English · KJV

Matthew 24:26

“The Great Tribulation and False Christs”Matthew 24:15–28

King James Version
Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
Wherefore G3767 if G1437 they shall say G2036 unto you G5213, Behold G2400, he is G2076 in G1722 the desert G2048; go G1831 not G3361 forth G1831: behold G2400, he is in G1722 the secret chambers G5009; believe G4100 it not G3361.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
So if they tell you, ‘There He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the wilderness; go not forth: Behold, he is in the inner chambers; believe it not.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
If therefore they tell you, ‘Behold, he is in the wilderness,’ don’t go out; ‘Behold, he is in the inner rooms,’ don’t believe it.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
Wherefore if they shall say vnto you, Beholde, he is in the desert, goe not forth: Beholde, he is in the secret places, beleeue it not.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
`If therefore they may say to you, Lo, in the wilderness he is, ye may not go forth; lo, in the inner chambers, ye may not believe;

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
17 Greek words
  1. ἐὰνeanIfG1437CONDConjunction
  2. οὖνounthereforeG3767CONJConjunction
  3. εἴπωσινeipōsinthey shall sayG2036V-2AAS-3PVerb 2nd Aorist Active Subjunctive 3rd Plural
  4. ὑμῖν·huminto youG4771P-2DPPersonal pronoun Dative 2nd Plural
  5. ἰδοὺidouBeholdG2400INJInterjection
  6. ἐνeninG1722PREPPreposition
  7. τῇtēatheG3588T-DSFDefinite article Dative Singular Feminine
  8. ἐρήμῳerēmōwildernessG2048A-DSFAdjective Dative Singular Feminine
  9. ἐστίνestinHe isG1510V-PAI-3SVerb Present Active Indicative 3rd Singular
  10. μὴmēnotG3361PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
  11. ἐξέλθητε·exelthēteshall go forthG1831V-2AAS-2PVerb 2nd Aorist Active Subjunctive 2nd Plural
  12. ἰδοὺidou[or] ‘BeholdG2400INJInterjection
  13. ἐνeninG1722PREPPreposition
  14. τοῖςtoistheG3588T-DPNDefinite article Dative Plural Neuter
  15. ταμείοιςtameioisinner roomsG5009N-DPNNoun Dative Plural Neuter
  16. μὴmēnotG3361PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
  17. πιστεύσητεpisteusēteshall believe [it]G4100V-AAS-2PVerb Aorist Active Subjunctive 2nd Plural
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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Matthew 24:15-27
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This verse

Whether the report places Christ out in the wilderness or hidden in an inner room, the disciples are to stay where they are and refuse it.

“Wherefore if they shall say unto you,”

“Wherefore” draws the conclusion from the forewarning. “They” are those who spread the false reports.

“Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth:”

érēmos is the wilderness, a lonely place away from the public eye. The disciples are to stay where they are.

“behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.”

tameîon is an inner room. A Christ known only to a closed circle is refused with the same verb, pisteúō, as in verse 23.

Passage studyMatthew 24:15–28

The Sign to Flee and the Coming Like Lightning

Summary

Jesus is on the Mount of Olives, answering his disciples’ questions about the temple and about his coming. He gives them one sign to act on: the abomination of desolation, of which Daniel spoke, standing in the holy place. When it is seen, those in Judaea are to flee at once and leave goods and cloak behind, for a tribulation greater than any before or after is about to fall, and God will cut it short for the sake of his elect. In those days men will say that Christ is here or there and will back the claim with great signs. Jesus tells his disciples beforehand to believe none of it, because his coming will be as plain as lightning across the whole sky.

Where these words stand in the Olivet Discourse

Jesus has just said that the temple will be thrown down, and the disciples have asked him, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:1–3). His answer fills Matthew 24–25, and it is recorded as well in Mark 13 and Luke 21. He begins with general troubles: men who come in his name saying “I am Christ”, wars, famines, earthquakes and the persecution of his people (Matthew 24:4–14).

With verse 15 he turns from those general signs to one particular sign that calls for one particular act. After these verses he goes on to the coming of the Son of man in power and great glory and the gathering of his elect (Matthew 24:29–31), and then to the call to watch, since the day and the hour are known to the Father alone (Matthew 24:36–44).

What is the abomination of desolation?

It is something detestable to God, set up in his holy place, that brings ruin with it. The word for abomination, bdélygma, means a detestable thing and is used especially of idolatry, so it carries the Old Testament’s horror of pagan worship. The word for desolation, erḗmōsis, means a making desolate or a laying waste, and Luke uses it of the desolation of Jerusalem itself. Together the two words name an act that defiles the holy place and leaves it desolate.

