Matthew 24:8

πάντα δὲ : yet all these but a beginning of pains. It is not necessary to find here an allusion to the Rabbinical idea of the birth pangs of Messiah, but simply the use of a natural and frequent Biblical emblem for distress of any sort. As to the date of the Rabbinical idea vide Keil. The beginning : such an accumulation of horrors might well appear to the inexperienced the end, hence the remark to prevent panic.