Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 21:9
But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end [is] not by and by.
9. wars and commotions ] The best comment on the primary fulfilment of this Discourse is the Jewish War of Josephus, and the Annals and History of Tacitus ( Ann. xii. 38, xv. 22, xvi. 13), whose narrative is full of earthquakes, wars, crimes, violences and pollutions, and who describes the period which he is narrating as one which was “rich in calamities, horrible with battles, rent with seditions, savage even in peace itself.” The main difficulties of our Lord’s Prophecy vanish when we bear in mind (i) that Prophecy is like a landscape in which time and space are subordinated to eternal relations, and in which events look like hills seen chain behind chain which to the distant spectator appear as one; and (ii) that in the necessarily condensed and varying reports of the Evangelists, sometimes the primary fulfilment (which is shewn most decisively and irrefragably by Luk 21:32 to be the Fall of Jerusalem), sometimes the ultimate fulfilment is predominant. The Fall of Jerusalem was the Close of that Aeon and a symbol of the Final End ( telos). This appears most clearly in the report of St Luke.
commotions ] akatastasias, conditions of instability and rottenness, the opposite to peace. 1Co 14:33; Jas 3:16. Such commotions were the massacre of 20,000 Jews in their fight with the Gentiles at Caesarea; the assassinations or suicides of Nero, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius; the civil wars, &c.
be not terrified ] The Greek word is the exact equivalent of our English word ‘be not scared,’ Luk 24:37; 1Pe 3:6 ; Pro 3:25.
but the end is not by and by ] Rather, but not immediately is the end. For ‘by and by’ see Luk 17:7; Mat 13:21; Mar 6:25. The words are most important as a warning against the same eschatological excitement which St Paul discourages in 2 Thess. (“The end is not yet,” Mat 24:6; Mar 13:7.) The things which ‘must first come to pass’ before the final end were (1) physical disturbances which so often synchronise with historic crises, as Niebuhr has observed; (2) persecutions; (3) apostasy; (4) wide evangelisation; (5) universal troubles of war, &c. They were the “beginning of birth-throes” (Mat 24:8); what the Jews called the “birth-pangs of the Messiah.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 9. Commotions] Seditions and civil dissensions, with which no people were more agitated than the Jews.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
See Poole on “Mat 24:6-7“, and See Poole on “Mar 13:8“. Time is the best interpreter of prophecies: what shall be seen of these before the end of the world we are yet to observe, but the destruction of Jerusalem is past many hundreds of years since. What commotions were before that, we must learn out of civil historians, who tell us of divers. Josephus telleth us of an insurrection made by those of Judea against the Samaritans, Romans, and Syrians; and of the Romans against the Jews, to the destruction of twenty thousand Jews: as also of those of Scythopolis, who destroyed of the Jews thirteen thousand; of the Ascalonites, who destroyed of them two thousand five hundred; of those of Alexandria, who destroyed of them fifty thousand; of those of Damascus, who slew of them ten thousand. They tell us also of many more seditions, during the government of Felix, Festus, Albinus, Florus, &c.
The text speaks further of earthquakes; the Greek word signifieth no more than concussions and shakings, but historians tell us of several earthquakes that happened (though not in Judea) before the destruction of Jerusalem; one at Rome, in Neros time; another in Asia, which destroyed three cities, &c.
For famines, we read of one in Scripture prophesied of by Agabus, Act 11:28. Twelve years after Christs death, there was another in Greece; and four years after, at Rome.
For the fearful sights, and great signs from heaven, Josephus tells us of a comet, which for a year together in the form of a sword pointed over the city; a light that shined in the night in the temple, and made it as bright as if it had been noon day. He tells us also of a neat beast bringing forth a lamb in the midst of the temple; of the strange opening of the gates of the temple; of visions of chariots and armed men; of a voice heard in the temple, inviting those who were there to be gone; as also of a man (whom he names) who for seven years and five months together before the siege went about crying, Woe, woe to Jerusalem! And could with no punishments (which they thought fit to inflict) be restrained, &c. These were great signs both from heaven and earth.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9-11. not terrified(SeeLuk 21:19; Isa 8:11-14).
end not by and byorimmediately, not yet (Mat 24:6;Mar 13:7): that is, “Worsemust come before all is over.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions,…. Or seditions and tumults; “wars” may design the wars of the Romans, against the Jews; and the “commotions”, or seditions, the internal troubles among themselves:
be not terrified; as if the destruction of the nation, city, and temple, would be at once:
for these things must first come to pass, but the end is not by and by; or “immediately”. The Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions leave out this last word, and read, as in [See comments on Mt 24:6].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Be not terrified ( ). First aorist passive subjunctive with from an old verb to terrify, from , terror. In the N.T. only here and Lu 24:37.
First (). It is so easy to forget this and to insist that the end is “immediately” in spite of Christ’s explicit denial here. See Matt 24:4-42; Mark 13:1-37 for discussion of details for Lu 21:8-36, the great eschatological discourse of Jesus
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Commotions [] . From aj, not, and kaqisthmi, to establish. Hence disestablishments; unsettlements. Rev., tumults.
Be not terrified [ ] . Only here and ch. 24 37.
By and by [] . Better as Rev. immediately.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions,” (hotan de akousete polemous kai akatastasias) “Then when you all hear of wars and commotions,” Mat 24:6; Rev 6:2-4; Mar 13:7, of unsettled affairs and instabilities.