Jesus says where the phrase comes from: it was “spoken of by Daniel the prophet”. Daniel speaks of it in three places (Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11). So Jesus treats Daniel as a true prophet whose words were still waiting to be carried out, and the Old Testament and the New speak here with one voice.

His hearers already knew of one such horror. In 167 BC the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrated the temple in Jerusalem, sacrificing a pig on the altar and setting up an idol of Zeus, an event recorded in 1 Maccabees. Jesus speaks of the abomination as still to come, so the act of Antiochus was a forerunner of the one he foretells.

For Jesus’ Jewish hearers “the holy place” was the temple in Jerusalem, the centre of Israel’s worship. To “stand” there is to be set up openly, as an established presence in the very place set apart for God.

The words in brackets, “whoso readeth, let him understand”, send the reader to Daniel. The verb noiéō means to exercise the mind, and so to comprehend and to heed. The one who reads the prophet is to think it through, so that he knows the sign when it comes and acts on it. Prophecy is given to be understood and obeyed.

Has the abomination already come?

Jesus speaks of it as something his hearers were still to see, and believers differ on whether the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 fulfilled it.

  • The fall of Jerusalem. Some believers hold that Jesus is speaking of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in AD 70. On this reading the abomination is the Roman armies with their idolatrous standards, surrounding the holy city and at last desecrating it. Luke’s account of the same words supports it: “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh”, followed by the same command to those in Judaea to flee to the mountains (Luke 21:20–21). Early Christian tradition says that the Christians of Jerusalem remembered these words and fled to Pella, a city of the Decapolis east of the Jordan, before the final siege under Titus, and so were spared its famine and slaughter.
  • An abomination still to come. Other believers hold that the sign lies ahead of us. On this reading it is the act of the man of sin, who sits in the temple of God and shows himself as God (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4). Since Jesus had just foretold the destruction of the temple then standing, this reading looks for a temple rebuilt in Jerusalem. It points to the sweep of verse 21, a tribulation unequalled before or after, and to the way Jesus ties these days to his own coming.
  • Both. Others hold that both are true: the events of AD 70 fulfilled the words for that generation and set the pattern for a last and greater fulfilment at the end of the age.

On every one of these readings Daniel’s word stands, Jesus knew what was coming and told his people how to meet it, and the end of the matter is his own victory. Paul says that the Lord will destroy the lawless one with the brightness of his coming (2 Thessalonians 2:8).

Flee at once: the mountains, the housetop and the field

The sign calls for one response, and Jesus gives it in three commands. The first is “Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains.” The word tóte means “then, at that time”, so the flight belongs to the time when the abomination is seen. Ioudaía is the Judaean land, the country around Jerusalem, and the command is given to the people who will be there when it happens. The verb pheúgō means to run away, to flee, to escape, and here it is given a destination, the mountains (óros, a mountain or hill). The hills had long been the place where people in that land hid from invading armies, since they offered natural barriers, hiding places and distance from a besieged city.

Scripture has an older flight like this one. When Sodom was about to fall, Lot was told, “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed” (Genesis 19:17). Jesus gives the housetop warning again in Luke, in a passage that warns against looking back (Luke 17:31–33).

Why must the man on the housetop stay up?

Houses in Judaea had flat roofs, and the roof (dōma) was a living space, used for drying produce and for sleeping in hot weather. Roofs often joined one another, so that a person could pass from house to house above the street. For someone already up there, the quickest way out of a threatened city was along the roofs, while going down (katabaínō, to go or come down) into the house meant delay and the dangers of the street. Jesus sets the word mḗ, “not”, against the verb and forbids it outright. The verb for taking is aírō, to lift or to carry away, and its object is tìs, “any thing”, so the whole contents of the house are left behind.

Why are clothes named?

A cloak was among the most useful things a man owned, and naming it shows how complete the leaving must be. The man in the field is at his day’s work outside the town, with his outer garment laid aside. The verb epistréphō means to turn around or to return, and himátion is clothing, in usage the outer garment or cloak. In that world a cloak was a man’s covering against the cold and his blanket at night, and it was valuable enough to be taken in pledge for a loan, which is why the law required a pledged garment to be given back by sunset (Exodus 22:26–27). The same verb for taking, aírō, is used in both commands. If so needful a thing is to be abandoned, every lesser possession is to be abandoned with it, because life is worth the loss of them all.

What the commands teach beyond Judaea

The commands are literal. They were given to people in a real place for a real day, and they were a mercy, since the Lord who foresaw the danger told his own how to escape it. They also show how he would have his people hold their goods at all times. He taught them to lay up treasure in heaven, where it is safe (Matthew 6:19–21). Abraham went out when God called him (Hebrews 11:8), and Paul counted all his gains as loss for the sake of Christ (Philippians 3:7–8). A disciple who holds possessions loosely is ready to obey quickly when obedience is costly.

