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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Mark 13:32 - 13:32
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32. περὶ δὲ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης. This can hardly mean anything else than the great day which will bring to an end αἱ ἡμέραι ἐκεῖναι (Mar 13:17; Mar 13:19; Mar 13:24), the day of the Advent (Mar 14:25; Luk 21:34; 2Th 1:10; 2Ti 1:12; 2Ti 1:18; 2Ti 4:8). If for a moment the downfall of Jerusalem has been treated as representing the End, this verse (to which there is no parallel in Lk.) definitely distinguishes the two. Christ has given signs by which those who are on the alert may recognize the nearness of the downfall. He now, in very clear and emphatic language, tells His disciples that He can give no hint as to the time of His Advent. He Himself does not know. This is a saying which no Christian would have invented and attributed to Christ. Interpolation (Ambrose) is not credible.
οὐδὲ οἱ ἄγγελοι. Not even the Angels; cf. Mar 5:3, Mar 6:31, Mar 8:17, Mar 12:10. Here again Christ solemnly teaches that Angels exist (see on Mar 8:38, Mar 12:25) and He has just stated (Mar 13:27) that Angels will take part in the stupendous events of that Day. Cf. Mat 13:41; Mat 13:49; Mat 25:31; Mat 26:53.
οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός. Nor yet the Son. The other Evangelists represent Christ as speaking of “the Son” in the same absolute manner; Mat 11:27; Luk 10:22; Joh 5:19; Joh 6:40; Joh 17:1. We have οὐ … οὐδὲ … οὐδὲ … Mat 6:26; Mat 12:19 and Rev 5:3; cf. Rev 9:4. It was not for any man, not even the Son of Man Himself, “to know times and seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority” (Act 1:7). After the Resurrection Christ does not say that He is ignorant; but at this crisis He was not yet glorified, and in this, as in many other things, He condescended to share the ignorance of His disciples; see on Mar 6:5; Mar 6:38, Mar 8:5; Mar 8:22, Mar 9:21, Mar 11:13; Joh 11:34. The meaning would seem to be, “The Father has not revealed this, not even to Me, the Son.” This, of course refers to the Son as He then was, incarnate and not yet glorified. See Gore, Dissertations, pp. 77–88.
εἰ μὴ ὁ πατήρ. This goes back to οὐδεὶς οἶδεν: “no one, except the Father,” to which Mt. adds “alone” (μόνος), which covers οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός, words which in Mt. are omitted in important witnesses, but are probably to be retained. That the Father knows this season and day is stated in O.T. (Zec 14:7) and in Ps. Sol. 17:23, “Behold, O Lord, and raise up unto them their King, the Son of David, in the time which Thou, O God, knowest” (εἰς τὸν καιρὸν ὃν οἶδας σὺ, ὁ Θεός). Dalman, Words, p. 287.