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Final and Fullest Manifestation of Christ as the Prophet; or, Discourses of the Lord concerning the “Last Things” (Eschatological Discourses)
(Mat_24:2 to Mat_25:31; Mark 13; Luk_21:5-38. Comp, the Apocalypse of John.)
FIRST SECTION
THE GENERAL JUDGMENT; OR, THE END OF JERUSALEM AND THE END OF THE WORLD
Mat_24:2-44
(Pericopes: 1. Mat_24:18-28, on the 15th Sunday after Trinity; 2. Mat_24:37-51, on the 27th Sunday after Trinity,—Parallels: Mar_13:1-37; Luk_21:5-36.)
Occasion of the Discourses. Mat_24:1-3
Luke has introduced many of these subjects at an earlier point, Matthew 12, 17 Following in Luther’s track, Schleiermacher, Hase, and Neander made Luke’s the original account; but de Wette and Meyer, and especially also C. J. Meyer in the monograph quoted, have successfully contended against this view. Matthew is undoubtedly the leading authority in all the discourses which have direct reference to theocratic relations; and any one must perceive the exceeding care which he has spent on all the Lord’s words upon this subject. The order which we have given above in the division of the text, is substantially the same as is given in the Latin dissertation of Ebrard on the eschatological passages of the N. T. (Dissertatio adversus erroneam nonnullorum opinionem, qua Christus Christique apostoli existimasse perhibentur, fore ut universum judicium ipsorum œtate superveniret. Erlangen, 1842), and in his Kritik der Evangel. Geschichte, p. 497. On the law of cyclical representation, consult my Leben Jesu, ii. 3, p. 1558. According to Dorner, Mat_24:4-14 exhibit the development of the gospel; while what follows, from Mat_24:15, exhibits the historical process of the Christian religion. Meyer regards the section to Mat_24:5 as a preparatory warning against false Messiahs; then a continuous exhibition of the future down to the destruction of the temple. De Wette also has failed to discern the organic construction of the discourse. Stier distinguishes a second coming of Christ, Mat_25:31, from the first coming, Mat_24:29, but without support from the rest of Scripture; although it is equally baseless to regard the coming of Christ to the first resurrection as altogether spiritual. C. J. Meyer understands Mat_24:29-31 of the judgment upon Jerusalem; a view which has no foundation in the text, and which overturns the cyclical organization of the whole prophecy. According to this view, it is in Mat_24:35 that the end of the world begins to be referred to.
General Sketch of the Last Things down to the End of the World. Mat_24:1-14
Mat_24:2. See ye not all these things?—Casaubon, and many others, startled by this sentence, have proposed to omit the ïὺ Paulus: Do not look too much at then thing; bat this would require ìÞ instead of ïὐ . De Wette, following Chrysostom: Do ye not marvel at all this magnificence? Meyer’s interpretation is still more unfounded and untenable: Do ye not see all this? namely, the vision of Jesus concerning the destruction of the temple, as something present before His eyes. But the expression is rhetorical, and introduces what follows: Do ye not really see all these things yet? Soon shall ye see them no more. The judgment will come:—the destruction of the city; the burning of the temple; Hadrian’s statue of Jupiter upon the site; Julian’s rain attempt to rebuild it; the mosque of Omar.
[Verily I say unto you. etc.—A most remarkable prophecy, uttered in a time of profound peace, when nobody dreamed of the possibility of the destruction of such a magnificent work of art and sanctuary of religion as the temple at Jerusalem; a prophecy literally fulfilled forty years after its utterance, fulfilled by Jewish fanatics and Roman soldiers in express violation of the orders of Titus, one of the most humane of the Roman emperors (called deliciœ humani generis), who wished to save it. And Josephus, the greatest Jewish scholar of his age, had to furnish from his personal experience the best commentary on our Saviour’s prophecy, and a powerful argument for His divine mission!—P. S.]
Mat_24:3. Upon the Mount of Olives.—On the prospect from the Mount of Olives over the city, see the description of travellers.
The disciples came unto Him privately.—Asking Him confidentially. The êáô ̓ ἰäéáí refers to no distinction between the Twelve and other men. It indicates indefinitely that distinction among the disciples themselves, which Mark notes more distinctly in Mat_13:3. The confidential disciples, to whom He disclosed these things, were Peter, James the Elder, and John; to whom Andrew was added, who had a sort of seniority among the disciples.
