Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 24:6-8

"And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled: for [these things] must needs come to pass; but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places. But all these things are the beginning of travail." — Matthew 24:6-8 (ASV)

St. Augustine of Hippo: To this inquiry from the disciples, the Lord answers by declaring all things that were to come to pass from that time forward. He speaks of events relating to the destruction of Jerusalem, which had prompted their inquiry; to His coming through the Church, in which He does not cease to come until the end of time (for He is acknowledged as coming among His own as new members are daily born to Him); and to the end itself, when He will appear to judge the living and the dead.¹

When He describes the signs that will accompany these three events, we must carefully consider which signs belong to which events, lest we mistakenly apply to one what belongs to another.

St. John Chrysostom: Here He speaks of the battles that would be fought at Jerusalem when He says, Ye shall hear wars, and rumours of wars.

Origen of Alexandria: To hear the shouts raised in battle is to hear wars; to hear rumours of wars is to hear accounts of wars waged far away.

St. John Chrysostom: And because this might alarm the disciples, He continues, See that ye be not troubled. Since they supposed that the end of the world would immediately follow the war in which Jerusalem would be destroyed, He corrects their suspicions about this, saying, These things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

St. Jerome: That is, do not think that the day of judgment is at hand, but that it is reserved for another time. The sign of this is plainly stated in what follows: For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

Rabanus Maurusⁱ: Alternatively, this is a warning to the Apostles not to flee from Jerusalem and Judea in terror of these things when they began to come upon them. This is because the end was not immediate; the desolation of the province and the destruction of the city and temple would not come until the fortieth year. And we know that the most grievous woes, which spread over the whole province, came to pass to the very letter.

St. John Chrysostom: And to show that He also would fight against the Jews, He tells them not only of wars but also of calamities inflicted by Providence: And there shall be pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes in divers places.

Rabanus Maurus: Nation shall rise against nation shows the restlessness of human minds; pestilences, the affliction of their bodies; famines, the barrenness of the soil; and earthquakes in divers places, wrath from heaven above.

St. John Chrysostom: And these things will not happen according to the natural order previously established among humanity, but will come from the wrath of heaven. Therefore, He did not say only that they would come, or that they would come suddenly, but adds significantly, These all are the beginnings of troubles—that is, of the troubles for the Jewish people.

Origen of Alexandria: Alternatively, just as the body sickens before a person’s death, so it must be that before the consummation of this world, the earth will be shaken with frequent earthquakes, as if paralyzed. The air will acquire a deadly quality and become pestilential, and the vital energy of the soil will fail, causing its fruits to wither. As a consequence of this scarcity, people are stirred up to robbery and war. But because war and strife sometimes arise from greed or the desire for power and empty glory, a yet deeper cause can be assigned to the conflicts that will happen before the end of the world.

For just as Christ's coming brought peace to various nations through His divine power, so on the other hand, it will be that when iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, and God and His Christ will desert them. Wars will arise again when actions that cause them are not hindered by holiness. Hostile powers, when they are not restrained by the saints and by Christ, will work unchecked in human hearts, stirring up nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

But if, as some maintain, famine and pestilence come from the angels of Satan, these will then gather might from opposing powers when the salt of the earth and the light of the world—Christ's disciples—are no longer present, destroying the things that the malice of demons hatches.

Often in Israel, famines and pestilences were caused by sin and were removed by the prayers of the saints.ⁱ

It is well said, In divers places, for God will not destroy the entire human race at once. Instead, by judging them in portions, He gives them an opportunity for repentance.

But if these evils are not stopped at their commencement, they will progress to worse things, as it follows: These all are the beginnings of sorrows. This refers to sorrows common to the whole world and those that are to come upon the wicked, who will be tormented with the sharpest pains.

St. Jerome: Figuratively, kingdom rising against kingdom, the pestilence of discourse that spreads like a plague, the hunger for hearing the word of God, the commotion throughout the earth, and the separation from the true faith can be understood as referring to the heretics. By fighting among themselves, they give victory to the Church.

Origen of Alexandria: This must come to pass before we can see the perfection of the wisdom that is in Christ. But the end we seek will not be yet, for a peaceful end is far from such people.

St. Jerome: These all are the beginnings of sorrows is better understood as the pains of labor—the conception, as it were, of the coming of Antichrist, and not the birth itself.

1. Ep. 199. 25