Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 24:29-30

"But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." — Matthew 24:29-30 (ASV)

Glossa Ordinaria: As soon as the Lord has fortified believers against the schemes of the Antichrist and his ministers by showing that His coming would be public, He proceeds to show the order and method of His coming.¹

St. John Chrysostom: By "the tribulation," He means the times of the Antichrist and the false prophets, for when there are so many deceivers, the tribulation will be great. But it will not extend for a great length of time. For if the Jewish war was shortened for the sake of the elect, much more will this tribulation be shortened for their sake. For this reason, He did not say "After," but "Immediately after," for He will come immediately after.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The darkening of the sun, the failing of the moon, and the fall of the stars indicate the glories of His coming.

Origen of Alexandria: One might say that just as great darkness is caused by smoke at the start of large fires, so when the world is consumed by the fire that will be kindled, even the great luminaries will be darkened. And when the light of the stars has decayed, the rest of their substance, unable to be lifted up, will fall from heaven back to what it was when it was first raised high by the light.

When this has taken place, it follows that the rational heavenly powers will suffer dismay and disorder and will be suspended from their functions. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven—that sign by which the heavenly things were made, that is, the power the Son worked when He hung upon the cross. And the sign will appear in heaven, so that people of all tribes who had not previously believed Christianity when it was preached will then, by that sign, acknowledge it as made plain and will grieve and mourn for their ignorance and sins.

Others will think differently: that as the light of a lamp dies away by degrees, so when the supply for the heavenly luminaries fails, the sun will be darkened, the moon and the light of the stars will grow dim, and whatever in their composition is earthly will fall from heaven. But how can it be said of the sun that its light will be darkened, when Isaiah the Prophet declares that in the end of the world, there will be light proceeding from the sun? (Isaiah 30:26)

And of the moon he declares that it will be like the sun. But concerning the stars, some try to convince us that all, or many of them, are larger than the whole earth. How then can they fall from heaven, when this earth would not be large enough to contain them?

St. Jerome: These things, therefore, will not happen because of any decrease in light, for in another place we read that the light of the sun will be sevenfold. Instead, by comparison with the true light, all other things will seem dim.

Rabanus Maurus: But nothing prevents us from supposing that the sun, moon, and other stars will for a time lose their light, as we know the sun did at the time of the Lord's passion. As Joel also says, The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon blood, before the great and manifest day of the Lord come. (Joel 2:31)

But when the day of judgment has passed, the life of future glory has dawned, and there is a new heaven and a new earth, then what Isaiah speaks of will come to pass: The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold. (Isaiah 30:26). The stars shall fall from heaven is expressed in Mark as, There shall be stars falling from heaven (Mark 13:25), that is, lacking their own light.

St. Jerome: By "the powers of heaven," we understand the bands of angels.

St. John Chrysostom: Very fittingly they will be shaken and dismayed, seeing such a mighty change being worked, their fellow servants punished, and the universe standing before a terrible tribunal.

Origen of Alexandria: But just as, in the economy of the Cross, the sun was eclipsed and darkness spread over the earth, so when the sign of the Son of Man appears in heaven, the light of the sun, moon, and stars will fail, as if waning before the power of that sign. We understand this to be the sign of the cross, so that the Jews may see, as Zechariah and John say, him whom they have pierced (Zechariah 12:10; John 19:37), which is the sign of victory.

St. John Chrysostom: But because the sun will be darkened, the cross would not be seen if it were not far brighter than the rays of the sun. So that the disciples would not be ashamed and grieve over the cross, He speaks of it as a sign, with a kind of distinction. The sign of the cross will appear to overthrow the shamelessness of the Jews when Christ appears in the judgment, showing not only His wounds but also His most ignominious death. And then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn. For when they see the cross, they will realize that they have gained nothing by His death and that they have crucified Him whom they ought to have worshipped.

St. Jerome: He rightly says, "the tribes of the earth," for those will mourn who have no citizenship in heaven but are written in the earth (Jeremiah 17:13).

Origen of Alexandria: Morally, one may say that the sun that will be darkened is the Devil, who will be convicted at the end of the world of having pretended to be the sun, whereas he is darkness. The moon, which seems to receive its light from this sun, is the church of the wicked, which professes to have and to give light but, when convicted of its sinful dogmas, will lose its brightness. And all those who, either by false teaching or false virtues, promised truth to people but led them astray with lies—these are fittingly called stars falling from, so to speak, their own heaven, where they were raised on high, exalting themselves against the knowledge of God.