The Lord who gives the command lived this way himself. He said that the Son of man had nowhere to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). He taught his disciples to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33), to deny themselves and take up the cross (Matthew 16:24), and he set out plainly the cost of following him (Matthew 10:37–39). He stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) and held to that road, humbling himself and becoming obedient unto death (Philippians 2:6–8). Though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Woe to mothers, and a prayer about winter and the sabbath

“And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!” The word ouaí is an exclamation of grief. Jesus is lamenting, and his sorrow falls on the people for whom flight will be hardest. “With child” translates gastḗr, the belly or womb, and “give suck” is thēlázō, to suckle. A woman near her time, or a mother carrying an infant who must be fed and carried, would have to make the same hurried journey on foot over rough country as everyone else. Pregnancy and nursing belong to life and its nurture, and in those days they will become a danger. Luke records the same lament (Luke 21:23).

Scripture’s earlier pictures of a city under judgment have the same figures in them: the young children who faint for hunger in the streets (Lamentations 2:19), and an enemy pitiless toward the fruit of the womb (Isaiah 13:18).

Is the woe a curse?

The woe is a cry of pity. Jesus foretells judgment and grieves in the same breath over those who will suffer most in it, and that shows us who he is. He is the high priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15). He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (Isaiah 53:4–6). And he will at last wipe away all tears, when “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Revelation 21:4).

Why pray about winter and the sabbath?

Both would slow a flight that had to be fast. “Pray” is proseúchomai, to pray to God, and “flight” is phygḗ, a fleeing or escape. Winter (cheimṓn, which means winter or storm) is the rainy season in Judaea, roughly November to March, with cold, heavy rain, muddy roads and flooded stream beds, and it is hardest of all on families. The sabbath (sábbaton) was the weekly day of rest, on which a devout Jew travelled only a “sabbath day’s journey”, about 2,000 cubits, which is less than a mile. A flight on that day would mean going much farther than the custom allowed, perhaps with city gates shut and with neighbours unwilling to help. Mark records the prayer too (Mark 13:18).

Two things follow from this verse. The tribulation was foretold and certain, and yet the Lord told his disciples to pray about its circumstances, so prophecy leaves room for prayer, and God hears prayer about weather, roads and timing. Paul says the same of every care: “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6).

The mention of the sabbath also touches a tension Jesus had already spoken to, when he defended his hungry disciples in the cornfields (Matthew 12:1–8) and declared that the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath (Mark 2:28). In a flight for life, need would have to come before custom, and he teaches his disciples to ask that the choice be spared them.

Great tribulation, and days cut short

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” This is the reason for all the haste. thlîpsis means pressure, and in the New Testament it means tribulation, affliction and distress. mégas means great, and ésomai is the plain future, “shall be”. Jesus then sets this distress apart from every other, looking back to the beginning of the world and forward to its end, and the doubled ending, “no, nor ever shall be”, leaves it without a rival.

Daniel had spoken the same way of “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time” (Daniel 12:1), and Jeremiah of a day so great that none is like it, the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). In Revelation John is shown a multitude who “came out of great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14) and hears of the great day of wrath (Revelation 6:17).

How one understands the abomination settles how one understands this verse. On the reading that looks to AD 70, this is the siege and fall of Jerusalem, with its famine and slaughter. On the reading that looks ahead, words as sweeping as these describe a distress over the whole world just before Christ returns, in which God’s judgment falls on a rebellious world and his people are tried and refined. Believers who hold this second view differ again on where the catching up of believers (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17) falls in relation to it, whether before the tribulation, in the midst of it or after it. All hold that the distress is real, that it is unequalled, and that the glorious return of Christ lies beyond it.

Why are the days shortened?

God cuts them short out of care for his chosen people. The verb kolobóō means to dock or cut short, and so to abridge. Left to run, those days would end with “no flesh” saved, where sárx, flesh, stands for human beings and the saving in view is the saving of life. So the tribulation has a limit, and God is the one who sets it. Even the worst days in history are measured by him, and they end when he says. Mark records the same promise (Mark 13:20).

This is how God has always dealt with his people in judgment. He kept Noah through the flood. Isaiah said that a remnant of Israel would return through the destruction decreed (Isaiah 10:22–23), and Paul takes up those words (Romans 9:27–28). Isaiah also confessed that Judah would have been as Sodom if the LORD had left it without a remnant (Isaiah 1:9). The psalm says of the LORD that he “forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever” (Psalm 37:28).

