Some scholars, but certainly not all, want to make the Olivet Prophecy a new thought. That is, they begin the prophecy with the disciples pointing out the great stones of the Temple and how beautiful they are, no doubt because they had just heard Jesus say he wouldn’t return (Matthew 23:37-39). Therefore, as though to ask: “you won’t return to this beautiful and awesome place?” they wanted Jesus to explain why. Some translators even replace the pronoun, he, with Jesus in order to effectually begin a new thought, because how would one begin a new thought with a pronoun? Who is he? Therefore, he must be changed to Jesus. Yet, such an idea doesn’t fit the context. The disciples aren’t admiring the Temple complex, but are rather responding to Jesus’ judgment, where he claimed it would be destroyed: “your House, i.e., your Temple, is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:38). That shocked Jesus’ disciples! Therefore, they wished to point out the greatness of the stones that supported the entire edifice, some weighing over 100 tons. How could they be thrown down?
Mark introduces what we have come to refer to as the Olivet Prophecy by saying: “As he (Jesus) went out of the Temple…” (Mark 13:1; parenthesis mine). Therefore, the disciples couldn’t have been referring to the beauty of the buildings of polished limestone. They had departed the Temple (G2411), and all one could see of it were the stones that made up the wall of its towering structure, i.e., not the building itself, but the entire complex. Matthew even states, “Jesus went out and departed from the Temple…” (Matthew 24:1), which would seem to put both Jesus and his disciples outside the Temple compound. In other words, none of its buildings, whether the Temple itself, the Sanhedrin, the residence of the high priest, none of them could be seen from the disciples’ vantage point. All that was visible was the wall, itself. It was the space of land between the Temple and the Antonia, but just outside the gate of the Temple. It was the place where Paul was brought (Acts 21:26-30) when folks thought he desecrated the Temple. The disciples and Jesus were just outside the Temple complex.
Mark tells us that one of Jesus’ disciples pointed to the greatness of the stones. Since Mark is known to be Peter’s Gospel, contextualized for believers in Rome, that disciple was probably Peter. Yet, even if it wasn’t Peter, the disciple drew Jesus’ attention to what the KJV calls “what manner (G4217) of stones and what buildings (G3619) are here!” What was it that really grabbed this disciple’s attention?
First of all, the disciple referred to what manner of or the quality of the stones that made up the structure. These were truly huge stones, and it would take a company of men using great engineering tools of the time to move even one of them. How could they be thrown down? It boggled his imagination. Secondly, the KJV translates the Greek oikodome (G3619) into the word buildings, but should that be done here? Of its 18 occurrences in the New Covenant text, 12 refer to edifying or edification[1] and six refer to a building, and three of them refer to the Church, the spiritual building or Temple of God (1Corinthians 3:9; 2Corinthians 5:1; Ephesians 2:21), and the remaining three refer to the Temple at Jerusalem (Matthew 24:1; Mark 13:1-2). Edifying refers to building up a person or a group of people. It seems, therefore, the places that refer to building shouldn’t refer to an individual structure per se. Rather the word refers to whatever builds up those structures into what they are, and in the context of the disciples and Jesus leaving the Temple compound, it would refer to the great, magnificent stones that built up the awesome structure that was the Temple complex.
Luke doesn’t say where Jesus and the disciples were, but only describes their interest in its structure. Notice what Luke 21:5 says: “some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly (G2570) stones and gifts (G334).” Once more the disciples are referring to the “stones” of the Temple complex. They are goodly or worthy stones. The same Greek word (G2570) is used by James to describe the name of Christ (James 2:7). They are better stones, in that the same Greek word is used by Paul to say it would be better, if he died than if someone could make void his glorying in that he preached the Gospel for free (1Corinthians 9:15). Moreover, the Greek word that is translated gifts (G334) is not the same word that Luke used only a few verses earlier to say the people put their gifts (G1435) into the chests of the Temple treasury (Luke 21:1). Rather the word in Luke 21:5 is anathema (G334) in the Greek and refers to something that has been dedicated to God. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon describes it as “an offering resulting from a vow,” which more than likely refers to Herod’s vow that described the type of stones he would use to rebuild the Temple.
Nevertheless, Jesus was unmoved by the disciples’ incredulous reaction to his statement that Jerusalem’s House, i.e. her Temple, was left to her desolate (Matthew 23:38). Rather, he simply reiterated his original judgment: “…there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Mark 13:2).
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[1] See: Romans 14:19; 15:2; 1Corinthians 14:3, 5, 12; 14:26 2Corinthians 10:8; 12:19; 13:10; Ephesians 4:12, 16, 29
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