The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark13:14–23

The Abomination of Desolation

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Mark 13:14–23 — The Abomination of Desolation. 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.

14

So when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Hotan idēte to bdelygma tēs erēmōseōs hestēkota hopou ou dei ho anaginōskōn noeitō tote hoi en tē Ioudaia pheugetōsan eis ta orē

Word by word23 · parsed
δὲdeSoG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὍτανHotanwhenG3752
√ ὅταν — whenever (implying hypothesis or more or less uncertainty)Conjunction
ἴδητεidēteyou seeG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
βδέλυγμαbdelygmaabominationG946
√ βδέλυγμα — a detestation, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
βδέλυγμα: a detestation, a reeking thing The word occurs only six times in the Greek New Testament, so its every use is weighted. Cambridge traces its Septuagint career: it renders the names of the idols themselves, Milcom and Chemosh, and the idolatrous practices of Ahab and Ahaz. Mark therefore does not say a bad thing will happen in the sanctuary; he says an idol will be there, and that the sanctuary itself is what makes the idol intolerable.
τῆςtēsofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ἐρημώσεωςerēmōseōsdesolationG2050
√ ἐρήμωσις — despoliationNounGenitive Feminine Singular
ἐρήμωσις: despoliation, a laying waste A rare noun (the Verifier records it in only three verses of the Greek New Testament), and its other principal use is Luke 21:20, where Jerusalem compassed with armies is the sign that “the desolation thereof is nigh.” The two nouns together, bdelygma and erēmōsis, reproduce the Septuagint phrase of Daniel; Benson, JFB, Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit all read it back to Daniel 9:27, though the clause naming Daniel is itself textually disputed here.
ἑστηκόταhestēkotastandingG2476
√ ἵστημι — to stand (transitively or intransitively), used in various applications (literally or figuratively)VerbPerfect Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Singular
ἵστημι: to stand, to take a stand (Perfect) The perfect tense describes a stance already taken and still held: not a thing passing through the holy place but a thing installed there. The parse is the point of interest: a masculine participle governing a neuter noun. ⚙ Greek can strain gender this way when the writer's mind is on a person behind the object, and readers from the Fathers forward have heard a personal desolator in it. This is a grammatical observation, not a proof; the commentators in this brief do not press it.
ὅπουhopouwhereG3699
√ ὅπου — what(-ever) where, iAdverb
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
δεῖdeiit should not beG1163
√ δεῖ — also deon deh-on'VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
δεῖ: it is necessary, it is binding The verb of divine necessity, the same word that elsewhere governs what the Son of Man must suffer, is here negated to mark a trespass: the abomination stands where nothing of the sort may stand. Mark's reticence (“where it ought not”) is, on Ellicott's judgment, the more likely original: “Of the two, the former seems, in its enigmatic form, more likely to have been the phrase actually used.”
ὁho({let} theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀναγινώσκωνanaginōskōnreaderG314
√ ἀναγινώσκω — to know again, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀναγινώσκω: to know again, to read The verb means literally to recognize, and so to read. Whether the aside is Christ's or the evangelist's is disputed in the brief itself: Benson takes it as the Lord's words (“Let him who readeth Daniel's prophecy”), Gill takes it as the evangelist's, since what Christ spoke was not yet written, and Cambridge simply calls it parenthetical.
νοείτωnoeitōunderstand)G3539
√ νοιέω — to exercise the mind (observe), iVerbPresent Imperative Active3rd Person Singular
νοιέω: to exercise the mind, to perceive A third person present imperative: “let him keep understanding.” The pairing of reading and understanding is itself a rare collocation in the Greek New Testament (the Verifier records νοιέω in only fourteen verses), and it recurs at the parallel, Matthew 24:15. Mark hands the reader a task, not an explanation.
τότεtotethen {let}G5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
οἱhoithose who areG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ἸουδαίᾳIoudaiaJudeaG2449
√ Ἰουδαία — the Judæan land (iNounDative Feminine Singular
φευγέτωσανpheugetōsanfleeG5343
√ φεύγω — to run away (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Imperative Active3rd Person Plural
φεύγω: to run away, to flee Third person plural present imperative: not advice but a standing order. JFB records the tradition that it was obeyed: “the Christians fled to Pella, at the northern extremity of Perea.” Benson defines the “mountains” as the country east of Jordan under the younger Agrippa, still at peace with Rome.
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ὄρηorēmountainsG3735
√ ὄρος — perhaps akin to G142 (αἴρω)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
ὄρος: a mountain The plural is unqualified: any high ground away from the doomed city. Cambridge hears Lot behind it, directing the reader to compare the flight of Lot from the doomed cities of the plain to the mountains at Genesis 19:17.
15

Let no one on the housetop go back inside to retrieve anything from his house.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de ho epi tou dōmatos mē katabatō mēde eiselthatō arai ti ek autou tēs oikias

Word by word15 · parsed
δὲde{Let}G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὁho[no one]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
δώματοςdōmatoshousetopG1430
√ δῶμα — properly, an edifice, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
δῶμα: an edifice, the flat roof A rare noun (recorded in seven verses). Its cluster of uses is itself the clue: it stands here, at Matthew 24:17, and at Luke 17:31, always in this same command about flight, which is why the Verifier's candidate list surfaces those two verses at once.
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
καταβάτωkatabatōgo back insideG2597
√ καταβαίνω — to descend (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Imperative Active3rd Person Singular
καταβαίνω: to descend The aorist imperative demands a clean refusal, not a gradual restraint. JFB reads the picture concretely: take the outside stair from roof to ground and keep running.
μηδὲmēde. . .G3366
√ μηδέ — but not, not evenConjunction
εἰσελθάτωeiselthatō. . .G1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Imperative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰσέρχομαι: to enter The second prohibition is the sharper one, since entering is where delay becomes fatal. Gill supplies the domestic detail: not by the inner stairs, and not by the outer ladder either.
ἆραιaraito retrieveG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbAorist Infinitive Active
τιtianythingG5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐκekfromG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
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
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
οἰκίαςoikiashouseG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
οἰκία: a residence, an abode ⚙ The command strips a man of his house at the moment his house is most reachable. Henry draws the application the text invites without stating: “to renounce every earthly object, for the salvation of our souls.”
16