The same care is at work in every lesser trouble. All things work together for good to them that love God (Romans 8:28), and the Lord Jesus ever lives to make intercession for those who come to God by him (Hebrews 7:25).

Who are the elect?

They are the people God has chosen for himself. The word eklektós means chosen. The name belonged first to Israel as God’s covenant people, and in the New Testament it takes in all whom God has chosen and called through faith in Christ, Jew and Gentile together. His choice rests wholly on his own purpose and love. Because he has chosen a people, he will always preserve a people.

False Christs, false prophets and their signs

A time of terror is a time when people will follow anyone who promises deliverance, so the warning against deception comes next. “Then” is tóte again, the same word that opened the command to flee. “Lo” is idoú, “behold, see”, the word of someone pointing. “Here” and “there” both translate hōde, “here”, so the report is always of a place: he is at this spot, or at that one. Christós means the Anointed One, the Messiah. The verb pisteúō can mean simply to credit what someone says, which is its sense here, where it is joined to mḗ. The disciples are to withhold all credit from the report.

Judaea in the first century was full of hope for a Messiah, and that hope was bound up with the longing to be free of Rome. Men had already risen and drawn followers, such as the Theudas and the Judas of Galilee whom Gamaliel recalls (Acts 5:36–37), and Jesus had opened this discourse by saying, “many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many”. A people in that state could be carried off by any leader who offered deliverance, most of all with Jerusalem falling around them.

Verse 24 names the deceivers. A pseudóchristos is a false Christ, a man who claims to be the Anointed. A pseudoprophḗtēs is a false prophet, a man who claims to speak for God. Their work is planáō, to lead astray, to cause someone to wander from safety and truth. Their means is “great signs and wonders”, and “great” is mégas, the same word that described the tribulation.

The rest of the New Testament says the same. Paul speaks of a coming “with all power and signs and lying wonders” by the working of Satan (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12), and John sees a beast that does great wonders and by them deceives those who dwell on the earth (Revelation 13:13–14). Peter warns that false teachers will arise among God’s people as false prophets arose in Israel (2 Peter 2:1–3). Jesus himself had said early in his ministry, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15).

How is a false wonder told from a true one?

A wonder is tested by where it comes from and where it leads. The wonders Jesus foretells are real displays of power, and their source is Satan. God’s works glorify him, confirm his word and point to Christ. Jesus pointed John’s messengers to his own works (Matthew 11:4–5), and Peter called him “a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs” (Acts 2:22). A false wonder, however striking, draws people away from the Christ of Scripture toward another gospel.

Moses had given Israel this rule long before. A prophet whose sign comes to pass and who then calls the people after other gods is to be refused (Deuteronomy 13:1–5), and the prophet who presumes to speak in the LORD’s name a word of his own is exposed when it fails (Deuteronomy 18:20–22). Paul says that even an angel from heaven who preaches another gospel is accursed (Galatians 1:8–9). So we are told, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1), and “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Can the elect be deceived?

Jesus’ words “if it were possible” set the strength of the deception beside the strength of God’s keeping, and God’s keeping is the stronger. The signs will be convincing enough to carry away anyone left to himself, and the elect are kept by God. Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:27–29). All that the Father gives him will come to him (John 6:37), and they are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation” (1 Peter 1:5).

Their safety rests on the Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep (John 10:11). It is through faith that they are kept, which is why he warns them. The elect of this verse are named by the same word as the elect of verse 22, for whose sake the days are shortened.

“Behold, I have told you before”

Verse 25 is short, and it changes how everything around it is received. idoú calls for attention once more, and proeréō means to say beforehand, to foretell. The Greek tense speaks of something told and still standing: the warning has been given and remains in force. When the false Christs come with their wonders, the disciples will already hold a word from the Lord about them, and his word is the measure by which every claim is tried, including a claim backed by miracles.

This is God’s way with his people. “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). He warned Noah of the flood, told Abraham of the judgment on Sodom, and sent the prophets to Israel before the exile. Peter draws the lesson for us: “seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness” (2 Peter 3:17). The one who warns is himself “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and he has given the Spirit of truth to guide his people into all truth (John 16:13).

Why the desert and the secret chambers?

They are the two kinds of place where a hidden Christ might be announced. The desert (érēmos, a lonely and desolate place, a wilderness) was where Elijah and John the Baptist had been, and where a leader could gather followers out of sight of the authorities. The secret chambers (tameîon, an inner room or storeroom) are private rooms inside a house, the setting for a closed meeting and a revelation shared with a few. One claim asks the disciples to travel, and the other asks them to trust an inner circle. Jesus answers the first with “go not forth” and the second with “believe it not”, using pisteúō, the same verb as in verse 23.

