Jesus was warning about deception

JESUS WAS WARNINGABOUT DECEPTION
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Mark 13:4-8 New International Version
4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what
will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”
5 Jesus said to them: “Watchout that no one deceives
you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am
he,’ and will deceivemany. 7 When you hear of wars
and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things
must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nationwill
rise againstnation, and kingdom againstkingdom.
There will be earthquakes in variousplaces, and
famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The Signs Of The Coming Of The Son Of Man
Mark 13:3-5 (and the rest of the chapter generally)

A.F. Muir
I. THERE IS A CURIOSITY CONCERNINGTHE FUTURE WHICH Is
NATURAL AND LEGITIMATE. The disciples were not rebuked when they
came with their inquiry. It was not so when Peterasked, "Lord, and what
shall this man do?" (John 21:21). Some inquiries concerning the future are
therefore lawful, others not. How are we to distinguish betweenthem? We
may ask concerning things the knowledge ofwhich is necessaryto the rational
direction of spiritual aims and efforts. Godhas chosento make known the
generalscheme of redemption in its evolution in the world's history. The
prophecies of Scripture ought, therefore, to be studied in the light of
contemporary events. The teaching of Christ on this occasionwas manifestly
the germ of the Apocalypse.
II. THIS CURIOSITY IS GRATIFIED BY OUR SAVIOUR FOR MORAL
AND SPIRITUAL ENDS. (Vers. 5, 7, 9, 13, 23, 34-37.)The greatdiscipline of
the disciples was to take place after their Master's death, and before the
generalinauguration of his kingdom. The three generaldirections of Christ
are:
(1) Take heed unto yourselves;
(2) beware;
(3) watch. It does not behove us to know time and hour, but to observe the
signs antecedentto the judgment of God' (Starke). The Holy Spirit is
promised, amid all trials and difficulties, to them who truly believe. The
gospelitself was to receive universalproclamation, notwithstanding the perils
and evils that were to take place. So that the disciples were assured, whatever
might occur in the external life of the world, of ultimate glorious realization of
all the spiritual ends of God's kingdom.

III. MANY TEMPORARYEVILS WERE TO FORESHADOW, AND TO
PREPARE FOR, A PERMANENTDIVINE GOOD.
1. The catalogue ofwoe is long, detailed, and specific:spiritual delusions;
wars, earthquakes, andfamines; persecutions;pollution and destruction of
the temple; political and cosmicalrevolutions.
2. These are all to pass, in their process temperedand modified by Divine
mercy and guidance.
3. And they were to result in the advent of the Divine kingdom. The gospel
was to be proclaimed and the universal communion of saints to be realized.
The political and natural troubles were to be justified by their being made
instrumental of moral and spiritual benefits. So in the generalexperience of
Christians all things work togetherfor good.' - M.

Biblical Illustrator
Tell us, when shall these things be?
Mark 13:4
Date fixing
Sunday SchoolTimes.
That's it! Fix the date of the coming failure, or the coming triumph. All of us
are ready to join in that request. How we long to have the veil of the future
lifted; and how well it is that the Lord does not gratify our longing in this.
There is no greaterblessing to us than God's concealmentof our future. There
could be no surer curse from God than his opening before our eyes the
pathway of our lives, so that we could see it to its very end. What heart
breaking that would bring into a myriad homes! What a checking too, on
every side, of hope and aspirationand noble endeavour! How it would
paralyze loving effort, and check or destroy neededtenderness of love and
deed in kindly ministry! We know not what we ask, when we crave an insight
into the future. God knows what He does, and why, when He refuses every
request of this kind from His loved and loving ones.
(Sunday SchoolTimes.)
Leading astray
Sunday SchoolTimes.
It is quite as important not to be led astrayby false religious teachers as by
any other class ofdeceivers or deceived;and there is quite as much danger in
this line as in any other. Sincerity on our part is no guard againstdeceptionor
wandering; nor is sincerity a safeguardto a religious teacher. Those who are
themselves both honestand sincere would lead us astray if we followed them

in their wrong path. There is danger of our being led astray by the sermons
we hear, the papers or the books we read, the counselor example of those
whom we have supposedto be godly, or by the impulses or convictions of our
own minds and hearts. There is such a thing as conscientious errorteaching
and devil serving. The warning of Jesus is, that ye take heedthat no man lead
you astrayin doctrine or morals, through holding up a false standard of
conduct, or a false interpretation of God's Word.
(Sunday SchoolTimes.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(4) When shall these things be?—Note, as, perhaps, characteristicofa Gospel
written for Gentiles, the use of the vaguer words for the more definite “signof
Thy coming, and of the end of the world,” in Matthew 24:3.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
13:1-4 See how little Christ values outward pomp, where there is not real
purity of heart. He looks with pity upon the ruin of precious souls, and weeps
over them, but we do not find him look with pity upon the ruin of a fine house.
Let us then be reminded how needful it is for us to have a more lasting abode
in heaven, and to be prepared for it by the influences of the Holy Spirit,
sought in the earnestuse of all the means of grace.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
On the mount of Olives, over againstthe temple - The Mount of Olives was
directly eastof Jerusalem, and from it there was a fine view of the temple.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary

4. Tellus, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all
these things shall be fulfilled?—"and what shall be the sign of Thy coming,
and of the end of the world?" They no doubt lookedupon the date of all these
things as one and the same, and their notions of the things themselves were as
confusedas of the times of them. Our Lord takes His own way of meeting
their questions.
Prophecies ofthe Destructionof Jerusalem(Mr 13:5-31).
Matthew Poole's Commentary
See Poole on"Mr 13.3"
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Tell us when shall these things be?.... When the temple will be destroyed, and
these fine buildings shall be demolished, and not one of these large stones shall
be left upon another:
and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled? And what is
the signof his coming, and of the end of the world, as Matthew relates;See
Gill on Matthew 24:3.
Geneva Study Bible
Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these
things shall be fulfilled?
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Expositor's Greek Testament
Mark 13:4. The question of the four has exclusive reference to the predicted
destruction of the sacredbuildings. In Mt. three questions are mixed together:
vide notes there.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges

4. what shall be the sign] The question is given more fully by St Matthew,
Matthew 24:3. It embracedthree points: (i) the time of the destruction of the
Temple; the sign(ii) of His Coming, and (iii) of the end of the world.
Bengel's Gnomen
Mark 13:4. Ταῦτα, these things) viz. as concerns the temple.—πάντα ταῦτα,
all these things) viz. as concerns notonly the temple, but also all other things,
that is, the whole world.
(5) And Jesus answering them began to say.—The report which follows,
common as it is to the first three Gospels, serves as anadmirable example of
the extent of variation compatible with substantial accuracy, and with the
recognitionof an inspired guidance as ensuring that accuracy. The discourse
obviously made a deep impression on those who heard it, as afterwards on
those to whom they repeatedit, and so it passedfrom mouth to mouth, but
probably it was not committed to writing till the events which it foretold came
within the horizon. On all points common to the three records, see Notes on
Matthew 24.
13:5-13 Our Lord Jesus, in reply to the disciples'question, does not so much
satisfy their curiosity as direct their consciences.Whenmany are deceived, we
should thereby be awakenedto look to ourselves. And the disciples of Christ,
if it be not their own fault, may enjoy holy security and peace ofmind, when
all around is in disorder. But they must take heed that they are not drawn
awayfrom Christ and their duty to him, by the sufferings they will meet with
for his sake. Theyshall be hated of all men: trouble enough! Yet the work
they were calledto should be carried on and prosper. Though they may be

crushed and borne down, the gospelcannotbe. The salvationpromised is
more than deliverance from evil, it is everlasting blessedness.
5. And Jesus answering them beganto say, Take heed lestany man deceive
you:
Ver. 5,6. See Poole on"Matthew 24:4". See Poole on"Matthew 24:5". This is
the first sign, fulfilled before the destruction of Jerusalemin part, and which
had been fulfilling ever since;and probably before the day of judgment the
number of such impostors will increase.
And Jesus answering them,.... His four disciples, Peter, John, James, and
Andrew: "beganto say";or "said", a way of speaking frequent with this
evangelist:
take heed lest any man deceive you; See Gill on Matthew 24:4.
Geneva Study Bible
And Jesus answering them beganto say, Take heedlest any man deceive you:
Mark 13:5-8. Signs prelusive of the end (Matthew 24:4-8, Luke 21:8-11).
Jerusalem’s judgment-day not to come till certain things have happened:
advent of false Messiahs, rise of wars.—βλέπετε, take heedthat no one deceive
you; the ethicalkey-note struck at once;the aim of the whole discourse to help

disciples to keepheads cool, and hearts brave in a perilous evil time (vide on
Mt.).
5. Take heed]“The four moral key-notes of the Discourseon the Last Things
are “Beware,”“Watch,”“Endure,” “Pray.” Farrar, Life, ii. p. 258.
Bengel's Gnomen
Mark 13:5. Ἤρξατο, He began) PreviouslyHe had not spokenmuch
concerning these things.
Pulpit Commentary
Verses 5, 6. - Take heedthat no man lead you astray. The Greek wordis
πλανήση. Their first temptation would be of this kind - that many would come
in Christ's name, saying, "I am he;" claiming, that is, the title which belonged
to him alone. Such were Theudas (Acts 5:36) and Simon Magus (Acts 8:10),
who, according to Jerome, said, "Ego sum Sermo Dei, ego speciosus, ego
Paracletus, egoomnipotens, ego omnia." Such were Menander and the
Gnostics.
(6) I am Christ.—Literally, I am He. The word Christ being a necessary
inference from the context.
MacLaren's Expositions
Mark
THE CREDULITY OF UNBELIEF