To illustrate this discourse, we can apply the passage in Proverbs that says, The light of the just is unquenchable, but the light of the wicked shall be quenched. (Proverbs 4:18). Then the brightness of God will appear in everyone who has borne the image of the heavenly. Those of heaven will rejoice, but those of earth will lament.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Alternatively, the Church is the sun, moon, and stars, to which it is said, Fair as the moon, bright as the sun. (Song of Songs 6:10). Then shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, because in that ungoverned fury of wicked persecutors, the Church will not be seen.²

Then shall the stars fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken, because many who seemed to be shining in God's grace will give way to their persecutors and will fall, and even the strongest believers will be shaken. And these things will be "after the tribulation of those days," not because they will happen when the whole persecution is past, but because the tribulation will be first, so that the falling away may come after. And because it will be so throughout all those days, it is "after the tribulation of those days," yet on those very days.

St. John Chrysostom: He adds this so that, having heard of the cross, they should not now imagine a similar degradation.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The first and most apparent meaning of this concerns the time when He will come to judge the quick and the dead in His body—that body in which He sits at the right hand of the Father, in which He died, rose again, and ascended into heaven. As we read in the Acts of the Apostles, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight (Acts 1:9). Upon which it was said by the angels, He shall so come as ye have seen Him go into heaven. We may reasonably believe that He will come again, not only in the same body, but also in a cloud.³

Origen of Alexandria: Therefore, they will see with their bodily eyes the Son of Man coming in human shape, in the clouds of heaven, that is, on high. Just as at the transfiguration a voice came out of the cloud, so when He comes again transformed into His glorious appearance, it will not be on one cloud, but upon many, which will be His chariot. And if, when the Son of God went up to Jerusalem, those who loved Him spread their garments in the way, not willing that even the donkey that carried Him should tread upon the earth, what wonder is it if the Father and God of all should spread the clouds of heaven under the body of the Son when He comes to the work of the consummation?

And one might say that just as in the creation of man God took clay from the earth and made man, so to manifest the glory of Christ, the Lord took from heaven and its substance, and gave it a body of a bright cloud in the Transfiguration, and of bright clouds at the Consummation. This is why it is said here, in the clouds of heaven, as it was said there, of the clay of the ground. (Genesis 2:7)

And it is fitting for the Father to give all such admirable gifts to the Son, because He humbled Himself. And He has also exalted Him, not only spiritually but bodily, so that He should come upon such clouds—and perhaps upon rational clouds, so that even the chariot of the glorified Son of Man should not be irrational.

At first, Jesus came with the power by which He worked signs and wonders among the people. Yet that power was small in comparison to the great power with which He will come in the end, for that was the power of one emptying Himself of power. Also, it is fitting that He should be transformed into greater glory than at the transfiguration on the mount. For then He was transfigured for the sake of only three, but in the consummation of the whole world, He will appear in great glory, so that all may see Him in glory.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But because the Scriptures are to be searched, and we are not to be content with their surface, let us look closely at what follows: When ye see all these things come to pass, know that he is near even at the door. We know then that He is near when we see not just some of the foregoing things come to pass, but all of them, among which is this: that the Son of Man will be seen coming. And he shall send his Angels, who from the four quarters of the world will gather together His elect.

All these things He does at "the last hour" (1 John 2:18), coming in His members as in clouds, or in the whole Church as in one great cloud, just as He does not cease to come now. And "with great power and glory," because His power and glory will seem greater in the saints to whom He will give great power, so that they may not be overcome by persecution.

Origen of Alexandria: Alternatively, He comes every day "with great power" to the mind of the believer in the clouds of prophecy—that is, in the Scriptures of the Prophets and the Apostles, who utter the word of God with a meaning that transcends human nature.

We also say that to those who understand, He comes with "great glory," and that this is seen more in the second coming of the Word, which is for the perfect. And so it may be that all that the three Evangelists have said concerning Christ's coming, if carefully compared and thoroughly examined, would be found to apply to His continual, daily coming in His body, which is the Church. Of this coming He said in another place, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:6), except for those places in which He promises His final coming in His own person.

1. non occ.
2. Ep. 199, 39
3. Ep. 199, 41