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The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 21:5-38, The temple's stones and Jerusalem surrounded
When people admire the temple's stones, Jesus says not one will be left on another. He warns of false claimants, arrests in synagogues, Jerusalem surrounded by armies, and signs in the sky before the Son of Man comes.
Luke 21:5-38, in every translation this tool compares.
When people admire the temple's fine stonework and gifts, Jesus predicts it will be torn down completely. He warns against false messiahs and lists coming wars, disasters and persecution, and tells his followers that when armies surround Jerusalem they must escape, because the city will be destroyed and its people scattered until the Gentiles' time runs out. He ends with cosmic signs and the arrival of the Son of Man, while Luke notes that Jesus spent his days teaching in the temple and his nights on the Mount of Olives.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rebels-and-would-be-messiahs\/","n":"Rebels and would-be messiahs","s":"In the decades around Jesus, men rose up claiming to deliver Israel: tax rebels, leaders of armed bands, and prophets who promised signs in the wilderness. Rome treated them all as rebels.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/synagogue\/","n":"The synagogue","s":"The local gathering place where Jews met on the Sabbath to pray and study Scripture. It was also a community center, run by people of standing.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/jerusalem-destroyed-ad-70\/","n":"The war with Rome and the fall of Jerusalem","s":"In AD 66 Judea rose against Rome. By AD 70 Roman armies had starved and burned Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and sacrificed to their standards where it had stood.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/son-of-man\/","n":"The Son of Man","s":"Plain Aramaic for a human being, and also the figure in Daniel 7 who comes on the clouds and receives a kingdom. It is Jesus' favorite way of speaking about himself in the Gospels.","r":""}
Josephus says the temple's front was covered in gold, and from a distance it looked "like a mountain covered with snow." Josephus counts ninety-seven thousand taken captive and over a million dead, many of them pilgrims shut in at the feast (Keener and his notes); Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, thinks the dead much exaggerated and the real toll perhaps a quarter to half a million. Eusebius records that the Christians of Judea, heeding this warning, fled to Pella in the Decapolis (Strauss), and Carson, Moo and Morris use that flight in dating Luke: it suggests the words of 21:21 were known before the siege. How much of the discourse concerns AD 70 and how much the end is debated. Keener and his notes say prophecy grouped events by topic, and Jesus answers two questions, the temple's fall and the end, and Strauss agrees; the CSB Study Bible reads most of it as the near destruction, with verses 25-28 about the second coming; Wright reads the coming of the Son of Man as the vindication of Daniel 7, fulfilled in the events of AD 70.
- Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 5.5.6, 5.13.4, 6.5.3 and 6.9.3, trans. William Whiston
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 21:5, 21:7, 21:8, 21:12, 21:20, 21:24, 21:25 and 21:37
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 21:7, 21:12, 21:20, 21:24, 21:25-26 and 21:37
- CSB Study Bible, note on Luke 21:7
- N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, comment on Luke 21:20-33
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 19:44, 21:5-38, 21:5, 21:8, 21:21 and 21:32
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 4, Luke, Date
