After the fatigues of preaching and teaching, Jesus towards evening left the temple, as it is in the Greek, _eporeueto apo tou ierou, and went towards Mount Olivet, where he was accustomed to spend his nights, as we learn from St. Luke, chap. xxi. ver. penult. [i.e. ver. 37.] (Jansenius) --- His dis... [ Continue Reading ]
Do you see all these things? Examine again and again all this magnificence, that the sentence of heaven may appear more striking. --- A stone upon a stone. We need not look on this as an hyperbole. The temple burnt by the Romans, and afterwards even ploughed up. See Gregory of Nazianzus, orat. ii. c... [ Continue Reading ]
_Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the consummation of the world? [1] We must take good notice with St. Jerome, that three questions are here joined together. 1. Concerning the destruction of Jerusalem; 2. of the coming of Christ; 3. of the end of... [ Continue Reading ]
And Jesus answering. Various are the interpretations given here. Some will have it refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place, A.D. 70; and others, to the end of the world. That of St. John Chrysostom seems to be very conformable to the context, and is followed by many. He explains all,... [ Continue Reading ]
For many will come. One of these was Simon Magus, who in the Acts (chap. viii. ver. 10.) is mentioned as calling himself the power of God; hence the apostle St. John (1 epistle ii. 18,) says, and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists. By Antichrists I u... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall hear of wars. Most authors understand this second sign of the Jewish wars which preceded the ruin of Jerusalem; others of the wars of Antichrist, previous to the end of the world. Both are very probable. The first is proved from history, and from the events; the latter, from what we learn fro... [ Continue Reading ]
_And there shall be, according to the proverb, Greek: loimos meta limon, plague after famine, both natural daughters of war, with intestine divisions, earthquakes, and other calamities; the third sign.... As the bodies of men generally grow weak and faint previous to dissolution, so will it be with... [ Continue Reading ]
Then shall they deliver you up, &c. The fourth sign, common to both these events, shall be the persecution raised against the Church, which will be two-fold; it will regard both body and soul. See Luke xxi. 12; Mark xiii. 9. All this happened to the apostles previously to the seige of Jerusalem, as... [ Continue Reading ]
_And many false prophets shall rise, like those lying teachers mentioned by St. Peter, (2nd Epistle chap. ii. ver. 1) who shall bring in sects of perdition, (i.e. heresies destructive of salvation) bringing upon themselves swift destruction._... [ Continue Reading ]
_And because iniquity hath (literally, shall) abounded, shall arrive at its height, the charity of many, carried away by the force of bad example, will grow cold; and scarcely, even among Christians, will a person be found willing to assist Christians, lest he may be known for a Christian. Of this w... [ Continue Reading ]
_But he that shall persevere to the end, in the midst of this trying and afflicting scene, in faith and charity, (or as it is in the Greek; he that shall preserve his patience to the end, Greek: o upomeinas, proof against heresies, persecutions, hatreds, or scandals) shall be saved. To perseverance... [ Continue Reading ]
_This gospel... shall be preached in the whole world, to serve as a testimony to all nations, of the solicitude of heaven in having the doctrine of salvation announced to them. This then is a fifth sign, and not till then shall the consummation come. --- And then shall the consummation come. The end... [ Continue Reading ]
The abomination of desolation was first partly fulfilled by divers profanations of the temple, as when the image of Cæsar was set up in the temple by Pilate, and Adrian's statue in the holy of holies, and when the sacrifices were taken away; but will be more completely fulfilled by Antichrist and hi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then let those. It is well known that this prophecy was verified to the letter, in the destruction of Jerusalem. For, as the Roman army advanced, all the Christians who were in the province, forewarned by divine admonition, retired to a distance, and crossing the Jordan, took refuge in the city of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not come down, into the house. They had no occasion, as Mauduit and others seem to suppose, to throw themselves from the roof, for the Jews had usually stairs on the outside of their houses. (Bible de Vence)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the winter: an inconvenient season for flying away. --- Or on the sabbath, when it was lawful to travel only about a mile. (Witham) --- Pray to God that you may be enabled to escape those evils, and that there may be no impediment to your flight. (Estius, in different location)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_No flesh: a Hebraism for no person; denoting that no one would have escaped death, had the war continued. (Witham) --- All the Jews would have been destroyed by the Romans, or all the Christians by Antichrist. (Maldonatus) --- From this place, Jesus Christ foretells the coming of Antichrist, and fo... