Luke 21:5

τινων λεγόντων. The question was asked by the Apostles as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, perhaps gazing on the Temple as it shone in the last rays of sunset.

λίθοις καλοῖς. Bevelled blocks of stone, of which some are described as having been forty cubits long and ten high; double cloisters; monolithic columns; alternate slabs of red and white marble, &c. See Jos. B. J. Luke 21:5 and Bab. Succa, f. 51, 1.

ἀναθήμασιν. ‘Sacred offerings’ (Psalms 62), such as the golden chain of Agrippa; gifts of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Augustus, Julia, Helen of Adiabene, and crowns, shields, goblets, &c.; the golden vine with its vast clusters given by Herod. Jos. B. J. Luke 21:5, § 4. See 2Ma 5:16; and Jos. Antt. XIII. 3, xv. 11, § 3. Hence Tacitus calls it “a temple of immense opulence,” Hist. Luke 21:8. The word ἀναθήματα does not occur again in the N. T., though in reality ἀνάθεμα is only a desynonymised form of the same word. Indeed אADX La[366] Ti[367] here read ἀναθέμασιν.

[366] La. Lachmann.
[367] Ti. Tischendorf.