5 - Predictions

Summary

The Synoptic Gospels contain a considerable body of sayings cast into the form of prediction of future events, after the manner of Old Testament prophecy or of Jewish apocalypse. As we have them, some of these appear to refer to events immediately impending at the assumed time of their utterance, such as the fate of Jesus himself, his betrayal by Judas, his denial by Peter and his desertion by the Twelve, his sufferings and death. Others seem to have a more extended perspective, though still within a limited historical frame, such as the siege and capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, the mission of the Church to Israel and to the Gentiles, and the growing intensity of persecution. Others, to all appearance, defy any attempt to place them in an intelligible historical series, and borrow the fantastic colouring of apocalyptic, such as the final and unprecedented tribulation, the collapse of the astral universe, and the coming of the Son of Man on the clouds.