Mark 13 — Clausal Layout (English)

independentparticipialrelativepurposecausecomparativecontentconditionalphrase modifierdashed = verbless / suspended

Flush-left = a main (independent) clause. Each dependent line begins directly beneath the word it attaches to in the line above — the anchor word is dotted-underlined, and lights up when you hover its dependent clause; each tag also names the attachment. A dashed border marks verbless, elliptical, or suspended lines. Where a long sentence's staircase runs wider than the page, the diagram scrolls sideways. (In print, or without JavaScript, lines fall back to stepped indent columns.)

The temple's fall foretold and the disciples' question 13:1–4

vv. 1–2 — the temple's stones admired and doomed

And as he was going out of the temple,participial — genitive absolute — forward-leaning on λέγει; Jesus' final departure from the precincts

one of his disciples says to him:independent — historic present — an unnamed disciple; the speech-frame

'Teacher, look — what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!'content — verbless exclamation — ἴδε a frozen pointing particle; Herod's famously massive masonry admired

And Jesus said to him:independent — the answering oracle — speech-frame

'Do you see these great buildings?content — the counter-question — βλέπω, soon the discourse's refrain, first on Jesus' lips

Not one stone will be left here upon anothercontent — οὐ μή + aorist subjunctive — the strongest Greek denial; fulfilled A.D. 70

that will not be thrown down.'relative — the οὐ μή doubled inside the relative — καταλύω, dismantled stone from stone

vv. 3–4 — the private question on the Mount of Olives

And as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple,participial — genitive absolute — forward-leaning on ἐπηρώτα; the teacher seated facing the doomed shrine (cf. Zech 14:4)

Peter and James and John and Andrew were asking him privately:independent — inceptive imperfect, singular verb with the four named askers — κατ' ἰδίαν, the insiders' schoolroom

'Tell us,content — the request whose two halves frame the whole discourse

when will these things be,content — the first question — πότε: timing; ταῦτα, the near referent (the temple's fall)

and what will be the signcontent — the second question, verbless — the demanded σημεῖον the discourse will refuse to date

when all these things are about to be accomplished?'conditional — backward ὅταν on σημεῖον (typed cnd; no temporal key) — συντελεῖσθαι, consummation language widening the question

The Olivet discourse — birth pangs, tribulation, the Son of Man, and the watch 13:5–37

vv. 5–6 — the keynote: see that no one deceives you

And Jesus began to say to them:independent — the discourse's single narrative frame — ingressive ἤρξατο; all thirty-three verses hang on λέγειν

'Watch outcontent — the keynote imperative — βλέπετε, the discourse's refrain (vv. 5, 9, 23, 33)

that no one leads you astray.content — μή + subjunctive of apprehension — deception, not war, the first danger named

Many will come in my name,content — the ground of the warning — impostors trading on his name

saying:participial — speech-participle with recitative ὅτι — the deceivers' one line

'I am he,'content — the claim — Ἐγώ εἰμι, the divine self-designation (Exod 3:14; Isa 43:10) arrogated

and they will lead many astray.content — πολλοί deceiving πολλούς — the feared verb of v. 5 made a prediction

vv. 7–8 — wars and earthquakes: the beginning of birth pangs, not the end

And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars,conditional — fronted ὅταν (typed cnd; no temporal key) — forward-leaning on μὴ θροεῖσθε

do not be alarmed;content — the command of calm — θροέομαι, panic forbidden to the forewarned

it must take place,content — the apocalyptic δεῖ — necessity inside God's plan (Dan 2:28 LXX δεῖ γενέσθαι)

but the end is not yet.content — verbless — οὔπω, the great delaying word: wars are preliminaries, not the signal

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;cause — on τὸ τέλος — why it is not yet: Isa 19:2 / 2 Chr 15:6, the scripted convulsions

there will be earthquakes in place after place;cause — coordinate in the ground — distributive κατὰ τόπους

there will be famines.cause — the asyndetic third — the woes pile up without connectives

