Mat 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Alternative: And but for those days of mutilation, all flesh should be saved: but throughout those doys of mutilation the elect [are saved] .

As I go along translating from the Greek and find alternative meanings that add to the meaning ofr Christ's words, I sometimes worry that the next verse won't fit where my interpretation has taken me. My biggest surprise has been that, when I look at the Greek of that next verse, the problem that I thought was coming always vanishes.

In this verse, the discovery was particularly shocking. The original Greek reads the opposite the English translation. What is rendered in KJV as "no flesh" is in reality "all flesh." The Greek word, pas, is translated in the NT as "all" 748 times, as "all things" 170 times, as "every" 117 times, as "all men" 41 times, and so on : "whosoever" 31 times, "everyone" 28 times, "whole" 12 times, "all manner of" 11 times, "every man" 11 times, "every thing" 7 times, "any" 7 times, "whatsoever" 6 times, and "any thing" twice. So here, in this one situation, it suddenly means "no."

Earlier in this chapter (Mat 24:13) that only those who endure to the end shall be saved. Here, Christ says that everyone can survive normal times. Only the elect can save difficult times.

"Shorten" is from koloboô, which means "to dock," "to curtail," and "to mutilate." Kolobôsis menas "mutilation."

"No" is from pas, which means "all," "the whole," "every," "anyone," "all kinds," and "anything."

"Save" is from sôizô (sozo), which means "save from death," "keep alive," "keep safe," "preserve," "maintain," "keep in mind," "carry off safely," and "rescue."

Mat 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Alternative: Because then there will be such great pressure as has not come into being from the beginner of the [current] world order until now, no, by no means shall [it] be produced.

The real point of this verse is that the "pressure" to bring an "end of an age" (or the end of a life) exists even when it is not produced. That pressure is inherent in the nature of things, arising from their existence not from our actions or lack of actions.

Civilizations fall and people die not because people's mistakes or intentional actions kill them but because their internal pressure drives them drives them naturally to a goal. These transitions may be difficult, but they are not due to "mistakes" (i.e. sins) or "burdens" (i.e. evil). These transitions are wrapped up in the purpose of existence.

It is unfortunate that this sense of the verse is lost completely in English translation, rendering this "pressure" as a "tribulation that shall be but never shall be." The more sensible meaning is hidden in a series of misleading translations, especially a extremely common mistranslation all through Matthew that renders the term "to become" or "to produce" as a version of the verb "to be." In the KJV of this verse, the first "shall be" (referring to "tribulation") is a form of the verb "to be," but the terms translated as "was" and "shall be" later in the verse are from the Greek word that means "to become" or "to be produced."

The word translated as "tribulation" means "pressure" and the same word that was earlier translated in a previous verse as "afflicted."

The world translated as "world" is not the same word translated previously in this chapter as "world." The word in this verse is kosmos, which Christ uses very specifically to mean the "world order." or "universal order."

"Tribulation" is from thlipsis, which means "pressure," "crushing," and "oppression." Earlier in Mat 24:9, it was defined as "afflicted."

"Beginning" is from archê, which means "beginning," "orgin," "first principles," "first place of power," "empire," and "command." This is the word from which we get both "archbishop," primal bishops who can consecrate other bishops, and "archeology," the study of ancient history.
"World" is from kosmos, which mean "order," "good order," "ruler," "world order," "universe," and "the world of men." Matthew uses it when Christ is talking about the order in the universe, specifically the world of men, as it is designed to be. It is NOT the word translated as "world" in Mat 24:3, which is aiôn or Mat 24:14, which is oikoumenê.

"Was" and the second, "shall be" are from gignomai (ginomai), which means "to become," "to come into being," "to be produced," and "to be." Only the first "shall be" is from a future form of "to be."

Mat 24:16 Then let them who are in Judea flee into the mountain:
Mat 24:17 Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house:
Mat 24:18 Neither let him who is in the field turn back to take his clothes.
Mat 24:19 And woe unto those who are with child, and those who are nursing in those days!
Mat 24:20 But pray you that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

This key to this section is the desire to flee or escape, leaving behind your own life. The ideas here can be applied to the fall of Jerusalem or any civilization since, but it can also be applied the death of a single person.

The first idea in verse 16 is leaving your known life behind. Judea is the known country of civilization. The mountains are the unknown, wilder, harder territory. The original Greek doesn't have any of the "connective" tissue that turns these lines into advice. A direct translation is, "Then in Judea escape to the mountains." This is a statement of necessity not a suggestion. You don't go to the mountains because you like the mountains, you go because you must. You have nowhere else to escape to.

The next few verses emphasize both the suddenness of this change and how it turns all your priorities upside down. Everything is left behind. Your house, which is the symbol for family, your fields, which is Christ's symbol for material wealth, even your clothes, which Christ uses as a symbol for your status in society, are all left behind.

However, the sadest part of this escape is its affect on those who are dependent on us. Viewing this section as about the fall of civilization is sad, but viewing it as about the end of life makes it tragic. The greatest sadness is when pregnant women and new mothers die.

The last verse is simply about our hope (and his hope for each of us) for an easy escape, an easy transition, and an easy death. The winter is about the indifference of nature to our stuggles. The Sabbath is about the indifference of society to our struggles. (Christ in all his teaching makes it clear that he considered the various restrictions that religious leaders put on the Sabbath as artificial, more about their own self-importance and self-righteousness than about God. Christ's view was the God created the Sabbath for man, not the other way around.)

This last line also makes the point that Christ isn't talking about just one event. He is talking about a type of life-changing collapse that happens at various times to various civilizations and to every individual in their own time. However, even when we apply these ideas to the final end of the world, the nature of things assures that it will happen at different times in different places. When it is winter in the north, it is summer in the south. When it is the Sunday in the West, it is Monday in the East. The point here is that by the very nature of the design of the world, an event happens at different times in different livers, even when it happens at the same, exact moment.

"Flee" is from pheugô, which means "to flee," "to take flight," "to escape," and "to flee one's country."
"Housetop" is from dôma, which means "house" or "household."
"Come down" is from katabainô, which means "dismount," "come down," "go down," and "step down." It is a metaphor for "attain" and with the word "end" (telos) means "attaining one's end."
"Winter" is from cheimôn, which means "winter," "stormy weather" and "storm."

Mat 24:15 When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who reads, let him understand:)

Alternative: Therefore, when you see something disgusting that appalls you, as Daniel the prophet said, stood up in a holy place, recognize what you are seeing.

This continues the idea of the earlier parts of this chapter that those people who trust in universal rules cannot be victims of the latest fashion. We see this in our own time. Acts that have been considered completely worthless and corrupting for most of history are suddenly considered not only respectable but holy. Gay marriage is an obvious example, but the idea is more universal than that.

Christ is saying that those who follow the crowd and those are constantly looking for the a new saviors are willing to embrace anything, no matter how disgusting. What was once considered disgusting is suddenly not only acceptable but quite fashionable.

In Daniel, this complete loss of common sense, where good and bad reverse themselves, is seen as a sign that the current age is coming to an end, that civilization cannot continue along its present course. Daniel (Dan 12:11) says that this leads to the "end of days," or, as the Apostles asked in the beginning of this chapter, to the end of an era: the fall of Rome, for example.

So we have Christ bringing in the second ideas of "end" here. In the sense of "end" as the goal or purpose of his teaching, Christ says that his message will allow people to survive. This purpose is necessary because human civilization always rises and falls. He wants to protect people from the "fall," which is the other sense of "end," the end of an era.

"Abomination" is from bdelugma , which means "abomination," but this word appears only in the NT. A related word, bdelugmia, means "sickness," "nausea," "filth," and "nastiness." The verb form, bdelussomai, means "to feel loathing for food," "to make stink," and "to make loathsome." The most common word of this base is the adjective, bdeluros, which means "disgusting" and "loathsome."

