This week’s readings are all from Mark chapter 13. Click here to see a full listing of each day’s reading and the full chapter of Mark 13. Full readings of each day’s smaller segments of the readings will be posted on this site during the week.
Today's Reading
21 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe him. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the elect. 23 Be careful! I have told you everything ahead of time.
24 “But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 Then everyone will see the Son of Man arriving in the clouds with great power and glory. 27 Then he will send angels and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
Parallel Passages
21 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe him. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the elect. 23 Be careful! I have told you everything ahead of time.
Several Jewish leaders who claimed to be the Messiah both preceded and followed after Jesus. The most famous was Simon Bar Kokhba during the second Jewish Revolt in AD 132-135. Simon's original name was Simon bar Koseva, but Rabbi Akiva saw him as the Messiah and gave him the Aramaic title 'Bar Kokhba', 'Son of the Star,' based on Numbers 24.17 :
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near— a star [kokhav] shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the borderlands of Moab, and the territory of all the Shethites. (Numbers 24.17 NRSV)
Other rabbis saw him as a false Messiah and gave him the title Bar Koziva, 'Son of the Lie,' using a word-play on his original name. As they did during the First Jewish Revolt, Jewish Christians fled Jerusalem during this war and suffered persecution from Bar Kokhba and his supporters for not participating in the revolt against Rome. The revolt eventually failed and Hadrian destroyed the entire city and forbade any Jews from entering the city again, renaming it after his family name Aelia Capitolina and dedicating the city to Jupiter, building a temple to Jupiter on the barren temple mount where the temple had been destroyed 65 years earlier.
After Bar Kokhba and the destruction brought by his rebellion, Messianic claims and movements have been consistently denounced and are rare within Judaism.
For further reading of sources:
- Roman historian Cassius Dio on the revolt.
- Christian historian Eusebius on the revolt; Persecution of Christians
- Jerome on the revolt.
- Church Father Justin on persecution of Christians by Bar Kokhba