These things are the beginning of the birth pains.content — verbless verdict — the messianic ὠδῖνες: onset of labor, not delivery

vv. 9–13 — handed over: persecution as testimony, the Spirit speaking, endurance

But you — watch yourselves.content — the refrain turned inward — emphatic ὑμεῖς: from world events to the disciples' own bodies

They will deliver you over to councils,content — παραδίδωμι — the verb of Jesus' own passion (9:31; 14:41), now the disciples' future

and in synagogues you will be beaten,content — δέρω — the synagogue flogging (cf. 2 Cor 11:24)

and before governors and kings you will stand for my sake,content — the arenas widen — Jewish courts to Roman tribunals; ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ, the charge is Christ

as a testimony to them.phrase modifier — εἰς μαρτύριον αὐτοῖς — the dock turned pulpit; a testimony for, or against, them (cf. 1:44)

And to all the nations the gospel must first be proclaimed.content — the missionary δεῖ — πρῶτον: the world's evangelization stands between now and the end

And when they lead you away, handing you over,conditional — fronted ὅταν (typed cnd) — forward-leaning on μὴ προμεριμνᾶτε; παραδιδόντες again

do not be anxious beforehandcontent — προμεριμνάω — a Markan hapax: no rehearsed defense

what you should say,content — indirect deliberative question — the content of the forbidden worry

but whatever is given you in that hour, say that;content — fronted indefinite relative resumed by τοῦτο — the word a gift (divine passive δοθῇ), delivered in the hour itself

for it is not you who are speaking, but the Holy Spirit.cause — the ground — the Spirit the true speaker in the dock; Mark's one promise of the Paraclete's work

And brother will deliver brother over to death, and a father his child,content — Mic 7:6 — betrayal invades the family; the verb gapped in the second pair

and children will rise up against parentscontent — ἐπανίστημι — the household in revolt

and will have them put to death;content — θανατόω — the betrayal carried to its end

and you will be hated by all because of my name.content — future periphrastic — a standing state of hatred; the name of v. 6, now the offense

But the one who endures to the end — this one will be saved.content — resumptive οὗτος — endurance, not escape, the promised way; τέλος echoes v. 7, σωθήσεται anticipates v. 20

vv. 14–23 — the abomination of desolation: flee, for the tribulation is unequaled

But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not,conditional — fronted ὅταν (typed cnd) — leaning forward across the parenthesis on φευγέτωσαν; Dan 9:27/11:31/12:11, and the masculine ἑστηκότα against neuter βδέλυγμα: the grammar hints at a personal desolator

(let the reader understand)independent — the parenthesis crux — whose voice? anchored to the frame's λέγειν (like καθαρίζων, 7:19) as the Evangelist's nudge to his reader, though some keep it inside the speech as Jesus' pointer to the reader of Daniel

then let those in Judea flee to the mountains;content — the apodosis — τότε answers the ὅταν; flight, not defense, is commanded

let the one on the housetop not go down nor entercontent — the rooftop — straight down the outside stair and away, not into the house

to take anything out of his house;purpose — purpose infinitive — possessions forfeited to speed

and let the one in the field not turn backcontent — εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω — no turning back (cf. Gen 19:26; Lot's wife the standing warning)

to take his cloak.purpose — purpose infinitive — the cloak laid off for field-work, left where it lies

And woe to those who are with child and to those nursing in those days!content — verbless woe — compassion, not curse: the burdened cannot run

But praycontent — continual prayer commanded over the flight's timing

that it may not happen in winter;content — ἵνα-content of the prayer — genitive of time: swollen wadis and cold against escape

For those days will be tribulationcause — the ground of flight and prayer — the days themselves are θλῖψις (Dan 12:1)

such as has not been from the beginning of the creationrelative — correlative οἵα … τοιαύτη — the pleonastic doubling Semitic; unprecedented affliction

that God createdrelative — the cognate relative — the Creator's own scale invoked for the comparison

until now — and never will be.relative — the οἵα-clause resumed past the embedded relative — οὐ μή: the affliction singular, unrepeatable

And if the Lord had not cut short the days,conditional — contrary-to-fact protasis — forward-leaning on οὐκ ἂν ἐσώθη; κολοβόω, 'dock, curtail'; the aorist views the decree as already taken

no flesh would be saved.cause — the apodosis, continuing the ground — ἄν + aorist: contrary to fact; πᾶσα σάρξ … οὐ, the Semitic 'no one at all'

But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days.cause — the mercy — the embedded οὓς ἐξελέξατο kept in line: election doubled, 'the chosen whom he chose'

And then if anyone says to you,conditional — protasis inside quoted speech — leans forward across the cries on μὴ πιστεύετε; τότε: in the tribulation itself

'Look, here is the Christ!'content — the locating cry, verbless — the deceiver's pointing finger

'Look, there!'content — the rival cry — christs multiplied by geography; the true coming will need no informant (v. 26)

do not believe it;content — the apodosis — flat prohibition: the only defense is disbelief

for false christs and false prophets will arisecause — the ground — ψευδόχριστος, a word coined for the occasion

and will perform signs and wonderscause — counterfeit credentials — the σημεῖον demanded at v. 4 arrives, faked (Deut 13:1–3)

in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.purpose — πρός + articular infinitive — the aim; εἰ δυνατόν concedes it is finally not possible: the elect are kept (v. 20)

But you — watch;content — emphatic ὑμεῖς against the deceived — the refrain's third strike

I have told you all things beforehand.content — perfect προείρηκα — the forewarning stands on record; prophecy as protection, sealing the tribulation section

vv. 24–27 — after the tribulation: the Son of Man comes and the elect are gathered

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened,content — Isa 13:10 — the strong ἀλλά turns the page; μετὰ τὴν θλῖψιν ἐκείνην, the seam between the horizons

and the moon will not give its light,content — Isa 13:10 — the second luminary quenched

and the stars will be falling from heaven,content — Isa 34:4 — future periphrastic: a continuing rain of stars

and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.content — the celestial host convulsed — the old order dissolving before the theophany

And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.content — Dan 7:13 — the climax; supplementary ἐρχόμενον kept in line: the advent watched in progress, visible to all

And then he will send out the angelscontent — the Son commands the angels — they are his harvesters

and will gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of earth to the end of heaven.content — Deut 30:4 / Zech 2:6 — the ingathering; the advent's one stated purpose is rescue, and judgment goes unmentioned

vv. 28–31 — the fig tree: near, at the doors; this generation; the abiding words

Now from the fig tree learn the parable:content — the fronted συκῆ — the cursed tree of 11:12–21 turned teacher; μάθετε, the disciples' own verb

as soon as its branch has become tender and puts out the leaves,conditional — the double protasis (typed cnd) — forward-leaning on γινώσκετε; the fig's late leafing made it Palestine's calendar

you knowcontent — gnomic present (or imperative) — the parable's inner apodosis

that summer is near;content — ἐγγύς — the nearness-word the application will reuse

So also you,content — the suspended subject — held across its protasis until γινώσκετε

when you see these things happening,conditional — the ὅταν of the application (typed cnd) — forward-leaning on γινώσκετε; ταῦτα, the askers' own word (v. 4)

knowcontent — the application's verb — imperative or indicative, as in v. 28

that he is near, at the very doors.content — the subject unexpressed — the Son of Man, or the end; ἐπὶ θύραις, on the threshold (the θυρωρός of v. 34 will keep those doors)

Truly I say to you,content — the ἀμήν-formula — Jesus' oath-strength asseveration over the timing

that this generation will not pass awaycontent — ἡ γενεὰ αὕτη — the crux of reference: most naturally Jesus' contemporaries; 'the Jewish people' and 'the final generation' are the rival escapes, named and declined

until all these things take place.conditional — backward μέχρις οὗ (typed cnd; no temporal key) — ταῦτα πάντα: the sign-complex of v. 4, or everything through v. 27; left open, the tension with v. 32 unharmonized

