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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 24:6 - 24:6
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
6. πολέμους καὶ ἀκοὰς πολέμων. The second sign. Philo and Josephus describe the disturbed state of Judæa from this date to the siege of Jerusalem. Massacres of the Jews were perpetrated at Cæsarea, at Alexandria, in Babylonia and in Syria.—See Milman’s History of the Jews, Bks. xii–xv. Tacitus, characterising the same period, says ‘opus adgredior opimum casibus, atrox præliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace sævum.’ Hist. I. 2.
ὁρᾶτε μὴ θροεῖσθε. ‘Look,’ i.e. observe, ‘be not afraid.’ Not as in A.V., see that ye be not troubled.
The classical meaning of θροεῖν is ‘to cry aloud,’ hence ‘to speak,’ ‘declare.’ The later use of θροεῖσθαι is connected either with the womanish shrieks of fear (mid. voice), cp. θρέομαι, or with the thought of terrifying with a shout (passive voice). The word occurs Mar 13:7, the parallel passage to this, and 2Th 2:2, where it is also used in relation to the παρουσία, and probably in direct reference to this passage: ἐρωτῶμεν δὲ ὑμᾶς, ἀδελφοί, ὑπὲρ τῆς παρουσίας τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ ἡμῶν ἐπισυναγωγῆς ἐπʼ αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ μὴ ταχἑως σαλευθῆναι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ νοός, μηδὲ θροεῖσθαι κ.τ.λ.
δεῖ expresses divine necessity, conformity to God’s plan; cp. ch. Mat 26:54.