred to everlasting life.¹¹ So, in his mind, the concept of everlasting life is as old as Daniel. And the prophet Joel speaks of the same thing, “Blow the trumpet on Zion. Shout a warning on my holy mountain. Let all the people who live in the land shake with fear. The LORD’s special day is coming; it is near. It will be a dark, gloomy day. It will be a dark and cloudy day. At sunrise, you will see the army spread over the mountains. It will be a great and powerful army. There has never been anything like it before, and there will never be anything like it again.”¹² As such, it will be a time of great confusion, panic, and despair. So Jesus tells those who will go through this to be careful on those who come and say they have the answer or solution to the problem.

For some Jewish scholars, they see the shortening of the time much in the same way God lengthened the day for Joshua so he could defeat the five kings.¹³ Likewise, He also shortened the day for Jacob. In fact, we find this note in a Jewish Targum: “…five miracles were wrought for our father Jakob, when he went from Beersheba to go to Haran. The first miracle was, that the hours of the day were shortened for him, and the sun set before its time because his word desired to speak with him.”¹⁴ Similarly, a well-known Rabbi commented on how God shortened days, this way: “…the day was shortened by ten hours on the day Ahaz died, in order that they should not eulogize him, and now they went backward on the day Hezekiah recovered, and ten hours were added to the day.”¹⁵ But to most Christian scholars the time shortened will be measured in years rather than in hours or days.

Some early church scholars took this shortening of days as applicable to the siege of Jerusalem. Says Chrysostom: “If the war of the Romans against Jerusalem had continued, all the Jews would have perished. By ‘no human being’ in this case he means the Jews. And this doubtless applies to Jews at home and abroad. For the Romans were fighting not only against those in Judea but also against those Jews that were dispersed everywhere. They too were outlawed and banished, because of the Romans’ hatred against the Jews of Judea.”¹⁶

But when it comes to those called the “chosen,” Chrysostom makes this distinction: “But who in this case does He mean by the chosen? He means the believers that were hidden away in the midst of them. In order that Jews may not say that it was because of the gospel and the worship of Christ that these catastrophes took place, He showed that so far from the believers being the cause, if it had not been for them, all Jews would have perished utterly. For if God had permitted the war to be protracted, not so much as a remnant of the Jews would have remained. But unless those of them who had become believers should perish together with the unbelieving Jews, He quickly put down the fighting and allowed an end to the war.”¹⁷

Origen, however, adds his spiritual interpretation. He writes: “‘Those days’ refers to the commandments and truths which were placed in Scripture for the illumination of rational souls. Accordingly, every doctrine that comes from ‘false knowledge’ and is joined to the words of Scripture is to be understood as corresponding to additions beyond the natural length of days in Scripture. The good God, however, shortens the addition of these days through whom he chooses. Whenever you see then by the advent of the Word of truth in your mind that the ‘arrogant who fight against the knowledge of God’¹⁸ are cut off, understand that the days of tribulation are shortened. The extra length is abbreviated which the abomination of desolation always adds in opposition to the natural number of the days of the Lord which are in Scripture. ‘Those days’ will be shortened ‘for the sake of the chosen,’ so that they will suffer nothing from the desolation of abomination nor from what was added to the true and natural days of Scripture. This assumes that the addition of days has been shortened and that the only remaining light is that of the word of truth.”¹⁹

From the writings of Paul, Luke, John, and others written after the fall of Jerusalem, we have evidence that the church continued in Jerusalem after the siege. If so, they remained very small in number. The Holy Spirit rescued the core of the church by sending Peter, John, and Paul out into the world to establish congregations outside of Jerusalem and Israel. It was not a matter of good luck, but by the divine plan of God the Father carried out by the Holy Spirit.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Part IX

Verse 18: “If they are in the field, they must not go back to get a coat.”

Again, early church scholars had their perspectives on what this meant, from which we can learn so as to form our own opinion. Origen weighs in with this commentary: “Whoever is in Judea, that is, ‘in the letter of the old law,’ should flee to the mountains of the new things of the Spirit. And whoever is found to have gone up onto the roof, which is the Word, and stands high above his home should not descend to retrieve anything from within his house. For he who remains on the roof and denies himself will never need to come down.”¹ As we can see, this is a doctrinal interpretation of what was certainly going to be a practical event.

Origen then continues: “Whoever is in the field must not turn back. If he is in the field in which the treasure is hidden, as the Lord taught in His parable,² he must not turn back. If he is in the field to which Jacob was compared when his father blessed him, saying, ‘Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a bountiful field which the Lord has blessed,’³ in which everyone who lives according to the law will be blessed with the spiritual blessings of the law, he still must not turn back. As the Scripture says, ‘You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.’⁴ Whoever, therefore, is in the field of ‘every plant which the heavenly Father has planted,’⁵ he too must not turn back. Just as he who puts his hand to the plow and turns back is unfit for the kingdom of God,⁶ so also the one in the field who turns back on account of those things which he ought to have forsaken will undoubtedly incur the abomination of desolation which is deception. This is especially true of those who had previously stripped off their old tunic (that is, ‘the old nature with its practices’)⁷ and return again to retrieve it.”⁸

We also have the thoughts of Epiphanius who shares this with his readers: “This field represents the church, as was demonstrated by the blessing our blessed patriarch Isaac gave to his son Jacob: ‘Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a bountiful field which the Lord has blessed.’⁹ The field was replete with a multitude of flowers and was fragrant with the sweetest aroma. Clearly, this signifies the church where the Lord’s flowers—that is, virginity, chastity, continence, confession, faith, mercy, justice, truth, and martyrdom—are perfected. These are the flowers of the field, which is the church; the flowers in which the Son of God rejoices, which have merited God’s blessing. Therefore He said, ‘Let him in the field not turn back.’ Likewise, the same Lord once said, ‘Remember Lot’s wife.’¹⁰ While fleeing the conflagration of Sodom, she looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt, leaving an example of foolishness behind her. Therefore, the Lord admonishes us that clinging more fully to His love and faith, we would not turn back, yet rather would save our souls for eternal life.”¹¹

All of this helps us see that from the earliest times in church history it was difficult for scholars to decipher these prophecies and predict when they would literally take place. This same uncertainty continues to this day. For me, it’s a little bit like a farmer telling his laborers to go out into the harvest field and work as hard as they can until the sun sets. Then he gives them clues to look for when dusk appears and the shadows grow long and they began to see the evening star as a faint glimmer in the sky. This way, they will know that the call will soon go out for them to come back with what they were able to gather. But instead of working, they spend all of their time standing around watching the shadows and looking for their first glimpse of the evening star. As believers, we should let God take care of the day and the hour while we work as hard as we can until the trumpet sounds.

Verses 19-20a: “During that time it will be hard for women who are pregnant or mothers nursing babies! Pray that it will not be winter or a Sabbath day when these things happen and you have to run away because it will be a time of great trouble.”

