The Fallible Study Bible

The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

Mark13:1–8

Temple Destruction and Other Signs

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Mark 13:1–8 — Temple Destruction and Other Signs. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, look at the magnificent stones and buildings!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai autou ekporeuomenou ek tou hierou heis tōn autou mathētōn legei autō Didaskale ide potapoi lithoi kai potapai oikodomai

Word by word19 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAsG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτοῦautou[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐκπορευομένουekporeuomenouwas leavingG1607
√ ἐκπορεύομαι — to depart, be discharged, proceed, projectVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐκπορεύομαι: to go out, proceed, be discharged A genitive absolute of the present participle: the going out is still in progress when the disciple speaks. JFB records Olshausen's reading of this exit as the departure of the Presence itself, and Gill and Benson both note that Jesus never re-entered. In Mark's narrative this is the last time the Lord walks out of that building.
ἐκek. . .G1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
ἱεροῦhieroutempleG2411
√ ἱερόν — a sacred place, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
ἱερόν: a sacred place, the temple precinct Hieron is the whole complex, courts, porticos and walls, not the naos or inner sanctuary. So the disciple's admiration and the Lord's sentence both fall on the entire Herodian platform, which is what Josephus describes and what Cambridge and Pulpit measure in cubits.
εἷςheisoneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
μαθητῶνmathētōndisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
λέγειlegeisaidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
Historic present, “says”; Mark's vivid narrative habit.
αὐτῷautōto HimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ΔιδάσκαλεDidaskaleTeacherG1320
√ διδάσκαλος — an instructor (genitive case or specially)NounVocative Masculine Singular
διδάσκαλος: instructor, teacher Vocative. It is the ordinary address of a pupil to a rabbi, and it is exactly the wrong register for the moment: the disciple calls him Teacher and then tells him what to look at. The correction that follows is the Teacher teaching.
ἴδεidelook atG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἰδού / ἴδε: lo! behold! look! Aorist imperative, second person singular: a pointing word, “look here.” The disciple directs the Lord's eye to stone. Two verses later the Lord answers with a different verb of seeing (Βλέπεις) and a different object: not the stones but their end.
ποταποὶpotapoi[the magnificent]G4217
√ ποταπός — interrogatively, whatever, iInterrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Plural
ποταπός: of what sort, what manner of Rare (6 verses). An exclamation of wonder, not a measurement. Ellicott reads the disciples here as still “measuring things by their quantity and size,” having just watched the widow's two mites praised in the same precinct (Mark 12:41-44). The Greek leaves the question open in a way the English does not.
λίθοιlithoistonesG3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ποταπαὶpotapaiG4217
√ ποταπός — interrogatively, whatever, iInterrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Feminine Plural
οἰκοδομαίoikodomaibuildingsG3619
√ οἰκοδομή — architecture, iNounNominative Feminine Plural
οἰκοδομή: architecture, a structure, a building up The built thing as raised. Barnes and Cambridge give the sourced dimensions from Josephus; the point of the word is not size but construction, what human hands have put up and can therefore have pulled down.
2

“Do you see all these great buildings?” Jesus replied. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Blepeis tautas megalas tas oikodomas Kai ho Iēsous eipen autō ou mē lithos hōde aphethē epi lithon hos ou mē katalythē

Word by word21 · parsed
ΒλέπειςBlepeisDo you seeG991
√ βλέπω — to look at (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
βλέπω: to look at, to see Present indicative, second person singular. The disciple said ἴδε (look here); Jesus answers with Βλέπεις (do you see?). The same verb returns in v. 5 as the imperative Βλέπετε, “watch out.” Mark makes seeing the hinge of the whole discourse: seeing stone, then seeing through deception.
ταύταςtautas[all] theseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Feminine Plural
μεγάλαςmegalasgreatG3173
√ μέγας — big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application)AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
μέγας: great, large The Lord repeats the disciple's own category back to him before dismantling it. JFB paraphrases the tone exactly: “Ye point to their massive and durable appearance: now listen to their fate.”
τὰςtasG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
οἰκοδομάςoikodomasbuildingsG3619
√ οἰκοδομή — architecture, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
εἶπενeipenrepliedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautōG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
οὐouNot [one]G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
The first half of the emphatic double negative οὐ μὴ.
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
λίθοςlithosstoneG3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Singular
λίθος: a stone Singular here and singular again at index 16: not “these stones” in the plural the disciple used, but stone upon stone, the unit of masonry reduced to one piece at a time. Cambridge notes that Josephus reports the precincts “so thoroughly levelled and dug up” that a visitor would not believe the place inhabited.
ὧδεhōdehereG5602
√ ὧδε — in this same spot, iAdverb
ἀφεθῇaphethēwill be leftG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Subjunctive Passive3rd Person Singular
ἀφίημι: to send away, leave, let remain Aorist subjunctive passive under a double negative. No demolisher is named in the Greek; the passive leaves the agency with God even though Titus and the tenth legion are the instruments Cambridge records.
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
λίθονlithon[another]G3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ὃςhos[every one]G3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ὅς: who, which The relative attaches a second and equally absolute negation to every single stone: not a general ruin with exceptions, but a stone by stone guarantee.
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
καταλυθῇkatalythēwill be thrown downG2647
√ καταλύω — to loosen down (disintegrate), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Passive3rd Person Singular
καταλύω: to loosen down, dissolve, destroy (16 verses). A word for undoing what was joined, used of dissolving a building and also of abolishing a law (Matthew 5:17). Mark will hear it again at Mark 14:58, on the lips of witnesses who could not agree; the Verifier confirms the shared lexeme between the two verses. The prophecy the Lord speaks here is the accusation they will bring against him.
3

