PART 6 of The Woman in Travail: How Birth Became the Bible’s Most Powerful End-Times Metaphor
Jesus’ Adoption of the Metaphor: The Olivet Discourse and “The Beginning of Birth Pangs”
Hello brothers and sisters.
**PLEASE NOTE**
This is Part 6 of an 8-part paid subscriber series.
In Parts 1-5, we traced the birth pang metaphor from its ancient Near Eastern origins through the Hebrew prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah), examined how the Septuagint translators created standardized Greek vocabulary (ὠδίνω, τίκτω, ὠδίν), and discovered how this terminology became the established way of speaking about eschatological judgment and transformation.
If you missed the earlier posts, you can get caught up below:
Now, finally, we arrive at the moment when Jesus himself adopts this prophetic tradition and applies it to the tribulation that will precede the Kingdom’s arrival. We’re about to see how “the beginning of birth pangs” (Matthew 24:8) represents not random metaphor-making, but deliberate invocation of centuries of prophetic witness. This is where everything we’ve studied comes together.
Let’s dive in!
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The Setting: From Temple Glory to Prophetic Doom
The Context (Matthew 23:37–24:3)
To understand Jesus’ use of birth pang imagery in Matthew 24, we need to back up and see what immediately precedes it.
Jesus has just delivered a devastating prophetic denunciation against the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23. Seven times he pronounces “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (23:13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 29). The chapter climaxes with Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate“ (Matthew 23:37-38, ESV).
“Your house” (ho oikos hymōn) almost certainly refers to the Temple, God’s dwelling place, now abandoned because of Israel’s rejection of the Messiah. This echoes Ezekiel’s vision of God’s glory departing from the Temple before its destruction by Babylon (Ezekiel 10:18-19; 11:22-23).
Jesus and his disciples then leave the Temple complex and cross the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives. As they climb the western slope and look back across the valley, the Temple comes into full view. This is not the grand Temple of Solomon or even the far lesser second temple built under the oversight of Zerubbabel, but rather Herod’s magnificent reconstruction of it. With its gleaming white limestone and gold, the structure dominated the Jerusalem skyline.
Matthew 24:1-2:
As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. Then he asked them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
The disciples are stunned. The Temple was considered indestructible by first-century Jews. It was the center of their religious, national, and cosmic identity. And Jesus had just pronounced its utter demolition.
The Questions (Matthew 24:3)
Later, on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approach Jesus privately with three questions:
When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
The disciples appear to assume that the Temple’s destruction, Jesus’ coming (parousia), and the end of the age (synteleia tou aiōnos) are simultaneous events. This is understandable. After all, from their Jewish perspective the Messiah’s arrival would usher in the Kingdom, and surely the Temple would stand in that Kingdom.
But Jesus’ answer reveals something more complex: there will be multiple stages of fulfillment. Some of what he describes happened in A.D. 70 when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. Some describes the entire inter-adventual age (the period between Jesus’ first and second comings). And some describes the final eschatological crisis that will precede his return.
This is prophetic perspective, which is the telescoping of near and far events into a single prophetic vision. Such are common throughout Old Testament prophecy (Isaiah’s oracles about Babylon/end times; Joel’s prophecies about locusts/Day of the LORD; Daniel’s visions blending near-term fulfillment with distant eschatological consummation).
Now we’re ready to examine Jesus’ answer, and specifically, his use of birth pang imagery.
Part I: “The Beginning of Birth Pangs” (Matthew 24:4-8)
The Text: Matthew 24:4-8
Let’s take a look at the passage in both Greek and English:
Greek:
⁴καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· βλέπετε μή τις ὑμᾶς πλανήσῃ· ⁵πολλοὶ γὰρ ἐλεύσονται ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου λέγοντες· ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ Χριστός, καὶ πολλοὺς πλανήσουσιν. ⁶μελλήσετε δὲ ἀκούειν πολέμους καὶ ἀκοὰς πολέμων· ὁρᾶτε, μὴ θροεῖσθε· δεῖ γὰρ γενέσθαι, ἀλλ’ οὔπω ἐστὶν τὸ τέλος. ⁷ἐγερθήσεται γὰρ ἔθνος ἐπὶ ἔθνος καὶ βασιλεία ἐπὶ βασιλείαν, καὶ ἔσονται λιμοὶ καὶ σεισμοὶ κατὰ τόπους· ⁸πάντα δὲ ταῦτα ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων.
