Matthew 24:3

Matthew 24:3. The mount of Olives. Opposite the temple. The siege of Jerusalem began from this place, and at the same season of the year. It was from the side of this mount, that our Lord two days before had prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 19:43-44).

The disciples. Mark (Mark 13:3): ‘Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew,' the four fishermen first called and first named in all the lists, the confidential disciples.

When shall these things be? The desolation and destruction just prophesied.

The sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? They identified these, and joined them with the destruction of Jerusalem. As these disciples had been told most fully of His death (comp. chap. Matthew 17:9 ff.), they probably mean a coming (parousia, appearance) after death, to usher in the end of the world, i.e.., the end of the former dispensation of things, not the destruction of the world. Being Jews, they would not think of the destruction of the holy city without a personal presence of the Messiah in its stead. As the two events were blended in their minds, they are not sharply distinguished in the answer.