In the source reference, Dan 12:11, the Hebrew word is shiqquwts, which means "destable things," "idol," "impure clothing," and "flesh of victims." The root, shaqats, means "to contaminate," and "to pollute."

"Desolation" is erêmôsis, which means "making desolate." It is from erêmoô, which means "to strip bare," "desolate," "to lay waste," "to abandon," "to desert" "to bereave," and "to be left without."

The Hebrew source is shamem, which means "to be desolate," "to stun," "to be appalled," "to devostate," "to ravage," "to cause horror," and "to cause oneself ruin."

"Who reads" is from anagignôskô, which means "to know well," "to know certainly," "to recognize," "to attend lectures," and "to read aloud."

"Understand" is from noeô, which means "to observe," "to perceive by the eyes," "to perceive by the mind," "to think," "to reflect," "to think out," "to devise," and "to intend."

Mat 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Alternative: And the reward for good news of the rule shall be proclaimed as evident to all people and at that time our goal is reached.

Taken with the previous verse, Christ is saying that those who hold to their purpose will survive as rocks of stability in a confused world. Their survival will be seen as a reward for trusting in the good news of God's rule. Once everyone sees that the rules that Christ is teaching work, the purpose of everything is met.

This is a message, not of an end of the world and destruction, but of a goal that transcends the troubles that we or the world suffers at any point in time. Those troubles, war and disasters, are inevitable. What is important is not the disasters, but how people react. When the crowd follows one new prophet after another, the world just gets worse and more lawless. However, the remnant, those who understand the good news, are saved from all this confusion and lawlessness, seving as an example to everyone else. Eventually, everyone will recognize that those few that hold to Christ's view of the universal rule survive and are rewarded for their faith.

This view is not very different than an historical view of the survival of the Jewish people itself. The difference is that Christ is saying that the universal rule will save not just one ethnic group, and that all people will eventually recognize that it works.

Again, on an historical level, this prediction works both regarding the fall of Jerusalem, all of history since Christ, and in our personal lives.

"Gospel" is from euangelion, which originally meant "a reward for good tiding given to a messenger." It was customary to reward a messenger who brought good news in the same way that we might tip someone. It later was used to denote "good tiding" and "good news" itself.

"Preached" is from kêrussô, which mean "to be a herald," "to make a proclaimation as a herald," "to proclaim," and "to announce."

"The world" is from oikoumenê, which means "the inhabited region." It was often used to denote the civilized world as separate from the lands of barbarians.

"Witness" is from marturion, which means "testimony" and "proof."

Mat 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Mat 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Alternative: And great fake prophets will arise and lead the crowd astray. And through increasing lawlessness, their love of the great will cool. But those who have a purpose will stay safe.

The word translated as "many," which means "many," "great," and "large," is woven in and out of the beginning of this chapter. Though it is always translated as "many" here, it can be read in a couple of different ways that offer more depth of meaning to Christ's words here. The same word can be translated as "the crowd" and "the great." Christ sees both as the negative side of the human community. (In ancient Chinese, the word "crowd" often works best in context when translating their character for "many," which is what gave me this idea. "The many" and "the few" are complementary opposites in Chinese philosophy.) Here, Christ is setting up a similar dichotomy between "the great" and "the crowd," but using the same word in different contexts. (And you can reverse my use of "great" and "crowd" to have the great being mislead and alienated by the crowd as well.)

Using this viewpoint, let us look again at the beginning of this chapter. In verse 5, Christ says that "the great" will come in his name and lead the crowd astray. In verse 6 and 7, this leads to wars among between people's and nations. In verse 10, the crowd or the great (it can be read either or both ways) stumble, betray one another, and hate one another. This leads to a new generation of great "false prophets" (pseudoprophetes) arising and again leading the crowd astray. This new generation of "rebels" leads to lawlessness. The chaos causes the crowd to lose their love for their leaders. Those who have a sense that their lives have a purpose are saved from all this.

My point is that Christ is describing a natural cycle. This cycle occurs throughout history and in everyone's life. In the twentieth century, people like Karl Marx were hailed by the crowd as great prophets. Today, we have the prophets of environmental doom. In our lives, we all look for role models, people who can explain the world to us, and these people can lead us astray. We are all rebels when we are young, but those of us who remain true to our sense of purpose are safe from all this craziness. (Remember, telos means "end" primarily in the sense of a purpose or goal as in, "the end justifies the means." It doesn't have the sense of end as an ending or death. )

"Many" is from polus, which means "many (in number)," "great (in size or power or worth)," and "large (of space)." As an adverb is means "far," "very much," "a great way," and "long."

"Inequity" is from anomia, which means "lawless" and "the negation of law."

"Love" is from agapê, which means "love" especially the love of a spouses and God for man and man for God. It also means "brotherly love" and "charity." This is the first time Christ uses the noun form of the word. Previously, he has used only the verb-form: agapaô.

"Cool" is from psuchô, which means "to breath," "to blow," "to cool," "to refresh," "to chill," "to torment," and "to dry." Interesting, this is a form of the word, psuchê, which means "life," "breath," "soul," "consciousness," and "spirit of the universe." A different word, pneuma, is translated as "spirit" in the NT, and it also means "blast," "wind," "breath," "breath of life," "divine inspiration," and "immaterial beings."

"Endure" is from hupomenô, which means "to stay behind," "to be left behind," "to remain," "await," "be patient," "stand one's ground," "submit," and "bear."

"Save" is from sôizô (sozo), which means "save from death," "keep alive," "keep safe," "preserve," "maintain," "keep in mind," "carry off safely," and "rescue."

Mat 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
Mat 24:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

Alternative: Then they will give you up to be pressured and killed and you shall be hated by all foreigners for my names sake. And then many will be tripped up and shall give up one another and hate one another.

In these verses, Christ continues his portrait of the world and its purpose. In the previous verses, Christ said that this world must always have wars and natural disasters but that these are but birth pains. This raises the question: what is being born?

I find myself thinking back to one of Christ's first parables, that of the sower and the seeds, where the sower spreads the seeds and they take root. As those seeds spring up, they find a hostile environment. That is what Christ's talks about here. He tells us what happens to his followers. Society persecutes them, pressures them, and hates them. Many of those who start out in Christ's name fall away, turning on each other. These are the seeds springing up and failing to grow.

Christ is saying that the stuggle isn't easy and wasn't meant to be easy. Life is not intended to be easy.

As early as Mat 10:22 Christ said that everyone will hate his followers. And in Mat 13:21 he said that others will pressure and seek to trip them up.




"Deliver" and "betray" are both from paradidômi, which means literally "to give from" and is used to mean "to hand over," "to transmit," "to grant," "to bestow," "to deliver up," and "to surrender."

"Afflicted" is from thlipsis, which means "pressure," "crushing," and "oppression."

"Hate" and "hated" are both from miseô, which means "to hate."

"Offended" is from skandalizô, which means "to cause to stumble," "to give offense," and "to scandalize."

Mat 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

Mat 24:8 All these [are] the beginning of sorrows.

Alternative: Because people rise up against people and kingdoms against kingdoms and there will be famines, and diseases, and earthquakes in different areas. All of these are the original birth pains.

Remember, the topic under discussion is the purpose of the world. Why are there wars, that is, social disasters? Why are their famines, disease and other natural disasters? What is God's purpose here.

The answer is in the following verse, but it is obscured by translation.

"Beginning" is from archê, which means "begining," "orgin," "first principles," "first place of power," "empire," and "command. This is the word from which we get both "archbishop," primal bishops who can consecrate other bishops, and "archeology," the study of ancient history.

