Notes for Matthew 24
OT background: Dan
9-12.
Numerology:
- 70 weeks of years: Matt. 24 refers to the last week = 7 years [84 months].
- “It shall be for a time, times, and a half” = 42 months = 3½ years.
“Israel’s calendar was based on the moon, not on the sun, as
ours is. 360 days in a year. Adding 360, 360, and 360 we get 1,080 days. Half
of 360 is 180. Add 180 to 1,080 and the answer is 1,260 days, or 3½ years.” The End Times Time Line, Jim Mattison.
Word study:
- age: Mat 12.32; 13.39; 24.3 [KJV: “world”]; Heb. 1.2 [aiōnas, NIV: “universe”; KJV: “worlds”].
“[In Jewish apocalyptic] the time or duration of the world…the
great aion (supra), is made up of a
series of smaller aiones…On this view
[creation has no end] but rather in the sense of transition from one aeon to
the other.” TDNT [Heb. 9.26; 1Cor 10.11; cf. Eph. 2.7; 3.9; Col
1.26; Jude 1.25; 1Tim 1.17; Rom. 16.25; Titus 1.2.]
“The Highest also has
looked upon the proud ages, and,
behold, they are ended, and his abominations
[i.e., desolations, cf. Dan 9.2,
18, 26; Isa 61.4] are fulfilled.” 4 Esdras 11.44
“For the world is
divided into twelve parts, and nine parts of it are gone already, and half of a
tenth part.” 4 Esdras 14.11
NOTE: “…in the Bible the same
word aion is used to indicate two
things which are really profoundly antithetical, namely, the eternity of God
[Rom. 16:26] and the duration of the world.” TDNT
- abomination-desolation:
“the sign” Mat 24.15; cp. Mar 13.14 uses the idiomatic
masculine participle “standing” [hestekota]
in contrast to the neuter “abomination” [bdelygma]
that it modifies; cp. Dan 9.26-27 [cf. 8.11; 11.31; 12.11]. Also, “the son of
perdition…man of lawlessness” [2Thess 2.3, 8]; “the best” [Rev. 11.7; 13.1-4].
Even though
“Matthew used the more grammatically correct neuter participle (estos) in
reference to the abomination [he adds] ‘in the holy place’...’the holy city’ of
Jerusalem (4.5; 27.53)…agrees closely with the portrayal of the antichrist in 2
Thessalonians.” [Apocalyptic Eschatology
in the Gospel of Matthew, David C. Sim, pp. 101-104.]
- Fig tree: Mat 24.32 further sign of things to come.
- Generation:
Mat 24.34, “in the sense of ‘age’ or ‘period’ is found in Mat 1.17; Acts 13.36;
14:16; 15:21; Eph. 3.5; Col 1.26.” TDNT, genea.
OT references:
24.6: famines/earthquakes, Isa 5:13-14; 13:6-16; Hag 2:6-7;
Zech. 14:4.
24.15: abomination/desolation, Dan 9.27.
24.16: Fleeing to the mountains, Gen 19:17; Judg. 6:2; Isa
15:5; Jer. 16:16; Zech. 14:5.
24.21: The Great Tribulation: Jer. 30.7; Dan. 12.1; cp. Day
of the Lord.
24.29: cosmic signs, cp. Isa 13:9-13, 34:4 (LXX); Joel 2:10;
Ezek. 32.7-8; Luke 21.25-26.
24.30: son of man on clouds, Dan. 7.
24.37: days of Noah, Gen 6:5-8:22.
NT references: Jesus the thief, Mat. 24.42-44; cf. 1 Thess. 5:2, 4; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 3:3; 16:15.
Why this is not
70AD therefore, that was a type and
not the fulfillment:
- The scope and severity are much greater: i.e., natural disasters; cosmic events/signs.
- Daniel 7/parousia event has not happened…yet: 2 Peter 3; 2 Thess.2.
- Vertical [24.30; cp. Acts 1.11] not horizontal coming of the son of man [24.4-5].
- “Immediately after the tribulation…and then the son of man appears” [24.29; cp. 24.14].
- Inconsistent to break up the narrative: literal [natural disasters] vs figurative [cosmic signs].
- No resurrection-rapture [24.31; cf. Jer. 30.7; 1Thess 4:16-17; John 5:28-29].
- Not clear whether Jesus even knew [cf. John 2.13-22] since he deals with the future only, as do the Apostles [v.3].
- Believers must go through tribulation[s]: 24.22-24, 31; Dan. 7.25; cp. Acts 14.22; John 15.20.
- Not only does the evil prince come to his end ([Dan 9.26-27] Titus did not), but war will be a feature of the last — 70th— “week” of years. But no war occurred in ca. AD 27-34.
- The Great Tribulation has not been ongoing since 70AD.
- The original hearers/readers [before 70AD] would have understood that this represented anything but “the end of the age”.
“[Mat 24.21] Suffering
unlike anything that has happened. While the events of a.d. 70 may reflect
somewhat the comments Jesus makes here, the reference to the scope and severity of this judgment strongly suggest that much
more is in view. Most likely Jesus is referring to the great end-time judgment
on Jerusalem in the great tribulation.” NET Bible
"The phrase its desolation is a reference to the
fall of the city, which is the only antecedent present in Luke’s
account. The parallels to this in Matt 24:15 and Mark 13:14 refer to the
temple’s desolation, though Matthew’s allusion is clearer. They focus
on the parallel events of the end, not on the short term realization in a.d. 70. " NET Bible, Luke 21.20.
“…Jesus weaves the mention of His coming into this whole
section (cf. v. 14, where the end should probably be connected with His coming
on the strength of v. 3; cf. also vv. 27, 30), and the extreme conditions of
vv. 21-22 make it unlikely that AD 70 are in view.
“The possibility of this reference is not weakened by the
objection, "that the prophecy Daniel 11 and Daniel 12:1-13 was generally
regarded as fulfilled in the Maccabean times, and that the fulfilling of Daniel
9 was placed forward into the future in the time of Christ"…because the
Lord can have a deeper and more correct apprehension of the prophecies of
Daniel than the Jewish writers of His time; because, moreover, the first historical
fulfilling of Daniel 11 in the Maccabean times does not exclude a further and a
fuller accomplishment in the future, and the rage of Antiochus Epiphanes
against the Jewish temple and the worship of God can be a type of the assault
of Antichrist against the sanctuary and the church of God in the time of the
end…On these grounds we must affirm that the reference of the words under
consideration to the desecration of the temple before the destruction of
Jerusalem by the Romans is untenable.” Keil
and Delitzsch OT Commentary
What is “the sign
of the son of man” [24.30]?
- Jesus himself [Dan. 7.13-14].
- Like his 1st coming [Mat 2.2, 9-10], a star/cosmic sign.
