But before all these things they shall lay their hands upon you and persecute you, delivering [you] up to synagogues and prisons, bringing [you] before kings and governors on account of my name;
The Lord has just described wars, earthquakes, famines and terrors in the sky. Now He turns to what will happen to His own followers, and He puts their suffering first in the order of events. Two questions follow. When does this persecution fall? And why does He say the cause is His name rather than anything the disciples do?
The little phrase that opens the verse changes the whole timetable. What the disciples will suffer is not folded into the wars and signs; it runs ahead of them. Writers take this as the mark that Luke is describing the years the book of Acts records.
Mark, as well as Luke, gives special weight to the persecutions the disciples would have to endure. Luke says these persecutions take place before the signs among the nations. They are, therefore, persecutions of the early Christian days. The book of Acts shows us they happened as soon as the new message of salvation was preached.
Commentators differ on how far these words reach. Some limit them to the first century. Others expect the same faithful sufferers again at the close of the long era that opens with Jerusalem's fall.
Jerusalem's troubles began with the siege of the city by the Roman general Titus, and they will not end till the times of the Gentiles have run their course. At the beginning of those troubles, and in their closing days too, there will be real disciples of Christ on earth. They will have to bear testimony in the face of direct opposition from their countrymen the Jews.
The verse names two different powers. The synagogue was the religious court of the Jewish people. The prisons, kings and governors were Gentile. One commentator draws out what that mix means, and how it marks Luke's account off from Matthew's:
In Luke's gospel the prophecy relates to the events before the Roman army destroyed the temple and the city. Here "the gospel of the kingdom" is not named. And the text does not say the persecution comes especially from the Gentiles. It comes from Jews and Gentiles alike. The difference is important. It helps to show that the prophecy in Matthew relates, not to the events before the siege of Jerusalem, but to the troubles before the day of the Lord — the same period the book of Revelation speaks of.
The history that follows shows every part of the verse coming true. Arrest, prison and trials before rulers all came fast. The result was not what the persecutors wanted.
The disciples would go to prison and stand before Gentile kings and rulers for the sake of the name of Christ. This became true very soon after the Lord Jesus returned to glory. But the Lord used this persecution in a way men did not expect. He made it a testimony to Himself and to the gospel of His grace… We see this in Peter and John (Acts 4:13-14); in Stephen (Acts 6:8-10; 7:1-60); and in Paul (Acts 22:1-21; 24:24-25; 26:1-31).
The Lord gives the reason for all of it in four words. He does not say they will suffer for their mistakes, their tactlessness, or their politics. The cause is His name — their link with Him. One commentator points the logic the right way round:
To be Christ's is enough to stir up the world's anger. Circumstances may be needed to call it out, but it is there… The world hates us because of Him, not Him because of us. It is not our faults, then, that are the true cause, but His grace and moral excellence, His divine nature and glory.
The verse is a prediction, but its purpose is practical. He tells them in advance for two reasons. When the arrest comes, they will not read it as the collapse of everything. And they will know what to do with it.
The Lord does make predictions. He foretells (1) the rise of false Christs, (2) wars and unrest, along with strange events in the physical world around them, (3) the coming of bitter opposition and persecution, even to death. But in each case His warnings arm His disciples in advance… They are to accept the persecution as an occasion for testimony. And when they testify, they are not to rely on a prepared defence, but on supernatural wisdom given to them when the moment arrives.
- Before — the persecution runs ahead of the wars and signs. That sets it in the days the book of Acts records, though some writers see it repeated at the end of the age.
- Both — Jewish and Gentile hands alike: synagogue courts and Roman prisons, religion and state together.
- Because — the stated cause is His name. The hatred falls on the disciple because of the Master, never on the Master because of the disciple.
- Beforehand — He tells them first. So the arrest comes as something their Lord predicted, not as proof He has failed them.
- Beyond — God turns the persecution into testimony to Himself before kings. Peter, Stephen and Paul each proved it.
but it shall turn out to you for a testimony.
Jesus has just warned His followers about arrest, prison and trials before rulers. Then He turns the whole picture around: the courtroom is not the end of their witness but the place for it.
Older translations read, "it shall turn out to you for a testimony." One writer traces that word, and finds Paul later resting on it:
The word translated "turn out" appears in one other place in the New Testament in just this sense. That is Luke 21:13, where the Lord Himself tells His disciples that when men lay their hands on them, and deliver them up to synagogues and prisons, "it shall turn out to you for a testimony." You will recall how much Luke was with Paul. We may suppose he had told him of these words of our Lord Jesus. If that is the case, Paul also had the Lord's own words to rest on for the certainty he speaks of. And what a blessed certainty His words are!
Matthew records the same promise. One writer shows where the arrest carries the message:
When they were whipped and brought before councils and governors and kings, all this should become a testimony to them. It is God's way of presenting the gospel of the kingdom to kings and princes. And it does so without changing the character of that gospel, without adapting it to the world, and without mixing up the Lord's people with the world's ways and its false greatness. What is more, circumstances like these made their testimony far more visible than being linked with the great ones of the earth would have done.
Writing on Luke's account, the same writer places the promise among Jesus' instructions for the days ahead:
The Lord then turns to the duties and the circumstances of His disciples before that hour... He goes into much more detail about their ministry during that period. He encourages them, and promises them the help they will need. Persecution should turn to them for a testimony.
The promise was not left as a general comfort. The book of Acts supplies the receipts.
