24:1–2 In Matthew’s Gospel the first two verses of chapter 24 are closely related to the last two verses of chapter 23. Jesus had said, “Your house is left to you desolate” (23:38) and now adds that not one stone of the temple will be left on another (24:2), Mark’s intervening account of the widow’s gift (Mark 12:41–44) is omitted. As Jesus was walking away from the temple (hieron, the entire complex), his disciples called attention to the buildings. In 20–19 B.C. Herod the Great obtained permission from his subjects and began to rebuild the temple of Zerubbabel. An architectural masterpiece, it was fully completed only a few years before its destruction by Titus in A.D. 70.

Jesus responded with the prediction that the buildings would be brought to ruin. Not a single stone would be left i…