Bible Study series: Mark 13:1-31. This is not his final Second Coming, but his judgment on Jerusalem and the temple. It happened from A.D. 66-70, in Jesus’s generation, just as he said. It would have been odd if he had not predicted this major upheaval. Roman generals stomped all over the temple and committed the “abomination of desolation.”

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Mark 13

At that link, I also offer more commentary and a Summary and Conclusion, geared towards discipleship. Scroll down to the bottom and check it out!

Let’s begin.

Scripture: Mark 12:1-31

¹ And as he was leaving the temple, one of the disciples said to him, “Teacher, look at such stones and such buildings!” ² Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? In no way will one stone be left on another stone which will not be thrown down!”

³ While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately: ⁴ “Tell us: When will these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things are to be completed?”

⁵ Jesus began to say to them, “See to it that no one deceives you. ⁶ Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ And they will deceive many. ⁷ When you hear of wars or reports of wars, do not be troubled; these things must be, but the end is not yet, ⁸ for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines. These things are the beginning of birth pangs.

⁹ “You see to yourselves! They will hand you over to local courts, and you will be beaten in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings, for my sake, for a testimony to them. ¹⁰ And the gospel of the kingdom must first be proclaimed to all nations. ¹¹ And when they arrest you to hand you over, do not worry ahead of time about what you should say, but speak that which is given you at that time, for you are not the ones speaking, but the Holy Spirit. ¹² Brother will betray brother to death and father a child and children will rise up defiantly against parents and have them put to death. ¹³ You will be hated by everyone because of my name, but the one who endures to the end—this one will be saved.

¹⁴ “When you see the abomination of desolation standing where it must not”—let the reader understand!—“then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. ¹⁵ And the one on the housetop must not go back down nor go back in to pick up anything from his house! ¹⁶ And the one in the field should not return to the things behind, to pick up his cloak! ¹⁷ But woe to pregnant women and to the ones nursing in those days! ¹⁸ Pray that it may not happen in the winter, ¹⁹ for there will be tribulation in those days such as has not happened from the beginning of creation which God created until now and will never be. ²⁰ And unless the Lord shorten the days, no flesh will be saved, but because of the elect who has been elected, he will shorten the days. ²¹ And then if anyone says, ‘Look! The christ is over here! Look! There!’ Do not believe him, ²² for false christs and false prophets will arise and produce signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the elect. ²³ But you watch! I have told you all these things in advance.

²⁴ But in those days, after that tribulation,

The sun shall be darkened,
And the moon shall not give its light
²⁵ And stars shall fall from the sky
And the powers in the sky shall be shaken. [Is. 13:10; 34:4; Ezek. 32:7-8; Joel 2:10, 31; 3:15]

²⁶ And then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ [Is. 19:1-4]] with much power and glory. ²⁷ And then he will send the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the earth to the end of heaven. [Deut. 30:4; Zech. 2:6, 10]

²⁸ From the fig tree, learn this illustration: when its branch has become tender and it is sprouting leaves, you know that summer is near, at the door. ³⁰ I tell you the truth: This generation will not pass away until all these things take place. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Mark 13:1-31)

Comments:

God used the Babylonian army to sack Jerusalem and the temple in 586 B.C. He is about to use the Roman army to conquer the city and its temple.

These comments in this page are simple and for your personal growth. If you want a detailed exegesis, please see this post:

Mark 13:5-31 Predicts Destruction of Jerusalem and Temple

Further, if you want a fuller picture of how Mark fits in to the eschatology of Matthew and Luke, please see this post:

Matt 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 and 17 in Parallel Columns Are Finally Clear

Mark’s version is more streamlined, while Matthew and Luke fill out the picture.

1-2:

The disciples admired the temple and wanted Jesus to admire it too. However, in v. 2, he shocks them. The temple won’t stand. It’s going to be destroyed.

