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Luke 21 · a question people ask

What are "the times of the Gentiles" (21:24)?

In the text

Here are Jesus's words: "Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." (21:24). Luke tells of no explanation of them. Favor's Mark 13 asks whether, in this answer, Jesus speaks of the temple's stones, of his coming, or of both, and gives three readings, each resting on Mark's verses, without choosing. Luke's words in 21:5-36, 21:24 among them, sit inside that question, with no reading of their own here. These notes name no date, event, nation, people or year for any of them, and apply them to no one today.

The verses

“They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
Luke 21:24 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Luke 21

Luke 21: Lift up your heads

The widow is called poor in two Greek words: Luke's own, penichros, in no other verse of the New Testament (21:2), and Jesus's, ptochos (21:3). And Jesus's answer ends in words from the parable of the farmer: in Greek, the cares of 21:34 are the cares that choke those among the thorns (8:14), and the endurance of 21:19 is the perseverance of those in the good ground (8:15).

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Last reviewed October 7, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions