Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 24:15-22

"When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let him that readeth understand), then let them that are in Judaea flee unto the mountains: let him that is on the housetop not go down to take out things that are in his house: and let him that is in the field not return back to take his cloak. But woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days! And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a sabbath: for then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but for the elect`s sake those days shall be shortened." — Matthew 24:15-22 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: Just as He had previously hinted obscurely at the end of Jerusalem, He now gives a more direct announcement of it, citing a prophecy that would cause them to believe it.

St. Jerome: The phrase, Let the reader understand, is meant to call us to a mystical understanding of the passage. What we read in Daniel is this: And in the midst of the week the sacrifice and the offering will be taken away, and in the temple will be the abomination of desolations until the end of time, and a final end will be brought upon the desolate (Daniel 9:27, Septuagint).

St. Augustine of Hippo: Luke, in order to show that the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel referred to the time of the siege of Jerusalem, repeats these words of our Lord: When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near (Luke 21:20).¹

Pseudo-Chrysostom: For this reason, I think that by the abomination of desolation, He means the army by which the holy city of Jerusalem was desolated.

St. Jerome: Alternatively, it may be understood as referring to the statue of Caesar, which Pilate set up in the temple, or of the equestrian statue of Hadrian, which stood until the present time in the very Holy of Holies. For, according to the Old Testament, an idol is called an “abomination.” The phrase “of desolation” is added because the idol was set up in the desolated and deserted temple.

St. John Chrysostom: Or it is called this because the one who desolated the city and the temple placed his statue there. He says, When you see, because these things were to happen while some of them were still alive. In this, we should admire Christ's power and the courage of the disciples, who preached throughout those times when everything Jewish was under attack.

The Apostles, being Jews, introduced new laws in opposition to Roman authority. The Romans conquered countless thousands of Jews but could not overcome twelve unarmed, unprotected men.ⁱ

But because the Jews had often recovered from very desperate circumstances, as in the times of Sennacherib and Antiochus, He commanded His disciples to flee so that no one would expect such an event now, saying, Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Remigius of Auxerre: And we know this was done when the fall of Jerusalem drew near. For on the approach of the Roman army, all the Christians in the province—warned miraculously from heaven, as church history tells us—withdrew, crossed the Jordan, and went to...ⁱ

St. John Chrysostom: Then, to show how inevitable the evils that would come upon the Jews were, and how immense their calamity was, He adds, And let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. For it was better to be saved and lose one’s possessions than to retrieve a garment and perish. He says the same of the one who is in the field, for if those in the city are fleeing from it, there is little need for those outside to return to it.

It is easy to despise money, and not hard to find other clothing, but how can one avoid the constraints of nature? How can a pregnant woman be quick enough to flee, or how can a nursing mother abandon the child she has brought forth?

Therefore, Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing in those days. To the first, this is because they are burdened and cannot flee easily, carrying the weight of the womb. To the second, it is because they are held back by compassion for their children and cannot save the infants they are nursing along with themselves.

Origen of Alexandria: Or it is because that will not be a time for showing pity, neither to those who are pregnant, nor to those who are nursing, nor to their infants. And, speaking to Jews who thought they could not travel more than a Sabbath day's journey on the Sabbath, He adds, But pray that your flight is not in the winter or on the Sabbath.

St. Jerome: This is because in the first case, the severe cold prevents you from fleeing to the deserts and hiding in mountains and wilds. In the second, you must either transgress the Law if you wish to flee, or face instant death if you stay.

St. John Chrysostom: Note how this speech is directed against the Jews. For when these things were done by Vespasian, the Apostles could neither observe the Sabbath nor flee, since most of them were already dead, and those who survived were living in distant countries. And He adds a reason why they should pray for this: For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever will be.

St. Augustine of Hippo: In Luke, it is read this way: There will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all nations (Luke 21:23).²

And so Josephus,ⁱ who wrote the Jewish History, relates evils so great happening to this people that they seem hardly credible. For this reason, it was not said unreasonably that such tribulation had never been from the beginning of creation, nor ever will be. For although there will be such, or perhaps greater, tribulation in the time of the Antichrist, yet for the Jews—to whom we must understand this refers—such a thing will never happen again. For if they are the first and foremost to receive the Antichrist, they will then inflict tribulation rather than suffer it.

St. John Chrysostom: I ask the Jews: from where did such grievous wrath from heaven come upon them, more woeful than all that had come upon them before? Plainly, it was because of the desperate crime [τολμημα] and the denial of the Cross. But He shows that they deserved an even heavier punishment than they received when He adds, And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. This means that if the siege by the Romans were to continue longer, all the Jews would perish. For by “all flesh,” He means the entire Jewish nation, those inside and those outside Judea, for the Romans were at war not only with those in Judea but with the whole race wherever they were dispersed.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Indeed, it seems to me that some people not inappropriately understand “these days” to mean the evils themselves, just as “evil days” are spoken of in other places in divine Scripture—not that the days themselves are evil, but the things that are done on them. They are said to be shortened because they are felt less, as God gives us endurance, so that even though they are grievous, they feel short.

