Mark 13
Encyclopedia
Mark 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark
in the New Testament
of the Christian
Bible
. It contains Jesus
' predictions of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
and a disaster for Judea
, as well as his eschatological
discourse.
After his teachings in the previous chapter, all set in the Temple courts, Jesus finishes his teaching in the Temple for the day and leaves. On his way out of the Temple an unnamed disciple
remarks how great the Temple (Herod's Temple) is. The buildings might have reached up to 150 feet (45.72 m) in height and they were adorned with gold
, silver
and other precious items.
"'Do you see all these great buildings?' replied Jesus. 'Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." (2) Jesus seems to say that the Temple will be destroyed, although not when or how. This is the last thing that Jesus does in the Temple.
Later Jesus travels back to the Mount of Olives
. Mark says that Peter
, James
, John
, and Andrew
asked Jesus privately, as he was sitting opposite the Temple on the mountain, "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign
that they are all about to be fulfilled?":
Sorrows is usually translated today as birth pains, showing the necessity of pain in order to achieve a greater goal. It was the general belief that if the Messiah
had arrived in Jerusalem, the final Messianic victory and the kingdom of God
were close at hand. Jesus however seems to set up many additional things that will occur before his final triumph.
Jesus predicts that they will be harassed by various governments, that they are to say whatever comes to mind, as it will be God speaking through them, and that Jesus' message will be given to every nation. Families will be torn apart, that "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." (13) (See also But to bring a sword
)
Jesus then predicts a disastrous event in Judea:
The warnings about false Christs are thought by some scholars to be warnings against others claiming to be the messiah or Christian teachers who claimed to actually be the reincarnation
of Jesus. Acts of the Apostles
5:36-37 contains a description given by Gamaliel
about Theudas
and Judas the Galilean, both also mentioned by Josephus
, who also claimed to be leaders of new movements.
Mark inserts his own comments to the reader about the abomination
, suggesting the phrase was some kind of code
between him and his audience. It is a quote from the Book of Daniel
where it appears in 9:27 as part of a prophecy
that the book claims was given to the prophet Daniel
by Gabriel
during the Babylonian captivity
about Jerusalem's future. An "Anointed One" would come, be "cut off", and then another people would come and destroy Jerusalem and set up the abomination in the Temple. 11:31 speaks of it in context of a great battle of Kings
, and 12:11 uses it as part of Daniel's end time vision. Most modern scholars, who believe Daniel was pseudepigraphically
written in the mid 2nd century BC, believe that these references really refer to the shrine to Zeus
set up by Antiochus IV Epiphanes
with a Pagan
altar
on the Altar of Holocausts in the Second Temple
in 168 BC
.
What exactly it meant to the Early Christians and Mark's audience is unknown, with some thinking it refers to Titus
' destruction of the Temple, others that it might be a reference to Caligula
's attempt to have a statue of himself put in the Temple. Others have seen the abomination as the Antichrist
. It is unclear whether this refers to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem
, but many Christians after that event certainly have seen it that way. More recently it has been suggested that the abomination in Mark is a reference to the crucifixion itself.
According to Mark, Jesus made this prediction years before the Temple was actually destroyed in AD 70
. Acts 6:14 states that Stephen
, the first Christian martyr
(unless one counts Jesus), was falsely accused of claiming Jesus would destroy Israel and the Mosaic law before he was stoned
to death, an event Acts claims Paul
observed. Predictions of Jerusalem's destruction are also found in Micah
3:12. Scholars who hold that this does refer to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and is an example of prophecy after the event
use this section to date Mark, and all works believed to have copied from it, slightly before or after the year 70.
In Mark 15:29 Jesus is mocked as having claimed that he would destroy the Temple and raise it again in three days, a statement of Jesus that Mark does not record in the narrative, although he is falsely accused of claiming he would destroy the man made Temple and replace it in three days in 14:57. This gives rise to the interpretation of the Temple's destruction as the death of Jesus' body, the body of God, and his resurrection
three days later. That Jesus predicted the Temple's destruction and his rebuilding of it in three days is stated in John
2:19 and is used as evidence against him in Matthew
26:61.
