1. Stones. The spring-stones of the arches of the bridge which spanned the valley of Tyropoeon (the cheese-makers), and connected the ancient city of David with the royal porch of the temple, measured twenty-four feet in length by six in thick- ness. Yet these were by no means the largest in the masonry of the temple. Both at the southeastern and southwestern angles stones have been found measuring from twenty to forty feet long, and weighing above one hundred tons (Edersheim, “Temple ”).
2. Thrown down (xatarv94). Rather, loosened down. A very graphic word, implying gradual demolition.
3. Note the particularity of detail in Mark. He adds, over against the temple, and the names of the four who asked the question. With the following discourse compare Matt. xxiv.
929 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. XIII.
6. In my name (ém/). Lit., wpon. Basing their claims on the use of my name.
7, Rumors of wars. Wye., opinions of battles. Such as would be a cause of terror to the Hebrew Christians; as the three threats of war against the Jews by Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. There were serious disturbances at Alexandria, A.D. 38, in which the Jews were the especial objects of persecu- tion ; at Seleucia about the same time, in which more than fifty thousand Jews were killed ; and at Jamnia, near Joppa.
Troubled (9pocic9e). Opoéw is, literally, to ery aloud.
‘Earthquakes. Between the prophecy and the destruction of Jerusalem (A.p. 70) occurred: A great earthquake in Crete, A.D. 46 or 47: at Rome, on the day on which Nero entered his majority, a.v.. 51: at Apameia, in Phrygia, a.p. 53; “on ac- count of which,” says Tacitus, “they were exempted from tribute for five years:” at Laodicea, in Phrygia, a.p. 60: in Campania, A.D. 63, by which, according to Tacitus, the city of Pompeii was largely destroyed.
Famines. During the reign of Claudius, ap. 41-54, four famines are recorded: One at Rome, a.p. 41, 42; one in Judaea, A.p. 44; one in Greece, A.p. 50 ; and again at Rome, a.p. 52, when the people rose in rebellion and threatened the life of the em- peror. ‘Tacitus says that it was accompanied by frequent earth- quakes, which levelled houses. The famine in Judaea was prob- ably the one prophesied by Agabus, Acts xi. 28. Of the year 65 a.p., Tacitus says: “This year, disgraced by so many deeds of horror, was further distinguished by the gods with storms and sicknesses. Campania was devastated by a hurricane which overthrew buildings, trees, and the fruits of the soil in every direction, even to the gates of the city, within which a pestilence thinned all ranks of the population, with no atmospheric disturb- ance that the eye could trace. The houses were choked with dead, the roads with funerals: neither sex nor age escaped. Slaves and freemen perished equally amid the wailings of
Cu. XII] MARK. 223
their wives and children, who were often hurried to the pyre by which they had sat in tears, and consumed together with them. The deaths of knights and senators, promiscuous as they were, deserved the less to be lamented, inasmuch as, falling by the common lot of mortality, they seemed to anticipate the prince’s cruelty ” (“ Annals,” xvi., 10-13).
9. Sorrows (@divov). Rev., rightly, travail ; for the word is used especially of berth-throes.
Shall ye be beaten (SapycecIe). The verb literally means to skin or flay, and by a slang usage, like our phrase ¢o tan or hide, comes to mean to cudgel or beat.
11. They lead (dywow). Present subjunctive; better per- haps, may be leading. While you are going along in custody to the judgment-seat, do not be worrying about your defences.
Take no thought beforehand (7) pomeptpvare). See on Matt. vi. 25.
14. Abomination. See on Matt. xxiv. 15. 15. Housetop. See on Matt. xxiv. 17.