Premonitions that the Temple’s destruction is at hand.
Temple’s Destruction Foretold
Overhearing an innocent expression of appreciation for the beauty of the stones from which the Temple was constructed, Jesus uttered the prediction that the time was shortly to come when not one of those stones would remain in its place.
Like Children Complaining
Were Jesus and John the Baptist like children who played a dance and a dirge? Or was Jesus’ generation one that complained like whining children about the prophets who came to warn it?
The Historical Jesus, a Tanna? Charity and Deeds of Loving-Kindness in the Gospels and Early Rabbinic Thought
When nearly precise rabbinic parallels to stories and sayings in the Gospels exist, it may indicate that the Gospels are preserving traditions of the early Jesus movement and, perhaps, the historical Jesus.
Carrion Birds
Carrion Birds describes the enormity of the destruction Jesus foresaw. Israel would be rendered carrion to be picked over by the Roman legions.
Indiscriminate Catastrophe
The consequences of persisting in violent struggle with the Roman Empire would be suffered by the innocent and the guilty alike.
Preserving and Destroying
Jesus’ Preserving and Destroying saying may play off two different senses of the noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”).
Lesson of Lot’s Wife
Lot’s wife serves as a warning that overattachment to possessions can come at the cost of one’s life.
Days of the Son of Man
In Jesus’ saying, the Son of Man does not function as the agent of destruction, any more than Noah did in the time of the flood or Lot did in the last days of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Sign-Seeking Generation
What was “the sign of Jonah”? This LOY segment offers a new and surprising answer.