The disciples would be imprisoned and brought before Gentile kings and rulers for the sake of the name of Christ. This became true very soon after the Lord Jesus returned to glory. But the Lord used this persecution in a way that men did not expect, for a testimony to Himself and to the gospel of His grace... We see this in Peter and John (Acts 4:13-14); in Stephen (Acts 6:8-10; 7:1-60); and in Paul on various occasions (Acts 22:1-21; 24:24-25; 26:1-31).
Luke's account is not just a shorter copy of Matthew's. One writer dates the persecution from the words that open verse 12:
In Luke, the persecution comes before the fighting and unrest mentioned in the earlier verses. Our Lord's words are, "But before all these things they will lay their hands on you." This distinction agrees with the facts. The great persecution of the Christians by the Jews was not during the civil wars that ended in the fall of Jerusalem. It came before them, and this is what Luke is referring to. On the other hand, the great persecution of the faithful Jews by the Gentiles, which is what Matthew speaks of, will happen during the terrible wars and upheavals before the Lord's glorious appearing.
Commentators differ over how far the passage reaches. One writer ties it to the years before the Roman siege of Jerusalem. He also notes that Luke states the results of their testimony in broad terms, "which would be true in the highest sense" (William Kelly).
Jesus warns them in advance, and the warning shapes how they are to meet the trouble:
In each case His warnings arm His disciples in advance... They are to accept the persecution as an occasion for testimony. When they testify, they are not to rely on a prepared defence, but on supernatural wisdom given to them when the moment arrives.
One writer applied the same words to a church in serious trouble:
We need the force of the words, "All these things shall turn to you for a testimony." I was told a church was in great difficulties. I said I would take heart, because these are just the kind of difficulties Peter and Paul had. I would rejoice in them as something that would help the Church through the wilderness.
- Turn. The word Jesus chose points to an outcome men did not expect: the attack itself is what gets turned, and Paul later rested on these same words of His.
- Warned. He tells them beforehand, so they meet the arrest as a chance to testify and not as a disaster.
- Reach. The turn carries the gospel to kings and rulers no messenger could reach otherwise. It arrives unchanged, without borrowing the world's greatness.
- Fulfilled. Peter and John, Stephen and Paul show the promise coming true, in the years before Jerusalem fell.
- Today. Difficulties that look as if they will stop the work are the same kind Peter and Paul faced. Take heart in them.
Settle therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand [your] defence,
Jesus has just warned His disciples about arrest, trial and betrayal, and promised that it will all turn into a chance to witness. Now He asks for a decision made in advance: walk into the courtroom with no speech prepared.
The Lord gives the command before the crisis comes, so the crisis finds them already decided. One writer sums up what the disciples are to do when persecution arrives:
They are to accept the persecution as a chance to bear witness. And as they bear witness, they are not to rely on a prepared defence. They are to rely on wisdom from God, which He will give them when the moment comes.
The instruction is not that words do not matter. God promises a better source of words, and that source is stronger than the hatred waiting for them:
But if believers were arrested and had to face the Jewish council or the magistrates, they were not to decide in advance how to answer the charges, or what to say. The same Spirit of God who empowered Christ would empower them and guide their words. For the grace of God is greater than the strongest opposition of hatred.
Each Gospel writer reports this promise differently. Luke's version puts the gift in the Lord's own hands, and ties it to the situation then closing in on Jerusalem:
All of this applies strictly to the state of things before the Romans besieged Jerusalem, both in the world and among the disciples. Any fair-minded reader must see it. Luke alone shows the grace of the Lord in giving His own a mouth and wisdom that goes beyond the cunning and power of every enemy. In Mark they are to say "whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit."
The book of Acts shows the promise working. A crowd of opponents took on Stephen by himself, and not one of them could beat him:
Alone he could face his opponents, and defeat them. "They were not able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking" (Acts 6:10). They did not convince him, and they could not silence him. They could not resist the wisdom he showed, or the Holy Spirit by whom he spoke. The Lord had promised, "I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict" (Luke 21:15). And the writer who preserved that promise here tells us how truly it was fulfilled. One man could confound a multitude.
Commentators are careful about how far the words reach. One writer keeps them for the men who first heard them, and contrasts what happened to them with what lies ahead for Jewish believers in the last days:
This was a special promise given to the disciples. We see it fulfilled again and again, in a striking way, in the Acts of the Apostles. But there is nothing to show that such will be the case with the Jewish believers in the last days. They will be silenced, driven out and almost destroyed. Only the sudden and glorious appearing of Christ will save them from being wiped out completely. In Matthew there is nothing at all matching this part of the prophecy as Luke records it.
Commentators differ on how far the verse reaches into everyday Christian service. One warns against using it as an excuse for unprepared preaching, and then shows where it does still hold:
Whenever it can be done, a person should think about and study the subject he expects to speak on. It is no mark of spirituality to take no thought about how or what we will speak. We do not believe that is a correct use of the Scripture. The Lord gave that promise in a very different setting. There He assures His disciples that they will never be deserted when they face kings and rulers for His name's sake... The same holds when someone has no way of knowing in advance what he will speak about, or when an unexpected opening for the gospel comes.
Another writer carries the same help from the courtroom into everyday service:
There was no need for them to plan their defence beforehand. The Holy Spirit would give them the words to speak in the hour of need. The same was true of their ministry. They could rely on the help of the Spirit of God, whether they were making known the gospel of the grace of God, or opening up and applying the truth to God's people.
- Settle — decide before the arrest ever comes. Then the trial finds the heart at rest, not scrambling for a defence.
- Given — in place of a rehearsed speech the Lord Himself promises a gift: a mouth and wisdom no enemy can answer.