While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Him privately,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai autou kathēmenou eis to oros tōn Elaiōn katenanti tou hierou Petros kai Iakōbos kai Iōannēs kai Andreas epērōta auton kat’ idian

Word by word22 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiWhileG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτοῦautou[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καθημένουkathēmenouwas sittingG2521
√ κάθημαι — and (to sitVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveGenitive Masculine Singular
κάθημαι: to sit, be seated Genitive absolute mirroring ἐκπορευομένου in v. 1. He goes out, and he sits down: the two motions that bracket the oracle. JFB notes he seats himself “over against the temple, having the city all spread out under His eye.”
εἰςeisonG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ὄροςorosMountG3735
√ ὄρος — perhaps akin to G142 (αἴρω)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
ὄρος: a mountain The Mount of Olives is where Zechariah 14:4 sets the Lord's feet in the day of battle, and Ellicott recalls that near this same spot he had lately wept over the city (Luke 19:41). Mark records the place; the resonance is real but the Gospel does not draw it.
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Plural
ἘλαιῶνElaiōnof OlivesG1636
√ ἐλαία — an olive (the tree or the fruit)NounGenitive Feminine Plural
κατέναντιkatenantioppositeG2713
√ κατέναντι — directly oppositePreposition
κατέναντι: directly opposite (8 verses). A word of exact facing. The detail is Mark's alone, and Cambridge flags it as characteristic of the second Evangelist's minuteness about place.
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
ἱεροῦhieroutempleG2411
√ ἱερόν — a sacred place, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
ΠέτροςPetrosPeterG4074
√ Πέτρος — a (piece of) rock (larger than G3037 (λίθος))NounNominative Masculine Singular
Πέτρος: a piece of rock The disciple named Rock heads the list in a scene about stones that will not be left standing. Mark does not press the irony; it is simply there in the Greek.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἸάκωβοςIakōbosJamesG2385
√ Ἰάκωβος — Jacobus, the name of three IsraelitesNounNominative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἸωάννηςIōannēsJohnG2491
√ Ἰωάννης — Joannes (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἈνδρέαςAndreasAndrewG406
√ Ἀνδρέας — manlyNounNominative Masculine Singular
Ἀνδρέας: manly Ellicott notes this is the only place Andrew joins the inner three, and that although he was first called (John 1:41) he stands last in the list. Mark alone names the four.
ἐπηρώταepērōtaaskedG1905
√ ἐπερωτάω — to ask for, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπερωτάω: to question, interrogate Imperfect and singular: a sustained questioning by four men counted as one voice.
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
κατ’kat’vvvG2596
√ κατά — (prepositionally) down (in place or time), in varied relations (according to the case (genitive, dative or accusative) with which it is joined)Preposition
ἰδίανidianprivatelyG2398
√ ἴδιος — pertaining to self, iAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
ἴδιος: one's own, private With κατά, the standing idiom for privately. The whole apocalyptic discourse in Mark is delivered off the public record, to four men, on a hillside.
4

“Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to be fulfilled?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Eipon hēmin pote tauta estai kai ti to sēmeion hotan panta tauta mellē synteleisthai

Word by word14 · parsed
ΕἰπὸνEiponTellG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἔπω: to say, speak Aorist imperative, second person singular: a blunt “tell us.” Four men who have just been taught not to trust appearances now ask for information.
ἡμῖνhēminusG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Plural
πότεpotewhen {will}G4219
√ πότε — interrogative adverb, at what timeConjunction
πότε: at what time The interrogative of timing. Gill takes the first question narrowly: when the temple will be demolished and not one stone left upon another.
ταῦταtautathese thingsG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Neuter Plural
ἔσταιestaihappenG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τίtiwhat [will be]G5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
σημεῖονsēmeionsignG4592
√ σημεῖον — an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturallyNounNominative Neuter Singular
σημεῖον: an indication, a sign (69 verses). The request for a sign is Mark's recurring pressure point. Cambridge divides the question into three: the time of the Temple's destruction, the sign of his coming, and the end of the world. JFB is blunter, that the disciples took the date of all these things to be one and the same.
ὅτανhotanthatG3752
√ ὅταν — whenever (implying hypothesis or more or less uncertainty)Conjunction
πάνταpantavvvG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Neuter Plural
ταῦταtauta[they]G3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Neuter Plural
μέλλῃmellēare aboutG3195
√ μέλλω — to intend, iVerbPresent Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
μέλλω: to be about to, to intend The verb of imminence. It recurs at Matthew 24:6 in the same discourse tradition, which the Verifier records as a shared lexeme.
συντελεῖσθαιsynteleisthaito be fulfilledG4931
√ συντελέω — to complete entirelyVerbPresent Infinitive Middle or Passive
συντελέω: to complete entirely, bring to a joint end (6 verses). Rare and weighty: the compound gathers many things into one finish. The same verb is used in Hebrews 8:8 of God completing a new covenant, so the word itself is not only destructive; in the Greek the disciples ask about a consummation, and the Lord answers first about pangs.
5

