Men will always be troubled when disaster strikes, whether the terrible event comes as war or through natural means, such as powerful storms or earthquakes etc. And, such fear and concern are understandable. How can one not be troubled over such things? Yet, when Jesus told his disciples that wars were coming and with them famines and earthquakes, he told them not to be troubled, because such things must come (Mark 13:7-8). What kind of stoic men did Jesus believe his disciples were, that they could be unmoved by such terrible events? Is this what Jesus really meant or had he something else in mind?
First of all, we need to keep in mind that Jesus wasn’t speaking of the end of time, as many assume. He was speaking of the end of the age, and these events he claimed were the birth pains of the new age that was breaking in. Jesus spoke of ending the Old Covenant and the establishment of the New Covenant. He wasn’t, as many claim today, speaking of the destruction of the world (the universe) or the end of time. Rather, Jesus spoke of events that would be fulfilled in the expected lifetimes of his disciples (cp. Matthew 16:27-28; 23:34-36), and wars, earthquakes and famines would occur (Mark 13:7-8), while they preached the Gospel throughout the Empire (Mark 13:10). This is the context, in which those wars and natural disasters need to be understood.
There would be wars and threats of war, one nation against another, one power against an opposing force, and in the clash of military might or the devastation of earthquakes or the trouble surrounding famines, what would become of Jesus’ disciples (cp. 2Corinthians 11:23-28), and who would want to listen to anything they had to say during such troubles? Jesus told his four disciples that they needn’t be troubled over such things, as far as their safety or the preaching of the Gospel was concerned. It would all work out for a testimony to advance the Gospel (cp. Mark 13:9).
We also need to understand Jesus’ words in the context of how the first century AD believers understood them. He wasn’t speaking of World War I or World War II or any such war like those. Some of the things Josephus records of his day were nothing more than skirmishes between the Roman governors and Jewish messiah wannabes. Yet, he mentions them in his account of Wars of the Jews. For example, when Pilate brought Roman ensigns into Jerusalem, this caused an uprising of the Jews. Many threats were made against the Jews, unless they complied with what he had done. It ended peacefully, but it is recorded in the Wars of the Jews, presumably as a ‘threat’ or a ‘talk/rumor’ of war.[1] On another occasion Pilate had his men kill thousands of Jews, when they rose up against his using Temple treasury funds to pay for an aqueduct, he built to bring water to Jerusalem, and this is also recorded by Luke in his Gospel narrative (Luke 13:1-2).[2]
According to John Gill’s Commentary:
“Wars may mean the commotions, insurrections, and seditions, against the Romans, and their governors; and the intestine slaughters committed among them, some time before the siege of Jerusalem, and the destruction of it. Under Cureanus, the Roman governor, a sedition was raised on the day of the Passover, in which twenty thousand perished; after that, in another tumult, ten thousand were destroyed by cut-throats: in Ascalon two thousand more, in Ptolemais two thousand, at Alexandria fifty thousand, at Damascus ten thousand, and elsewhere in great numbers.
Between the time of Jesus’ prophecy and the Jewish rebellion against Rome in 66 AD, the Jews were threatened with war by Caligula, Claudius and Nero, there had been earthquakes in Crete, Rome, Pompeii (destroyed); Phrygia and Campania. The Roman historian, Tacitus, tells us that there were four famines during the reign of Claudius alone,[3] first in Rome, then Judea (both between 41-49 AD), later in Greece (cir. 50 AD) and in Rome once again (cir. 52 AD). He also mentioned great storms and earthquakes, saying “houses were choked with dead and roads with funerals,” men and women, children and aged, salves and freemen, even the military and the governors.[4]
According to the Christian scholar, John Lightfoot, quoting the ancient Jewish rabbis or scholars of the Talmud:
“When you see the kingdoms disturbing one another, then expect the footsteps of the Messiah. …so it was in the days of Abraham; kingdoms disturbed one another, and then came redemption to Abraham.” And elsewhere; “In the first year of that week [of years] that the Son of David is to come, shall that be fulfilled, “I will rain upon one city, but I will not rain upon another, (Amos 4:7). The second year, the arrows of famine shall be sent forth… The seventh year, wars; and in the going out of that seventh year the Son of David shall come.”[5]
This may be the context in which the Jews declared war on the Empire of Rome. Why would they do such a thing? How could they ever have hoped for victory? Well, according to the doctrine the Jews held during the first century AD, which concerned the coming of Messiah, he would come during war, when there seemed to be no hope. Thus, it may very well be, the Jews thought they could bring the Messiah to them by leaping from that high precipice (cp. Matthew 4:6-7), and they would be saved from certain death. Nevertheless, false doctrine proved to be their destruction (cp. John 12:34).
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[1] See Josephus; Wars of the Jews 2.9.2 (169-174).
[2] Josephus; Wars of the Jews 2.9.3 (175-177); Antiquities of the Jews 18.3.2 (60-62).
[3] Predicted by Agabus in Acts 11:28.
[4] See Annals xvi., 10-13
[5] See Lightfoot on Mark 13:7 in The Commentary of the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica.
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