There are two tasks in understanding the bible.

The first task is exegesis: understand what the original readers understood the words to mean then(at that time) and there (in that place and culture).

The second task is hermeneutics: understand what the words mean for us here (in our place and culture) and now (in our time)

Exegesis requires engagement with context and content.

The historical context, which will differ from book to book, has to do with several matters: the time and culture of the author and audience, that is, the geographical, topographical, and political factors that are relevant to the author’s setting; and the historical occasion of the book, letter, psalm, prophetic oracle, or other genre.

literary context means first that words only have meaning in sentences, and second that biblical sentences for the most part have full and clear meaning only in relation to preceding and succeeding sentences.

The most important contextual question you will ever ask — and it must be asked over and over of every sentence and every paragraph — is: What’s the point? We must try to trace the author’s train of thought. What is the author saying, and why does he say it right here? Having made that point, what is he saying next, and why? This question will vary from genre to genre, but it is always the crucial question.

“Content” has to do with the meanings of words, their grammatical relationships in sentences, and the choice of the original text where the manuscripts (handwritten copies) differ from one another (see next chapter). It also includes a number of the items mentioned above under “historical context,” for example, the meaning of a denarius, or a Sabbath day’s journey, or high places,

Tools to help with exegesis:
- A good bible translation (or, better several good translations)
- A good bible dictionary
- Good commentaries

Recommended:
- https://netbible.org/

- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

- Olive Tree bible software (www.olivetree.com) NIV or ESV Study Packs



Fee, Gordon D.; Stuart, Douglas. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (p. 32). Zondervan.

Daniel was an extremely popular book in the first century. Jesus drew on it freely, as did many of his contemporaries. It describes, in a series of stories and dreams, how God’s kingdom will triumph over the kingdoms of the world. Daniel 2 is about the stone which smashes the great statue; we looked at that when reading 21.33–46. Chapters 3 and 6 are about how God delivers his faithful ones from suffering. Chapter 7, at the centre of the book, is about the monsters that wage war on the humans, and about how God vindicates the human figure (‘one like a son of man’) and destroys the monsters – which any first-century Jew would recognize as code for Israel being vindicated over the pagan nations.

Those are perhaps the best-known parts. But there is more.
Daniel 12 predicts the eventual resurrection of all God’s people. And chapter 9 speaks of something blasphemous, sacrilegious, some abominable object, which will be placed in the Temple itself. This, it seems, will be part of the sequence of events through which God will redeem his true people, send his true Messiah, and bring his age-old plan to completion.

That’s quite a lot to hold in your mind, but Matthew wants you to, because only so can you begin to wrestle with what Jesus was telling the disciples.

Remember, the questions that dominate the chapter are: when is the Temple to be destroyed? When will Jesus be seen to be the Messiah? When will the present age be brought to its close? The answer here is: look back to Daniel, which speaks of all these things, and look out for the terrible time that’s coming.

N.T. Wright - For Everyone Commentary on Matthew 24

During the days of the Maccabees, the same expression was used to describe the sacrilege of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid king who decreed that an altar to Olympian Zeus and perhaps also a statue of himself be erected in the temple on 15 Chislev, 167 B.C. (1 Macc. 1:54; cf. 2 Macc. 6:2).

Antiochus further decreed that the Sabbath and other festal observances were to be profaned, that circumcision was to be abolished, and that swine and other unclean animals were to be sacrificed in the temple (cf. 1 Macc. 1:41-50). This was one of the lowest points of Jewish history.

Michael J. Wilkins - NIV Application Commentary

Matthew probably means by the words "let the reader understand" that the event referred to implies the end of the age brought about by the deed of a Roman (hence the importance of veiled language) invader-an event that vividly parallels the desecrating act of Antiochus. The words "when you see," correspond to the first part of the question of v. 3, which in turn is directly prompted by the prophecy of v. 2. Initially in view therefore is the destruction of Jerusalem and the concomitant setting up of the desolating abomination in the temple that occurred in A.D. 70.

