Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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Luke 21

1He looked up and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury.

2He saw a certain poor widow casting in two small brass coins.

3He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow put in more than all of them,

4for all these put in gifts for God from their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on.”

5As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said,

6“As for these things which you see, the days will come in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.”

7They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?”

8He said, “Watch out that you don’t get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is at hand.’ Therefore don’t follow them.

9When you hear of wars and disturbances, don’t be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won’t come immediately.”

10Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

11There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

12But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake.

13It will turn out as a testimony for you.

14Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer,

15for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict.

16You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death.

17You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake.

18And not a hair of your head will perish.

19“By your endurance you will win your lives.

20“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.

21Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein.

22For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

23Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath to this people.

24They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

25“There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves;

26men fainting for fear and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

27Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

28But when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.”

29He told them a parable. “See the fig tree and all the trees.

30When they are already budding, you see it and know by your own selves that the summer is already near.

31Even so you also, when you see these things happening, know that God’s Kingdom is near.

32Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things are accomplished.

33Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.

34“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.

35For it will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth.

36Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

37Every day Jesus was teaching in the temple, and every night he would go out and spend the night on the mountain that is called Olivet.

38All the people came early in the morning to him in the temple to hear him.

Early Christian texts and source notes

c. 182–188 (historical edition's dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

2. And the class of oblations in general has not been set aside; for there were both oblations there [among the Jews], and there are oblations here [among the Christians]. Sacrifices there were among the people; sacrifices there are, too, in the church: but the species alone has been changed, inasmuch as the offering is now made, not by slaves, but by freemen. For the Lord is [ever] one and the same; but the character of a servile oblation is peculiar [to itself], as is also that of freemen, in order that, by the very oblations, the indication of liberty may be set forth. For with Him there is nothing purposeless, nor without signification, nor without design. And for this reason they (the Jews) had indeed the tithes of their goods consecrated to Him, but those who have received liberty set aside all their possessions for the Lord's purposes, bestowing joyfully and freely not the less valuable portions of their property, since they have the hope of better things [hereafter]; as that poor widow acted who cast all her living into the treasury of God.

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

c. 182–188 (historical edition's dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

3. And therefore did the Lord say to His disciples, to make us become good workmen: "Take heed to yourselves, and watch continually upon every occasion, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day.shall come upon you unawares; for as a snare shall it come upon all dwelling upon the face of the earth." "Let your loins, therefore, be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding." "For as it was in the days of Noe, they did eat and drink, they bought and sold, they married and were given in marriage, and they knew not, until Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all; as also it was in the days of Lot, they did eat and drink, they bought and sold, they planted and builded, until the time that Lot went out of Sodom; it rained fire from heaven, and destroyed them all: so shall it also be at the coming of the Son of man." "Watch ye therefore, for ye know not in what day your Lord shall come." [In these passages] He declares one and the same Lord, who in the times of Noah brought the deluge because of men's disobedience, and who also in the days of Lot rained fire from heaven because of the multitude of sinners among the Sodomites, and who, on account of this same disobedience and similar sins, will bring on the day of judgment at the end of time (in novissimo); on which day He declares that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that city and house which shall not receive the word of His apostles. "And thou, Capernaum," He said, "is it that thou shalt be exalted to heaven? Thou shalt go down to hell. For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. Verily I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than for you."

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1868 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Luke xxi. 4.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Luke xxi. 34, 35.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Luke xxi. 34.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1871 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Luke xxi. 18.

Editorial footnote · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK TWENTY-SECOND. / ARGUMENT. / 12. Against the calumnies with which unbelievers throw ridicule upon the Christian faith in the resurrection of the flesh. · Original source

Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo

But their way is to feign a scrupulous anxiety in investigating this question, and to cast ridicule on our faith in the resurrection of the body, by asking, Whether abortions shall rise? And as the Lord says, "Verily I say unto you, not a hair of your head shall perish," shall all bodies have an equal stature and strength, or shall there be differences in size? For if there is to be equality, where shall those abortions, supposing that they rise again, get that bulk which they had not here? Or if they shall not rise because they were not born but cast out, they raise the same question about children who have died in childhood, asking us whence they get the stature which we see they had not here; for we will not say that those who have been not only born, but born again, shall not rise again. Then, further, they ask of what size these equal bodies shall be. For if all shall be as tall and large as were the tallest and largest in this world, they ask us how it is that not only children but many full-grown persons shall receive what they here did not possess, if each one is to receive what he had here. And if the saying of the apostle, that we are all to come to the "measure of the age of the fulness of Christ," or that other saying, "Whom He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son," is to be understood to mean that the stature and size of Christ's body shall be the measure of the bodies of all those who shall be in His kingdom, then, say they, the size and height of many must be diminished; and if so much of the bodily frame itself be lost, what becomes of the saying, "Not a hair of your head shall perish?" Besides, it might be asked regarding the hair itself, whether all that the barber has cut off shall be restored? And if it is to be restored, who would not shrink from such deformity? For as the same restoration will be made of what has been pared off the nails, much will be replaced on the body which a regard for its appearance had cut off. And where, then, will be its beauty, which assuredly ought to be much greater in that immortal condition than it could be in this corruptible state? On the other hand, if such things are not restored to the body, they must perish; how, then, they say, shall not a hair of the head perish? In like manner they reason about fatness and leanness; for if all are to be equal, then certainly there shall not be some fat, others lean. Some, therefore, shall gain, others lose something. Consequently there will not be a simple restoration of what formerly existed, but, on the one hand, an addition of what had no existence, and, on the other, a loss of what did before exist.

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK TWENTY-SECOND. / ARGUMENT. / 12. Against the calumnies with which unbelievers throw ridicule upon the Christian faith in the resurrection of the flesh. · Original source

Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo

What, then, are we to say of infants, if not that they will not rise in that diminutive body in which they died, but shall receive by the marvellous and rapid operation of God that body which time by a slower process would have given them? For in the Lord's words, where He says, "Not a hair of your head shall perish," it is asserted that nothing which was possessed shall be wanting; but it is not said that nothing which was not possessed shall be given. To the dead infant there was wanting the perfect stature of its body; for even the perfect infant lacks the perfection of bodily size, being capable of further growth. This perfect stature is, in a sense, so possessed by all that they are conceived and born with it,—that is, they have it potentially, though not yet in actual bulk; just as all the members of the body are potentially in the seed, though, even after the child is born, some of them, the teeth for example, may be wanting. In this seminal principle of every substance, there seems to be, as it were, the beginning of everything which does not yet exist, or rather does not appear, but which in process of time will come into being, or rather into sight. In this, therefore, the child who is to be tall or short is already tall or short. And in the resurrection of the body, we need, for the same reason, fear no bodily loss; for though all should be of equal size, and reach gigantic proportions, lest the men who were largest here should lose anything of their bulk and it should perish, in contradiction to the words of Christ, who said that not a hair of their head should perish, yet why should there lack the means by which that wonderful Worker should make such additions, seeing that He is the Creator, who Himself created all things out of nothing?

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK TWENTY-SECOND. / ARGUMENT. / 14. Whether infants shall rise in that body which they would have had had they grown up. · Original source