"Sorrows" is from ôdin, which means specifically the "pain of childbirth." It is a metaphor for anguish but with the specific sense of suffering that bears fruit. This is very different from the sorrow we feel at death, which is what the term "sorrows" in the context of war and natural disaster seems to indicate.

Again, what era has been free from wars and natural disasters? None. In the modern era, we are shocked that with all our knowledge we cannot stop these tragedies. While we can pretend Christ is describing these as signs of the end of the earth, I think he is saying something much more intelligent about the nature of suffering: that broad suffering causes pain, but it is that pain that will give birth to the next stage of our lives. It is not senseless suffering but literally "birth-pain."

I must admit, however, that I seem to be somewhat out of step with "the problem of evil" that seems to trouble most people when dealing with God. When people ask the question, "If God is good, why does he allow suffering?" I think the answer is obvious. There are only two kinds of suffering: the suffering we cause ourselves and each other by making stupid decisions and the suffering that arises from the afflictions of nature. And I can not imagine how you could create a meaningful world, that is, a world with a purpose, without either one of them.

First, human-caused suffering is necessary for human freedom. If we were prevented from making bad choices, there would be no such thing as good choices and no such thing as choice at all. Love isn't love if it is compulsory. Kindness isn't kindness. Without the option of evil, the world would be drained of everything noble and good and replaced with mere machines instead of humans beings with a soul. God is hidden so we can have a choice. If we know nothing else about the nature of reality, it is it is constructed so that we must make choices, for better or worse.

An all powerful God could have created a "consequence-free" world if he chose to. In such a world, we are free to do anything with equally positive results, but what would be the purpose of such a world? If every action has the same positive result, no action matters. There is no learning or growth in such a world. We wouldn't even have to learn to walk or talk because even if we didn't move or speak, our needs would be taken care of. A world without consequences is a world without motivation and incentives.

This is why our human ability to make problems for ourselves and each other isn't enough to create a meaningful world. In a world where actions have consequences, the majority of people will always try to do what is right and they can take the steps to control the minority who want to cause evil. However, creating and maintaining well-ordered society is nothing but another form of communal selfishness.

This is where suffering from nature: disease, starvation, floods, earthquakes, and so on comes in. These natural obstacles create our need to learn about the world and how nature itself works so that we can learn to control it and, in doing so, learn about the nature of reality. We will never conquer death so we have a constant motivation to keep learning about nature. But the needs created by natural suffering isn't only intellectual. It is emotional. It is our natural suffering that makes us cling to each other as individuals. This process starts when we are born as helpless childen. As children, we learn to depend on others. As we mature, we learn to support each other. The world is a unknown, scarry place. It drives us to come together. This connection by our mutually dependent relationships is very close to the purpose of life. Our need for each other is what makes like meaningful. That need doesn't exist if nature is harmless and life eternal.

Our shared pain is the origin of our mutual salvation through love of one another.

Mat 24:6 And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that you are not troubled: for all [these things] must happen, but the end is not yet..

Alternative: But you will hear about the coming of wars and news of wars don't pay heed to that talk because all these things must happen but this is not the goal.

This is Christ's first mention of war in the Gospels, and, other than echoes of this verse in the other synoptic Gospels, the only other mention of war is Luk 14:31. War between states, despite Israel's history of war, was never his main focus. This fact created problems both for those in his own time, who wanted the Christ to be a military leader, and those in our time, who want the Christ to be a social reformer. He simply didn't consider "social" problems to be problems at all. His concern was always the issues of personal choice, how we view and treat others in our everyday lives.

First, it is important to point of the term translated as "the end" here is NOT the same term translated as "the end" when the apostles ask him about when the temple will be destroyed. However, the words used have more in common with each other than they do the English word "end" as we might use it in "the end of the world." The apostles used the word sunteleia, which means "completion" and "consumation," referring the completion of the era. Matthew says Christ used a different word, translating it as telos (see below), which has an even more positive sense of an achievement or goal. The apostles saw the destuction of the temple as a terrible ending, but Christ, as he says clearly here, saw it as something that was necessary on the path to a greater goal. It is a more general root word of sunteleia.

