294
Ch. xxviii. ὑμῖν. 3. Lk. x. 28 BN)
18; xi. 36 έξε τε” (of the η
Ἰδού, ἐν τοῖς ταµείοις, μὴ πιστεύσητε.
26. ἐὰν οὖν εἴπωσιν ὑμῖν, Ιδού, ἐν τῇ ἐρήμω ἐστί, μὴ
27. ὥσπερ γὰρ
gleam of ἡ ᾿ ἀστραπὴ ἐξέρχεται ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν καὶ φαίνεται ἕως δυσμῶν,
a lamp); xvii. 24; several times in Rev. (pl.). a Lk. xvii.
37- Rev. iv iv. 7; viii. 13 (W.H.); xii. 14. 1 Most uncials (SBD, etc.) omit και.
sion: signs and wonders, or the pretence of them: easily accepted as such by a fanaticised multitude, and sometimes so clever and plausible as to tempt the wise to credence.—@ovre, with infinitive to express tendency; often inclusive of result, but not here.—el δυνατὸν, if pos- sible, the implication being that it is not. If it were the consequence would be fatal. The “elect” (τοὺς ἐκλεκτούς)--- selected by Providence for safety in the evil day—would be involved in the general calamity. Christians, at Israel’s great crisis, were to be saved by unbelief in pseudo-messiahs and pseudo-prophets. —Ver.25. ἰδοὺ π. ὑ., emphatic nota bene, showing that there will be real danger of misplaced fatal confidences. Hence further expatiation on the topic in vv. 26-28 in graphic, pithy, laconic speech. —Ver. 26. ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, a likely place for a Christ to be (Moses, Israel’s first deliverer).—py ἐξέλθητε, go not out (cf. xi. 7, 8, 9).—év τοῖς ταµείοις (vide vi. 6), in the secret chambers, the plural in- dicating the kind of place, not any particular place. Both expressions—in the desert, in the secret recesses—point to non-visibility. The false prophets bid the people put their faith in a Messiah not in evidence, the Great Unseen = “The hour is come, and the man is somewhere, out of view, not far away, take my word for it’. Interpreters who seek for exact historical fulfilments point to Simon son of Gioras, and John of Giscala: the former the Messiah in the desert of Tekoah, gathering a confiding multitude about him; the latter the Messiah in the secret places, taking pos- session of the interior part of the temple with its belongings in the final struggle (vide Josephus, B. J., iv., 9, 5 and 7; vy. 6, 1, and Lutteroth, ad loc.).—Ver. 27. ὥσπερ yap, etc.: the coming of the true Messiah, identified with the Son of Man, compared to the lightning, to sug- gest a contrast between Him and the false Christs as to visibility, and enforce
o η πλ κε , a ca A , οὕτως ἔσται καὶ ἡ παρουσία τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. 2 a a yap? ἐὰν ᾖ τὸ πτῶμα, ἐκεῖ συναχθήσονται of * ἀετοί.
28. ὅπου 20. Εὐθέως
δὲ μετὰ τὴν θλίψιν τῶν ἡμερῶν ἐκείνων, ὁ ἥλιος σκοτισθήσεται, καὶ
Σ38 ΒΡΙ, omit γαρ.
the counsel to pay no heed to those who. say: He is here, or He is there.— Ver. 28. πτῶμα, carcase, as in xiv. 12, 6.υ.---ἀετοί, eagles, doubtless the carrion vultures are meant. The reference of this proverbial saying, as old as the book of Job (xxxix. 30), in this place is not clear. In the best text it comes in without connecting particle, the yap of T. R. being wanting. If we connect it with ver. 27 the idea will be that Messiah’s judicial function will be as universal as His appearance (Meyer and Weiss). But does not ver. 28 as well as ver. 27 refer to what is said about the false Christs, and mean: heed not these pretended Saviours; Israel cannot be saved: she is dead and must become the prey of the vultures? (So Lutteroth.) In this view the Jewish people are the carcase and the Roman army the eagles.
Vv. 20-31. The coming of the Son of Man (Mk. xiii. 24-27, Lk. xxi. 25-28).— Thus far the eschatological discourse has been found to bear on the predicted tragic end of Jerusalem. At this point the παρουσία, which, according to the evangelist, was one of the subjects on which the disciples desired information, becomes the theme of discourse. What is said thereon is so perplexing as to tempt a modern expositor to wish it had not been there, or to have recourse to critical expedients to eliminate it from the text. But nothing would be gained by that unless we got rid, at the same time, of other sayings of kindred char- acter ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels. And there seems to be no reason to doubt that some such utterance would form a part of the eschatological dis- course, even if the disciples did not ask instruction on the subject. The revela- tion as to the last days of Israel naturally led up to it, and the best clue to the meaning of the Parusia-logion may be to regard it as a pendant to that revelation.