“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. The traditional signs of the messianic woe — wars, famines, earthquakes — are the beginning of the birth pains rather than the delivery. The various places communicates the geographical breadth of the disturbances.
Church Fathers on Matthew 24:7
To this enquiry of the disciples the Lord makes answer, declaring all things which were to come to pass from that time forwards, whether relating to the destruction of Jerusalem, which had given occasion to their enquiry; or to His coming through the Church, in which He ceases not to come to the end of time; for He is acknowledged as coming among His own, while new members are daily born to Him; or relating to the end itself when He shall appear to judge the quick and the…
Here He speaks of the battles which should be fought at Jerusalem; when He says, 'Ye shall hear wars, and rumours of wars.'
To hear the shouts raised in the battles, is to 'hear wars;' to hear 'rumours of wars,' is to hear accounts of wars waged afar off.
Read all 13 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!