English · KJV

Matthew 24:3

“Prophecy of the Temple's Destruction”Matthew 24:1–3

King James Version
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

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

KJV (with Strong's)
And G1161 as he G846 sat G2521 upon G1909 the mount G3735 of Olives G1636, the disciples G3101 came G4334 unto him G846 privately G2596 G2398, saying G3004, Tell G2036 us G2254, when G4219 shall G2071 these things G5023 be G2071? and G2532 what G5101 shall be the sign G4592 of thy G4674 coming G3952, and G2532 of the end G4930 of the world G165?

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

Berean Standard Bible
While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
And as he sat on the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

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

World English Bible Messianic
As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?”

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

Geneva Bible (1599)
And as he sate vpon the mount of Oliues, his disciples came vnto him apart, saying, Tell vs when these things shall be, and what signe shalbe of thy comming, and of the ende of the world.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
And when he is sitting on the mount of the Olives, the disciples came near to him by himself, saying, `Tell us, when shall these be? and what is the sign of thy presence, and of the full end of the age?'

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
32 Greek words
  1. ΚαθημένουKathēmenouWhen was sittingG2521V-PNP-GSMVerb Present Middle Or Passive Deponent Participle Genitive Singular Masculine
  2. δὲdenowG1161CONJConjunction
  3. αὐτοῦautouHeG846P-GSMPersonal pronoun Genitive Singular Masculine
  4. ἐπὶepiuponG1909PREPPreposition
  5. τοῦtoutheG3588T-GSNDefinite article Genitive Singular Neuter
  6. ὄρουςorousMountG3735N-GSN-LNoun Genitive Singular Neuter Location
  7. τῶνtōn[the]G3588T-GPFDefinite article Genitive Plural Feminine
  8. ἐλαιῶνelaiōnof OlivesG1638N-GPF-LNoun Genitive Plural Feminine Location
  9. προσῆλθονprosēlthoncame toG4334V-2AAI-3PVerb 2nd Aorist Active Indicative 3rd Plural
  10. αὐτῷautōto HimG846P-DSMPersonal pronoun Dative Singular Masculine
  11. οἱhoitheG3588T-NPMDefinite article Nominative Plural Masculine
  12. μαθηταὶmathētaidisciplesG3101N-NPMNoun Nominative Plural Masculine
  13. κατ᾽kat᾽inG2596PREPPreposition
  14. ἰδίανidianprivateG2398A-ASFAdjective Accusative Singular Feminine
  15. λέγοντες·legontessayingG3004V-PAP-NPMVerb Present Active Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
  16. εἰπὲeipedo tellG2036V-2AAM-2SVerb 2nd Aorist Active Imperative 2nd Singular
  17. ἡμῖνhēminusG3165P-1DPPersonal pronoun Dative 1st Plural
  18. πότεpotewhenG4219PRT-IInterrogative Particle Interrogative
  19. ταῦταtautathese thingsG3778D-NPNDemonstrative pronoun Nominative Plural Neuter
  20. ἔσταιestaiwill beG1510V-FDI-3SVerb Future Middle Deponent Indicative 3rd Singular
  21. καὶkaiAndG2532CONJConjunction
  22. τίtiwhat [is]G5101I-NSNInterrogative pronoun Nominative Singular Neuter
  23. τὸtotheG3588T-NSNDefinite article Nominative Singular Neuter
  24. σημεῖονsēmeionsignG4592N-NSNNoun Nominative Singular Neuter
  25. τῆςtēs[the]G3588T-GSFDefinite article Genitive Singular Feminine
  26. σῆςsēsof YourG4771S-2SGSFPossessive pronoun Genitive 2nd Singular Singular Feminine
  27. παρουσίαςparousiascomingG3952N-GSFNoun Genitive Singular Feminine
  28. καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
  29. τῆςtēsof theG3588T-GSFDefinite article Genitive Singular Feminine
  30. συντελείαςsunteleiasconsummationG4930N-GSFNoun Genitive Singular Feminine
  31. τοῦtouof theG3588T-GSMDefinite article Genitive Singular Masculine
  32. αἰῶνος;aiōnosage?G165N-GSMNoun Genitive Singular Masculine
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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This verse

Sitting on the Mount of Olives, Jesus is asked privately by his disciples when the temple will fall, and what will be the sign of his coming and of the end of the age.

