Church Fathers Commentary Luke 21:9-11

"And when ye shall hear of wars and tumults, be not terrified: for these things must needs come to pass first; but the end is not immediately. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be great earthquakes, and in divers places famines and pestilences; and there shall be terrors and great signs from heaven." — Luke 21:9-11 (ASV)

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.