Church Fathers Commentary Luke 21

Glossa Ordinaria: Our Lord, having rebuked the covetousness of the Scribes who devoured widows’ houses, commends the almsgiving of a widow, as it says, And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting into the treasury, etc.

The Venerable Bede: The name gazophylacium has its roots in two languages: in Greek, a word signifies “to keep,” and in Persian, gaza means “riches.” Therefore, a gazophylacium is the name for a place where money is kept. There was a chest with an opening at the top placed near the altar, on the right side for those entering the house of God, into which the priests cast all the money that was given for the Lord's temple. Just as our Lord overthrows those who conduct business in His house, He also observes those who bring gifts, praising the deserving and condemning the wicked. Thus, it says next, And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in there two mites.

St. Cyril of Alexandria: She offered two oboli, which she had earned for her daily living with the sweat of her brow. What she begs for daily from others, she gives to God, showing that her poverty is fruitful for her. Therefore, she surpasses the others and, by a just reward, receives a crown from God. As it continues, Of a truth I say to you, that this poor widow has cast in more, etc.

The Venerable Bede: For whatever we offer with an honest heart is very pleasing to God, who looks at the heart, not the substance. He does not weigh the amount of what is given in sacrifice, but rather the amount from which it is taken, as it continues: For all these have cast in of their abundance, but she all that she had.

St. John Chrysostom: For God did not regard the smallness of the offering, but the overflowing of affection. Almsgiving is not giving a few things out of many, but is like the widow emptying herself of her entire substance. But if you cannot offer as much as the widow, at least give all that you have left over.

The Venerable Bede: Mystically, the rich men who cast their gifts into the treasury signify the Jews, who are puffed up with the righteousness of the law. The poor widow, in contrast, signifies the simplicity of the Church. The Church is called “poor” because it has cast away the spirit of pride, or has cast away its sins as if they were worldly riches. Furthermore, the Church is a widow because her Husband endured death for her.

She cast two mites into the treasury, which signifies that she presents her gifts—whether of love for God and her neighbor, or of faith and prayer—in God’s sight, where all the offerings of our works are kept. These gifts excel all the works of the proud Jews, for they, out of their abundance, cast into the offerings of God while presuming on their own righteousness. The Church, however, casts in all her living, because she believes that everything that has life is a gift from God.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Alternatively, the widow may be taken to mean any soul, as it were, bereaved of her first husband (the ancient law) and not yet worthy to be united with the Word of God. This soul brings to God faith and a good conscience instead of a dowry, and so seems to offer more than those who are rich in words and abound in the moral virtues of the Gentiles.

Eusebius of Caesarea: History informs us how beautiful everything related to the temple's structure was, and enough remains are still preserved to show us what the buildings were once like. But our Lord proclaimed to those who were marveling at the temple's construction that not one stone would be left there upon another. For it was fitting that that place, because of the presumption of its worshipers, should suffer every kind of desolation.

The Venerable Bede: For it was ordained by the providence of God that the city itself and the temple should be overthrown, lest perhaps someone still a child in the faith, while rapt in astonishment at the sacrificial rites, might be carried away by the mere sight of its various beauties.

St. Ambrose of Milan: It was spoken, then, of the temple made with hands: that it would be overthrown. For there is nothing made with hands that age does not impair, or violence throw down, or fire burn. Yet there is also another temple—that is, the synagogue—whose ancient building falls to pieces as the Church rises. There is also a temple in every person, which falls when faith is lacking, and especially when anyone falsely shields himself with the name of Christ in order to rebel against his own conscience.

St. Cyril of Alexandria: Now His disciples did not at all perceive the force of His words, but supposed they were spoken about the end of the world. Therefore, they asked Him, saying, "Master, when will these things be? And what will be the sign?" and so on.

St. Ambrose of Milan: Matthew adds a third question, so that the disciples might inquire about the time of the temple's destruction, the sign of His coming, and the end of the world. But our Lord, when asked when the destruction of the temple would be and what the sign of His coming was, instructs them about the signs but does not choose to inform them about the time. He continues, Take heed that you be not deceived.

St. Athanasius of Alexandria: For since we have received graces and doctrines delivered to us by God that are beyond human capacity—such as the rule for a heavenly life, power against evil spirits, adoption as children, the knowledge of the Father and the Word, and the gift of the Holy Spirit—our adversary the devil goes about seeking to steal from us the seed of the word that has been sown.

But the Lord, securing His teaching within us as His own precious gift, warns us lest we be deceived. He gives us one very great gift, the word of God, so that we may not only avoid being led astray by appearances but also, by the grace of God, discern anything that lies concealed.

