Ver. 20. εὐθέως. Each evangelist ex- presses himself here in his own way,
26—31.
295
ἡ σελήνη οὗ δώσει τὸ ᾿ φέγγος αὐτῆς, καὶ of ἀστέμες πεσοῦνται ν Mk. xiii.
ἀπὸ}
~ > ~ A © 3 , ~ 3 ~ , τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ at δυνάµεις τῶν οὐρανῶν σαλευθήσονται. 30. καὶ τότε φανήσεται τὸ σημεῖον τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν Ta?
24. Lk.
οὐρανῷ : καὶ τότε κόψονται πᾶσαι ai φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς, καὶ ὄψονται
τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ἐρχόμενον ἐπὶ τῶν νεφελῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ μετὰ
δυνάµεως καὶ δόξης πολλῆς.
31. καὶ ἀποστελεῖ τοὺς ἀγγέλους
αὐτοῦ μετὰ ' σάλπιγγος φωνῆς 5 µεγάλης, καὶ ἐπισυνάξουσι τοὺς κ Cor xv. ἐκλεκτοὺς αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων ἀνέμων, dm’ ἄκρων οὐρανῶν ἕως Thess. iv.
ἄκρων αὐτῶν. IND have ex (Tisch.).
al have it and it is doubtless genuine.
απο in BLXAX (W.H.). 3 SLA omit φωνης (Tisch., W.H. relegate to the margin).
16. Heb. xii. 1g, etc.
7 88BL omit τω. BD (και φωνης) XZ
4B 1, 13, 69 add των after ews (W.H. insert, but bracketed).
Lk. most obviously adapting his words to suit the fact of a delayed parusia. Mt.’s word naturally means: immedi- ately, following close on the events going before, the thlipsis of Jerusalem. One of the ways by which those to whom εὐθέως is a stumbling block strive to evade the difficulty is to look on it as an inaccurate translation by the Greek
Hebrew original.” So Schott, Comm. Ex. Dog.—é ἥλιος . . . σαλευθήσονται: a description in stock prophetic phrases (Is. xili. 9, xxxiv. 4, Joel ili. 15, etc.) of what seems to be a general collapse of the physical universe. Is that really what is meant? I doubt it. It seems to me that in true prophetic Oriental style the colossal imagery of the physical universe is used to describe the political and social consequences of the great Jewish catastrophe : national ruin, break- ing up of religious institutions and social order. The physical stands for the social, the shaking of heaven for the shaking of earth (Haggai ii. 6); or in the prophetic imagination the two are indissolubly blended: stars, thrones, city walls, temples, effete religions tumbling down into one vast mass of ruin. If this be the meaning εὐθέως is to be strictly taken.—¢éyyos, applicable to both sun and moon, but oftener applied to the moon or stars; φῶς oftenest to the sun, but also to the moon. Vide Trench, Syn., p. 163.—Ver. 30. καὶ τότε. Amid the general crash what longing would arise in Christian hearts for the presence of the Christ! To this longing the announcement in- troduced by these words ‘“‘and then”’
responds.—r6 σημεῖον τ. vi. r. a. The question what is this sign has greatly perplexed commentators, who make becoming confessions of ignorance. ‘“‘ We must not be positive in conjectur- ing,” Morison. ‘ What this shall be it is vain to conjecture,” Cambridge N.T. Is the reference not to Daniel vii. 13, “one like the Son of Man,”’ and the meaning: the sign which zs the Son of Man, t vu τ. & being genitive of appos.? So Weiss after Storr and Wolf.—(“ σημεῖον viod, similis est illis quibus profani passim utuntur quandc di- cunt Bia “Hpakdéos,” 1.ε., “‘ vis Herculis seu ipse Hercules,” Wolf, Curae Phil.) Christ His own sign, like the lightning or the sun, self-evidencing.—xai τότε κόψονται, etc.: a clause not in Mk. and obscure in meaning; why mourn? because they recognise in the coming One their Judge? or because they see in Him one who had been despised and rejected of men, and penitently (taking the sin home to themselves) acknow- ledge His claims ? (“‘@elieved on in the world,” x Tim. iii. 16).—épydpevov . .
πολλῆς, description of the coming, here as in xvi. 27, xxvi. 64, in terms drawn from Daniel vii. 13.—Ver. 31. μετὰ σάλπιγγος ¢. p., with a trumpet of mighty sound, an- other stock phrase of prophetic imagery (Is. xxvii. 13).-- καὶ ἐπισννάξουσι τοὺς ἐκλεκτοὺς α., and they (the angels or messengers) shall collect the elect (as in vv. 22, 24), showing that the advent is described in terms suited to the situa- tion previously depicted. The Christ comes for the comfort of those preserved from the general ruin.—éx τῶν τ. ἀνέμων : not merely from the mountains east of the Jordan, but from every quarter of the