Luke 21:11

σεισμοί. Tac. Hist. I. 2. For such physical portents at great crises see Thuc. I. 23; Tac. Ann. XII. 43, 64, Hist. I. 56; Liv. XLIII. 13, &c.

λιμοί. Acts 11:28. The original gives the common paronomasia λιμοὶ καὶ λοιμοί. (Comp. ἀσυνέτους, ἀσυνθέτους, Romans 1:29; Romans 1:31; Winer, p. 793.)

λοιμοί. Josephus (B. J. VI. 9, § 3) mentions both pestilence and famine as the immediate preludes of the storming of Jerusalem. They were due, like the plague at Athens, to the vast masses of people—Passover pilgrims—who were at the time crowded in the city.

φόβητρα. Terrors, Vulg[368] terrores: comp. Psalms 88:15; Isaiah 19:17. See Wis 17:1-21; 2Es 5:6. The word occurs here alone in the N. T. Among these would be the “Abomination of Desolation,” or “desolating wing of Abomination,” which seems best to correspond with the foul and murderous orgies of the Zealots which drove all worshippers in horror from the Temple (Jos. B. J. IV. 3, § 7, Luke 21:6, § 1, &c.). Such too would be the rumour of monstrous births (id. VI. 5, § 3); the cry ‘woe, woe’ for seven and a half years of the peasant Jesus, son of Hanan; the voice and sound of departing guardian-angels (Tac. Hist. Luke 21:13), and the sudden opening of the vast brazen Temple-gate which required twenty men to move it (Jos. ib.).

[368] Vulg. Vulgate.

σημεῖα�' οὐρανοῦ. Josephus mentions a sword-shaped comet. Both Tacitus and Josephus mention the portent that

“Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds,
In rank, and squadron, and right form of war;”

and Tacitus tells us how the blind multitude of Jews interpreted these signs in their own favour (Hist. Luke 21:13).