So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near,even at the doors. EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE) (33) So likewise ye.—The pronoun is emphatic. Ye whom I have chosen, who are therefore among the elect that shall be thus gathered. The words are spoken to the four Apostles as the representatives of the whole body of believers who should be living—first, at the destruction of Jerusalem, and afterwards at the end of the world. Of the four, St. John alone, so far as we know, survived the destruction of Jerusalem. That it is near.—Better,that He is near, in accordance withJames 5:9.
24:29-41 Christ foretells his second coming. It is usual for prophets to speak of things as near and just at hand, to express the greatness and certainty of them. Concerning Christ's second coming, it is foretold that there shall be a great change, in order to the making all things new. Then they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds. At his first coming, he was set for a sign that should be spoken against, but at his second coming, a sign that should be admired. Sooner or later, all sinners will be mourners; but repenting sinners look to Christ, and mourn after a godly sort; and those who sow in those tears shall shortly reap in joy. Impenitent sinners shall see Him whom they have pierced, and, though they laugh now, shall mourn and weep in endless horror and despair. The elect of God are scattered abroad; there are some in all places, and all nations; but when that great gathering day comes, there shall not one of them be missing. Distance of place shall keep none out of heaven. Our Lord declares that the Jews should never cease to be a distinct people, until all things he had been predicting were fulfilled. His prophecy reaches to the day of final judgment; therefore he here, ver. 34, foretells that Judah shall never cease to exist as a distinct people, so long as this world shall endure. Men of the world scheme and plan for generation upon generation here, but they plan not with reference to the overwhelming, approaching, and most certain event of Christ's second coming, which shall do away every human scheme, and set aside for ever all that God forbids. That will be as surprising a day, as the deluge to the old world. Apply this, first, to temporal judgments, particularly that which was then hastening upon the nation and people of the Jews. Secondly, to the eternal judgment. Christ here shows the state of the old world when the deluge came. They were secure and careless; they knew not, until the flood came; and they believed not. Did we know aright that all earthly things must shortly pass away, we should not set our eyes and hearts so much upon them as we do. The evil day is not the further off for men's putting it far from them. What words can more strongly describe the suddenness of our Saviour's coming! Men will be at their respective businesses, and suddenly the Lord of glory will appear. Women will be in their house employments, but in that moment every other work will be laid aside, and every heart will turn inward and say, It is the Lord! Am I prepared to meet him? Can I stand before him? And what, in fact, is the day of judgment to the whole world, but the day of death to every one? So likewise ye ... - In the same manner, when you see what I have predicted the "signs" around Jerusalem - then know that its destruction is at hand, Is near - Luke saysLuke 21:28, "your redemption draweth nigh, andLuke 21:31 the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." Your deliverance from the dangers that threaten the city approaches, and the kingdom of God will be set up in the earth; or your everlasting redemption from sin and death will come at the day of judgment, and his eternal kingdom will be established in the heavens. CHAPTER 24 Mt 24:1-51. Christ's Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem, and Warnings Suggested by It to Prepare for His Second Coming. ( = Mr 13:1-37; Lu 21:5-36). For the exposition, see on [1355]Mr 13:1-37. See Poole on "Matthew 24:35".
So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things,.... That are mentioned above, relating to the signs of the destruction of the temple and city, and the destruction itself, with all those several things that should directly take place upon it; this is an accommodation of the above parable, similitude, or comparison: know that it is near, even at the doors; meaning, either that "he is near", as the Ethiopic version reads it, the son of man is near, even at the doors; or as the Vulgate Latin renders it, "in the gates", or "doors", and so does Munster's Hebrew Gospel; and signifies, that he was already come; for to be in the doors, or within the gates, is more than to be at the doors, or at the gates: and thus the fig tree putting forth its leaves, is a sign that summer is not only nigh, but is already come, even that part of it we call spring; for the Scripture divides the whole year only into two parts, summer and winter; so these calamities and desolations on the Jews, were a sign that the son of man was come, was in the gates, displaying his power and his glory: or the redemption and deliverance of the people of God was at hand, from the persecutions of the Jews; for till the destruction of Jerusalem, the persecutions of the Christians were chiefly from the Jews, or occasioned by them; but now, they being destroyed, the summer of deliverance was at hand: or else the kingdom of God, or a more enlarged state of the Gospel dispensation was near; the winter of the legal dispensation was over, the spring of the Gospel dispensation was come, through the preaching of John the Baptist, Christ and his apostles; and now the summer of it was at hand, through the general spread of it, all over the Gentile world. So the second coming of Christ, will be a summer of joy and comfort to the saints: Christ will appear most lovely and amiable to them, he will be glorified by them, and admired in them; great grace will be brought unto them, and great glory will be put upon them; they will then enjoy full redemption and salvation: the winter of sorrows, afflictions, and persecutions, and of coldness, darkness, and desertion, will be over; the sun shall no more go down, nor the moon withdraw itself, but the Lord will be the everlasting light of his people. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES) Matthew 24:33. οὕτως κ. ὑ, so do ye also when ye see all these things, recognise that it is nigh, at the doors. What are “these things”? what “it”? The former are the things mentioned in Matthew 24:15-21 ( ὅταν οὖν ἴδητε, Matthew 24:15), the latter is the παρουσία.
33. know that it is near] it=the harvest time of God—the end of this æon or period at the fall of Jerusalem.