If you have studied philosophy or science, you may be familiar with the term teleology, which is the study of telos, that is the purposes for which things are designed. So, when Christ is talking about the telos of things, he is talking about the purpose of things, not doomsday, but the purpose of the world. Does he talk about all manner of calamity here? Yes, but his concern is not that these calamities destroy what God has created. They cannot. His point is that they are a part of what God has created serving a purpose in fullfilling the promise of life.

Remember, this chapter is usually translated as the basis for the end of the world and the second coming. It can also be read (as I am sure the apostles heard it) as the story of the fall of the Temple and the end of the Jewish state, a story that came true during the lives of many of the apostles.

However, there is still another reading, one that interests me more. This is the story of human suffering as we each experience it personally. It is the story of our own suffering and death. Christ is saying something personally about our own times, our own lives, what we talk about and worry about, and what eventually happens to us as we move toward the eternal goal of life.

"Hear" is from akouô, which means "to hear," "to know by hearsay," "to listen," and "to understand."

"Rumours" is from akoê, which means "hearing," "soemthing heard," "the sense of hearing," and "ear." This is the noun form of the verb above.

"War" is from polemos, which means "war," "battle," or "fight."

"See" is from horaô, which means "to see," "to observe," "to look," "to take or give heed," "to look out for," and "to see visions."

"Troubled" is from throeô, which means "to speak," "to say," "to speak out," "to utter aloud," "to scare," and "to terrify."

"End" is from telos, which means "come to pass," "performance," "consumation," "result," "product," "outcome," "end," "achievement," "attainment," "goal," "state of completion," "maturity," "services rendered," "something done," "task," "duty," "toll," and "custom."

Mat 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Alternative: Because many are coming in my name saying that I am the Christ and shall lead many astray.

First, lets go back a couple of verses to the question that preceeds this whole section. The last two verses are written the way they are because they are a response to a question from the apostles about the fall of the Temple. This question is translated as, "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what [shall be] the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"

This question make sense from our current perspective (and common church teaching), but is it a good translation of what the apostles really asked? At this point, Christ had predicted his death, but it really didn't seem like the apostles believed it. They certainly don't seemed focussed on a "second coming," though that idea has become such a big part of Christian teaching. Nor were they focused on the "end of the world." Those ideas actually come, rightly or wrongly, from what he is about to say, not what he has said before.

A better translation of this question is: Tell us, when will this happen and what does your presence signify about the end of the age? (See vocabulary below for more.) This question makes perfect sense given what the apostles were really thinking about after being told that the temple would fall. And this is a VERY different question and it changes the meaning (and translation) of the answers Christ gives in the next section. Out of this chapter, you can get the idea of a second coming, but Christ is talking generally about how his presence then leads to the end of an era, specifically, the end of the Old Testament era, the fall of the temple, and the scattering of the Jewish nation.

Do these statements also apply to the end of the world? Perhaps. More to the point, they also apply to end of any civilization or era. They also apply (in a way that is clear to me, anyway) to the end of every life. There is a greater meaning here, especially in terms of Christ's presence at culmination of these events.

The original translation of this specific verse makes this sound like others will claim to be Christ and lead people astray. However, this interpretation contradicts the first part of this verse that clearly says that these people come in the name of Jesus. While some have come in Christ name, claiming to be his reincarnation, there is a second reading of this line, which describes a situation common everyday in our lives: people claiming to represent Christ for their own benefit.

In terms of the historical end of Israel in Roman times, others, some following Jesus, others claiming to be the Christ, did lead the Jewish people astray, into a revolution against Rome. Many didn't believe that Jesus was the Christ because their expectation was the Christ would be a political leader, recreating the power of Israel under David and Solomon, an religious empire to take the place of the Roman empire.