When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign?—Two distinct questions. The first refers to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem; the other, to the signs of the advent of Christ and the end of the world. They were sure that the coming of Christ would bring in the end of the world; but they did not apprehend that the destruction of Jerusalem would itself be a sign of the coming of Christ. This distinction is important for the interpretation of the whole chapter. The Rabbins spoke of the dolores Messiœ, according to Hos_13:13, and other places (Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. p. 700) as the premonitory signs of the advent of the Messiah.
Thy coming.—The ðáñïõóßá 1Co_15:23; 1Jn_2:28; Mat_24:37; Mat_24:39; 2Th_2:1; 2Th_2:8. etc. Before, this had been regarded as in antithesis to the time of Old Testament expectation—in which the first and second coming of Christ coincided; but here it is specifically viewed as the period of His last coming in glory. The ðáñïõïἰá is the ἐðéöÜíåéá of 2Th_2:8; 1Ti_6:14, etc., in antithesis to the times of the hidden influence and government of Christ. The ðáñïõóßá refers to time; the ἐðéöÜíåéá to space. The question of the disciples shows that they no longer entertained the notion of the palm-entry being the advent. After the great event of the resurrection, they did indeed venture to hope that that advent was already beginning, Act_1:6; but after the ascension they expected His coming from heaven, according to the heavenly intimation in Act_1:11; Act_3:20.
And of the end of the world.—Meyer: “There is in the gospels no trace whatever of a millennarian apocalyptical view of the last things.” But Meyer overlooks that the óõíôÝëåéá is the germ itself of the expectation of the millennarian kingdom which afterward was fully developed (Revelation 20). From the fact that the óõíôÝëåéá should come suddenly, it does not at once follow that it should come and end at once. It embraces a period, the stages of which are clearly intimated, not only in 1 Corinthians 15 and the Apocalypse, but also in Matthew 25 and John 5— Ôïῦ áἰ ὼíïò —“The áἰὼí ïῦ ̓ ôïò which ends with the advent, as the áἰὼí ìÝëëùí then begins. The advent, resurrection, and judgment, fall upon the ἐó÷Üôç ἡìÝñá with which the êáéñὸò ἔó÷áôïò (1Pe_1:5), the ἔó÷áôáé ἡìÝñáé (Act_2:17; 2Ti_3:1), that is, the stormy and wicked end of the áὶὼí ïῦ ̔ ôïò (see Gal_1:4), are not to be confounded.” Meyer [It should be kept in mind that when the “end of the world” is spoken of in the N. T., the term áéþí the present dispensation or order of things, is used, and not êüóìïò the planetary system, the created universe.—P. S.]
Mat_24:4. Take heed that no man deceive you.—The practical issue of all discussion of the last things.
Mat_24:5. For many shall come, etc.—De Wette: “It cannot be shown that there were any false Christs before the destruction of Jerusalem. Bar-Cochba (Euseb. Mat_4:6) appeared after that event (the deceiver Jonathan in Cyrene, Joseph. Bell. Judges 7, 11, is not described as a false Messiah). The deceivers of whom the Acts of the Apostles and Joscphus speak (Act_5:36; comp. Joseph. Antiq. xx. 5, 1; 8, 9; 21, 38; Bell. Judges 2, 13, 5), did not play the part of Christs. Church history generally knows of none who gave himself out as the Christian Messiah.” Here are almost as many errors as words. 1. We have not to do here with the specific signs of the destruction of Jerusalem, but with the general signs of the end of the world. 2. All those are essentially false Messiahs who would assume the place which belongs to Christ in the kingdom of God. It includes, therefore, the enthusiasts who before the destruction of Jerusalem appeared as seducers of the people; e.g., Theudas, Dositheus, Simon Magus, etc. 3. Every one who gave himself out as the Messiah, gave himself out as the Christian Messiah; for Messiah means Christ. That no pseudo-Messiah could announce himself as Jesus of Nazareth, is obvious of itself. Moreoever, every man was a false Christ who pretended to assume the place of Christ; e.g., Manes, Mohammed. For modem false Messiahs among the Jews, see the Serial Dibre Emeth, or Words of Truth. Breslau, 1853–4.
In My name.—Properly, on My name: on the ground of My name.
Mat_24:6. Ye shall hear.—As it respects the seductive side of these false Messiahs, they were to be on their guard; but as it respects this fearful side, they were not to be afraid.
