Mark 13:4

Mar_13:4

Tell us, when shall these things be?

Date fixing

Thats 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 greater blessing to us than Gods concealment of 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 aspiration and noble endeavour! How it would paralyze loving effort, and check or destroy needed tenderness 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 School Times.)

Leading astray

It is quite as important not to be led astray by false religious teachers as by any other class of deceivers or deceived; and there is quite as much danger in this line as in any other. Sincerity on our part is no guard against deception or wandering; nor is sincerity a safeguard to a religious teacher. Those who are themselves both honest and 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 counsel or example of those whom we have supposed to be godly, or by the impulses or convictions of our own minds and hearts. There is such a thing as conscientious error teaching and devil serving. The warning of Jesus is, that ye take heed that no man lead you astray in doctrine or morals, through holding up a false standard of conduct, or a false interpretation of Gods Word. (Sunday School Times.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 13:4. Ταῦτα, these things) viz. as concerns the temple.—πάντα ταῦτα, all these things) viz. as concerns not only the temple, but also all other things, that is, the whole world.

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

Mar 13:4 . The question of the four has exclusive reference to the predicted destruction of the sacred buildings. In Mt. three questions are mixed together: vide notes there.

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

(4) When shall these things be?—Note, as, perhaps, characteristic of a Gospel written for Gentiles, the use of the vaguer words for the more definite “sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world,” in Mat_24:3.

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

4. what shall be the sign] The question is given more fully by St Matthew, Mat_24:3. It embraced three points: (i) the time of the destruction of the Temple; the sign (ii) of His Coming, and (iii) of the end of the world.

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.

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 sign of his coming, and of the end of the world, as Matthew relates; See Gill on Mat 24:3.

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

4 Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?

Ver. 4. Shall be fulfilled] or, have an end, συντελεισθαι, that is, be destroyed, as Mat 13:2. Which yet these apostles held not destroyable till the world’s destruction, as appears Mat 24:1-51.

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.

When shall these things be? The miseries that took place previously to the destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem, were a figure of the extreme calamity that will happen before the last day, in the reign of Antichrist: hence Jesus Christ speaketh indifferently of both. (Bristow)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Two questions are here asked; the one concerning the destruction of Jerusalem: the other concerning the end of the world.

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

4. Εἰπὸν ἡμῖν. All three record these two questions, When? and What sign? The disciples want to know how soon the 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 signal is expected. They accept, without question, that the destruction will take place, just as they accept the equally appalling statement that one of them is a traitor (Mar 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 soon as correction was necessary. Εἰπόν is from the 1st aor. εἶπα.

συντελεῖσθαι. Nowhere else in Mk. It is used of days being completed, Luk 4:2; Act 21:27; Job 1:5; Tob 10:7. The πάντα comes last with 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 which no other Evangelist employs, παρουσία and συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος.

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.

4.] ταῦτα π. implies that they viewed the destruction of the temple as part of a great series of events, which had now by frequent prophecy become familiar to them. ‘All these things about which thou so often speakest.’

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. Εἰπὸν5 ἡμῖν, πότε ταῦτα ἔσται—Tell us, when these things will be. ταῦτα refers to the destruction of the temple just mentioned.6 But in giving the answer of Jesus, Mk. introduces false Messiahs in such a way as to seem to imply a previous reference to his own reappearance, so that Mk.’s report taken as a whole would imply more than this single reference of the ταῦτα. But this appearance of false Messiahs in Mk.’s account may easily be explained as one of the premature signs of the catastrophe which makes the single subject of the prophecy so far. Moreover, the way in which the destruction of the temple, the reappearance of Jesus, and the consummation of the age are introduced in Mt. (24:2, 3) shows conclusively that in that Gospel the three are all treated as parts and titles of the one event.

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