Matthew 24:29 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Matthew 24:29
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular feminine
light
φέγγοςphengos
G5338
brilliancy · noun — accusative singular neuter
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
the stars
ἀστέρεςasteres
G792
a star (as strown over the sky) · noun — nominative plural masculine
shall fall
πεσοῦνταιpesountai
G4098
to fall (literally or figuratively) · verb — future middle or passive deponent indicative, 3rd person plural
from
ἀπὸapo
G575
"off · preposition
heaven
οὐρανοῦ,ouranou
G3772
the sky · noun — genitive singular masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
the powers
δυνάμειςdunameis
G1411
force (literally or figuratively) · noun — nominative plural feminine
of the heavens
οὐρανῶνouranōn
G3772
the sky · noun — genitive plural masculine
shall be shaken
σαλευθήσονται.saleuthēsontai
G4531
to waver · verb — future passive indicative, 3rd person plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Amos 8:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the…
Joel 3:15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
Isaiah 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moo…
Isaiah 24:23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his a…
Mark 13:24-25 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
Acts 2:19-20 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
Joel 2:30-31 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
Revelation 6:12-17 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
John Gill on Matthew 24:29
Immediately after the tribulation of those days,.... That is, immediately after the distress the Jews would be in through the siege of Jerusalem, and the calamities attending it; just upon the destruction of that city, and the temple in it, with the whole nation of the Jews, shall the following things come to pass; and therefore cannot be referred to the last judgment, or what should befall the church, or world, a little before that time, or should be accomplished in the whole intermediate time, between the destruction of Jerusalem, and the last judgment: for all that is said to account for such a sense, as that it was usual with the prophets to speak of judgments afar off as near; and that…
Matthew 24:29-31
Matthew 24:29-31
Mark 13:24-27
Luke 21:25-28
29. And immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 30. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. 31. And he shall send his angels with a loud sound of a trumpet; and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one extremity of heaven to the other.
24. But in those days, after that tribulation, shall t…
These sayings form the climax of the discourse and answer the second of the disciples’ initial questions (see 24:3). Some take 24:29-31 to refer to God’s judgment on the Jewish people in AD 70, using apocalyptic images and metaphors to describe it. Others see a reference to the second coming of Christ at the end of history.
24:29 the sun will be darkened . . . will be shaken: This phenomenon can be taken literally, as befitting the climactic self-disclosure of God’s Son, or metaphorically, as for a cosmically significant event (see Acts 2:17-21; Heb 12:26-27; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 6:12-13). Similar apocalyptic language is used frequently in the Old Testament for describing political disasters and…
The Church Fathers
The darkening of the sun, the failing of the moon, and the fall of the stars, indicate the glories of His coming.
Besides, the belief that everything was made from nothing will be impressed upon us by that ultimate dispensation of God which will bring back all things to nothing. For "the very heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll; '" nay, it shall come to nothing along with the earth itself, with which it was made in the beginning.
as the Lord also in the Gospels speaks thus concerning the consummation: For the powers of heaven shall be shaken, thus calling the angels the powers of heavens, and by the expression they shall be shaken, He means they shall be set free from their former office. As the angels, therefore, who move the stars themselves and other things, are certainly set free from this office and ministry, He declares that the stars fall to the earth.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Darkness — The plague (the ninth) of darkness in Egypt (Ex. 10:21) is described as darkness “which may be felt.” It covered “all the land of Egypt,” so that “they saw not one another.” It did not extend to the…
Heaven — (1.) Definitions. The phrase “heaven and earth” is used to indicate the whole universe (Gen. 1:1; Jer. 23:24; Acts 17:24). According to the Jewish notion there were three heavens, (a) The firmament,…
Matthew, Gospel according to — The author of this book was beyond a doubt the Matthew, an apostle of our Lord, whose name it bears. He wrote the Gospel of Christ according to his own plans and aims, and from his own point of view,…
Moon — Heb. yareah, from its paleness (Ezra 6:15), and lebanah, the “white” (Cant. 6:10; Isa. 24:23), was appointed by the Creator to be with the sun “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years”…
Olves, Mount of — So called from the olive trees with which its sides are clothed, is a mountain ridge on the east of Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:7; Ezek. 11:23; Zech. 14:4), from which it is separated by the valley of…
Revelation of Christ — The second advent of Christ. Three different Greek words are used by the apostles to express this, (1) apokalupsis (1 Cor. 1;7; 2 Thess. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:7, 13); (2) parousia (Matt. 24:3, 27; 1 Thess.…
Sun — (Heb. shemesh), first mentioned along with the moon as the two great luminaries of heaven (Gen. 1:14-18). By their motions and influence they were intended to mark and divide times and seasons. The…
Tribulation — Trouble or affiction of any kind (Deut. 4:30; Matt. 13:21; 2 Cor. 7:4). In Rom. 2:9 “tribulation and anguish” are the penal sufferings that shall overtake the wicked. In Matt. 24:21, 29, the word…
Astronomy · SI — SI
Christ, The Prophet · Foretold things to come — Foretold things to come
Eclipse · Of the sun and moon — Of the sun and moon
Jerusalem · Prophecies respecting: Its capture accompanied by severe calamities — Prophecies respecting: Its capture accompanied by severe calamities
Meteorology And Celestial Phenomena · 9:7;26:7,8,11;27:20,21;28:24-27;29:19;36:27-33;37:6-22;38:8-11,22,24-29,31-35,37; — 9:7;26:7,8,11;27:20,21;28:24-27;29:19;36:27-33;37:6-22;38:8-11,22,24-29,31-35,37;
Moon · Darkening of — Darkening of
Moon, The · Illustrative: (Withdrawing her light,) of deep calamities — Illustrative: (Withdrawing her light,) of deep calamities
Second Coming Of Christ, The · Signs preceding — Signs preceding
Stars · Falling of — Falling of
Sun · .Darkening of — .Darkening of
Sun, The · Illustrative: (Darkened,) of severe calamities — Illustrative: (Darkened,) of severe calamities
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