Of wars, and rumors of Wars.—Meyer: “Wars in the neighborhood, where we hear the uproar and confusion ourselves; and wars in the distance, the rumors of which only are heard.” De Wette: “Rumors of wars, i.e., future wars in prospect. …Even wars and calamities they were not to take as signs of His coming. Such wars we cannot find before the destruction of Jerusalem.” Meyer likewise denies the reference to facts preceding the destruction. But this springs from misunderstanding of the construction of the discourse. Here all wars are meant down to the end of the world; and certainly there are enough of them to be found. Wetstein, taking it for granted that wars before the destruction of Jerusalem must be meant, refers us to the wars of the Jews, under Asinæus and Alinæus, with the Parthians in Mesopotamia (Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 9, 1), the wars of the Parthians with the Romans, etc.
The end is not yet.—The end of the world, as in Mat_24:13-14. So Chrysostom, Ebrard, de Wette. Meyer, on the contrary: the end of the tribulations here spoken of. But this falls with his erroneous construction of the whole discourse.
Mat_24:7. Nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.—Meyer: Wars of races, and wars of kingdoms. But wars were spoken of in the preceding verse. Here, the subject is great political revolutions in the world of nations: migrations of nations, risings, judgments, blendings, and new formations of peoples.
There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes.—De Wette and Meyer: These cannot be pointed out definitely. But they proceed on the fundamental error, that they must be pointed out before the destruction of Jerusalem. With regard to the famines, reference has been made to the dearth under Claudius, Act_11:28; with reference to the earthquakes, to that in Asia Minor (Tacit. Annal. 14:26). Certainly these are not enough of themselves; and êáôὰ ôüðïõò points to diverse places throughout the world. The passage combines in one view the whole of the various social, physical, and climatic crises of development in the whole New Testament dispensation. Wetstein and Bertholdt give specimens of Jewish expectation in regard to the dolores Messiœ.
Mat_24:8. These are the beginning of sorrow—The external, lesser, physical woes, as the basis of the greater moral woes to follow. The ὠäῖíåò birth-pangs, çֶáְìֵé äַîִּùִׁéçַ . Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. 700. The new world is a birth, as the end of the old world is a death.
Mat_24:9. Then shall they deliver you up.—Meyer: Then, when what is here spoken of shall have taken place. A wrong division. It does not mean ἔðåéôá in the external sense; although the internal procedure from worse to worse is intimated. in that time of external convulsions, will the greater internal woes be experienced. Hence there is no contradiction to Luk_21:12.
And shall kill you.—Not merely persecute to death “some” of you. Decius, Diocletian, the Inquisition, religious wars of modern times. Certainly it is not exclusively the persecution under Nero.—Kill you.—The Apostles are here the representatives of all Christians.
Mat_24:10. And then shall many be offended.—Then marks again the advancement of the suffering.—And shall betray one another.—Meyer: “The apostate shall betray the faithful man.” But this does not bring out the whole strength of the ἀëëÞëïõò or the progression of the thought. This betraying one another includes the idea of delivering up to an unauthorized tribunal, i.e., to the heathen magistrate or to the political power, which has no control over conscience; and the word, therefore, is appropriate to all political persecutions, which not only apostates have inflicted upon true Christians, but Christians upon Christians, Arians upon Catholics, and Catholics upon Arians, etc. (See this in all Church history, especially the history of all Protestant persecutions.)—And shall hate one another.—The perfect opposite to the vocation of all Christians; to love one another, Joh_15:17.
Mat_24:11. Many false prophets.—Not merely “extreme antinomian tendencies” in the stricter sense. The false prophet may be legalistic; and that is another and higher form of Antinomianism.
Mat_24:12. Because iniquity or lawlessness shall abound.—’ Á íïìßá is not merely immorality. Apostasy from the internal spiritual laws of Christianity, or mental lawlessness, is iniquity itself. The dying out of true religion must be followed by the dying out of love among the many,—that is, the great majority of Christians. This dying out will be in its very nature gradual—a growing cold. Meyer, in opposition to Dorner, endeavors in vain to explain this of the apostolical age.
Mat_24:13. But he that shall endure unto the end.—Endure in what, needs no explanation. It is the antithesis to apostasy from the faith—from the light of faith and the law of faith—and from love.
Unto the end.—(1) Krebs, Rosenmüller: Until the destruction of Jerusalem ( óùèÞó åô áé flight to Pella, temporal deliverance). (2) Elsner, Kuinoel: Unto death. (3) Meyer: To the end of the tribulations.—It is obviously the end simply, the last day of the world; which comes preparatorily to every one in the day of his death, the last day of the individual Christian. The same holds good of the advent of Christ. Even as there is an internal advent in connection with the external and universal advent of Christ, so also there is an internal end of all things, earnest and rehearsal of the judgment,—the final testing and confirmation of the Christian’s faith.