After the destruction of the Temple and the event in Judea, Jesus seems to predict a universe shaking event and his great triumph:
He then tells them that no one except the "Father", God, knows when this will all happen, not even the "Son", Jesus himself, see also Kenosis
. He then uses the parable
of the Man Going On a Far Journey to describe his followers as his servants watching their master's house waiting for him to return.
Jesus thus ends with two parables, the parable of the Leafing Fig Tree and the parable of the man. The fig tree, which Jesus cursed in Mark 11:14 for being barren, is now used as a metaphor. Whereas it is barren now when it is summer it will be about the bare its fruit, like these signs signal that God's plan is about to be fulfilled. The parable of the man on the journey cautions the disciples that they should always be on watch, as he could return at any moment and would want the house well cared for.
There are several interpretations of all this. The most straightforward is that there will be a horrible event in Judea and that at some unspecified time Jesus will come and gather his "elect", the term early Christians used to refer to themselves. The statement that "this generation" will still be around to see the coming of these things has posed problems for those who hold that this is a literal prediction of the end of the world, and has given rise to such legend
s as the Wandering Jew
. The word for generation also means race in Ancient Greek
, and so could refer to the Jews, or perhaps all people. Others think Jesus is just using the apocalyptic
language of his time symbolically, as many Jewish prophets did, to highlight the fact that Christian suffering and Jerusalem's destruction, though seemingly the end of the world, are necessary to achieve what Jesus deems will be the final victory of good over evil
and that this generation refers to seeing Jerusalem's destruction.
Many have interpreted this as Jesus predicting the end of the world
and his Second Coming
. Jesus' statement about the sun and moon sounds very apocalyptic. It is a quote from Isaiah
13:10 where Isaiah
uses it metaphorically as part of his prophecy of the fall of Babylon
. The stars falling from the sky is from Isaiah 34:4 about God's judgement on all the nations of the world. Perhaps there is a political connotation here. By using these two quotations together, Jesus might be comparing the Roman
domination Israel
is currently undergoing to the Babylonian captivity it had undergone six centuries previously. The coming of the kingdom of God
would be replacing Roman rule with God's rule just as the Jews were freed from Babylon. Yet whereas the Babylonian captivity ended with the return to Jerusalem, the replacement of Roman rule will be preceded by Jerusalem's destruction, a sharp change in what people thought of as the coming of God's kingdom. It was a general belief of the Jews that the messiah would rule from Jerusalem, and many Christians have believed that after the Second Coming Jesus will rule the world from Jerusalem. Many Christians have seen this as a prediction of Roman tyranny being overcome by Christianity, as Jerusalem, then "Babylon" (Rome), then all the unrighteous nations will be replaced by the Son of Man's coming. The Roman Catholic Church
has always seen itself as partly the kingdom of God on Earth and some have thought the coming of the Christian Church is what is predicted here.
The Son of Man coming in clouds is from Daniel 7:13. This is from a prophetic dream of Daniel about a kingdom that would "devour" the whole world and how it would be replaced by the Son of Man's "everlasting kingdom". "The elect" will be "gathered" from every part of the world and "unto Heaven", a reversal of Zechariah 2:10 where God would come and live among his chosen. God rounding up his chosen people is found in many Old Testament
books, but none have the Son of Man doing this, showing how Jesus had altered the prophecies about the messiah
Just before Stephen is stoned in Acts he says "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." (7:56), perhaps showing the Son of Man's coming means Heaven. In John
12:23 Jesus speaks of the Son of Man's glory as his death: "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." He predicted the coming of God's kingdom in Mark 9:1 in this generation followed by the Transfiguration
, perhaps showing God's kingdom is already here because of Jesus' coming.
What exactly Jesus is predicting here is vague. Paul, in 1 Thessalonians
, probably the earliest surviving Christian document, speaks of how Jesus rescues us from the coming "wrath" or "anger" in 1:10. He also says that "we", Paul and the other Christians, would see Jesus return to raise the dead
in their lifetime in 4:13-18, but not exactly when, saying immediately after in chapter 5:2 that it will come like "a thief in the night". However in Philippians
1:23 he speaks of going to Christ as death.
