Mat 24:5-8 | RWP | e4.org | In my name ( επ τω ονοματ μου ). They will arrogate to themselves false claims of Messiahship in (on the basis of) the name of Christ himself. Josephus ( Wars VI, 54) gives there false Christs as one of the reasons for the explosion against Rome that led to the city's destruction. Each new hero was welcomed by the masses including Barcochba. "I am the Messiah," each would say. Forty odd years ago two men in Illinois claimed to be Messiah, each with followers (Schlatter, Schweinfurth). In more recent years Mrs. Annie Besant has introduced a theosophical Messiah and Mrs. Eddy made claims about herself on a par with those of Jesus.

‏ Matthew 24:5-8

In my name ( επ τω ονοματ μου ). They will arrogate to themselves false claims of Messiahship in (on the basis of) the name of Christ himself. Josephus (Wars VI, 54) gives there false Christs as one of the reasons for the explosion against Rome that led to the city's destruction. Each new hero was welcomed by the masses including Barcochba. "I am the Messiah," each would say. Forty odd years ago two men in Illinois claimed to be Messiah, each with followers (Schlatter, Schweinfurth). In more recent years Mrs. Annie Besant has introduced a theosophical Messiah and Mrs. Eddy made claims about herself on a par with those of Jesus.

See that ye be not troubled ( ορατε μη θροεισθε ). Asyndeton here with these two imperatives as Mr 8:15 ορατε βλεπετε (Robertson, Grammar, p. 949). Look out for the wars and rumours of wars, but do not be scared out of your wits by them. Θροεω means to cry aloud, to scream, and in the passive to be terrified by an outcry. Paul uses this very verb ( μηδε θροεισθα ) in 2Th 2:2 as a warning against excitement over false reports that he had predicted the immediate second coming of Christ.

But the end is not yet ( αλλ' ουπω εστιν το τελος ). It is curious how people overlook these words of Jesus and proceed to set dates for the immediate end. That happened during the Great War and it has happened since.

The beginning of travail ( αρχη οδινων ). The word means birth-pangs and the Jews used the very phrase for the sufferings of the Messiah which were to come before the coming of the Messiah (Book of Jubilees, 23:18; Apoc. of Baruch 27-29). But the word occurs with no idea of birth as the pains of death (Ps 18:5; Ac 2:24). These woes, says Jesus, are not a proof of the end, but of the beginning.