Jesus began by telling them, “See to it that no one deceives you.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho Iēsous ērxato legein autois Blepete mē tis planēsē hymas

Word by word11 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἤρξατοērxatobeganG756
√ ἄρχομαι — to commence (in order of time)VerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ἄρχομαι: to begin Gill treats “began to say” as Mark's idiom for “said.” Even so, the aorist marks a threshold: the public teaching is over (JFB), and this is the first word of the private discourse.
λέγεινlegeinby tellingG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Infinitive Active
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ΒλέπετεBlepeteSee to itG991
√ βλέπω — to look at (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
βλέπω: to look at, watch out The imperative that governs the chapter. Cambridge records Farrar's four key-notes of the discourse, Beware, Watch, Endure, Pray; this is the first of them. The answer to “when” begins not with a date but with a command about the disciples' own eyes.
μήmē[that]G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
Negative particle introducing the fear clause, “lest.”
τιςtis[no one]G5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
πλανήσῃplanēsēdeceivesG4105
√ πλανάω — to (properly, cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
πλανάω: to cause to roam, lead astray Aorist subjunctive. The danger named first is not persecution or catastrophe but being walked off the road. Henry draws the pastoral edge: “When many are deceived, we should thereby be awakened to look to ourselves.”
ὑμᾶςhymasyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Plural
6

Many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

polloi eleusontai epi mou tō onomati legontes hoti Egō eimi kai planēsousin pollous

Word by word13 · parsed
πολλοὶpolloiManyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἐλεύσονταιeleusontaiwill comeG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
ἐπὶepiinG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
ἐπί: upon, on the basis of With the dative, the name is the footing they claim, not simply the label they use.
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
ὀνόματίonomatinameG3686
√ ὄνομα — a "name" (literally or figuratively) (authority, character)NounDative Neuter Singular
ὄνομα: a name, authority, character In biblical usage a name carries the person's authority and character. To come “upon my name” is to borrow his standing. This is why the first sign of the end in Mark is not a catastrophe but a counterfeit.
λέγοντεςlegontesclaimingG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἘγώEgōIG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 1st Person Singular
ἐγώ: I The pronoun is expressed, which Greek does not require, so the stress falls on the speaker: I am.
εἰμιeimiam [He]G1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
εἰμί: I am, I exist The absolute Ἐγώ εἰμι with no predicate. JFB argues the reference is not to rival Messiahs deceiving outsiders but to “persons pretending to be Jesus Himself, returned in glory,” which is why Luke 21:8 adds “Go ye not therefore after them.” Whether or not the divine name of Exodus 3:14 stands behind Mark's usage is debated; what is certain from Mark itself is that this exact formula is the Lord's own (Mark 6:50, Mark 14:62).
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πλανήσουσινplanēsousinwill deceiveG4105
√ πλανάω — to (properly, cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
πλανάω: to lead astray Future indicative: not a risk but a forecast. Maclaren's whole argument on this verse is that unbelief does not empty the heart, it refills it: the credulity of the age is the shadow of its lost faith.
πολλοὺςpollousmanyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
7

When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de hotan akousēte polemous kai akoas polemōn mē throeisthe dei genesthai all’ to telos oupō

