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Mat 24:36. Περὶ δὲ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης, but of that day) The Lord shows the time of the temple and the city in Mat 24:32-34; He denies in this verse that the day and hour of the world are known. The particle δὲ, but, implies a contrast: the pronouns ταῦτα, these, αὕτη, this, refer to events close at hand; the pronoun ἐκείνης, that, to that which is distant. If, however, the former time is defined with some latitude, THAT DAY and hour is much less definitely indicated here: and yet He does not speak of the day and hour without cause. A day is a whole; an hour is a part. The day is not necessarily unknown because the hour is: the time taken with somewhat greater latitude is not necessarily unknown because the day is. And that which was unknown when this discourse was delivered, might be revealed after the Ascension of the Lord and the Apocalypse given to St John; and as the sand by degrees glides away in the hour-glass of time,[1063] it may be known more nearly. Otherwise, the last day and the last hour would not even then be known when it actually arrives. Our Lord goes on to speak of the day in Mat 24:37-38, of the hour in Mat 24:42-43, and of both in Mat 24:50.-ἄγγελοι, angels) whose knowledge is otherwise great.-τῶν οὐρανῶν, of the heavens) The plural number.
[1063] In the original, “clepsydra sensim elabente.” The ancients measured time in the hour-glass, not by sand, but by water. I have given the corresponding idiom.-(I. B.)