Charles Ellicott Commentary Mark 13

One of his disciples.—Note St. Mark’s vivid way of giving the very words of the disciple, instead of saying with St. Matthew that they “came to show” the buildings of the Temple.

Here, again, the juxtaposition of narratives in St. Mark gives them a special point. The “stones” of Herod’s Temple (for it was to him chiefly that it owed its magnificence) were of sculptured marble. The “buildings,” or structures, included columns, chambers, porticos that were, as St. Luke tells us (Luke 21:5), the votive offerings of the faithful.

The disciples gazed on these with the natural admiration of Galilean peasants. In spite of the lesson they had just received—a lesson meant, it may be, to correct the tendency which our Lord discerned—they were still measuring things by their quantity and size. They admired the “goodly stones” more than the “widow’s mite.”

They were now to be taught that, while the one should be spoken of throughout the whole world, the other should be destroyed, so that not a vestige should remain. We cannot say who spoke the words, but it is at least probable that it came from one of the four who are named in Mark 13:3.

Opposite the temple.—The view that the position commanded, and which St. Mark alone mentions, made all that followed more vivid and impressive. It may well have been at or near the very spot where, a few days before, He had paused when He beheld the city and wept over it (Luke 19:41).

Peter and James and John and Andrew.—The list of names is noticeable:

1. as it is given by St. Mark only;
2. as it is the only instance where the name of Andrew appears together with the three who, on other occasions, were within the inner circle of companionship;
3. and in the position given to Andrew (last in the list, despite being the first disciple called (John 1:41)).

When shall these things be?—Note, as, perhaps, characteristic of a Gospel written for Gentiles, the use of the vaguer words for the more definite sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world, in Matthew 24:3.

And Jesus answering them began to say.—The report which follows, common as it is to the first three Gospels, serves as an admirable example of the extent of variation compatible with substantial accuracy, and with the recognition of an inspired guidance as ensuring that accuracy. The discourse obviously made a deep impression on those who heard it, as afterwards on those to whom they repeated it, and so it passed from mouth to mouth, but probably it was not committed to writing until the events which it foretold came within the horizon. On all points common to the three records, see Notes on Matthew 24.

I am Christ.—Literally, I am He. The word 'Christ' is a necessary inference from the context.