Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Matthew 24:9 - 24:9
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat_24:9. Jesus now exhibits the sequel of this universal beginning of woes in its special bearing upon the disciples and the whole Christian community. Comp. on Mat_10:17 ff.
τότε ] then, when what is said at Mat_24:7 will have begun. Differently in Luk_21:12 ( πρὸ δὲ τούτων ), where, though τότε is not in any way further defined (Cremer), we have clearly a correction in order to adapt the expression to the persecutions that in the evangelist’s time had already begun. Seeing that the expressions are distinctly different from each other. it is not enough to appeal to the “elasticity” of the τότε (Hoelemann).
ἀποκτενοῦσιν ὑμᾶς ] spoken generally, not as intimating, nor even presupposing (Scholten), the death of all of them. After παραδώς . ὑμᾶς the current of prophetic utterance flows regularly on, leaving to the hearers themselves to make the necessary distinctions.
καὶ ἔσεσθε μισούμενοι ] It is a mistake to suppose that we have here a reference to Nero’s persecution (proceeding upon an erroneous interpretation of the well-known “odio humani generis” in Tacit. Ann. xv. 44, see Orelli on the passage), because it is the disciples that are addressed; and to regard them as the representatives of Christians in general, or as the sum total of the church (Cremer), would be arbitrary in the highest degree; the discourse does not become general in its character till Mat_24:10. Comp. 1Co_4:13.
ὑπὸ πάντων τ . ἐθνῶν ] by all nations. What a confirmation of this, in all general respects, is furnished by the history of the apostles, so far as it is known to us! But we are not justified in saying more, and especially when we take into account the prophetic colouring given to our discourse, must we beware of straining the πάντων in order to favour the notion that the expression contains an allusion to the vast and long-continued efforts that would be made to disseminate the gospel throughout the world (Dorner); let us repeat that it is the apostles who are in question here. Comp. Mat_10:17 f., 22.