3-4:

A little later Jesus and the disciples were sitting on the Mount of Olives, which overlooks the temple. Peter, Andres (two brothers) and James and John (two brothers) ask him two questions: “When?” and “What sign?” At this point Matthew’s version is clearer, because he catches on to what Jesus was teaching them. There are two ends: the telos (pronounced tel-loss) end of the temple, and the synteleia (pronounced sin-teh-lay-ah) end of the entire age. Once we keep these two ends in sight, we can understand the two major sections.

5-6:

False messiahs and false religious leaders will arise to deceive many. These deceivers arose back in the first century, and they will arise in every generation. It’s a perennial reality. If we don’t know basic doctrine, we will be vulnerable to their deceptions. Watch out!

7-8:

Here Jesus is referring to the language of Is. 19:2, which also prophesies nations rising against nations. This too happened in the entire Roman world in various hot spots. And there were various earthquakes in the first century, as well.

Those things are the beginning of birth pangs. Note the time marker “beginning.” Those talks about wars and actual wars and earthquakes are not signs of the end times, but just the beginning. Jesus knows when the attack on Jerusalem and the temple will happen—before his generation passes away—but in v. 32, talking about the Second Coming, not even he knows. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple on the one hand and the Second Coming, are two separate events, now two thousand years apart (and counting).

Again please see this post for more details:

Mark 13:5-31 Predicts Destruction of Jerusalem and Temple

9-13:

In this pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or unit or section of Scripture, Jesus brings up persecution and troubles in the family. The uncoverted will report on the conversion of family members. They will snitch. Then the converted will be dragged before the local religious courts and synagogues and be flogged. Or they will stand before governors and kings and be harassed.

In the Book of Acts, Paul persecuted new converts to the Jesus Movement. But when he converted, he too stood before Jewish tribunals and Roman governors and kings.

The converts will be hated by everyone, but if they endure to the end, they will be rescued, even if by martyrdom.

In v. 10, the gospel first spreading around the nations happened in their times. They knew nothing about Australia or North and South America, but the gospel did go throughout the Roman empire. Now, with our fuller knowledge the gospel can go around to all nations.

However you interpret v. 10, it has to be fulfilled before Jesus’s generation passed away, and it was fulfilled for their point of view two thousand years ago.

Incidentally Luke’s version does not include v. 10:

Luke 21:5-33 Predicts Destruction of Jerusalem and Temple

Usually omissions do not clarify things, but in this case Luke’s omission does clarify the meaning of Mark 13:5-31. Luke’s version is by far the clearest of either Matthew or Mark that Jesus is predicting the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, not the Second Coming. Please click on that link for the biblical evidence.

14-20:

In this long unit of Scripture, Jesus now predicts the abomination of desolation, which refers to Dan. 8:13, 9:27, 11:31, and 12:11. The pagans will stand in the temple. This took place at first in 167 B.C., when Antiochus IV Epiphanes stood in the temple, ordered the stoppage of animal sacrifices, and was poised to sacrifice unclean animals (including pigs) to Greek deities. More relevant to Jesus’ prediction, the abomination of desolation also took place in A.D. 70, when the Romans sacked the city of Jerusalem and stomped all over the temple.

It has been fulfilled. Note how the temple is desolate. Note how Judaism has never been the same since. They were days of unequalled stress or tribulation. And the Lord did shorten those days, because the war ended.

The people fleeing cannot refer to the Second Coming, because no one can flee from it. Instead, it is talking about the Roman army coming. And the Christians living in Judea and Jerusalem did flee to Pella, beyond the Jordan River, and farther north.

21-23:

Jesus circles back around to warn about false messiah and false prophets. Of course during times of unparalleled distress people will emerge and proclaim that they are the saviors. And there was never a time of tribulation for Judaism as there was during the Roman Wars of A.D. 66-70. Be on the alert! Watch out! He was telling the people of his generation.