Mark 13:6. - Luke 18:8.
It was the same generationthat is representedin these two texts as void of
faith in the Son of Man, and as credulously giving heed to impostors. Unbelief
and superstition are closelyallied. Religionis so vital a necessity, that if the
true form of it be castaside, some false form will be eagerlyseized in order to
fill the aching void. Men cannot permanently live without some sort of a faith
in the Unseen, but they candetermine whether it shall be a worthy recognition
of a worthy conceptionof that Unseen, or a debasing superstition. An epochof
materialism in philosophic thought has always been followedby violent
reaction, in which quacks and fanatics have reapedrich harvests. If the dark
is not peopled with one loved Face, ourbusy imagination will fill it with a
crowdof horrible ones.
Just as a sailor, looking out into the night over a solitary, islandless sea, sees
shapes;intolerant of the islandless expanse, makes land out of fogbanks;and,
sick of silence, hears ‘airy tongues’in the moanings of the wind and the slow
roll of the waves, so men shudderingly look into the dark unknown, and if
they see not their Father there, will either shut their eyes or strain them in
gazing it into shape. The sight of Him is religion, the closedeye is infidelity,
the strained gaze is superstition. The secondand the third are eachso
unsatisfying that they perpetually pass over into one another and destroy one
another, as when I shut my eyes, I see slowlyshaping itself a colouredimage of
my eye, which soonflickers and fluctuates into black nothingness again, and
then rises once more, once more to fade. Men, if they believe not in God, then
do service to ‘them which by nature are no gods.’
But let us come to more immediately Christian thoughts. Christ does what
men so urgently require to be done, that if they do not believe in Him they will
be forced to shape out for themselves some fanciedways of doing it. The
emotions which men cherishtowards Him so irrepressibly need an object to

rest on, that if not He, then some far less worthy one, will be chosento receive
them.
It is just to the illustration of these thoughts that I seek to turn now, and in
such alternatives as these-
I. ReceptionofChrist as the Revealeris the only escapefrom unmanly
submission to unworthy pretenders.
That function is one which the instincts of men teachthem that they need.
Christ comes to satisfy the need as the visible true embodiment of the Father’s
love, of the Father’s wisdom.
If He be rejected-whatthen? Why, not that the men who reject will
contentedly continue in darkness-thatis never possible; but that some manner
or other of satisfying the clamant need will be had recourse to, and then that
to it will be transferred the submission and credence that should have been
His. If we have Him for our Teacherand Guide, then all other teachers and
guides will take their right places. We shall not angrily repel their power, nor
talk loudly about ‘the right of private judgment,’ and our independence of all
men’s thoughts. We are not so independent. We shall thankfully acceptall
help from all men wiser, better, more manly than ourselves, whetherthey give
us uttered words of wisdom and beauty, having ‘grace poured into their lips,’
or whether they give us lives ennobled by strenuous effort, or whether they
give us greatertreasure than all these-the sight once more of a loving heart.
All is good, all is helpful, all we shall receive;but in proportion to the felt
obligations we are laid under to them will be the felt authority of that saying,
‘Call no man your master on earth, for One is your Master, evenChrist.’ That

command forbids our slavishly accepting any human domination over our
faith, but it no less emphatically forbids our contemptuously rejecting any
human helper of our joy, for it closes with‘and all ye are brethren’-bound
then to mutual observance, mutual helpfulness, mutual respectfor each
other’s individuality, mutual avoidance of needless division. To have Him for
his Guide makes the human guide gentle and tender among his disciples ‘as a
nurse among her children,’ for he remembers ‘the gentleness ofChrist,’ and
he dare not be other than an imitator of Him. A Christian teacher’s spirit will
always be, ‘not for that we have dominion over your faith, but we are helpers
of your joy’; his most earnestword, ‘I beseechyou, therefore, brethren’; his
constantdesire, ‘He must increase. I must decrease.’And to have Christ for
our Guide makes the taught lovingly submissive to all who by largeness of
gifts and gracesare setby Him above them, and yet lovingly recalcitrantat
any attempt to compel adhesionor force dogmas. The one freedom from
undue dependence on men and men’s opinions lies in this submission to Jesus.
Then we cansay, when need is, ‘I have a Master. To Him I submit; if you seek
to be master, I demur: of them who seemedto be somewhat, whatsoever they
were, it maketh no matter to me.’
But the greatestdangeris not that our guides shall insist on our submission,
but that we shall insist on giving it. It is for all of us such a burden to have the
managementof our own fate, the forming of our own opinions, the fearful
responsibility of our owndestiny, that we are all only too ready to say to some
man or other, from love or from laziness, ‘Where thou goest, Iwill go; thy
people shall be my people, and thy God my God.’
Few things are more strange and tragic than the eagernesswith which people
who are a great dealtoo enlightened to render allegiance to Jesus Christwill
install some teacherof their ownchoosing as their authoritative master, will
swallow his dicta, swearby him, and glory in being calledby his name. What
they think it derogatoryto their mental independence to give to the Teacherof
Nazareth, they freely give to their chosenoracle. It is not in ‘the last times’

only that men who will not endure sound teaching ‘heap to themselves
teachers aftertheir own lusts,’ and have ‘the ears’ which are fastclosedto
‘the Truth’ wide open ‘to fables.’
On the small scale we see this melancholy perversity of conduct exemplified in
every little coterie and schoolof unbelievers.
On the greatscale Mohammedanismand Buddhism, with their millions of
adherents, write the same tragic truth large in the history of the world.
II. Faith in the reconciling Christ is the only sure deliverance from debasing
reliance on false means of reconciliation.
In a very profound sense ignorance andsin are the same fact regardedunder
two different aspects. And in the depths of their natures men have the longing
for some Powerwho shall put awaysin, as they have the longing for one that
will dispel ignorance. The consciousnessofalienationfrom Godlies in the
human heart, dormant indeed for the most part, but like a coiled, hibernating
snake, readyto wake andstrike its poison into the veins. Christ by His great
work, and speciallyby His sacrificialdeath, meets that universal need.
But closelyas His work fits men’s needs, it sharply opposes some of their
wishes, and of their interpretations of their needs. The Jew ‘demands a sign,’
the Greek craves a reasonedsystemof ‘wisdom,’ and both concur in finding
the Cross an‘offence.’
But the rejectionof Jesus as the Reconcilerdoes notquiet the cravings, which
make themselves heard at some time or other in most consciences,for

deliverance from the dominion and from the guilt of sin. And men are driven
to adopt other expedients to fill up the void which their turning away from
Jesus has left. Sometimes they fall back on a vague reliance on a vague
assertionthat ‘God is merciful’; sometimes they reasonthemselves into a
belief-or, at any rate, an assertion-thatthe conceptionof sin is an error, and
that men are not guilty. Sometimes they manage to silence the inward voice
that accusesandcondemns, by dint of not listening to it or drowning it by
other noises.
But these expedients fail them some time or other, and then, if they have not
castthe burden of their sin and their sins on the great Reconciler, they either
have to weary themselves with painful and vain efforts to be their own
redeemers, or they fall under the domination of a priest.
Hence the hideous penances ofheathenism; and hence, too, the power of
sacramentarianand sacerdotalperversions ofevangelicaltruth.
III. Faith in Christ as the Regeneratoris the only deliverance from baseless
hopes for the world.
The world is today full of moaning voices crying, ‘Art thou He that should
come, or do we look for another?’ and it is full of confident voices proclaiming
other means of its regenerationthan letting Christ ‘make all things new.’
The convictionthat societyneeds to be reconstitutedon other principles is
spread everywhere, and is often associatedwith intense disbelief in Christ the
Regenerator.

Has not the past proved that all schemes forthe regenerationofsocietywhich
do not grapple with the fact of sin, and which do not provide a means of
infusing into human nature a new impulse and direction, will end in failure,
and are only too likely to end in blood? These two requirements are met by
Jesus, and by Him only, and whoeverrejects Him and His gift of pardon and
cleansing, and His inbreathing of a new life into the individual, will fail in his
effort, howeverearnestand noble in many aspects, to redeem societyand
bring about a fair new world.
It is pitiable to see the waste of high aspiration and eagereffort in so many
quarters today. But that waste is sure to attend every scheme which does not
start from the recognitionof Christ’s work as the basis of the world’s
transformation, and does not crown Him as the King, because He is the
Saviour, of mankind.

6. Formany shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ—(see Mt 24:5)—
"and the time draweth nigh" (Lu 21:8); that is, the time of the kingdom in its
full splendor.
and shall deceive many—"Go ye not therefore after them" (Lu 21:8). The
reference here seems not to be to pretended Messiahs, deceiving those who
rejectedthe claims of Jesus, ofwhom indeed there were plenty—for our Lord
is addressing His owngenuine disciples—but to persons pretending to be
Jesus Himself, returned in glory to take possessionofHis kingdom. This gives
peculiar force to the words, "Go ye not therefore after them."
See Poole on"Mark 13:6"
For many shall come in my name,.... Taking upon them the name of the
Messiah:saying,
I am Christ; the word "Christ", is rightly supplied from Matthew 24:5;
otherwise in the original it is only, "I am"; which the Persic version doubles,
reading it, "I am indeed, I:am": he that was promised and expected, the true
Messiah;he that was to come:
and shall deceive many; See Gill on Matthew 24:5.
Geneva Study Bible
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive
many.