Mat_24:14. This gospel [good news] of the kingdom.—The one great joyful sign of the approaching end of the world, which contrasts with and outweighs all the preliminary sorrowful signs.
In all the world.—’ Å íὁëῃ ôῇ ïὶêïõ ìÝíῃ must not be limited to the Roman Empire, as what follows plainly shows.
For a witness unto all nations.—Ancient expositors interpreted this of the conviction of the nations, and condemnation of the heathen. Grotius: In order to make known to them the stiffneckedness of the Jews (pertinacia judœorum). Dorner: Ita ut crisin aut vitœ aut mortis adducat. Right, doubtless. The gospel is not merely to be preached to the nations, but to be preached åἰò ìáñôõñéïí . Testified to them faithfully, even unto martyrdom, it will be a witness unto them; and then it will be a witness concerning them and against them.
And then shall the end come.—The end of the world proper. Meyer again: “The end of the tribulations preceding the Messiah.”
Mat_24:15. When therefore ye see.—De Wette and Meyer: The ïῦ ̓ í signifies—in consequence of the entering in of this ôåëïò . Ebrard: Jesus reverts to the first question, the answer of the second question being premised. Wieseler: Resumption of the thread broken off by the warning of Mat_24:3-14. Dorner: Transition from the eschatological principles of Mat_24:4-14 to the historical and prophetical application. The ïῦ ̓ í certainly signifies a transition to the announcement of the approaching destruction of Jerusalem—introduced now for practical application. But it looks back again to Mat_24:7-9, where the disciples are taken up into the figure, just as they afterward retire, and we hear no longer ὑìåῖò .
The abomination of desolation ( âäÝëõãì áἐñ çìþóåùò —Dan_9:27, ùִׁ÷ּéִּöִéí îְùׂîֵí ; comp. Dan_11:31; Dan_12:11. On the difficult place in Daniel, compare Hengstenberg, Hävernick, and Stier (Discourses of Jesus, on this passage). Hengstenberg (Christologie des A. T.’s vol. 3. p. 494) translates, “and over the top of abomination comes the destroyer.” The top of abomination is then the summit of the temple desecrated by abomination; and upon this summit comes the desolater. But the desolater would then form an antithesis to the abomination. We venture to translate: “And even to the summit (double sense: to the uttermost, and to the top of the sanctuary, mentioned before) come the abominations, the ravagers (the singular instead of the plural, comp. Pro_27:9), and until destruction, which is firmly decreed, is poured out upon the wasters.” See many other interpretations in Meyer’s Com. [4th ed. p. 443]. The Sept. is in sense correct: êáὶ ἐðὶ ôὸ ἱåñὸí âäåëõãìá ôῶí ἐñçìþóåùí . Comp. 1Ma_1:55; 2Ma_6:2. This abomination of desolation has been variously interpreted, (1) The Fathers: The statue of Titus [or Hadrian] supposed to have been erected on the site of the desolated temple,—which is questionable. (2) Jerome: The imperial statue, which Pilate caused to be set up (Joseph. Bell. Judges 2, 9, 2). (3) Elsner, Hug: The raging of the zealots. (4) Meyer: The vile and loathsome abominations practised by the conquering Romans on the place where the temple Blood. (5) Grotius, Bengel, de Wette, and others: The Roman eagles, as military ensigns, so hateful to the Jews. This explanation we adhere to, as most consistent with âäÝëõãìá . The Roman eagles, rising over the site of the temple, were the sign that the holy place had fallen under the dominion of the idolaters. (Comp. Wieseler in the Göttingen Quarterly for 1846, p. 183 sq.)
Spoken of by Daniel—Wieseler: “Which is an expression of the prophet Daniel.” As Daniel describes it.
In the holy place.—Mar_13:14, ὅðïõ ïὐ äåῖ . Meyer insists that it was the temple ground; Bengel, de Wette, and Baumgarten-Crusius, Palestine generally, but especially the territory round Jerusalem, “because, after the capture of the temple, it would be too late to flee.” This extends the meaning too far, while Meyer confounds the present passage with the text of Daniel. It was to be to the disciples a sign, when the abomination of desolation touched the holy place; and they were not to wait until it reached the temple. This, therefore, signified the beleaguering of the holy city. Jesus gives the longest term for delay; but does not forbid an earlier flight.