The true Christ has always acted in the open. He offered himself publicly, he was seen after his resurrection by Cephas, by the twelve and by above five hundred brethren at once (1 Corinthians 15:3–8), and the angels said at his ascension that he “shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

People ask whether verse 26 condemns every private experience of God. The verse concerns the manner of Christ’s coming, and its target is the claim that he has returned in a hidden place known to a few. God does deal with his children personally, and every such thing is tested by his written word.

People also ask whether these warnings mean that we should stop looking for signs. Jesus himself gives the signs in this chapter, and he tells his disciples to learn from the fig tree, whose tender branch and new leaves show that summer is near (Matthew 24:32). What he forbids is belief in reports that he is personally present in some particular place.

The coming of the Son of man will be like lightning

“For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” This is why the reports can be refused unheard. Lightning (astrapḗ, a flash, a brightness) is seen by everyone under that sky at the same moment, and it needs no messenger. East and west together take in the whole world. So when the Son of man comes, the whole world will know it at once, and a Christ who has to be pointed out is by that fact a false one.

Lightning is also sudden, which fits what Jesus says later in the chapter about the day and the hour. In Scripture it attends the presence of God. There were thunders and lightnings on Sinai when the LORD came down (Exodus 19:16), and the psalm says, “the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook” (Psalm 77:18). Luke records this saying of Jesus in another setting (Luke 17:24).

The word for coming is parousía, a being near, a presence, an arrival. It was used for the arrival of a king or a great official, and that suits the open and royal arrival Jesus describes. “Son of man” joins huiós, son, and ánthrōpos, man or human being. It is the name Jesus most often uses for himself, and it comes from Daniel’s vision of one like the Son of man who comes with the clouds of heaven and is given dominion, glory and an everlasting kingdom (Daniel 7:13–14). The name holds together his true humanity and his authority as judge and king.

The rest of the New Testament speaks with one voice about that day. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him” (Revelation 1:7). The Lord descends “with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God”, and the same passage goes on to the catching up of his people to meet him (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). John sees him ride out as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:11–16). He will sit on the throne of his glory and separate the nations as a shepherd divides sheep from goats (Matthew 25:31–46).

His first coming was lowly, and at his second every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord (Philippians 2:9–11). For his own people that day is the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) and the keeping of his promise, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself” (John 14:3).

What do the carcase and the eagles mean?

Jesus closes with a proverb from the open country: a dead body draws the carrion birds, and their gathering can be seen from far off. ptōma is a fallen body, a corpse. aetós is the word for an eagle, and it was also used more widely for large birds of prey, so with a carcase in view the birds meant are vultures. synágō means to gather or bring together. Job says of the eagle, “where the slain are, there is she” (Job 39:30). In the land of Israel, bodies left unburied were a mark of defeat and judgment, and the birds overhead told everyone where the blow had fallen.

The plain force of the proverb is certainty and openness. As surely as the birds find the body, the events Jesus foretells will come, and they will be as visible as birds wheeling in the sky. That is why the proverb follows the lightning and answers the secret chambers.

Believers differ on what the two figures stand for. Some hold that the carcase is Jerusalem, spiritually dead and under sentence, and that the eagles are the Roman legions, whose standards carried the eagle. Some hold that the carcase is a world ripe for judgment at the end of the age, and that the eagles are the agents of that judgment, as when the birds are summoned to the great supper of God (Revelation 19:17–18). Others hold that the gathering pictures Christ’s own people drawn to him when the angels gather his elect. Luke gives the saying as Jesus’ answer when the disciples ask, “Where, Lord?” (Luke 17:37). On each reading his coming and his judgment will be open to all.

A Lord who warns before the day comes

This passage shows us a Lord who knows the end from the beginning and tells his people what they need before they need it. He names the sign, gives the command, grieves for the mothers, teaches a prayer about the weather, sets a limit on the worst of days, and exposes the lie before the liars arrive. Each of these is an act of care. The same Jesus who foretells judgment is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and it is he who “delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

The mountains were a refuge for a day, and God himself is the refuge of his people for ever: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). Our life is hid with Christ in God, and when he appears we shall appear with him in glory (Colossians 3:3–4). So a believer can read these verses soberly and unafraid. Everyone who belongs to Christ will see his coming, since it will fill the sky, and his sheep are safe in his hand.

What the passage asks of us is plain enough: to know the Scriptures well, to hold our goods loosely, to pray about real things, and to measure every voice and every wonder by the word he has already spoken. Beyond the tribulation lies what he has promised, “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).

