claninja
Well-Known Member
I’m sure you agree that the Bible is full of hyperbole, simile, idioms, metaphors……that are often foreign to different cultures, especially ones 2,000 plus years removed, no?
As to the OD, preterism usually agrees that context of Jesus words, and apostles questions, are related to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and therefore, “this generation shall not pass away until all these things occur”, refers to the contemporary generation Jesus was talking to.
With that interpretation I mind, is Jesus using literal world ending language or hyperbolic language consistent with OT prophets? I lean toward the latter, though I suppose the rising smoke from the cities destruction would black out the sky and give the moon a reddish color.
Celestial disturbances were often used on the OT in regards to the overthrow of nations and its resulting terror and distress:
Matthew Henry
Such expressions are often employed by the prophets, to describe the convulsions of governments.
Barnes
Darkness and night, in the Scriptures, are often the emblem of calamity and distress (see the note at Matthew 24:29). The revolutions and destructions of kingdoms and nations are often represented in the Scriptures under this image. So respecting the destruction of Idumea Isaiah 34:4 :
And all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, And the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; And all their host shall fall down, As the leaf falleth from off the vine, And as a falling fig from the fig-tree. So in Ezekiel 32:7-8, in a prophecy respecting the destruction of Pharaoh, king of Egypt:
And when I shall put time out, I will cover the heavens, and make the stoa thereof dark, I will cover the sun with a cloud,
And the moon shall not give her light.
And the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee. And set darkness upon thy land. (Compare Joel 2:10; Joel 3:15-16.) Thus in Amos 8:9 : continued...
Gill
For the stars of heaven,.... This and what follows are to be understood, not literally, but figuratively, as expressive of the dismalness and gloominess of the dispensation, of the horror and terror of it, in which there was no light, no comfort, no relief, nor any hope of any; the heavens and all the celestial bodies frowning upon them
Benson
For, as Bishop Lowth observes, the Hebrew writers, “to express happiness, prosperity, the instauration and advancement of states, kingdoms, and potentates, make use of images taken from the most striking parts of nature; from the heavenly bodies, from the sun, moon, and stars, which they describe as shining with increased splendour, and never setting; the moon becomes like the meridian sun, and the sun’s light is augmented seven-fold: see Isaiah 30:26. New heavens and a new earth are created, and a brighter age commences. On the contrary, the overthrow and destruction of kingdoms are represented by opposite images; the stars are obscured, the moon withdraws her light, and the sun shines no more; the earth quakes, and the heavens tremble; and all things seem tending to their original chaos.”
I don’t think Luke’s addition of the roaring sea and waves is to be taken as a world ending event, but more so to tie into the anxiety and distress associated with the fall of a kingdom.
Ellicot:
Assuming, as has been suggested above, that St. Luke’s report is of the nature of a paraphrase, we may, perhaps, connect this feature in it with his own experience. To one who had known the perils of waters narrated in Acts 27, no picture of the more dread phenomena of nature could be complete without “the sea and the waves roaring.”
Benson
“Those dreadful calamities; which are coming on the earth — Or, on the land. For the powers of heaven shall be shaken — For this shall not be like former invasions, or captivities, which only produced some transient disorders in the state, or at most an interruption in the government for a few years; but it shall be attended with a total subversion of it; even of the whole Jewish polity, laws, and religion, which were the work of heaven, or which, containing in them the light of truth, are signified by the sun, moon, and stars in the preceding verse; and therefore might in this be called the powers of heaven.”
Barnes
The sea and the waves roaring - This is not to be understood literally, but as an image of great distress. Probably it is designed to denote that these calamities would come upon them like a deluge. As when in a storm the ocean roars, and wave rolls on wave and dashes against the shore, and each succeeding surge is more violent than the one that preceded it, so would the calamities come upon Judea. They would roll over the whole land, and each wave of trouble would be more violent than the one that preceded it, until the whole country would be desolate. The same image is also used in Isaiah 8:7-8, and Revelation 18:15.
Cambridge
signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars] The articles should be omitted. These signs are mainly metaphorical—the eclipse of nations and the downfall of potentates—though there may be literal fulfilments also. The language is that of the ancient prophets, Amos 8:9; Joel 2:30-31; Ezekiel 32:7-8, as in Revelation 6:12-14.
distress of nations] Synoche, xii. 50 and 2 Corinthians 2:4.
the sea and the waves roaring] The true reading is probably ἤχους and the translation, “in perplexity at the roar of the sea and surge.” Comp. Psalm 46:4.“In that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea,” Isaiah 5:30. The raging sea is the sea of nations, Jdg 1:13; Revelation 17:15.
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