2 Various things [agreeing with our Lord's prophecy] can be brought for ward from the writers of the Talmud, which are reported by them to have hap pened in the forty years before the destruction of the temple and the city, and which thus, with sufficient accuracy, harmonise with the history of the Passion. — Harm,, p. 481.
35. ' O nvpavbg, heaven) The motion of which is otherwise regu lated by the most unerring laws. — -/? y5j, the earth) which is otherwise most firmly founded. — Xo'/o/ MOD, My words) The plural number is employed ; cf. cravra, all, ver. 34, which is likewise plural. — ou ^ ^ap'^duffi, shall not pass away) q.d. My words shall correspond exactly with the event ; although it does not appear so to men immediately. Heaven and earth will give place to the new heaven and new earth, which are described by My words. The firmness of the law is illustrated in a similar manner in eh. v. 18.
36. Hep) 8f rr)s ri^pag zxslvriG, but of that day) The Lord shows the time of the temple and the city in ver. 32-34 ; He denies in this verse that the day and hour of the world are known. The particle St, but, implies a contrast : the pronouns ravra, these, aiV»j, this, refer to events close at hand ; the pronoun exshris, that, to that which is distant. If, however, the former time is defined with some latitude, THAT DAY and hour is much less definitely indicated here : and yet He does not speak of the day and hour without cause. A day is a whole ; an hour is a part. The day is not necessarily unknown because the hour is : the time taken with somewhat greater latitude is not necessarily unknown because the day is. And that which was unknown when this discourse was delivered, might be revealed after the Ascension of the Lord and the Apocalypse given to St John ; and as the sand by degrees glides away in the hour-glass of time,1 it may be known more nearly. Otherwise, the last day and the last hour would not even then be known when it actually ar rives. Our Lord goes on to speak of the day in ver. 37, 38, of the hour in ver. 42, 43, and of both in ver. 50. — ayysXo/, angels) whose knowledge is otherwise great. — ruv ovpavuiv, of the heavens) The plural number.
38. TpuyovTis, eating) This includes the arts of cookery, con fectionary, and other matters connected with luxury. They were employed in this, and in nothing else.
39. OOx gyvwtfav, knew not) Their ignorance was volun tary.
1 In the original, " clepsydra sensim eZabente." The ancients measured
time in the hour-glass, not by sand, but by water. I have given the corre sponding idiom. — (I. R.)