Mark 13:6. ἐγώ εἰμι, I am (He, the Christ). In what sense to be understood
vide on Mt. The Messianic hope misconceivedwas the ruin of the Jewish
people.
6. many shall come]Five tokens are here given, to which the Lord directs the
attention of His disciples:(i) the rise of false prophets; (ii) wars and rumours
of wars;(iii) the rising of nation againstnation; (iv) earthquakes;(v) famines
(some MSS. omit troubles); but the Apostles were not to be terrified, these
things were
Bengel's Gnomen
Mark 13:6. Ἐγὼ εἰμι, I am) The Predicate is to be supplied, viz. the Christ;
Matthew 24:5. Hebrew ‫ינא‬ ‫,אוה‬ Isaiah 43:10.
Vincent's Word Studies
In my name (ἐπί)
Lit., upon. Basing their claims on the use of my name.
(7) For such things must needs be.—Better, for it must needs be.

7. And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled—
(See on [1490]Mr13:13, and compare Isa 8:11-14).
for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet—In Luke (Lu
21:9), "the end is not by and by," or "immediately." Worse must come before
all is over.
Ver. 7,8. Matthew adds pestilences. Luke saith, pestilences,and fearful sights
and greatsigns from heaven. See Poole on "Matthew 24:6", and following
verses to Matthew 24:8. Here are two or three more signs put together:
1. Wars, and rumours of wars;greatcommotions in nations, which though
they may be at other times, yet probably may be more extraordinary before
the day of judgment.
2. Famines, pestilences,and earthquakes.
3. Fearfulsights, and apparitions in the air and the heavens. Such there were
(as Josephus tells us) before the destruction of Jerusalem;and though these

things be seenbefore the lastday, yet it is most probable they will be greater
before the day of judgment than at any time before; and for fearful sights, and
greatsigns from heaven, they ordinarily go before some greatjudgment of
God upon places, and therefore the observationof them by the heathen (as we
learn by Livy and others) seems but to be a piece of natural religion; and
Christ giving these things as signs of the approaching ruin, first of Jerusalem,
then of the world, will make thinking Christians behold them with a religious
fear, though not to undertake to expound them particularly or prophesy upon
them.
Certainly we ought to look upon them as prognosticating some greatwork of
God, and usually of judgment upon sinners.
And when ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars,....Among the Jews
themselves, and with the Romans:
be not troubled; keepyour place, abide by your work, go on preaching the
Gospel, without distressing yourselves about the event of things:
for such things must needs be: being decreedby God, foretold by Christ, and
made necessaryby the sins of the people:
but the end shall not be yet; of the temple, of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish
state and nation; See Gill on Matthew 24:6.
Geneva Study Bible
And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for
such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.

Mark 13:7 πολέμους:first pseudo-Messiahs preaching nationalindependence;
then, naturally, as a secondσημεῖον, wars, actualor threatened (ἀκοὰς
πολ.).—μὴ θροεῖσθε:good counsel, cheerfulin tone, laconic in expression= be
not scared;they must happen; but the end not yet. The disconnectedstyle, no
γὰρ after δεῖ ([120][121]), suits the emotionalprophetic mood.—τὸ τέλος, the
crisis of Jerusalem.
[120]Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile
type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.
[121]Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889
under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 7. - Wars and rumors of wars. "Rumours of wars" are mentioned,
because they are often worse and more distressing than wars themselves;
according to the saying, "Pejorest belle timer ipse belli." Be not troubled; be
not troubled, that is, so as to let go your faith in me, through fear of the
enemy, or through despairof any fruit of your apostolic labors;but persevere
steadfastlyto preach faith in me and in my gospel. These things must needs
come to pass; but the end is not yet. There would be a succession ofcalamities,
one leading on to another. But they must take courage, and prepare
themselves for greaterevils, not hoping for lasting peace on earth, but by
patient endurance of evils here, reachonwards to a blessedand eternal rest in
heaven. Our Lord, when his disciples askedhim, as in one breath, about the
destruction of their city, replied obscurely and ambiguously; mingling
togetherthe two events, in order that his disciples and the faithful through all
times might be prepared, and never takenby surprise. Some of our Lord's
predictions, however, clearlyrefer to the generationthen living on the earth.

Rumors of wars
Wyc., opinions of battles. Such as would be a cause of terror to the Hebrew
Christians; as the three threats of war againstthe Jews by Caligula, Claudius,
and Nero. There were serious disturbances at Alexandria, a.d. 38, in which the
Jews were the especialobjects ofpersecution;at Seleucia aboutthe same time,
in which more than fifty thousand Jews were killed; and at Jamnia, near
Joppa.
Troubled (θροεῖσθε)
Θροέω is, literally, to cry aloud.
Earthquakes
Betweenthe prophecy and the destruction of Jerusalem(a.d. 70) occurred:A
greatearthquake in Crete, a.d. 46 or 47:at Rome, on the day on which Nero
entered his majority, a.d. 51:at Apameia, in Phrygia, a.d. 53; "on accountof
which," says Tacitus, "they were exempted from tribute for five years:" at
Laodicea, in Phrygia, a.d. 60:in Campania, a.d. 63, by which, according to
Tacitus, the city of Pompeii was largelydestroyed.
Famines
During the reign of Claudius, a.d. 41-54:, four famines are recorded:One at
Rome, a.d. 41, 42;one in Judaea, a.d. 44; one in Greece, a.d. 50;and again at
Rome, a.d. 52, when the people rose in rebellion and threatened the life of the
emperor. Tacitus says that it was accompaniedby frequent earthquakes,
which levelled houses. The famine in Judaea was probably the one prophesied

by Agabus, Acts 11:28. Of the year 65 a.d., Tacitus says:"This year, disgraced
by so many deeds of horror, was further distinguished by the gods with
storms and sicknesses. Campania was devastatedby a hurricane which
overthrew buildings, trees, and the fruits of the soilin every direction, even to
the gates ofthe city, within which a pestilence thinned all ranks of the
population, with no atmospheric disturbance that the eye could trace. The
houses were chokedwith dead, the roads with funerals: neither sexnor age
escaped. Slavesand freemen perished equally amid the wailings of their wives
and children, who were often hurried to the pyre by which they had satin
tears, and consumedtogetherwith them. The deaths of knights and senators,
promiscuous as they were, deservedthe less to be lamented, inasmuch as,
falling by the common lot of mortality, they seemedto anticipate the prince's
cruelty" ("Annals," xvi., 10-13).

8. These are the beginnings of sorrows—"oftravail-pangs," to which heavy
calamities are compared. (See Jer 4:31, &c.). The annals of Tacitus tell us how
the Romanworld was convulsed, before the destruction of Jerusalem, by rival
claimants of the imperial purple.
See Poole on"Mark 13:7"
For nation shall rise againstnation,.... The nations of the world one against
another, and the Romans againstthe Jews, and the Jews againstthem:
and kingdom againstkingdom; which is a synonymous phrase with the
former, and what the Jews call, , "different words", expressing the same
thing, often used in their commentaries:
and there shall be earthquakes in divers places;of the world:
and there shall be famines: especiallyin Judea, as in the times of Claudius
Caesar, andat the siege ofJerusalem:
and troubles; public ones of various sorts, as tumults, seditions, murders, &c.
This word is omitted in the Vulgate Latin, and Ethiopic versions.
These are the beginnings of sorrows;as of a woman with child, as the word
signifies;whose pains before, though they are the beginnings and pledges of
what shall come after, are not to be comparedwith those that immediately
precede, and attend the birth of the child: and so all those troubles, which
should be some time before the destruction of Jerusalem, would be but small,
but light afflictions, the beginning of sorrows, in comparisonof what should

immediately go before, and attend that desolation;See Gill on Matthew 24:7,
Matthew 24:8.
Geneva Study Bible
For nation shall rise againstnation, and kingdom againstkingdom: and there
shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles:
these are the beginnings of sorrows.
Mark 13:8. ἔσονται σεισμοὶ, etc., there will be earthquakes in places;there
will be famines. Here againthe briefestreading without connecting particles
(καὶ, καὶ) is to be preferred, as suiting the abrupt style congenialto the
prophetic mood. The καὶ ταραχαί afterλιμοὶ may have fallen out of [122]
[123][124][125]by homoeoteleuton(ἀρχαὶ following immediately after), but
after earthquakes and famines disturbances seems an anticlimax.
[122]Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile
type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.
[123]Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889
under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
[124]Codex Bezae
[125]Codex Regius--eighthcentury, represents an ancient text, and is often in
agreementwith ‫א‬ and B.