Looking at the Greek, the way to read this and to apply it to our everday lives (which is the purpose of this blog) is to take take it as face value. Christ is saying that not everyone who claims to represent him are truly acting in his name. Even people who preach that Jesus is the promised Christ can mislead us for their own purposes. As Christ makes abundantly clear in the previous verse and previous chapter: there is a different between outward appearance and inner desires.

Remember, Christ spent the entire last chapter telling us about the shortcomings and deceptions of religious leaders. His recurring point in that chapter was the self-serving people always claim the prophets as their own once those prophets are safely dead. Christ starts this chapter in the same vein, pointing out the the Jewish temple, built of solid stone, will be torn down. Christ's view of the politics of a larger society was that it was inherently corrupt and that adding religion to it did not reform it. Instead, it corrupted the religion leaders involved, seducing them with the power of the state (the last of the three temptations).

It is very hard to find a place where Christ says anything good about a public, as opposed to a private, relationship with God. He certainly approves of religious custom and traditions both within the community and the family. But he consistently has a problem with people who make a public display of religion to enhance their social image. His instructions for his apostles was for them professing their faith publically and speading his teachings, but he makes it very clear that he didn't like it when people tried to control the dogma to enrich themselves, especially since they do it "in his name."

From the apostle's question:
"Coming" is from parousia, which means "presence," "arrival," "occasion," "situation," "substance," and "property." It is not the word consistenly used to describe something coming or "on its way," which is erchomai.

"World" is from aiôn, which means "lifetime," "life," "a space of time," "an age," an epoch," and "the present world." It is not the word that the Matthew uses when Christ is referring to the world or the earth. It is only translated as "world" in the phrase "end of the world," which is more directly translated as "end of the era."

"Sign" is from sêmeion, which means "mark," "sign," "omen," "sign from the gods," "signal," and "indication."

Mat 24:4 Take heed that no man deceive you.
Alternative: See that no one leads you astray.

Christ used the term planaô, translated as "take heed, but meaning "to see", to mean the physical perception of things and the mental perception of our thoughts, which are normally hidden. It is first used to describe a man feeling lust at seeing a woman. It was most recently used in the previous verse to point the apostle's attention at the stones, which would be thrown down.

God sees our thoughts and intentions (Mat 6:4, 6:6, and 6:18, but humans are less perceptive. We cannot see our own flaws as easily as we see the flaws of others, but Christ refers to his miracles as a visible sign of his power.

The hidden nature of people's intentions, the difference between what is inside and what is outside, is a recurring theme in Christ. Christ concern is on the inside, which is driven by the spirit, that is, our purpose. In the last chapter, the focus was how the hidden motivations of religious leaders did not match their physical exterior. This warning is an extention of that discussion but now applied to the future.

The term "deceive" is from a word that means literally, to lead astray. It is the same word Christ uses to describe the lost lamb. It is also the word used to describe the mistakes that religious leaders make in interpreting the tradition.

As is often the case, the Greek terms used to describe Christ's are consistently less malicious and malevolent than the English words used. What we translated as "evil" means literally "worthless." What we translate as "sin" means literally "mistakes."

"Take heed" is from blepô, which means "to see," "to have the power of sight," "to look," and "to behold."

"Deceive" is from planaô, which means "to cause to wander," "to lead astray," "to mislead," and "to deceive."

Mat 24:2 Do you not see all these things (referring to the temple]? Verily I say to you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

This begins Christ's last "sermon," the one that preceeds his death. The topic is the "end of the world."

This last sermon starts with te symbol of stone. The last chapter taught me how carefully and complexly Christ weaves his themes together, so lets talk about stone. Stone is the matter that we can turn into bread (Mat 4:3). This matter of the physical realm is what cause our deaths and what we are tempted to test God to protect us against (Mat 4:6). In a relationship, when one asks for bread, which is a metaphor for life, we do not give them a stone, which is mere matter (Mat 7:9). In a building, the physical matter that is regular makes the walls, but the odd physical facts that do not fit and we reject are the key stone to finishing the building (Mat 21:42).