For since the devil is the hateful inventor of evil, he conceals who he is and craftily assumes a name that is desirable to all. This is just as if a man, wishing to get another's children into his power, were to counterfeit the parents' appearance in their absence and lead away the children who were longing for them. In every heresy, then, the devil says in disguise, "I am Christ, and the truth is with me." And so it follows, For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draws near.

St. Cyril of Alexandria: For before His descent from heaven, some will come to whom we must not give way. The only-begotten Son of God, when He came to save the world, chose to be hidden so that He might bear the cross for us. But His second coming will not be in secret; it will be awesome and public. For He will descend in the glory of God the Father, with the angels attending Him, to judge the world in righteousness. Therefore He concludes, Go you not therefore after them.

Titus of Bostra: Or perhaps He does not speak of false Christs coming before the end of the world, but of those who existed in the time of the Apostles.

The Venerable Bede: For there were many leaders when the destruction of Jerusalem was at hand who declared themselves to be Christ, and that the time of deliverance was drawing near. Many heresiarchs in the Church have also preached that the day of the Lord is at hand, whom the Apostles condemn. Many Antichrists also came in Christ’s name, of whom the first was Simon Magus, who said, This man is the great power of God.

St. Gregory the Great: God foretells the woes that will precede the destruction of the world, so that they may be less disturbing when they arrive, since they were known beforehand. For foreseen darts strike with less force. And so He says, But when you hear of wars and commotions... Wars refer to the enemy; commotions to citizens. To show us, then, that we will be troubled from within and without, He asserts that we suffer the one from the enemy and the other from our own brethren.

St. Ambrose of Milan: But concerning the heavenly words, there are no greater witnesses than we, upon whom the ends of the world have come. What wars and what rumors of wars we have received!

St. Gregory the Great: But to show that the end will not immediately follow these evils that come first, it is added, These things must first come to pass; but the end is not yet... For the final tribulation is preceded by many tribulations, because many evils must come first, leading up to that evil which has no end.

It follows, Then he said to them, Nation shall rise against nation... For we must necessarily suffer some things from heaven, some from earth, some from the elements, and some from men. Here, then, the confusions of men are signified. It follows, And great earthquakes shall be in various places. This relates to the wrath from above.

St. John Chrysostom: For an earthquake is at one time a sign of wrath, as when our Lord was crucified, the earth shook; but at another time it is a sign of God’s providence, as when the Apostles were praying, the place where they were assembled was moved. It follows, and pestilences.

St. Gregory the Great: Consider the afflictions of our bodies. And famine. Observe the barrenness of the ground. And fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. Behold the variability of the climate, which must be attributed to those storms that do not follow the regular order of the seasons. For things that come in a fixed order are not signs.

For everything we receive for the use of life, we pervert to the service of sin; but all those things that we have bent to a wicked use are turned into the instruments of our punishment.

St. Ambrose of Milan: The ruin of the world, then, is preceded by certain of the world’s calamities, such as famine, pestilence, and persecution.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Now, some have wished to place the fulfillment of these things not only at the future consummation of all things, but also at the time of the capture of Jerusalem. For when the Author of peace was killed, wars and sedition justly arose among the Jews. From wars proceed pestilence and famine: the former produced by the air infected with dead bodies, and the latter from the lands remaining uncultivated.

Josephus also relates that the most intolerable distresses occurred from famine. At the time of Claudius Caesar there was a severe famine, as we read in the Acts, and many terrible events happened which, as Josephus says, foreboded the destruction of Jerusalem.

St. John Chrysostom: But He says that the end of the city will not come immediately—that is, the capture of Jerusalem—but that there will be many battles first.

The Venerable Bede: The Apostles are also exhorted not to be alarmed by these forerunners, nor to desert Jerusalem and Judea. But the rising of kingdom against kingdom, the pestilence of those whose word spreads like cancer, the famine of hearing the word of God, the shaking of the whole earth, and the separation from the true faith—these can also be explained in relation to heretics, who, by contending with one another, bring victory to the Church.

St. Ambrose of Milan: There are also other wars that the Christian wages: the struggles of different lusts and the conflicts of the will. And these domestic foes are far more dangerous than any foreign ones.

St. Gregory the Great: Because the things that have been prophesied do not arise from the injustice of the one who inflicts them, but from the deserts of the world that suffers them, the deeds of wicked men are foretold. As it is said, But before all these things, they shall lay their hands on you.