- Distinctive — only Luke shows the Lord Himself giving the promise. In Mark, the Holy Spirit speaks the words.
- Proved — Acts shows the promise kept. Stephen alone silenced a whole crowd of opponents.
- Bounded — writers tie the promise first to the disciples in the days before Jerusalem fell. They differ over how far it reaches preaching today.
for *I* will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your opposers shall not be able to reply to or resist.
The Lord warns His disciples about the days ahead — arrests, trials, hostile courts — and tells them not to prepare a defence. Instead He promises words of His own, and no opponent will be able to answer them.
What men meant as an attack, the Lord turned into testimony.
But before these things, the disciples would suffer bitter persecution. It would come from the hatred of religious Jews. They would go to prison and stand before Gentile kings and rulers because of the name of Christ. This became true very soon after the Lord Jesus returned to glory. But the Lord used this persecution in a way men did not expect, for a testimony to Himself and to the gospel of His grace.
Luke alone records the Lord's own words here: He Himself gives both the mouth and the wisdom. Mark's account of the same promise puts it differently.
Luke alone shows the grace of the Lord. He gives His own a mouth and wisdom greater than the cunning and power of all their adversaries. In Mark they are to speak "whatever shall be given you; for you are not the speakers but the Holy Spirit."
The wisdom comes from God, not from the speaker. And Stephen was not the last to receive it.
God does provide the weapons with which, if called upon, His people may meet those opposed to Him. The Lord promised to provide them (Luke 21:15). So Stephen proved that the Lord keeps His word. His enemies could not resist the wisdom and spirit with which he spoke (Acts 6:10). In this he does not stand alone, for the Lord still cares for His people.
Stephen stood alone against a crowd of opponents. His case shows what the promise looks like in practice.
Numbers were on their side. He is the only one named as fighting bravely for the truth. But their numbers did not overawe him... They could not convince him. They could not silence him. And they could not resist the wisdom he showed, or the Holy Spirit by whom he spoke. "I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict" (Luke 21:15), had been the Lord's promise. And the evangelist who preserved that promise shows us how completely it came true. One man could confound a multitude.
Israel's religious leaders met the same surprise in Peter and John.
The leading teachers of Israel's schools of learning might well marvel. They saw "the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men" — untrained in what this world counts as knowledge. They also "recognized that they had been with Jesus."
Some stretch these words into an excuse for unprepared preaching. Commentators warn against that.
Wherever possible, one should think about and study the subject he expects to speak on. It is no mark of spirituality to give no thought to how or what we shall speak. Nor do we believe it a correct use of Scripture to expect the Lord to keep a promise He gave in a quite different setting... Here He is assuring His disciples that He will never desert them when they stand before kings and rulers for His name's sake.
The promise belongs to the courtroom, not the pulpit.
People misapply it when they use it of preaching the gospel. It does not refer to any service for the Lord. It was to save the disciples from anxiety at their trial.
Commentators differ on whether this promise stretches beyond the first disciples. One reading limits it to them:
This was a special promise to the disciples. We see it fulfilled again and again, in striking ways, in the book of Acts. But nothing shows that the same will be true for Jewish believers in the last days. They will be silenced, banished, and almost destroyed. Only Christ's sudden and glorious appearing will save them from being wiped out completely.
Another reading carries it forward to witnesses who come later.
The Lord's words to His apostles in Matthew 10 and Luke 21 will have a special reference to them. They will go out to speak with "a mouth of wisdom" that He will give them.
- Pressure. The Lord promised arrest and trial, then turned that pressure into a chance to testify before kings and rulers.
- Gift. No one prepares these words in advance. Luke alone records the Lord saying that He Himself would supply the mouth and the wisdom.
- Weapon. God hands over the weapon at the moment of need. He did it for Stephen, whose opponents could neither convince him nor silence him.
- Limit. The promise steadies a believer on trial. It is not an excuse for stepping into the pulpit unprepared.
- Reach. Commentators differ. Does the promise stop with the first disciples, or reach later witnesses too?
But ye will be delivered up even by parents and brethren and relations and friends, and they shall put to death [some] from among you,
The Lord has been telling His followers what their witness will cost. Now the threat moves inside the home, and for some of them it ends in death.
One writer lists the subjects of this prophecy in order. The suffering in this verse falls under the second of them — the testimony of the disciples.
The prophecy has three subjects. First, the troubles of Jerusalem that came from the Lord's rejection by the Jews. Then the testimony of the disciples that followed that rejection, and guidance for them while they are in their sorrows. Last, the whole thing ends with the Lord's second coming, which will bring deliverance to the city and the nation. Jerusalem's troubles began with the siege of the city by Titus, and they will not end until the times of the Gentiles have run their course. At the start of those troubles, and again in their closing days, there will be real disciples of Christ on earth. They will have to bear witness while their own countrymen the Jews openly oppose them.
Family betrayal is what sets Luke's account apart from Matthew's. One writer compares the two accounts, and points to who the persecutors were in each.
The early Christians were not hated by the Gentiles as Gentiles, but by all men, whether Jews or Gentiles. In fact their chief sufferings and persecutions came from the Jews… Luke is foretelling what the early Jewish Christians would suffer at the hands of their own countrymen and closest relatives. His prophecy simply describes what took place soon afterwards… Matthew, however, speaks of a very different persecution. It comes from the Gentile oppressors of the nation, before the Lord's coming in power. So Matthew leaves the family division out.
The verse lists parents, brothers, relatives, then friends. One writer traces this hatred to what happens in a heart when God makes Himself known.
