Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Commotions - Seditions and civil dissensions, with which no people were more agitated than the Jews.

John Gill's Exposition of 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 Gill on Matthew 24:6.

Geneva Study Bible

(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.

Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament

Be not terrified (μη πτοητητε — mē ptoēthēte). First aorist passive subjunctive with μη — mē from πτοεω — ptoeō an old verb to terrify, from πτοα — ptoa terror. In the N.T. only here and Luke 24:37.

Vincent's Word Studies

Commotions ( ἀκαταστασίας )

From ἀ , not, and καθίστημι , to establish. Hence disestablishments; unsettlements. Rev., tumults.

Be not terrified ( μὴ πτοηθῆτε )

Only here and Luke 24:37.

By and by ( εὐθέως )

Better as Rev., immediately.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

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.

Commotions — Intestine broils; civil wars.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

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 Matthew 24:6, &c.

Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament

Luke 21:9. πολέμους, wars) amongst equals.— ἀκαταστασίας, [Engl. Vers. ‘commotions’] seditions) of inferiors against superiors, and intestine divisions, whereby the κατάστασις, 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: Luke 21:15 [“I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay;” comp. with Mark 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, Matthew 10:19], 20, etc.(221) So also, instead of wars and rumours of wars in Matthew [Luke 24:6] and Mark [Luke 13:7], Luke says here, wars and seditions.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Ver. 9-11. See Poole on "Matthew 24:6", See Poole on "Matthew 24:7", and See Poole on "Mark 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 Nero’s time; another in Asia, which destroyed three cities, &c.

For famines, we read of one in Scripture prophesied of by Agabus, Acts 11:28. Twelve years after Christ’s 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.

Alexander MacLaren's Expositions of Holy Scripture

конец См. пояснения к Мф. 24:6, 14.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

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.

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

“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 James 3:16. See Isaiah 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 (Acts 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 Revelation 6:3-4 in terms of a horseman on a red horse, and the greater detail of this is now outlined.

The Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 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} Luke 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.}

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

commotions = unrest. Occurs only here, and 1 Corinthians 14:33. 2 Corinthians 6:5; 2 Corinthians 12:20. James 3:16.

be not terrified = be not scared. Greek. ptoeo. Occurs only here and Luke 24:37.

first. See the Structure, above.

the end. Greek. totelex. Not the sunteleia. Compare Matthew 24:3 and Matthew 24:14,

by and by = immediately. As in Matthew 24:6, "not yet", Mark 13:7. Compare Luke 17:7. Matthew 14:31. Mark 6:25. See App-155.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) Commotions.—The word does not occur in the other Gospels, but is used by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:33 (“confusion”), 2 Corinthians 6:5; 2 Corinthians 12:20 (“tumults”). Its exact meaning is unsettlement, disorder.

Be not terrified.—The word is used by St. Luke only, here and in Luke 24:37, in the New Testament.

By and by.—Better, as elsewhere, immediately.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

when

18,19; Psalms 27:1-3; 46:1,2; 112:7; Proverbs 3:25,26; Isaiah 8:12; 51:12,13; Jeremiah 4:19,20; Matthew 24:6-8; Mark 13:7,8

but

8,28