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Bible chapter guide
Luke 21
Jesus notices a poor widow giving all she has. When some admire the temple's beautiful stones, he foretells its destruction, the siege of Jerusalem and the signs before the coming of the Son of Man, and tells his followers to watch and pray.
Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.
What happens in this chapter
In the temple Jesus watches the rich putting their gifts into the treasury and a poor widow putting in two small coins, and says she has given more than all of them. When some admire the temple's fine stones and offerings, he says that not one stone will be left on another. Asked when, he warns against impostors and speaks of wars, earthquakes and persecution, and then, in words only Luke has, of Jerusalem surrounded by armies and trampled by the Gentiles until their times are fulfilled. The chapter closes with how he spent those days: teaching in the temple, and going out each night to the Mount of Olives, with the people coming early in the morning to hear him.
What the lab shows, and where to look
Open the Tuesday stop on its first moment, in the temple courts: the scene is the Court of Women by the offering chests, where the widow gives her two coins. The Mishnah speaks of thirteen trumpet-shaped chests but not of where they stood; Josephus mentions treasury chambers along the porticoes of the inner courts, and modern reconstructions put the chests in the Court of Women. Then move to the evening on the Mount of Olives, with the temple Jesus has just spoken about filling the view across the valley. The lab notes that its sunset light is a choice, and that Luke's account reads as if the discourse were given in the temple. For the building itself, Jerusalem through the Ages has Herod's Temple with its sources, and the Bible Time Map marks its destruction.
- In the temple courts and on the Mount of Olives · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- In the temple courts and on the Mount of Olives: On the Mount of Olives · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- Herod's Temple · Jerusalem Through the Ages
- Jerusalem destroyed by Rome · The Bible Time Map
Questions people ask
Did Jesus' prophecy about the temple come true?
The Roman army besieged Jerusalem in AD 70 and the temple was burned; Josephus, who watched the siege from the Roman side, describes it at length. Herodian stones thrown down from the walls of the Temple Mount still lie on the street below its south-west corner. When Luke wrote, and whether before or after the event, is debated; that the destruction happened is not.
Where did Jesus stay during Holy Week?
Luke says that every night he went out and spent the night on the mountain called Olivet (21:37), and later that going there was his custom (22:39). Mark and Matthew say he went out to Bethany, the village of Martha, Mary and Lazarus on the far slope of the same hill. The two fit together; the text does not say whether he slept in a house or in the open.
Where did Jesus give this teaching about the end?
Mark and Matthew set it on the Mount of Olives, spoken privately to the disciples. Luke marks no change of place: the talk runs straight on from remarks made in the temple, and he ends with Jesus teaching in the temple by day. A common view is that Luke gathers the teaching of those days without saying where each part was given.
See it in the Labs
- Holy Week in JerusalemIn the temple courts and on the Mount of Olives · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemIn the temple courts and on the Mount of Olives: On the Mount of Olives · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- The Bible Time MapJerusalem destroyed by Rome · The Bible Time MapOpen
- Jerusalem Through the AgesHerod's Jerusalem · Jerusalem Through the AgesOpen
- Jerusalem Through the AgesHerod's Temple · Jerusalem Through the AgesOpen
Also in this chapter
How sure can we be?
- Strongly supported
John 2:20 says it had been building for 46 years; Jesus foretold that no stone would be left on another. Its plan comes from Josephus (War 5.184–237) and the Mishnah tractate Middot.
- Plausible
Where was the discourse given?: Mark and Matthew set the discourse on the Mount of Olives, told privately to the disciples; Luke's account reads as if it were spoken in the temple. A common view is that Luke gathers the teaching of these days without marking the change of place.
- Artistic
The sunset light is our choice. Mark says only that Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives after leaving the temple; Luke says he spent the nights there.