The ideas of Jesus' imminent return and the final messianic triumph
coupled with that of it being delayed until an unknown date in the future, or perhaps until after death, have always characterized Christian thought
through the ages. In every generation, including ours, there have always been those who say the end is just around the corner and those who say who knows when it will happen so just live a good life or that being good people is what brings God's kingdom. Augustine
said concerning this passage that a person should be more concerned with their own "last day", their death.
A description of the end times is greatly expanded in the Book of Revelation
, which claims to be a vision given by Jesus after his death to the author. It too has predictions of immediate upheavals (1:3) coupled with delays in the final working out of God's plan of thousands of years or even indefinite periods of time (20).
This is also found in Matthew
24, where the description of the coming of the Son of Man is greatly expanded. Luke 21 specifically states that there will be armies surrounding Jerusalem and that will precede desolation. This is all the information that Jesus gives about the far future in the Gospels.
In the Gospel of Thomas
saying 51 a disciple asks Jesus when the "new world" would arrive and Jesus replies "What you are looking forward to has come, but you don't know it." In saying 113 they ask him when the "kingdom" will come. "It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it."
This ends the section of Mark showing how Jesus was the prophesied Jewish Messiah
but not in the way people had expected. It was the general belief that the Messiah's coming would inaugurate the final victory of good over evil, and end all worldly suffering, thought to be a symptom of evil. Jesus entered Jerusalem in Mark 11 in the manner of the messiah who would bring God's kingdom on Earth, then cursed the fig tree
outside the Temple in which he fought with the money changers
. He then defeated the priests and taught the people, establishing his authority and the priests lack of it. He then ends with a prediction of the Temple's destruction and then uses the fig tree as metaphor to show how what Jesus has described will lead to the coming of God's kingdom. Yet whereas the Messiah entering Jerusalem as Jesus had done was to bring God's rule immediately, Jesus says that it will come later, at an unknown time after seemingly calamitous events. Jesus is speaking of these things on the Mount of Olives
, where Zechariah
14:4 has the final messianic battle occurring. In the next and final section Mark shows the necessity of suffering, Jesus' Passion
, as a part of God's plan. Jesus is crowned the King of the Jews only on the cross and only overcomes all suffering and evil by his resurrection
from the dead.
Gospel of Mark
The Gospel According to Mark , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second book of the New Testament. This canonical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the three synoptic gospels. It was thought to be an epitome, which accounts for its place as the second...
in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
of the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. It contains Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
' predictions of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
and a disaster for Judea
Iudaea Province
Judaea or Iudaea are terms used by historians to refer to the Roman province that extended over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Israel...
, as well as his eschatological
Eschatology
Eschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
discourse.
The Temple's destruction
Disciple (Christianity)
In Christianity, the disciples were the students of Jesus during his ministry. While Jesus attracted a large following, the term disciple is commonly used to refer specifically to "the Twelve", an inner circle of men whose number perhaps represented the twelve tribes of Israel...
remarks how great the Temple (Herod's Temple) is. The buildings might have reached up to 150 feet (45.72 m) in height and they were adorned with gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
and other precious items.
"'Do you see all these great buildings?' replied Jesus. 'Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." (2) Jesus seems to say that the Temple will be destroyed, although not when or how. This is the last thing that Jesus does in the Temple.
Later Jesus travels back to the Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
. Mark says that Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
, James
Saint James the Great
James, son of Zebedee was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was a son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of John the Apostle...
, John
John the Apostle
John the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...
, and Andrew
Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew , called in the Orthodox tradition Prōtoklētos, or the First-called, is a Christian Apostle and the brother of Saint Peter. The name "Andrew" , like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews from the 3rd or 2nd century BC. No Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him...
asked Jesus privately, as he was sitting opposite the Temple on the mountain, "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign
Sign
A sign is something that implies a connection between itself and its object. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm. A conventional sign signifies by agreement, as a full stop signifies the end of a sentence...
that they are all about to be fulfilled?":
- Take heed lest any man deceive you: For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 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. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows. (5-8 KJV)
Sorrows is usually translated today as birth pains, showing the necessity of pain in order to achieve a greater goal. It was the general belief that if the Messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
had arrived in Jerusalem, the final Messianic victory and the kingdom of God
Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is a foundational concept in the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.The term "Kingdom of God" is found in all four canonical gospels and in the Pauline epistles...
were close at hand. Jesus however seems to set up many additional things that will occur before his final triumph.
