Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Mark 13:18

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

If the flight had occurred in winter, the difficulty of the season would have hindered those wishing to flee. And woe to the one fleeing in winter, for we must flee from sin with warmth, that is, with repentance, and not with coldness, motionlessly — which is what fleeing in winter signifies.

Commentary on Mark ↗

Western Saints

Bede

But pray that it does not happen in winter. In Matthew it is written: But pray that your flight be not in the winter neither on the Sabbath. If we wish to take this concerning the captivity of Jerusalem, when it was captured by Titus and Vespasian, they should pray that their flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath, because in the one, the hardness of the cold blocks the way to proceed to solitude, and to hide in mountains and deserts; in the other, it is either a transgression of the law if they want to flee, or imminent death …

On the Gospel of Mark ↗

Hippolytus of Rome

Hippolytus otherwise interprets that which is said in the Gospel, When indeed ye shall see the pollution of desolation : for he says that it is not concerning the Jews, and the laying waste of Jerusalem, that these things are said, but concerning the end of Antichrist. The elect he speaks of are the Christians who are in this conflict. And He says, Pray that ye fly not on the Sabbath or in winter : i. e. …

Against Gaius 5 ↗