CHRIST'S TEACHING CONCERNING THE LAST THINGS.' of only a Resurrection of the Just,' is contrary to evidence. There can be no question that, according to the Pseudepigrapha, in the general Judgment, which was to follow the universal Resurrection, the reward and punishment assigned are represented as of eternal duration, although it may be open to question, as in regard to Rabbinic teaching, which of those who had been sinners would suffer final and endless torment. The many and persistent attempts, despite the gross inconsistencies involved, to represent the teaching of Christ concerning the Last Things' as only the reflection of contemporary Jewish opinion, have rendered detailed evidence necessary. When, with the information just summarised, we again turn to the questions addressed to Him by the disciples, we recall that (as previously shown) they could not have conjoined, or rather confounded, the 'when' of these things—that is, of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple— with the 'when' of His Second Coming and the end of the 'Age.' We also recall the suggestion, that Christ referred to His Advent, as to His disappearance, from the Jewish standpoint of Jewish, rather than from the general cosmic view-point of universal, history. b a As regards the answer of the Lord to the two questions of His disciples, it may be said that the first part of His Discourse is intended to supply information on the two facts of the future: the destruction of the Temple, and His Second Advent and the end of the 'Age,' by setting before them the signs indicating the approach or beginning of these events. But even here the exact period of each is not defined, and the teaching given intended for purely practical purposes. In the second part of His Discourse the Lord distinctly tells them, what they are not to know, and why; and how all that was communicated to them was only to prepare them for that constant watchfulness, which has been to the Church at all times the proper outcome of Christ's teaching on this subject. This, then, we may take as a guide in our study: that the words of Christ contain nothing beyond what was necessary for the warning and teaching of the disciples and of the Church. с 445 CHAP. VI S. Matt. xxiv. 4-35, and parallels st. Matt. xxiv. 36 to end, and parallels The first Part of Christ's Discourse consists of four Sections, of vv. 4-35 In support of it Schürer quotes P's. of Sol. iii. 16, xiv. 2, &c. But these passages convey to me, and will, I think, to others, the very opposite. P's. iii. 16 says nothing of the wicked, only of the righteous. But in ver. 13 b we have it: ἡ ἀπώλεια τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, and in ver. 15, αὕτη μερὶς τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν εἰς Tdy al@va. Ps. xiv. 2 has again only 2 Comp. Book of Enoch and Apoc. of 4 vv. 4-8; 914; 15-25; 29-35 BOOK V a St. Matt. xxiv. 8; St. b St. Matt. xxiv. 6 6 which the first describes the beginning of the birth-woes 'a of the new' Age' about to appear. The expression: The End is not yet clearly indicates, that it marks only the earliest period of the beginMark xiii. 8 ning the farthest terminus a quo of the birth-woes.'" Another general consideration, which seems of importance, is, that the Synoptic Gospels report this part of the Lord's Discourse in almost identical language. If the inference from this seems that their accounts were derived from a common source-say, the report of St. Peter-yet this close and unvarying repetition also conveys an impression, that the Evangelists themselves may not have fully understood the meaning of what they recorded. This may account for the rapid and unconnected transitions from subject to subject. At the same time it imposes on us the duty of studying the language anew, and without regard to any scheme of interpretation. This only may be said, that the obvious difficulties of negative criticism are here equally great, whether we suppose the narratives to have been written before or after the destruction of Jerusalem. ever. 4 viii. 9; xxi. 38 1. The purely practical character of the Discourse appears from its opening words. They contain a warning, addressed to the disciples in their individual, not in their corporate, capacity, against being led astray.' This, more particularly in regard to Judaic seductions leading them after false Christs. Though in the multitude of impostors, who, in the troubled times between the rule of Pilate and the destruction of Jerusalem, promised Messianic deliverance to Israel, few names and claims of this kind have been specially Acts v. 36; recorded, yet the hints in the New Testament, and the references, however guarded, by the Jewish historian, imply the appearance of many such seducers. And their influence, not only upon Jews, but on Jewish Christians, might be the more dangerous, that the latter would naturally regard the woes,' which were the occasion of their pretensions, as the judgments which would usher in the Advent of their Lord. Against such seduction they must be peculiarly on their guard. So far for the 'things' connected with the destruction of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the Jewish commonwealth. But, taking a wider and cosmic view, they might also be misled by either rumours of war at a distance, or by actual warfare,3 so as to believe War ii. 13. 