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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2010
IN order to understand how apocalyptic materials are interpreted by a Synoptic author, it is necessary to determine, if possible, the point at which the author locates himself in the sequence of events predicted, that is, to discover which predictions are regarded by the author as already fulfilled in past events and which are for him still unfulfilled.
Because of the vagueness of the allusions in Matthew 24 this task is exceedingly difficult. Since the consensus is that the gospel was written after the destruction of Jerusalem, scholars are predisposed to find a reference to the desecration of the Temple in the ‘abomination of desolation’ of v. 15. Although this appears to have been Mark's understanding of the ‘abomination of desolation’, there is no positive evidence that Matthew understood it in this way. Thus it is possible for Marxsen, pp. 138 f., to maintain that the whole discourse, including even vv. 4–8, is a Parusierede concerned with the period after the destruction of Jersusalem.
Hummel, p. 160 n. 85, opposes Marxsen, maintaining that vv. 21 f. reflect the post-war period during which Christians were being persecuted. This is most improbable. The persecution as it is portrayed elsewhere by Matthew concerns missionaries only, and is not such as to be described as the greatest tribulation in the history of the world (v. 21); nor was it of short duration, as is the tribulation of vv. 21 f.
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