St. John Chrysostom: But so that the Jews would not say that these evils came because of the preaching and the disciples of Christ, He shows them that if it had not been for His disciples, they would have perished completely. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.

St. Augustine of Hippo: For we should not doubt that when Jerusalem was overthrown, there were among that people God's elect who had believed from among the circumcised, or who would come to believe. They were elect before the foundation of the world, and for their sake those days would be shortened and their evils made endurable.

There are some who suppose that the days will be shortened by a more rapid motion of the sun, just as the day was made longer at the prayer of Joshua. [?]

St. Jerome: They do not remember what is written: The day continues according to your ordinances (Psalm 119:91). We must understand this to mean the days are shortened not in duration, but in number, so that the faith of believers is not shaken by prolonged affliction.

St. Augustine of Hippo: For let us not suppose that the computation of Daniel's weeks was interfered with by this shortening of the days. We should not think they were not already complete at that time, but had to be completed later at the end of all things. For Luke testifies most plainly that Daniel's prophecy was fulfilled at the time Jerusalem was overthrown.

St. John Chrysostom: Observe the wisdom of the Holy Spirit in this: John wrote nothing about all this, so that he would not seem to be writing a history after the event, for he lived for some time after the capture of Jerusalem. But those who died before it and saw none of it—they are the ones who write about it, so that the power of prophecy might shine forth clearly.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Alternatively, the Lord gives a sign of His future coming when He says, When you see the abomination. For the Prophet spoke this about the times of the Antichrist, and he calls “abomination” that which comes against God and claims for itself the honor of God. It is “the abomination of desolation” because it will desolate the earth with wars and slaughter.

It is accepted by the Jews and set up in the holy place, so that where God had been invoked by the prayers of the saints, in that very same place—accepted by unbelievers—it might be adored with the worship due to God. And because this error will be unique to the Jews—that having rejected the truth, they would adopt a lie—He warns them to leave Judea and flee to the mountains, so that no pollution or infection might be gathered by mixing with a people who would believe in the Antichrist.

What He says, Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, is understood this way: The roof is the highest part of the house, the summit and perfection of the whole building. Therefore, the one who stands on the top of his house—that is, in the perfection of his heart, lifted up in the regeneration of a new spirit—ought not to come down to the lower desire for worldly things.

Neither let him who is in the field return back to take his coat; that is, one who has attained obedience to the command should not return to his former cares, to take upon himself again the coat of his former sins in which he was once clothed.

St. Augustine of Hippo: For in tribulations, we must beware of coming down from spiritual heights and yielding to the carnal life, or of failing and looking back after we have made some forward progress.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: What is said, Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing, is not to be taken literally as a warning to pregnant women. Rather, it is a description of souls burdened with the weight of sin, who can escape the storm of wrath that is in store for them neither in the house nor in the field.

Woe also to those who are being nursed—that is, the weak souls who are being brought to the knowledge of God as if by milk. It will be woe to them because they are too burdened to flee and too inexperienced to resist the Antichrist, having neither escaped sin nor partaken of the food of true bread.

Pseudo-Augustine: Or, “Those who are pregnant” are those who covet what belongs to others; “those who are nursing” are those who have already forcibly taken what they coveted. To them there will be “woe” on the day of judgment. Pray that your flight is not in the winter or on the Sabbath day; that is, ³

St. Augustine of Hippo: that no one be found on that day in either joy or sorrow for temporal things.⁴

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, that we not be caught in the frost of sins or in the ceasing of good works because of the severity of the affliction. Nevertheless, for the sake of God's elect, those days will be shortened, so that the reduction of the time may lessen the force of the calamities.

Origen of Alexandria: Mystically, in the holy place of the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, the Antichrist—that is, the false word—has often stood. Let those who see this flee from the Judea of the letter to the high mountains of truth. Whoever has gone up to the housetop of the word and is standing on its summit, let him not come down from there as if to fetch anything out of his house.

And if he is in the field where the treasure is hidden and returns from there to his house, he will run into the temptation of a false word. This is especially true if he has stripped off his old garment—that is, the old man—and has returned to take it up again.

Then the soul, as if pregnant with the word but not yet having given birth, is subject to woe, for it miscarries what it had conceived and loses the hope that is in the acts of truth. The same is true if the word has been brought forth perfect and whole, but has not yet attained sufficient growth.

Let those who flee to the mountains pray that their flight is not in the winter or on the Sabbath day. For in the serenity of a settled spirit they can reach the way of salvation, but if winter overtakes them, they fall among those from whom they would flee. And there are some who rest from evil works but do not do good works. Therefore, let your flight not be on such a Sabbath when a person rests from good works, for no one is easily overcome in times of peril from false doctrines unless he is lacking in good works.

But what sorer affliction is there than to see our brothers deceived and to feel oneself shaken and terrified? Those “days” mean the precepts and dogmas of truth, and all interpretations coming from science falsely so called (1 Timothy 6:20) are additions to those days, which God shortens by means of those whom He wills.

1. Ep. 199, 31
2. Ep. 199. 30
3. Serm. App. 75, 2
4. Quaest. Ev., I, 37