Jesus, the Temple and the Coming Son of Man

The Gospels contain many hard sayings of Jesus, but perhaps none have puzzled and intrigued readers as much as Jesus? discourse on the coming of the Son of Man in Mark 13. Is Jesus speaking entirely of an event in the near future, a coming destruction of the temple? Or is he referring to a distant, end-of-the-world event? Or might he even be speaking of both near and distant events? But in that case, which words apply to which event, and how can we be sure? Seasoned Gospels scholar Robert Stein follows up his major commentary on Mark with this even closer reading of Mark 13. In this macro-lens commentary he walks us step by step through the text and its questions, leading us to a compelling interpretive solution.

Robert H. Stein served as senior professor of New Testament interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and previously taught at Bethel Seminary. Widely known for his work on the Synoptic Gospels, his books include Mark in the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Studying the Synoptic Gospels and Jesus the Messiah.