Luke 21:12 - Exposition

But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you. The Master continues his prophetic picture. From speaking generally of wars, and disasters, and tumults, and awful natural phenomena, which would mark the sad age in which his hearers were living, he proceeded to tell them of things which would surely befall them. But even then, though terrible trials would be their lot, they were not to be dismayed, nor to dream that the great catastrophe he had been predicting was yet at hand. Some doubt exists as to the meaning of "before" ( πρό ) in this twelfth verse usually has been understood in a temporal sense, i.e. "Before all the wars, etc., I have been telling you of, you will be persecuted." A more definite sense is, however, produced by giving the word πρό (before) the signification of "before," equivalent to "more important"—"more important for you as signs will be the grave trials you will have to endure: even these signs must not dismay you, or cause you to give up your posts as teachers, for the end will not be heralded even by these personal signs." Delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my Name's sake. What may be termed instances of many of these special persecutions are detailed in the Acts (see, for instance, Acts 5:40 ; and portions of Acts 6:1-15 ; Acts 7:1-60 ; Acts 8:1-40 ; Acts 12:1-25 ; Acts 14:1-28 ; Acts 16:1-40 ; Acts 21:1-40 , and following).