8. the beginnings of sorrows]rather, of birth-pangs. The word only occurs in
four places in the N. T. Here; in the parallel, Matthew 24:8; in Acts 2:24,
“having loosedthe pains (rather the pangs)of death;” and 1 Thessalonians
5:3, “then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail (or birth-pangs)
upon a woman with child.” The occurrence ofthe expressionhere is
remarkable, and recals other places of Scripture, where Creationis said to be
“groaning and travailing” (Romans 8:22), waiting for its regeneration
(Matthew 19:28) or New Birth. For the fulfilment of these prophecies comp.
Jos. Ant. xix. 1; Tac. Ann. xii. 38, xv. 22, xvi. 13; Sen. Ep. xci. Tacitus
describing the epoch (Hist. i. 2) calls it “opimum casibus, atroxpræliis, discors
seditionibus, ipsâ etiam pace sævum.” These “signs”then ushered in the
epochof the destruction of Jerusalem, but realized on a largerscale they are
to herald the End of all things; comp. 1 Thessalonians 5:3;2 Thessalonians
2:2.
STUDYLIGHTRESOURCES
verse 13
The Biblical Illustrator
Mark 13:4
Tell us, when shall these things be?
Date fixing

That’s it! Fix the date of the coming failure, or the coming triumph. All of us
are ready to join in that request. How we long to have the veil of the future
lifted; and how well it is that the Lord does not gratify our longing in this.
There is no greaterblessing to us than God’s concealmentof our future.
There could be no surer curse from God than his opening before our eyes the
pathway of our lives, so that we could see it to its very end. What heart
breaking that would bring into a myriad homes! What a checking too, on
every side, of hope and aspirationand noble endeavour! How it would
paralyze loving effort, and check or destroy neededtenderness of love and
deed in kindly ministry! We know not what we ask, when we crave an insight
into the future. God knows what He does, and why, when He refuses every
request of this kind from His loved and loving ones. (Sunday SchoolTimes.)
Leading astray
It is quite as important not to be led astrayby false religious teachers as by
any other class ofdeceivers or deceived;and there is quite as much danger in
this line as in any other. Sincerity on our part is no guard againstdeceptionor
wandering; nor is sincerity a safeguardto a religious teacher. Those who are
themselves both honestand sincere would lead us astray if we followed them
in their wrong path. There is danger of our being led astray by the sermons
we hear, the papers or the books we read, the counselor example of those
whom we have supposedto be godly, or by the impulses or convictions of our
own minds and hearts. There is such a thing as conscientious errorteaching
and devil serving. The warning of Jesus is, that ye take heedthat no man lead
you astrayin doctrine or morals, through holding up a false standard of
conduct, or a false interpretation of God’s Word. (Sunday SchoolTimes.)
Copyright Statement

These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Exell, JosephS. "Commentary on "Mark 13:4". The Biblical Illustrator.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tbi/mark-13.html. 1905-1909.
New York.
Return to Jump List return to 'Jump List'
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
Tell us when shall these things be?.... When the temple will be destroyed, and
these fine buildings shall be demolished, and not one of these large stones shall
be left upon another:
and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled? And what is
the signof his coming, and of the end of the world, as Matthew relates;See
Gill on Matthew 24:3.
Copyright Statement
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernisedand adapted
for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved,
Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard
Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Bibliography

Gill, John. "Commentary on Mark 13:4". "The New John Gill Expositionof
the Entire Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/mark-
13.html. 1999.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
things shall be fulfilled? — “and what shall be the signof Thy coming, and of
the end of the world?” They no doubt lookedupon the date of all these things
as one and the same, and their notions of the things themselves were as
confusedas of the times of them. Our Lord takes His own way of meeting
their questions.
Copyright Statement
These files are a derivative of an electronic edition prepared from text
scannedby Woodside Bible Fellowship.
This expanded edition of the Jameison-Faussett-BrownCommentary is in the
public domain and may be freely used and distributed.
Bibliography
Jamieson, Robert, D.D.;Fausset,A. R.; Brown, David. "Commentary on
Mark 13:4". "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jfb/mark-13.html. 1871-8.
Robertson's WordPictures in the New Testament

Tell us, when shall these things be? (Ειπον ημιν ποτε ταυτα εσται — Eipon
hēmin pote tauta estai̱). The RevisedVersion punctuates it as a direct
question, but Westcottand Hort as an indirect inquiry. They askedaboutthe
when (ποτε — pote) and the what sign (τι σημειον — ti sēmeion). Matthew
24:3 includes “the sign of thy coming and the end of the world,” showing that
these tragic events are brought before Jesus by the disciples. See discussionof
the interpretation of this discourse on Matthew 24:3. This chapter in Mark is
often called“The Little Apocalypse” with the notion that a Jewishapocalypse
has been here adapted by Mark and attributed to Jesus. Manyof the theories
attribute grave error to Jesus orto the Gospels onthis subject. The view
adopted in the discussionin Matthew is the one suggestedhere, that Jesus
blended in one picture his death, the destruction of Jerusalemwithin that
generation, the second coming and end of the world typified by the
destruction of the city. The lines betweenthese topics are not sharply drawn
in the report and it is not possible for us to separate the topics clearly. This
greatdiscourse is the longestpreservedin Mark and may be due to Peter.
Mark may have given it in order “to forewarnand forearm” (Bruce) the
readers againstthe coming catastrophe ofthe destruction of Jerusalem. Both
Matthew (Matthew 24)and Luke (Luke 21:5-36)follow the generalline of
Mark 13 though Matthew 24:43-25:46 presents new material (parables).
Copyright Statement
The Robertson's WordPictures of the New Testament. Copyright �
Broadman Press 1932,33,Renewal1960. All rights reserved. Used by
permission of Broadman Press (Southern BaptistSunday SchoolBoard)
Bibliography
Robertson, A.T. "Commentary on Mark 13:4". "Robertson's WordPictures
of the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/rwp/mark-13.html.
Broadman Press 1932,33.Renewal1960.

Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
Two questions are here asked;the one concerning the destruction of
Jerusalem:the other concerning the end of the world.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website.
Bibliography
Wesley, John. "Commentary on Mark 13:4". "JohnWesley's Explanatory
Notes on the Whole Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/wen/mark-13.html. 1765.
John Trapp Complete Commentary
4 Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these

Ver. 4. Shall be fulfilled] or, have an end, συντελεισθαι, that is, be destroyed,
as Matthew 13:2. Which yet these apostles held not destroyable till the world’s
destruction, as appears Matthew 24:1-51.
Cambridge Greek Testamentfor Schools andColleges
4. Εἰπὸν ἡμῖν. All three recordthese two questions, When? and What sign?
The disciples want to know how soonthe Temple will be destroyed, and what
will give warning that the destruction is very near. The sing., τὸ σημεῖον, is in
all three; one manifest signalis expected. They accept, without question, that
the destructionwill take place, just as they acceptthe equally appalling
statementthat one of them is a traitor (Mark 14:19). They probably assumed
that the end of the world would immediately follow the destruction, an
assumption which Christ does not directly correct. Experience would do that,
as soonas correctionwas necessary. Εἰπόνis from the 1staor. εἶπα.
συντελεῖσθαι. Nowhere else in Mk. It is used of days being completed, Luke
4:2; Acts 21:27;Job 1:5; Tobit 10:7. The πάντα comes lastwith emphasis,
ταῦτα συντ. πάντα being the right order; but the meaning of ταῦτα πάντα is
not clear. Christ’s reply is about the Parusia. Mt. here makes use of two
expressions whichno other Evangelistemploys, παρουσία and συντέλεια τοῦ
αἰῶνος.
PeterPett's Commentary on the Bible
“Tellus, when shall these things be, and what will be the sign when these
things are all about to be accomplished?”
The disciples then askedwhenall these things were to be, and what signs
would warn of their approach. Certain points should be noted here.

'b7 Firstly that they were asking concerning the Temple that they were
looking at, not some mythical Temple of the future.
'b7 Secondlythat it was the destruction of that Temple that the disciples had
in mind.
'b7 And thirdly that Mark does not mention any other question. He wants to
concentrate attentionon the destruction of the Temple and the events that
lead up to it and surround it. And that, to Mark, is therefore what ‘these
things’ refers to.
Howeverit was such a devastating idea that both he and the disciples, with
their limited insight, would undoubtedly think of it in the same terms as the
coming final consummation. They had after all no conceptionat this stage of
the many centuries still lying aheadbefore Christ’s secondcoming. But Jesus,
although He dealt with both aspects, did not specificallydifferentiate them.
They were two ‘mountains’ that lay ahead. The distance betweenthem was
irrelevant. He was also aware ofthe coming age of the Gentiles that would
follow the destruction of the Temple (Luke 21:24) although He did not know
how long it would be.
So in Mark there were two questions. Firstly, when will these things be? Jesus
then went on to describe the events that would take place in the years that
were coming, and then finally assuredthem that ‘this generationwill not pass
awayuntil all these thing are accomplished’(Mark 13:30).
Secondly, what will be the sign when all these things are to be accomplished?
Jesus answeredby outlining the events which would precede it and then
depicted the final sign, that of ‘the Desolating Abomination’, a combination of

destruction and blasphemous idolatry inflicted on the holy city itself, fulfilled
when the Roman legions first surrounded and then poured into the city with
their idolatrous standards (Luke 21:24) and Titus entered the Holy Place just
before it was destroyedby fire (probably with his standard bearer). The Jews
were appalled and infuriated, and fought fanaticallybut hopelessly. To them
it was certainly the Desolating Abomination. (With regardto Titus we should
remember when reading Josephus that he wanted to vindicate Titus. Other
near contemporary historians were not so kind to him).
Then Jesus finally sealedoff the matter by describing cataclysmic events as
following this, which would leadup to His own return, the date of which He
clearly statedthat He did not know (Mark 13:32).
Now while it is true that Matthew opens up a wider field (Matthew 24:3),
Mark deliberately does not do so. He thus made clearthat, in his view as an
inspired writer, the destruction of the Temple before their eyes was the main
thing in Jesus’mind. Luke agrees withMark. Thus we do well to heed the
words of Scripture.
Jesus then outlined the coming dreadful cataclysms (Mark 13:5-8);the
coming persecutions onthe people of God and the successofthe Gospel(Mark
13:9-13);the Desolating Abomination itself (Mark 13:14-20);followedby even
more cataclysm(Mark 13:21-25);and then the coming of Christ in glory
(Mark 13:26-27). As Jesus specificallystatedin contextthat He did not know
the time of His coming that is to clearly to be excluded from the ‘these things’
of Mark 13:30. Thus Jesus did go beyond answering their question, but only
once He had answeredit fully and in detail.
What follows is mainly generaluntil we come to the destruction of Jerusalem
itself. It happened in the days prior to that destruction, and it continued after

that destruction for it is simply the outworking of history. It is mainly the
result of what man is and of the effectiveness ofthe Gospel.
Schaff's Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mark 13:4. When these things are all about to be accomplished. In all three
accounts ‘the sign’ is askedfor. The full form of the question here given
(especiallythe position of ‘all’) shows mat they classedtogetherthe
destruction of Jerusalem, the return of our Lord and the end of the world, as
one greatseries ofevents, about which He had often spokento them. Hence
both are spokenof in the answer, though not joined in time.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged
things shall be fulfilled? - "and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of
the end of the world?" [ sunteleias (Greek #4930)tou(Greek #3588)aioonos
(Greek #165)]. Theyno doubt lookedupon the date of all these things as one
and the same, and their notions of the things themselves were as confusedas
of the times of them. Our Lord takes His own way of meeting their questions.
VERSE 5