Last revised

Historical interpretation

Eight Centuries of Reception

11 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

11 quotes · AD 100–856
Ante-NicenePost-NiceneEarly Medieval
100200300400500600700800900

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

AD 100DidacheAnte-NiceneSourceThe Didache, Chapter 16
Watch for your life's sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ye ready, for ye know not the hour in which our Lord cometh. But often shall ye come together, seeking the things which are befitting to your souls: for the whole time of your faith will not profit you, if ye be not made perfect in the last time. For in the last days false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increaseth, they shall hate and persecute and betray one another, and then shall appear the world-deceiver as Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do iniquitous things which have never yet come to pass since the beginning. Then shall the creation of men come into the fire of trial, and many shall be made to stumble and shall perish; but they that endure in their faith shall be saved from under the curse itself. And then shall appear the signs of the truth; first, the sign of an out-spreading in heaven; then the sign of the sound of the trumpet; and the third, the resurrection of the dead; yet not of all, but as it is said: The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him. Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.
d. AD 253Origen of Alexandriaas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Ante-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
Or, when they allege secret and before unpublished Scriptures, in proof of their lie, they seem to say, Lo, the word of truth is in the desert. But when they produce canonical Scripture in which all Christians agree, they seem to say, Lo, the word of truth is in the chambers. Or wishing to point out such discourses as are altogether without Scripture, He said, If they shall say to you, Lo, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. Truth is like the lightning that cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west. Or this may mean, that truth can be supported out of every passage of Scripture. The lightning of truth comes out of the east, that is, from the first beginnings of Christ, and shines throughout even to His passion, which is His setting; or from the very beginning of creation, to the last Scripture of the Apostles. Or, the east is the Law, the west is the end of the Law, and of John's prophecy. The Church alone neither takes away word or meaning from this lightning, nor adds aught to its prophecy. Or He means that we should give no heed to those who say, Lo, here is Christ, but show Him not in the Church, in which alone is the coming or the Son of Man, who said, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. (Mat. 28:20.)
d. AD 367Hilary of Poitiersas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
Notwithstanding, by reason of the great tribulation in which men shall be cast, false prophets promising to show aid present from Christ, will falsely affirm that Christ is present in divers places, that they may draw into the service of Antichrist men discouraged and distracted.

The false prophets, of whom He had spoken above, shall say of Christ one while, Lo, He is in the desert, in order that they may cause men to wander astray; another while, Lo, He is in the secret chambers, that they may enthral men under the dominion of Antichrist. But the Lord declares Himself to be neither lurking in a remote corner, nor shut up to be visited singly, but that He shall be exhibited to the view of all, and in every place, As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.

That we might not be ignorant of the place in which He should come, He adds this, Wheresoever the carcase, &c. He calls the Saints eagles, from the spiritual flight of their bodies, and shows that their gathering shall be to the place of His passion, the Angels guiding them thither; and rightly should we look for His coming in glory there, where He wrought for us eternal glory by the suffering of His bodily humiliation.
AD 380Apostolic ConstitutionsPost-NiceneSourceApostolic Constitutions (Book VII), Section 2, XXXII
For in the last days false prophets shall be multiplied, and such as corrupt the word; and the sheep shall be changed into wolves, and love into hatred: for through the abounding of iniquity the love of many shall wax cold. For men shall hate, and persecute, and betray one another. And then shall appear the deceiver of the world, the enemy of the truth, the prince of lies, [2 Thessalonians 2:3-12] whom the Lord Jesus "shall destroy with the spirit of His mouth, who takes away the wicked with His lips; and many shall be offended at Him. But they that endure to the end, the same shall be saved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven;" [Isaiah 11:4; Matthew 24:1-51] and afterwards shall be the voice of a trumpet by the archangel; and in that interval shall be the revival of those that were asleep. And then shall the Lord come, and all His saints with Him, with a great concussion above the clouds, with the angels of His power, [Matthew 16:27] in the throne of His kingdom, to condemn the devil, the deceiver of the world, and to render to every one according to his deeds. "Then shall the wicked go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous shall go into life eternal," [Matthew 25:46] to inherit those things "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, such things as God has prepared for them that love Him;" [1 Corinthians 2:9] and they shall rejoice in the kingdom of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
d. AD 407John ChrysostomPost-NiceneSourceHomily on the Gospel of Matthew 76
"Then, if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not: for there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert, go not forth: behold, He is in the secret chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there shall the eagles be gathered together."

Having finished what concerned Jerusalem, He passes on to His own coming, and tells the signs of it, not for their use only, but for us also, and for all that shall come after us.

"Then." When? Here, as I have often said, the word, "then," relates not to the connection in order of time with the things before mentioned. At least, when He was minded to express the connection of time, He added, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days," but here not so, but, "then," not meaning what should follow straightway after these things, but what should be in the time, when these things were to be done, of which He was about to speak.

