Matthew 24:9

"But all these things are the beginning of birth pains."

Key Reflection

In the first-century Jewish context, Jesus uses the metaphor of "birth pains" to describe the series of events that would precede the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, which was a significant historical calamity for his original audience. This imagery conveys the idea that these troubles would be intense and progressively worsening, akin to the labor pains that women experience as they give birth, before culminating in a transformative event.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Verse 9. To be afflicted. By persecution, imprisonment, scourging, etc. "They shall deliver you up to councils," Mr 13:9: to the great council, or sanhedrim--for this is the word in the original. See Barnes "Mt 5:22". This was fulfilled when Peter and John were brought before the council, Ac 4:5-7. Mark further adds, Mr 13:9 that they should be delivered to synagogues and to prisons to be beaten, and should be brought before rulers and kings for his name's sake. All this was remarkably fulfilled. Peter and John were imprisoned, Ac 4:3; Paul and Silas also, Ac 16:24.

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