As long as God is not revealed, people tolerate everything. But when He reveals Himself, man's will rises up against His authority. It rises against the pressure that this revelation puts on a conscience which is not at rest. And the closer the relationship, the greater the hatred. This hatred breaks all the ties of nature.
The Lord does not soften it. Some of them would die, and the promise about the hair of their heads does not cancel that.
Many of them would know the deep pain and trial of betrayal by even close relatives, and some would suffer death as martyrs… Yet in the face of such dreadful affliction He told them not a hair of their heads would (eternally) perish. The eternal end was secure. That does not mean none of them would die, for the Lord said some would die as martyrs (v.16).
Read verse 16 beside verse 18 and the two sound like a contradiction. The Lord does not promise escape from the executioner. He promises a care that reaches past him.
In Luke 21:16-18 the Lord says their enemies would put some of them to death, yet not a hair of their head would perish. They were all counted. God has all providential power at His disposal.
The same writer admits the words strike the ear oddly, and does not explain the strangeness away.
It seems strange to us to hear, "Some of you shall they cause to be put to death … but there shall not a hair of your head perish."
One writer draws the two halves together — the hatred, and what endurance would win.
Yet the hatred against them would be so fierce that it would break through all natural ties. It would turn the strongest affections into the bitterest enmity… Through it all not a hair of their heads would perish. He who has counted them all would give a good account of them. By endurance they would gain their lives, instead of losing them.
- Nearest first. The betrayal moves inward from parents to friends. The closer the bond, the fiercer the hatred once God makes Himself known.
- History, not theory. Luke describes what the early believers suffered from their own countrymen and relatives. Matthew's account leaves family division out and speaks of a different persecution.
- Death, not defeat. Some of them would die as martyrs. Even so, not a hair of their heads would perish.
- Counted, not spared. The Lord promises no shield from the sword. He has counted every hair, and He will give a good account of them all.
- Endurance wins. By holding out they would gain their lives instead of losing them.
and ye will be hated of all for my name's sake.
Jesus warned His followers what lay ahead. Families would betray them. Some would die. And hatred would meet them everywhere, for one reason: His name. Three questions follow. Why does that name draw such hatred? How far does "all" reach? And when did this happen?
The hatred has nothing to do with the disciples' faults. The Lord points instead to whom they belong.
Notice that in these verses the Lord traces the world's hatred of His disciples to one thing: they belonged to Him. They were His servants, and the servant is not greater than his Lord. "If they persecuted Me," He said, "they will also persecute you." The world would not hate them because they were law-breakers, or because of anything objectionable in their character, but because the Lord had chosen them out of the world to be His own.
Persecution for right living is one thing. Persecution for Christ's name is another. One commentator marks the step up:
Confessing Christ brings persecution. Spreading only His moral teaching might well be popular with Jews and Gentiles alike. Before Christ came, and ever since, we should expect persecution for righteousness' sake. But notice the step forward from Matthew 5:10 to the next verse. In the first verse, the persecution is "for righteousness' sake." In verse 11 it is plainly for Christ's sake. Here His own honour is at stake.
The hatred starts further back. It begins when God makes Himself known, and it grows sharper the closer the relationship.
The revelation of God in the person of Christ, or in the preached word, awakens the enmity of the human heart. As long as God is not revealed, people tolerate everything. But when He reveals Himself, man's will rises up against His authority. It rises against the pressure this revelation puts on a conscience that is not at rest. And the closer the relations are, the greater is the hatred. This hatred breaks all the ties of nature. Brother would give up brother to death, and the father his son. The children would rise up against their parents and put them to death. And all men would hate the disciples for the Saviour's name.
Matthew reports the same warning as "hated by all nations." Luke says only "all." One commentator shows what that difference means.
Matthew, speaking of the persecution of the faithful witnesses before Christ's coming, says, "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake." Believing Jews will suffer this in the last days for their testimony to the coming Messiah. But it is not an accurate account of what the early Christians endured. It was not that the Gentiles hated them as Gentiles. All men hated them, whether Jews or Gentiles. In fact their chief sufferings and persecutions came from the Jews.
One commentator ties Luke's warning to the years before the Roman siege of Jerusalem.
All of this applies strictly to what happened before the Romans besieged Jerusalem, both in the world and among the disciples. Any fair mind must see it.
If the name is the cause, the warning has not expired. Religion in general still passes; Christ Himself does not.
You may speak of religion in a general way — of preachers, of churches, of missions to people who have never heard, of societies for doing good — and be popular. But speak of the Lord Himself, of His precious blood, of the full assurance of salvation, of oneness with Him in heaven, of separation from the world, of standing apart from all its shows and entertainments. Then your friends will quickly grow fewer. Who were the most bitter enemies of the Lord and His servant Paul? The most religious men in Israel. Has the world or human nature changed? We believe not.
Peter and John met this hatred head on. It did not crush them.
The Jewish Council had forbidden them to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. But they obeyed God rather than men, and went on with their blessed work. After a miracle set them free from prison, they were arrested again, beaten, and ordered not to speak in the name of Jesus. Were they disheartened or daunted by what they had to endure? Far from it — they left the Council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.
- Name — The hatred is not earned. It falls on the disciples because they belong to Christ.
- Person — Suffering for right living is one thing. This is for Christ's sake, and it touches His own honour. His moral teaching alone would have stayed popular.
- Nearness — When God reveals Himself, man's will rises against Him. The closer the natural tie, the sharper the hatred — so families split.
- All — Luke's "all" is wider than Matthew's "all nations." Jew and Gentile alike hated the early believers, and most of their suffering came from their own people.
