5. Predictions regarding the destination of Jeru- salem.— The chief difficulties found in the pre- dictions of Jesus regarding the destruction of Jerusalem are in the great eschatological discourse recorded in Mk 13. and in 'the lesser Apocalypse' in Lk 17. As both these passages will come up before us under the prophecies of the Parousia, it is not necessary to consider them here. We now refer only to those other passages which foretell it.
(rr) In the parable of the King's Son, Jesus de- clared that those who spiteftilly entreated and slew the messengers would be punished by the king's armies destrojing tlie murderers and burning up their city (Mt 22"). These words contain, doubtless, a prediction of the punishment that through the ages ever follows apostasy, but not the less do they foretell vividly the judgment that fell u)ion Jerusalem.
{b) In the next chapter (Mt 23) we find the denunciation of the scribes by Jesus, which con- cludes with His lamentation over the city He loved. And He closes with the words, ' Your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you. Ye shall not see me henceforth till j-e shall saj-. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.' Here, in foretelling the desolation of the Temple. He predicted its destruction ; for while, no doubt, its desolation was a spiritual fact from the moment He finally quitted its precincts, yet
438
PROPHET
PEOPHET
the visible evidence of its being God-forsaken was given in its destruction.
Lk. (13^5) gives these words in a different connexion. In Mt. they are spoken at the close of His ministry, just as Jesus was leaving the Temple for the last time as a public teacher. In Lk. they arise naturally from His sad words telling- that no prophet can perish out of the city. It is difficult to decide between these two occasions, and it is possible, though not probable, that the words were spoken twice by Him.
The interpretation of the last part of the prediction is also difficult. The desolation is to cease when they shall say, ' Blessed is he that cometh. . . .' What future event does this indicate ? If the words were spoken in the connexion given bj- Mt., they cannot refer, as some think, to the cries of the multitude on Palm Sunday, as they would have been spoken after that occasion. If Lk. is righti then this is a possible, but very inadequate, interpretation. Thus they may be taken as referring either to the Parousia or to the ultimate conversion of the Jews (cf. Phimmer, St. Lxike, I.e.). If the latter interpretation be ac- cepted, then they are a prophecy of the final restoration of the Chosen Race, and supplement the prediction of their rejection (Mt 21-13 ; see also Lk 2124).
((■) The most minute prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem is found in Lk 19''^"*'*. On the occa- sion of His triumjihal entry, when He saw the city before Him, He announced with cries of sorrow that He foresaw its inhabitants shut in, the city itself captured, the people .slain, and the walls demolished. To some this minuteness of detail suggests that the Evangelist, writing after the event, coloured his description from facts which had already occurred. But if Jesus was' able to foretell the fact of the city's destruction, He could with equal ease have described the circumstances here mentioned, which are really common to all sieges.
(d) Jesus gave His last predictive warning of the coming judgment on the city to the women who wept as He journeyed to Calvary. He told them the days would come {i.e. the days of their city's destruction) when they would call upon the mountains to fall on them (Lk 23^"). His grief for the sorrow that the catastrophe would bring on poor womanhood is also shown in His longer eschatological discourse (Mk 13"), where He says : ' Woe to tliem that are with child and to them that give suck in those days.'
6. Predictions regarding the Parousia. — The pre- dictions of Jesus regarding the Parousia are among the most difficult of His utterances, and many Aveighty questions of criticism and interpretation arise which are beyond the limits of this article. We can only state the conclusions at which we have arrived, referring readers elsewhere for fuller information (see PAROUSIA, SECOND COMING). There are five chief passages in which Jesus speaks of His return, and in each of these He uses language difficult of interjiretation. This fact must not be forgotten. It is not that He spoke of His return sometimes in clear and sometimes in cryptic lan- guage, but that whenever He referred to it He invariably sjioke enigmatically. There must have been some reason for this persistent ambiguity ; and it is to be found in the dulness of spiritual insight of the Apostles, and their unpreparedness for clearer teaching. In this connexion, as in connexion Avith the predictions of His death, He was unable to speak openly.
His aim seems to have been io prepare them for the following facts :— (a) that He was about to leave them ; (b) that His death would be due to His rejection by the hierarchy and the antagon- ism of the populace ; (c) that the sin of that generation which culminated in His death would speedily receive its punishment in the utter destruction of their city and Temple ; (d) that He Himself would, by His spiritual might, be the just avenger on Jerusalem of His own death ; (e) that ages of gospel preaching would then follow, during which the curse on the Holy City would last until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled; (/) that not until the whole world was evangelized would He visibly appear ; (j/) but that He Himself, though visibly withdrawn, vvould be spiritually present with them and succeeding genera- tions. These facts, so plain to us, could not possibly have been grasped by those who, having found the Messiah, necessarily expected immediate victory at His hands. We know that even after the forty days' instruction they still were unable to shake