It is as if to say: First the hearts of men, and afterward the elements, will be disturbed, so that when the order of things is thrown into confusion, it may be clear from what retribution it arises. For although the end of the world depends on its own appointed course, yet, finding some more corrupt than others who will rightly be overwhelmed in its fall, our Lord makes them known.

St. Cyril of Alexandria: Or He says this because before Jerusalem was taken by the Romans, the disciples, after suffering persecution from the Jews, were imprisoned and brought before rulers. Paul was sent to Rome to Caesar and stood before Festus and Agrippa.

It follows, And it shall turn to you for a testimony. In the Greek, this means for the glory of martyrdom.

St. Gregory the Great: Or, it is for a testimony against those who, by persecuting you, bring death upon themselves. It is also a testimony against those who, while living, do not imitate you, or who become hardened and perish without excuse. From these, the elect take an example so that they may live.

But because the hearts of men may be troubled from hearing so many terrible things, He therefore adds for their consolation, Settle it therefore in your hearts...

Theophylact of Ohrid: Because they were foolish and inexperienced, the Lord tells them this so that they would not be confounded when they had to give an account to the wise. And He adds the reason: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist.

It is as if He said: You will immediately receive from me eloquence and wisdom, so that all your adversaries, if they were gathered together as one, will not be able to resist you—either in wisdom, that is, the power of the understanding, or in eloquence, that is, excellence of speech. For many people have wisdom in their minds, but being easily provoked to their great disturbance, they ruin everything when their time to speak comes. But the Apostles were not like that, for they were highly favored in both these gifts.

St. Gregory the Great: It is as if the Lord said to His disciples, “Do not be afraid; go forward to the battle. It is I who fight; you utter the words, but I am the one who speaks.”

St. Ambrose of Milan: Now in one place Christ speaks in His disciples, as here; in another, the Father speaks; and in another, the Spirit of the Father speaks. These do not differ but agree. When one speaks, all three speak, for the voice of the Trinity is one.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Having previously dispelled the fear of inexperience, He goes on to warn them of another certain event that might agitate their minds, so that it would not dismay them by falling upon them suddenly. For it follows, And you shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.

St. Gregory the Great: We are all the more galled by the persecutions we suffer from those whose dispositions we felt sure of, because along with the bodily pain, we are tormented by the bitter pangs of lost affection.

Gregory of Nyssa: But let us consider the state of things at that time. While all people were suspected, kinsfolk were divided against one another, each differing from the other in religion. The gentile son stood up as the betrayer of his believing parents, and the unbelieving father became the determined accuser of his believing son. No age was spared in the persecution of the faith; women were not even protected by the natural weakness of their sex.

Theophylact of Ohrid: To all this He adds the hatred that they will meet with from men.

St. Gregory the Great: But because of the hard things foretold concerning the affliction of death, a consolation concerning the joy of the resurrection immediately follows, when it is said, But there shall not a hair of your head perish. It is as though He said to the martyrs: Why do you fear for the perishing of that which, when cut, causes pain, when that which is in you cannot perish and, when cut off, gives no pain?

The Venerable Bede: Or else, not a hair of the head of our Lord’s Apostles will perish, because not only the noble deeds and words of the saints, but even their slightest thought will meet with its deserving reward.

St. Gregory the Great: He who preserves patience in adversity is thereby made proof against all affliction, and so by conquering himself, he gains mastery over himself. As it follows, In your patience possess you your souls. For what is it to possess your souls, but to live perfectly in all things and, sitting as it were upon the citadel of virtue, to hold in subjection every motion of the mind?

By patience, then, we possess our souls, because when we learn to govern ourselves, we begin to possess the very thing that we are. For this reason, the possession of the soul is founded on the virtue of patience, because patience is the root and guardian of all virtues. It teaches us to bear the evils inflicted by others and also to have no feeling of indignation against the one who inflicts them.

The Venerable Bede: Until now our Lord had been speaking of those things that were to happen for forty years, but the end was not yet. He now describes the very end of the desolation, which was accomplished by the Roman army, as it is said, And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed, etc.

Eusebius of Caesarea: By the desolation of Jerusalem, He means that it would never be rebuilt or its religious laws re-established, so that no one should expect any restoration to take place after the coming siege and desolation, as had happened in the time of the Persian king, Antiochus the Great, and Pompey.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Luke has related these words of our Lord here to show that the abomination of desolation, which was prophesied by Daniel and which Matthew and Mark had spoken of, was fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem.

St. Ambrose of Milan: For the Jews thought that the abomination of desolation took place when the Romans, mocking a Jewish observance, threw a pig’s head into the temple.

