Matthew 24:8

And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. For the exposition of this wonderful Prophecy, which will be best apprehended by taking all the records of it together, see the notes at Mark 13:1....

8._But all these things are the beginnings of sorrows. _Not that believers, who always have abundant consolations in calamities, should consume themselves with grief, but that they should lay their account with a long exercise of patience. Luke adds likewise _earthquakes, and signs from heaven, _with respect to which, though we have no authentic history of them, yet it is enough that they were predicted by Christ. The reader will find the rest in Josephus, (Wars of the Jews, VI. 5:3.)...

4-28 The disciples had asked concerning the times, When these things should be? Christ gave them no answer to that; but they had also asked, What shall be the sign? This question he answers fully. The prophecy first respects events near at hand, the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of the Jewish church and state, the calling of the Gentiles, and the setting up of Christ's kingdom in the world; but it also looks to the general judgment; and toward the close, points more particularly to the latter. What Christ here said to his disciples, tended more to promote caution than to satisfy their curiosity; more to prepare them for the events that should happen, than to give a distinct idea of the events. This is that good understanding of the times which all should covet, thence to infer what Israel ought to do. Our Saviour cautions his disciples to stand on their guard against false teachers....

Verse Matthew 24:8. _ALL THESE ARE THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS._] ωδινων, _travailing pains_. The whole land of Judea is represented under the notion of a woman in grievous travail; but our Lord intimates, that all that had already been mentioned were only the first pangs and throes, and nothing in comparison of that hard and death-bringing labour, which should afterwards take place. From the calamities of the _nation_ in general, our Lord passes to those of the _Christians_; and, indeed, the sufferings of his followers were often occasioned by the judgments sent upon the land, as the poor Christians were charged with being the cause of these national calamities, and were cruelly persecuted on that account....

THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS - Far heavier calamities are yet to come before the end....

EXPOSITION MATTHEW 24:1 PROPHECY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, AND OF THE TIMES OF THE END. (Mark 13:1; Luke 21:5.) There is no reason to think, with Olshauson, that St. Matthew or his editor has considerably amplified the original discourse of our Lord by introducing details and expressions from other quarters. The discourse, as we now have it (Matthew 24:1. and 25.), forms a

ALL THESE ARE THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS,.... They were only a prelude unto them, and forerunners of them; they were only some foretastes of what would be, and were far from being the worst that should be endured. These were but light, in comparison of what befell the Jews, in their dreadful destruction. The word here used, signifies the sorrows and pains of a woman in travail. The Jews expect great sorrows and distresses in the times of the Messiah, and use a word to express them by, which answers to this, and call them, חבלי המשיח, "the sorrows of the Messiah"; חבלי, they say r, signifies the sorrows of a woman in travail; and the Syriac version uses the same word here. These they represent to be very great, and express much concern to be delivered from them. They s ask, "what shall a man do, to be delivered from "the sorrows of the Messiah?" He must employ himself in the law, and in li...

Matthew 24:1. _And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple._ Ah, me! the rejected king took but slight interest in the temple of which his disciples thought so much. To them the appearance was glorious; but to their Lord it was a sad sight. His Father's house, which ought to have been a house of prayer for all nations, had become a den of thieves, and soon would be utterly destroyed. Matthew 24:2. _And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down._ And it was so. Josephus tells us that Titus at first tried to save the temple, even after it was set on fire, but his efforts were of

12. THE OLIVET DISCOURSE; THE KING REVEALS THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM. Chapter s 24-25. CHAPTER 24 1. The Destruction of the Temple Foretold. (Matthew 24:1 .) 2. The Questions of the Disciples. (Matthew 24:3 .) 3. The End of the Age; Events Preceding His Coming.(Matthew 24:4 .) 4. The Great Tribulation and what will Happen. (Matthew 24:15 .) 5. The Visible and Glorious Return of the King.(Matthew 24:27 .) 6. The Exhortations of the King. ...

MATTHEW 24 F. THE ESCHATOLOGICAL DISCOURSE, AND THE PARABLES OF PAROUSIA (Mark 13*, Luke 21:5 *, Luke 17:23). Mt. follows Mk. fairly closely, but appends other eschatological sayings and illustrative parables (ch. 25). The discourse arises out of a prediction of the destruction of the Temple, and is spoken in Mt. not to four disciples but to the Twelve, who ask for the sign of Thy coming (_i.e._ as Messiah, _parousia),_ and of the end of the world (or age). Jesus enumerates the events that must first occur (Matthew 24:4). With Matthew 24:4 _cf._ Mark