J.C. Robertson

Sketches of Church History | Robertson's Word Pictures | On Matthew 24 | Mark 13

Matthew 24:14
"the Apostles went forth "into all the world," as their Master had ordered them, to "preach the Gospel to every creature" (St Mark xvi. 15). The Book of Acts tells us something of what they did, and we may learn something more about it from the Epistles. And, although this be but a small part of the whole, it will give us a notion of the rest, if we consider that, while St. Paul was preaching in Asia Minor, Greece, and at Rome, the other Apostles were busily doing the same  work in other countries. 

Matthew 24:15
"{The abomination of desolation} (to bdelugma tês eremôseôs). An allusion to Da 9:27; 11:31; 12:11. Antiochus Epiphanes erected an altar to Zeus on the altar of Jehovah (1Macc. 1:54,59; 6:7; 2Macc. 6:1-5). The desolation in the mind of Jesus is apparently the Roman army (Lu 21:20) in the temple, an application of the words of Daniel to this dread event. The verb bdelussomai is to feel nausea because of stench, to abhor, to detest. Idolatry was a stench to God (Lu 16:15; Re 17:4). Josephus tells us that the Romans burned the temple and offered sacrifices to their ensigns placed by the eastern gate when they proclaimed Titus as Emperor.
{Let him that readeth understand} (ho anaginoskôn noeitô). This parenthesis occurs also in Mr 13:14. It is not to be supposed that Jesus used these words. They were inserted by Mark as he wrote his book and he was followed by Matthew. (Robertson.)

Mark 13
"13:10 {Must first be preached} (\pr“ton dei kˆruchthˆnai\). This only in Mark. It is interesting to note that Paul in Col 1:6,23 claims that the gospel has spread all over the world. All this was before the destruction of Jerusalem."

Acts 1:11
"So in like manner (outwv on tropon). Same idea twice. "So in which manner" (incorporation of antecedent and accusative of general reference). The fact of his second coming and the manner of it also described by this emphatic repetition." (Robertson's Word Pictures)

Philippians 3:11
"Apparently Paul is thinking here only of the resurrection of believers out from the dead, and so double ex (ten exanastasin ten ek nekron). Paul is not denying a general resurrection by this language, but emphasizing that of believers." (quoted by Curtis)

Revelation
"Perhaps no single book in the New Testament presents so many and so formidable problems as the Apocalypse of John." (Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville: Broadman, 269)