Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Matthew · About this commentary
Not One Stone on Another
Matthew 24:1-14
1 Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on his way. His disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. · WEB
A remark about the architecture gets an answer about rubble — and the discourse begins with what is not the sign.
Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on his way. His disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple Matthew 24:1.
He has just said the house is left desolate, and they point out the stonework. The temple was one of the wonders of the ancient world and its foundation courses were single blocks the size of rooms.
"There will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down" Matthew 24:2. The discourse is given in the earlier account Mark 13:1–23.
"Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?" Matthew 24:3. The question is really three, and the disciples have fused them — a destroyed temple, his coming, and the end of the age are one event in their minds. The answer that follows treats them together, in the way the prophets do, with a nearer fulfillment carrying a further one on its back. That is why the chapter has always resisted being sorted into a clean timetable, and why confident schemes for it have so often had to be revised.
The first thing said is a warning, and it is repeated four times in the chapter: "Be careful that no one leads you astray" Matthew 24:4. The danger addressed is not persecution. It is deception, and it comes from inside — many will come in my name.
"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren't troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet" Matthew 24:6. This is the paragraph most often used to read the newspapers as a countdown, and it says the opposite. Wars, famines, plagues and earthquakes are named precisely so they will not be mistaken for the end. They are the beginning of birth pains Matthew 24:8 — an image of a process with a definite end that nobody can date from its early hours.
"Then they will deliver you up to oppression and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name's sake" Matthew 24:9. What follows is worse and closer to home: many will stumble, and will deliver up one another, false prophets, and because iniquity will be multiplied, the love of many will grow cold Matthew 24:10–12. The characteristic damage is not to the church's safety but to its love.
"But he who endures to the end will be saved" Matthew 24:13. Endurance, not achievement, and it is the answer to the cooling just described.
"This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come" Matthew 24:14. One thing in the list is given as a marker, and it is not a disaster. It is a task.
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