Jesus predicts that they will be harassed by various governments, that they are to say whatever comes to mind, as it will be God speaking through them, and that Jesus' message will be given to every nation. Families will be torn apart, that "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." (13) (See also But to bring a sword
But to bring a sword
"I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword" , part of the Lesser Commission, is one of the controversial statements reported of Jesus in the Bible. The saying has been interpreted in several ways...
)
Jesus then predicts a disastrous event in Judea:
- "When you see 'the abominationAbomination (Bible)Abomination is an English term used to translate the Biblical Hebrew terms shiqquwts and sheqets, which are derived from shâqats, or the terms , tōʻēḇā or to'e'va or ta'ev...
that causes desolation' standing where it does not belong— let the reader understand— then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that this will not take place in winter, because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when GodGodGod is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
created the world, until now— and never to be equaled again. If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophetFalse prophetIn religion, a false prophet is one who falsely claims the gift of prophecy, or who uses that gift for evil ends. Often, someone who is considered a "true prophet" by some people is simultaneously considered a "false prophet" by others....
s will appear and perform signs and miracleMiracleA miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s to deceive the elect—if that were possible. So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time. (14-23 NIV)
The warnings about false Christs are thought by some scholars to be warnings against others claiming to be the messiah or Christian teachers who claimed to actually be the reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
of Jesus. Acts of the Apostles
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
5:36-37 contains a description given by Gamaliel
Gamaliel
Gamaliel the Elder , or Rabban Gamaliel I , was a leading authority in the Sanhedrin in the mid 1st century CE. He was the grandson of the great Jewish teacher Hillel the Elder, and died twenty years before the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem...
about Theudas
Theudas
Theudas was a Jewish rebel of the 1st century AD. His name, if a Greek compound, may mean "gift of God", although other scholars believe its etymology is Semitic and might mean “flowing with water”...
and Judas the Galilean, both also mentioned by Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
, who also claimed to be leaders of new movements.
Mark inserts his own comments to the reader about the abomination
Abomination (Bible)
Abomination is an English term used to translate the Biblical Hebrew terms shiqquwts and sheqets, which are derived from shâqats, or the terms , tōʻēḇā or to'e'va or ta'ev...
, suggesting the phrase was some kind of code
Code
A code is a rule for converting a piece of information into another form or representation , not necessarily of the same type....
between him and his audience. It is a quote from the Book of Daniel
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a book in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells of how Daniel, and his Judean companions, were inducted into Babylon during Jewish exile, and how their positions elevated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The court tales span events that occur during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar,...
where it appears in 9:27 as part of a prophecy
Prophecy
Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
that the book claims was given to the prophet Daniel
Daniel
Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...
by Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...
during the Babylonian captivity
Babylonian captivity
The Babylonian captivity was the period in Jewish history during which the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon—conventionally 587–538 BCE....
about Jerusalem's future. An "Anointed One" would come, be "cut off", and then another people would come and destroy Jerusalem and set up the abomination in the Temple. 11:31 speaks of it in context of a great battle of Kings
Monarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
, and 12:11 uses it as part of Daniel's end time vision. Most modern scholars, who believe Daniel was pseudepigraphically
Pseudepigraphy
Pseudepigrapha are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed authorship is unfounded; a work, simply, "whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past." The word "pseudepigrapha" is the plural of "pseudepigraphon" ; the Anglicized forms...
written in the mid 2nd century BC, believe that these references really refer to the shrine to Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
set up by Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Antiochus IV Epiphanes ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC until his death in 164 BC. He was a son of King Antiochus III the Great. His original name was Mithridates; he assumed the name Antiochus after he ascended the throne....
with a Pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
on the Altar of Holocausts in the Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...
in 168 BC
168 BC
Year 168 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Macedonicus and Crassus...
.
What exactly it meant to the Early Christians and Mark's audience is unknown, with some thinking it refers to Titus
Titus
Titus , was Roman Emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to come to the throne after his own father....
' destruction of the Temple, others that it might be a reference to Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
's attempt to have a statue of himself put in the Temple. Others have seen the abomination as the Antichrist
Antichrist
The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
. It is unclear whether this refers to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem
First Jewish-Roman War
The First Jewish–Roman War , sometimes called The Great Revolt , was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews of Judaea Province , against the Roman Empire...