By letting His followers know that even if this takes place on a Sabbath, not to let this deter them from finding safe shelter, no matter how far away. In so doing, Jesus was not violating Jewish verbal or written law on keeping the Sabbath holy. Jesus used the illustration of a woman’s birth pangs beginning suddenly, and according to Jewish teachings if a woman goes into labor, a midwife may be summoned from wherever she lives, because: “we must desecrate the Sabbath on her account.”¹² Therefore, emergencies did permit going a further distance than normally allotted on the Sabbath.

This is confirmed by several Rabbis who were on a journey and were discussing the following question: “How do we know that in the case of danger to human life the laws of the Sabbath are suspended?” Rabbi Ishmael answered: “It is lawful to save oneself at the cost of his life — how much more may one suspend the laws of the Sabbath to save human life!”¹³ We see this was carried out in the period of persecution before Jesus came, when a man named Mattathi’as and his friends decided not to attack their Gentile enemies in order to maintain a Jewish presence in their area. “So,” it says, “they made this decision that day: ‘Let us fight against every man who comes to attack us on the Sabbath day; let us not all die as our brethren died in their hiding places.’”¹⁴

The story of what happened to the Jews when the Romans encircled Jerusalem are many. But while there are dozens to choose from in the account given by Jewish historian Josephus, I’ll share one illustration with you because it seems to sum up the pitiful and desperate situation that occurred during that time, to which Jesus makes reference:

There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan, her name was Mary; her father was Eleazar, of the village Bethezob, which signifies the house of Hyssop. She was distinguished because of her family and wealth, and had evacuated to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude, and was with them besieged therein at this time. All effects of this woman she had brought with her out of Perea and moved them to the city were confiscated. Also, what food she had hidden away had also been carried off by the ravenous guards, who came every day running into her house for that purpose. This put the poor woman into dire straits, and by the frequent reproaches and name calling she threw at these ravenous villains, provoked them to anger against her; but none of them, either out of the indignation she had raised against herself, or out of commiseration of her case, would take away her life; and if she found any food, she perceived her labors were for others, and not for herself; and it was now become impossible for her any way to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself; nor did she consult with anything but with her passion and the necessity she was in. She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, “O you suffering infant! for whom should I preserve you in this war, this famine, and this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us, even before that slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious villains more terrible than both the other. Come on; you can be my food, and you can be my rage against these seditious villains, and a by-word to the world, which is all that is now lacking to complete the calamities of us Jews.” As soon as she said this, she killed her son, and then roasted him, and ate one half of his body, and concealed the other half. This brought the gangs to her place, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them, and then uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, when she said to them, “This is mine own son, and what has been done was of my own doing! Come, eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself! Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for me also.” After which, those men went out trembling, being never so much frightened at any thing as they were at this, and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately; and while every body laid this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this unheard of action had been done by themselves. So those that were thus distressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those already dead were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough either to hear or to see such miseries.¹⁵

But this cannibalistic horror had already been foreseen in Scripture, which would have given Jesus plenty of backing for His warning: “You will suffer very much. The enemy will surround your cities. They will not let you have any food. You will get very hungry. You will be so hungry that you will eat your own sons and daughters—you will eat the bodies of the children the LORD your God gave you.”¹⁶ And Jesus may have also had in mind the dilemma spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah:, “Babies are so thirsty their tongues stick to the roof of their mouths. Young children ask for bread, but no one gives them any.”¹⁷

Those were terrible and agonizing days for the Jews. But when we look at what John saw in his revelation of the tribulation period, they seem pale by comparison. That’s why every believer should keep their eyes on the signs of the times. That’s why Jesus said so clearly: “Look at all the trees. The fig tree is a good example. When it turns green, you know that summer is very near. In the same way, when you see all these things happening, you will know that God’s kingdom is very near.”¹⁸ But this should not be an excuse for believers to stop working for His kingdom. We should work even harder until He appears to take us away.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Part VIII

Verses 16-17: “The people in Judea at that time should run away to the mountains. They should run away without wasting time to stop for anything. If they are on the roof of their house, they must not go down to get anything out of the house.”

Jesus does not specify what terrible thing Daniel was talking about, but many scholars believe it to be the Roman Army. The Romans were seen as a predatory horde and an abomination. Not only because they consisted of uncircumcised, heathen soldiers. But chiefly because of the images of their gods which were upon their ensigns: for images and idols were always an abomination to the Jews. But what seemed even more despicable was the infighting among the Jews who were encircled inside Jerusalem. So there is no doubt here of what period in history Jesus is referring to. From Jewish historian Flavius Josephus we have this account:

But now the tyrant Simon, the son of Gioras, whom the people had invited in, out of the hopes they had for his assistance in the great distress they were in, having taken control of the upper city, and a great part of the lower, did now make more vehement assaults upon John¹ and his party, because they were fought against from above also; yet was he beneath their situation when he attacked them, as they were beneath the attacks of the others above them. Whereby it came to pass that John did both receive and inflict great damage and that easily, as he was fought against on both sides; and the same advantage that Eleazar and his party had over him since he was beneath them, the same advantage had he, by his elevated situation above Simon. On which account he easily repelled the attacks that were made from beneath, by the weapons thrown from their hands only; but was obliged to repel those that threw their darts from the temple above him, by his engines of war; for he had such engines as threw darts, and javelins, and stones, and that in no small number, by which he did not only defend himself from such as fought against him but slew moreover many of the priests, as they were about their sacred ministrations. For notwithstanding these men were mad with all sorts of impiety, yet did they still admit those that desired to offer their sacrifices, although they took care to search the people of their own country beforehand, and both suspected and watched them; while they were not so much afraid of strangers, who, although they had gotten leave of them, how cruel soever they were, to come into that court, were yet often destroyed by this sedition; for those darts that were thrown by the engines came with that force, that they went over all the buildings, and reached as far as the altar, and the temple itself, and fell upon the priests, and those that were about the sacred offices; insomuch that many persons who came there with great zeal from the ends of the earth, to offer sacrifices at this celebrated place, which was esteemed holy by all mankind, fell down before their own sacrifices themselves, and sprinkled that altar which was venerable among all men, both Greeks, and Barbarians, with their own blood; till the dead bodies of strangers were mingled together with those of their own country, and those of profane persons with those of the priests, and the blood of all sorts of dead carcasses stood in lakes in the holy courts themselves. And now, O must wretched city, what misery so great as this did you suffer from the Romans when they came to purify you from your intense hatred! For you could be no longer a place fit for God, nor could you long continue in being, after you had been a tomb for the bodies of your own people, and has made the holy house itself a burying-place in this civil war of yours. Yet may you again grow better, if perchance you will hereafter appease the anger of that God who is the author of your destruction.²

