Shalom, everyone.
Let's continue. In this section, pay close attention to the pronouns, particularly the second-person, plural pronouns "ye" and "you" and "your." When Yeshua` used the words translated in the second-person plural, He was talking DIRECTLY to His talmudiym (His disciples) standing (or sitting) in His presence at the time of the Olivet Discourse...
However, ye will be delivered up also by parents and siblings and relatives and friends, and they will put [some] from among you to death. But even a brother will deliver up a brother into death and a father a child, and children will rise up against parents and deliver them to death.
Yeshua` went on to warn His students that even those to whom one is closest will betray them, delivering them up to be put to death. This was what happened in the first century and directly to those students of His to whom He was talking! This is NOT an event or a series of events that will happen in our future; this is something that has already occurred.
And ye shall be hated by all the Gentile nations on account of my authority, and [yet] not a hair out of your head may ever perish. By your patient endurance, [you shall] gain your breathers/lives.
They are then warned that they would be hated by all the Goyim or Gentile nations - non-Jewish nations - because of the authority of the Messiah, and yet they would survive over all. This suggests that He is DEFINITELY talking to His Jewish talmudiym (students; followers; disciples). Who but Jews would CARE about the "Messiah's authority?" The word "souls," which I have rendered "breathers/lives," (Greek: "psuchas," the accusative case of the plural of "psuchee") is the combination of people's bodies and their "spirits" or "breaths" (Greek: "pneuma," from which we get our word "pneumatic"), and "souls" means "created-beings-that-breathe" or "breathers." In other words, rest a while and even if you are one that is killed, you will gain back your breathing body in the resurrection when your body will be transformed or metamorphed into an incorruptible body (1 Cor. 15:50-57), even complete with all your hair follicles! He was not promising them they wouldn't die, but He was promising them a resurrection!
And then, many shall be led to offend, and shall be revealed by one another and will hate one another. And many lying prophets will arise and will mislead many. Also, because the [ones] against the Torah will have been multiplied, the love of many will grow cold. However, the [one who] stays under it into the conclusion, he himself shall be rescued. And the good news about the kingdom shall be heralded then in all of the habitable world into a witness to all the Gentile nations and then shall come the conclusion.
So, now Yeshua` fell back into letting His insight veer into the more distant future. Although Mark didn't say the whole thing, Matthew said that one must "stay under it (the Torah, from the previous sentence) and that the good news about the Kingdom shall be heralded in all of the habitable world into a witness to all the Gentile nations and THEN shall come the conclusion." All of these are clues that speak toward Yeshua` focusing on His Jewish talmudiym (disciples, students) to whom He was speaking.
But when ye therefore shall see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has drawn near - the abomination of the desolation – the [one which] was spoken about by Dani'el the prophet - standing in [the] holy place where it must not be (let the reader understand), then let those in Y'hudah (Judah) flee into the mountains.
At this point, Yeshua` snapped back to His present and started talking directly to His talmudiym, telling them that they would see Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) surrounded by armies and facing its imminent desolation, the "Abomination of the Desolation." Therefore, these details would be within His students' lifetime. This is NOT a unique, isolated event nor is it a future occurrence. This happened in the past. You see, the "abomination of the desolation" is literally a disgusting or a sickening or a filthy or a loathsome or a polluted thing (shiquwts/bdelugma) that results from a desolation - a stunning or stupefying or devastating or wasting event (shaameem/ereemoosis). One MUST avoid thinking of these words as though they were a label of a particular event in the future! Use them for their MEANING, not as a label! Some of His disciples or students SAW such an event 40 or so years later! It was the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, a stunning event to every Jew, believer or nonbeliever! The event was gut-wrenching and sickening and disheartening to everyone who loved God! The "destruction of the Temple" involves two words that should NEVER have been used together, "destruction" and "Temple!" When they saw this starting by Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, they were instructed to run to the mountains.
However, [let] the [one] upon the roof-top not come down into the house nor go inside to take anything out of his house. And [don’t] let the [one] in the field back into the [city]; he is not to return to take his clothes, and let those in [the] middle of it depart out and don’t let those in the countrysides enter into it. For these are the days of vengeance; all things which are written may be fulfilled. But <ooaahee!> (a cry of grief) to the [one] who is pregnant and to those [who] breast-feed in those days! But pray so that your flight may not be in [the] rainy season (“winter”) nor on Shabbat (the Sabbath); for then those days shall be the huge pressure - no - nor has been its like since [the] beginning of Creation of [the] habitable world which God created until the present - no - nor ever shall be.
No one at that time would have any time for backtracking! They were to find the quickest route out of the city! Like escaping a burning building, they were to forget about belongings and run! Here are a few things that only make sense in the first century A.D:
First, why would anyone be instructed to stay on their roof-top if the urgency was to get out of town? Well, in the Old City of Jerusalem, the houses were all one-story houses and they were packed together tightly within the city walls. Their "roads" were little more than sidewalks or paths in most cases, just wide enough for a human or a mule to walk. So, it would be possible to jump from rooftop to rooftop until one finally reached the houses built adjacent to the wall and escape over the wall. One might call it a "Road of the Rooftops." This is not true for modern Jerusalem which is built more like Western cities with tall buildings and wider 2- or more-lane streets for automobiles and trucks, and is no longer within the confines of the city walls. The buildings of Old Jerusalem, although still inhabited by some of the residents of the city, have become more of a tourist attraction than simple living quarters, thanks in large part to the overrunning of the Gentile nations such that even the Old City is divided into four quarters.
Second, another clue would be in the fact that the city was surrounded by fields, like a Qibbuts. That's not true of today's Jerusalem. One must travel for a while to get to the fields outside of Jerusalem.
Third, another clue is found in the warning to pray that their escape not have to happen in the rainy season or on the Shabbat. Who but a devout Jew would CARE if they had to run on a Shabbat?!
No, this had to be during the first century when such clues made sense, not in today's world.
In the Messiah's love,
Retrobyter
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