“The time is coming when all these things will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”
Parallel translations
- WEB “As for these things which you see, the days will come, in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.”
- KJV As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
- BSB “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
- NKJV “These things which you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.”
- NASB “As for these things which you are observing, the days will come when there will not be left one stone upon another, which will not be torn down.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus foretells that the temple will be utterly destroyed, with not one stone left upon another.
Overview
This prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70 when the Romans demolished Jerusalem and its temple. The destruction marked the end of the old sacrificial system, now fulfilled and superseded in Christ. The true temple is the risen Lord, in whom God dwells with His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Mark 13:2Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone on another, which will not be thrown down.”
- Matt 24:2But he answered them, “You see all of these things, don’t you? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down.”
- Lam 5:18For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk on it.
- Zech 14:2For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
- 1 Kgs 9:7–9then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of my sight; and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
- Acts 6:13–14and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.
- Isa 64:10–11Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
- Zech 11:1Open your doors, Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars.
- Jer 26:6then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.”’”
- Luke 19:44–48and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
- Jer 26:9Why have you prophesied in Yahweh’s name, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant?’” All the people were crowded around Jeremiah in Yahweh’s house.
- Lam 2:6–8He has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden; he has destroyed his place of assembly: Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, Has despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
- 2 Chr 7:20–22then I will pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
- Jer 26:18“Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “‘Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.’
- Dan 9:26–27After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and its end shall be with a flood, and even to the end shall be war; desolations are determined.
- Lam 4:1How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
- Mic 3:12Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
- Jer 7:11–14Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says Yahweh.
- Ezek 7:20–22As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein. Therefore I have made it to them as an unclean thing.
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 21:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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