Let him that readeth understand.—This is not a word of Jesus, as Chrysostom and, after him, many have thought; which would in that case point to the reading of Daniel, It is a word of the Evangelist (de Wette, Meyer), which seems to intimate the near approach of these signs, i.e., the beginning of the Jewish war. The passage is important in its bearing upon the origin of this Gospel and the time: of its composition.
Mat_24:16. Flee into the mountains.—This was fulfilled in the flight of the Christians to Pella-Euseb. Mat_3:5. Several Christians received, before the war, according to Eusebius, a divine direction for the congregation, that it should forsake the city and betake itself to Pella, in Peræa.
Mat_24:17. Let him not come down.—This and the following are concrete descriptions of the most extreme haste in escape, in which they must not be hindered by any motives of selfishness or convenience. The allusion is to the flight of Lot from Sodom, and Lot’s wife, Luk_17:32.—Not come down.—Some think this was a hint that they should flee over the flat roofs (Winer, sub v. Dach); according to Bengel, “ne per scalas interiores, sed exteriores descendat.” The manner of escape, however, was not described beforehand, here or elsewhere. It was said only, that no one must go down into the house again, to carry away with him all kinds of encumbrances.
Mat_24:20. Nor on the Sabbath.—On the Sabbath the Jew might go a distance of only two thousand ells or cubits [about an English mile], Act_1:12; Jos. Antiq. xiii. 8, 4. This ordinance was based upon Exo_16:29. (Lightfoot on Luk_24:50.) According to Wetstein, however, the Rabbins made many casuistical exceptions. De Wette asks: “How does this scrupulous anxiety agree with the Saviour’s liberal view on the Sabbath?” Meyer explains, that many scrupulous Jewish Christians would hardly be able to rise above the legal prescription concerning the Sabbath-journey. But both these forget that the Jewish custom with regard to travelling on the Sabbath [the shutting of the gates of cities, etc.] would make the Christians’ journeying on that day infinitely more difficult, even although they themselves might be perfectly free from any scruple. They would, in addition to other embarrassments, expose themselves to the severest persecutions of Jewish fanaticism, and be denounced as apostates and traitors to the religion of their fathers.
Mat_24:21. For then shall he great tribulation.—A sketch of the history of the destruction of Jerusalem. Comp. Luk_21:20 sqq., and Joseph. Bell. Jud. Heubner: “According to Josephus, not less than eleven hundred thousand Jews perished in this war. The siege took place at the time of the crowded festival. Since the rejection of Christ, the Jewish people has been in a state of slavery, and dispersed over the earth. Immediately after the war, ninety thousand were carried away.” By the greatness of the terror, which the Lord only hints at circuitously, they were to measure the swiftness of their flight.
Mat_24:22. And except those days should be shortened, ἐêïëïâþèçóáí —What days? and how shortened? According to our view (Leben Jesu, ii. 3, 1269), the destruction of Jerusalem signified and was the actual beginning of the end of the world, inasmuch as it was the judgment upon the Jewish people, which forma the counterpart of the world’s judgment upon Christ, and because the heathen world was involved in the guilt and in the punishment of the Jewish world. Then those days are the days of the destruction of Jerusalem, as the days of the great preliminary judgment. Those days are, as days of judgment, represented as shortened. Lightfoot (with allusion to rabbinical notions about shortened days, in opposition to Jos_10:13) and Fritzsche understand the word of the shortened length of the days. Meyer, on the other hand (following de Wette), refers the expression to the diminishing of the number of the days; and deduces from the saying generally the earlier occurrence of the end of the world itself (Mat_24:29). But how should men be saved through their passing all the swifter out of the burning of Jerusalem into the burning of the entire world itself? The verb êïëïâüù means to mutilate, to cut off. Thus, then, the days of the New Testament dispensation are, under the judicial point of view, or with reference to the judgment as already begun, modified days of judgment—a season of grace. To this points the conclusion, “no man would be saved.” Shortened—that is, in the divine counsel
The elect (Gen_18:23) are not merely those who at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem were believers in Christ, but all who, according to the divine decree, should become believers down to the end of the world. Ebrard: There follows an œtas paulo saltem felicior, which Meyer denies, without sufficient reason, because he thinks that the hastening of the end of the world will be the means of salvation for many. This is inconsistent with 2Pe_3:9.
Mat_24:23. Then if any man shall say unto you.—Meyer: Tore, then, when the desolation of the temple and the flight shall take place. But this is inconsistent with what follows. The ôüôå points to the New Testament interval between the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world.
