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Mar_13:24-27. See on Mat_24:29-31. Comp. Luk_21:25-28.
ἀλλʼ ] breaking off and leading over to a new subject. Hartung, Partikell. II. p. 34 f.
ἐν ἐκείναις τ . ἡμέρ . μετὰ τ . θλίψ . ἐκ .] Thus in Mark also the Parousia is predicted as setting in immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem, since it is still to follow in those days[156] (comp. Mar_13:19-20). The εὐθέως of Matthew is not thereby avoided (de Wette, Bleek, and others), but this εὐθέως is only a still more express and more direct definition, which tradition has given to the saying. To refer ἐν ἐκ . τ . ἡμ ., to the times of the church that are still continuing, is an exegetical impossibility. Even Baur and Hilgenfeld are in error in holding that Mark has conceived of the Parousia as at least not following so immediately close upon the destruction.
Mar_13:25. οἱ ἀστέρες τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κ . τ . λ .] the stars of heaven shall be, etc., which is more simple (comp. Rev_6:13) than that which is likewise linguistically correct: the stars shall from heaven, etc. (Hom. Od. xiv. 31, II. xi. 179; Soph. Aj. 1156; Aesch. ii. 34; Gal_5:4; 2Pe_3:17).
ἔσονται ἐκπίπτ .] more graphic and vividly realizing than the simple πεσοῦνται (Matt.).
Mar_13:26. Mark has not the order of sequence of the event, as Matthew depicts it; he relates summarily.
Mar_13:27. ἀπʼ ἄκρου γῆς ἕως ἄκρου οὐρανοῦ ] From the outmost border of the earth (conceived as a flat surface) shall the ἐπισυνάγειν begin, and be carried through even to the opposite end, where the outmost border of the heaven ( κατὰ τὸ φαινόμενον of the horizon) sets limit to the earth. The expression is more poetical than in Matthew; it is the more arbitrary to think (with Bleek) in the case of γῆς of those still living, and in that of οὐρ . of those who sleep in bliss.
[156] It is, in fact, to impute great thoughtlessness and stupidity to Mark, if people can believe, with Baur, Markusev. p. 101, that Mark did not write till after Matthew and Luke, and yet did not allow himself to be deterred by all that had intervened between the composition of Matthew’s Gospel and his own, from speaking of the nearness of the Parousia in the same expressions as Matthew used. This course must certainly be followed, if the composition of Mark (comp. also Köstlin, p. 383) is brought down to so late a date.