Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 13:4

"Tell us, when shall these things be? and what [shall be] the sign when these things are all about to be accomplished?" — Mark 13:4 (ASV)

Between v.2 and v.3 the location shifts. Jesus was now on the Mount of Olives. With him were the four disciples who had been the first to be called by him (cf. 1:16–20). From the top of the Mount they could clearly see the Kidron Valley running below the eastern wall of the city, and especially the temple mount.

The question the four disciples asked Jesus privately not only goes back to his statement made as they were leaving the temple area (cf. v.2) but actually expands it. The disciples wanted to know when the things Jesus predicted would take place. But they also wanted to know what the sign would be that the predicted events were “all about to be fulfilled.” The disciples thought that the destruction of the temple would come at the end of the age (cf. Matthew 24:3). Thus they wanted a sign, some sure way by which they might know that the destruction of the temple was about to occur and that the end of the age was approaching. But Jesus refused to give them eschatological signs. Throughout his discourse he was more concerned to prepare them by exhortation and warning for the trials that lay ahead than to give them dates and signs.