Chapter 13

¹As he was leaving the Temple, one of his disciples said to him,

“Look, Master! What wonderful stones and buildings!”

²Jesus said to him,

“Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be torn down.”

³As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the Temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him, apart from the others,

⁴“Tell us when this is to happen, and what the sign will be when it is all just going to be carried out.”

⁵And Jesus said to them,

“Take care that no one misleads you about this. ⁶Many will come under my name and say ‘I am he,’ and many will be misled by them. ⁷But when you hear of wars and rumors of war, you must not be alarmed. They have to come, but it is not yet the end. ⁸For nation will rise in arms against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes here and there, there will be famines. This is only the beginning of the sufferings. ⁹But you must be on your guard; they will hand you over to courts and you will be taken into synagogues and beaten, and you will be brought before governors and kings on my account, to testify to them. ¹⁰For before the end the good news must be preached to all the heathen. ¹¹When they are taking you off to trial do not worry beforehand about what you ought to say, but say whatever is given you when the time comes, for it is not you that will speak, but the holy Spirit. ¹²Brother will give up brother to be put to death, and the father his child, and children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. ¹³You will be hated by everyone, because you bear my name. But he who holds out to the end will be saved. ¹⁴But as soon as you see the dreadful desecration standing where he has no right to stand” (the reader must take note of this), “then those who are in Judea must fly to the hills; ¹⁵a man on the roof of his house must not go down or go into the house to get anything out of it, ¹⁶and a man in the field must not turn back to get his coat. ¹⁷Alas for women who are with child at that time, or who have babies! ¹⁸Pray that it may not be winter when it comes, ¹⁹for there will be such misery in those days as there has never been since the beginning of God’s creation until now, and never will be again. ²⁰If the Lord had not cut those days short, nobody would have escaped, but for the sake of his own chosen people he has cut the days short. ²¹If anyone says to you at that time, ‘Look! Here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look! There he is!’ do not believe it. ²²For false Christs and false prophets will appear, and they will show signs and wonders to mislead God’s chosen people if they can. ²³But you must be on your guard; I have told you all about it beforehand. ²⁴But in those days, when that misery is over, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not shed its light ²⁵and the stars will fall from the sky and the forces in the sky will shake. ²⁶Then they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory, ²⁷and then he will send out the angels and gather his chosen people from the four winds, from one end of the world to the other.

²⁸“Let the fig tree teach you the lesson. As soon as its branches grow soft and put forth leaves you know that summer is coming. ²⁹So when you see these things happening, you must know that he is just at the door. ³⁰I tell you, these things will all happen before the present age passes away. ³¹Earth and sky will pass away, but my words will not. ³²But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son; only the Father. ³³You must look out and be on the alert, for you do not know when it will be time; ³⁴just as a man when he leaves home to go on a journey, and puts his slaves in charge, each with his duties, gives orders to the watchman to keep watch. ³⁵So you must be on the watch, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening or at midnight or toward daybreak or early in the morning— ³⁶for fear he should come unexpectedly and find you asleep. ³⁷And what I am telling you I mean for all—Be on the watch!”