Mat_24:24. False Christs.—The øåõäï÷ñéóôïò must needs be an ἀíôß ÷ñéóôïò and conversely (see my Positive Dogmatik, p. 1267.)—False prophets must be understood only of false Christian teachers. Meyer thinks of false prophets among the Jews, according to Joseph. Bell. Judges 2, 13, 4; Kuinoel, of such as should give themselves out to be prophets raised up from the dead,—Elias, or others; Grotius, of apostles of the false Messiahs. But compare, in opposition to all these, 2 Thessalonians 2 and Rev_16:13, A Christian prophet is the announcer of a new development, or reform, or formation in the doctrine and life of the Church. A false prophet is an ecclesiastical revolutionist; which, however, he may be in a despotic or absolutistic sense, as well as in a democratic or radical. In the domain of doctrine, both characters may combine in one.
Great signs and wonders.—That is, such in appearance. Äþóïõóé is not merely promise; nor is it in the real sense give; but somewhat as in a scenic representation,—promised with ostentation, and accomplished in appearance.
Mat_24:26. In the desert; in the secret chambers.—In both cases, Behold! Not merely “apocalyptic painting,” as Meyer says. Behold indicates sensation and excitement. The general idea is, that Christ is not identified with a particular party or sectional interest. Christ “in the desert,” according to the analogy of John the Baptist in the wilderness, signifies the supposition that Christ would be found certainly in the ascetic and monastic form of life. In opposition to this view stands the declaration that he is ὲí ôïéò ôáìåßïéò . The ôáìåῖí means especially the chamber of treasure and provision; and Christ in the secret chambers points to the secular forms of millennarianism, that Christ is to be found in an external Church, with all its temporalities and glory. (Mormonism and Communism.)
Mat_24:27. For as the lightning.—The lightning has indeed a place where it appears first; but it is universal in its shining, visible from the eastern to the western horizon. So will Christ at His appearing manifest Himself by an unmistakeable brightness, irradiating the whole earth. It is not here, then, the mere suddenness that is meant, but rather the omnipresent, unmistakeable, and fearful visibility. The majestic glory of the lightning, and its effect in purifying the air, are here silent concomitants.
Mat_24:28. Where the carcass is.—A universal law of nature, which reflects the higher law of the moral, and especially of the Christian, world. The eagles here are carrion vultures which were numbered by the ancients with the race of eagles. Comp. Job_39:30; Hos_8:1; Hab_1:8. [Plin. Hist. Nat. Mat_9:3.] The figure gives a profound and strong expression of the necessity, inevitableness, and universality of judgment. As the carcass everywhere attracts the carrion-eaters, so do moral corruption and ripened guilt everywhere demand the judgment. The bearing of this proverbial word in the text is somewhat more difficult. The following are some interpretations: (1) Christ is the food (the carcass!), believers the eagles: Theophylact, Calvin, Calovius. (Jerome even went so far as to find in the ðôῶìá a reference to the death of Christ.) (2) The carcass means those who die to themselves; the eagles, the gifts of the Holy Spirit: Grotius. (3) Jerusalem and the Jews are the carcass; attracting the Roman legions with their eagles: Lightfoot, Wolf, de Wette (the last doubtful). (4) Meyer: “The carcass is a figure of the spiritually dead; and óõíá÷èÞóïíôáé (that is, at the advent) ïἱ ἀåôïß represents the same as is described in Mat_13:41, that is, the angels sent out by Christ.” Doubtless the figure of the eagles will express the necessity and inevitableness of the advent, as the figure of the lightning expresses the unmistakeableness and awful grandeur of its signs. But then the carcass must represent the moral corruption and decay of the world itself; and the eagles the judgment, not only in its personal, but also in its physical, elements and forces. The only question is, whether the word merely looks back to Mat_24:27, or also to Mat_24:26. Käuffer thinks the latter exclusively: “Believe them not who say that Christ is here or there; they are prœdatores avidi.” If we take the saying in Mat_24:28 as a conclusive glance back upon the whole section from 15 downward, the choice of the figure is at once explained. In the destruction of Jerusalem, the judgment will begin by the appearance of the great carrion eagles (there is included a manifest allusion to the Roman eagles). From that time it will go on through the whole new period; and find its expression in continuous local judgments throughout the gracious period of the shortened days of judgment: hence ὁðïõ ἐÜí . At last the judgment will extend to the whole morally corrupt and spiritually dead world. Mat_24:28 then comprehends and sums up the whole series of judgments from Mat_24:15-27.