, but many Christians after that event certainly have seen it that way. More recently it has been suggested that the abomination in Mark is a reference to the crucifixion itself.
According to Mark, Jesus made this prediction years before the Temple was actually destroyed in AD 70
70
Year 70 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Vespasianus...
. Acts 6:14 states that Stephen
Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen The Protomartyr , the protomartyr of Christianity, is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches....
, the first Christian martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
(unless one counts Jesus), was falsely accused of claiming Jesus would destroy Israel and the Mosaic law before he was stoned
Stoning
Stoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject, yet everyone involved plainly bears some degree of moral culpability. This is in contrast to the...
to death, an event Acts claims Paul
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
observed. Predictions of Jerusalem's destruction are also found in Micah
Book of Micah
The Book of Micah is one of fifteen prophetic books in the Hebrew bible/Old Testament, and the sixth of the twelve minor prophets. It records the sayings of Mikayahu, meaning "Who is like Yahweh?", an 8th century prophet from the village of Moresheth in Judah...
3:12. Scholars who hold that this does refer to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and is an example of prophecy after the event
Postdiction
According to critics of paranormal beliefs, postdiction is an effect of hindsight bias that explains claimed predictions of significant events, such as plane crashes and natural disasters...
use this section to date Mark, and all works believed to have copied from it, slightly before or after the year 70.
In Mark 15:29 Jesus is mocked as having claimed that he would destroy the Temple and raise it again in three days, a statement of Jesus that Mark does not record in the narrative, although he is falsely accused of claiming he would destroy the man made Temple and replace it in three days in 14:57. This gives rise to the interpretation of the Temple's destruction as the death of Jesus' body, the body of God, and his resurrection
Resurrection of Jesus
The Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus states that Jesus returned to bodily life on the third day following his death by crucifixion. It is a key element of Christian faith and theology and part of the Nicene Creed: "On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures"...
three days later. That Jesus predicted the Temple's destruction and his rebuilding of it in three days is stated in John
John 2
John 2 is the second chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It contains the famous stories of the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine and Jesus expelling the money changers from the Temple.-Water into Wine:...
2:19 and is used as evidence against him in Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
26:61.
Olivet discourse
- But in those days, after that tribulationTribulationThe Great Tribulation refers to tumultuous events that are described during the "signs of the times", first mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet discourse...
, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of manSon of manThe phrase son of man is a primarily Semitic idiom that originated in Ancient Mesopotamia, used to denote humanity or self. The phrase is also used in Judaism and Christianity. The phrase used in the Greek, translated as Son of man is ὁ υἱὸς τοὺ ἀνθρώπου...
coming in the clouds with great power and gloryGlory (religion)Glory is used to denote the manifestation of God's presence in the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. God's glory is often associated with visible displays of light, e.g. thunderbolts, fire, brightness....
. And then shall he send his angelAngelAngels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
s, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Now learn a parable of the fig treeFicusFicus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. (24-31 KJV)
He then tells them that no one except the "Father", God, knows when this will all happen, not even the "Son", Jesus himself, see also Kenosis
Kenosis
In Christian theology, Kenosis In Christian theology, Kenosis In Christian theology, Kenosis (from the Greek word for emptiness (kénōsis) is the 'self-emptying' of one's own will and becoming entirely receptive to God's divine will....
. He then uses the parable
Parable
A parable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive principles, or lessons, or a normative principle. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human...
of the Man Going On a Far Journey to describe his followers as his servants watching their master's house waiting for him to return.
Jesus thus ends with two parables, the parable of the Leafing Fig Tree and the parable of the man. The fig tree, which Jesus cursed in Mark 11:14 for being barren, is now used as a metaphor. Whereas it is barren now when it is summer it will be about the bare its fruit, like these signs signal that God's plan is about to be fulfilled. The parable of the man on the journey cautions the disciples that they should always be on watch, as he could return at any moment and would want the house well cared for.
