Mark 13:10

Context

This verse belongs to the discourse Jesus delivered privately on the Mount of Olives to Peter, James, John, and Andrew after foretelling the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Mark 13 as a whole is commonly called the "Olivet Discourse" (the extended teaching given on the Mount of Olives) or the "Little Apocalypse." Earlier in the chapter Jesus says that even when wars and earthquakes occur, "the end shall not be yet" (Mark 13:7). He then foretells a persecution in which the disciples will be delivered up to councils and synagogues and brought before rulers and kings (13:9). Verse 10 stands in the middle of this prediction of persecution and is immediately followed by the promise that, when the disciples are arrested, the Holy Spirit will give them what to say (13:11). In context, "first" is generally understood to mean before the "end" comes.

Interpretation

• Missional and eschatological reading: This reading is widely accepted in the evangelical tradition. It takes the verse to mean that the gospel must be proclaimed throughout the whole world before the Second Coming, and it connects this with the church's missionary mandate. It is read together with the parallel passage in Matthew 24:14, "and then shall the end come."
• Reading as a disclosure of God's plan: This reading understands the Greek dei (δεῖ, "must") not as a condition that human beings must fulfill but as a necessity ordained by God. On this reading, the focus of the verse is the comfort it offers to disciples facing persecution: despite suffering, the gospel cannot be stopped.
• Historical (preterist) reading: Some interpreters hold that this prophecy was already fulfilled in the apostolic age as the gospel spread throughout the Roman world. They cite expressions such as "which was preached to every creature which is under heaven" in Colossians 1:23. On this reading, much of chapter 13 concerns the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.
• Dispensationalist reading: Dispensationalist interpreters read much of the Olivet Discourse as prophecy concerning a future Great Tribulation. Accordingly, they sometimes relate this proclamation to that period as well.

Debates and Issues

• Condition or prediction: Some emphasize the idea that completing world evangelization can hasten the Second Coming. Theologians from a number of denominations have criticized this emphasis as standing in tension with the statement in the same chapter, "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man" (13:32). There is little disagreement among denominations about using the verse to encourage missions; the difference lies in how directly it is connected to the timing of the end.
• The meaning of "nations": The Greek ethnē (ἔθνη) is closer to "peoples" or "Gentiles" than to nations in the sense of states. For this reason, some hold that the rendering "all peoples" in the New Korean Standard Version is closer to the original meaning than "all nations" in the New Korean Revised Version. In missiology, the term is sometimes linked to the concept of "unreached people groups," which understands it in terms of ethnic peoples.
• Punctuation: Some scholars have proposed a punctuation that attaches "to all nations" to "for a testimony" at the end of verse 9. Widely used translations, however, generally divide the text in the customary way.

In the Korean Church

The verse is frequently cited, together with Matthew 24:14 and Matthew 28:19-20, as a basis for the missionary mandate in sermons for Mission Sunday, missionary commissioning services, and mission rallies.

Related Passages

• Matthew 24:14
• Matthew 28:18-20
• Acts 1:8
• Mark 13:32-33
• Colossians 1:23