Also, church historian Eusebius comments on this from his perspective as a Christian. He tells us:

For the Jews after the ascension of our Savior, in addition to their crime against Him, had been devising as many plots as they could against His apostles. First Stephen was stoned to death by them, and after him, James, the son of Zebedee and the brother of John, was beheaded, and finally James, the first that had obtained the episcopal seat in Jerusalem after the ascension of our Savior, died in the manner already described. But the rest of the apostles, who had been incessantly plotted against with a view to their destruction, and had been driven out of the land of Judea, went unto all nations to preach the Gospel, relying upon the power of Christ, who had said to them, “Go ye and make disciples of all the nations in my name.” – all these things anyone that wishes may find accurately described in the history written by Josephus.³

Jesus warns those who would be in the city, to flee immediately. Don’t stop on the way out of the house to take anything. In the Talmud, it speaks of those who have two story houses, which the upper level can be accessed either by a ladder inside or steps on the outside.⁴ So Jesus may have hinted that someone being upstairs not bother to go down the ladder inside, but escape on the outer steps. Also, if they are out in the field working, don’t run back home to retrieve anything.

Church historian Eusebius used Josephus’ writings to pinpoint this prophecy as pertaining to those living in Judea at the time the last Temple was destroyed by the Romans. Chrysostom, who follows him in church history, gives this account: “Having spoken of the ills that were to overtake the city, and of the trials of the apostles, and that they should remain active, and that they will overcome the whole world, Jesus turns again to the calamities of the Jews. While the gospel dispensation will be gloriously fulfilled, the others will be faced with deepening adversities. He shows how intolerable the war will be, even in every detail. ‘Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.’ What does He mean by ‘then’? These things will take place, He says, ‘when you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel,⁵ standing in the holy place.’ He seems to me to be speaking of armies and wars. So flee. There is no hope of safety for you in the cities.”⁶

It is obvious that Chrysostom took this to mean that the events which occurred to the Jews during the siege of Jerusalem under the onslaught of Roman general Titus are likely to happen to them again in the last days. But, there were those who disagreed with him. So he continues: “Yet some will say that it has happened again and again that the people of Judah have recovered from terrible times. Think of the conditions under Sennacherib.⁷ Remember Antiochus.⁸ Remember the time when the armies had come upon them and the Temple had been seized and the Maccabees rallied to give their affairs an opposite turn!⁹ But Jesus forbids them thinking of any such rescue. He does not want to feed them false hopes. For this is different. It is the end time.”¹⁰

Not too long ago, Israeli archaeologists said they stumbled upon the site of one of the great dramatic scenes of Roman’s sacking Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. They unearthed a subterranean drainage channel the Jews used to escape from the city’s Roman conquerors. The dig’s directors, archaeology Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority, told a news conference that the ancient tunnel was dug beneath the main road of Jerusalem in the days of the second biblical Temple, which the Romans destroyed in the year 70. The channel was buried beneath the rubble of the sacking, and the parts that have been exposed since it was discovered have been preserved intact. Eli Shukron said that the walls — ashlar stones 3 feet deep — reach a height of 10 feet in some places and are covered by heavy stone slabs that were the main road’s paving stones. He also said that several manholes are visible, and portions of the original plastering remain. Pottery shards, vessel fragments, and coins from the end of the Second Temple period were discovered inside the channel, attesting to its age. But woe to those who were left behind.

For those who are not acquainted with archaeological excavations going on in Israel, it must be pointed out that the reason why Israeli archaeologists are so committed to finding such historical sites is because of the doubt and unbelief among secularists, Palestinians, and even some of their own people to the veracity of the Biblical account of their history. Kings David and Solomon and others are myths according to many. That’s why each find is so excitedly celebrated. The same is true for substantiating the Biblical account of those days, especially for those who still refuse to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is real and that all of His miracles took place as recorded, most importantly, His death and resurrection. But soon, His appearance in the sky will prove beyond all doubt that all of it is real.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Part VII

Verse 14: “And the Good News I have shared about God’s kingdom will be told throughout the world. It will be spread to every nation. Then the end will come.”

Jesus now puts a real time frame on what would happen subsequent to this period of severe persecution. The gospel would then go out and be preached around the globe so that people in every nation would have the opportunity to hear and believe. And only after this was done, then the end would come. Today, by way of television and the worldwide web, the gospel is being preached all over the earth.

Early church preacher Chrysostom gives this explanation to his listeners of what Christ was saying: “What is even more terrible than all of these things is that they will not even have love’s consolation. ‘Most men’s love will grow cold.’ Even all this, however, will in no way harm those who are noble and firm. So do not be afraid. Do not be troubled. If you demonstrate the patience that fits your faith, these dangers will not prevail over you. You will see proof of this when the gospel will be preached everywhere in the world. Then you will be above all these things that would otherwise alarm you. You will preach everywhere. You will not waste away in despair asking whether you will survive. Then he added, ‘This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come.’ The sign of this final time will be the downfall of Jerusalem.”¹ It appears that Chrysostom ties this to the time of the disciples.

Then Jerome gives his view on this by saying: “The sign of the Lord’s coming is that the gospel will be preached throughout the entire world, leaving no one any excuse. We believe that this has already been accomplished or is about to be accomplished since it appears to me that there remains no nation that does not know the name of Christ. Even if they haven’t been visited by an evangelist themselves, certainly they have heard about the Christian faith from neighboring countries.”² It should be noted that Jerome wrote this between 347-420 AD. Either he did not know how big the world was at that time or how many nations existed throughout the world that had never heard the Gospel. Not only that, but we are told there are some tribes in Africa and South American jungles that have still not heard of Jesus the Messiah. So our Lord’s coming must be delayed until this gospel goes around the globe.

Finally, the anonymous writer of a work on Matthew in the 7th century AD gives us his understanding: “Both the end of the world and the Antichrist must be understood according to the spiritual sense of Scripture, since heresies, famines, epidemics and all such things will precede each of them. Finally, however, the abomination of desolation, which is the army of the Antichrist, will stand in the holy place. The army of the Antichrist consists principally of every heresy which finds its way into the church and stands in its holy place that it might appear to be the word of truth, even though it is no word of truth at all, but the abomination of desolation and the army of the Antichrist which separates the souls of many from God. Perhaps it was of this that the apostle said, ‘who opposes and exalts himself against everything which is called God or is worshiped, so that he might be seated in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.’³ In this way, the collective evil of various heresies, which at one time were only rumored, will then stand in the holy place and desecrate the church of Christ. Having been given license to go this far, they will then begin to possess the churches entirely. We here announce that reports of war, famines, earthquakes, epidemics, rumors of heresy, deprivation of the Word, the beating of Christians and the corruption of morals have already been preceding these events from the time of Constantine to the reign of Theodosius.‘⁴”⁵

Verse 15a: “Daniel prophesied about ‘the terrible thing that causes destruction.’ You will see this terrible thing standing in the holy place.”

