Mark 13

What happens in this chapter

As Jesus leaves the temple one of his disciples says, "Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!" and Jesus answers that every one will be thrown down. Sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, he is asked privately by Peter, James, John and Andrew, and Mark is the only Gospel to name the four. He speaks of false Christs, wars, earthquakes and famines, of disciples handed over to councils and governors, of the 'abomination of desolation' and a flight to the mountains, and of the Son of Man coming in clouds. The chapter ends not with Noah, as in Matthew, but with a doorkeeper told to watch because the master may come in the evening, at midnight, at cockcrow or in the morning, and with a word for everyone: watch.

What the lab shows, and where to look

The Holy Week lab sets this chapter at sunset on Tuesday. Open 'On the Mount of Olives' to see Jesus sitting with the four across the Kidron from the temple; the sunset light is marked as artistic, since Mark gives no hour. To see what the disciple was admiring, open Herod's Temple in Jerusalem through the Ages, and the Temple Mount scene's view from the Mount of Olives, which shows the courts and the sanctuary from where the four sat. The Holy Week stop's notes record that the temple fell to the Roman army in AD 70 and that stones thrown down from its walls still lie on the street below the south-west corner. The Places of Jesus map marks the Mount of Olives.

• 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
• The Temple Mount: view from The View from the Mount of Olives
• Mount of Olives · Places of Jesus

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