Word by word15 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὅτανhotanWhenG3752
√ ὅταν — whenever (implying hypothesis or more or less uncertainty)Conjunction
ἀκούσητεakousēteyou hear ofG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
ἀκούω: to hear Aorist subjunctive with ὅταν: whenever the hearing happens. The disciples asked for a sign to see; the first thing given them is something to hear, and a command about what not to do when they hear it.
πολέμουςpolemouswarsG4171
√ πόλεμος — warfare (literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀκοὰςakoasrumorsG189
√ ἀκοή — hearing (the act, the sense or the thing heard)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
ἀκοή: a hearing, a report Cognate with the verb two words earlier. The doubling is deliberate in the Greek and is lost when it is rendered “rumors.”
πολέμωνpolemōnof warsG4171
√ πόλεμος — warfare (literally or figurativelyNounGenitive Masculine Plural
μὴmē{do} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
θροεῖσθεthroeisthebe alarmedG2360
√ θροέω — to clamor, iVerbPresent Imperative Middle or Passive2nd Person Plural
θροέω: to clamor, to be thrown into uproar (3 verses). One of the rarest verbs in the New Testament, and all three occurrences sit in the same field of end-time alarm: here, Matthew 24:6, and 2 Thessalonians 2:2, where the shaking comes from a forged word about the day of the Lord. Gill draws out the pastoral command inside the prohibition: keep your place, abide by your work, go on preaching.
δεῖdei[ These things ] mustG1163
√ δεῖ — also deon deh-on'VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
δεῖ: it is necessary, it must be (101 verses). Impersonal necessity. Mark uses the same verb of the Son of Man's own suffering (Mark 8:31), which is the only warrant in this Gospel for reading the necessity as God's purpose rather than blind fate.
γενέσθαιgenesthaihappenG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Infinitive Middle
ἀλλ’all’butG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
τέλοςtelosendG5056
√ τέλος — properly, the point aimed at as a limit, iNounNominative Neuter Singular
τέλος: the point aimed at, the end Not merely termination but the goal. The disciples asked about things being brought to their joint completion (συντελεῖσθαι, v. 4); he answers that the telos is not yet, which is at once a denial and a promise that there is one.
οὔπωoupō[is] still to comeG3768
√ οὔπω — not yetAdverb
οὔπω: not yet The verse ends on a verbless denial. Everything that follows in the chapter lives in the space this adverb opens.
8

Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, as well as famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar ethnos egerthēsetai ep’ ethnos kai basileia epi basileian esontai seismoi kata topous esontai limoi tauta archē ōdinōn

Word by word18 · parsed
γὰρgarG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ἔθνοςethnosNationG1484
√ ἔθνος — a race (as of the same habit), iNounNominative Neuter Singular
ἐγερθήσεταιegerthēsetaiwill riseG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
ἐγείρω: to waken, to raise up Future passive, not the active “will rise” of most English versions. In Mark this is the resurrection word: the girl is raised (Mark 5:41), the Son of Man will be raised (Mark 14:28), the messenger at the tomb says he has been raised (Mark 16:6). Here the same passive is used of nations lifted against one another, and the Greek names no agent, which is the same reticence as 2 Chronicles 15:6, where God troubled them with all adversity. The grammar lets the reader hear either a bare fact of history or a hand behind it, and does not force the choice.
ἐπ’ep’againstG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
ἔθνοςethnosnationG1484
√ ἔθνος — a race (as of the same habit), iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
βασιλείαbasileiakingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
ἐπὶepiagainstG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
βασιλείανbasileiankingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἔσονταιesontaiThere will beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
σεισμοὶseismoiearthquakesG4578
√ σεισμός — a commotion, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
σεισμός: a shaking, a commotion, an earthquake (12 verses). From seiō, to shake; in Matthew 8:24 the same noun is a storm at sea. The word is not narrowly geological, so “earthquakes” is right but partial: it is whatever shakes what seemed fixed, which is the same point the unbudgeable stones of v. 1 were meant to disprove.
κατὰkatain variousG2596
√ κατά — (prepositionally) down (in place or time), in varied relations (according to the case (genitive, dative or accusative) with which it is joined)Preposition
τόπουςtopousplacesG5117
√ τόπος — a spot (general in space, but limited by occupancyNounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἔσονταιesontai[as well as]G1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
λιμοίlimoifaminesG3042
√ λιμός — a scarcity of foodNounNominative Feminine Plural
λιμός: a scarcity of food, famine (12 verses). Gill points to the famine under Claudius and to the siege of Jerusalem; Benson quotes Josephus on plague and famine falling on a city crowded for the feast. These are sourced historical illustrations, not part of the prediction's wording.
ταῦταtautaThese [are]G3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Neuter Plural
ἀρχὴarchē[the] beginningG746
√ ἀρχή — (properly abstract) a commencement, or (concretely) chief (in various applications of order, time, place, or rank)NounNominative Feminine Singular
ἀρχή: a beginning, an origin, a rule (55 verses). Standing without a verb at the head of its clause. The disciples asked for the sign of the end; the answer names a beginning.
ὠδίνωνōdinōnof birth painsG5604
√ ὠδίν — a pang or throe, especially of childbirthNounGenitive Feminine Plural
ὠδίν: a pang or throe, especially of childbirth (4 verses). Rare, and every occurrence is loaded: here, Matthew 24:8, Acts 2:24 (“having loosed the pangs of death”), and 1 Thessalonians 5:3 (travail on a woman with child). Cambridge draws the further line to creation “groaning and travailing” (Romans 8:22). The image is not simply agony; it is agony with an issue, which is why JFB can compare it to travail-pangs and Benson can say the early ones are the lightest.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The stones a man points at, and the sentence that answers him — 13:1-2