There are several interpretations of all this. The most straightforward is that there will be a horrible event in Judea and that at some unspecified time Jesus will come and gather his "elect", the term early Christians used to refer to themselves. The statement that "this generation" will still be around to see the coming of these things has posed problems for those who hold that this is a literal prediction of the end of the world, and has given rise to such legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s as the Wandering Jew
Wandering Jew
The Wandering Jew is a figure from medieval Christian folklore whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. The original legend concerns a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming...
. The word for generation also means race in Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
, and so could refer to the Jews, or perhaps all people. Others think Jesus is just using the apocalyptic
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
language of his time symbolically, as many Jewish prophets did, to highlight the fact that Christian suffering and Jerusalem's destruction, though seemingly the end of the world, are necessary to achieve what Jesus deems will be the final victory of good over evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
and that this generation refers to seeing Jerusalem's destruction.
Many have interpreted this as Jesus predicting the end of the world
Ultimate fate of the universe
The ultimate fate of the universe is a topic in physical cosmology. Many possible fates are predicted by rival scientific theories, including futures of both finite and infinite duration....
and his Second Coming
Second Coming
In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
. Jesus' statement about the sun and moon sounds very apocalyptic. It is a quote from Isaiah
Book of Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...
13:10 where Isaiah
Isaiah
Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...
uses it metaphorically as part of his prophecy of the fall of Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
. The stars falling from the sky is from Isaiah 34:4 about God's judgement on all the nations of the world. Perhaps there is a political connotation here. By using these two quotations together, Jesus might be comparing the Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
domination Israel
History of ancient Israel and Judah
Israel and Judah were related Iron Age kingdoms of ancient Palestine. The earliest known reference to the name Israel in archaeological records is in the Merneptah stele, an Egyptian record of c. 1209 BCE. By the 9th century BCE the Kingdom of Israel had emerged as an important local power before...
is currently undergoing to the Babylonian captivity it had undergone six centuries previously. The coming of the kingdom of God
Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is a foundational concept in the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.The term "Kingdom of God" is found in all four canonical gospels and in the Pauline epistles...
would be replacing Roman rule with God's rule just as the Jews were freed from Babylon. Yet whereas the Babylonian captivity ended with the return to Jerusalem, the replacement of Roman rule will be preceded by Jerusalem's destruction, a sharp change in what people thought of as the coming of God's kingdom. It was a general belief of the Jews that the messiah would rule from Jerusalem, and many Christians have believed that after the Second Coming Jesus will rule the world from Jerusalem. Many Christians have seen this as a prediction of Roman tyranny being overcome by Christianity, as Jerusalem, then "Babylon" (Rome), then all the unrighteous nations will be replaced by the Son of Man's coming. The Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
has always seen itself as partly the kingdom of God on Earth and some have thought the coming of the Christian Church is what is predicted here.
The Son of Man coming in clouds is from Daniel 7:13. This is from a prophetic dream of Daniel about a kingdom that would "devour" the whole world and how it would be replaced by the Son of Man's "everlasting kingdom". "The elect" will be "gathered" from every part of the world and "unto Heaven", a reversal of Zechariah 2:10 where God would come and live among his chosen. God rounding up his chosen people is found in many Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
books, but none have the Son of Man doing this, showing how Jesus had altered the prophecies about the messiah
Just before Stephen is stoned in Acts he says "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." (7:56), perhaps showing the Son of Man's coming means Heaven. In John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
12:23 Jesus speaks of the Son of Man's glory as his death: "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." He predicted the coming of God's kingdom in Mark 9:1 in this generation followed by the Transfiguration
Transfiguration of Jesus
The Transfiguration of Jesus is an event reported in the New Testament in which Jesus is transfigured and becomes radiant upon a mountain. The Synoptic Gospels describe it, and 2 Peter 1:16-18 refers to it....
, perhaps showing God's kingdom is already here because of Jesus' coming.
What exactly Jesus is predicting here is vague. Paul, in 1 Thessalonians
First Epistle to the Thessalonians
The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, usually referred to simply as First Thessalonians and often written 1 Thessalonians, is a book from the New Testament of the Christian Bible....