And let no one in the field return for his cloak.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai ho eis ton agron mē epistrepsatō eis ta opisō arai autou to himation

Word by word14 · parsed
καὶkaiAnd {let}G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁho[no one]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
εἰςeisinG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ἀγρὸνagronfieldG68
√ ἀγρός — a field (as a drive for cattle)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἀγρός: a field The pairing with the housetop is deliberate: one man at rest at home, one man at work in the country. The command reaches both, and the second is the more costly, since the field worker has left his covering behind.
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ἐπιστρεψάτωepistrepsatōreturn forG1994
√ ἐπιστρέφω — to revert (literally, figuratively or morally)VerbAorist Imperative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπιστρέφω: to turn back, to revert ⚙ Mark's flight sayings are built of negated verbs of return: do not descend, do not enter, do not turn back. The moral force of epistrephō elsewhere gives the prohibition an edge the narrative does not require: what is behind has become, for this hour, the thing that kills.
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὰta. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ὀπίσωopisō. . .G3694
√ ὀπίσω — to the back, iAdverb
ἆραιarai. . .G142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbAorist Infinitive Active
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
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἱμάτιονhimationcloakG2440
√ ἱμάτιον — a dress (inner or outer)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἱμάτιον: the outer garment Pulpit ties the loss directly to Lot, saying this was the direction given to Lot when he was told to escape for his life and not look behind him. Gill adds the plain alternative: “let him flee without it, or otherwise he would be in great danger.”
17

How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ouai en ekeinais tais hēmerais tais echousais en gastri kai tais thēlazousais

Word by word13 · parsed
δὲde[How]G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟὐαὶOuaimiserableG3759
√ οὐαί — "woe"Interjection
οὐαί: woe, alas Parsed as an interjection, which settles the register: this is lament, not sentence. Mark has Jesus, on the way to his own death, stop the discourse to grieve over women who cannot run. Gill states the reason without pathos: they “would be very unfit for, and very incapable of fleeing with any haste.”
ἐνenG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἐκείναιςekeinaisthoseG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounDative Feminine Plural
ταῖςtaisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Plural
ἡμέραιςhēmeraisdays [will be]G2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounDative Feminine Plural
ἡμέρα: day The dative “in those days” is the unit's refrain (vv. 17, 19, 20, 24), and the demonstrative ἐκείναις does the pointing: a fixed, known, dreaded stretch of time. Pulpit will say in v. 19 that the days themselves came to bear the name of the suffering.
ταῖςtaisforG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Plural
ἐχούσαιςechousaispregnantG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveDative Feminine Plural
ἐνen. . .G1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
γαστρὶgastri. . .G1064
√ γαστήρ — the stomachNounDative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ταῖςtaisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Plural
θηλαζούσαιςthēlazousaisnursing [mothers]G2337
√ θηλάζω — to suckle, (by implication) to suckVerbPresent Participle ActiveDative Feminine Plural
θηλάζω: to suckle A rare verb, and its rarity is what makes the Verifier surface Matthew 24:19, Luke 21:23 and Luke 11:27 together. The same act that Luke's crowd blesses is here the thing that cannot be outrun. Pulpit records the horror Josephus reports of mothers in the siege; Cambridge, at v. 19, reports the same and sets Leviticus 26:29 and Deuteronomy 28:56-57 beside it.
18

Pray that this will not occur in the winter.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de proseuchesthe hina mē genētai cheimōnos

Word by word6 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
προσεύχεσθεproseuchesthePrayG4336
√ προσεύχομαι — to pray to God, iVerbPresent Imperative Middle or Passive2nd Person Plural
προσεύχομαι: to pray to God ⚙ The placement matters. Between the order to run and the announcement of unequalled tribulation stands a command to pray about the timing. Mark records no promise that the prayer will be granted, only that it should be made. The commentators in this brief all note what happened: Cambridge observes that the compassing of the city took place “at the commencement of October, a.d. 66,” and the final siege in April or May.
ἵναhinathatG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
γένηταιgenētaithis will not occurG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
χειμῶνοςcheimōnosin the winterG5494
√ χειμών — akin to the base of 5490 through the idea of a channel), meaning a storm (as pouring rain)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
χειμών: winter, storm A rare noun (six verses). Its other uses are meteorological (Matthew 16:3, the red sky; Acts 27:20, the tempest that hides sun and stars) and calendrical (John 10:22, the feast of Dedication in winter). Here the two senses converge: a season that is also a storm, and a storm that would make the difference between escape and death.
19

For those will be days of tribulation unseen from the beginning of God’s creation until now, and never to be seen again.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar ekeinai esontai hai hēmerai thlipsis toiautē hoia ou gegonen ap’ archēs ktiseōs hēn ho Theos ektisen heōs tou nyn kai ou mē genētai

