Luke 21:9

Luk 21:9. Πολέμους, wars) amongst equals.—ἀκαταστασίας, [Engl. Vers. ‘commotions’] seditions) of inferiors against superiors, and intestine divisions, whereby the κατάστασις, established constitution, of states is swept away. These are the preludes of further wars. It is in this chapter especially that Luke presents to us the words of the Lord in language varied from that in which Matthew and Mark record them: Luk 21:15 [“I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay;” comp. with Mar 13:11, “Take no thought before-hand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate; but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.” Comp. also, Mat 10:19], 20, etc.[221] So also, instead of wars and rumours of wars in Matthew [Luk 24:6] and Mark [Luk 13:7], Luke says here, wars and seditions.

[221] “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” Comp. with Mar 13:14, “When ye shall see the, abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, standing where it ought not” (in Mat 24:15, “stand in the holy place”); the phrases in Mark being altered from their Jewish form by Luke, into one more intelligible to the Gentiles for whom he wrote.—E. and T.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 21:9 . ἀκαταστασίας , unsettled conditions, for ἀκοὰς πολέμων in Mt. and Mk., and perhaps intended as an explanation of that vague phrase. Hahn refers to the French Revolution and the Socialist movement of the present day as illustrating the meaning. πτοηθῆτε = θροεῖσθε in parallels; here and in Luk 24:37 . δεῖ γὰρ , etc., cf. the laconic version in Mk. (W. and H [171] ) and notes there. πρῶτον , οὐκ εὐθέως : both emphasising the lesson that the crisis cannot come before certain things happen, and the latter hinting that it will not come even then.

[171] Westcott and Hort.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The true Temple of God is built up even in the midst of incredible tumults, and most sharp miseries, through invincible patience, so that the end thereof cannot be but most happy.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

not terrified--(See Luk 21:19; Isa 8:11-14).

end not by and by--or immediately, not yet (Mat 24:6; Mar 13:7): that is, "Worse must come before all is over."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. Commotions] Seditions and civil dissensions, with which no people were more agitated than the Jews.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(9) Commotions.—The word does not occur in the other Gospels, but is used by St. Paul in 1Co_14:33 (“confusion”), 2Co_6:5; 2Co_12:20 (“tumults”). Its exact meaning is unsettlement, disorder.

Be not terrified.—The word is used by St. Luke only, here and in Luk_24:37, in the New Testament.

By and by.—Better, as elsewhere, immediately.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. wars and commotions] The best comment on the primary fulfilment of this Discourse is the Jewish War of Josephus, and the Annals and History of Tacitus (Ann. xii. 38, xv. 22, xvi. 13), whose narrative is full of earthquakes, wars, crimes, violences and pollutions, and who describes the period which he is narrating as one which was “rich in calamities, horrible with battles, rent with seditions, savage even in peace itself.” The main difficulties of our Lord’s Prophecy vanish when we bear in mind (i) that Prophecy is like a landscape in which time and space are subordinated to eternal relations, and in which events look like hills seen chain behind chain which to the distant spectator appear as one; and (ii) that in the necessarily condensed and varying reports of the Evangelists, sometimes the primary fulfilment (which is shewn most decisively and irrefragably by Luk_21:32 to be the Fall of Jerusalem), sometimes the ultimate fulfilment is predominant. The Fall of Jerusalem was the Close of that Aeon and a symbol of the Final End (telos). This appears most clearly in the report of St Luke.

commotions] akatastasias, conditions of instability and rottenness, the opposite to peace. 1Co_14:33; Jas_3:16. Such commotions were the massacre of 20,000 Jews in their fight with the Gentiles at Caesarea; the assassinations or suicides of Nero, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius; the civil wars, &c.

be not terrified] The Greek word is the exact equivalent of our English word ‘be not scared,’ Luk_24:37; 1Pe_3:6; Pro_3:25.

but the end is not by and by] Rather, but not immediately is the end. For ‘by and by’ see Luk_17:7; Mat_13:21; Mar_6:25. The words are most important as a warning against the same eschatological excitement which St Paul discourages in 2 Thess. (“The end is not yet,” Mat_24:6; Mar_13:7.) The things which ‘must first come to pass’ before the final end were (1) physical disturbances—which so often synchronise with historic crises, as Niebuhr has observed; (2) persecutions; (3) apostasy; (4) wide evangelisation; (5) universal troubles of war, &c. They were the “beginning of birth-throes” (Mat_24:8); what the Jews called the “birth-pangs of the Messiah.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions,.... Or seditions and tumults; "wars" may design the wars of the Romans, against the Jews; and the "commotions", or seditions, the internal troubles among themselves:

be not terrified; as if the destruction of the nation, city, and temple, would be at once:

for these things must first come to pass, but the end is not by and by; or "immediately". The Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions leave out this last word, and read, as in See Gill on Mat 24:6.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.

Ver. 9. See Mat 24:6, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See Poole on "Mat 24:6-7", and See Poole on "Mar 13:8". Time is the best interpreter of prophecies: what shall be seen of these before the end of the world we are yet to observe, but the destruction of Jerusalem is past many hundreds of years since. What commotions were before that, we must learn out of civil historians, who tell us of divers. Josephus telleth us of an insurrection made by those of Judea against the Samaritans, Romans, and Syrians; and of the Romans against the Jews, to the destruction of twenty thousand Jews: as also of those of Scythopolis, who destroyed of the Jews thirteen thousand; of the Ascalonites, who destroyed of them two thousand five hundred; of those of Alexandria, who destroyed of them fifty thousand; of those of Damascus, who slew of them ten thousand. They tell us also of many more seditions, during the government of Felix, Festus, Albinus, Florus, &c.

