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
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Except those days . . . shortened; Gr. ε̉κολβώθησαν, a period or stop put to them; i.e, by the Lord, as Mark adds.
The elect are twofold: those who are elected to grace, who are all the faithful and the righteous; and those who are elected to glory, who are all those who shall he saved. Both classes may be here understood, but especially the second. For these are they who are perfectly elected. And whosoever are elected to final grace, so that they persevere in it to the end of life, are those who are also elected to glory. The sense is—unless God from eternity had decreed, and had fulfilled the same in time, that the days of the wasting of Judæa should be shorter—shorter, I mean, than the sins of the Jews and the anger of the Romans demanded, all Jews would have perished. For if the time of the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of Judæa had lasted longer, no flesh, i.e, no Jews, would have survived. For the rage of the Romans against the Jews was very great, as against a rebellious and obstinate nation; and unless the gentleness of Titus had somewhat restrained them, the Romans would have slain all the Jews. God therefore shortened this time of slaughter for the elect"s sake; that Isaiah , partly for the sake of those Christians who had not been able or willing to flee away from Jerusalem, partly on account of the Jews who, in the great slaughter of the siege, had been converted to Christ, as well as for the sake of those who were afterwards to be sprung from them and converted to Christ. What is meant is this, "If this tribulation of the Jews had lasted longer, none of them would have continued alive, and would not, by consequence have persevered in faith and grace in this life, and so no one of them would have survived to be elect and saved. In order, therefore, that some may survive, who by the predestination of God shall be saved, those, namely, whom God foresees and foreordains, shall remain in this tribulation, and be converted to Christ, and so be saved, for this cause, I say, God will abbreviate and cut short these days of tribulations."
That such was the case appears from Josephus (Bell715). He testifies that more than forty thousand Jews were saved by Titus in the destruction of Jerusalem. Where observe that God, for the sake of His elect and believing ones, saved alive many Jews who did not believe, but were obstinate and reprobate. "Therefore," says S. Chrysostom, "let not the Jews say that these things happened to them because of the preaching and worship of Christ. He shows not only that Christians were not the cause of these evils, but that if there had been no Christians, all Jews would have perished. For if the war, by Divine permission, had been prolonged, no remnant of the Jews would have escaped. But in order that the believing Jews might not be destroyed with the unbelieving, God put a more speedy end to the war than He would have done."
Tropologically: Learn from hence how great is God"s love and care for His elect. For them He spared many Jews. For the elect"s sake God created, and still preserves the whole world, and all the things that are therein. Yea, for their sake He caused Christ, His own Song of Solomon , to become Prayer of Manasseh , and willed that He should suffer death upon the cross. Wherefore S. Paul saith ( 1 Corinthians 3:22), "All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come.
