Chapter 314 of 404

Birth Pangs (Mk 13:7-8)

Some other motifs are common to Mk 13 and these sources, including the language of eschatological “distress” (1QM 15.1; 2 Bar. 26:1; 25:3-4). Although these appear throughout the discourse, they are especially noticeable, as one might expect, in the summary list of hardships in Mk 13:7-8. Wars appear in Jubilees (23:13); 4 Ezra (9:3; 13:31); 2 Baruch (27:2-5; 70:3); and elsewhere.¹¹ Earthquakes appear in 4 Ezra (9:3; cf. 5:8 Syr.; 6:16); 2 Baruch (27:7, after a famine reference; 70:8); Testament of Moses (10:4); and also in texts about a final earthquake (similar to Rev 6:12).¹² Famines appear in Jubilees (23:13); 2 Baruch (27:6; 70:8); and elsewhere.¹³ Especially pervasive are various forms of “lawlessness”¹⁴ (to use Matthew’s language, Matt 24:12)¹⁵ and apostasy of the righteous.¹⁶ Heavenly signs, which also appear in pagan portent lists¹⁷ but are common judgment imagery in the biblical prophets (e.g., Is 13:9-11; 24:21-23; Joel 2:31), not surprisingly appear in a variety of early Jewish sources.¹⁸

In some texts the signs may not be strictly “eschatological.” Some writers before the Gospels also may have applied some of these afflictions to a period before the final generation (Jub. 23:13 includes plagues, famine, sword, and the context includes apostasy).¹⁹

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