Luke 21:22 Study Archive
For these be the day of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
For these be the day of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
R.T. France (2000)
“Jesus’ belief that part of his work as predicted in the Old Testament was to be judgment is summed up in his words concerning the coming destruction of Jerusalem, ‘These are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written’ (Luke 21:22). The Old Testament contains many threats of judgment on God’s rebellious people, and especially on Jerusalem, and now, with the coming of Jesus, the day of vengeance has arrived.
In the words of Luke 21:22 the primary reference is probably not so much to unfulfilled predictions in the Old Testament as to those great judgments both predicted and accomplished on Israel and other nations, which Jesus saw as types of the coming judgment on Jerusalem. But there are at least two predictions of judgment which Jesus applied to the fall of Jerusalem, which their context shows to have been intended to refer not to a specific historical event, but to an eschatological judgment. In using these predictions Jesus implies that the coming disaster will not only be like, or even greater than, those which occurred in Old Testament times ; it will be the final judgment on the Jewish nation, that decisive act of God which will put an end to the present order, and usher in a new era of blessing for the new people of God.” (Jesus and the Old Testament: His Application of Old Testament Passages, p. 89)
J,F&B
(context) “20, 21. by armies–encamped armies, that is, besieged: “the abomination of desolation” (meaning the Roman ensigns, as the symbols of an idolatrous, pagan, unclean power) “spoken of by Daniel the prophet” (Daniel 9:27) “standing where it ought not” (Mark 13:14). “Whoso readeth [that prophecy] let him understand” (Matthew 24:15).
Then . . . flee, &c.–EUSEBIUS says the Christians fled to Pella, at the north extremity of Perea, being “prophetically directed”; perhaps by some prophetic intimation still more explicit than this, which still would be their chart.”
Matthew Henry
“III. He foretels the terrible havoc that should be made of the Jewish nation (v. 22): Those are the days of vengeance so often spoken of by the Old-Testament prophets, which would complete the ruin of that provoking people. All their predictions must now be fulfilled, and the blood of all the Old-Testament martyrs must now be required. All things that are written must be fulfilled at length. After days of patience long abused, there will come days of vengeance; for reprieves are not pardons. The greatness of that destruction is set forth, 1. By the inflicting cause of it. It is wrath upon this people, the wrath of God, that will kindle this devouring consuming fire. 2. By the particular terror it would be to women with child, and poor mothers that are nurses. Woe to them, not only because they are most subject to frights, and least able to shift for their own safety, but because it will be a very great torment to them to think of having borne and nursed children for the murderers. 3. By the general confusion that should be all the nation over. There shall be great distress in the land, for men will not know what course to take, nor how to help themselves. IV. He describes the issue of the struggles between the Jews and the Romans, and what they will come to at last; in short, 1. Multitudes of them shall fall by the edge of the sword. It is computed that in those wars of the Jews there fell by the sword above eleven hundred thousand. And the siege of Jerusalem was, in effect, a military execution. 2. The rest shall be led away captive; not into one nations, as when they were conquered by the Chaldeans, which gave them an opportunity of keeping together, but into all nations, which made it impossible for them to correspond with each other, much less to incorporate. 3. Jerusalem itself was trodden down of the Gentiles. The Romans, when they had made themselves masters of it, laid it quite waste, as a rebellious and bad city, hurtful to kings and provinces, and therefore hateful to them. V. He describes the great frights that people should generally be in. Many frightful sights shall be in the sun, moon, and stars, prodigies in the heavens, and here in this lower world, the sea and the waves roaring,with terrible storms and tempests, such as had not been known, and above the ordinary working of natural causes. The effect of this shall be universal confusion and consternation upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity, v. 25. Dr. Hammond understands by the nationsthe several governments or tetrarchies of the Jewish nation, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee; these shall be brought to the last extremity. Men’s hearts shall fail them for fear (v. 26), apopsychonton anthropon — men being quite exanimated, dispirited, unsouled, dying away for fear. Thus those are killed all the day long by whom Christ’s apostles were so (Rom. 8:36), that is, they are all the day long in fear of being killed; sinking under that which lies upon them, and yet still trembling for fear of worse, and looking after those things which are coming upon the world. When judgment begins at the house of God, it will not end there; it shall be as if all the world were falling in pieces; and where can any be secure then? The powers of heaven shall be shaken, and then the pillars of the earth cannot but tremble. Thus shall the present Jewish policy, religion, laws, and government, be all entirely dissolved by a series of unparalleled calamities, attended with the utmost confusion. So Dr. Clarke. But our Saviour makes use of these figurative expressions because at the end of time they shall be literally accomplished, when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their powers not only shaken, but broken, and the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up, 2. Pet. 3:10, 12. As that day was all terror and destruction to the unbelieving Jews, so the great day will be to all unbelievers. VI. He makes this to be a kind of appearing of the Son of man: Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory, v. 27. The destruction of Jerusalem was in a particular manner an act of Christ’s judgment, the judgment committed to the Son of man; his religion could never be thoroughly established but by the destruction of the temple, and the abolishing of the Levitical priesthood and economy, after which even the converted Jews, and many of the Gentiles too, were still hankering, till they were destroyed; so that it might justly be looked upon as a coming of the Son of man, in power and great glory, yet not visibly, but in the clouds; for in executing such judgments as these clouds and darkness are round about him. Now this was, 1. An evidenceof the first coming of the Messiah; so some understand it. Then the unbelieving Jews shall be confined, when it is too late, that Jesus was the Messiah; those that would not see him coming in the power of his grace to save them shall be made to see him coming in the power of his wrath to destroy them; those that would not have him to reign over them shall have him to triumph over them. 2. It was an earnest of his second coming. Then in the terrors of that day they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, and all the terrors of the last day. They shall see a specimen of it, a faint resemblance of it. If this be so terrible, what will that be? VII. He encourages all the faithful disciples in reference to the terrors of that day (v. 28): “When these things begin to come to pass, when Jerusalem is besieged, and every thing is concurring to the destruction of the Jews, then do you look up, when others are looking down, look heavenward, in faith, hope, and prayer, and lift up your heads with cheerfulness and confidence, for your redemption draws night.’’ 1. When Christ came to destroy the Jews, he came to redeem the Christians that were persecuted and oppressed by them; then had the churches rest. 2. When he comes to judge the world at the last day, he will redeem all that are his, from all their grievances. And the foresight of that day is as pleasant to all good Christians as it is terrible to the wicked and ungodly. Their death itself is so; when they see that day approaching, they can lift up their heads with joy, knowing that their redemption draws nigh, their removal to their Redeemer. VIII. Here is one word of prediction that looks further than the destruction of the Jewish nation, which is not easily understood; we have it in v. 24: Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 1. Some understand it of what is past; so Dr. Hammond. The Gentiles, who have conquered Jerusalem, shall keep possession of it, and it shall be purely Gentile, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, till a great part of the Gentile world shall have become Christian, and then after Jerusalem shall have been rebuilt by Adrian the emperor, with an exclusion of all the Jews from it, many of the Jews shall turn Christians, shall join with the Gentile Christians, to set up a church in Jerusalem, which shall flourish there for a long time. 2. Others understand it of what is yet to come; so Dr. Whitby. Jerusalem shall be possessed by the Gentiles, of one sort or other, for the most part, till the time come when the nations that yet remain infidels shall embrace the Christian faith, when the kingdoms of this world shall become Christ’s kingdoms, and then all the
Jews shall be converted. Jerusalem shall be inhabited by them, and neither they nor their city any longer trodden down by the Gentiles.
