Mark 13:24

THE CONSPIRACY OF THE JEWISH AUTHORITIES TO PUT JESUS TO DEATH--THE SUPPER AND THE--ANOINTING AT BETHANY--JUDAS AGREES WITH THE CHIEF PRIESTS TO BETRAY HIS LORD. ( = Mat. 26:1-16; Luk 22:1-6; Joh 12:1-11). (Mar 14:1-11) After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread--The meaning is, that two days after what is about to be mentioned the passover would arrive; in other words, what follows occurred two days before the feast. and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death--From Matthew's fuller account (Mat. 26:1-75) we learn that our Lord announced this to the Twelve as follows, being the first announcement to them of the precise time: "And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings" (Mat 26:1) --referring to the contents of Mat. 24:1-25:46, which He delivered to His disciples; His public ministry being now closed: from His prophetical He is now passing into His priestly office, although all along He Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses--"He said unto His disciples, Ye know that after two days is [the feast of] the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified." The first and the last steps of His final sufferings are brought together in this brief announcement of all that was to take place. The passover was the first and the chief of the three great annual festivals, commemorative of the redemption of God's people from Egypt, through the sprinkling of the blood of a lamb divinely appointed to be slain for that end; the destroying angel, "when he saw the blood, passing over" the Israelitish houses, on which that blood was seen, when he came to destroy all the first-born in the land of Egypt (Exo 12:12-13) --bright typical foreshadowing of the great Sacrifi…

These verses seem to point at Christ's second coming, to judge the world; the disciples, in their question, had confounded the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world (Mat 24:3), which was built upon a mistake, as if the temple must needs stand as long as the world stands; this mistake Christ rectifies, and shows that the end of the world in those days, those other days you enquire about, the day of Christ's coming, and the day of judgment, shall be after that tribulation, and not coincident with it. Let those who live to see the Jewish nation destroyed, take heed of thinking that, because the Son of man doth not visibly come in the clouds then, he will never so come; no, he will come after that. And here he foretels, 1. The final dissolution of the present frame and fabric of the world; even of that part of it which seems least liable to change, the upper part, the pure and more refined part; The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall no more give her light; for they shall be quite outshone by the glory of the Son of man, Isa 24:23. The stars of heaven, that from the beginning had kept their place and regular motion, shall fall as leaves in autumn; and the powers that are in heaven, the heavenly bodies, the fixed stars, shall be shaken. 2. The visible appearance of the Lord Jesus, to whom the judgment of that day shall be committed (Mar 13:26); Then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds. Probably he will come over that very place where he sat when he said this; for the clouds are in the lower region of the air. He shall come with great power and glory, such as will be suited to the errand on which he comes. Every eye shall then see him. 3. The gathering together of all the elect to him (Mar 13:27); He shall send his angels, and gather together…

13:24-27 At that time, after the anguish of those days: Many scholars argue that the cosmic signs of 13:24-25, the coming of the Son of Man in 13:26, and the gathering of the chosen ones from throughout the world in 13:27 are metaphorical ways of referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and to the vindication of the Son of Man by that event. The traditional interpretation, though, is that, whereas the former material refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, this passage refers to the coming of the Son of Man (the parousia) that will occur at the end of history. This interpretation fits better for several reasons: (1) After the anguish of those days means after the destruction of Jerusalem, not during it, and at that time (literally in those days) could occur at any time after the events of 13:5-23; (2) several words used in 13:26 are used elsewhere to describe the coming of the Son of Man: glory (8:38), power and clouds (14:62); and (3) in light of the early church’s longing and praying for the return of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor 16:22; Rev 22:20), Mark’s readers would have interpreted Mark 13:26 as the second coming of Jesus, which will bring history as we know it to a close. The prophets, Jesus, and the Gospel writers described this event as though seen through a telescope, and the distance between events is unclear; no one knows the time for this event except God himself (13:32). The events of 13:5-23 and 13:24-27 are part of the same great, divine act that includes the coming of the Son of Man, his ministry, death, and resurrection, the judgment of Jerusalem in AD 70, and the Son of Man’s final coming in glory. 13:24b-25 Some of the language used in the New Testament to describe Jesus’ second coming, such as the “trumpet call of God” (1 Thes 4:16), appears to b…