⚙ Mark stages this as a walk interrupted. The genitive absolute ἐκπορευομένου keeps Jesus in motion out of the ἱερόν while a disciple stops him with a pointing word, ἴδε, and an exclamation, ποταποὶ λίθοι. Ellicott hears in it the reflex of Galilean peasants still “measuring things by their quantity and size,” a judgment sharpened by the fact that the widow's two coins were commended in this same precinct days before. Barnes and Cambridge supply the sourced scale from Josephus (white marble blocks of prodigious size; Cambridge gives thirty-seven and a half feet as typical), and Pulpit adds that the whole thing “shone with a fiery splendor.” JFB, quoting Olshausen, reads the exit itself as the departure of the gracious presence from the sanctuary: that is an inference from the narrative, not a line of Mark, and we mark it as such. The answer comes back in the same verb family the disciple used but inverted: Βλέπεις, do you see? Then the doubled οὐ μή, the strongest negation Greek has, twice in one sentence, around ἀφεθῇ and καταλυθῇ. Cambridge dates the fulfilment at “less than forty years afterwards” and cites Josephus that the precincts were levelled past recognition. Benson adds the counter-evidence that makes the prophecy costly: Titus meant to spare the building, and Bishop Chandler's remark that “no impostor would have foretold an event so unlikely and so disagreeable.”

ii. Opposite the temple: four men and a question in three parts — 13:3-4

⚙ Mark alone gives the sightline (κατέναντι τοῦ ἱεροῦ) and the four names, and Ellicott catalogues exactly what is peculiar about the list: Mark only; the single instance where Andrew joins the inner three; and Andrew placed last though first called. JFB calls them “the first quarternion of the Twelve.” Cambridge treats both details as the second Evangelist's habit of minuteness about place and persons. Benson has the four drawing near while the rest were at a distance, and Pulpit gives a reason for the privacy that is not merely intimacy: to speak of the temple's destruction was dangerous, and that charge later stoned Stephen. The question itself is vaguer in Mark than in Matthew, as Ellicott notes, and Cambridge divides it into three points while JFB says frankly that the disciples' “notions of the things themselves were as confused as of the times of them.” The Greek verb they choose, συντελεῖσθαι, is rare and asks for a joint consummation of everything at once. Poole records the interpretive settlement most of this tradition rests on, that the fall of Jerusalem is a type of the last day and the same signs precede both; he offers it as the best judgment among interpreters, and we hold it the same way, as a reading rather than a datum.

iii. The first sign is not a catastrophe but a counterfeit — 13:5-6

⚙ The answer to “when” begins with an imperative about the disciples' own eyes: Βλέπετε, the third appearance of the seeing verb in five verses. Cambridge preserves Farrar's four key-notes of the discourse, Beware, Watch, Endure, Pray, and this is the first. πλανήσῃ is not lying but leading off the road, and Pulpit names the historical candidates the early church knew (Theudas of Acts 5:36, Simon Magus of Acts 8:10, Menander and the Gnostics) together with the boast Jerome ascribes to Simon. The words the impostors speak are bare in the Greek: Ἐγώ εἰμι, with no predicate. Ellicott concedes the point plainly, that “Christ” is a necessary inference from context and not in the text. JFB presses a minority reading, that these are not rival Messiahs but persons claiming to be Jesus himself returned, since the audience is his own disciples; we record it as his argument and note that most commentators here read rival Messiahs. Maclaren, preaching on this verse, makes the deepest claim in the unit and the least verifiable: that credulity is the shadow of lost faith, so that “if the true form of it be cast aside, some false form will be eagerly seized in order to fill the aching void.” That is homiletic psychology, not exegesis, and it is offered as such.

iv. Wars, quakes, famines: the pangs are not the birth — 13:7-8

⚙ Three commands sit under the catalogue of disasters, and all three are restraints. Do not be shaken (μὴ θροεῖσθε, one of the rarest verbs in the NT, three verses in all). It must be (δεῖ, impersonal, no agent named; Ellicott corrects the rendering to “it must needs be,” and Gill supplies the theology the grammar leaves open). And the end is not yet (οὔπω, a verbless denial). Gill turns the prohibition into a positive charge: keep your place, abide by your work, go on preaching the Gospel. Pulpit explains why the reports are named separately from the wars, “because they are often worse and more distressing than wars themselves.” Then the closing clause refuses the question outright: ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων ταῦτα, beginning of birth-pangs, these things. Cambridge insists on “birth-pangs” against the older “sorrows,” counts the word's four NT occurrences, and reaches to creation groaning and travailing in Romans 8:22. Benson explains the force from the physiology: the earliest pangs are light compared with what follows, so the Lord's meaning is that these evils are small beside what is coming. Gill says the same, that the troubles long before the siege are light afflictions compared to those that attend the desolation itself. JFB and Poole both reach for history, JFB to Tacitus on the convulsions of the Roman world, Poole and Benson to Josephus; that is illustration of fulfilment, not a claim about the Greek.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Our own fallible reading, offered to be tested. The discourse opens with a man pointing at masonry and closes, eight verses later, with a woman in labour. Between those two images every fixed thing in the passage is unfixed: stones unjointed (καταλυθῇ, loosened down), nations raised against one another by an unnamed hand (the passive ἐγερθήσεται), the ground itself shaken place by place (σεισμοί). The disciples had asked for a σημεῖον, a marker that would let them know where they stood. What they are given instead is a command about their own eyes (Βλέπετε) and a word that reclassifies the whole catalogue: ἀρχή, beginning. Notice what the text does not do. It never says the wars and famines are the end; it says twice over that they are not (οὔπω). It never promises the disciples information; it promises them necessity (δεῖ) and tells them not to be thrown into uproar by it. The one thing in this passage that is not shaken is the word that predicts the shaking. That is the quiet argument Benson makes from the historical side, that no impostor would have staked himself on so unlikely a ruin, and it is the argument the grammar makes from the inside: the temple gets a double οὐ μή and the disciples get an imperative. And the final metaphor will not let the catalogue be read as mere collapse. ὠδίν is the pain of a birth. Whatever else is true of the age these verses open, the New Testament uses this rare word only where pain is going somewhere: the pangs of death loosed at the resurrection (Acts 2:24), sudden destruction on the day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:3), and creation groaning in Cambridge's cross-reference (Romans 8:22). We do not claim Mark intends all of that; we claim the word he chose refuses to end in rubble.

