Luke 21:8 - Exposition

Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ . Many of these pretenders appeared in the lifetime of the apostles. Josephus mentions several of these impostors ('Ant.,' 20.8 §§ 6-10; 'Bell. Jud.,' 2.13. § 5). Theudas, one of these pretenders, is referred to in Acts 21:38 (see, too, Josephus, 'Ant.,' 20.5. § 1). Simon Magus announced that he was Messiah. His riyal Dositheus, his disciple Menander, advanced similar pretences. Mr. Greswell (quoted by Dean Manse], 'Speaker's Commentary,' on Matthew 24:5 ) has called attention to the remarkable fact that, while many of these false Messiahs appeared in the interval between the Lord's ascension and the Jewish war, there is no evidence that any one arose claiming this title before the beginning of his ministry. It was necessary, he infers, that the true Christ should first appear and be rejected by the great body of the nation, before they were judicially given over to the delusions of the false Christs.