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible
And Jesus beganto sayunto them, Take heedthat no man leadyou astray.
Many shall come in my name, saying, I am he; and shall lead many astray.
Although primarily addressedto the apostles, there are nevertheless overtones
in this extending to eternity.
Many shall come in my name ... Matthew quoted Christ as saying that these
impostors shall claim to be the Christ. Bickerstethsaid, "Such(false christs)
were Theudas (Acts 5:36) and Simon Magus (Acts 8:10)."[19]The latter,
according to Jerome, claimed to be Almighty God in the flesh, clearly an
example of a false Christ. The apostles were admonishednot to be led astray
by such claims; and the admonition is binding upon Christians of all
generations who are continually tempted by all kinds of impostors and
charlatans pretending divine honors.
I am he ... There is a variation in Mark's recordthat should be noted. The
Greek text omits "he," evidently supplied by the translators with respectto
Matthew's account. However, it is not necessaryto "reconcile"the two by any
such device, for the Lord made both statements. Mark's quotationof the Lord
refers to impostors claiming to be "God," that being the meaning of "I AM,"
as in Exodus 3:6,14;Matthew 22:32;John 8:58, etc. The current era has had
severalsuch.
ENDNOTE:
[19] E. Bickersteth, op. cit., p. 197.

Copyright Statement
James Burton Coffman Commentaries reproduced by permission of Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. All other rights reserved.
Bibliography
Coffman, James Burton. "Commentary on Mark 13:5". "Coffman
Commentaries on the Old and New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/mark-13.html. Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.
And Jesus answering them,.... His four disciples, Peter, John, James, and
Andrew: "beganto say";or "said", a way of speaking frequent with this
evangelist:
take heed lest any man deceive you; See Gill on Matthew 24:4.
Copyright Statement

Bibliography
13.html. 1999.
Mark 13:5-31. Prophecies ofthe destruction of Jerusalem.
And Jesus answering them beganto say, Take heedlest any man deceive you:
Copyright Statement
Bibliography

Take needthat no man lead you astray (λεπετε μη τις μας πλανησηι —
Blepete mē tis hūmās planēsēi). Same words in Matthew 24:4. Luke 21:8 has it
“that ye be not led astray” (μη πλανητητε — mē planēthēte). This word
πλαναω — planaō (our planet) is a bold one. This warning runs through the
whole discussion. It is pertinent today after so many centuries. About the false
Christs then and now see Matthew 24:5. It is amazing the success thatthese
charlatans have through the ages in winning the empty-pated to their hare-
brained views. Only this morning as I am writing a prominent English
psychologisthas challengedthe world to a radio communication with Mars
asserting that he has made frequent trips to Mars and communicated with its
allegedinhabitants. And the daily papers put his ebullitions on the front page.
For discussionof the details in Mark 13:6-8 see notes on Matthew 24:5-8. All
through the ages in spite of the words of Jesus men have sought to apply the
picture here drawn to the particular calamity in their time.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
The Fourfold Gospel

Tell us, when shall these things be? and what [shall be] the signwhen these
things are all about to be accomplished?
Tell us, when shall these things be? and what [shall be] the signwhen these
things are all about to be accomplished? See also Matthew 24:3;Luke 21:7.
Dismayed by the brief words which Jesus had spokenas he was leaving the
temple, these four disciples askedfor fuller details. Their question is fourfold.
(1) When shall the temple be destroyed? (2) What shall be the signs which
precede its destruction? (3) What shall be the sign of Christ's coming? (4)
What shall be the sign of the end of the world? Jesus had said nothing of his
coming nor of the end of the world, but to these four disciples the destruction
of the temple seemedan event of such magnitude that they could not but
associate itwith the end of all things. Jesus deals with the first two questions
in this section, and with the remaining two in Section114. See Luke 21:7.
Copyright Statement
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website. These files
were made available by Mr. Ernie Stefanik. First published online in 1996 at
The RestorationMovementPages.
Bibliography
J. W. McGarveyand Philip Y. Pendleton. "Commentaryon Mark 13:5".
"The Fourfold Gospel".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tfg/mark-13.html. Standard
Publishing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. 1914.
5 And Jesus answering them beganto say, Take heedlest any man deceive
you:

Ver. 5. And Jesus answering them, &c.]Not directly to their question, but far
better to their edification. This was ordinary with our Saviour.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Trapp, John. "Commentary on Mark 13:5". John Trapp Complete
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/mark-
13.html. 1865-1868.
Expository Notes with PracticalObservations onthe New Testament
Here, and in the following verses, ourSaviour gives his disciples the signs
which should forerun the destruction of Jerusalem. The first of which was
this, that there should arise false Christs, false prophets, and seducers;such as
Theudas, and others, under the name and personof the Messiah, some
affirming themselves to be Christ personal, or the promised Messiah;others
to be Christ doctrinal, affirming their erroneous opinions to be the mind and
doctrine of Jesus Christ.
Learn hence, That as there will be many seducers before the end of the world
(for Jerusalem's destructionwas a type and emblem of the world's
destruction) and many will be seducedand misled by them: so it is the duty of

Christ's own disciples to take heed lest they, being also led awayby the error
of the wicked, do fall from their own stedfastness:Take heed, says Christ, that
no man deceive you: for many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and
will deceive many.
The secondsignof Jerusalem's destructionwas, wars and rumors of wars;
that is, civil broils, and intestine commotions among themselves;as also
famines and earthquakes.
Whence note, That warand fire, earthquakes and famines, are judgments and
calamities inflicted by God upon sinful people, for their contempt of Christ
and gospelgrace.
2. That although these be very terrible judgments, and desolating calamities,
yet to an incorrigible and irreclaimable people are they the forerunners of
worse judgments. These are, says Christ, the beginnings of sorrows.
The third sign of this approaching destruction, was a generalpersecutionof
the ministers of the gospel, forpreaching the doctrine of the gospelto a lost
world; Ye shall be beaten, and brought before kings for my sake, fora
testimony.
From whence note, That the preaching of the gospelwhereverit comes, will be
for a testimony to them to whom it comes;either a testimony for them, or
againstthem: to the humble it is a testimony for, to despisers and scorners it is
a testimony against; if the dust of ministers feetbear witness againstthe
despisers of the gospel, their sermons much more.

The word of God delivered in the scriptures, and dispensed in the ministry
thereof, hath its divers and contrary effects upon different and contrary
subjects;from both which ye Almighty God knows how to raise his own glory;
to the humble and teachable, the gospelis in adjutorium: to some, the saviour
of life unto life; to others, the saviour of death unto death.
5. ἤρξατο. The verb is not pleonastic;He is beginning a new course of
instruction. Cf. Mark 8:31, Mark 12:1. This is the longestof Christ’s
utterances in Mk. The only other connecteddiscourses ofChrist which Mk
gives us are parables, and of those he has only four, againsttwenty-three in
Lk. We need not reject this discourse because it is unique in this Gospel, any
more than we need rejectthe one parable which is peculiar to Mk.
Βλέπετε μή. He takes the secondquestion first, and, as often, gives no direct
reply. Instead of telling them of some manifest signal, He bids them be on
their guard againstfalse signals. A greatdeal must take place before the end
comes and there will be much deception. All three have βλέπετε μή, and his
charge, to “be on their guard,” is the main lessonofthe chapter; it recurs
Mark 13:9; Mark 13:23;Mark 13:33 : ἄλλο τοίνυν ἠρώτησαν, ἄλλο
ἀποκρίνεται (Victor).
ὑμᾶς πλανήσῃ. Lead you astray(R.V.). Cf. Mark 12:24;Mark 12:27. The verb
is freq. in the Johannine and Pauline writings, and it is used of serious
departure from the truth. see on 1 John 1:8.

(5) And Jesus answering them began to say.—The report which follows,
common as it is to the first three Gospels, serves as anadmirable example of
the extent of variation compatible with substantial accuracy, and with the
recognitionof an inspired guidance as ensuring that accuracy. The discourse
obviously made a deep impression on those who heard it, as afterwards on
those to whom they repeatedit, and so it passedfrom mouth to mouth, but
probably it was not committed to writing till the events which it foretold came
within the horizon. On all points common to the three records, see Notes on
Matthew 24.
verse 6
For many shall come in my name,.... Taking upon them the name of the
Messiah:saying,
I am Christ; the word "Christ", is rightly supplied from Matthew 24:5;
otherwise in the original it is only, "I am"; which the Persic version doubles,
reading it, "I am indeed, I am": he that was promised and expected, the true
Messiah;he that was to come:
and shall deceive many; See Gill on Matthew 24:5.