They asked for the sign of the end, and were told the name of a beginning.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Do not be thrown into uproar: a verb used only three times verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ θροεῖσθε (G2360) is among the rarest verbs in the New Testament: it occurs in three verses only, and all three sit inside the same field of end-time alarm. Here and at Matthew 24:6 it is the Lord's command in the Olivet discourse; at 2 Thessalonians 2:2 it is Paul's plea that the Thessalonians not be shaken in mind by a spirit, word or letter claiming the day of the Lord had come. The Verifier records the shared lexeme in each case. The coincidence of vocabulary is worth noticing: in Mark the panic comes from reports of wars, in 2 Thessalonians from a forged report about the day itself, and the apostolic answer in both places is the same, refuse the uproar.

Matthew 24:6 · 2 Thessalonians 2:2

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2360 θροέω (in 3 vv), with G3195 μέλλω (in 106 vv) and G1163 δεῖ (in 101 vv) also shared with Matthew 24:6. All three refs are Greek NT, so the lexical link is genuine; there is no quotation claim, only a rare shared verb.

Birth-pangs: four verses in the whole New Testament verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ ὠδίν (G5604) appears in only four verses, and Cambridge names them all: here, Matthew 24:8, Acts 2:24, and 1 Thessalonians 5:3. The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme with each. The range is striking. At Matthew 24:8 it is the synoptic parallel, with ἀρχή shared as well. At 1 Thessalonians 5:3 the pangs come suddenly on those who say peace and safety. At Acts 2:24 the pangs are of death, and God loosed them in raising Jesus. Read together, the word does not describe suffering that simply continues; it describes suffering with an issue, which is exactly Benson's point that the first pains are the lightest.

Matthew 24:8 · 1 Thessalonians 5:3 · Acts 2:24

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G5604 ὠδίν (in 4 vv) with all three refs, plus G746 ἀρχή (in 55 vv) with Matthew 24:8 and G3752 ὅταν (in 119 vv) with 1 Thessalonians 5:3. All Greek NT; rare lexeme, no quotation asserted.

The building loosened down, and a building not made with hands structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Two of this unit's key nouns and verbs meet again in one sentence of Paul: at 2 Corinthians 5:1 the earthly tent-house is dissolved (καταλυθῇ, G2647) and we have a building (οἰκοδομή, G3619) from God, eternal in the heavens. The Verifier records both lexemes as shared with this unit. We claim no citation, and Paul is speaking of the body, not the temple. But the pairing of the same two words, demolition of what was built and possession of what was not, is the structure Mark's oracle leaves open when it tears down a οἰκοδομή and offers nothing in its place.

2 Corinthians 5:1

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3619 οἰκοδομή (in 18 vv) and G2647 καταλύω (in 16 vv). Both are moderately common and the subject matter differs (temple vs body), so the link is tiered structural rather than verbal despite the real lexical overlap.

The verb that becomes the charge against him structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ καταλύω (G2647) is the word Jesus uses here of the temple. In the same Gospel it returns at the trial, where witnesses who could not agree testified that he said he would destroy this temple made with hands (Mark 14:58), and the mockery at the cross repeats it. We ran the pair through the Verifier ourselves and it confirms the shared lexeme between Mark 13:2 and Mark 14:58. What the Greek shows, and what Mark evidently intends his reader to notice, is that the sentence Jesus passes on the building in chapter 13 is the sentence the court passes on him in chapter 14, in the same verb.

Mark 14:58 · Mark 15:29

basis: Verifier pair check (Mark 13:2 / Mark 14:58): shared Greek lexeme G2647 καταλύω (in 16 vv). Mark 15:29 is included on the narrative repetition of the same charge; the Verifier basis rests on the 14:58 pair. Tiered structural because the repetition is Markan narrative irony, not a quotation.