Verses 29-38 Here, in the close of this discourse, I. Christ appoints his disciples to observe the signs of the times, which they might judge by, if they had an eye to the foregoing directions, with as much certainty and assurance as they could judge of the approach of summer by the budding forth of the trees, v. 29–31. As in the kingdom of nature there is a chain of causes, so in the kingdom of providence there is a consequence of one event upon another. When we see a nation filling up the measure of their iniquity, we may conclude that their ruin is nigh; when we see the ruin of persecuting powers hastening on, we may thence infer that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand, that when the opposition given to it is removed it shall gain ground. As we may lawfully prognosticate the change of the seasons when second causes have begun to work, so we may, in the disposal of events, expect something uncommon when God is already raised up out of his holy habitation (Zec. 2:13); then stand still and see his salvation. II. He charges them to look upon those things as neither doubtful nor distant(for then they would not make a due impression on them), but as sure and very near. The destruction of the Jewish nation, 1. Was near (v. 32): This generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled. There were some now alive that should see it; some that now heard the prediction of it”
Philip Mauro
“In foretelling those coming “days of vengeance,” in which “all things that were written” were to “be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22), Christ gave His disciples a sign whereby they should know that the predicted days of vengeance were come, so that they might save themselves by flight; the sign being the encircling of Jerusalem with armies (v. 20). And then, in order to impress the lesson upon their minds, He spake a parable concerning the fig tree and all the trees, and said: “So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all be fulfilled” (vv. 31, 32). Thus we have Christ’s own statement to the effect that the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the nation was a coming of the Kingdom of God. And this He again coupled with the affirmation that his prediction would be fulfilled before the passing of that generation.
In studying the three accounts of our Lord’s Olivet prophecy, the student should observe that the period designated in Luke’s account “the days of vengeance,” wherein there should be “great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people,” is the same period that Mark designates “the days of affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation . . . unto this time” (Mark 13:19) and that is designated by Matthew the “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time” (Mat. 24:21). The context of the several passages make it certain that one and the same period of unprecedented calamity is referred to in the three passages.
Comparison should be made also with Daniel’s prophecy. “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” (Dan. 12:1). The close similarity between the language of this prophecy and that of our Lord’s Olivet prophecy gives assurance that both refer to the same event. The words of the angel to Daniel refer expressly to the Jewish nation (“the children of thy people”). Those who were to be delivered in that time of unparalleled distress–those “found written in the book”–were, of course, the disciples of Christ, who took warning by their Lord’s utterance, and fled for their lives when they saw His predicted sign. Happy for them they did not have some of our modern expounders of prophecy to instruct them as to the meaning of this prediction.
And particularly it should be observed, as fully confirming what is said above touching both the place, and also the time of that season of distress and tribulation, wherein all the prophecies of “wrath upon this people” were to be fulfilled, that the locality is expressly limited to JUDEA (Mat. 24:16), and that the time is expressly limited to THE GENERATION THEN LIVING (id. 34).” (Gospel of the Kingdom)
“St. Luke, Luke 21:22, calls these the days of vengeance, that all things which were written might be fulfilled.
1. These were the days in which all the calamities predicted by Moses, Joel, Daniel, and other prophets, as well as those predicted by our Savior, met in one common center, and were fulfilled in the most terrible manner on that generation.
2. These were the days of vengeance in another sense, as if God’s judgments had certain periods and revolutions; for it is remarkable that the temple was burned by the Romans in the same month, and on the same day of the month, on which it had been burned by the Babylonians. See Josephus, WAR, b. vi. c. 4.” (Matthew 24)
John Gill
“For these be the days of vengeance… Of God’s vengeance on the Jewish nation, for their rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah;
that all things which are written may be fulfilled; as in Moses and the prophets; see (Deuteronomy 28:20-68) (Deuteronomy 32:22-26) (Isaiah 6:10,11,12) (Daniel 9:26,27) ”
Duncan McKenzie
“Full preterists maintain that the “all things” referred to here means that all the prophecy in the Bible was fulfilled by AD 70. While I have a great deal of agreement with full preterists, I disagree with their interpretation here. Let me emphasize, however, that I am in total agreement with my full preterist brothers and sisters that the Second Coming of Jesus happened at AD 70.