So when Christ takes about the stones of a building being tossed down, he is talking about the decreasing importance of matter. This is easier for us to understand in the information age when mere sand, in the form of silicon chips, have become the most valuable matter. But in predicting the end of the temple, Christ is also predicting the end of the supremacy of the old rules of materialism.

Interesting, the term translated as "left" is the same term (aphiemi), which is usually translated as "forgiven" in the NT. So not one stone will be left upon another in the same way that we do not want our sins (or more precisely, errors) or our debts (or more precisely deficits) left upon anothers. Our errors and depts have been physical: they will not stand for all time.

The term translated as "thrown down" is kataluo, which means "to dissolve" or "to disunite." Christ's words in the Matthew only used this term once before. He said that he did not come to "destroy" the law but to fulfill it Mat 5:17 . So his prediction of the destruction of the temple is NOT a prediction that God's law, given in the OT, will be destroyed, but simply that the physical symbol of the law will be destroyed without destroying the law, which exists at a higher level than they physical.

Mat 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Mat 23:39 For I say to you, You shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed [is] he that comes in the name of the Lord.
Alternative: See, your house has left you empty. I tell you that you will not know me from now until you speak to praise the one who comes in Lord's name.

This ends this chapter, which focuses on attacking what Christ considered the selfish interests of the church leaders of his time. Its verses are so complexly woven together that it makes me want to go back to other long dissertations by Christ and see if their ideas were woven together so tightly. "Woven" is exactly the right term because threads of ideas are seemingly dropped only to be referred to in later verses.

The first verse seems to simply follow up on the previous two verse where Christ predicts the destruction of his generation of Jews, but the reference to the Jews as a "house" ties it to verse Mat 23:14, where Christ attacks the religious leaders for "devouring widows' houses," and to Mat 23:29, where the term "build" referring to the tombs of the prophets is in Greek really "house building" with the same Greek roots as "house" (oikos). So this reference to the desolate house of Israel is tied clearly to widows' houses being devoured by the Jewish religious leaders, and the tombs that they have built to the Prophets. It reads like prose in English, but upon closer inspection in Greek it is practically poetry. Christ weaves together all these ideas to reinforce his message.

In the second verse, the woven word is the second "say," (epo) which refers to Mat 23:3 where the same word is translated as "bid," referring to the religious authorities telling people what they should do. It is different than the "say" (lego) that Christ uses to describe his talking to people. Christ seems to use the former for much more formal pronouncements. Christ uses this term (epo) when he refuses to tell these same religious leader by what authority he teaches people (Mat 21:27).

The idea is that these religious leaders cannot understand Christ until they change their tune. Right now, their official pronouncements are all about telling others what to do. They cannot understand God until they start praising those who come in the name of the Lord instead of condemning them to death.

It may also be important to note the word translated as "blessed" is not the word from the Beatitudes, which has the sense of being fortunate. Instead it means to praise or honor someone.

"Left " is from aphiêmi, which means "to let fall," "to send away," "to let loose," "to get rid of," "to leave alone," "to pass by," "to permit," and "to send forth from oneself." This is the same word that is translated as "leave" and "forgive" in the New Testament.

"Desolate" is from erêmos, which when referring to places, means "deserted" or "empty."

The first "say" in the second verse if from legô, which means "to gather," "to pick up," "to count," "to tell," "to recount," "to say," "to speak," and "to call by name." It doesn't mean speaking, but in the sense of connecting things together, enumerating things, recounting things.

"See" is from eido, which means "to see," "to examine," and "to know."

The second "say" is from the word epo, which means "to speak" or "to say" (from epos, which means "word').

"Blessed" is from eulogeô, which means "to speak well of," "to praise," "to bless," by Hebrew euphemism, "to curse."