“What manner of” : a rare exclamation, and 2 Peter's answer verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ ποταπός (G4217) occurs in six verses, and in every one it is wonder in front of something whose real nature is not yet grasped: the disciples at the stilled storm (Matthew 8:27), Mary at the greeting (Luke 1:29), the Pharisee about the woman (Luke 7:39), John about the Father's love (1 John 3:1), the disciple here about the stones. The sixth is 2 Peter 3:11, and it answers this verse directly: since all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be. The Verifier records the shared lexeme (and, with 2 Peter, δεῖ as well). The disciple asks what manner of stones; Peter's letter turns the same word onto the people who are watching them fall.

2 Peter 3:11 · 1 John 3:1 · Matthew 8:27

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4217 ποταπός (in 6 vv) with all three refs; G1163 δεῖ (in 101 vv) also shared with 2 Peter 3:11. All Greek NT. Rare lexeme justifies the verbal tier; no citation is claimed, and the thematic answer we draw from 2 Peter 3:11 is our own reading.

The prophets had already sentenced the house structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Mark 13:2 is not the first time this building is told it will fall. Micah 3:12 says Zion will be ploughed as a field and the mountain of the house become high places of a forest, and Cambridge quotes that verse here as the very thing that came true within forty years. Jeremiah was tried for his life for saying the same of the first house (Jeremiah 7:14, Jeremiah 26:6, and at Jeremiah 26:18 his defenders cite Micah in his favour). 2 Kings 25:8-10 records that the first sentence was executed. Jesus stands in that prophetic line and says it of Herod's house. This is not a quotation, and it cannot be a verbal link at all: the Gospel is Greek and the prophets are Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible between them.

Micah 3:12 · Jeremiah 7:14 · Jeremiah 26:6 · Jeremiah 26:18 · 2 Kings 25:8-10

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek Gospel, Hebrew prophets), so shared Strong's numbers are impossible and no verbal tier is available. Basis is the shared oracle-against-the-temple pattern, with Cambridge explicitly citing Micah 3:12 at this verse and Jeremiah 26:18 itself citing Micah. Pulpit's note that the prophecy is not hyperbolic bears on Mark, not on the OT link.

Nation against nation: the older shaking structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The wording of v. 8 is the settled language of prophetic judgment. Isaiah 19:2 sets Egyptian against Egyptian, kingdom against kingdom; 2 Chronicles 15:6 has nation broken by nation and city by city, because God troubled them with adversity; Isaiah 13:13 shakes the heavens and moves the earth out of her place; Ezekiel 38:19-22 brings earthquake, pestilence and blood together as the day of God's fury. Mark's list is not an innovation but an inheritance. Again, no verbal tier is available across the Testaments.

Isaiah 19:2 · 2 Chronicles 15:6 · Isaiah 13:13 · Ezekiel 38:19-22 · Jeremiah 14:12

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers cannot exist, so no verbal claim is possible. Basis is the shared formulaic pattern of judgment (nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquake, famine) common to these prophetic oracles and to Mark 13:8.

Travail: the prophets' figure for a nation in judgment typological

⚙ The figure of a woman in labour is one of the prophets' standard images for a people under judgment: Isaiah 13:8 (pangs and sorrows take them, they are in pain as a woman that travaileth), Jeremiah 6:24, Jeremiah 22:23, Isaiah 26:17, Hosea 13:13 (the sorrows of a travailing woman come upon him, and he is an unwise son who does not present himself at the breaking forth), Micah 4:9-10 (be in pain and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, for now shalt thou go forth out of the city). Micah 4:10 is the closest analogue, because there the travail issues in deliverance from Babylon. We tier this typological rather than thematic because the reading treats Israel's travail as a figure whose fulfilment lies beyond itself, and that is a figural judgment, not a lexical fact. The figure is ancient and widely held in this tradition, but the specific chain we have drawn is ours.

Isaiah 13:8 · Jeremiah 6:24 · Hosea 13:13 · Micah 4:9-10 · Isaiah 26:17

basis: Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no verbal tier is available. Basis is the standing prophetic figure of a nation in travail, read figurally as anticipating the messianic birth-pangs of Mark 13:8. Ancient and widely held as a figure; the particular selection of texts is our own.

Deceivers who come in the name: the law already knew this test structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The warning of vv. 5-6 is not new legislation. Deuteronomy 13:1-3 anticipates a prophet or dreamer who gives a sign that comes to pass and then says let us go after other gods, and says God is proving you by it; Jeremiah 14:14 has prophets prophesying lies in God's name, whom he did not send. Mark's version sharpens it, because the impostors do not come in another name but in his: ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου. Pulpit names the historical instances the early church knew, Theudas and Simon Magus. No verbal link is possible across the Testaments.