Now our Lord quotes Daniel. This not only shows His acquaintance with the writings of Daniel, but it also gives credibility to what Daniel wrote. Since Jesus did not offer a quote, we find two places in Daniel that might qualify as the text to which our Lord refers. First, in Daniel, we learn: “Then the future ruler will make an agreement with many people. That agreement will continue for one week. The offerings and sacrifices will stop for a half of a week. And a destroyer will come. He will do terrible, destructive things, but God has ordered that destroyer to be completely destroyed.”⁶ And second: “The daily sacrifice will be stopped. There will be 1,290 days from that time until the time that the terrible thing that destroys is set up. The one who waits for and comes to the end of the 1,335 days will be very happy.”⁷

What our Lord appears to be talking about was the time when they would see the Roman armies encompassing Jerusalem with their ensigns, containing these abominable symbols on them, flying high. Therefore, most of His apostles would be out of Israel on missionary efforts or would have already been martyred. Yet, it was important for all surviving believers to know this because it would mean an end of the dominance of the Jewish religion, and the start of the evangelization of the world through the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.

Somewhat glossed over in this monologue of Jesus is the fact that He calls Daniel a “prophet.” This is in contrast to what the Jewish rabbis taught. For instance, Rabbis were discussing the Book of Ezra, which they believe was actually written by Nehemiah. Then they mentioned Daniel as being greater than Nehemiah because of his vision. Then we read where one Rabbi said: “Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. They were greater than Daniel in one respect, and yet he was superior to them in another. Therefore, they were greater than he, since they were prophets, while he was not. He, on the other hand, was superior to them, since he saw the vision which they did not.”⁸

Jerome gives us the understanding among scholars in his era of the early church concerning what Jesus meant here with His quote of Daniel’s prophecy. He writes: “Whenever we are urged to use our understanding, the meaning is shown to be mystical. But we read in Daniel this only: ‘And for half a week my sacrifice and offering will be removed, and the abomination of desolation shall be in the temple until the end of time, and the end will be given in abandonment.’⁹ The apostle also said in this regard that the man of iniquity, the enemy, would rise up against everything uttered by God and would dare to stand in the Temple and be worshiped as though he were God.¹⁰ After Satan’s work is finished, however, Christ’s coming will destroy all who raised themselves against Him and will return them to the state of divine abandonment. This man of iniquity can be interpreted either simply as the antichrist, or as the image of Caesar which Pilate put in the temple, or as the statue of Hadrian the equestrian which still today stands in the Holy of Holies. Because the Old Testament normally calls the abomination an idol, the word desolation is added here to indicate that the idol shall be placed there resulting in the Temple’s abandonment and destruction.”¹¹

Verse 15b: (You who read this should understand what it means.)

The scribe and translator for Matthew’s Hebrew writings includes an incidental clarification that has a familiar ring to a parenthetical statement in another Jewish writing where it says: “Copies of the edict were to be proclaimed as law in every province, clearly to all the nations, so that they should be ready for that day.”12 By the time this Gospel was ready for copying, enough time had elapsed so that certain signs of coming doom were already on the horizon. Since there is no mention of the destruction of the Temple here in Matthew, it is logical to consider that this Gospel was distributed before 70 AD. If Matthew’s Gospel was read after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, then this would be obvious to those reading it who survived that terrible event. Also, the same clue should be noted by all believers today looking for our Lord’s return. While this may not be a definitive description of the end, it is certainly a warning that the time is drawing near.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Part VI

Verse 10: “During that time many believers will feel offended. They will turn against each other and despise each other.”

What did Jesus mean when He said believers would feel offended? Most scholars do not interpret this as implying that they would become atheists or agnostics, but that they would return to their wordily lifestyle because it just wasn’t worth suffering for a losing cause. In other words, they would be displeased by the rules for living a Christian life because they saw them as stumbling blocks to defeat, not stepping stones to victory. It would become so bad, Jesus said, that those who turned away from the truth would betray the faithful by either giving their names to persecutors or betray where they were hiding. No wonder Jesus emphasized over and over that they should never stop loving one another with unconditional love.

Early church father Origen gives us his commentary on this text: “If we ought to understand this passage in the moral sense, in accordance with how we treated the passages above, then we will explain its meaning as follows. It is necessary that he who is about to see the glorious coming of the Word of God in his soul should, like a great athlete, suffer the snares of his enemies and be given over to afflictions insofar as they advance the perfection of the Word within him.…The manifestation of the qualities of Christ implanted in him, on account of which he is called a Christian, makes him an object of hatred to everyone who has the spirit of the world. This persecution also only tends more and more toward the perfection of the indwelling of Christ.”¹

So for this early church scholar and theologian of the 2nd century, he sees these times of which Jesus speaks as pertaining to both the internal and external struggles that Christians go through on a daily basis. Since it was still so close to the end of the apostolic era, he saw most of what our Lord says here as still being in the future.

He goes on to add: “Few, however, will be left untouched by debates and questions concerning the fullness of truth. Indeed, many will be “scandalized” and will fall on account of it, having been made betrayers and accusers of one another because of their dissensions over the truth of doctrine, which not everyone is able to learn. This is why they ‘hate one another.’ Among the great many who will be engaged in questions of this sort, those ‘false prophets who deceive many’ will report prophecies concerning the future inaccurately and will interpret them incorrectly. Very few will seek the truth. False doctrines in and of themselves cannot overcome the power of truth, but those who have itchy ears will multiply and will take delight in speaking evil contrary to the law. And the tendentious words of many teachers will do such great harm that even those whose charity was once fervent in the simplicity of faith will “grow cold” toward the divine mysteries and toward the truth. But whoever is able to see all these things and yet to remain in communion with the original purpose of the church’s founding and the apostolic tradition will be saved. In this way then the gospel will be preached to every soul and a testimony will be given to every nation, that is, to all the unbelieving thoughts of every single individual.”²

Verse 11: “Many false prophets will come and cause many people to believe things that are untrue.”

It wasn’t that these false prophets would be preaching a counterfeit Gospel, but that they would contextualize the gospel to the point that it no longer offended the world. This would then accelerate the falling away of believers from the truth. We know, that the longer people are intimately acquainted, the greater their love grows. But if by chance their love turns sour, the hate that proceeds from its wounds often supersedes in volume the flow of love produced beforehand.

Some of the church’s greatest antagonists were former believers such as Karl Marx and Joseph Stalin. More good done by Christians has been destroyed by ex-believers than all the hordes of Satan. It’s a little-known fact, but some atheists support their godless stands today with books written by liberal theologians. Thank God the cross remains wide open for even the chiefest of sinners to come and repent, but woe to those who having once tasted of salvation, turn back to denounce it. As far as we know, Judas Iscariot was the first to do so, and we see what happened to him. But Jesus clearly indicates, that those who remained faithful would persevere.