- Honour — Beaten and silenced, the apostles left rejoicing. They were counted worthy to suffer shame for that name.
And a hair of your head shall in no wise perish.
The Lord has just warned His followers that their own families will hand them over, and that some of them will die. In the same breath He promises that not a hair of their head will perish. How can a man lose his life and lose nothing at all?
Commentators tie this promise to a specific stretch of history: the persecution the first believers met before Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem. Kelly, having gone through the whole passage, says the fit with that period is unmistakable.
All of this applies strictly to the state of things before the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem, both in the world and among the disciples. Any fair mind must see it. Luke alone shows the grace of the Lord in giving His own a mouth and wisdom beyond the cunning and power of every enemy.
The pressure came from close to home. Baines names who inflicted it.
Luke is foretelling what the early Jewish Christians would suffer at the hands of their own countrymen and their nearest relatives. His prophecy simply describes what took place soon afterwards.
Verse 16 sits next to verse 18 with a jolt. Darby admits the strangeness, then shows how God governs His people now.
God's government does not work now in a way that keeps the righteous from suffering — least of all when they suffer for the name of Christ. But Jehovah watches over him. Not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from our Father. It seems strange to us to hear, "Some of you they will put to death … but not a hair of your head will perish." God's government now is not the public rule that puts down all evil. It is applied to the case of the righteous under and through the power of evil. When Christ appears, evil will be put down. As a rule, those who live peaceably will live in peace. But in a world where Satan has power, the righteous will suffer and have many afflictions — none of them without the watchful care of the Lord. And in some way deliverance will come.
The resolution offered is that the promise reaches past the grave. Losing the body is not the same as perishing.
The disciples of the Lord Jesus would in fact be the object of the hatred of all mankind in general. How contrary to their expectations of the arrival of the kingdom! Yet in the face of such dreadful affliction He told them not a hair of their heads would (eternally) perish. The eternal end was secure. This does not mean that none of them would die, for the Lord said some would die as martyrs (v.16). In fact, since then all the disciples have died, but they were to have no fear of the most bitter persecution.
The hairs were all counted. Darby draws out who holds the power behind such events.
In Luke 21:16-18 the Lord says some of them would be put to death, but not a hair of their head would perish. They were all counted. Providential power is all at God's disposal.
The promise does not remove suffering. It changes whose hand controls it — and that is the comfort being offered.
Trusting in the Lord is perfectly sure. A divine and almighty hand secures us. We know from many passages that the Lord may see fit to let us suffer, but not a hair of our head shall perish. When His time has come, the rod of the wicked shall not rest on the lot of the righteous. He may let us suffer for our God, or for His name's sake. But even then it happens according to His own will and power, not according to the will and power of the wicked. All this assumes someone who is walking in His ways.
The same writer states it as a general principle.
God's care never fails. It shows itself in the smallest details, and it holds despite all that man may think. God may allow many afflictions to come on those who trust Him, and these too will surely be a blessing.
- Counted. God numbers every hair. What He counts, He takes charge of.
- Permitted. Enemies act only as far as God allows. Suffering comes by His will, not by theirs.
- Measured. The promise does not cancel the pain. God still allows affliction, and He turns it into blessing.
- Eternal. Some would die as martyrs, yet nothing of them would perish for ever. Enemies may take the body; the end is secure.
- Historical. These words first met disciples whose own families betrayed them, in the years before Jerusalem fell. Real persecution tested this comfort first.
By your patient endurance gain your souls.
Jesus has just warned His followers about arrest, betrayal by family, and even death — then He ends the warning with one short sentence about endurance. What does He promise them here: their lives now, their eternal safety, or something else?
The "patience" spoken of here is not calm waiting but a quality tested under load. One study of the Greek word traces it through the New Testament and finds its centre in something that holds up:
The word hupomone (from hupomeno, "to sustain") appears once as "enduring" (2 Corinthians 1:6) and as "patient continuance" (Romans 2:7). That fully enters into the thought of the word: it is a "patient endurance" that does not give way under trial and suffering. See Luke 8:15; Luke 21:19… and the phrase "the one who endures to the end," Matthew 10:22 and Matthew 24:13… Romans 15:5 traces it back to its divine source for us. Scripture never applies it to God Himself, because there could be no such testing or pressure for Him. But the Lord Jesus, in the place He has taken as Man, is our perfect example of it, Hebrews 12:2-3 — He "endured" the cross and the hostility of sinners against Himself.
Does the verse promise something gained, or something kept? One writer says the verb can mean holding on to what you have. He ties the promise to the real danger these men faced:
On Luke 21:19: although ktaomai generally means "get," in contrast with kektemai, it is also used for keeping in possession — holding something so as not to lose it. (Acts 4:34; 1 Thessalonians 4:4; Matthew 8:9; Luke 18:12.) It refers directly to being spared, kept by God, saved in the dangers of the mission they had among the Jews.
Commentators differ on the wording, and the disagreement runs down to a single letter in the Greek manuscripts:
In Luke 21:19 the Revisers have adopted a reading and a rendering at least questionable. A B are but slender authority for κτήσεσθε, as against κτήσασθε differing only by one letter; and their own rendering of 1 Thessalonians 4:5 sustains the Authorised Version, "possess," against their own "win" here.
Does the promise mean survival now, or blessing after death? One writer finds the same double hope in a psalm:
The immediate hope would be of preserving life; but it would meet those who might be killed with the fullest and most secure hope. It is the same in Luke 21:19, "gain your lives" (older translations: "gain your souls"), and in Matthew 24:13. The ambiguity there is intentional too.