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lo, here is Christ. These words are very aptly applied by Catholics to the conventicles of heretics; and would Christians attend to the injunctions of their divine Master, Go ye not out: --- believe it not, we should not see the miserable confusion occasioned in the Catholic Church, by unsteady Chr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold he is in the desert. This prediction of false Christs, may be understood before the destruction of Jerusalem, but chiefly before the end of the world. (Witham) --- As we have mentioned above, in note on verse 5._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wheresoever the body, [3] &c. This seems to have been a proverb or common saying among the Jews. Several of the ancient interpreters, by this body, understand Christ himself, who died for us; and they tell us, that at his second coming the angels and saints, like eagles, with incredible swiftness,... [ Continue Reading ]
_The sun shall be darkened, &c. These seem to be the dreadful signs that shall forerun the day of judgment. --- The stars shall fall, not literally, but shall give no light. (Witham) --- According to St. Augustine, by the sun is meant Jesus Christ; by the mood, the Church, which will appear as invol... [ Continue Reading ]
_The sign of the Son of man, &c. The Fathers generally expound this of the cross of Christ, that shall be seen in the air. (Witham) --- This sign is the cross, much more resplendent than the sun itself. Therefore the sun hides its diminished head, whilst the cross appears in glory; because the great... [ Continue Reading ]
This generation; i.e. the nation of the Jews shall not cease to exist, until all these things shall be accomplished: thus we see the nation of the Jews still continue, and will certainly continue to the end of the world. (Tirinus) --- Then the cross, which as been a scandal to the Jew, and a stumbli... [ Continue Reading ]
_ Shall pass away: because they shall be charged at the end of the world into a new heaven and new earth. (Challoner)_... [ Continue Reading ]
No man knoweth... but the Father alone. The words in St. Mark (xiii. 32.) are still harder: neither the angels, nor the Son, but the Father. The Arians objected this place, to shew that Christ being ignorant of the day of judgment, could not be truly God. By the same words, no one knoweth, but the F... [ Continue Reading ]
_And as it was. The same shall take place at the coming of the Son of man at the last day, as at the general deluge. For, as then they indulged their appetites, unmindful of the fate that was attending them, Greek: gamountes kai ekgamizontes, marrying and given in marriage, solely occupied with the... [ Continue Reading ]
And they thought not of the deluge, though preached and predicted by Noe, (which rendered their ignorance and incredulity inexcusable) till it came and swept them all away. So shall it be at the coming of the Son of man. St. Luke adds, (chap. xvii, ver. 28,) likewise as it was in the days of Lot; th... [ Continue Reading ]
Then of two men, who shall think of nothing less than of going to appear before God, one shall be taken to be placed among the number of the elect, and the other shall be left condemned to eternal fire with the damned, on account of his crimes. (Bible de Vence) --- This example of the men in the fie... [ Continue Reading ]
_Two women. Slaves of both sexes were employed in grinding corn. Of these, one shall be carried up to heaven by angels, the other shall be left a prey to devils, on account of her bad life. (Bible de Vence) --- In many ancient manuscripts, both Greek and Latin, what we read in St. Luke, (xvii. 34.)... [ Continue Reading ]
Watch ye, therefore. That men might not be attentive for a time only, but preserve a continual vigilance, the Almighty conceals from them the hour of dissolution: they ought therefore to be ever expecting it, and ever watchful. But to the eternal infamy of Christians be it said, much more diligence... [ Continue Reading ]