John Calvin Commentary Matthew 24:8

"But all these things are the beginning of travail." — Matthew 24:8 (ASV)

But all these things are the beginnings of sorrows. Not that believers, who always have abundant consolations in calamities, should consume themselves with grief, but that they should prepare for a long exercise of patience. Luke likewise adds earthquakes, and signs from heaven, concerning which, though we have no authentic history of them, yet it is enough that they were predicted by Christ. The reader will find the rest in Josephus, (Wars of the Jews, VI. 5:3).