Texts in Conversation
In Matthew, Jesus’ call for those in Judea to flee to the mountains echoes Jewish traditions where the hills served as a refuge in crisis. In 1 Maccabees, Mattathias and his followers similarly fled to the hills to preserve their commitment to the Torah.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Maccabees 2:28
Deuterocanon
26 He was zealous for the law, even as Phinehas did to Zimri the son of Salu. 27 Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying, “Whoever is zealous for the law and maintains the covenant, let him follow me!” 28 He and his sons fled into the mountains, and left all that they had in the city. 29 Then many who sought justice and judgment went down into the wilderness to live there— 30 they, their children, their wives, and their livestock—because evils were multiplied upon them.
Date: 134–63 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Matthew 24:16
New Testament
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. 15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation—spoken about by Daniel the prophet—standing in the holy place” (let the reader understand), 16 “then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17 The one on the roof must not come down to take anything out of his house, 18 and the one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.
Date: 70–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The mountains were the easiest place in Judea to hide; armies had often used them for waging guerrilla warfare (compare, e.g., 1 Samuel 23:26; 1 Maccabees 2:28). Early Christian tradition indicates that the Jerusalem Christians fled to Pella at the base of mountains to the north; although the Judean hill country lay all about Jerusalem, the route northward to Pella would be through the Jordan Valley. Both the mountains and the route to Pella could have provided places of refuge, but the flight to Pella shows that the mountain saying in 24:16 was not made up after the event ..."
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2014), 108.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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