Mark 13:2, Not One Stone Left Upon Another

Posted on Friday, September 23, 2011 in Bible Commentary | 0 comments

And Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

//As the story goes, one of Jesus’ disciples pointed out to him the grandeur of the Temple, and Jesus responded that the day was coming when the Temple would be so thoroughly destroyed that not one stone would be left upon another. All three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) agree on this wording.

A bit later, four disciples approach Jesus and ask about when these times will be. Jesus launches into a discussion of how there will be earthquakes and wars, famine and affliction. False prophets will arise, the Abomination of Desolation will be set up. The sun and moon will be darkened, the stars will fall, heaven will be shaken. Then the Son of Man will come.

Forty years after Jesus died, in 70 A.D., the Temple fell. The Romans so leveled the Temple that not one stone stood upon another. So dramatic was this time of tribulation for the Jews, and so closely did it match the Christian prophecies, that Full Preterist Christians today believe Jesus must have returned back in the first century as promised.

But here’s the fascinating story behind the story. As the legionnaires of Rome set fire to the Temple, they suddenly discovered untold wealth within its walls. But the fire raged and the gold of the treasury began to melt. So intense was the heat that the molten gold seeped between the huge stones of the Temple. As the story goes—and I’m not entirely convinced, but many are—it was the greed of the soldiers and not their desire for revenge that caused them to dismantle the Temple. They toppled all the stones in search of gold.