An early church expositor of this text writes in his commentary: “For whom is it said, ‘Whoever perseveres to the end?’ Is this said for the benefit of those who are persecuting Christians or seducing prophets? No, it is not. For just as medicine is administered to the sick rather than to the healthy, so also consolation is given to the endangered, not to the dangerous.”³ Whenever I find statements like this in the commentaries and homilies of early church scholars, it tells me that such things are said in response to some errant teaching or doctrine being spread at that time. So, it appears that there were some who were saying that those who were persecuting true believers of the Word within the church, either from inside or outside, would eventually be converted and saved from destruction. The writer wants his listeners to know, that this applies only to the faithful who remain steadfast and unmovable to the end.⁴

This writer then goes on to say: “St. Mark clarifies this verse by adding, ‘First the gospel must be preached.’⁵ When the literal war was brought against Jerusalem, the gospel had just begun to be preached, but it had not yet extended to the whole world. Prior to the rise of the heresies, however, the proclamation of the gospel had already been completed. For the knowledge of Christ reached everyone either through individual preachers or by one nation evangelizing another continually until the time of the Christian king. If you want to know with certainty, however, that the knowledge of Christ had been extended to the whole world by that time, consider that the very purpose for which the heretical wars began was so that there might be a decision for the better doctrine.”⁶ We must understand that this writer is not making a prophecy, but explaining the spreading of the gospel as he saw the world at that time.

Verses 12-13: “There will be so much more evil in the world that the love of most believers will grow cold. But the one who remains faithful to the end will be saved.”

The question for most scholars is this: was Jesus speaking of the immediate future of the apostles and their followers who would be spared from death through persecution, or was He projecting this to the future for believers who would go in the rapture and thus be saved for eternity? At this point in Jesus’ instructions to His disciples, it would seem out of context for Him to suddenly start speaking of the end times. After all, the propagation of the Gospel and the winning of the lost was at stake here. Church historian Eusebius tells this story:

“The people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, granted to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those that believed in Christ had come there from Jerusalem, then, as if the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and His apostles, and totally destroyed that generation of impious men. But the number of calamities which every where fell upon the nation at that time; the extreme misfortunes to which the inhabitants of Judea were especially subjected, the thousands of men, as well as women and children, that perished by the sword, by famine, and by other forms of death innumerable, – all these things, as well as the many great sieges which were carried on against the cities of Judea, and the excessive. Sufferings endured by those that fled to Jerusalem itself, as to a city of perfect safety, and finally the general course of the whole war, as well as its particular occurrences in detail, and how at last the abomination of desolation, proclaimed by the prophets, stood in the very temple of God, so celebrated of old, the temple which was now awaiting its total and final destruction by fire.”¹

The gruesome details of what happened in Jerusalem is available in Wars of the Jews by Flavius Josephus, especially Book 6. It should be read only by those with a strong stomach. How long have we had wars and rumors of wars? Famines and earthquakes have occurred since ancient times. Has not every continent, each country at one time or another received the Gospel since the time of Christ? There have been times on every continent when periods of lawlessness have reigned.

So how then can a believer tell which of these periods of calamities will be the last one before Christ’s return? The only clue we need to have is the one Jesus gave, and that is no matter what period one may live in, simply be faithful until the end. It appears to some scholars, that what happened at the end of the Jewish era when the Temple was destroyed and they were scattered, would happen again at the end of the Gentile era when Christianity would be in similar peril. John, who saw all of these things in the revelation, expressed the thoughts of those living at that time when he pleaded for the Lord to come, and to come quickly.⁸

IT’S OUR CHOICE

Over one hundred fifty years ago, it is said that a very famous man made this statement: “He who takes offense when offense was not intended is a fool, yet he who takes offense when offense is intended is an even greater fool for he has succumbed to the will of his adversary.”¹

We hear so much today about people being offended because of negative or harsh statements made in which they feel included. But choosing to be offended does have its price and consequences. Dr. Charles W. Conn, a man I greatly admired, once described it this way. If you were walking down the sidewalk and a tiny chihuahua came running up to the fence and started barking, would you run away in fear or just laugh at such a little animal trying to make a big noise. However, if a large growling Doberman pincer came barreling toward you, then you might be tempted to move to the other side of the street.

In other words, once you choose and admit that someone offended you, you are automatically admitting that they are bigger than you are; that they possess a formidable character and have sufficient strength to make you afraid, and that causes you to be hurt and feel offended. I like what motivational speaker, coach, and author Mike Robbins had to say about this: “What if we became really hard to offend. This is not to say that we abandon our values or opinions, it is more about choosing to allow other people and things be as they are. We take so many things personally that have nothing to do with us. The more we react to something, the less freedom and peace we have.”²

We should never allow ourselves to become victims our lives of other people’s circumstances in their lives. Others don’t actually have the power to offend us. As former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt so brilliantly stated, “No one can make me feel inferior without my permission.” This same phenomenon is true about being offended. It’s a choice we make, and we have the power to choose not to be offended. – Dr. Robert R Seyda

STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART

It would be silly of me to try and educate the precious women in men’s lives on what you already know about how their man communicates with them. But I thought you might be interested in knowing what he is really thinking, from a man’s point of view, when you try to get an honest response to your questions or requests.

First, what your man really means when he puts the word “Yes” in front of any response such as “Yes, dear” or “Yes, darling!” It means, that he has quickly decided not to ask you “why” or “what for” because he knows it might offend you or start an argument. So, he’ll respond to your request just to get it out of the way so he can get back to doing whatever he’s involved in and thereby earn some points with you for good behavior as a caring man.

Secondly, what your man really means when he responds to your request by saying, “Why not!” It doesn’t imply that he’s all that interested in actually doing what you’ve suggested, but it indicates that at the moment he doesn’t have any alternate suggestion that’s strong enough to persuade you otherwise, nor does he have a secondary idea to offer what he thinks would make better use of his time. So, it is better for him to be courteous rather than insist on being right.

Thirdly, what your man really means after you ask him, while he’s driving, “Are you lost?” or “Do you know where you’re going?” by saying “No, I’m not lost. I know where I’m at!” It doesn’t mean that he’s in denial about actually being lost, he knows that already. It’s his way of protecting his role as your superman and knight in shining armor. He wants to earn your trust and admiration even if it takes him two hours to sort out directions that should have only taken thirty minutes. You see, there’s nothing that thrills a man more than when his wife brags on him and compliments him for getting things right, even if it does take longer than it should.

