St Luke Chapter XXI : Verses 14-24
Contents
- Luke xxi. Verses 14-24. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text & Latin text (Vulgate)
- Douay-Rheims 1582 text
- Annotations based on the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas
Luke xxi. Verses 14-24.
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| The Destruction of Jerusalem. Nicolas Poussin (1637) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. |
Ponite ergo in cordibus vestris non præmeditari quemadmodum respondeatis :
15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist and gainsay.
ego enim dabo vobis os et sapientiam, cui non poterunt resistere et contradicere omnes adversarii vestri.
16 And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsmen and friends; and some of you they will put to death.
Trademini autem a parentibus, et fratribus, et cognatis, et amicis, et morte afficient ex vobis :
17 And you shall be hated by all men for my name's sake.
et eritis odio omnibus propter nomen meum :
18 But a hair of your head shall not perish.
et capillus de capite vestro non peribit.
19 In your patience you shall possess your souls.
In patientia vestra possidebitis animas vestras.
20 And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed about with an army; then know that the desolation thereof is at hand.
Cum autem videritis circumdari ab exercitu Jerusalem, tunc scitote quia appropinquavit desolatio ejus :
21 Then let those who are in Judea, flee to the mountains; and those who are in the midst thereof, depart out: and those who are in the countries, not enter into it.
tunc qui in Judaea sunt, fugiant ad montes, et qui in medio ejus, discedant : et qui in regionibus, non intrent in eam,
22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things may be fulfilled, that are written.
quia dies ultionis hi sunt, ut impleantur omnia quæ scripta sunt.
23 But woe to them that are with child, and give suck in those days; for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
Væ autem prægnantibus et nutrientibus in illis diebus! erit enim pressura magna super terram, et ira populo huic.
24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword; and shall be led away captives into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles; till the times of the nations be fulfilled.
Et cadent in ore gladii, et captivi ducentur in omnes gentes, et Jerusalem calcabitur a gentibus, donec impleantur tempora nationum.
Douay-Rheims : 1582 text
14. Lay vp this therfore in your hartes, not to premeditate how you ſhal anſwer.
15. For I wil giue you mouth and wiſdom, which al your aduerſaries ſhal not be able to reſiſt and gaineſay.
16. And you ſhal be deliuered vp of you parents and brethren, and kinſemen and freinds: and they wil put to death of you.
17. And you ſhal be odious to al men for my name:
18. and a haire of your head ſhal not periſh.
19. In your patience you shal poſſeſſe your ſoules.
20. And when you ſhal see Hieruſalem compaſſed about with an armie, then know that the deſolation thereof is at hand.
21. then they that are in Iewrie, let them flee to the mountaines: and they in the middes thereof, let them depart: and they in the countries, let them not enter into it.
22. For theſe are the daies of vengeance, that al things may be fulfilled that are written.
23. But woe to them that are with child & that giue ſucke in thoſe daies. For there ſhal be great affliction vpon the land, and wrath on this people.
24. And they ſhal fal by the edge of the ſword; and ſhal be led captiue into al Nations: and Hieruſalem shal be troden of the Gentils, til the times of Nations be fulfilled.
Annotations
[Adapted from the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas]
15. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom &c. THEOPHYLACT. For because they were foolish and inexperienced, the Lord tells them this, that they might not be confounded when about to give account to the wise. As if He said, Ye shall forthwith receive of me eloquence and wisdom, so that all your adversaries, were they gathered together in one, shall not be able to resist you, neither in wisdom, that is, the power of the understanding, nor in eloquence, that is, excellence of speech, for many men have often wisdom in their mind, but being easily provoked to their great disturbance, mar the whole when their time of speaking comes, But not such were the Apostles, for in both these gifts they were highly favoured.
GREGORY. As if the Lord said to His disciples, “Be not afraid, go forward to the battle, it is I that fight; you utter the words, I am He that speaketh.”
16. And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, &c. THEOPHYLACT. Having in what has gone before dispelled the fear of inexperience, He goes on to warn them of another very certain event, which might agitate their minds, lest falling suddenly upon them, it should dismay them; for it follows, And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
GREGORY. (ut sup.) We are the more galled by the persecutions we suffer from those of whose dispositions we made sure, because together with the bodily pain, we are tormented by the bitter pangs of lost affection.
GREGORY OF NYSSA. But let us consider the state of things at that time. While all men were suspected, kinsfolk were divided against one another, each differing from the other in religion; the gentile son stood up the betrayer of his believing parents, and of his believing son the unbelieving father became the determined accuser; no age was spared in the persecution of the faith; women were unprotected even by the natural weakness of their sex.
18. But a hair of your head shall not perish. BEDE. ... because not only the noble deeds and words of the Saints, but even the slightest thought shall meet with its deserving reward.
19. In your patience you shall possess your souls. GREGORY. (Mor. 5. c. 16.) He who preserves patience in adversity, is thereby rendered proof against all affliction, and so by conquering himself, he gains the government of himself; as it follows, In your patience shall ye possess your souls. For what is it to possess your souls, but to live perfectly in all things, and sitting as it were upon the citadel of virtue to hold in subjection every motion of the mind?
