Gospel according to Matthew 24

¹ Jesus left the Temple, and as he was going away his disciples came up to draw his attention to the Temple buildings.

² He said to them in reply, ‘You see all these? I tell you solemnly, not a single stone here will be left on another: everything will be destroyed.’

³ And when he was sitting on the Mount of Olives the disciples came and asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when is this going to happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world?’

⁴ And Jesus answered them, ‘Take care that no one deceives you;

⁵ because many will come using my name and saying, “I am the Christ”, and they will deceive many.

⁶ You will hear of wars and rumours of wars; do not be alarmed, for this is something that must happen, but the end will not be yet.

⁷ For nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes here and there.

⁸ All this is only the beginning of the birthpangs.

⁹ ‘Then they will hand you over to be tortured and put to death; and you will be hated by all the nations on account of my name.

¹⁰ And then many will fall away; men will betray one another and hate one another.

¹¹ Many false prophets will arise; they will deceive many,

¹² and with the increase of lawlessness, love in most men will grow cold;

¹³ but the man who stands firm to the end will be saved.

¹⁴ ‘This Good News of the kingdom will be proclaimed to the whole world[*a] as a witness to all the nations. And then the end[*b] will come.

¹⁵ ‘So when you see the disastrous abomination, of which the prophet Daniel spoke, set up in the Holy Place (let the reader understand),

¹⁶ then those in Judaea must escape to the mountains;

¹⁷ if a man is on the housetop, he must not come down to collect his belongings;

¹⁸ if a man is in the fields, he must not turn back to fetch his cloak.

¹⁹ Alas for those with child, or with babies at the breast, when those days come!

²⁰ Pray that you will not have to escape in winter or on a sabbath.

²¹ For then there will be great distress such as, until now, since the world began, there never has been, nor ever will be again.

²² And if that time had not been shortened, no one would have survived; but shortened that time shall be, for the sake of those who are chosen.

²³ ‘If anyone says to you then, “Look, here is the Christ” or, “He is there”, do not believe it;

²⁴ for false Christs and false prophets will arise and produce great signs and portents, enough to deceive even the chosen, if that were possible.

²⁵ There; I have forewarned you.

²⁶ ‘If, then, they say to you, “Look, he is in the desert”, do not go there; “Look, he is in some hiding place”, do not believe it;

²⁷ because the coming of the Son of Man will be like lightning striking in the east and flashing far into the west.

²⁸ Wherever the corpse is, there will the vultures gather.

²⁹ ‘Immediately after the distress of those days[*c] the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of heaven will be shaken.

³⁰ And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven; then too all the peoples of the earth will beat their breasts; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.[*d]

³¹ And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet to gather his chosen from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

³² ‘Take the fig tree as a parable: as soon as its twigs grow supple and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.

³³ So with you when you see all these things: know that he is near, at the very gates.

³⁴ I tell you solemnly, before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place.[*e]

³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

³⁶ But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father only.

³⁷ ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it be when the Son of Man comes.

³⁸ For in those days before the Flood people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark,

³⁹ and they suspected nothing till the Flood came and swept all away. It will be like this when the Son of Man comes.

⁴⁰ Then of two men in the fields one is taken, one left;

⁴¹ of two women at the millstone grinding, one is taken, one left.

⁴² ‘So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming.

⁴³ You may be quite sure of this that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house.

⁴⁴ Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

⁴⁵ ‘What sort of servant, then, is faithful and wise enough for the master to place him over his household to give them their food at the proper time?

⁴⁶ Happy that servant if his master’s arrival finds him at this employment.

⁴⁷ I tell you solemnly, he will place him over everything he owns.

⁴⁸ But as for the dishonest servant who says to himself, “My master is taking his time”,

⁴⁹ and sets about beating his fellow servants and eating and drinking with drunkards,

⁵⁰ his master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know.

⁵¹ The master will cut him off and send him to the same fate as the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.