And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And Jesus went out, &c, according to His custom at eventide, to the Mount of Olives, to pass the night, and partake of food at Bethany, in the house of Martha and Mary, after He had been teaching all day without food in the Temple.
And His disciples, &c. The occasion was because Christ, at the end of the preceding chapter, had predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, and consequently of the Temple. The disciples therefore, being amazed at this desolation of so great a city, show Him the wonderful fabric of the Temple, its beauty and magnificence, which seemed worthy of lasting for ever, in order that they might move Christ to pity, and to revoke the sentence of destruction. For this Temple was the wonder of the world, as Josephus says (de Bello Jud. vi6), "Its exterior had everything for the mind and the eye to admire. The roof was entirely covered with very heavy gold plates. At sunrise it was seen from afar with such a fiery splendour as to dazzle the eyes of beholders, as though the...
Some were pointing out to Christ the magnificent things in the temple and how it was adorned by the gifts that had been dedicated to God. For they supposed that Jesus would admire with them all there was to see, although being God he has heaven as his throne! He does offer a teaching concerning them, but he had already predicted that according to the times the temple would utterly fall. The Roman army is being gathered for this very thing, demanding the surrender of Israel itself as all Jerusalem suffers the punishment of the slaying of the Lord. For let me tell you, it came to pass that they suffered these things after the crucifixion of the Savior. But they did not understand the meaning of Jesus’ teachings. They supposed his teachings concerned the consummation of the age.
After the fatigues of preaching and teaching, Jesus towards evening left the temple, as it is in the Greek, eporeueto apo tou ierou, and went towards Mount Olivet, where he was accustomed to spend his nights, as we learn from St. Luke, chap. xxi. ver. 37. (Jansenius)
His disciples came to show him the buildings, not moved by curiosity, for they had seen them frequently before, but by pity; because he had on a former occasion, and only just before in Jerusalem, threatened the destruction of the temple and city, hoping that the splendour and magnificence of so fine a structure, consecrated to God, might alter his determination, as St. Hilary observes. But the anger of God, provoked by sins, is not to be appeased with stones and buildings. He therefore answered them: (Jansenius)