4, 5; Ant. xx. 5.1; 8. 10 6 1 àpxǹ wdivwv, St. Matt. xxiv. 8, and so according to the better reading also in St. Mark. 2 Generally, indeed, these are regarded as the birth-woes' of the end.' But this not only implies a logical im possibility (the birth-woes of the end), but it must be remembered that these 'travail-pains' are the judgments on Jerusalem, or else on the world, which are to usher in the new-to precede its birth. 3 Of such wars and rumours of wars CHRIST'S WARNING TO INDIVIDUALS AND TO THE CHURCH. that the dissolution of the Roman Empire, and with it the Advent of Christ, was at hand.a1 This also would be a misapprehension, grievously misleading, and to be carefully guarded against. 447 CHAP. VI St. Matt. xxiv. 6-8 Although primarily applying to them, yet alike the peculiarly Judaic, or, it might be even Christian, and the general cosmic sources of misapprehension as to the near Advent of Christ, must not be limited to the times of the Apostles. They rather indicate the twofold grounds of misapprehension which in all ages have misled Christians into an erroneous expectancy of the immediate Advent of Christ: the seductions of false Messiahs, or, it may be, teachers, and violent disturbances in the political world. So far as Israel was concerned, these attained their climax in the great rebellion against Rome under the false Messiah, Bar Cochba, in the time of Hadrian, although echoes of similar false claims, or hope of AD. them, have again and again roused Israel during the night of these many centuries into brief, startled waking. And, as regards the more general cosmic signs, have not Christians in the early ages watched, not only the wars on the boundaries of the Empire, but the condition of the state in the age of Nero, the risings, turmoils, and threatenings; and so onwards, those of later generations, even down to the commotions of our own period, as if they betokened the immediate Advent of Christ, instead of marking in them only the beginning of the birth-woes of the new 'Age'? 132-135 st. Matt. χχίν. 9-14, and parallels 2. From the warning to Christians as individuals, the Lord next turns to give admonition to the Church in her corporate capacity. Here we mark, that the events now described must not be regarded as following, with strict chronological precision, those referred to in the previous verses. Rather is it intended to indicate a general nexus with them, so that these events begin partly before, partly during, and partly after, those formerly predicted. They form, in fact, the continuation of the birth-woes.' This appears even from the language used. Thus, while St. Matthew writes: Then' (TÓTE, at that time) shall they deliver you up,' St. Luke places the persecutions before all these things;' while St. Mark, who reports St. Luke this part of the Discourse most fully, omits every note of time, and only emphasises the admonition which the fact conveys. As regards the admonition itself, expressed in this part of the Lord's Discourse, west. Matt. not only Josephus, but the Roman historians, have much to say about that time. See the Commentaries. We know how persistently Nero has been identified with Anti-Christ, and how the Church then expected the imme- xxi, 12 e St. Mark xiii. 9 xxiv. 9-14, and parallels BOOK V a St. Matt. xxiv. 10-13 b St. Matt. xxiv. 14 • St. Matt. xxiv. 15-28, and paral notice that, as formerly to individuals, so now to the Church, two sources of danger are pointed out: internal, from heresies (false prophets) and the decay of faith,a and external, from persecutions, whether Judaic and from their own kindred, or from the secular powers throughout the world. But, along with these two dangers, two consoling facts are also pointed out. As regards the persecutions in prospect, full Divine aid is promised to Christians-alike to individuals and to the Church. Thus all care and fear may be dismissed their testimony shall neither be silenced, nor shall the Church be suppressed or extinguished; but inward joyousness, outward perseverance, and final triumph, are secured by the Presence of the Risen Saviour with, and the felt indwelling of the Holy