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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk_21:10-11
10Then He continued by saying to them, "Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, 11and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
Luk_21:10 "these things must take place first" The Markan parallel calls these precursor events "the beginning of the birth pangs of the new age" (cf. Mar_13:7-8). Both Mark and Luke have the word dei (must), which means necessity. God's children need to know and trust that all things are working out according to His plan!
The reason these bad events seem so magnified today is not their increased occurrences, but the immediacy of modern communication. We know of disasters and wars which happen in far away places almost immediately.
Luk_21:11
NASB "terrors"
NKJV "fearful sights
NRSV "dreadful portents"
NJB "terrifying events"
This form of the word "fear" is found only here in the NT, but it is also found in the LXX of Isa_19:17.
▣ "great signs from heaven" The author uses OT apocalyptic language to describe these events (cf. Mar_13:25). Peter says that the prophecy of Joe_2:28-32, which also uses apocalyptic language, was fulfilled at Pentecost (cf. Acts 2), which shows it was not meant to be understood literally (cf. D. Brent Sandy, Plowshares & Pruning Hooks: Rethinking the Language of Biblical Prophecy and Apocalyptic).
There are several slightly different versions of the phrase in the Greek manuscript tradition. The variations do not alter the sense of the phrase in context. There is no way to determine which of the five variants is original.