Word by word24 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ἐκεῖναιekeinaithoseG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounNominative Feminine Plural
ἔσονταιesontaiwill beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
αἱhaiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Plural
ἡμέραιhēmeraidaysG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounNominative Feminine Plural
θλῖψιςthlipsisof tribulationG2347
√ θλῖψις — pressure (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Feminine Singular
θλῖψις: pressure, affliction The word for being crushed between forces, which is precisely what the brief's historians describe: Roman legions outside, Zealot factions inside. Pulpit records that the days came to be named for it: “They would be known ever after as ‘the tribulation.’” Geneva calls the construction an idiom with “a great power in it,” one misery following another until the time itself is the misery.
τοιαύτηtoiautēunseenG5108
√ τοιοῦτος — truly this, iDemonstrative PronounNominative Feminine Singular
οἵαhoia. . .G3634
√ οἷος — such or what sort of (as a correlation or exclamation)Personal / Relative PronounNominative Feminine Singular
οὐou. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
γέγονενgegonen. . .G1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbPerfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
γίνομαι: to come to be (Perfect) The perfect sets the whole record of what has happened against this one thing, and the aorist subjunctive at index 23 does the same for all that ever will. The verse is bounded by the same verb at both ends of time.
ἀπ’ap’fromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἀρχῆςarchēs[the] beginningG746
√ ἀρχή — (properly abstract) a commencement, or (concretely) chief (in various applications of order, time, place, or rank)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
κτίσεωςktiseōsof God’s creationG2937
√ κτίσις — original formation (properly, the actNounGenitive Feminine Singular
κτίσις: original formation, creation ⚙ The measuring rod is not Jewish history but the created order itself. That is a very large claim for a provincial siege, and the honest readers in this brief feel it: JFB grants that “such language is not unusual in the Old Testament with reference to tremendous calamities,” yet still holds that the Jewish war crowded in suffering “perhaps unparalleled.” Whether the hyperbole is conventional or literal is a real interpretive fork, and the brief does not close it.
ἣνhēn. . .G3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Feminine Singular
ὁho. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΘεὸςTheos. . .G2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἔκτισενektisen. . .G2936
√ κτίζω — to fabricate, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
κτίζω: to fabricate, to create The aorist with ὁ Θεὸς as subject is the only time God is named in this unit apart from the implicit “Lord” of v. 20. He appears twice in two verses: as the one who made the world, and as the one who cuts the days short.
ἕωςheōsuntilG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Preposition
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
νῦνnynnowG3568
√ νῦν — "now" (as adverb of date, a transition or emphasis)Adverb
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐouneverG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
γένηταιgenētaito be [seen again]G1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
20

If the Lord had not cut short those days, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom He has chosen, He has cut them short.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai ei Kyrios mē ekolobōsen tas hēmeras ouk pasa sarx an esōthē alla dia tous eklektous hous exelexato ekolobōsen tas hēmeras

Word by word21 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἰeiIfG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
ΚύριοςKyrios[the] LordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
κύριος: supreme in authority The article is absent (Κύριος, not ho Kyrios), the anarthrous form that in Septuagint Greek stands for the divine Name. Pulpit notes that Matthew's parallel lacks “the Lord” altogether: Mark alone names the one who shortens.
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ἐκολόβωσενekolobōsenhad not cut shortG2856
√ κολοβόω — to dock, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
κολοβόω: to dock, to curtail A word found in the Greek New Testament only here and in Matthew's parallel, used twice in this single verse. Cambridge's Septuagint parallel at 2 Samuel 4:12 is worth weighing: the verb belongs to amputation. ⚙ Scripture describes the restraint of judgment with the vocabulary of severing, which is a hard grace: the days are not made gentle, they are cut off with a knife.
τὰςtasthoseG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
ἡμέραςhēmerasdaysG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
οὐκouknobodyG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
πᾶσαpasa. . .G3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
σάρξsarx. . .G4561
√ σάρξ — flesh (as stripped of the skin), iNounNominative Feminine Singular
σάρξ: flesh The Hebraism “all flesh” reaches past the besieged to the whole race that shares their mortality. Gill draws the consequence bluntly: “there would not have been a Jew left; that nation and race of men must have been utterly destroyed from off the face of the earth.”
ἂνanvvvG302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
ἐσώθηesōthēwould be savedG4982
√ σώζω — to save, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
σώζω: to save, to rescue The single salvation-word in this unit, and it is passive, contrary to fact, and dependent on a divine act already performed. ⚙ Every other verb here addressed to human beings is an imperative about running; this one, the only one that is about surviving, is done to them.
ἀλλὰallaButG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
διὰdiafor the sake ofG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ἐκλεκτοὺςeklektouselectG1588
√ ἐκλεκτός — selectAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
ἐκλεκτός: select, chosen A relatively rare adjective (the Verifier records it in twenty-two verses), and it occurs twice in three verses here, at 13:20 and 13:22. Its double function is the theological spine of the passage: the elect are why the days are cut, and the elect are what the false christs are aiming at. The commentators divide on the referent: Cambridge says plainly “i.e. for the sake of the Christians”; Gill says those “chosen in Christ, unto eternal salvation”; Benson includes both converted Jews and the Gentiles who come in with the fulness.
οὓςhouswhomG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἐξελέξατοexelexatoHe has chosenG1586
√ ἐκλέγομαι — to selectVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ἐκλέγομαι: to select (Middle) The middle voice is the grammatical heart of the verse. The choosing is not a selection made on the creature's behalf by a neutral party; it is God taking for himself. Benson glosses the chosen as those God “hath taken out of, or separated from, the world, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
ἐκολόβωσενekolobōsenHe has cut them shortG2856
√ κολοβόω — to dock, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τὰςtas. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
ἡμέραςhēmeras. . .G2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
21

At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai tote ean tis eipē hymin Ide hōde ho Christos ekei Ide mē pisteuete

