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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Luke 21:9 - 21:9
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Ver. 9-11. See Poole on "Mat_24:6", See Poole on "Mat_24:7", and See Poole on "Mar_13:8". Time is the best interpreter of prophecies: what shall be seen of these before the end of the world we are yet to observe, but the destruction of Jerusalem is past many hundreds of years since. What commotions were before that, we must learn out of civil historians, who tell us of divers. Josephus telleth us of an insurrection made by those of Judea against the Samaritans, Romans, and Syrians; and of the Romans against the Jews, to the destruction of twenty thousand Jews: as also of those of Scythopolis, who destroyed of the Jews thirteen thousand; of the Ascalonites, who destroyed of them two thousand five hundred; of those of Alexandria, who destroyed of them fifty thousand; of those of Damascus, who slew of them ten thousand. They tell us also of many more seditions, during the government of Felix, Festus, Albinus, Florus, &c.
The text speaks further of earthquakes; the Greek word signifieth no more than concussions and shakings, but historians tell us of several earthquakes that happened (though not in Judea) before the destruction of Jerusalem; one at Rome, in Nero’s time; another in Asia, which destroyed three cities, &c.
For famines, we read of one in Scripture prophesied of by Agabus, Act_11:28. Twelve years after Christ’s death, there was another in Greece; and four years after, at Rome.
For the fearful sights, and great signs from heaven, Josephus tells us of a comet, which for a year together in the form of a sword pointed over the city; a light that shined in the night in the temple, and made it as bright as if it had been noon day. He tells us also of a neat beast bringing forth a lamb in the midst of the temple; of the strange opening of the gates of the temple; of visions of chariots and armed men; of a voice heard in the temple, inviting those who were there to be gone; as also of a man (whom he names) who for seven years and five months together before the siege went about crying, Woe, woe to Jerusalem! And could with no punishments (which they thought fit to inflict) be restrained, &c. These were great signs both from heaven and earth.