My short answer to the question of what Luke 21:22 means is that it is saying all things written about the days of vengeance that would come upon the Jews when they violated the covenant would be fulfilled by AD 70. It is not saying that all prophecy in the Bible would be fulfilled by AD 70.” (Was all the prophecy in the Bible fulfilled in AD70?)
John Darby
“The Lord’s discourse in chapter 21 displays the character of the Gospel in a peculiar manner. The spirit of grace, in contrast with the Judaic spirit, is seen in the account of the poor widow’s offering. But the Lord’s prophecy requires more detailed notice. Verse 6, as we saw at the end of chapter 19, speaks only of the destruction of Jerusalem as she then stood. This is true also of the disciples’ question. They say nothing of the end of the age. The Lord afterwards enters upon the duties and the circumstances of His disciples previous to that hour. In verse 8 it is said, “The time draweth near,” which is not found in Matthew. He goes much more into detail with regard to their ministry during that period, encourages them, promises them necessary help. Persecution should turn to them for a testimony. From the middle of verse 11 to the end of verse 19 we have details relative to His disciples, that are not found in the corresponding passage of Matthew. They present the general state of things in the same sense, adding the condition of the Jews, of those especially who, more or less, professedly received the word. The whole stream of testimony, as rendered in connection with Israel, but extending to the nations, is found in Matthew to the end of verse 14. In Luke it is the coming service of the disciples, until the moment when the judgment of God should put an end to that which was virtually terminated by the rejection of Christ. Consequently the Lord says nothing in verse 20 of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, but gives the fact of the siege of Jerusalem, and its then approaching desolation-not the end of the age, as in Matthew. These were the days of vengeance on the Jews, who had crowned their rebellion by rejecting the Lord. Therefore Jerusalem should be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled, that is, the times destined to the sovereignty of the Gentile empires according to the counsel of God revealed in the prophecies of Daniel. This is the period in which we now live. There is a break here in the discourse. Its principal subject is ended; but there are still some events of the last scene to be revealed, which close the history of this Gentile supremacy. “
BIBLE TRANSLATIONS
King James: “For these be the day of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.”
Jerusalem Bible: “For this is the time of vengeance when all that scriptures says must be fulfilled.”
Today’s English Version: “For these are ‘The Days of Punishment,’ to make come true all that the scriptures say.”
Philips Modern English: “For these are the days of vengeance. when all that the scriptures have said will come true.”
New English Bible: “because this is the time of retribution, when all that stands written is to be fulfilled.”
Revised Standard Version: “for these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.”
Bible in Basic English: For these are the days of punishment, in which all the things in the Writings will b
Date: 31 Oct 2003
Time: 11:24:59
English Standard Version reads: “for these be the days of vengence, to fulfill all that is written.” Thank you for the great website and study helps. RW San Diego, CA
Date: 30 Jan 2005
Time: 05:07:55
trying to solve the “number of the beast” by adding up the letters in someone’s name may not be the correct way. “The number of his name” may have a totally different meaning. Read www.biblebits.com/666.htm C.P.M. North Carolina
Date: 12 Dec 2005
Time: 18:21:45
Luke 21:22 is the completion of the prophetic reading which Jesus began in Luke 4:18
v18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
v19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
v20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
v21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Jesus stopped in the middle of Isaiah’s prophecy, and didn’t mention the “Day of the vengeance of our God.” That was a logical place to stop reading. It would not have been appropriate to mention God’s judgments for rejecting the offer of the kingdom before the nation had actually done the deed.
But by Luke chapter 21, the rejection was complete, and it was time to read the rest of Isaiah’s prophecy, pronouncing judgment on the wicked unbelievers of Israel.
Futurists somehow miss the connection between Luke 4 and Luke 21, believing that the last part of Isaiah’s prophecy will be completed in some future “tribulation.” I beieve that is a mistake. The days of God’s vengeance came in AD70.