Word by word14 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τότεtoteAt that timeG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
τότε: the when, at that time The adverb that opened the flight command at 13:14 now opens the deception warning. ⚙ Mark brackets the whole flight sequence between two tote clauses: then flee, and then do not believe. Running and refusing are the two obediences of that hour.
ἐάνeanifG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
τιςtisanyoneG5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
εἴπῃeipēsaysG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminto youG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ἼδεIdeLookG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἰδού: lo! behold! An imperative used as an interjection, and the verb of seeing is the same root that opened the unit at 13:14 (“whenever you see”). The Lord commanded one seeing and forbids another.
ὧδεhōdehere [is]G5602
√ ὧδε — in this same spot, iAdverb
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΧριστόςChristosChristG5547
√ Χριστός — anointed, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
Χριστός: anointed The title, not the name. Poole's analysis of why it was so exploitable is the sharpest in this brief: “the name of Christ was a fair name to patronize any rebellious faction, where the leader would arrogate it to herself, especially if he could pretend to the house of David.”
ἐκεῖekei[or] ‘ThereG1563
√ ἐκεῖ — thereAdverb
ἼδεIde[He is]G2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
πιστεύετεpisteuetedo not believe [it]G4100
√ πιστεύω — to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
πιστεύω: to have faith The only occurrence of the faith-verb in this unit is negated. ⚙ Mark does not tell the disciples here what to believe; he tells them what not to, and then (v. 23) points them back to what was said beforehand. Faith in this passage is anchored to a prior word, not to a present sighting.
22

For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar pseudochristoi kai pseudoprophētai egerthēsontai kai dōsousin sēmeia kai terata pros to apoplanan tous eklektous ei dynaton

Word by word17 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ψευδόχριστοιpseudochristoifalse ChristsG5580
√ ψευδόχριστος — a spurious MessiahNounNominative Masculine Plural
ψευδόχριστος: a spurious Messiah A word attested in the Greek New Testament only here and at Matthew 24:24. Benson supplies the historical substance from Josephus: impostors who “made the common people mad, and led them into the wilderness, promising that God would there show them signs of liberty.” He also rules out one popular identification, arguing that Barchochebas “arose in the reign of Adrian, about sixty years after” and so cannot be in view.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ψευδοπροφῆταιpseudoprophētaifalse prophetsG5578
√ ψευδοπροφήτης — a spurious prophet, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἐγερθήσονταιegerthēsontaiwill appearG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
ἐγείρω: to waken, to raise up ⚙ The future passive is worth pausing on. Mark uses the resurrection verb of the counterfeits, and the whole chapter's structure sets their rising against the rising of the Son of Man. None of the commentators in this brief press this; it is the tool's own observation from the parse, offered and not insisted on.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δώσουσινdōsousinperformG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
σημεῖαsēmeiasignsG4592
√ σημεῖον — an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturallyNounAccusative Neuter Plural
σημεῖον: an indication, especially supernaturally Paired with τέρας (G5059, “a prodigy or omen”), this is the fixed Septuagint and apostolic doublet for authenticating wonders. Benson raises the obvious difficulty, that this text seems to undercut miracles as proof of doctrine, and offers two possible answers without settling between them. Cambridge and JFB both point forward to 2 Thessalonians 2 and its “signs and lying wonders.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τέραταteratawondersG5059
√ τέρας — a prodigy or omenNounAccusative Neuter Plural
πρὸςprosG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἀποπλανᾶνapoplananto deceiveG635
√ ἀποπλανάω — to lead astray (figuratively)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
ἀποπλανάω: to lead astray The rarest shared lexeme in this unit's evidence, occurring in only two verses. Its purpose construction marks intent; Pulpit allows, though, that in some deceivers the intent grows out of genuine self-delusion.
τοὺςtous[even] theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ἐκλεκτούςeklektouselectG1588
√ ἐκλεκτός — selectAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
εἰeiif [that were]G1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
δυνατὸνdynatonpossibleG1415
√ δυνατός — powerful or capable (literally or figuratively)AdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
δυνατός: powerful, capable, possible The conditional εἰ δυνατόν is doing the heaviest theological work in the verse. JFB takes it as an implicit denial: the deception is “all but done,” yet “will prove impossible. What a precious assurance!” Gill holds the same line while insisting the danger is real enough to require watching. ⚙ The Greek itself does not decide; it states a condition without saying whether it obtains, and the assurance is drawn from it rather than stated in it.
23

So be on your guard; I have told you everything in advance.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de hymeis blepete proeirēka hymin panta

Word by word6 · parsed
δὲde[So]G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὑμεῖςhymeisvvvG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Plural
σύ: thou (emphatic nominative) Redundant grammatically, decisive rhetorically. Mark uses the same emphatic construction at 13:9, which Ellicott flags as this evangelist's signature.
βλέπετεblepetebe on your guardG991
√ βλέπω — to look at (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
βλέπω: to look at, to watch The present imperative makes watching a condition rather than an act. JFB reads the logic of the placement: having just said the elect cannot finally be deceived, “He bids them be on their guard, as the proper means of averting that catastrophe.” Gill says the same in Reformed terms: the purposes of God are “infrustrable,” and precisely therefore the means are to be used.
προείρηκαproeirēkaI have toldG4302
√ προλέγω — to say beforehand, iVerbPerfect Indicative Active1st Person Singular
προλέγω: to say beforehand The perfect tense is the hinge of the entire unit. ⚙ Against signs and wonders offered in the moment, Mark sets a word already given and still standing; the test of a claimant is not what he can do now but whether he matches what was said then. Gill adds a further use: when it all came to pass, the remembering would itself be “a proof of his omniscience, and so an establishment of them in the truth of him, as the Messiah.”
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
πάνταpantaeverything {in advance}G3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
πᾶς: all, every, the whole “All things” is a large claim for a discourse this compressed. Gill enumerates what he thinks it covers: the destruction of temple, city and nation, the signs preceding, the miseries attending, and the danger from false christs.

