[The following is a selection taken from the Parousia #14 newsletter by Charles Cooper.]
“And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
It would be difficult to read the New Testament and miss the fact that the Jews were expecting the Messiah to come and free both the nation and Jerusalem from the long years of Gentile domination. Any hope to this effect was dashed by the Lord’s prophetic statements in the Olivet Discourse. Luke 21:24 records a very important prophetic statement concerning Daniel’s people (Israel) and his holy city (Jerusalem). It is this prophecy, which allows us to add the plus to the phrase 490-year-plus delay. The Lord Jesus indicates that Israel’s delay will continue for an undetermined length of time. The Lord designates this period as “the times of the Gentiles.” Times is the Greek term [kairoi]. It may be a technical term, i.e. it means the same thing each time it is used in a certain context. Dr. Darrell Bock writes,
It may be that [kairoi] is a Lucan technical term for the first of these eschatological periods, since the term has this technical meaning when it describes an era with an eschatological… emphasis, such as “times” or “periods”…(9)
This fact can be seen in Acts 1:6 which declares that “the times and epochs are fixed by God’s own authority.” Thus, the times of the Gentilesis a specific time-period, which not only describes Israel’s future, but her past as well. Judah and Jerusalem had already served a 483-year sentence. Now it would continue. The Lord indicates in Luke 21:24 that the AD 70 destruction would mark the continuation of Jerusalem’s trampling. Revelation 11:2 indicates that the end of Jerusalem’s trampling by Gentiles culminates with the end of the second half of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.(10)
Luke states that many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem either will die or be exiled “into all the nations.” “Jerusalem,” on the other hand, “will [continue to] be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” The concept of trampling under foot is a figure of speech. Specifically,
The literal trampling of enemies in warfare accounts for the use of “trampling under the feet” as an image for any victory over one’s enemies… To place “under one’s feet” also implies dominion and rule… Additional meaning of the imagery of being under the feet include disdain, defilement and judgment… Oppression and persecution are also pictured by the image of the foot.(11)
In a true sense, all of the above nuances are applicable in Luke 21:24. History bears out the truth of the Lord’s prediction. Since the Babylonian captivity, Jerusalem has been under the dominion of Gentile nations in one form or another. Her people have been defeated, possessed, rules, oppressed, and persecuted to this very day. The city and the most sacred temple site in all the world is trampled daily by unbelievers and infidels. A false god’s temple and his worshippers show utter contempt for the true God of the heavens. The duration of Jerusalem’s woes is indicated by the clause “until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
Dr. Darrell L. Bock, research professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, is very helpful in stating the weight of this important clause. He lists three significant conclusions to be drawn:
(1) [that] the city’s fall is of limited duration; (2) [that] there is a period in God’s plan when Gentiles will dominate, which implies that the subsequent period is of a different nature…; and (3) [that] Israel’s judgment now but vindication later suggests what Paul also argues in Romans 11:25-26; Israel has a future in God’s plan.(12)
The Apostle John records in the Revelation of our Lord that the termination of Jerusalem’s woes will occur at the end of the Seventieth Week of Daniel. The 490-year-plus delay for Israel and her city’s ultimate restoration culminates in a final seven-year period. This seven-year period is bifurcated. The first three and a half year segment does not receive much attention in Scripture explicitly. However, the second half is consistently identified in Daniel and Revelation. It is numerically identified as forty-two months; twelve hundred and sixty days; one thousand two hundred and sixty days, and times, times and half a times. In each case, the people or city of God is shown suffering at the hands of the Evil One or his people.
John writes in Revelation 11:2, “Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread [trample] under foot the holy city for forty-two months.” The grammatical and theological parallels between this verse and Luke 21:24 establish a clear termination point for the “times of the Gentiles.” Not surprisingly, it is exactly as Daniel 9:24 indicated.
Footnotes:
9. A technical term is a word that has the same meaning every time it is used in a particular context. In this case, kairoi refers to the period extending from the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 until the end of Daniel�s Seventieth Week. Darrell L. Bock, Luke 9:51-24:53, in Baker’s Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996) 1682.
10. That Revelation 11:2 refers to the end of the second half of Daniel’s Seventieth Week can be proven by recognizing the relationship between the trumpet judgments and the three “woes” of Revelation 8:13. The pronunciation of first woe following the fifth trumpet and the second woe following the sixth trumpet establishes a clear sequential chronology in Revelation 8:1-11:19. The third woe is represented in the seven blows, which finishes the wrath of God. The death of the two witnesses occurs in the context of the second woe. This demands the conclusion of the seven-year period, not it’s beginning.
11. L. Ryken, J.C. Wilhoit, and T. Longmann III, Ed., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1998) 906.
12. Bock, Luke 9:51- 24:53, 1680-1681.