F.. F. Bruce, in his 1990 commentary on the book of Acts, writes of Jewish messianism and nationalism: “There were outbreaks of Jewish unrest around this time [AD 40-50s] not only in Judaea where the national resistance movement gathered force under the governors who held office after the death of Herod Agrippa I in AD 44, but throughout the empire–at Alexandria early in Claudius’ principate–[Bruce now cites a reference] and at Rome both then and more recently …. Now, it was implied, the same troublemakers had turned up in Thessalonica. The authorities could not be expected to distinguish the militant messianism of the Jewish nationalists from the messianism proclaimed by Paul and Silas” (The Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary, 3rd, ed. Eerdmans, 1990), p. 371.

In other words false messiahs emerged around the Roman empire.

24-25:

The sun darkening and the moon not giving light and the stars falling from the sky are references to OT prophecies, and if the stars were to literally fall from the skies in the OT the cosmos—the whole universe—would have been forever changed, and the earth would have been swallowed up and destroyed. No, this is not literal. Instead, this is apocalyptic language and imagery for a major change or national judgment.

Here are at least fifteen passages in which nature is disturbed when God judges a nation:

Cosmic Disasters = Apocalyptic Imagery for Judgment and Major Change

Do not take those quoted passages literally! Or else the cosmos would not be here!

These verses about cosmic disasters are about the judgment on Jerusalem and the temple, which has forever been changed from then until now. The religion set up by Moses has been altered in the ceremonial aspects, but not the Ten Commandments and the moral law. They remain. So of course nature will be disturbed when such a nation-shattering and religion-shattering event happens.

For a Christian response to the change in Judaism, please see these links:

What Does the New Covenant Retain from the Old?

Do Christians Have to ‘Keep’ the Ten Commandments?

Ten Commandments: God’s Great Compromise with Humanity’s Big Failure

One Decisive Difference Between Sinai Covenant and New Covenant

26-27:

These verses refer to God’s judgment in Isaiah 19:1-4, which is about Assyria conquering Egypt. As God used Assyria to conquer Egypt, God is about to use the Roman army to conquer Jerusalem and destroy its temple.

A prophecy against Egypt:

Now Jesus returns invisibly to Jerusalem and the Father vindicates his Son. The temple will be destroyed.

And no, vv. 26-27 does not refer to the grand and glorious Second Coming when the whole earth will be overtaken by his glorious appearing.

Once again, see this post for many passages about cosmic disasters and judgment on a city or empire:

Cosmic Disasters = Apocalyptic Imagery for Judgment and Major Change

Once again, please see my comments on Mark 13:5-31 about why Jesus’s ascension and enthronement (and later coming-in-judgment on the temple) and the Second Coming must be kept distinct.

Mark 13:5-31 Predicts Destruction of Jerusalem and Temple

As for gathering the elect from the four corners of the world under heaven, Luke’s version omits this verse:

Matt 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 and 17 in Parallel Columns Are Finally Clear

At that link, scroll down to Unit 6.

As noted, Luke’s version is by far the clearest of either Matthew or Mark that Jesus is predicting the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and not the Second Coming in those parallel verses.

28-30:

The fig tree could refer to Israel and judgment on its capital and temple, but more likely it refers to a time marker about the right season. Agricultural societies can spot when the crops are ready to harvest. Likewise, people should be able to tell when judgment on Jerusalem was coming because Jesus just finished giving them a list of signs.

31:

This is the clearest time marker of all. Jesus’s generation would not pass away until all these things took place, and they did take place by A.D. 70, so his prediction came true. His statement here means that his prediction was absolutely trustworthy. It did come to pass.

In the next pericope, he changes topics and talks briefly about his Second Coming. Not even the Son of God know what that will happen. There are no time markers. It could happen at any moment.

GrowApp for Mark 13:1-31

1. To be a good and effective disciple, you do not have to figure out the details of eschatology (study of the ends times). Instead, Jesus predicts tough times for the people of his generation. How can we prepare ourselves for tough times in our generation?

RELATED

10. Eyewitness Testimony in Mark’s Gospel

2. Church Fathers and Mark’s Gospel

2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels

14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels

1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series

SOURCES

For bibliographical data, please click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:

Mark 13