Awhile He secures them by the place, mentioning the distinguishing marks of His second coming, and the indications of the deceivers. For not, as when at His former coming He appeared in Bethlehem, and in a small corner of the world, and no one knew Him at the beginning, so doth He say it shall be then too; but openly and with all circumstance, and so as not to need one to tell these things. And this is no small sign that He will not come secretly.

But mark how here He saith nothing of war (for He is interpreting the doctrine concerning His advent), but of them that attempt to deceive. For some in the days of the apostles deceived the multitude, "for they shall come," saith He, "and shall deceive many;" and others shall do so before His second coming, who shall also be more grievous than the former. "For they shall show," He saith, "signs and wonders, so as to deceive if possible the very elect:" here He is speaking of Antichrist, and indicates that some also shall minister to him. Of him Paul too speaks on this wise. Having called him "man of sin," and "son of perdition," He added, "Whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders; and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish."

And see how He secures them; "Go not forth into the deserts, enter not into the secret chambers." He did not say, "Go, and do not believe;" but, "Go not forth, neither depart thither." For great then will be the deceiving, because that even deceiving miracles are wrought.

Having told them how Antichrist cometh, as, for instance, that it will be in a place; He saith how Himself also cometh. How then doth He Himself come? "As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there also will the eagles be gathered together."

How then shineth the lightning? It needs not one to talk of it, it needs not a herald, but even to them that sit in houses, and to them in chambers it shows itself in an instant of time throughout the whole world. So shall that coming be, showing itself at once everywhere by reason of the shining forth of His glory. But He mentions also another sign, "where the carcase is, there also shall the eagles be;" meaning the multitude of the angels, of the martyrs, of all the saints.
d. AD 407John Chrysostomas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
When the Lord had finished all that related to Jerusalem, He came in the rest to His own coming, and gives them signs thereof, useful not for them only, but for us and for all who shall be after us. As above, the Evangelist said, In those days came John the Baptist, (Mat. 3:1.) not implying immediately after what had gone before, but thirty years after; so here, when He says Then, He passes over the whole interval of time between the taking of Jerusalem and the beginnings of the consummation of the world. Among the signs which He gives of His second coming He certifies them concerning the place, and the deceivers. For it shall not be then as at His former coming, when He appeared in Bethlehem, in a corner of the world, unknown of any; but He shall come openly so as not to need any to announce His approach, wherefore, If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe not.

He speaks here of Antichrist, and of certain his ministers, whom He calls false Christs and false prophets, such as were many in the time of the Apostles; but before Christ's second coming there shall come others more bitter than the former, And they shall show great signs and wonders. (cf. 2 Thes. 2:8.)

As He had above described in what guise Antichrist should come, so here He describes how He Himself shall come. For as the lightning needeth none to herald or announce it, but is in an instant of time visible throughout the whole world, even to those that are sitting in their chambers, so the coming of Christ shall be seen every where at once, because of the brightness of His glory. Another sign He adds of His coming, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together. The eagles denote the company of the Angels, Martyrs, and Saints.
d. AD 420Jeromeas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
Wherein He shows that His second coming shall be not in lowliness as His first, but in glory; and therefore it is folly to seek in places little and obscure for Him who is the Light of the whole world. (John 8:12.)

By an instance from nature, which we daily see, we are instructed in a sacrament of Christ. Eagles and vultures are said to scent dead bodies even beyond sea, and to flock to feed upon them. If then birds, not having the gift of reason, by instinct alone find out where lays a dead body, separated by so great space of country, how much more ought the whole multitude of believers to hasten to Christ, whose lightning goeth forth out of the east, and shines even to the west? We may understand by the carcase here, or corpse, which in the Latin is more expressively 'cadaver,' an allusion to the passion of Christ's death.

They are called eagles whose youth is renewed as the eagle's, and who take to themselves wings that they may come to Christ's passion. (Ps. 103:5. Is. 40:31.)

Or otherwise; This may be understood of the false prophets. At the time of the Jewish captivity, there were many leaders who declared themselves to be Christs, (Joseph B.J. v. 1) so that while the Romans were actually besieging them, there were three factions within. But it is better taken as we expounded it above, of the end of the world. Thirdly, it may be understood of the warfare of the heretics against the Church, and of those Antichrists, who under pretext of false science, fight against Christ.

If then any one assert to you that Christ tarries in the desert of the Gentiles, or in the teaching of the Philosophers, or in the secret chambers of the heretics, who promise the hidden things of God, believe Him not, but believe that the Catholic Faith shines from east to west in the Churches.

