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Luke 21:5-7
New Catholic Bible
Luke 21:5-7
New Catholic Bible
The Destruction of the Temple and the Return of Christ[a]
Jesus Announces the Destruction of the Temple.[b] When some people were talking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and votive offerings, Jesus remarked, 6 “As for all these things that you are gazing at now, the time will come when not one stone here will be left upon another; everything will be thrown down.”The Signs of the End.[c] 7 They then asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what will be the sign that it is about to take place?”
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- Luke 21:5 Scenes of terror and visions of hope alternate in this great discourse. If we are to understand its tone and vocabulary, we must put ourselves in the atmosphere created by various terrifying and magnificent pages of the Old Testament. On the eve of the catastrophe that destroyed both Jerusalem, for the first time, and the state of Israel in 587 B.C., some prophets had a presentiment of the spiritual ruin of the people and had warned them, with harsh invectives, of future punishments. Later on, people began to ask about the ultimate destiny of the world and humanity; this created a restlessness that was eschatological, that is, concerned with the ultimate end, the last times.
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In the “apocalypses” or “revelations,” some authors imagined awe-inspiring scenes of wars, disasters, and judgment, which would usher in the coming of God and the salvation of the people. These accounts, which are to be read in accordance with their particular literary genre, always remain bewildering. - Luke 21:5 Around the year 19 B.C., Herod the Great undertook a splendid reconstruction of the temple. The very magnificence of the restored temple caused a sense of self-reliance and presumption (see Lk 13:34-35; 19:46; Jer 7:1-15; 26; Ezek 8:11; Mic 3:9-12).
- Luke 21:7 For a Jew, the destruction of the temple inaugurates the great tribulation of the end times. We understand that the disciples are worried. Jesus gives them signs: those more distant (vv. 10-11) will be taken up again even later on (vv. 25-26); those closer describe the events of the troubled years 66–70: appearances of false messiahs, civil wars and struggles, persecution of Christians. This persecution is a privileged sign of the coming of the kingdom of God, and it is seen to be severe. But let those who bear witness to Christ take courage, for they will not be abandoned. The Passion is the way to glory for the Christian community as it is for the Lord. Courage will be given to them to announce the essence of the message: Jesus Christ dead, risen, and to come.
