And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
All Commentaries on Matthew 24:22 Go To Matthew 24
John Chrysostom
AD 407
As above He had obscurely intimated the end of Jerusalem; He now proceeds to amore plain announcement of it, citing a prophecy which should make them believe it.
Whence I think that by the abomination of desolation, He means the army by which the city of the holy Jerusalem was desolated.
Or because he who desolated the city and the temple placed his statue there. He says, “When ye shall see,” because these things were to happen while some of them were yet alive. Wherein admire Christ’s power, and the courage of the disciples, who preached through those times in which all things Jewish were the object of attack. The Apostles, being Jews, introduced new laws in opposition to the Roman authority. The Romans conquered countless thousands of Jews, but could not overcome twelve unarmed unprotected men. But because it had often happened to the Jews to be recovered in very desperate circumstances, as in the times ofSennacherib and Antiochus, that no man might look for any such event now, Hegave command to His disciples to fly, saying, “Then let them which, are in Judaea flee to the mountains.”.
Note how this speech is directed against the Jews; for when these things were done by Vespasian, the Apostles could neither observe the Sabbath nor fly, seeing most of them were already dead, and those who survived were living in distant countries. And why they should pray for this He adds a reason, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor shall be.”.
I ask the Jews, whence came upon them so grievous wrath from heaven more woeful than all that had come upon them before? Plainly it was because of the desperate crime and the denial of the Cross. But He shows that they deserved still heavier punishment than they received, when He adds, “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved;” that is, If the siege by the Romans should be continued longer, all the Jews would perish; for by “all flesh,” Hemeans all the Jewish nation, those within and those without; for the Romans were at war not only with those in Judaea, but with the whole race wherever dispersed.
But that the Jews should not say that these evils came because of the preaching and the disciples of Christ, He shows them that had it not been for His disciples, they would have totally perished, “but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”.
Observe this economy of the Holy Spirit in this, that John wrote nothing of all this, that he might not seem to be writing a history after the event; for he survived sometime the taking of Jerusalem. But these who died before it, and saw nothing of it, these write it, that the power of prophecy may shine manifestly forth.