Or by this, in the desert, or in the secret chambers, He means that in times of persecution and distress, the false Prophets always find place for deceiving.

We are invited to flock to Christ's passion wheresoever in Scripture it is read of, that through it we may be able to come to God's word.
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceCommentary on Matthew
(Verses 25, 26.) So if they say to you, 'Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out; 'Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. If someone promises you that Christ is staying in the wilderness of the Gentiles and philosophers' doctrine, or in the inner rooms of heretics who promise the secrets of God, do not go out, do not believe it; or (because during times of persecution and distress false prophets always find a place for deception) if someone wants to boast under the name of Christ, do not immediately give them your trust.
d. AD 430Augustine of Hippoas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
(Lib. 83 Quæst. q. 79.) Here the Lord forewarns us that even wicked men shall do some miracles which the saints cannot do, yet are they not therefore to be thought to have a higher place in the sight of God. For the Egyptian magi were not more acceptable to God than the people of Israel, because they could do what the Israelites could not; yet did Moses, by the power of God, work greater things. This gift is not bestowed on all the saints, lest the weak should be led astray by a most destructive error, supposing such powers to be higher gifts than those works of righteousness by which eternal life is secured. And though magi do the same miracles that the saints do, yet are they done with a different end, and through a different authority; for the one do them seeking the glory of God, the others seeking their own glory; these do them by some special compact or privilege granted to the Powers, within their sphere, those by the public dispensation and the command of Him to whom all creation is subject. For it is one thing for the owner of a horse to be compelled to give it up to a soldier, another for him to hand it over to a purchaser, or to give or lend it to a friend; and as those evil soldiers, who are condemned by the imperial discipline, employ the imperial ensigns to terrify the owners of any property, and to extort from them what is not required by the public service; so some evil Christians, by means of the name of Christ, or by words or sacraments Christian, compel somewhat from the Powers; yet these, when thus at the bidding of evil men, they depart from their purpose, they depart in order to deceive men in whose wanderings they rejoice. It is one way then in which magi, another in which good Christians, another in which bad Christians, work miracles; the magi by a private compact, good Christians by the public righteousness, evil Christians by the signs of public righteousness. And we ought not to wonder at this when we believe not unreasonably that all that we see happen is wrought by the agency of the inferior powers of this air.

(de Trin. iii. 8.) Yet are we not therefore to think that this visible material world attends the nod of the disobedient angels, but rather the power is given them of God. Nor are we to suppose that such evil angels have creative power, but by their spirituality they know the seeds of things which are hidden from us, and these they secretly scatter by suitable adaptations of the elements, and so they give occasion both to the whole being, and the more rapid increase of substances. For so there are many men who know what sort of creatures use to be generated out of certain herbs, meats, juices and humours, bruised and mingled together in a certain fashion; save only that it is harder for men to do these things, inasmuch as they lack that subtlety of sense, and penetrativeness of body in their limbs dull and of earthly mould.

(Quæst. Ev. i. 38.) By the east and west, He signifies the whole world, throughout which the Church should be. In the same way as He said below, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, (Mat. 26:64.) so now He likens His coming to lightning, which uses to flash out of the clouds. When then the authority of the Church is set up clear and manifest throughout the whole world, He suitably warns His disciples that they should not believe schismatics and heretics. Each schism and heresy holds its own place, either occupying some important position in the earth, or ensnaring men's curiosity in obscure and remote conventicles. Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there, refers to some district or province of the earth; the secret chambers, or the desert, signify the obscure and lurking conventicles of heretics.
d. AD 604Gregory the Dialogistas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Early MedievalSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
(Mor. xv. 61.) When then Antichrist shall have wrought wonderful prodigies before the eyes of the carnal, he shall draw men after him, all such as delight in present goods, surrendering themselves irrevocably to his sway, Insomuch that if it were possible the very elect should be led astray.

(Hom. in Ev. xxxv. i.) Or, because the heart of the elect is assailed with fearful thoughts, yet their faithfulness is not shaken, the Lord comprehends both under the same sentence, for to waver in thought is to err. He adds, If it were possible, because it is not possible that the elect should be taken in error

And as darts, when foreseen, are less likely to hit, He adds, Lo, I have told you. Our Lord announces the woes which are to precede the destruction of the world, that when they come they may alarm the less from having been foreknown.

(Mor. xxxi. 53.) We may understand this, Wheresoever the carcase is, as meaning, I who incarnate sit on the throne of heaven, as soon as I shall have loosed the souls of the elect from the flesh, will exalt them to heavenly places.
d. AD 856Rabanus Maurusas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Early MedievalSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
He says not this because it is possible for the divine election to be defeated, but because they, who to men's judgment seemed elect, shall be led into error.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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