GREGORY. (Hom. 35. in Ev.) By patience then we possess our souls, because when we are said to govern ourselves, we begin to possess that very thing which we are. But for this reason, the possession of the soul is laid in the virtue of patience, because patience is the root and guardian of all virtues. Now patience is to endure calmly the evils which are inflicted by others, and also to have no feeling of indignation against him who inflicts them.
20. –24. BEDE. Hitherto our Lord had been speaking of those things which were to come to pass for forty years, the end not yet coming. He now describes the very end itself of the desolation, which was accomplished by the Roman army; as it is said,
20. And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed about with an army, then know that the desolation thereof is at hand.. EUSEBIUS. By the desolation of Jerusalem, He means that it was never again to be set up, or its legal rites to be reestablished, so that no one should expect, after the coming siege and desolation, any restoration to take place, as there was in the time of the Persian king, Antiochus the Great, and Pompey.
AUGUSTINE. (ad Hesych. Ep. 199.) These words of our Lord, Luke has here related to shew, that the abomination of desolation which was prophesied by Daniel, and of which Matthew and Mark had spoken, (Mat. xxiv, Mark xiii.) was fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem.
AMBROSE. For the Jews thought that the abomination of desolation took place when the Romans, in mockery of a Jewish observance, cast a pig’s head into the temple.
21. Then let those who are in Judea, flee to the mountains, &c. EUSEBIUS. Now our Lord, foreseeing that there would be a famine in the city, warned His disciples in the siege that was coming, not to betake themselves to the city as a place of refuge, and under God’s protection, but rather to depart from thence, and flee to the mountains.
BEDE. (Ecc. Hist. lib. iii. c. 5.) The ecclesiastical history relates, that all the Christians who were in Judæa, when the destruction of Jerusalem was approaching, being warned of the Lord, departed from that place, and dwelt beyond the Jordan in a city called Pella, until the desolation of Judæa was ended.
22. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things may be fulfilled, that are written. BEDE. And these are the days of vengeance, that is, the days exacting vengeance for our Lord’s blood.
23. But woe to them that are with child, &c. AUGUSTINE. (ubi sup.) Then Luke follows in words similar to those of the other two; But woe to them that are with child, and them that give suck in those days; and thus has made plain what might otherwise have been doubtful, namely, that what was said of the abomination of desolation belonged not to the end of the world, but the taking of Jerusalem.
THEOPHYLACT. But some say that the Lord hereby signified the devouring of children, which Josephus also relates.
CHRYSOSTOM. (adv. oppug. mon. vit.) He next assigns the cause of what he had just now said, For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. For the miseries that took hold of them were such as, in the words of Josephus, no calamity can henceforth compare to them.
24. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword; and shall be led away captives &c. EUSEBIUS. For so in truth it was, that when the Romans came and were taking the city, many multitudes of the Jewish people perished in the mouth of the sword; ... But still more were cut off by famine. And these things happened at first indeed under Titus and Vespasian, but after them in the time of Hadrian the Roman general, when the land of their birth was forbidden to the Jews. Hence it follows, And they shall be led away captive into all nations. For the Jews filled the whole land, reaching even to the ends of the earth, and when their land was inhabited by strangers, they alone could not enter it; as it follows, And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
AMBROSE. Now mystically, the abomination of desolation is the coming of Antichrist, for with ill-omened sacrilege he pollutes the innermost recesses of the heart, sitting as it is literally in the temple, that he may claim to himself the throne of divine power. But according to the spiritual meaning, he is well brought in, because he desires to impress firmly on the affections the footstep of his unbelief, disputing from the Scriptures that he is Christ. Then shall come desolation, for very many falling away shall depart from the true religion. Then shall be the day of the Lord, since as His first coming was to redeem sin, so also His second shall be to subdue iniquity, lest more should be carried away by the error of unbelief.
There is also another Antichrist, that is, the Devil, who is trying to besiege Jerusalem, i.e. the peaceful soul, with the hosts of his law. When then the Devil is in the midst of the temple, there is the desolation of abomination. But when upon any one in trouble the spiritual presence of Christ has shone, the unjust one is cast out, and righteousness begins her reign.
There is also a third Antichrist, as Arius and Sabellius and all who with evil purpose lead us astray. But these are they who are with child, to whom woe is denounced, who enlarge the size of their flesh, and the step of whose inmost soul waxes slow, as those who are worn out in virtue, pregnant with vice. But neither do those with child escape condemnation, who though firm in the resolution of good acts, have not yet yielded any fruits of the work undertaken. These are those which conceive from fear of God, but do not all bring forth. For there are some which thrust forth the word abortive before their delivery. There are others too which have Christ in the womb, but have not yet formed Him. Therefore she who brings forth righteousness, brings forth Christ. Let us also hasten to nourish our children, lest the day of judgment or death find us as it were the parents of an imperfect offspring. And this you will do if you keep all the words of righteousness in your heart, and wait not the time of old age, but in your earliest years, without corruption of your body, quickly conceive wisdom, quickly nourish it. But at the end shall all Judæa be made subject to the nations which shall believe, by the mouth of the spiritual sword, which is the two-edged word. (Rev. i:16; xix. 15.)
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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