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 sign that must be read, not merely seen — 13:14

The discourse turns on a sighting: Ὅταν ἴδητε, “whenever you see.” But what is seen is a phrase, not a scene. βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως is Septuagint Greek for Daniel's idiom, and Pulpit states the grammar: “The ‘abomination of desolation’ is a Hebrew idiom, meaning ‘the abomination that maketh desolate.’” The commentators divide sharply on the referent. Benson and Gill and JFB read the Roman armies and their standards: Benson says the phrase “signifies the Roman armies, with their standards, whereon the images of their idols were painted.” Pulpit refuses that: “this was a sign from without; whereas ‘the abomination of desolation’ was a sign from within,” and points to the Zealots filling the holy place with corpses. Cambridge lays out five readings and adjudicates none. The tool records the disagreement rather than resolving it, and notes that Mark himself declines to say: he writes ὅπου οὐ δεῖ, “where it is not binding,” and Ellicott judges this enigmatic phrase likelier original than Matthew's explanatory “in the holy place.” One grammatical fact sits under all of it: the participle ἑστηκότα is parsed masculine while βδέλυγμα is neuter. ⚙ The Greek strains, at the level of gender, toward someone standing there.

ii. Four prohibitions and a prayer — 13:15-18

What follows is built almost entirely of negated third person imperatives: do not descend, do not enter, do not turn back, and then, changing person and mood, do pray. JFB catches the pace: the housetop man is to “take the outside flight of steps from the roof to the ground; a graphic way of denoting the extreme urgency of the case.” Cambridge supplies the architecture from Mark's own earlier narrative of the paralytic borne of four: the stairs were outside, so the roofs formed a road. Pulpit supplies the field worker's predicament, stripped for labour with his ἱμάτιον left at home, and names the precedent directly, calling it the very direction given to Lot when he was told to escape for his life and not look behind him. Then the sequence breaks for a lament. Οὐαὶ is parsed an interjection, and Pulpit will not let it be read as a curse: “an exclamation of pity, as, though it was said, ‘Alas! for them.’” Gill gives the mechanics of the pity: burdened women cannot run, and nursing mothers will not leave their children. ⚙ The only command in the sequence that a fleeing person can obey while standing still is the one addressed to God. Ellicott notes that Mark, writing for Gentiles, drops Matthew's “nor on the Sabbath day” and leaves only the winter.

iii. Tribulation measured against creation, and cut short by mercy — 13:19-20

Cambridge corrects the English at the hinge: “There is no ‘in’ here properly. Those days shall be affliction.” The days do not contain the θλῖψις; they are it. The scale is then set not by Jewish history but by ἀρχῆς κτίσεως ἣν ἔκτισεν ὁ Θεός, the beginning of the creation which God created, a fullness Ellicott marks as Mark's expansion of Matthew. JFB is honest about the difficulty: such language “is not unusual in the Old Testament with reference to tremendous calamities,” and Geneva calls it outright a Hebrew idiom. Then the sentence turns, and the only actor named is the Lord: ἐκολόβωσεν, he docked the days. Cambridge traces the verb: it “only occurs here and in the parallel, Matthew 24:22,” and in the Septuagint at 2 Samuel 4:12 it is used of cutting off hands and feet. The mercy is described with a butcher's word. Twice in one verse the elect are named, and the second verb, ἐξελέξατο, is aorist middle: he chose for himself. Gill reads the elect as “chosen in Christ, unto eternal salvation,” Cambridge more narrowly as “the Christians,” and Benson broader still, taking in converted Jews and the Gentiles brought in with their fulness. Pulpit widens it furthest: “For their sakes he created and preserves the whole world.”

iv. Counterfeit christs and the last imperative — 13:21-23

Having named the elect, the Lord immediately names what will hunt them. ψευδόχριστοι (G5580) is a word the lexicon can only define by coinage, “a spurious Messiah,” and it appears alongside ψευδοπροφῆται. Poole diagnoses the vulnerability precisely: the nation looked for “not a person who should be God man, and save his people from their sins, and set up a spiritual kingdom in the world, but a secular prince.” Benson documents the crop, citing Josephus on magicians who led crowds into the wilderness “promising to show them evident signs and miracles,” and the Egyptian who gathered thirty thousand on the Mount of Olives. The verb of danger is ἀποπλανᾶν (G635), which the lexicon glosses “to lead astray (figuratively),” and the Verifier records in only two verses of the Greek New Testament. JFB reads the conditional εἰ δυνατόν as a guarantee in disguise: “implying that this, though all but done, will prove impossible. What a precious assurance!” Gill holds both sides together, calling the danger real yet the outcome secured “by the power and grace of God.” And then the last word of the unit is not consolation but vigilance: ὑμεῖς δὲ βλέπετε, with the pronoun emphatic, as Pulpit notes. Ellicott observes that this repeated warning word is “peculiar to St. Mark.” ⚙ Mark's assurance and Mark's imperative are not in tension; the perfect προείρηκα, “I have told you beforehand and the telling stands,” is exactly what makes watching possible.