English:
⁴And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. ⁵For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. ⁶And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. ⁷For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸But all these things are the beginning of birth pangs.”
The Key Phrase: ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων (archē ōdinōn)
Here it is, the phrase we’ve been building toward for five installments:
πάντα δὲ ταῦτα ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων (panta de tauta archē ōdinōn, “But all these things [are the] beginning of birth pangs”)
Let’s break this down word by word:
πάντα (panta) = “all these things” (neuter plural nominative)
δὲ (de) = “but, and, now” (conjunctive particle)
ταῦτα (tauta) = “these” (demonstrative pronoun, neuter plural)
ἀρχὴ (archē) = “beginning, origin, first” (nominative singular)
ὠδίνων (ōdinōn) = “of birth pangs” (genitive plural of ὠδίν, ōdin)
Jesus is using the exact Greek term (ὠδίνων, genitive plural of ὠδίν) that the LXX translators had been using for centuries to render Hebrew birth pang imagery from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah.
This is not accidental. This is not creative metaphor-making. This is deliberate invocation of established prophetic tradition.
What Are “These Things”?
Jesus identifies specific phenomena as “the beginning of birth pangs”:
False messiahs (v. 5) — πολλοὶ γὰρ ἐλεύσονται ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου λέγοντες· ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ Χριστός
Wars and rumors of wars (v. 6) — πολέμους καὶ ἀκοὰς πολέμων
International conflict (v. 7a) — ἐγερθήσεται γὰρ ἔθνος ἐπὶ ἔθνος καὶ βασιλεία ἐπὶ βασιλείαν
Famines (v. 7b) — λιμοὶ
Earthquakes in various places (v. 7c) — σεισμοὶ κατὰ τόπους
Mark 13:8 adds “troubles” (ταραχαί, tarachai), and Luke 21:11 adds “pestilences” (λοιμοί, loimoi) and “terrors and great signs from heaven” (φόβητρά τε καὶ ἀπ’ οὐρανοῦ σημεῖα μεγάλα, phobētra te kai ap’ ouranou sēmeia megala).
These are the phenomena that characterize “the beginning of birth pangs.” It’s important to note that this is not the full labor, not the birth itself, but the early contractions that signal the process has begun.
Now notice what Jesus says in verse 6:
“See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet“ (οὔπω ἐστὶν τὸ τέλος, oupō estin to telos).
This is crucial. Jesus is explicitly saying that wars, famines, earthquakes, and false messiahs are NOT signs that the end is imminent. They are signs that the end has not yet come.
Why is this important?
Because birth pangs always precede birth. If you’re experiencing early contractions, you know you’re in labor but you also know the baby hasn’t arrived yet. There’s still time. The process is underway, but delivery is still ahead.
Jesus is using the birth pang metaphor to communicate a paradox:
Yes, these things are prophetically significant, they signal that history is in labor
No, these things do not mean the Kingdom is about to arrive immediately, in fact they’re just the beginning
This explains why Christians have experienced wars, famines, earthquakes, and false prophets throughout the entire church age, yet Jesus has not returned. These phenomena don’t signal “the end is tomorrow”; they signal “history is in labor, and one day the birth will come.”
Part II: The Prophetic Background Jesus Is Invoking
When Jesus says “ἀρχὴ ὠδίνων” (archē ōdinōn, “beginning of birth pangs”), his Jewish disciples would have immediately recognized that he was quoting a tradition. Specifically, the prophetic tradition we’ve been tracing.
Let’s examine which specific prophetic passages Jesus’ language evokes.