Jesus is describing what these men would meet before the Roman armies besieged Jerusalem. Yet one writer sees the closing promise reaching further:
All this applies strictly to the state of things before the Romans besieged Jerusalem, whether in the world or among the disciples. That must be clear to every fair mind. Luke alone shows the grace of the Lord in giving His own a mouth and wisdom beyond the cunning and power of all their adversaries… Luke also states in broad terms the result of their testimony, which would be true in the highest sense for heaven if they were killed.
This kind of patient holding on belongs to a particular stretch of time — the stretch in which God is still being witnessed to by people. One writer sets it against a coming period when that will no longer be so:
Jesus had said, "By your endurance you will gain your lives" (Luke 21:19) — a position of faithfulness while the testimony lasts. There will be a time when God alone will testify of Himself, when no one gives Him any testimony at all. It will be a testimony of vengeance, because man has despised His power and His righteousness.
One writer puts into words what the world says when it watches Christians it cannot break:
What can we do with people who let themselves be killed without becoming less joyful — people whom it makes even more joyful? Left to themselves, they are above all our motives. If we oppress them, they possess their souls in perfect joy despite all our opposition. Torments do not conquer them. They find in them only an occasion for bearing a stronger testimony that Christians are beyond our power.
- Pressure — the verse follows warnings of arrest, betrayal and death. This endurance does not give way under trial and suffering.
- Patience — Christ shows the same quality perfectly. He endured the cross and the hostility of sinners; He is the example, not a distant rule.
- Possession — the verb can mean keeping what you already hold, not earning something new. It points to God sparing and keeping them in real danger.
- Preservation — the promise leaves it open on purpose: God may keep your life now, or bless you later. Either way it still holds for those who are killed.
- Proof — this endurance lasts as long as the testimony lasts. A watching world has no answer to it and no power over it.
But when ye see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then know that its desolation is drawn nigh.
Jesus had just said the temple would be pulled down. The disciples asked when this would happen, and what sign would come first. Luke records this answer: an army around the city. Anyone could see that sign, and see it in time to escape.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all record this discourse. Only Luke names an army around the city. That detail ties the words to an event in history, not to the distant future.
Only Luke has this. So he speaks of armies surrounding the city, which was true then. He does not speak, as Matthew and Mark do, of the abomination of desolation, which can only be proved true in its closing agony. The siege our Lord describes, with all that came out of it, cannot be a future event. What follows it is the humiliating hold on the Jewish capital by one nation after another, until the allotted seasons of Gentile supremacy end.
This is the direct answer to what the disciples asked.
This is the clear reply to the only part of the disciples' question that Luke records. Jerusalem surrounded by armies was to be the sign that its desolation was near.
Many readers treat this verse and Matthew's warning about "the abomination of desolation" as the same event. Commentators place the two at different points in Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks.
When they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies, they could know that its desolation was near. This is still a very different thing from the "abomination of desolation" that Matthew and Mark speak of. That one is tied to the middle of the last week of Daniel, while this one comes between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth week of the same chapter: "And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (Dan. 9:26). There is no excuse at all for confusing two things so different, when the gap between them is stated so clearly.
Some critics have read Luke as merging the two events. Kelly answers that Luke is the very writer who keeps them apart.
Schmiedel claims that Luke himself, in his own mind, treated Titus's desolation of Jerusalem as the same thing as Daniel's "abomination." That only shows how little that critic understands the plan of Old Testament prophecy. As the Expositor points out, it is typical of Luke that he kept the two apart.
A sign is only useful if people can see it and act on it. These people did.
Nothing can be simpler. The prediction is exact. The directions match exactly what the Christians living in the city did when Titus's army approached Jerusalem. There is no call to special haste, and in fact there was no occasion for special haste. Every reader knows what followed. The Christians, warned by this prophecy, left the city. The city was destroyed, and its people were either killed or carried off into slavery.
Where they went is on record.
The Christians, remembering the Lord's warning, left Jerusalem together before the siege closed in. They travelled to Pella, a village beyond the Jordan. There they stayed until Hadrian allowed them to return to the ruins of their ancient city.
The destruction was not an end in itself. It opened a long stretch of history that has not yet closed.
Then those who believed the words of Jesus did flee to the mountains, and so escaped the horrors of the siege. Then began the "days of vengeance" for the Jew. They will not stop until everything foretold has come true. Then started the long captivity, which has continued and will continue, with Jerusalem under the feet of the nations, until the times of the Gentiles end. Those times began when God raised up Nebuchadnezzar, who took the throne from the last king of David's line. They will end with the crushing of Gentile rule at the appearing of Christ.
This judgment had a cause. The commentators trace it back to the blood the city had shed.
Upon the guilty city, stained with the blood of the prophets, and now to be stained with that of their glorious King also, days of vengeance were coming.
- Sign — Luke alone reports armies around the city. Matthew and Mark report the abomination of desolation. The sign given here was one ordinary people could see with their own eyes.
- Sequence — Daniel 9:26 places the city's destruction between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. The abomination belongs to the middle of the last week. That gap keeps the two events apart.
- Sparing — Those who believed the warning left for Pella and lived. The warning came early enough that they needed no panic, only obedience.
- Sentence — Those who stayed were killed or carried off into slavery. The "days of vengeance" fell on a city stained with the blood of the prophets and of its King.
- Stretch — What the siege began still runs on. Jerusalem is trodden down through the times of the Gentiles, which started with Nebuchadnezzar and end only when Christ appears.
Then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of it depart out, and those who are in the country not enter into it;
Armies around Jerusalem were the signal. This verse is the order that follows: three groups of people, each told which way to move.