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ — (see Matthew 24:5) -
“and the time draweth nigh” (Luke 21:8); that is, the time of the kingdom in
its full splendor.
and shall deceive many — “Go ye not therefore after them” (Luke 21:8). The
rejectedthe claims of Jesus, ofwhom indeed there were plenty - for our Lord
is addressing His owngenuine disciples - but to persons pretending to be Jesus
Himself, returned in glory to take possessionofHis kingdom. This gives
peculiar force to the words, “Go ye not therefore after them.”
The Fourfold Gospel
Many shall come in my name1, saying, I am [he]2; and shall lead many astray.
Many shall come in my name. Claiming his name.
Saying, I am [he]. The first sign of destruction would be the appearance of
false Christs. These would boldly claim the title, and assertthat the time for
the setting up of the eternal kingdom had arrived. We have no direct history
of the appearance ofsuch persons, the nearestapproachto it being the parties
mentioned by Josephus (Ant. 20:5.1;8:6.10;Wars 2:13.4,5). Butas these men
left no institutions or followers, it is quite natural that they should be
overlookedordropped by historians. Nothing is more natural, however, than
that the excitement attendant upon the ministry of Jesus shouldencourage
many to attempt to become sucha Christ as the people wanted. The Gospels
show so widespreada desire for a political Christ that the law of demand and
supply would be sure to make many such.'
Alexander MacLaren's Expositions ofHoly Scripture

Mark
THE CREDULITY OF UNBELIEF
Mark 13:6. - Luke 18:8.
It was the same generationthat is representedin these two texts as void of
faith in the Son of Man, and as credulously giving heed to impostors. Unbelief
and superstition are closelyallied. Religionis so vital a necessity, that if the
true form of it be castaside, some false form will be eagerlyseized in order to
fill the aching void. Men cannot permanently live without some sort of a faith
in the Unseen, but they candetermine whether it shall be a worthy recognition
of a worthy conceptionof that Unseen, or a debasing superstition. An epochof
materialism in philosophic thought has always been followedby violent
reaction, in which quacks and fanatics have reapedrich harvests. If the dark
is not peopled with one loved Face, ourbusy imagination will fill it with a
crowdof horrible ones.
Just as a sailor, looking out into the night over a solitary, islandless sea, sees
shapes;intolerant of the islandless expanse, makes land out of fogbanks;and,
sick of silence, hears ‘airy tongues’in the moanings of the wind and the slow
roll of the waves, so men shudderingly look into the dark unknown, and if
they see not their Father there, will either shut their eyes or strain them in
gazing it into shape. The sight of Him is religion, the closedeye is infidelity,
the strained gaze is superstition. The secondand the third are eachso
unsatisfying that they perpetually pass over into one another and destroy one
another, as when I shut my eyes, I see slowlyshaping itself a colouredimage of
my eye, which soonflickers and fluctuates into black nothingness again, and
then rises once more, once more to fade. Men, if they believe not in God, then
do service to ‘them which by nature are no gods.’

But let us come to more immediately Christian thoughts. Christ does what
men so urgently require to be done, that if they do not believe in Him they will
be forced to shape out for themselves some fanciedways of doing it. The
emotions which men cherishtowards Him so irrepressibly need an object to
rest on, that if not He, then some far less worthy one, will be chosento receive
them.
It is just to the illustration of these thoughts that I seek to turn now, and in
such alternatives as these-
I. ReceptionofChrist as the Revealeris the only escapefrom unmanly
submission to unworthy pretenders.
That function is one which the instincts of men teachthem that they need.
Christ comes to satisfy the need as the visible true embodiment of the Father’s
love, of the Father’s wisdom.
If He be rejected-whatthen? Why, not that the men who reject will
contentedly continue in darkness-thatis never possible; but that some manner
or other of satisfying the clamant need will be had recourse to, and then that
to it will be transferred the submission and credence that should have been
His. If we have Him for our Teacherand Guide, then all other teachers and
guides will take their right places. We shall not angrily repel their power, nor
talk loudly about ‘the right of private judgment,’ and our independence of all
men’s thoughts. We are not so independent. We shall thankfully acceptall
help from all men wiser, better, more manly than ourselves, whetherthey give
us uttered words of wisdom and beauty, having ‘grace poured into their lips,’

or whether they give us lives ennobled by strenuous effort, or whether they
give us greatertreasure than all these-the sight once more of a loving heart.
All is good, all is helpful, all we shall receive;but in proportion to the felt
obligations we are laid under to them will be the felt authority of that saying,
‘Call no man your master on earth, for One is your Master, evenChrist.’ That
command forbids our slavishly accepting any human domination over our
faith, but it no less emphatically forbids our contemptuously rejecting any
human helper of our joy, for it closes with ‘and all ye are brethren’-bound
then to mutual observance, mutual helpfulness, mutual respectfor each
other’s individuality, mutual avoidance of needless division. To have Him for
his Guide makes the human guide gentle and tender among his disciples ‘as a
nurse among her children,’ for he remembers ‘the gentleness ofChrist,’ and
he dare not be other than an imitator of Him. A Christian teacher’s spirit will
always be, ‘not for that we have dominion over your faith, but we are helpers
of your joy’; his most earnestword, ‘I beseechyou, therefore, brethren’; his
constantdesire, ‘He must increase. I must decrease.’And to have Christ for
our Guide makes the taught lovingly submissive to all who by largeness of
gifts and gracesare setby Him above them, and yet lovingly recalcitrantat
any attempt to compel adhesionor force dogmas. The one freedom from
undue dependence on men and men’s opinions lies in this submission to Jesus.
Then we cansay, when need is, ‘I have a Master. To Him I submit; if you seek
to be master, I demur: of them who seemedto be somewhat, whatsoeverthey
were, it maketh no matter to me.’
But the greatestdangeris not that our guides shall insist on our submission,
but that we shall insist on giving it. It is for all of us such a burden to have the
managementof our own fate, the forming of our own opinions, the fearful
responsibility of our owndestiny, that we are all only too ready to say to some
man or other, from love or from laziness, ‘Where thou goest, Iwill go; thy
people shall be my people, and thy God my God.’

Few things are more strange and tragic than the eagernesswith which people
who are a great dealtoo enlightened to render allegiance to Jesus Christwill
install some teacherof their ownchoosing as their authoritative master, will
swallow his dicta, swearby him, and glory in being calledby his name. What
they think it derogatoryto their mental independence to give to the Teacherof
Nazareth, they freely give to their chosenoracle. It is not in ‘the last times’
only that men who will not endure sound teaching ‘heap to themselves
teachers aftertheir own lusts,’ and have ‘the ears’ which are fastclosedto
‘the Truth’ wide open ‘to fables.’
On the small scale we see this melancholy perversity of conduct exemplified in
every little coterie and schoolofunbelievers.
On the greatscale Mohammedanismand Buddhism, with their millions of
adherents, write the same tragic truth large in the history of the world.
II. Faith in the reconciling Christ is the only sure deliverance from debasing
reliance on false means of reconciliation.
In a very profound sense ignorance andsin are the same fact regardedunder
two different aspects. And in the depths of their natures men have the longing
for some Powerwho shall put awaysin, as they have the longing for one that
will dispel ignorance. The consciousnessofalienationfrom Godlies in the
human heart, dormant indeed for the most part, but like a coiled, hibernating
snake, readyto wake andstrike its poison into the veins. Christ by His great
work, and speciallyby His sacrificialdeath, meets that universal need.
But closelyas His work fits men’s needs, it sharply opposes some of their
wishes, and of their interpretations of their needs. The Jew ‘demands a sign,’

the Greek craves a reasonedsystemof ‘wisdom,’ and both concur in finding
the Cross an‘offence.’
But the rejectionof Jesus as the Reconcilerdoes notquiet the cravings, which
make themselves heard at some time or other in most consciences,for
deliverance from the dominion and from the guilt of sin. And men are driven
to adopt other expedients to fill up the void which their turning away from
Jesus has left. Sometimes they fall back on a vague reliance on a vague
assertionthat ‘God is merciful’; sometimes they reasonthemselves into a
belief-or, at any rate, an assertion-thatthe conceptionof sin is an error, and
that men are not guilty. Sometimes they manage to silence the inward voice
that accusesandcondemns, by dint of not listening to it or drowning it by
other noises.
But these expedients fail them some time or other, and then, if they have not
castthe burden of their sin and their sins on the great Reconciler, they either
have to weary themselves with painful and vain efforts to be their own
redeemers, or they fall under the domination of a priest.
Hence the hideous penances ofheathenism; and hence, too, the power of
sacramentarianand sacerdotalperversions ofevangelicaltruth.
III. Faith in Christ as the Regeneratoris the only deliverance from baseless
hopes for the world.
The world is today full of moaning voices crying, ‘Art thou He that should
come, or do we look for another?’ and it is full of confident voices proclaiming
other means of its regenerationthan letting Christ ‘make all things new.’

The convictionthat societyneeds to be reconstitutedon other principles is
spread everywhere, and is often associatedwith intense disbelief in Christ the
Regenerator.
Has not the past proved that all schemes forthe regeneration ofsocietywhich
do not grapple with the fact of sin, and which do not provide a means of
infusing into human nature a new impulse and direction, will end in failure,
and are only too likely to end in blood? These two requirements are met by
Jesus, and by Him only, and whoeverrejects Him and His gift of pardon and
cleansing, and His inbreathing of a new life into the individual, will fail in his
effort, howeverearnestand noble in many aspects, to redeem societyand
bring about a fair new world.
It is pitiable to see the waste of high aspiration and eagereffort in so many
quarters today. But that waste is sure to attend every scheme which does not
start from the recognitionof Christ’s work as the basis of the world’s
transformation, and does not crown Him as the King, because He is the
Saviour, of mankind.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
MacLaren, Alexander. "Commentary on Mark 13:6". Alexander MacLaren's
Expositions of Holy Scripture.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mac/mark-13.html.

6. ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου λέγοντες ὅτι Ἐγώ εἰμι. It is obvious that ἐπὶ τῷ ὀν. μου
cannot here mean “for My sake” or“with My authority” (Mark 9:37-39);it
means “usurping My title.” Impostors will claim to be the Messiah, as Mt.
turns it. And here at once we have some indication that Christ’s predictions
about the future have become somewhatconfusedin tradition, words
respecting the end of the world becoming mixed with words respecting the
destruction of the Temple. None of the seducing leaders who arose between
A.D. 30 and 70, e.g. Theudas and the Egyptian (Acts 5:36; Acts 21:38), seemto
have professedto be the Messiah. SimonMagus (Acts 8:9) may be regardedas
an ἀντίχριστος (1 John 2:18) but not as a ψευδόχριστος (Mark 13:22). Thus
far Mk has told us nothing of Christ’s prediction of His return; yet here He
speaks ofit as an event with which the disciples were familiar. The idea that
the end of the world will be precededby a greatintensification of evil occurs
in various places of the N.T.;2 Thessalonians 2:3;2 Timothy 3:1; 1 John 2:18;
2 Peter3:3; Judges 1:18.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
"Commentary on Mark 13:6". "Cambridge Greek TestamentforSchools and
Colleges".https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/cgt/mark-13.html.
1896.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
6. Saying, I am Christ — The FIRST SIGN of approaching downfall should be
the numerous false deliverers and spurious messiahs, (the Hebrew word for
Christs,) which should deceive many. At that period the acknowledged
prophetic chronologydemanded the appearance ofthe true Messiah so clearly
that a generalexpectationof his advent was even then prevalent. Of this
expectationimpostors plentifully availed themselves;thus punishing the
nation who had rejectedthe true one, and at the same time furnishing a SIGN
of the decline of the Jewishstate. Such was the false Egyptian prophet at the
head of thirty thousand men, (Acts 21:38,)about twelve years after our Lord’s
death; and Theudas, a false deliverer, who, Josephus says, almostin our
Lord’s words, deceivedmany. Under the procuratorship of Felix, in the reign
of Nero, such impostors were so numerous that some were taken and slain
almost daily. Among false Christs, distinctively, were Dositheus appearing as
the Christ foretold by Moses, andSimon Magus as sonof God. Josephus says,
Many affirmed the time of the advent to have arrived; and Hegesippus says,
Many false Christs came.
George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
the destructionof Jerusalemthere appeared many impostors, many who
professedthemselves to be the Christ, and assuredthe populace that their
delivery was at hand. And in the Church many heresiarchs startedup, and
many came in the name of Christ; the first of these was Simon Magus,
mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, whom the people of Samaria received
as the powerand virtue of God. But it is remarkable from the time of our
Saviour's passion, when they preferred the robber Barabbas to Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God, they had no peace orquiet in the city, but constant tumult
and dissensionsucceeded, to the very time of its destruction. (Ven. Bede) --- So
shall many seducers come towards the end of the world, who shall make
themselves authors of sects, andshall gain many disciples:as followeth in
plain words, ver. 22. of this chapter. (Bristow)

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive
many.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am [Christ] (see Matthew 24:5) -
"and the time draweth nigh" (Luke 21:8); that is, the time of the kingdom in
its full splendour.
And shall deceive many. "Go ye not therefore after them" (Luke 21:8). The
rejectedthe claims of Jesus, ofwhom indeed there were plenty-for our Lord is
addressing His own genuine disciples-but to persons pretending to be Jesus
Himself, returned in glory to take possessionofHis kingdom. This gives
specialforce to the words, "Go ye not therefore after them."
VERSE 7
The Biblical Illustrator
Mark 13:7
And when ye shall hear of wars.
Troublous times

I. We are here forewarnedto expecttrouble, “Ye shall hear of wars and
rumours of wars”;and it follows, “suchthings must needs be”; look for no
other. Is not our life a warfare?
1. This points immediately at those wars which brought on the final ruin and
overthrow of the Jewishchurch and nation.
2. It looks further, and is intended as an intimation to us all, and to all
Christians, to count upon trouble in this world. When ye hearwars (so the
word is), when ye hear warat home, the noise of it, for war in a country
makes a noise;never more than since the invention of guns, the most noisy
way of fighting; yet of old they complained of the noise of war(Nahum 3:2;
Exodus 32:17-18). Whenwe hear the rumours of wars, the reports or tidings
of wars. We commonly call uncertain reports rumours, and in time of war we
often hear such, but the original word signifies intelligences, that of which we
hear. Doctrine:That though it be very sad, yet it is not at all strange in this
world, to hear of wars and rumours of wars.
There are three sorts of wars:
1. Law wars among neighbours and relations, bad enough, and very common,
through too much love of the world, and too little of our brother. There are
few of the spirit of Abram (Genesis 13:8).
2. Book wars among scholars andChristians. Different sentiments maintained
by eachside with greatheat, too often greaterthan the occasiondemands.

3. Swordwars among nations and public interests:of these the text speaks.
Whence is it that so much mischief should be done in the world by wars?
considering
But as to the cause ofwar.
1. Sometimes men’s lusts on both sides begin the war, and where there may be
a right and colourof reasonon both sides, yet not such as on either to justify
the taking up of arms, and while there are such follies setin greatdignity
(Ecclesiastes 10:6), no marvel if we hear much of wars;punctilios of honour,
inconsiderable branches of right, to which lives and countries are sacrificed
by jealous princes; the mouth justly opened to denounce war, but the ear
unjustly deaf to the proposals ofpeace.
2. Where the war on the one side is just and necessary, it is men’s lusts on the
other side that make it so. And if we see it, we need not marvel at the matter.
Here is the original of war and bloodshed.
II. We are here forearmed againstthe trouble we are bid to expect. When you
are yourselves disturbed with the alarms of war, be not troubled, i.e., be not
inordinately dejectedand castdown, be not terrified, whatever happens; keep
trouble from your heart (John 14:1) if warcome to your door. It is both for
caution and comfort. You need not be troubled, therefore give not wayto it.
Doctrine:That the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ ought not to be
inordinately troubled, when there are wars and rumours of wars.

1. As for others, they have reasonto be troubled. Those that are not the
disciples of Jesus Christ, and are not interestedin His merit and grace, have
cause for trouble when God’s judgments are abroad (see Isaiah33:14).
Terrors belong to them, and as for comforts, they have no part nor lot in the
matter (see Luke 21:25-26). Thosethat have the most cause to be troubled
commonly put trouble furthest from them.
2. There is cause for the disciples of Christ themselves, upon some accounts,
and in some degree, to be troubled. Christ would not have His followers to be
without feeling. God calls to mourning at such a time. This is a doctrine that
needs explication and limitation. When you hear of wars be ye troubled after
a godly sort. There is a three-fold trouble commendable:
3. Christians ought not to be inordinately troubled. When ye hear this, be not
troubled, i.e.,
(a) The righteous God sits in the throne judging right, therefore be not
troubled. God is King of nations, and presides in the affairs of nations. Men
talk of the fortune of war, but it is not a blind fortune; the issue is determined
by a wise God.
(b) The church is built upon a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
againstit, therefore be not troubled.
(c) Christ is His people’s peace, therefore be not troubled. The remnant of
those that fear God, find rest in Christ, even in troublous times (see Micah
5:5; John 16:33).

(d) The name of the Lord is a strong tower, therefore be not troubled. Into
this citadelthe vanquished may retire and find shelter, and a refuge that they
cannot be beaten out of (Proverbs 18:10). This is a stronghold, inaccessible,
insuperable, and which cannot be taken. The powerand providence of God
are fortifications which cannot be scaled, nor battered, nor undermined. What
need goodpeople fear? (Psalms 46:1-2)They have always a God to whom they
may go.
(e) Men are God’s hand, therefore be not troubled. God is doing their own
work by them all this while, and they are accomplishing His purpose, though
they mean not so (Isaiah 10:5; Isaiah10:7; Isaiah 10:15;Psalms 17:13-14).
(f) There will come a reckoning day, when all these things shall be reviewed;
therefore be not troubled. Behold, the Judge standeth before the door and the
mighty men shall shortly stand at His bar (Isaiah 26:21;Revelation6:10).
(g) The wars of the nations perhaps may end in the peace of the church. God
can bring light out of darkness and meat out of the eater.
(h) However, we are sure in heaventhere are no wars nor rumours of wars,
therefore be not troubled. All will be wellthere. To conclude:
1. Let us thankfully own God’s greatgoodnessto us in this nation-that we
have peace at home, a happy government, peaceablehabitations, a defence on
our glory (Isaiah 33:20).

2. Let us not complain of the inconveniences that attend our being interested
in the present war; the expense of it, or the abridging and exposing of our
trade and property.
3. Let rumours of wars drive us to our knees. Pray, pray, and do not
prophesy. Spread the matter before God, and you may greatly help the cause
by your supplications.
4. Patiently wait the issue with a humble submission to the will of God. Do not
limit Him, nor prescribe to Him. Let Him do His own work in His own way
and time. (Matthew Henry.)
The sorrow of war
The conquerorof Bonaparte at Waterloo wrote, onthe day after the 19th of
June, to the Duke of Beaufort:-“The losses we have sustainedhave quite
broken me down, and I have no feeling for the advantages we have acquired.”
On the same day, too, he wrote to Lord Aberdeen:-“I cannot express to you
the regretand sorrow with which I look round me and contemplate the loss
which I have sustained, particularly in your brother. The glory resulting from
such actions, so dearly bought, is no consolationto me, and I cannot suggestit
as any to you and his friends; but I hope that it may be expectedthat this last
one has been so decisive as that no doubt remains that our exertions and our
individual losseswill be rewardedby the early attainment of our just object. It
is then that the glory of the actions in which our friends and relations have
fallen will be some consolationfor their loss.” He who could write thus had
already attained a greatervictory than that of Waterloo;and the less
naturally follows the greater. (Julius C. Hare.)

Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Exell, JosephS. "Commentary on "Mark 13:7". The Biblical Illustrator.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tbi/mark-13.html. 1905-1909.
New York.
Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible
And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, these things must needs
come to pass; but the end is not yet.
The sign of the end of time is not to be found in the ordinary progressionof
human calamities, but rather in the state of the people of God themselves.
"The end is not yet" comes as a repeatedcaution in this chapter.
Copyright Statement
James Burton Coffman Commentaries reproduced by permission of Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. All other rights reserved.
Bibliography
Coffman, James Burton. "Commentary on Mark 13:7". "Coffman
Commentaries on the Old and New Testament".

https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/mark-13.html. Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.
And when ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars,....Among the Jews
themselves, and with the Romans:
be not troubled; keepyour place, abide by your work, go on preaching the
Gospel, without distressing yourselves about the event of things:
for such things must needs be: being decreedby God, foretold by Christ, and
made necessaryby the sins of the people:
but the end shall not be yet; of the temple, of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish
state and nation; See Gill on Matthew 24:6.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography

13.html. 1999.
And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled —
(See on Mark 13:13, and compare Isaiah 8:11-14).
for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet — In Luke (Luke
21:9), “the end is not by and by,” or “immediately.” Worse must come before
all is over.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
John Lightfoot's Commentary on the Gospels

7. And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled:
for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.
[Be not troubled.] Think here, how the traditions of the scribes affrighted the
nation with the report of Gog and Magog, immediately to go before the
coming of the Messiah:--
"R. Eliezer Ben Abina saith, When you see the kingdoms disturbing one
another, then expectthe footsteps ofthe Messiah. And know that this is true
from hence, that so it was in the days of Abraham; for kingdoms disturbed
one another, and then came redemption to Abraham." And elsewhere;"So
they came againstAbraham, and so they shall come with Gog and Magog."
And again, "The Rabbins deliver. In the first year of that week [of years]that
the Sonof David is to come, shall that be fulfilled, 'I will rain upon one city,
but I will not rain upon another,' Amos 4:7. The secondyear, the arrows of
famine shall be sent forth. The third, the famine shall be grievous, and men
and women and children, holy men, and men of goodworks, shall die. And
there shall be a forgetfulness ofthe law among those that learn it. The fourth
year, fulness, and not fulness. The fifth year, greatfulness; for they shall eat
and drink and rejoice, and the law shall return to its scholars. The sixth year,
voices. (The Gloss is, 'A fame shall be spread, that the Sonof David comes,'
or, 'they shall sound with a trumpet.') The seventh year, wars;and in the
going out of that seventh year the Son of David shall come."
Copyright Statement
Bibliography

Lightfoot, John. "Commentary on Mark 13:7". "John Lightfoot Commentary
on the Gospels".https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jlc/mark-
13.html. 1675.
Must needs come to pass (δει γενεσται — dei genesthai). Already there were
outbreaks againstthe Jews in Alexandria, at Seleucia with the slaughterof
more than fifty thousand, at Jamnia, and elsewhere. Caligula, Claudius, Nero
will threaten war before it finally comes with the destruction of the city and
temple by Titus in a.d. 70. Vincent notes that betweenthis prophecy by Jesus
in a.d. 30 (or 29)and the destruction of Jerusalemthere was an earthquake in
Crete (a.d. 46 or 47), at Rome (a.d. 51), at Apamaia in Phrygia (a.d. 60), at
Campania (a.d. 63). He notes also four famines during the reign of Claudius
a.d. 41-54. One of them was in Judea in a.d. 44 and is alluded to in Acts 11:28.
Tacitus (Annals xvi. 10-13)describes the hurricanes and storms in Campania
in a.d. 65.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography

Rumors of wars
Wyc., opinions of battles. Such as would be a cause of terror to the Hebrew
Christians; as the three threats of war againstthe Jews by Caligula, Claudius,
and Nero. There were serious disturbances at Alexandria, a.d. 38, in which the
Jews were the especialobjects ofpersecution;at Seleucia aboutthe same time,
in which more than fifty thousand Jews were killed; and at Jamnia, near
Joppa.
Troubled ( θροεῖσθε )
Θροέω is, literally, to cry aloud.
Earthquakes
Betweenthe prophecy and the destruction of Jerusalem(a.d. 70) occurred:A
greatearthquake in Crete, a.d. 46 or 47:at Rome, on the day on which Nero
entered his majority, a.d. 51:at Apameia, in Phrygia, a.d. 53; “onaccountof
which,” says Tacitus, “they were exempted from tribute for five years:” at
Laodicea, in Phrygia, a.d. 60:in Campania, a.d. 63, by which, according to
Tacitus, the city of Pompeii was largelydestroyed.
Famines

During the reign of Claudius, a.d. 41-54:, four famines are recorded:One at
Rome, a.d. 41,42;one in Judaea, a.d. 44;one in Greece, a.d. 50;and againat
Rome, a.d. 52, when the people rose in rebellion and threatened the life of the
emperor. Tacitus says that it was accompaniedby frequent earthquakes,
which levelled houses. The famine in Judaea was probably the one prophesied
by Agabus, Acts 11:28. Of the year 65 a.d., Tacitus says:“This year, disgraced
by so many deeds of horror, was further distinguished by the gods with
storms and sicknesses. Campania was devastatedby a hurricane which
overthrew buildings, trees, and the fruits of the soilin every direction, even to
the gates ofthe city, within which a pestilence thinned all ranks of the
population, with no atmospheric disturbance that the eye could trace. The
houses were chokedwith dead, the roads with funerals: neither sexnor age
escaped. Slavesand freemen perished equally amid the wailings of their wives
and children, who were often hurried to the pyre by which they had satin
tears, and consumedtogetherwith them. The deaths of knights and senators,
promiscuous as they were, deservedthe less to be lamented, inasmuch as,
falling by the common lot of mortality, they seemedto anticipate the prince's
cruelty” (“Annals,” xvi., 10-13).
Copyright Statement
The text of this work is public domain.
Bibliography
Vincent, Marvin R. DD. "Commentaryon Mark 13:7". "Vincent's Word
Studies in the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/vnt/mark-13.html. Charles
Schribner's Sons. New York, USA. 1887.
The Fourfold Gospel

And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be not troubled: [these
things] must needs come to pass; but the end is not yet2.
Wars and rumours of wars would be the secondsign, but Christians in
Jerusalemcould rest there in safetyuntil a more definite token bid them
depart. Of course the wars here mentioned were only such as threatened
particularly to affect the Jews, forthe trouble coming upon the Jews was the
subject of discourse. Alford, in commenting on this paragraph, takes the pains
to enumerate three threats of war made againstthe Jews by as many Roman
emperors and three uprisings of Gentiles againstJews in which many
thousands of the latter perished.
The end is not yet. The destruction of the temple.
Copyright Statement
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website. These files
were made available by Mr. Ernie Stefanik. First published online in 1996 at
The RestorationMovementPages.
Bibliography
J. W. McGarveyand Philip Y. Pendleton. "Commentaryon Mark 13:7".
"The Fourfold Gospel".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tfg/mark-13.html. Standard
Publishing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. 1914.
6 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive
many.

7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled:
for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.
Ver. 7. The end shall not be yet] Neither of the world, nor of the temple.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Trapp, John. "Commentary on Mark 13:7". John Trapp Complete
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/mark-
13.html. 1865-1868.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible
Mark 13:7. Such things must needs be;— "That is, not by any necessity
imposed of God, but from the wickednessofthe world."
Copyright Statement

Bibliography
Coke, Thomas. "Commentaryon Mark 13:7". Thomas Coke Commentary on
the Holy Bible. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tcc/mark-
13.html. 1801-1803.
Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
Ver. 7,8. Matthew adds pestilences. Luke saith, pestilences,and fearful sights
and greatsigns from heaven. See Poole on "Matthew 24:6", and following
verses to Matthew 24:8. Here are two or three more signs put together:
1. Wars, and rumours of wars;greatcommotions in nations, which though
they may be at other times, yet probably may be more extraordinary before
the day of judgment.
2. Famines, pestilences,and earthquakes.
3. Fearfulsights, and apparitions in the air and the heavens. Such there were
(as Josephus tells us) before the destruction of Jerusalem;and though these
things be seenbefore the lastday, yet it is most probable they will be greater
before the day of judgment than at any time before; and for fearful sights, and
greatsigns from heaven, they ordinarily go before some greatjudgment of
God upon places, and therefore the observationof them by the heathen (as we
learn by Livy and others) seems but to be a piece of natural religion; and
Christ giving these things as signs of the approaching ruin, first of Jerusalem,
then of the world, will make thinking Christians behold them with a religious
fear, though not to undertake to expound them particularly or prophesy upon
them.

Certainly we ought to look upon them as prognosticating some greatwork of
God, and usually of judgment upon sinners.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Poole, Matthew, "Commentaryon Mark 13:7". Matthew Poole's English
Annotations on the Holy Bible.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mpc/mark-13.html. 1685.
7. πολέμους καὶ ἀκοὰς πολ. Josephus and Tacitus tell us of plenty; see esp.
Tac. Hist. i. 2. For ἀκοάς see onMark 1:28.
δεῖ γένεσθαι. In all three; from Daniel2:29; cf. Revelation1:1. God has so
decreed. Cf. Mark 13:10 and Mark 8:31 and mark the characteristic
asyndeton; γάρ in Mark 13:5; Mark 13:7 is an interpolation. “The
epigrammatic brevity of Mk is specially striking in this context” (Swete).
οὔπω τὸ τέλος. Notyet is the end; Looking back to the disciples’ question
about συντεῖσθαι.

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