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

⚙ Read on its own terms, this passage is a warning against reading it wrongly. Its structure is strange: a sign is given that Mark refuses to identify (“where it ought not”), an instruction to understand is inserted without an object, and then eight verses of the plainest possible practical commands. Everything ambiguous is about the timetable; everything unambiguous is about what to do. That asymmetry looks deliberate. The false christs of vv. 21 to 22 are precisely those who offer what Mark withholds, a location: here, there. They come with σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα, signs and wonders, the very credentials Deuteronomy 13 already ruled insufficient. So the test Mark gives is not discernment of miracles but adherence to what was said in advance, which is why the unit ends on a perfect tense: προείρηκα, the word already spoken and still standing. Against that, v. 20 supplies the only ground on which anyone survives the reading. No one endures by identifying the abomination correctly, or by running fast enough: pregnant women and nursing mothers cannot, and the text says so without offering them a remedy. Salvation in this passage is entirely a matter of days being shortened by a Lord who chose, and the verb is middle: he chose for himself. The command to flee is real and must be obeyed; the reason anyone lives to obey it is that the calendar was cut. The tool offers this reading to be tested, and flags its own weakest joint: whether v. 19's measurement against all creation is literal or is the Hebrew hyperbole Geneva and JFB take it for, this reading does not decide, because the text does not.

The false christs offer a place; the true Christ offered only a word spoken beforehand, and told them to watch. (⚙ synthesis, not Scripture.)

⚙

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.

Daniel's phrase in Mark's mouth: the abomination that makes desolate structural / thematic: confirmed

The pair βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως is not Mark's coinage. Cambridge gives the Septuagint rendering of Daniel 9:27, “and upon the temple the abomination of desolations,” and Pulpit names all three Danielic loci: “It is alluded to by the Prophet Daniel in three places, namely, Daniel 9:27; Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11.” Benson, Gill and JFB all read Mark's clause straight back to Daniel 9:27. Mark's aside, “let the reader understand,” points at those texts, whether the aside is Christ's (Benson) or the evangelist's (Gill). The wording, then, is genuinely borrowed: this is as close to quotation as an allusion gets. The tier below is nonetheless structural, and for a stated mechanical reason, not a doubt about the borrowing.

Daniel 9:27 · Daniel 11:31 · Daniel 12:11

basis: The wording is Daniel's: Mark's βδέλυγμα (G946) and ἐρήμωσις (G2050) reproduce the Septuagint phrase of Daniel 9:27, and Cambridge and Pulpit both record the dependence. Because the refs cross the Testaments, Greek G-numbers cannot be shared with a Hebrew text and no Strong's basis can be computed; per the cross-Testament rule the tier is structural rather than verbal, which understates a real verbal borrowing.

Luke's translation of the sign: Jerusalem compassed with armies verbal / quotation: confirmed

Luke, writing the same discourse, replaces the Hebraism with an explanation: “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” Cambridge calls this “the key to the interpretation,” and JFB says “commentators are agreed on it.” Pulpit dissents, arguing Luke gives the sign from without while Mark and Matthew give the sign from within. The verbal link is not a matter of opinion: the Verifier records that Luke 21:20 shares Mark's rare noun erēmōsis along with hotan and tote, which is why the same three-word frame (“whenever you see... then”) appears in both.

Luke 21:20

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2050 ἐρήμωσις (in 3 vv, rare), G3752 ὅταν (in 119 vv), G5119 τότε (in 158 vv). Both refs are New Testament Greek, so the shared Strong's numbers are a genuine verbal basis; the rarity of ἐρήμωσις carries the tier.

Nothing βδέλυγμα shall enter: the abomination barred from the city verbal / quotation: confirmed

βδέλυγμα occurs only six times in the Greek New Testament, and Cambridge lists them: here, the parallel at Matthew 24:15, Luke 16:15, and Revelation 17:4 with its golden cup, and then Revelation 21:27. That last is the hinge. The word that here names a thing installed in the sanctuary where it must not be is the word Revelation uses to say what will never pass the gate of the new Jerusalem. ⚙ The verb is the same too: the abomination stands in the holy place at Mark 13:14, and shall not enter at Revelation 21:27. The tool offers the pairing as a real lexical echo, not as a claim that Revelation is quoting Mark.

Revelation 21:27

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G946 βδέλυγμα (in 6 vv, rare) and G1525 εἰσέρχομαι (in 184 vv). Both refs are New Testament Greek; the six-verse rarity of βδέλυγμα is the verbal basis. No claim of literary dependence in either direction is made, only of shared vocabulary.

Led astray: the rarest verb in the unit verbal / quotation: confirmed

ἀποπλανᾶν (G635) appears in only two verses of the Greek New Testament. Here false christs deploy signs and wonders “to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” The other occurrence is Paul to Timothy, where it is the love of money by which some, coveting after it, “have erred from the faith.” ⚙ The same verb, two utterly different lures: a spectacular one and a dull one. Pulpit notes that Mark's apoplanan is better rendered “to lead astray” than the older “to seduce,” and Pulpit further observes that in some cases the deceivers are themselves self-deluded.

1 Timothy 6:10

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G635 ἀποπλανάω (in 2 vv), the rarest shared lexeme in this unit's candidate set. Both refs are New Testament Greek. This is a vocabulary link within a shared motif of being drawn off the way; no quotation is claimed.

The housetop command, and Luke's version with Lot attached verbal / quotation: confirmed

δῶμα, the flat roof, is a rare noun (seven verses), and its occurrences cluster in exactly this saying: Mark here, Matthew 24:17, and Luke 17:31. Luke's setting is the telling one, because there the same command about not going down for one's goods stands in the middle of the Lot material and is followed immediately by “Remember Lot's wife.” Cambridge and Pulpit both reach for Lot independently when commenting on Mark, without appealing to Luke. ⚙ Luke appears to have heard in this command what those commentators heard.