Ghost in His Church. And, as for the other and equally consoling fact: despite the persecution of Jews and Gentiles, before the End cometh 'this the Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations. This, then, is really the only sign of the End of the present Age.' 3. From these general predictions, the Lord proceeds, in the third part of this Discourse, to advertise the Disciples of the great historic fact immediately before them, and of the dangers which might spring from it. In truth, we have here His answer to their guage of St. question,' When shall these things be?'d not, indeed, as regards the lels; note especially the lan Luke d St. Matt. xxiv. 3 v. 4,5 when, but the what of them. And with this He conjoins the present application of His general warning regarding false Christs, given in the first part of this Discourse. The fact of which He now, in this third part of His Discourse, advertises them, is the destruction of Jerusalem. Its twofold dangers would be-outwardly, the difficulties and perils which at that time would necessarily beset men, and especially the members of the infant-Church; and, religiously, the pretensions and claims of false Christs or prophets at a period when all Jewish thinking and expectancy would lead men to anticipate the near Advent of the Messiah. There can be no question, that from both these dangers the warning of the Lord delivered the Church. As directed by Him, the members of the Christian Church fled at an early period of the siege of Jerusalem to Pella, while the words in which He had told that His Coming would not be in secret, but with the brightness of that lightning which shot across the sky, prevented not only their being deceived, but perhaps even the So Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. iii. 5) relates that the Christians of Judæa fled to Pella, on the northern boundary of Peræa, in A.D. 68. Comp. also Jos. War iv. 9. 1; v. 10. 1. THE SECOND QUESTION OF THE DISCIPLES. 449 CHAP. VI a 2 Macc. vi. 1-9 record, if not the rise of many who otherwise would have deceived them. As for Jerusalem, the prophetic vision initially fulfilled in the days of Antiochusa would once more become reality, and the abomination of desolation stand in the Holy Place. This, together with tribulation to Israel, unparalleled in the terrible past of its history, and unequalled even in its bloody future. Nay, so dreadful would be the persecution, that, if Divine mercy had not interposed for the sake of the followers of Christ, the whole Jewish race that inhabited the land would have been swept away. But on the morrow of that day no St. Matt. new Maccabee would arise, no Christ come, as Israel fondly hoped; but over that carcase would the vultures gather; and so through all the age of the Gentiles, till converted Israel should raise the welcoming shout: Blessed be He that cometh in the Name of the Lord!' с xxiv. 22 • ver. 28 4. The age of the Gentiles, the end of the age,' and with it a vv. 29–31 the new allegiance of His now penitent people Israel; the sign of the Son of Man in heaven,' perceived by them; the conversion of all the world, the Coming of Christ, the last Trumpet, the Resurrection of the dead-such, in most rapid sketch, is the outline which the Lord draws of His Coming and the End of the world. xxiv. 3 It will be remembered that this had been the second question of the disciples. We again recall, that the disciples did not, St. Matt indeed, could not have connected, as immediately subsequent events, the destruction of Jerusalem and His Second Coming, since He had expressly placed between them the period-apparently protracted of His Absence, with the many events that were to happen in it xxii. 38,3 -notably, the preaching of the Gospel over the whole inhabited earth. Hitherto the Lord had, in His Discourse, dwelt in detail xxiv 14 only on those events which would be fulfilled before this generation should pass. It had been for admonition and warning that He had ver. 34 spoken, not for the gratification of curiosity. It had been prediction of the immediate future for practical purposes, with such dim and general indication of the more distant future of the Church as was absolutely necessary to indicate her position in the world as one of persecution, with promise, however, of His Presence and Help; and of her work in the world, to its terminus ad quem-the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom to all nations on earth. 'The quotation from Dan. ix. 27 is neither a literal translation of the original, nor a reproduction of the LXX. The former would be: And upon the wing [or corner] of the abominations the destroyer.' Our Lord takes the well-known Biblical VOL. II. G G expression in the general sense in which waste. |