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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Christ Foretells the Destruction of Jerusalem and the End of the World.
Prophecy concerning the Temple:
v. 1. And as He went out of the Temple, one of His disciples saith unto Him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!
v. 2. And Jesus, answering, said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.
The Temple built by Herod to take the place of that erected by the Jews under Zerubbabel and restored and embellished under Judas Maccabaeus, was, so far as outward architectural beauty was concerned, a building, or rather a complex of buildings, of which any nation might have been proud. Beginning in 20-19 B. C. , the sanctuary had been wrecked and rebuilt in about eighteen months, but the other halls and chambers of the Temple had been constructed much more slowly. It took forty-six years to finish all the buildings as planned by Herod, Joh_2:20, but the last stones of the enclosures with their beautiful sculptured work were not put into place until the year 64 A. D. The disciples thus had good reasons for pointing out to Jesus some of the immense stones, fifty feet long, twenty-four broad, and sixteen in thickness, of which Josephus writes, and they could well admire the immense porticoes, with their slender Corinthian columns and the great central buildings, rising almost 180 feet over the Court of the Gentiles, its marble coping and golden ornaments making it by far the most conspicuous edifice in the entire city. Jesus freely admits that the great size and the magnificence of the Temple are unquestioned, but He also knows, according to His prophetic wisdom, what terrible destruction and devastation would be worked here less than four decades hence, that God's wrath would be poured out upon the city and the Temple in full measure. He knows that the unbelief and the rejection of the Messiah, of His own labor and ministry, would bring upon the Temple such a fate as would vainly seek for a comparison in the history of the world. As for the Temple, not one stone would be left in place upon the other which would not be removed and thoroughly destroyed. This was the beginning of a conversation between Christ and His disciples which was continued on their way over the Mount of Olives, where they stopped for a while, and was probably not ended till they reached Bethany for the night's lodging.