Matthew 24:33. Ταῦτα πάντα, these things all) The order of words ought not to be always overlooked: the emphasis, and, in speaking, the accent, frequently falls upon the first of two words. The present is the first passage which has required this to be demonstrated; we will therefore do so [by the following examples]:—(1.) Luke 11:36, εἰ οὖν τὸ σῶμά σου ὉΛΟΝ φωτεινὸν, μὴ ἔχον τὶ ΜΕΡΟΣ σκοτεινὸν, ἔσται ΦΩΤΕΙΝΟΝ ὅλον, ὡς ὅταν ὁ λύχνος τῇ ἀστραπῇ ΦΩΤΙΖΗ σέ, if then thy body [be] ALL light, not having any PART dark, it shall be LIGHT all over, as when the candle by its shining LIGHTETH thee. In this passage ὁλον ( all, the whole, Lat. totum, Fr. tout) is emphatic before φωτεινὸν ( light, Lat. lucidum), in opposition to μέρος ( part): and φωτεινὸν is emphatic before ὅλον, its emphasis being declared by the verb φωτὶζῃ ( lighteth, Lat. illuminet. (2.) John 14:2-3, πορεύομαι ἑτοιμάσαι ΤΟΠΟΝ ὑμῖν. καῖ ἐὰν πορευθῶ καὶ ἑτοιμάσω ὙΜΙΝ τόπον, κ. τ. λ. I go to prepare A PLACE for you, and if I go and prepare FOR YOU a place, etc. Here the apparent contradiction is removed by the order of the words, “A PLACE is not to be prepared for you, since it is already prepared,”[1058] is the negative proposition. “FOR YOU is to be prepared a place, i.e. the entrance into that place is to be rendered sure,” is the affirmative proposition. Both are equally true. (3.) Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:5, ὙΜΑΣ ὄντας νεκροὺς— ὈΝΤΑΣ ἡμᾶς νεκροὺς, YOU being dead—BEING us dead [Fr. VOUS etant morts, ETANT nous morts]. Here ὑμᾶς ( you) is put antithetically to ἡμᾶς ( us), in Ephesians 1:19 : and then ὄντας ( being), denotes the past state of death, opposed to vivification. (4.) Jam 2:18, δεῖξόν μοι τὴν ΠΙΣΤΙΝ σου ἐκ (others read χωρὶς[1059]) τῶν ἔργων σου, κἀγὼ δείξω σοι ἐκ τῶν ἘΡΓΩΝ μου τὴν πίστιν μου, Show me thy FAITH by (others read without) thy WORKS, and I will show thee by my WORKS my faith. Here the first πίστιν (faith) refers to the words σὺ πίστιν ἔχεις (thou hast faith), and the second, ἔργων ( works), to the words κἀγὼ ἔργα ἔχω ( and I have works). These instances, extracted from four different writers of the New Testament, will suffice for the present. Now let us return to St Matthew. As the best MSS. have ΤΑΥΤΑ πάντα, THESE things all, in Matthew 24:33, and ΠΑΝΤΑ ταυτα, ALL these things, in Matthew 24:34 (although others confound the two modes of expression);[1060] the first ταῦτα placed before πάντα is emphatic, so as to express things about to happen next (for which reason in the parallel passage, Mark 13:29; the πάντα is omitted); and this emphasis being granted, the second πάντα expresses all, including these, things which were to come to pass next, in that generation. The pronoun ταῦτα ( these) does not refer to the whole preceding discourse (for the previous signs, and the events which were to follow them indicated by the signs, are distinct from each other), but to the beginnings, which are compared with the fig-tree, in contradistinction to the summer itself, i.e. the approaching kingdom of God. Those things having been fulfilled which are described from Matthew 24:4 to Matthew 24:28, room was made for the kingdom of God, which would grow stronger and stronger, in one continuous progress. The beginnings, after all hindrances had been removed, were equivalent to the whole.[1061] Furthermore, in St Matthew and St Mark, ταῦτα ( these) is in each case contrasted with ἐκείνης ( that) in Matthew 24:36, with the following sense: THESE all which concern Jerusalem shall come to pass before this generation passes away; but of THAT (remoter and last) day (of judgment) knoweth no one, etc. This observation facilitates the interpretation of the whole of this discourse. St Luke also contrasts with each other ταῦτα, these, and ἐκείνη, that. See Gnomon on Luke 21:36.— γινώσκετε, ye know, Indicative): Cf. Matthew 24:32, or know ye, Imperative.— ἐγγὺς, near) sc. the thing itself is.— ἐπὶ θύραις, at the doors) i.e. extremely near.
[1058] See ch. Matthew 25:34, “Inherit the kingdom prepared ( ἡτοιμασμένην) for you from the foundation of the world.”—ED.
[1059] Such is the reading of E. M.—(I. B.)
[1060] D abc Vulg. Syr. Memph. with Bengel, read ταῦτα πάντα in Matthew 24:33. But B and Rec. Text, τάντα ταῦτα, and so Lachm. B c and Amiat. MS. of Vulg. read πάντα ταῦτα, with Lachm., Tisch., Beng., and Rec. Text, in Matthew 24:34 But DL a read ταῦτα πάντα.—ED.
[1061] Sc. Were tantamount to a pledge that the whole would be accomplished.—ED.
Verse 33. - So likewise ye ( οὕτω καὶ ὑμεῖς, so also ye, emphatic). As surely as buds and leaves prove the coming of summer, so ye, who have been taught, may gather from the fulfilment of the signs mentioned (vers. 15-22, etc.) the approach of the end. Know that it is near ( ὅτι ἐγγύς ἐστιν). The subject is not expressed, but it must be the Son of man (ver. 30), so that the rendering ought to be, he is near. Many, however, take the understood nominative to be the judgment, or the kingdom of God, or the occurrences last spoken cf. At the doors; as James 5:9, on the very threshold, and therefore about to enter. Matthew 24:33 Links Matthew 24:33 InterlinearMatthew 24:33 Parallel Texts
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