Tuesday Evening on Mount Olivet

176:0.1This Tues­day af­ter­noon, as Je­sus and the apos­tles passed out of the tem­ple on their way to the Geth­sem­ane camp, Mat­thew, call­ing at­ten­tion to the tem­ple con­struc­tion, said: “Mas­ter, ob­serve what man­ner of build­ings these are. See the mas­sive stones and the beau­ti­ful adorn­ment; can it be that these build­ings are to be de­stroyed?” As they went on to­ward Oli­vet, Je­sus said: “You see these stones and this mas­sive tem­ple; ver­ily, ver­ily, I say to you: In the days soon to come there shall not be left one stone upon an­other. They shall all be thrown down.” These re­marks de­pict­ing the de­struc­tion of the sa­cred tem­ple aroused the cu­rios­ity of the apos­tles as they walked along be­hind the Mas­ter; they could con­ceive of no event short of the end of the world which would oc­ca­sion the de­struc­tion of the tem­ple.

176:0.2In or­der to avoid the crowds pass­ing along the Kidron val­ley to­ward Geth­sem­ane, Je­sus and his as­so­ciates were minded to climb up the west­ern slope of Oli­vet for a short dis­tance and then fol­low a trail over to their pri­vate camp near Geth­sem­ane lo­cated a short dis­tance above the pub­lic camp­ing ground. As they turned to leave the road lead­ing on to Beth­any, they ob­served the tem­ple, glo­ri­fied by the rays of the set­ting sun; and while they tar­ried on the mount, they saw the lights of the city ap­pear and be­held the beauty of the il­lu­mi­nated tem­ple; and there, un­der the mel­low light of the full moon, Je­sus and the twelve sat down. The Mas­ter talked with them, and pres­ently Na­than­iel asked this ques­tion: “Tell us, Mas­ter, how shall we know when these events are about to come to pass?”