Commentators tie this warning to a dated event, not to the end of the world. The signal Luke gives is not the one Matthew gives.
Here the Lord Jesus gives us a very direct and immediate picture of the destruction of Jerusalem, which was then close at hand. Matthew passes by the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. He fixes attention on what will take place at the end of the age... He says, "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." He does not say "the abomination of desolation" — not a word about that here, for it belongs to the last days only.
Why the mountains? One writer points to the hills that ring the city. The same writer notes that the tone here is calmer than Matthew's parallel warning.
Is it surprising that danger in Jerusalem at two different dates should have the same way of escape? The ring of mountains around the city makes that way especially fitting. The directions, however, in the two cases are not the same, though similar. In Luke there is a command that those in Judea were to go to the mountains, and that those in the country were not to enter in. Yet there is no note of alarming urgency here. In Matthew we find one, at the setting up of the abomination of desolation. There, delay of even an instant is forbidden.
The two passages sound alike, so readers mix them up. Kelly traces a common misreading back to that mix-up.
The effort to apply the abomination of desolation to the Romans under Titus, or to the Pope, is utterly vain. The first of these probably comes from confusing Matthew 24:15 with Luke 21:21. Luke alone brings in the Roman siege and captivity, since he alone deals with the times of the Gentiles.
The order here is to run, not to stand firm. The reason is what God was doing to that city.
The days of vengeance fell on Jerusalem, when the Lord's murderers were destroyed and their city burnt. In that smaller case there was no question of suffering as a privilege. It was a retributive dealing of God. So the Lord told those who listened to His words to escape as soon as they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies.
The warning was not just words on a page. Some people acted on it, and there is a record of where they went.
This unhappy people had plenty of time to be warned. If they had listened to the voice of their Messiah, they could have been saved... Obeying this command, the Christians left Jerusalem and settled at Pella. So they escaped the doom about to fall on this guilty people.
Pella lies in the Jordan valley, not in the hills. Some critics say Luke reshaped the prophecy to fit events already past. Kelly answers that this mismatch points the other way.
"Flee to the mountains." Wellhausen, like others, says Luke brought the prophecy "up to date." But these words support a date before AD 70, because the actual flight was to Pella, in the Jordan valley.
A warning is useless to anyone who does not believe the person giving it. Darby presses that point.
What was the use of the Lord warning the disciples in advance to flee in such and such circumstances? It would be no use if they did not understand what He was speaking about, and did not believe His word beforehand. It was exactly this knowledge and this faith that set them apart from all their unbelieving countrymen.
- Sign. The marker in Luke is armies around Jerusalem, not the abomination of desolation. Matthew leaves that out, and it ties this verse to the Roman siege.
- Order. Three groups get three instructions: leave Judea for the hills, get out of the city, stay out of the city — no route back in.
- Pace. There is no note of alarming urgency here. The flight that allows no delay belongs to Matthew.
- Escape. These were days of God's retribution on the city. So the godly were to get clear, not to stay and suffer. Those who obeyed settled at Pella and lived.
- Faith. The warning only helped those who believed it in advance. That faith was the one thing that set them apart.
for these are days of avenging, that all the things that are written may be accomplished.
Jesus is telling His disciples what is about to fall on Jerusalem. He gives the coming siege a name: days of vengeance. Two questions follow. Which siege did He mean? And which written words did it fulfill?
Luke's account describes armies surrounding the city. Matthew and Mark record a different sign. Commentators use Daniel's prophecy to place this siege in time.
Days of vengeance were coming on the guilty city, stained with the blood of the prophets and now to be stained with the blood of their glorious King as well. When they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies, they could know that its desolation was near. That is a very different thing from the "abomination of desolation" that Matthew and Mark speak of. That sign belongs to the middle of the last week of Daniel, while this one falls between the sixty-ninth and seventieth in the same chapter: "and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (Dan. 9:26). There is no excuse for confusing things so different, when Scripture states the interval between them so plainly.
Luke's Gospel uses one word for God's merciful visits to His people. The word in this verse is a different one.
Luke 7:16 — "Visited." Compare 1:68 and 19:44, where it also means a merciful visitation. The word for "visitation" in the sense of vengeance is ekdikēsis, as in Luke 21:22.
The blow did not fall at once after the death of the Messiah. Commentators stress the long patience that came first.
I need not stay to tell you how completely this solemn prediction came true. Jerusalem fell soon afterwards. God, in patient grace, waited a little; He did not destroy it the day after the death of His Son. No — for sixty years He waited on His rebellious people, who first rejected their Messiah and then resisted the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51-52). At length He sent out His edict.
The Lord did not announce something new. He said the pages already written would be filled out, and history supplies the measure of it.
Everyone knows how terrible these days of vengeance were. Josephus gives the number of those killed in the siege as 1,000,000, and those carried away captive as 97,000. The complete fulfilment of our Lord's words is a matter of common history.
This verse gives the reason for a set of instructions. Those who believed Jesus obeyed them and got out in time.
The prediction is exact. When Titus's army approached Jerusalem, the Christians living in the city followed exactly these directions. This passage calls for no special haste, and in fact none was needed. Every reader knows the rest. The Christians, warned by this prophecy, left the city. The city was destroyed, and its people were either killed or carried into slavery.
Commentators differ on the scope. Some read the phrase as covering the siege of AD 70 and its immediate aftermath. Others hear in the plural "days" a long age that is still running.
This day of vengeance on Israel as a nation extends, in a sense, right through these present "times of the Gentiles." The crisis in the latter day gives its character to the whole period. They are all "days of vengeance," as the Lord calls them here. Yet a special season and visitation is still to come at the close — "the day of vengeance," as the prophet calls it (Isa. 34; Isa. 63).