, probably the earliest surviving Christian document, speaks of how Jesus rescues us from the coming "wrath" or "anger" in 1:10. He also says that "we", Paul and the other Christians, would see Jesus return to raise the dead
Resurrection of the dead
Resurrection of the Dead is a belief found in a number of eschatologies, most commonly in Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Zoroastrian. In general, the phrase refers to a specific event in the future; multiple prophesies in the histories of these religions assert that the dead will be brought back to...
in their lifetime in 4:13-18, but not exactly when, saying immediately after in chapter 5:2 that it will come like "a thief in the night". However in Philippians
Epistle to the Philippians
The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, usually referred to simply as Philippians, is the eleventh book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was written by St. Paul to the church of Philippi, an early center of Christianity in Greece around 62 A.D. Other scholars argue for an...
1:23 he speaks of going to Christ as death.
The ideas of Jesus' imminent return and the final messianic triumph
Christian eschatology
Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...
coupled with that of it being delayed until an unknown date in the future, or perhaps until after death, have always characterized Christian thought
Christian philosophy
Christian philosophy may refer to any development in philosophy that is characterised by coming from a Christian tradition.- Origins of Christian philosophy :...
through the ages. In every generation, including ours, there have always been those who say the end is just around the corner and those who say who knows when it will happen so just live a good life or that being good people is what brings God's kingdom. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
said concerning this passage that a person should be more concerned with their own "last day", their death.
- ...when it tells us to watch for the last day, every one should think of as concerning his own last day; lest haply when ye judge or think the last day of the world to be far distant, ye slumber with respect to your own last day...Let no one then search out for the last Day, when it is to be; but let us watch all by our good lives, lest the last day of any one of us find us unprepared, and such as any one shall depart hence on his last day, such he be found in the last day of the world. Nothing will then assist thee which thou shalt not have done here. His own works will succour, or his own works will overwhelm every one.
A description of the end times is greatly expanded in the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
, which claims to be a vision given by Jesus after his death to the author. It too has predictions of immediate upheavals (1:3) coupled with delays in the final working out of God's plan of thousands of years or even indefinite periods of time (20).
This is also found in Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
24, where the description of the coming of the Son of Man is greatly expanded. Luke 21 specifically states that there will be armies surrounding Jerusalem and that will precede desolation. This is all the information that Jesus gives about the far future in the Gospels.
In the Gospel of Thomas
Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel According to Thomas, commonly shortened to the Gospel of Thomas, is a well preserved early Christian, non-canonical sayings-gospel discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945, in one of a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library...
saying 51 a disciple asks Jesus when the "new world" would arrive and Jesus replies "What you are looking forward to has come, but you don't know it." In saying 113 they ask him when the "kingdom" will come. "It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it."
This ends the section of Mark showing how Jesus was the prophesied Jewish Messiah
Jewish Messiah
Messiah, ; mashiah, moshiah, mashiach, or moshiach, is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to describe priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:22-25...
but not in the way people had expected. It was the general belief that the Messiah's coming would inaugurate the final victory of good over evil, and end all worldly suffering, thought to be a symptom of evil. Jesus entered Jerusalem in Mark 11 in the manner of the messiah who would bring God's kingdom on Earth, then cursed the fig tree
Cursing the fig tree
Cursing the fig tree is one of the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels. It is included in the gospels of Mark and Matthew, but not in Luke or John...
outside the Temple in which he fought with the money changers
Jesus and the Money Changers
The narrative of Jesus and the money changers, commonly referred to as the cleansing of the Temple, occurs in all four canonical gospels of the New Testament....
. He then defeated the priests and taught the people, establishing his authority and the priests lack of it. He then ends with a prediction of the Temple's destruction and then uses the fig tree as metaphor to show how what Jesus has described will lead to the coming of God's kingdom. Yet whereas the Messiah entering Jerusalem as Jesus had done was to bring God's rule immediately, Jesus says that it will come later, at an unknown time after seemingly calamitous events. Jesus is speaking of these things on the Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
, where Zechariah
Book of Zechariah
The Book of Zechariah is the penultimate book of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew and Christian Bible, attributed to the prophet Zechariah.-Historical context:...
14:4 has the final messianic battle occurring. In the next and final section Mark shows the necessity of suffering, Jesus' Passion
Passion (Christianity)
The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
, as a part of God's plan. Jesus is crowned the King of the Jews only on the cross and only overcomes all suffering and evil by his resurrection
Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
from the dead.