The best way for a lady to respond to such adolescent responses from her man is to pretend that she doesn’t really know what he’s truly thinking, and take what he says as a compliment. After all, this is nothing more than his attempt to overcome his weaknesses in order to impress her and be strong for her sake. Men know that a woman would rather for her man to come right out and admit the truth that he’s not all that excited about her idea. They also know that she would not be hurt if they made suggestions on how to do what she wants to be done in a better or more efficient way. And, they are aware that she is trying to get them to finally admit that they have no idea where they made the wrong turn and got lost. But you see, that would destroy their own faith and trust in their warrior- hunter-provider instincts.

So come on ladies, just smile when he says these things and tell him you’re so thankful to have him as your man and watch him grin with new found confidence. Believe it or not, that’s when he may finally tell you the truth about what he’s thinking and how he feels. – Dr. Robert R Seyda

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Part V

Now Jesus goes on to say there will be famine: a fourth sign of the desolation of the city and the Temple, and which the Jews also say will happen before the coming of the Messiah. For instance, in the Talmud, we find an interesting prophecy about a seven year time of tribulation. It says, “Our Rabbis taught: in the seven-year cycle at the end of which the son of David will come in the first year, this verse will be fulfilled: And I will cause it to rain upon one city and cause it not to rain upon another city; in the second, the arrows of hunger will be sent forth; in the third, a great famine, in the course of which men, women, and children, pious men and saints will die, and the Torah will be forgotten by its students; in the fourth, partial plenty; in the fifth, great plenty, when men will eat, drink and rejoice, and the Torah will return to its disciples; in the sixth, [Heavenly] sounds; in the seventh, wars; and at the conclusion of the seven years the son of David will come.”¹

While Paul ministered in Antioch, Syria, we read: “About that same time some prophets went from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and spoke with the help of the Holy Spirit. He said, ‘A very bad time is coming to the whole world. There will be no food for people to eat’.”² Jesus also mentions plagues of pestilence. Also in the Talmud, it reads: “The alarm is sounded everywhere on account of the following [visitations]: blast fungus,³ mildew, locust, crickets, wild beasts, and the sword, as they are all plagues likely to spread.”⁴

And further on we read what Jews considered a pestilence, “If a city that produces a thousand and five hundred footmen, as Cephar Aco, and nine dead men are carried out of it in three days, one after another, lo! this is a pestilence; but if in one day, or in four days, it is no pestilence; and a city that produces five hundred footmen, as Cephar Amiko, and three dead men are carried out of it in three days, one after another, lo! this is a pestilence.”⁵ These are often caused by famines then come the conflicts.

On top of that, Jesus says there will be earthquakes in many places around the world. World history tells us about earthquakes during the time of the apostles. There was one on the Island of Crete, and in various cities in Asia, in the time of Nero: particularly the three cities of Phrygia, Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossae; which were near to each other, and are all said to perish this way, in his reign; and Rome itself felt a tremor, in the reign of Galba (68-69 AD).

But Jesus said this is only the beginning. So, in light of what Jesus would now tell His disciples, it appears that all of these calamities were to take place during the time of the apostles. Could this be part of what God told the children of Israel through Moses?⁶ Since pestilence is spoken of by Jesus and is tied to a famine, Rabbi Abraham Saba believes that what God told Moses⁷ was all tied to the lack of rain and the ensuing hostility and chaos.⁸

Jesus said, that the onset of these calamities could be just like a pregnant woman suddenly going into labor. This should not be interpreted as having anything to do with a nine month incubation period. Rather, even though the woman knows she’s pregnant, she cannot predict the exact moment when the labor pains will begin. This was not a new or unusual use of a woman’s sudden birth pangs to make the point of how something expected can happen when we least expect it.

The prophet Jesus loved to quote most often also spoke of this.⁹ In addition, the fact that this warning would be given by God’s Son was also prophesied by an accepted Jewish apocalyptic writer of that day who said: “And the time will arrive when these things will come to pass, and the signs will happen which I showed you before, and then will my Son be revealed, whom you saw as a man ascending.”¹⁰ These dire predictions had also been spoken of by their own Rabbis, who taught them: “Upon witnessing shooting stars, earthquakes, lightning, thunder, and unusual tempests one should say, Blessed [are You … Whose strength and might fill the world.”¹¹ Not only that but these same Rabbis gave this encouraging word: “A prophet that has a dream let him tell a dream: and he that has My word let him speak My word faithfully.”¹²

So the things Jesus was saying here were not new to the ears of His listeners. However, they needed to put it into context with what else He shared about His return to gather the believers to Himself so He could take them to a place He was going to provide within His heavenly Father’s estate, and then the final battle between good and evil, and the establishment of the eternal Kingdom of God.

Verse 9: “Then you will be arrested and handed over to be punished and killed. People all over the world will hate you because you believe in me.”

Here we have a repeat of what the LORD GOD said to Ezekiel, “There will be one disaster after another! The end is coming, and it will come quickly! You people living in Israel, disaster is coming. It is time for punishment. Those are not shouts of joy in the mountains. Those are cries of panic.”¹³ Our Lord is addressing two things with this announcement. First, no doubt some of His disciples still believed that He was here to set up a temporal kingdom, and He wanted to put that idea to rest. And two, to temper any idea they had, that winning the world to accept God’s salvation through grace with the Gospel of Jesus Christ would be easy. It was going to take hard work and endurance, and it still does.

The disciples would soon find out that the Jews who continued in their obstinacy and unbelief, would deliver them up to the civil magistrates to be scourged and imprisoned by them; either to their own Sanhedrin, as were Peter and John; or to the Roman governors, Gallio, Festus, and Felix, as was the Apostle Paul. Not only that, but all the original apostles, excepting John, suffered martyrdom before, or shortly following, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD.

Chrysostom sees this prophecy this way: “This is the time of greatest evil, when the war becomes internal, for there are many false brothers. Note that the war is coming from three sources simultaneously: from deceivers, from enemies, from false brothers. Later Paul would lament over the same complications, saying that there were ‘fightings without, fears within,’¹⁴ and ‘danger from false brothers.’¹⁵ Again he wrote, ‘For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.’¹⁶”¹⁷

Down over the centuries, there have been plenty of wars, but perhaps none that affected the Jews like World War II. It is worth noting, that despite all the concentration camp deaths and torture just 3 years after the war was over Israel became a nation again. The Lord had told them over and over, be not afraid, my Father has it all under control. But they have not lived in peace. Again and again, threats and attempts and have been made to oust them from their promised land. The pressure today is greater than ever. But in a Jewish writing, we find where Rabbi Eleazar ben Rabbi Abina once said: “When you see kingdoms stirred up one against another, look the coming [lit. ‘feet”] of the King Messiah.”¹⁸

As we’ve also learned from history, the followers of Christ have been persecuted, imprisoned, and martyred all around the world, since His ascension, to this very day. So our Lord is giving His disciples a warning of their own destiny and that this will not let up until He returns. So we should not be surprised that the persecution of Christians not only continues in this world but seems to be getting worse. In light of where this persecution is coming from in our day, we would be well within the realm of reason if we took the term “false brethren” to mean any religion that claims to be worshiping the same God as Christians do, but in fact, are worshiping a myth.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Part IV

Verse 8: “These things are only the beginning of troubles, like the first pains of a woman giving birth.”