Deuteronomy 13:1-3 · Jeremiah 14:14

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): no shared Strong's numbers are possible, so the link cannot be tiered verbal. Basis is the shared pattern of a warning against deceivers speaking in the name of the LORD, which Mark 13:5-6 reapplies to deceivers speaking in the name of Jesus.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The house he walks out of, and the temple he is ancient/widely-held

⚙ Mark's sequence is exact: Jesus goes out of the ἱερόν, a disciple praises its stones, and he answers that not one will be left. JFB, quoting Olshausen, reads the exit itself as the departure of the gracious presence from the sanctuary, so that the building's fate follows from the fact that it has been left. The Gospel then does something the reader is meant to notice. The verb of that sentence, καταλύω, comes back at Mark 14:58 as the charge laid against Jesus, that he said he would destroy this temple made with hands and build another not made with hands in three days, and again in the mockery of Mark 15:29. The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme between Mark 13:2 and Mark 14:58. John 2:19-21 gives the interpretation the apostolic church settled on, that he spoke of the temple of his body. So the sentence passed here on stone is executed there on flesh, and the house that the Lord left is replaced by the house he is. This identification is ancient and widely held, not our invention; what we add is only that Mark's own vocabulary already binds the two scenes.

Mark 14:58 · Mark 15:29 · John 2:19-21 · Hebrews 9:11

Ἐγώ εἰμι, counterfeited ancient/widely-held

⚙ The impostors of v. 6 do not merely claim an office. The Greek puts in their mouths the bare formula Ἐγώ εἰμι, with no predicate, and Ellicott concedes that “Christ” is an inference from context, not a word in the text. That same bare formula is spoken by Jesus twice in Mark: on the water, when the disciples are terrified (Mark 6:50), and before the high priest, when it costs him his life (Mark 14:62). JFB argues from the audience that these deceivers are pretending to be Jesus himself returned in glory; that is a minority reading and we flag it as his. What is not in dispute is that Mark has the counterfeits use the Lord's own words. Whether the Markan Ἐγώ εἰμι also carries the divine self-naming of Exodus 3:14 is genuinely debated among interpreters, and we do not settle it here; the cross-Testament link would in any case be structural, never verbal, since Mark is Greek and Exodus is Hebrew.

Mark 6:50 · Mark 14:62 · Exodus 3:14

The pangs that end in a birth novel

⚙ The unit ends on ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων, and the word for the pangs is used four times in the whole New Testament. One of those four is Acts 2:24, where Peter preaches that God raised Jesus, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by them. Cambridge, without going that far, notes the word's rarity here and reaches to creation groaning and travailing in Romans 8:22, waiting for its regeneration. Put the two together and the shape of the answer to the disciples' question becomes visible: they asked for the sign of an ending, and were handed a word for labour. Benson supplies the grammar of the metaphor, that the earliest pangs are light compared with what comes; the metaphor's other half, that labour has an issue, is what the resurrection supplies. We mark the reading honestly: the birth-pang word is sourced and its four occurrences are sourced, and Cambridge's Romans 8:22 link is his. Reading Mark 13:8 forward to Acts 2:24 as pangs loosed in the resurrection is our own synthesis and should be tested.

Acts 2:24 · Romans 8:22 · 1 Thessalonians 5:3

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering; parses and lexeme frequencies are from the brief and the Verifier, not from us. A few textual points deserve naming. At 13:2 the adverb ὧδε (here) is disputed in the manuscript tradition; Pulpit states that it “is rightly inserted” and Gill reports that the Syriac and Arabic versions add it and that it stands in several of Beza's copies. At 13:8 the words rendered “and troubles” are absent from the Berean text used here, and Gill notes that the Vulgate and Ethiopic versions omit the word, while Cambridge says some manuscripts omit it; readers comparing the KJV will see it there. At 13:6 the object of “I am” is not in the Greek at all; Ellicott and Gill both say so explicitly, and Gill records that the Persic version doubles the phrase.

Sources. Every quotation is a verbatim contiguous excerpt from the named public-domain commentary as supplied in the brief; we selected the spans and did not retype, modernize or stitch them. The Maclaren entry is capped in the brief and we quoted only from the portion supplied. Several commentators here are quoting third parties rather than exegeting: JFB quotes Olshausen on the departure of the Presence and Tacitus on the convulsions of the Roman world; Cambridge quotes Farrar for the four key-notes of the discourse and Josephus for the dimensions; Benson quotes Bishop Chandler and Josephus. Those are attributions within the sources, and we have flagged them where they carry weight.

What is uncertain. First, the referent. Poole records the standard settlement, that the destruction of Jerusalem is a type of the last day and the same signs precede both; JFB says the disciples' own notions were confused; Cambridge divides their question into three. We have not resolved which of vv. 5-8 speaks to AD 70, which to the last day, and which to both, because the text does not resolve it. Second, the identity of the deceivers in v. 6: JFB's reading (pretenders to be Jesus returned) is a minority one and is marked as his. Third, every link to Hebrew Scripture in the threads above is tiered structural or typological, never verbal, for a mechanical reason as well as a theological one: this unit is Greek, those texts are Hebrew, and shared Strong's numbers cannot exist across them. There is no formal OT quotation anywhere in Mark 13:1-8. Fourth, the historical illustrations from Josephus and Tacitus show a prophecy answered by events; they are not evidence about what the Greek means, and we have kept the two apart.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)