Matthew 24 explained: The Temple's Fall and the End

Temple's fall, then hard times (vv. 1-14)

Jesus says the temple's great buildings will be torn down, which Roman armies did in AD 70, and his followers ask when, and what will signal his coming and the end of the age. He says wars, famines, persecution and false messiahs (people claiming to be God's promised king) are only the first pains of childbirth, not the birth itself, and the good news will reach all nations before the end.

Disaster in the holy place (vv. 15-22)

Daniel used a phrase, worded differently in different translations, for a detestable thing defiling the temple, most likely a Greek king's altar to Zeus set up there in 167 BC, and Jesus points to something like it still ahead. Many link the urgent call to flee Judea, made harder by winter rains or Sabbath travel limits, to Rome's war that began in AD 66 and destroyed Jerusalem in 70; others see a crisis still to come, and some see both.

Don't chase false messiahs (vv. 23-28)

Jesus warns against rumors of a hidden Messiah, because the coming of the Son of Man, his usual name for himself, will be as plain as lightning across the sky. The saying about birds gathering at a dead body (vultures or eagles, depending on the translation) is obscure: some take it to mean his coming will be just as obvious, others read it as a picture of judgment or of something as certain as birds finding a carcass.

Signs in the sky (vv. 29-31)

A darkened sun and falling stars echo old prophetic language for the fall of nations, and the Son of Man coming on the clouds echoes Daniel's vision of a heavenly figure given power (Daniel 7). Some read this as Jesus' visible return at the end of history, others as picture language for the judgment that fell on Jerusalem in 70, and many hold parts of both.

Near, yet no one knows (vv. 32-41)

Just as new fig leaves mean summer is near, these signs show the time is close, and Jesus says 'this generation' will see it all, yet only the Father knows the day, not even the Son (vv. 32-36). It will come in the middle of ordinary life, as the flood did in Noah's time; some read the one 'taken' as gathered to safety (v. 31), others as swept away in judgment like the flood's victims (v. 39).

Stay ready (vv. 42-51)

A thief gives no warning, so stay alert; the servant who keeps feeding the household is rewarded, but one who decides the master is late and abuses the others is caught off guard. His sentence is brutal, being cut apart and placed with the hypocrites amid weeping and grinding of teeth, Matthew's recurring picture of final judgment, and scholars debate whether the cutting is literal or a vivid image of severe punishment.

Key verse: Matthew 24:42

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on how much of this chapter was fulfilled when Rome destroyed the temple in AD 70 and how much points to a future return of Jesus, with much resting on whether 'this generation' in verse 34 means the people alive then, a later generation, or something broader.

Something to think about

How do you tend to live when you know something important is coming but have no idea when?