Matthew Chapter 24 verse 21 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - Nor then. Jesus gives the reason why this precipitate flight (vers. 16-20) was rendered necessary at the moment spoken of in ver. 15. Great tribulation. The miseries suffered in the siege of Jerusalem were stupendous To the skilful and fierce attacks of the Romans from without were added from within dire famine and pestilence, dissensions, violence, and continual bloodshed and murder. Josephus estimates the number of those who fell in the siege and capture of Jerusalem at 1,000,000, the usual population being largely increased by the influx of pilgrims attending the Feast of the Passover, and by thousands of fugitives who had flocked in from the country (Josephus. 'Bell. Jud.,' 6:09, 3). He adds that 97,000 were carried away captive during and after the war. Such as was not...nor ever shall be (Daniel 12:1). This is not mere hyperbole, but sober fact. Josephus ('Bell. Jud.,' Pro�m. 4) himself bears similar testimony: "Of all the cities under the dominion of Rome, ours was once the most happy, and afterwards the most utterly miserable. For the misfortunes of all the nations upon earth that have ever happened, if they are compared with the calamities to which the Jews were exposed, will, in my opinion, fall far short." Chrysostom sums up the matter thus: "Whence came there thus upon them wrath from God intolerable, and more sore than all that had befallen aforetime, not in Judaea only, but in any part of the world? Is it not quite clear that it was for the deed of the cross and for this rejection? Mark, I pray thee, the exceeding greatness of the ills, when not only compared with the time before, they appear more grievous, but also with all the time to come. For not in all the world, neither in all time that is past, and that is to come, shall any one be able to say such ills have been. And very naturally; for neither had any man perpetrated, not of these that ever have been, nor those to come hereafter, a deed so wicked and horrible" ('Hom.,' in loc.). The "affliction" spoken of refers not only to bodily sufferings, but to that anguish of mind occasioned by acute apprehension and. expectation of danger, such as was felt in the days before the Flood, and at the time of the oppression of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) Such as was not since the beginning . . .--The words come from Daniel 12:1. One who reads the narrative of Josephus will hardly hesitate to adopt his language, "that all miseries that had been known from the beginning of the world fell short" of those of the siege of the Holy City (Wars, v. 13, ?? 4, 5). Other sieges may have witnessed, before and since, scenes of physical wretchedness equally appalling, but nothing that history records offers anything parallel to the alternations of fanatic hope and frenzied despair that attended the breaking up of the faith and polity of Israel.