Luke 17:31 · Matthew 24:17

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1430 δῶμα (in 7 vv, rare), G2597 καταβαίνω (in 81 vv), G3614 οἰκία (in 85 vv). All refs are New Testament Greek, so the Strong's overlap is a genuine verbal basis; these are synoptic parallels of one saying, not independent quotations.

Escape for thy life, look not behind thee typological

Pulpit, commenting on the man in the field who must not turn back for his cloak, calls this the very direction given to Lot, who was told to escape for his life and not look behind him. Cambridge, on the flight to the mountains, directs the reader to compare Lot's flight from the doomed cities of the plain to the mountains at Genesis 19:17. Two independent commentators in this brief reach the same text. ⚙ The figural logic is clear enough: a city under sentence, a warned remnant told to leave without looking back, and high ground as the place of survival. This is a figural reading, not a citation; Mark uses none of Genesis 19's language, and could not, since Genesis is Hebrew.

Genesis 19:17

basis: Ancient and widely-held figural reading, recorded here by two named commentators (Pulpit on Mark 13:16, Cambridge on Mark 13:14) who reach Genesis 19:17 independently. Cross-Testament, Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and no verbal claim is made; the link is a pattern of warned flight from a doomed city, not shared wording.

Signs and wonders are not the test structural / thematic: confirmed

Mark 13:22 says false christs will give signs and wonders, σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα, in order to lead astray. Deuteronomy 13 had already legislated for exactly this: a prophet who gives a sign, and the sign comes to pass, and he then says “let us go after other gods,” is not to be followed, and the whole episode is a proving. Benson raises the problem directly and offers two answers: that the works “cannot certainly be proved” to have been true miracles, or that if granted as real they occurred at a time when the Church had other safeguards. ⚙ Mark's answer is structural rather than argued: the guard is the word spoken beforehand (προείρηκα, v. 23), not the assessment of the wonder.

Deuteronomy 13:1-3

basis: Shared legal and prophetic pattern: a wonder-working claimant, a real or apparent sign, and a verdict that the sign does not settle the question. Cross-Testament, Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and the tier cannot be verbal. Mark does not cite Deuteronomy, and none of the commentators in this brief assert a citation; the link is the shape of the test.

Days of unequalled trouble, and a remnant kept back structural / thematic: confirmed

Two Old Testament texts stand behind the two halves of Mark 13:19-20. Daniel 12:1 announces “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation,” which is the same superlative construction Mark uses, and it stands three verses before Daniel 12:11, one of the three abomination texts Pulpit names. Isaiah 65:8-9 supplies the other half: the cluster is not destroyed because a blessing is in it, and “I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob,” which is the logic of days shortened διὰ τοὺς ἐκλεκτούς. ⚙ The tool offers the second pairing as a motif link, weaker than the first; the commentators in this brief do not make it.

Daniel 12:1 · Isaiah 65:8-9

basis: Shared motif in both halves: an unequalled time of trouble measured against all prior history (Daniel 12:1), and a judgment restrained for the sake of a chosen seed (Isaiah 65:8-9). Cross-Testament, Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme is computable and the tier cannot be verbal. The Daniel 12:1 link is supported by Pulpit's own citation of Daniel 12:11 in the same context; the Isaiah link is the tool's own and is offered as the weaker of the two.

“Spoken of by Daniel the prophet”: a clause the manuscripts dispute flagged: verify source

The Authorized Version of Mark 13:14 carries the words “spoken of by Daniel the prophet,” and much popular exegesis rests on them. Three commentators in this brief say they do not belong to Mark. Ellicott: the words “are omitted in many of the best MSS.” Pulpit: “they were probably interpolated from St. Matthew, where there is abundant authority for them.” Gill: “This clause is omitted in the Vulgate Latin, and was not found by Beza, in two of his copies, and is thought to be transcribed from Matthew.” JFB and Benson quote the clause without comment as though it were Mark's. The interlinear in this brief contains no such words. ⚙ The Danielic background stands regardless, on the vocabulary alone; what is flagged here is the explicit attribution formula, not the allusion.

Matthew 24:15 · Daniel 9:27

basis: Contested textual provenance. Ellicott, Pulpit and Gill each state that the clause naming Daniel is absent from the best witnesses to Mark and was likely imported from Matthew 24:15, where it is well attested; the interlinear in this brief has no such words at Mark 13:14. Refs mix a New Testament and an Old Testament book, so no verbal tier is possible in any case. Readers relying on an Authorized Version text should verify before building on the attribution.

Read and understand: Mark and Matthew's shared parenthesis verbal / quotation: confirmed

The aside “let the reader understand” is verbally identical in Mark and Matthew, and it is built of two uncommon verbs. Whether the words are the Lord's or the evangelist's is disputed within this brief: Benson takes them as Christ's, directing the hearer to read Daniel's prophecy; Gill takes them as the evangelist's, “since this was not written (and so not to be read), but spoken by Christ”; Cambridge calls it simply parenthetical. The parenthesis is the only place in the unit where the text addresses someone outside the scene.

Matthew 24:15

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3539 νοιέω (in 14 vv), G314 ἀναγινώσκω (in 29 vv), G3752 ὅταν (in 119 vv). Both refs are New Testament Greek, so the shared Strong's numbers constitute a real verbal basis; the two uncommon verbs occurring together in both is the strength of the link. These are synoptic parallels, so common source rather than quotation is the likelier relation.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Lord who docks the days ancient/widely-held

In a unit full of imperatives given to human feet, exactly one action is attributed to God, and it is the one that saves: ἐκολόβωσεν Κύριος, the Lord cut the days short. Cambridge notes the verb is found only here and at the parallel, and that in the Septuagint at 2 Samuel 4:12 it describes hands and feet cut off. The mercy arrives shaped like an amputation. And the ground of it is named twice in one verse: διὰ τοὺς ἐκλεκτοὺς οὓς ἐξελέξατο, for the sake of the elect whom he chose for himself, the verb in the aorist middle. Gill reads the elect as those “chosen in Christ, unto eternal salvation”; Benson includes the converted Jews and the Gentiles brought in with their fulness; Cambridge restricts it to the Christians. Pulpit draws the line out to its end: “For their sakes he created and preserves the whole world. Yea, for their sakes, Christ the eternal Son was made man, and became obedient unto death.” ⚙ The same logic that shortens a siege is the logic that sends the Son: God curtails what his chosen cannot survive, and in the cross he curtails it by absorbing it.