The text speaks further of earthquakes; the Greek word signifieth no more than concussions and shakings, but historians tell us of several earthquakes that happened (though not in Judea) before the destruction of Jerusalem; one at Rome, in Nero’s time; another in Asia, which destroyed three cities, &c.

For famines, we read of one in Scripture prophesied of by Agabus, Act 11:28. Twelve years after Christ’s death, there was another in Greece; and four years after, at Rome.

For the fearful sights, and great signs from heaven, Josephus tells us of a comet, which for a year together in the form of a sword pointed over the city; a light that shined in the night in the temple, and made it as bright as if it had been noon day. He tells us also of a neat beast bringing forth a lamb in the midst of the temple; of the strange opening of the gates of the temple; of visions of chariots and armed men; of a voice heard in the temple, inviting those who were there to be gone; as also of a man (whom he names) who for seven years and five months together before the siege went about crying, Woe, woe to Jerusalem! And could with no punishments (which they thought fit to inflict) be restrained, &c. These were great signs both from heaven and earth.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. By and by—This phrase, which by a singular reverse of meaning now signifies after a while, meant in the old English of our translators, immediately.

Jerusalem’s destruction, and the dispersion of the Jewish races, 10-32.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 9, 10. Wars and commotions... nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Josephus the Jewish, and Tacitus the Roman, historian the former in his "Jewish Wars," and the latter in his "Annals describe the period which immediately followed the Crucifixion as full of wars, crimes, violences, earthquakes. "It was a time," says Tacitus, "rich in disasters, horrible with battles, torn with seditions, savage even in peace itself."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Commotions - Intestine broils; civil wars.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

9. πολέμους καὶ ἀκαταστασίας. The best comment on the primary fulfilment of this Discourse is the Jewish War of Josephus, and the Annals and History of Tacitus (Ann. XII. 38, xv. 22, xvi. 13), whose narrative is full of earthquakes, wars, crimes, violences and pollutions, and who describes the period which he is narrating as one which was “rich in calamities, horrible with battles, rent with seditions, savage even in peace itself.” (Tac. Hist. I. 12.) The main difficulties of our Lord’s Prophecy vanish when we bear in mind (i) that Prophecy is like a landscape in which time and space are subordinated to eternal relations, and in which events look like hills seen chain behind chain which to the distant spectator appear as one; and (ii) that in the necessarily condensed and varying reports of the Evangelists, sometimes the primary fulfilment (which is shewn most decisively and irrefragably by Luk 21:32 to be the Fall of Jerusalem), sometimes the ultimate fulfilment is predominant. The Fall of Jerusalem was the Close of that Aeon and a symbol of the Final End (τέλος). This appears most clearly in the report of St Luke.

ἀκαταστασίας. Conditions of instability and rottenness, the opposite to peace. 1Co 14:33; 2Co 6:5; Jas 3:16. Such commotions were the massacre of 20,000 Jews in their fight with the Gentiles at Caesarea; the assassinations or suicides of Nero, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius; the civil wars, &c.

μὴ πτοηθῆτε. ‘Be not scared,’ Luk 24:37; 1Pe 3:6; Pro 3:25.

ἀλλ’ οὐκ εὐθέως τὸ τέλος. ‘But not immediately is the end.’ For ‘by and by’ see Luk 17:7; Mat 13:21; Mar 6:25. The words are most important as a warning against the same eschatological excitement which St Paul discourages in 2 Thess. (“The end is not yet,” Mat 24:6; Mar 13:7.) The things which ‘must first come to pass’ before the final end were (1) physical disturbances; (2) persecutions; (3) apostasy; (4) wide evangelisation; (5) universal troubles of war, &c. They were the “beginning of birth-throes” (Mat 24:8); what the Jews called the “birth-pangs of the Messiah.”

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. ἀκαταστασίας Comp. 1Co 14:33; 2Co 6:5, 2Co 6:12:20; Jas 3:16; Pro 26:28; Tob, 4:13. In Josephus we have abundant evidence of such things. Tacitus says of this period—opimum casibus, atrox præliis, discors seditionibus, ipsâ etiam pace sævum. Quatuor Principes ferro interempti. Trina bella civilia, plura externa ac plerumque permixta (Hist. i. 2, I).—πτοηθῆτε. only here and 24:37: Mt. and Mk. have θροεῖσθε.

δεῖ. It is so ordered by God: Comp. 13:33, 17:25, 19:5, 24:7, 26, 44.

οὐκ εὐθέως. First, with emphasis: “Not immediately is the end.” For “by-and-by” as a translation of εὐθέως see on 17:7. By τὸτέλος is not meant τὸ τέλος ὠδίνων (comp. Mat 24:8), but πάντων τὸ τέλος (1Pe 4:7), the end of the world and the coming of the Son of Man.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Commotions [ακαταστασιας] . From aj, not, and kaqisthmi, to establish. Hence disestablishments; unsettlements. Rev., tumults.

Be not terrified [μη πτοηθητε] . Only here and ch. 24 37.

By and by [ευθεως] . Better as Rev. immediately.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.