Many more conflicts and battles were up ahead. I wonder if some of Jesus’ followers took His warning anymore seriously than those in the crowd when Isaiah gave his prediction: “Look! Adonai is riding a swift cloud, on His way to Egypt. Before Him Egypt’s idols tremble, Egypt’s courage melts within them. ‘I will incite Egypt against Egypt, brother will fight against brother, friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.’”¹ But such alerts were not new. Therefore, some exhibited the same resolve we find in Jeremiah: “Don’t be fainthearted, don’t be afraid of the rumors spreading abroad in the land. One year one rumor comes, the next year another one, rumors of violence in the land and rulers fighting rulers.”²

But the people Jesus was speaking too should have taken His warning most seriously, especially after what was said by the prophet Zechariah: “I will bring all the nations together to fight against Jerusalem. They will capture the city and destroy the houses. The women will be raped, and half of the people will be taken away as prisoners. But the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.”³ Then the prophecy in Zechariah continues: “At that time He will stand on the Mount of Olives, the hill east of Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives will split in half. Part of the mountain will move to the north, and part to the south. A deep valley will open up, from the east to the west…the LORD my God will come, and all His holy ones will be with Him.”⁴

However, Zechariah’s prophecy had a different outcome for unbelievers: “You will try to run away as that mountain valley comes closer and closer to you. You will run away like the time you ran from the earthquake during the time of King Uzziah of Judah.”⁵ Rabbi Kahana puts these verses of Zechariah together to answer the following questions of what will follow when all the nations of the earth gather against the Land of Israel to make war:⁶ “What will the Holy One do? He will go forth and fight against the nations.⁷ In what way will He fight? In the way He fought in the day of Pharaoh. And what will He do? He will provide shelter like a sukkah⁸ for the heads of Israel.⁹ What is the literal meaning of battle? It refers to the day when the two worlds, this world, and the world-to-come, will be brought into contact with each other. And what is the day referred to? The Day of Judgment.¹⁰”¹¹

Even a Jewish document, that was read during the time of Jesus, seems to offer the same warning: “For the mark of God is upon the righteous for salvation. Famine and sword and death will be kept far from the righteous; for they will not touch the devout as those who are pursued by war, but they will pursue sinners and overtake them and those who do lawlessness will not escape the judgment of the Lord; they will be overtaken by those experienced in war, for the mark of destruction is on their forehead.”¹² You cannot read this without thinking of John’s revelation.¹³

Chrysostom preaches on this text and gives his understanding of its meaning, especially his perspective in a 5th century AD point of view. He says: “By ‘wars and rumors of wars’ Jesus refers to the troubles that are coming upon them. They supposed after that war the end would come. But see how He warns them: ‘But the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.’ He speaks of the preludes to the troubles of the Jews. ‘All this is but the beginning of the birth pangs,’ that is, of the troubles that will befall them. ‘Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death.’ This was the season for being candid about what was to come, in order that they might strengthen one another in facing their common miseries.”¹⁴

It appears that this early church preacher saw Jesus’ answer as to when the Temple would be destroyed and the end of times that would prompt His return, as bookends of history. When the Temple was torn down, that was the beginning of the end. When He returns to set up His kingdom for both Gentiles and believing Jews to live in peace for a thousand years, that will be the end of the beginning. From then on it will be eternity.

We saw the eight “Woes” in the previous chapter, but these pronouncements bear some resemblance to the ones we find in a non-canonical book in the Old Testament, which are called: “The Twelve Woes that are to Come upon the Earth: The Messiah and the temporary Messianic Kingdom:”

“He answered and said to me: ‘Into twelve parts is that time divided, and each one of them is reserved for that which is appointed for it. In the first part, there will be the beginning of disturbances. And in the second part (there will be) slayings of the great ones. And in the third part the fall of many by death. And in the fourth part the sending of the sword. And in the fifth part famine and the withholding of rain. And in the sixth part earthquakes and terrors. And in the eighth part a multitude of apparitions and attacks of the Shedim.¹⁵ And in the ninth part the fall of fire. And in the tenth part plundering and much oppression. And in the eleventh part wickedness and immorality. And in the twelfth part, confusion from the mingling together of all those things said previously. For these parts of that time are reserved, and will interact one with another and minister one to another.”¹⁶

Also, in what is called the visions of Ezra the scribe, we read this: “And one will undertake to fight against another, one city against another, one place against another, one people against another, and one kingdom against another. And the time will be when these things will come to pass, and the signs will happen which I showed you before, and then will my Son be declared, whom you saw as a man ascending.”¹⁷ So what Jesus is saying here was not all that new and did not sound strange to His followers because they had read it before in their scrolls.

Again, the question must be asked, were these wars the ones that would take place while the disciples were still around, or was our Lord looking out into the future? In the Jewish Talmud, we find this interesting dialog: “Rabbi Nahman said to Rabbi Isaac: ‘Have you heard when Bar Nafle will come?’ ‘Who is Bar Nafle?’ he asked. ‘the Messiah,’ he answered, ‘Why do you call Messiah Bar Nafle?’ — ‘Because,’ he answered, ‘as it is written, in that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David [that has fallen].’ He replied, ‘Rabbi Johanan said the following: In the generation when the son of David [i.e., Messiah] will come, scholars will be few in number, and as for the rest, their eyes will fail through sorrow and grief. Multitudes of trouble and evil decrees will be promulgated anew, each new evil coming with haste before the other has ended.’”¹⁸

So even the disciples knew that bad days for Israel had been forecast by the Rabbis. But were they thinking only of those wars against Israel or against Rome? Jesus may have been speaking of wars as disturbances, insurrections, and seditions against the Romans and their governors; and the horrific slaughters committed among them, some time before the siege of Jerusalem, and the destruction of it. Under Cureanus the Roman governor, a sedition erupted on the day of the Passover in which twenty thousand perished; after that, in another tumult, ten thousand were destroyed by cut-throats: in the city of Ascalon¹⁹ two thousand more, in Ptolemais²⁰ two thousand, at Alexandria, Egypt fifty thousand, at Damascus, Syria ten thousand, and elsewhere in great numbers.