- Donald A. Hagner - Word Biblical Commentary (WBC) 60 Vols. (2012 Edition))

Jesus is using language from Isaiah

(For Everyone Commentary Series - Old and New Testament Set (35 Vols.)) For Isaiah, and for those who read him in the first century, the one thing it didn’t mean was something to do with the actual sun, moon and stars in the sky. That would make a quite different tune. This language was well known, regular code for talking about what we would call huge social and political convulsions. When we say that empires ‘fall’, or that kingdoms ‘rise’, we don’t normally envisage any actual downward or upward physical movement. Matthew intends us to understand that the time of the coming of the son of man will be a time when the whole world seems to be in turmoil.

For Isaiah, and for those who read him in the first century, the one thing it didn’t mean was something to do with the actual sun, moon and stars in the sky. This language was well known, regular code for talking about what we would call huge social and political convulsions.

When we say that empires ‘fall’, or that kingdoms ‘rise’, we don’t normally envisage any actual downward or upward physical movement. Matthew intends us to understand that the time of the coming of the son of man will be a time when the whole world seems to be in turmoil.

N.T. Wright

Jesus quotes this exact verse to the High Priest to explain to him what is happening through his death.

Now in Daniel this certainly refers, not to a downward movement of this strange human figure, but to an upward movement. The son of man ‘comes’ from the point of view of the heavenly world, that is, he comes from earth to heaven. His ‘coming’ in this sense, in other words, is not his ‘return’ to earth after a sojourn in heaven. It is his ascension, his vindication, the thing which demonstrates that his suffering has not been in vain.

N.T. Wright

Jesus, in Matthew, understands that three things will demonstrate his vindication by God and kingship:

- His resurrection and ascension

- The destruction of the Temple

- News of his Victory will spread around the world.

The ‘trumpet’ is not the ‘last trump’ of 1 Cor 15.52 and 1 Thess 4.16, but a metaphor for the proclamation of the gospel which we read about in Acts, and the ‘gathering of the elect’ is the entry into God’s people of the Gentile believers.

Professor Ian Paul (Fuller Theological Seminary)

It is worth noting that, at this historical, cultural and linguistic distance, this is a difficult passage for us to read well. But it is also worth noting that we are significantly impeded in reading carefully by the weight of interpretative traditions here. Worse, a number of Bible translations are misleading. Scofield, in famous 1909 Dispensationalist study Bible, actually changed the word ‘generation’ to ‘race’ in v 34 in order to support his interpretation. And today’s New Living translation actually adds the word ‘return’ in v 33 to do the same thing. It has never been more important to read a good translation.

Professor Ian Paul, Fuller Theological Seminary

All this is spoken to Jesus’ disciples so they will know when the cataclysmic events are going to happen. Watch for the leaves on the tree, and you can tell it’s nearly summer. Watch for these events, and you’ll know that the great event, the destruction of the Temple and Jesus’ complete vindication, are just around the corner. And be sure of this, says Jesus (and Matthew wants to underline this): it will happen within a generation.

That is an extra important reason why everything that has been said in the passage so far must be taken to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the events that surround it. Only when we appreciate how significant that moment was for everything Jesus had said and done will we understand what Jesus himself stood for.

- N.T. Wright - For Everyone Series

Small Group Questions:

1) What are some examples, in your experience, of people misinterpreting the bible?

2) What bible study tools have you personally found helpful?

3) Had you heard about Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 BC or the destruction of the temple in AD 70 before? Do either of these historical events help you understand the bible differently? how?

4)Matt said that this part of Jesus teaching is mainly referring to the destruction of the temple which Jesus saw was part of his vindication. How do you respond to this?

5)Jesus said the one thing that will not fade away is his words. Do you want to change how you study Jesus words at all? In what ways would you like to engage with the bible differently than you already do?