Mac
www.tribulationhoax.com
Date: 16 Apr 2006
Time: 14:08:17
Its is a dispensational misnomer that Israel rejected the offer of the Kingdom.
1. Multitudes followed Christ.
2. The Church is Built upon The Jewish(Israel) Disciples(Apostles) of Christ.
3. The Followers of Christ fled when the Romans Legions entered Judea , thus ensuring the survival of the infant true Isreali/Jewish Church
4. The Gentiles (wild olive tree) were engrafted into Israel (the Olive tree)
5. The true Israel Survived the tribulation and the Apocalypse and is manifest wherever Christians meet.
6. The fig tree(symbol of the Kingdom of Israel-the Church) budding was the growth of the Infant Church following its persecution by Nero, who saw to his own demise. The disciples and followers of Christ would see the fruit of their Labour by the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit ensuring the growth of the church replacing the cursed tree that bore no fruit.
7. The modern state of Israel is a secular state not a Kingdom, whereas the Church is the Kingdom of God/Heaven and a Son of Israel(the Son of Man), the seed of David rules and reigns over it.
Those who rejected Christ were the blind status quo whose followers saw their demise in God’s Final Judgement upon the then Kingdom(The cursed fig tree) in the possesion of a descendant of the hated Esau. Herod’s usurping dynasty saw its demise. The curse of the Law had run its full course and was fulfilled.
The gap theory in the seventy weeks of Daniel is a figment of human imagination, and so is the so called stopping of God’s clock because the apostates did not even believe their own scriptures. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
If Mathew 24 is still to be fulfilled as they imagine it to be , then they serve a fallible Saviour.
Mat 24:34 Verily (Christs oath) I say unto you(the disciples listening to him) This Generation (those alive AD30) will not pass(some would witness it before they died) till all these things(everything in Mat Chapters 23-24) be fulfilled.
D.H.Hume R.S.A
Date: 03 Aug 2006
Time: 11:54:13
In my view, perhaps the most plausible argument provided by the Preterist view is that eternal torment is a false doctrine. If the words of Jesus were truly intended for a contemporary audience; if His warnings of vengeance, fire and destruction are for the generation who rejected Him, then why do so many preach He is speaking of a general and eternal punishment?
If the wages of sin is death and neither Paul, John or Peter speak clearly of an eternal torment (other than John’s symbolism in Revelation) , why is the doctrine so widely held? It seems to me that for the Preterist view to be taken seriously this doctrine must be examined in light of the view that all things were fulfilled during 70 AD. Yet no one in the movement, that I know of, has tackled this issue. If “the entire land” is correctly substituted for “the whole earth” then why isn’t the garbage dump outside Jerusalem explained as a place where the “worm does not die”? Why isn’t the Rich Man explained as a type of Israel and Lazarus as a type of the gentiles? Where is the courage and scholarship to speak out on all controversial matters?
dick-matz@att.net
Date: 20 Jul 2007
Time: 06:47:16
There were two tribulations in those days. First there was the “Baptism of Fire” by which the Lord tested the faith of all those who claimed to be His. At the end of this first tribulation, those who had endured to the end had their salvation confirmed, and were raptured. Paul was among them (when he included himself among the (“and we which are alive and remain”, I don’t think he was mistaken about the timing. I believe that he knew more than we give him credit for). The Old Testament Jews were resurrected, even if only their souls, and not bodily. They are all in heaven during the Church Age, the “Millennium,” the “thousand years” (Rev. 20), Christ and His faithful disciples judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days came the vengeance of God, the second tribulation, which Jesus referred to as a time when tribulation would be great. At about that time Satan was cast out of heaven with all his following angels, unfaithful Jews would be destroyed, and the
Jewish nation would come to an end. Shortly before that, Peter wrote, “The end of all things is at hand” (1st Peter 4:7).