“And as he sat upon the mount of Olives,”

Sitting is the posture of a teacher. The mount faces the temple from the east, and Zechariah names it as the place where the LORD’s feet will stand.

“the disciples came unto him privately, saying,”

The teaching that follows is given to his own followers, away from the crowds.

“Tell us, when shall these things be?”

“These things” are the events he has just foretold, the throwing down of the temple.

“and what shall be the sign of thy coming,”

Parousía, a being near, an advent or presence. They ask what will show that his return is at hand.

“and of the end of the world?”

Syntéleia is a completion and aiṓn is an age, so the phrase means the consummation of the age. They take the temple’s fall, his coming and the close of the age as belonging together.

Passage studyMatthew 24:1–3

Not One Stone upon Another

1And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. 2And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. 3And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

Summary

Jesus walks out of the temple, and his disciples draw his attention to its magnificent buildings. He answers that every stone of it will be thrown down. A little later, as he sits on the Mount of Olives with the temple in view, they come to him privately and ask when this will happen, and what will be the sign of his coming and of the end of the age. These three verses open the Olivet Discourse, the long teaching about the future that fills Matthew 24 and Matthew 25 and is also recorded in Mark 13 and Luke 21.

Why Jesus leaves the temple

Jesus has just finished his last public teaching in the temple courts. In Matthew 23 he pronounced a series of woes on the scribes and Pharisees and lamented over Jerusalem, ending with the words that its house would be left “desolate” (Matthew 23:38). Then he goes out. Matthew uses two plain verbs of movement side by side, “went out” (exérchomai) and “departed” (poreúomai), words for going out and going away. What gives the moment its weight is where it falls. The one who has just declared the house desolate now leaves it, and his public ministry in the temple courts is over.

The name Jesus, Iēsoûs, comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua, “the LORD saves”. The one who carries God’s saving presence is walking away from the place where Israel had always sought that presence. His leaving marks the turn from the old covenant order, centred on a building and its sacrifices, to the new covenant in which God is met in Christ himself. Jesus had already told the Samaritan woman that the hour was coming when worship would be tied to neither her mountain nor Jerusalem, and that true worshippers would worship the Father “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21–24). Stephen later said the same of the temple itself, that the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands (Acts 7:48–50).

What the disciples were showing him

The word for temple here, hierón, means the whole sacred precinct with its courts, porticos and surrounding structures. A different word, naós, is used for the inner sanctuary. So the disciples are pointing to the entire complex, and the word for its “buildings”, oikodomḗ (plural oikodomai), takes in all of it.

It was a sight worth pointing at. This was the temple that Herod the Great had rebuilt and enlarged. Work began around 20 B.C. and was still going on in Jesus’ day, and it was finished only in A.D. 63. Its massive stones, some weighing many tons, its high walls and its rich decoration made it one of the most impressive buildings of its time. It was the centre of Jewish worship and national life, and pilgrims came to it from across the Roman Empire. Many thought of it as indestructible, the sign that God was with his people. The disciples shared that pride, and there is a sad irony in the scene, since their admiration is the very thing that draws out the prophecy of its ruin. Mark and Luke record the same moment (Mark 13:1–2, Luke 21:5–6).

The prophecy that every stone would be thrown down

Jesus first asks, “See ye not all these things?” He turns their eyes back to the buildings so that they will hear what he says about them. Then he begins with “verily”, the Greek amḗn, a word taken over from Hebrew that means firm, trustworthy, surely. It is a strong affirmation, and on Jesus’ lips “verily I say unto you” marks what follows as certain and spoken on his own authority.

“There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” The word for stone, líthos, is the ordinary word, and he means the actual stones the disciples have been admiring. The verb katalýō, “thrown down”, comes from the idea of loosening something down, and it means to demolish or overthrow. Together the words describe a building taken apart to the ground, a ruin so complete that the temple no longer stands as a temple at all. To Jewish hearers who held it sacred and permanent, this was almost beyond imagining.

How the prophecy was fulfilled

It happened in A.D. 70, roughly 38 years after the crucifixion. The Roman general Titus besieged Jerusalem, and the city and the temple were destroyed. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote about the destruction, and the Romans are said to have pried the stones apart to recover gold that had melted in the fires and run into the cracks.

Jesus named this event decades ahead, when nothing looked less likely. That shows his foreknowledge, and it gives us good reason to trust everything else he says in this discourse, including what he says about his own return. God rules over history, and even the most sacred institution stands only as long as his purpose for it lasts.

