And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Ver. 3. Came unto him privately, saying] Because it was dangerous to speak publicly of the destruction of the temple, as the examples of Jeremiah and Stephen show. Howbeit, Micah the Morashite prophecied in the days of Hezekiah, saying, "Zion shall be ploughed, &c., and the mountain of this house shall be as the high places of a forest," Jeremiah 26:18. And God stirred up many faithful witnesses to cry out against Rome in her ruff (pride), and to foretell her ruin. In the year 1159 lived Johannes Sarisburiensis, who reproved the pope to his face, and wrote his Polycraticon, wherein he freely taxeth all the Romish hierarchy. Bernard also told the bishops of his time, that they were not teachers, but seducers, not pastors, but impostors, not prelates, but Pilates, &c. And a certain painter, blamed by a cardinal for colouring the visages of Peter and Paul too red, tartly but fitly replied, that he painted them so, as blushing at the lives of their successors.
The sign of thy coming] viz. To destroy the temple.
And of the end of the world] Which they thought could not possibly outlast the temple. As they were wont to say in the primitive Church, Absque stationibus non staret mundus (Tertul.), the world could not stand if God's people did not stand before him in prayer. Semen sanctum statumen terrae, as Tremellius reads Isaiah 6:13 .