Eusebius of Caesarea: Now our Lord, foreseeing that there would be a famine in the city, warned His disciples that in the coming siege they should not retreat to the city as a place of refuge and under God’s protection, but rather to depart from there and flee to the mountains.

The Venerable Bede: Church history relates that all the Christians who were in Judea, when the destruction of Jerusalem was approaching, were warned by the Lord, departed from that place, and lived beyond the Jordan in a city called Pella, until the desolation of Judea was over.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Before this, Matthew and Mark said, And let him that is on the housetop not come down into his house; and Mark added, neither enter therein to take any thing out of his house. Instead of this, Luke adds, And let them which are in the midst of it depart out.

The Venerable Bede: But how, while the city was already surrounded by an army, were they to depart? Except that the preceding word “then” must be referred not to the actual time of the siege, but to the period just before it, when the armed soldiers first began to spread out through the regions of Galilee and Samaria.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But where Matthew and Mark have written, Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes, Luke adds more clearly, And let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto, for these be the days of vengeance, that all the things which are written may be fulfilled.

The Venerable Bede: And these are the days of vengeance; that is, the days demanding vengeance for our Lord’s blood.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Then Luke follows with words similar to those of the other two: But woe to them that are with child, and them that give suck in those days. In this way, he has made clear what might otherwise have been doubtful: namely, that what was said about the abomination of desolation pertained not to the end of the world, but to the capture of Jerusalem.

The Venerable Bede: He says then, Woe to them that nurse, or give suck, as some interpret it, whose wombs or arms, now heavy with the burden of children, create a significant obstacle to a speedy escape.

Theophylact of Ohrid: But some say that the Lord by this signified the devouring of children, which Josephus also relates.

St. John Chrysostom: He next gives the reason for what he had just said: For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. For the miseries that befell them were such that, in the words of Josephus, no future calamity can compare to them.

Eusebius of Caesarea: For this is truly what happened: when the Romans came and were taking the city, great multitudes of the Jewish people perished by the edge of the sword, as it follows, And they shall fall by the edge of the sword. But even more were cut off by famine.

These things happened first under Titus and Vespasian, and later in the time of Hadrian, the Roman general, when the Jews were forbidden from entering the land of their birth. Thus it follows, And they shall be led away captive into all nations. For the Jews filled the whole world, reaching even to the ends of the earth, and while their own land was inhabited by foreigners, they alone could not enter it. As it follows, And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

The Venerable Bede: The Apostle indeed mentions this when he says, Blindness in part is happened to Israel, and so all Israel shall be saved. When Israel has gained the promised salvation, it does not rashly hope to return to the land of its fathers.

St. Ambrose of Milan: Mystically, the abomination of desolation is the coming of the Antichrist, for with ill-omened sacrilege he pollutes the innermost recesses of the heart, sitting literally in the temple so that he may claim for himself the throne of divine power. According to the spiritual meaning, he is fittingly introduced because he desires to impress the footprint of his unbelief firmly upon people's affections by arguing from the Scriptures that he is the Christ.

Then desolation will come, for very many will fall away and depart from the true religion. Then will be the day of the Lord. For just as His first coming was to redeem us from sin, so also His second will be to subdue iniquity, so that no more people will be carried away by the error of unbelief.

There is also another Antichrist—the Devil—who tries to besiege Jerusalem (that is, the peaceful soul) with the armies of his law. When the Devil is in the midst of the temple, then there is the desolation of abomination. But when the spiritual presence of Christ has shone upon anyone in trouble, the unjust one is cast out, and righteousness begins her reign.

There is also a third Antichrist, such as Arius and Sabellius and all who lead us astray with evil purpose. These are the ones who are "with child," to whom woe is proclaimed. They enlarge the size of their flesh, and the pace of their inmost soul grows slow, like those who are worn out in virtue and pregnant with vice. Nor do those "with child" escape condemnation who, though firm in their resolution to do good works, have not yet produced any fruit from the work they have undertaken.

These are those who conceive from the fear of God but do not all bring forth. For there are some who bring forth the word stillborn before its delivery. There are others, too, who have Christ in the womb but have not yet formed Him. Therefore, she who brings forth righteousness brings forth Christ.

Let us also hasten to nourish our children, lest the day of judgment or death find us, so to speak, as parents of an imperfect offspring. You will do this if you keep all the words of righteousness in your heart and do not wait for old age, but in your earliest years, without the corruption of your body, quickly conceive wisdom and quickly nourish it.

But in the end, all Judea will be made subject to the nations that will believe, by the mouth of the spiritual sword, which is the two-edged word.