Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Matthew 24:6 - 24:6
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat_24:6. Δέ ] continuative: but to turn now from this preliminary warning to your question itself—ye will hear, etc. This reply to the disciples’ question as to the events that were to be the precursors of the destruction of the temple (comp. πότε , Mat_24:3), is so framed that the prophetic outlook is directed first to the more general aspect of things (to what is to take place on the theatre of the world at large, Mat_24:6-8), and then to what is of a more special nature (to what concerns the disciples and the community of Christians, Mat_24:9-14). For the future μελλής . (you will have to), comp. 2Pe_1:12; Plat. Ep. vii. p. 326 C.
πολέμους κ . ἀκοὰς πολέμων ] said with reference to wars near at hand, the din and tumult of which are actually heard, and to wars at a distance, of which nothing is known except from the reports that are brought home.
ὁρᾶτε , μὴ θροεῖσθε ] take care, be not terrified. For θροεῖσθε , comp. 2Th_2:2; Son_5:4; on the two imperatives, as in Mat_8:4; Mat_8:15, Mat_9:30, see Buttmann, Neut. Gr. p. 209 [E. T. 243].
δεῖ γὰρ πάντα γενέσθαι ] they are not to be terrified, because it is necessary that all that should take place. The reflection that it is a matter of necessity in pursuance of the divine purpose (Mat_26:54), is referred to as calculated to inspire a calm and reassured frame of mind. πάντα is to be understood as meaning: everything that is then to happen, not specially ( τὰ πάντα , ταῦτα πάντα , comp. critical notes) the matters indicated by μελλήσετε … πολέμων , but rather that: nothing, which begins to take place, can stop short of its full accomplishment. The emphasis, however, is on δεῖ .
ἀλλʼ οὔπω ἐστὶ τὸ τέλος ] however, this will not be as yet the final consummation, so that you will require to preserve your equanimity still further. Comp. Hom. Il. ii. 122: τέλος δʼ οὔ πώ τί πέφανται . τὸ τέλος cannot mean the συντέλεια , Mat_24:3 (Chrysostom, Ebrard, Bleek, Lange, Cremer, Auberlen, Hoelemann, Gess), but, as the context proves by the correlative expression ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων , Mat_24:8, and by τὸ τέλος , Mat_24:14, comp. with οὖν , Mat_24:15, the end of the troubles at present under consideration. Inasmuch, then, as these troubles are to be straightway followed by the world’s last crisis and the signs of the Messiah’s advent (Mat_24:29-30), τὸ τέλος must be taken as referring to the end of the dolores Messiae. This end is the laying waste of the temple and the unparalleled desolation of the land that is to accompany it. Mat_24:15 ff. This is also substantially equivalent to de Wette’s interpretation: “the decisive winding up of the present state of things (and along with it the climax of trouble and affliction).”