2) “Be not terrified:” (me ptoethete) “Be not scared,” or affrighted, Mat 24:6; Do not come apart, come unglued, as my disciples, my flock, my house, my temple, my church, Mar 13:7.
3) “For these things must first come to pass;” (dei gar tauta genesthai proton) “For it is necessary that these things occur or happen first,” Mat 24:6; Mar 13:6.
4) “But the end is not by and by.” (air ouk eutheos to telos) “But the end is not immediately at hand,” the end of time and earthly events. All end time (period) prophecies do not occur in one hour, one day, one week, one month, or even one year, not immediately at hand. It requires time, in time, to fulfill prophetic matters definitively and specifically occurring over a span or period of extended or divided prophetic time events, Mat 24:6; Mar 13:6.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(9) Commotions.The word does not occur in the other Gospels, but is used by St. Paul in 1Co. 14:33 (confusion), 2Co. 6:5; 2Co. 12:20 (tumults). Its exact meaning is unsettlement, disorder.
Be not terrified.The word is used by St. Luke only, here and in Luk. 24:37, in the New Testament.
By and by.Better, as elsewhere, immediately.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. By and by This phrase, which by a singular reverse of meaning now signifies after a while, meant in the old English of our translators, immediately.
Jerusalem’s destruction, and the dispersion of the Jewish races, 10-32.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“And when you shall hear of wars and tumults, be not terrified, for these things must necessarily come about first, but the end is not immediately.”
He then emphasises that as well as messiahs and deliverers there would also occur wars and ‘tumults’ (or ‘civil wars’, compare Jas 3:16. See Isa 19:2). But He makes clear that such things must be expected in view of what man is, and that they must therefore not be terrified by them into thinking that the end of the world was approaching. In Old Testament prophecy war is regularly indicated as resulting in and from ‘the Day of the Lord’ (the time when the Lord acts decisively), but it is always difficult in the prophets to separate these from the wars constantly prophesied there, and they prophesied local as well as far off ‘days of the Lord’. In the New Testament ‘the last days’ were introduced by the coming of Christ, and His death and resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit (Act 2:16-21). Thus all that it really prophesies is war, war, war, which, with lulls, will rise and fall in intensity until the consummation.
These events are depicted in Rev 6:3-4 in terms of a horseman on a red horse, and the greater detail of this is now outlined.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
9 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
Ver. 9. See Mat 24:6 , &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Luk 21:9 . , unsettled conditions, for in Mt. and Mk., and perhaps intended as an explanation of that vague phrase. Hahn refers to the French Revolution and the Socialist movement of the present day as illustrating the meaning. = in parallels; here and in Luk 24:37 . , etc., cf. the laconic version in Mk. (W. and H [171] ) and notes there. , : both emphasising the lesson that the crisis cannot come before certain things happen, and the latter hinting that it will not come even then.
[171] Westcott and Hort.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
commotions = unrest. Occurs only here, and 1Co 14:33. 2Co 6:5; 2Co 12:20. Jam 3:16.
be not terrified = be not scared. Greek. ptoeo. Occurs only here and Luk 24:37.
first. See the Structure, above.
the end. Greek. totelex. Not the sunteleia. Compare Mat 24:3 and Mat 24:14,
by and by = immediately. As in Mat 24:6, “not yet”, Mar 13:7. Compare Luk 17:7. Mat 14:31. Mar 6:25. See App-155.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Luk 21:9. , wars) amongst equals.-, [Engl. Vers. commotions] seditions) of inferiors against superiors, and intestine divisions, whereby the , established constitution, of states is swept away. These are the preludes of further wars. It is in this chapter especially that Luke presents to us the words of the Lord in language varied from that in which Matthew and Mark record them: Luk 21:15 [I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay; comp. with Mar 13:11, Take no thought before-hand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate; but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. Comp. also, Mat 10:19], 20, etc.[221] So also, instead of wars and rumours of wars in Matthew [Luk 24:6] and Mark [Luk 13:7], Luke says here, wars and seditions.
[221] When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Comp. with Mar 13:14, When ye shall see the, abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, standing where it ought not (in Mat 24:15, stand in the holy place); the phrases in Mark being altered from their Jewish form by Luke, into one more intelligible to the Gentiles for whom he wrote.-E. and T.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
when: Luk 21:18, Luk 21:19, Psa 27:1-3, Psa 46:1, Psa 46:2, Psa 112:7, Pro 3:25, Pro 3:26, Isa 8:12, Isa 51:12, Isa 51:13, Jer 4:19, Jer 4:20, Mat 24:6-8, Mar 13:7, Mar 13:8
but: Luk 21:8, Luk 21:28
Reciprocal: 2Ch 15:6 – nation Pro 1:33 – and shall Jer 51:46 – lest 2Th 2:2 – shaken
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
9
The conflict between the Jews and the Romans did not begin in Judea. Hence the people of Jerusalem would hear about wars in the farther territories, some time before it reached the capital of the nation against which Caesar was at war.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
21:9 {3} But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end [is] not by and by.
(3) The true temple of God is built up even in the midst of incredible tumults and most severe miseries, and this through invincible patience, so that the end result can be nothing else but most happy.