Did not Jeremiah hear those trumpets announcing: “Disaster follows disaster. The whole country is destroyed. Suddenly my tents are destroyed. My curtains are torn down! How long must I see the war flags? How long must I hear the war trumpets?”²¹ And Ezekiel was shown a situation much like that Jesus was forecasting, “You will shake with fear. You will look for peace, but there will be none. You will hear one sad story after another. You will hear nothing but bad news. You will look for a prophet and ask him for a vision. The priests will have nothing to teach you, and the elders will not have any good advice to give you.”²²

So, the terrible things Jesus spoke of did occur after He ascended into heaven to become the advocate with the Father for all those who came to the Father through Him. But, Jesus said these things would be repeated in even greater volume right before His return to take all those who did believe with Him back to the Father for eternal safety, peace, and joy. So for Christians today, the forecasts of bad times ahead should not be dismissed, neither should they be the cause of fear, because His coming may be near.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Part III

So the disciples did not have to wait too long before these bogus Messiah’s began to show up. It should not have come as a surprise, seeing that the prophet Jeremiah had spoken of this long ago, “The LORD All-Powerful, the God of the people of Israel, says, “Don’t let your prophets and those who practice magic fool you. Don’t listen to the dreams they have. They are telling lies, and they are saying that their message is from me. But I didn’t send it.”¹ But these false Messiahs were just the beginning.

In his commentary on this text, Origen also has this to say: “Come up to the moral and spiritual sense of Scripture and see if you can discover an interpretation worthy of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ and of the discernment of the Evangelists, lest you denigrate the dignity of evangelical wisdom with a lesser interpretation. Let us see then if mindful of that which was handed down from above concerning Him who said ‘Many will come in my name saying, “I am the Christ,” and they will seduce many,’ we can interpret these things in accordance with their consequences. It is inevitable that everyone who has been made whole and has been given to see the glorious coming of the Word in His soul, everyone who has destroyed, devoured, and crucified the world so that all things worldly are dead to him, and has trained his mind for understanding, will eventually engage doctrinal battles in the course of his search and discernment. He will hear many voices from divergent traditions professing to have the truth. Like a good soldier of the Word, however, his soul will remain safe from all those opponents of the truth who pretend adherence to the truth. In this way, he will be made worthy to receive in his soul the glorious coming of Christ, the Word of God who was ‘in the beginning with God,’² who comes to those who, having recognized Him ‘according to the flesh,’³ and having received the Word who ‘became flesh,’⁴ then ascended far beyond these things to behold no ordinary glory, but ‘the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.’⁵”⁶

Verse 6: “You will hear about wars that are being fought. And you will hear stories about other wars beginning. But don’t be afraid. These things must happen before the end comes.”

One early church writer in his commentary on Matthew had this to say: “In the interest of acquiring a better understanding of Christ’s response, it would seem shortsighted to neglect to consider first the apostles’ question. The apostles asked two questions. First, they asked, ‘What will be the sign of the destruction of Jerusalem?’ Second, they asked, ‘What will be the sign of the end of the world?’ At the dissolution of the nation of Judea, Jerusalem was destroyed, but what seemed to be Jerusalem was not the true Jerusalem. Likewise, the church will appear to have been forsaken or almost forsaken at the end of the world, but what seemed to be the church was not and is not the true church. The Lord did not differentiate between the signs of the destruction of Jerusalem and the signs of the end of the world, for the signs that pertain to both events are one and the same. This is so because Christ did not respond to His apostles’ questions as though He were a historian explaining the chronological order of events but rather in the manner of a prophet foretelling what would have to take place. Prophecies are always communicated through mysteries and properly understood as mysteries.”⁷

It is important to note, that this writer composed his commentary in the 7th century AD. So the question is, what works did he consult and what was the general theme running through the church at that time concerning the return of Christ. From what he says, we can conclude that his understanding of this prophecy is much the same as it is today among evangelical scholars.

The writer then goes on to say: “What does this mean for the passage at hand? If we want to understand them in the full spiritual sense, the signs of which Christ speaks—famine, wars, tremors—could not pertain to the destruction of Jerusalem, because at the time of its capture nation was not rising against nation in the spiritual sense. [That] is to say that heretics were not then fighting among each other since at the time of the apostles the heresies were still only in their seminal stage but didn’t germinate until the time of the Christian king, even though they are now fully grown powerful forces. Moreover, there was no spiritual famine at the time of Jerusalem’s destruction but great abundance, as the psalmist said, ‘You visited the earth and watered it and increased its riches.‘⁸”⁹

The writer then finishes his exposition: “Again, if we attempted to interpret these signs literally, they would tell us nothing about the end of the world, for there always have been and always will be wars, in the literal sense of the term. The same is true of famines and earthquakes. Nothing can serve as a sign of future events that already is a normal occurrence. Only something new can properly be called a sign. Just as there is a literal Jerusalem, therefore, which is already conquered figuratively, there is also another, spiritual Jerusalem, the church of our Lord, which must be tested at the end of the world and indeed is currently being tested. Therefore the signs of which the Lord spoke must be understood both spiritually and literally. Literally, they speak of the destruction of Jerusalem, but spiritually they signify the trial of the church at the consummation of the age. Train your mind on both aspects then, on what occurred before Jerusalem was captured and on what will occur before the final trial of Christ’s church.”¹⁰

It is important to notice, that this commentator does not give any specific dates nor does he name any persons of interest that might have been candidates for the Antichrist in his era. He does what any good prophecy writer must do, and that is leave it in the hands of the Holy Spirit to awaken the church and point out to those who are watching and waiting what signs they should be aware of in their day as the time of our Lord’s return grows closer and closer.

Verse 7: “Nations will fight against other nations. Kingdoms will fight against other kingdoms. There will be times when there is no food for people to eat. And there will be earthquakes in different places.”

The same writer mentioned in the previous section goes on to comment on this portion of our Lord’s warning. He writes: “Anyone who reads Josephus¹¹ knows what kind of famines, plagues, and tremors afflicted Judea before the fall of Jerusalem. Before the spiritual plundering of the church, however, a spiritual hunger for the Word and spiritual tremors and various plagues of carnal sins will undoubtedly afflict the Christian people. So many schisms would never have arisen among Christians had they not already been famished for the Word, nor would they have suffered so many plagues, that is, diseases of carnal passion, if they had not been stirred up from without. This is what the Lord taught in the parable of the evil one planting weeds: ‘While the men were sleeping,’ that is, when they neglected to guard against sin, ‘the enemy came and sowed weeds.’¹²”¹³ What a powerful message this is for the church today.

As we can see, even those scholars in the early years of the church could not give an exact or definitive interpretation of the end times as it applied to their day. And now that we have many centuries of history to look back on, it is not any easier to put all of this into perspective for our own generation. Jesus did not intend for His followers to have an exact timeline to follow these events. His was a warning that it would never be easy for Christians, so they should not expect the world to gradually evolve into a peaceful sphere without wars, famines, catastrophes, hatred, persecution, etc. But, that they were not to let such things discourage them and give up their faith and hope in His return. Just as He originally came at the appointed time, so He will return at the appointed time. All believers need to do is be ready when He arrives. The Jews missed it the first time. God forbid, that Christians miss it the second time.