The questions asked on the Mount of Olives

The Mount of Olives lies directly east of Jerusalem and looks across at the whole temple complex. Jesus sits there, the posture of a teacher, with the buildings he has just spoken of in front of him. The place carries a prophecy of its own, because Zechariah says that in the day of the LORD his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4).

The disciples come to him “privately”. What they want to ask is weighty and sensitive, and the answer is given to them apart from the crowds. They ask about three things. “When shall these things be?” looks back to the destruction of the temple. “What shall be the sign of thy coming” looks to Jesus’ own return. “And of the end of the world” looks to the close of the present age. In their minds the three belong together, since the fall of the temple could only mean that history itself was reaching its goal and that the Messiah’s kingdom was about to appear. Jewish expectation at the time looked for a dramatic end of the present age and the open arrival of God’s kingdom.

Jesus accepts the question and answers it at length, with no rebuke for asking. The same longing returns after the resurrection, when the disciples ask about the restoring of the kingdom (Acts 1:6–7). His long answer tells them a great deal, and it presses readiness and faithfulness on them more than dates.

What “thy coming” means

The word is parousía, formed from páreimi, “to be near”. It means a being near, an advent, a presence. In the New Testament it is the word for Christ’s return in glory. Paul describes that day when he writes that the Lord himself will descend from heaven and that his people will be with him for ever (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). Scripture calls it “that blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), and its last page carries his promise to come quickly (Revelation 22:20).

Does “the end of the world” mean the destruction of the earth?

The phrase means the close of the present age. The Greek is syntéleia tou aiṓnos. Syntéleia, from sunteleó, “to complete”, means an entire completion or consummation, the bringing of something to its finish. Aiṓn, from the same root as aeí, “always”, means an age or period of time, and only by extension the world. In Jewish thought it was often used of a Messianic period, present or future. So “the end of the age” is the more exact English.

The disciples were asking about the completion of the present era and the coming of the age that follows it, a transformation of the existing order with God’s kingdom fully established. Scripture describes what lies on the far side of that completion as a new heaven and a new earth, where God dwells with his people and wipes away every tear (Revelation 21:1–4). The letter to the Hebrews says that the “last days” have already begun with the coming of the Son (Hebrews 1:1–2), so the age the disciples ask about is one whose end his first coming has already set in motion.

Christ, the true temple

The temple that Jesus leaves, and whose fall he foretells, was always pointing to him. Early in his ministry he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”, and John explains that he was speaking of the temple of his body (John 2:19–21). In his death and resurrection he became the place where God and man meet, and through him we have access to the Father.

The sacrifices offered in the temple pointed to him as well. Christ entered the true holy place with his own blood and obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11–14), and with the new covenant in force the first is made old and ready to vanish away (Hebrews 8:13). When the stones fell in A.D. 70, the building had already served its purpose.

God still has a temple on earth, and it is his people. Paul tells believers that they are the temple of God and that his Spirit dwells in them (1 Corinthians 3:16), and that the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19). The church grows together into “an holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21–22), and Peter calls believers “lively stones” built up into a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5).

What lasts when the stones fall

The disciples loved what they could see, and it was a good thing they loved, the house where God had been worshipped for generations. Jesus shows them that even this would pass. The buildings, institutions and achievements we admire are held in God’s hand in the same way, and each lasts as long as he intends. Our hope is safest when it rests on Christ and his kingdom.

The passage also gives us a reason for confidence. The same voice that said “verily” about the temple has spoken about his return, and the first word has been kept before the eyes of the world. We wait for his coming as people who have already seen him keep his word, and the waiting he asks of us is faithfulness in the present day, with the dates left to him.

And God’s dwelling with us is closer now than it was in the temple courts. He is present with his people wherever they gather in the name of his Son, and a believer who has never seen Jerusalem worships him in spirit and in truth.

Last revised

Historical interpretation

Ten 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 100–1107
Ante-NicenePost-NiceneEarly MedievalMedieval
10020030040050060070080090010001100

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 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceOn Prayer
And so, if the manifestation of the Lord's kingdom pertains unto the will of God and unto our anxious expectation, how do some pray for some protraction of the age, when the kingdom of God, which we pray may arrive, tends unto the consummation of the age? Our wish is, that our reign be hastened, not our servitude protracted.
d. AD 253Origen of Alexandriaas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Ante-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
I think Mount Olivet to be a mystery of the Church out of the Gentiles.

