Matthew 24:21

represents it as unparalleled before or after, n terms recalling those of Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:22 as intolerable but for the shortness of the agony. ἐκολοβώθησαν (from κολοβός, κόλος, mutilated) literally to cut off, e.g., hands or feet, as in 2 Samuel 4:12; here figuratively to cut short the time: nisi breviati fuissent (Vulgate). The aorist here, as in next clause (ἐσώθη), is used proleptically, as if the future were past, in accordance with the genius of prophecy. οὐκ ἂν, etc.: the οὐκ must be joined to the verb, and the meaning is: all flesh would be not saved; joined to πᾶσα the sense would be not all flesh, i.e., only some, would be saved. ἐσώθη refers to escape from physical death; in Matthew 24:13 the reference is to salvation in a higher sense. This is one of the reasons why this part of the discourse is regarded as not genuine. But surely Jesus cared for the safety both of body and soul (vide Matthew 10:22; Matthew 10:30). The epistle of Barnabas (iv.) contains a passage about shortening of the days, ascribed to Enoch. Weizsäcker (Untersuchungen, p. 125) presses this into the service of the Jewish apocalypse hypothesis. διὰ δὲ τ. ἐκλεκτοὺς : the use of this term is not foreign to the vocabulary of Jesus (vide Matthew 22:14), yet it sounds strange to our ears as a designation for Christians. It occurs often in the Book of Enoch, especially in the Similitudes. The Book begins: “The words of the blessing of Enoch, wherewith he blessed the elect and righteous who will be living in the day of tribulation when all the wicked and godless are removed” (vide Charles, The Book of Enoch, p. 58). The idea attaching to the word here seems to be: those selected for deliverance in a time of general destruction = the preserved. And the thought expressed in the clause is that the preserved are to be preservers. Out of regard to their intercessions away amid the mountains, the days of horror will be shortened. A thought worthy of Jesus.