Earlier in the same Gospel, Jesus read from Isaiah aloud and stopped short.
He ends His reading with the words "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." He closed the book in the middle of a sentence, because Isaiah adds "and the day of vengeance of our God." In this way He separated the two events very pointedly... But the day of vengeance had not yet come. Old Testament Scripture gave no sign that the preaching of grace would run for a long time before the day of vengeance came. Yet it has now continued for nearly 2000 years.
- Written first. Nothing in AD 70 came as a surprise. The siege carried out what Scripture had already written, including Daniel 9:26.
- Written, then warned. The written words let Jesus give exact instructions: see the armies, leave the city. Those who trusted Him acted in time.
- Written, then fulfilled. The word vengeance here is not the merciful visiting of Luke 1, 7 and 19. It is a different word for a different visit, and the casualty figures show how exactly it came.
- Written, then delayed. The full day of vengeance is real but still held back. Jesus closed Isaiah's scroll before that line, and the year of God's favor has run ever since.
- Written, and still running. The days of vengeance run on through the times of the Gentiles, and a special visitation still waits at the close.
But woe to them that are with child and to them who give suck in those days, for there shall be great distress upon the land and wrath upon this people.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of [the] nations until [the] times of [the] nations be fulfilled.
Jesus stood near the temple in its final days. He told His hearers what was coming on the city that had rejected Him: the sword, exile, and long centuries under foreign rule. One sentence covers it all, and it ends with a word that sets a limit — "until."
Three Gospels record this prophecy. This part of it belongs to Luke alone.
Luke 21:20-24 holds truth that is not in Matthew or Mark. It plainly predicts the coming destruction of Jerusalem, and the great distress that would fall on the land and on this people. Only Luke says they would be led captive into all the nations. Only Luke gives the remarkable sentence, still in force, that Gentiles would trample Jerusalem until their appointed times are complete... This fits the plan of the third Gospel, which leaves out the abomination of desolation and the tribulation like no other, both so prominent in the two Gospels before it. From verse 25 on, Luke joins the other two writers in describing the time of the end.
The words landed on real events. Roman armies under Titus took the city, and captivity followed.
This came true in what happened to the Jews when Titus took the city and "this people" went into captivity for the second time... And so it happened. For many centuries Gentiles have trampled Jerusalem. One national power after another was to hold the holy city. It is still so: the trampling goes on, because the seasons given to the Gentiles are not yet complete.
The phrase "the times of the Gentiles" is not in the book of Daniel. It is the Lord's own expression, and He does not date its start from His own rejection.
The expression "the times of the Gentiles" is not found in the book of Daniel. It is a New Testament phrase, and only our Lord used it... Now, the times of the Gentiles did not begin when Jerusalem rejected the Lord who came from heaven. Our Lord does not say they were brought in then. They started with the Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar. The glory of the Lord departed from Jerusalem.
That start marks a transfer of authority.
God was patient with Israel for a long time. Then He set the house of David aside and sent it into captivity. He handed the power to govern for Him to the Gentiles, and the times of the Gentiles began with Nebuchadnezzar... Three other empires followed Babylon, and the times of the Gentiles still go on, under one form of government after another. They will run on until God, in His own time, gives supremacy in the earth back to His ancient people.
The Gentiles are the nations other than Israel. The phrase is about who is on top and who is underneath.
"The times of the Gentiles" points to Gentiles on top and Israel pressed down. He is looking ahead over this whole age. In verse 24 He calls the whole age "the times of the Gentiles" — the Gentiles rule, and Israel has no land or inheritance in the earth.
Commentators differ over how the modern State of Israel fits this. Some read the Jewish return as a sign that Gentile control is loosening and "the times of the Gentiles are nearly over" (A. J. Pollock). Others point to the nation's long suffering since it rejected its Messiah, and say that holding the city today settles nothing, because another trampling is still to come.
Because they rejected and crucified their Messiah, the Jewish nation has suffered centuries of being "trampled underfoot by the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24). At the present time the Jews have possession of Jerusalem. A nation of Israel exists, and it makes its mark on world affairs. They are there in unbelief. Their troubles are not over yet, and the city will again be overrun by the Gentiles: "they will trample the holy city for forty-two months" (Rev. 11:2).
God never leaves His judgement on Israel open-ended.
Whenever God speaks in His Word about judgement on Israel, He always sets a limit to it with an "until." So Romans 11:25 tells us that "a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." Luke 21:24 sets the same kind of limit for Jerusalem... "The fullness of the Gentiles" means the present Christian company. "The times of the Gentiles" means the period when the Gentiles hold power, which started with Nebuchadnezzar some six centuries before Christ.
The next verses say what happens when that limit runs out.
"Immediately after the tribulation," when the times of the Gentiles close, the Son of Man will come in person. We know these times are still running: the Gentiles still trample Jerusalem. But that trampling will end, and the Lord will come to deliver Israel.
- Cause. God took government from the house of David and handed it to Nebuchadnezzar. The "times of the Gentiles" began there, not at the cross.
- Course. Empire has followed empire ever since, with Jerusalem passing from one national power to the next.
- Confirmation. Titus fulfilled the first half of the verse exactly: sword, captivity, and scattering into all nations.
- Contrast. Luke alone records this Roman siege; Matthew and Mark pass over it and go straight to the final crisis.
- Close. "Until" is the mercy in the sentence. God has measured Gentile rule, and it ends when the Son of Man comes.