Mark 13:20 · Romans 11:5 · 2 Samuel 4:12

The Christ who cannot be pointed to ancient/widely-held

“Look, here is the Christ,” “There he is,” and the answer is μὴ πιστεύετε, do not believe. The one speaking is himself the Christ, and he is disqualifying in advance every claim that locates him. Poole explains why the nation was so purchasable: they expected “not a person who should be God man, and save his people from their sins, and set up a spiritual kingdom in the world, but a secular prince.” Benson catalogues the men who traded on that expectation, from the magicians under Felix to the Egyptian on the Mount of Olives. Pulpit records Jerome's version of the warning: “If any would persuade you that Christ is to be found in the wilderness of unbelief or sceptical philosophy, or in the secret chambers of heresy, believe them not.” ⚙ The distinguishing mark of the true Christ in this chapter is not a place and not a wonder but a word given beforehand and then kept. Within days of speaking it he will stand before a council, be asked whether he is the Christ, say that he is, and be condemned for it; that is the location he gives.

Mark 13:21-23 · Mark 14:61-62 · 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10

The desolated house and the sanctuary that was raised novel

The discourse began, in this chapter, with disciples admiring the temple stones and the Lord saying not one would be left on another. Here the sanctuary's end is described in Daniel's own vocabulary of defilement, and Pulpit records Josephus' report of the current saying that “Jerusalem would be taken, and the temple be destroyed, when it had been defiled by the hands of Jews themselves.” ⚙ Mark's Gospel has already staged the alternative: the temple Jesus names as the one that will be destroyed and raised in three days is his body, and at the moment of his death Mark will report the veil of the actual temple torn from top to bottom. Read together, the two houses trade places: the one that is left desolate, and the one that is thrown down and rebuilt. Pulpit reports Chrysostom's reading, that the ruin followed on the treatment of the Son of God, and the tool records that such readings have been turned into charges against Jewish people and refuses that use: Mark's warning in this unit is addressed to disciples about their own flight, not to anyone about anyone else's guilt. The typology offered here is the tool's own arrangement of the evidence and is marked accordingly.

Mark 13:1-2 · Mark 14:58 · Mark 15:38 · John 2:19-21

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)
  • 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 glosses in the notes above are taken from that interlinear and are not the tool's own analysis. Where the tool draws an inference from a parse (for example the masculine participle ἑστηκότα agreeing with a neuter noun at 13:14), it is marked ⚙ and offered as inference.

Textual uncertainty in this unit is real and specific. At 13:14 the clause “spoken of by Daniel the prophet” is judged an interpolation from Matthew by Ellicott, Pulpit and Gill, and it is absent from the interlinear used here; a thread above is tiered “flagged: verify source” on that account. At 13:18 Pulpit notes that “your flight” is omitted by the best authorities, leaving an unnamed subject. At 13:14 Gill reports that one of Beza's exemplars and the Ethiopic version add “in the holy place” from Matthew. Mark's text here is short, and later hands repeatedly filled it out from the first Gospel.

Source coverage is uneven and the gaps are recorded rather than concealed. Matthew Henry's note is a single block on 13:14-23 and is repeated verbatim under every verse in the compiled source; it is quoted once. Albert Barnes supplies no substantive comment on this unit at all: the compiled source attaches his note on Mark 13:12 (“the brother shall betray”) to 13:14, and thereafter repeats a bare cross-reference, “On the house-top, see the notes at Matthew 9:1-8,” under verses 13:15 through 13:23, where it is plainly a misplacement from 13:15. Matthew Poole refers the reader to his notes on Matthew 24 for most of the unit. Several commentators (Benson, Poole, Gill) treat Mark as an abridgement of Matthew and exposit Matthew instead.

Historical claims in the voices above come from Josephus, Eusebius and Tacitus by way of the commentators, and are reported at that distance: the Pella flight rests on Eusebius writing in the fourth century, and Cambridge's dates for the siege rest on Lewin's Fasti Sacri. JFB and Cambridge both cite 1 Maccabees for the profanation under Antiochus Epiphanes; 1 Maccabees is not Scripture in the canon this study Bible follows, and no thread above rests on it. Numbers such as Cambridge's casualty figures are Josephus' and are disputed by modern historians.

The largest unresolved interpretive question is what “the abomination of desolation” denotes. This brief contains at least three incompatible answers from named sources (Roman standards: Benson, JFB, Gill; profanation from within by the Zealots: Pulpit; Cambridge listing five options without deciding), and the tool has not chosen among them. Whether 13:19's measurement against the whole creation is literal or is the Hebrew idiom Geneva and JFB take it for is likewise left open. Readings that trace the destruction of Jerusalem to divine retribution for the crucifixion (Chrysostom, reported by Pulpit) are recorded because they shaped the history of interpretation, with an explicit note that they have been used to justify violence against Jewish people and that nothing in Mark 13:14-23 addresses collective guilt; the passage's imperatives are given to disciples about their own flight.

✦ = 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)