For the husbandman dwelling on Mount Olivet is the word of God confirmed in the Church, that is, Christ, who ever grafts the branches of the wild olive on the good olive tree of the Fathers. They who have confidence before Christ, seek to learn the sign of the coming of Christ, and of the consummation of this world. And the coming of the Word into the soul is of two sorts. The first is that foolish preaching concerning Christ, when we preach that Christ was born and crucified; the second its coming in perfect men, concerning which it is said, We speak wisdom among them that are perfect; (1 Cor. 2:6.) and to this second coming is added the end of the world in the perfect man to whom the world is crucified.
d. AD 367Hilary of Poitiersas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
And because the questions of the disciples are threefold, they are separated by different times and meanings. That concerning the destruction of the city is first answered, and is then confirmed by truth of doctrine, that no seducer might prevail with the ignorant.
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 75
Therefore did they come unto Him privately, as it was of such matters they meant to inquire. For they were in travail to know the day of His coming, because of their eager desire to behold that glory, which is the cause of countless blessings. And these two things do they ask him, when shall these things be? that is, the overthrow of the temple; and, what is the sign of thy coming? But Luke saith, the question was one concerning Jerusalem, as though they were supposing that then is His coming. And Mark saith, that neither did all of them ask concerning the end of Jerusalem, but Peter and John, as having greater freedom of speech.

What then saith He? "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet."

For since they felt as being told of vengeance falling on others when hearing of that which was to be brought upon Jerusalem and as though they were to be out of the turmoils, and were dreaming of good things only, and looked for these to befall them quite immediately; for this cause He again foretells to them grievous things, making them earnest, and commanding them on two grounds to watch, so as neither to be seduced by the deceit of them that would beguile them, nor to be overpowered by the violence of ills that should overtake them.
d. AD 407John Chrysostomas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
They asked Him in private, because they were great things about which they were going to ask Him. They wished to know the day of His coming, for the vehement desire they had to see His glory.

Luke speaks of one enquiry, that concerning Jerusalem, as though the disciples supposed that Christ's coming should be then, and the end of the world should be when Jerusalem should be destroyed. Whereas Mark does not state them all to have asked concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, but Peter, James, John, and Andrew, as having more bold and free speech with Christ.

His first answer is neither concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, nor concerning His second coming, but concerning the evils which were to be immediately encountered.
d. AD 420Jeromeas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
They ask Him three things. First, The time of the destruction of Jerusalem, saying, Tell us when shall these things be? Secondly, The time of Christ's coming, saying, And what shall be the sign of Thy coming? Thirdly, The time of the consummation of this world, saying, And of the end of the world?

One of them of whom The speaks was Simon of Samaria, of whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles, that he gave himself out to be the great Power, leaving these things written in his worksa among others, I am the Word of God, I am the Almighty, I am all things of God. The Apostle John also in his Epistle, Ye have heard that Antichrist shall come; even now there are many Antichrists. (1 John 2:18.) I suppose all heresiarchs to be Antichrists, and under the name of Christ to teach those things which are contrary to Christ. No wonder if we see some led away by such teachers, when the Lord has said, And shall deceive many.
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceCommentary on Matthew
(Vers. 3, 4.) But while he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying: Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered them, saying: See that no one deceives you. He sits on the Mount of Olives, where the true light of knowledge was born, and the disciples come to him privately, who desired to know the mysteries and revelations of the future, and they ask three things: When will Jerusalem be destroyed; when will Christ come; when will the end of the age be.
d. AD 533Remigius of Rheimsas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
The Lord continuing His walk arrives at Mount Olivet, having by the way foretold the destruction of the temple to those disciples who had shown and commended the buildings. When they had reached the Mount they came to Him, asking Him further of this.

For Mount Olivet has no unfruitful trees, but olives, which supply light to dispel darkness, which give rest to the weary, health to the sick. And sitting on Mount Olivet over against the temple, the Lord discourses of its destruction, and the destruction of the Jewish nation, that even by His choice of a situation He might show, that abiding still in the Church He condemns the pride of the wicked.
d. AD 1107Theophylact of OhridMedieval
They come to Him privately to ask Him about matters of great importance. They ask Him two questions. First, "When shall these things be?" that is, the destruction of the temple and the captivity of Jerusalem. Second, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming?"
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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