Heaven and earth will pass away,content — the cosmos conceded transient — παρέρχομαι carried over from v. 30

but my words will never pass away.content — οὐ μή with the future indicative — absolute denial; Isa 40:8, said of God's word, claimed for his own

vv. 32–37 — the unknown day: no one knows — watch

But concerning that day or the hour no one knows,content — περὶ δέ turns the topic — the WHEN withheld in the same breath that swore the THAT (v. 30)

not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,phrase modifier — οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός — the chapter's hardest word, the harder reading kept: the Son's confessed ignorance; the ladder of exclusion stops just short of the Father

except the Father.phrase modifier — exceptive εἰ μή — the day rests in the Father's sole authority (Acts 1:7)

Watch, stay awake;content — asyndetic double imperative — the refrain's last βλέπετε joined to sleeplessness; many witnesses add καὶ προσεύχεσθε, not printed

for you do not knowcause — the ground — the disciples share the ignorance of v. 32

when the time is.content — indirect question — ὁ καιρός, the appointed moment, hidden

It is like a man away on a journey,comparative — the comparison verbless — 'it is as when a man…'; the parable compressed to a sketch

who, leaving his houseparticipial — aorist participle — the departure; the house left, not abandoned

and giving his servants the authority, to each his work,participial — delegated ἐξουσία, distributively assigned — the interim is a stewardship, not a vigil only

also commanded the doorkeepercomparative — the finite verb at last inside the ὡς-picture — the θυρωρός singled out at the doors of v. 29

that he should stay awake.content — ἵνα-content of the command — γρηγορέω, the parable's key verb, about to be turned on the hearers

Therefore stay awake —content — the application — οὖν hands the doorkeeper's charge to all the servants at once

for you do not knowcause — the ground repeated verbatim from v. 33 — ignorance as the engine of vigilance

when the master of the house comes,content — futuristic present ἔρχεται — the ἄνθρωπος of v. 34 is now ὁ κύριος; the allegory thins

whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn —phrase modifier — the four Roman night-watches — the very hours of the passion night about to open (14:17; 14:72; 15:1)

lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.purpose — μή + subjunctive — the feared outcome; καθεύδοντας, the very word that will find Peter, James and John at Gethsemane (14:37, 40)

And what I say to you I say to all: stay awake!content — the widening close — the fronted relative kept in line; past the four on the Mount to πᾶσιν, every hearer and reader, and the discourse's last word is γρηγορεῖτε

Analysis. Mark 13 is one frame and one speech. After the temple exit and its exchange (vv. 1–2 — the disciple's verbless ἴδε-exclamation answered by the doubled οὐ μή of the demolition oracle) and the second genitive absolute that seats Jesus on the Mount of Olives κατέναντι τοῦ ἱεροῦ for the four named askers' double question (vv. 3–4), the whole Olivet discourse hangs from a single ἤρξατο λέγειν (v. 5): thirty-three verses of coordinate blue cnt lines sharing the one λέγειν anchor, so the page shows what Mark wrote — an unbroken speech, his longest. Against that column the discourse's own grammar indents: fronted ὅταν-temporals lean forward anchor-less on their apodoses (vv. 7, 11, 14, 28, 29), the γάρ-grounds hang cau beneath the commands they motivate (vv. 8, 19, 22, 33, 35), and the βλέπετε refrain (vv. 5, 9, 23, 33) keeps returning at speech level to re-key the whole. The cruxes are taken openly. At v. 14 the parenthesis ὁ ἀναγινώσκων νοείτω is anchored — like the καθαρίζων verdict of 7:19 — to the frame's λέγειν and typed as a narrator's clause: read here as the Evangelist's nudge to his own reader over Jesus' head, though the tag concedes that some keep it inside the speech as Jesus' pointer to the reader of Daniel; the masculine ἑστηκότα against the neuter βδέλυγμα is flagged as the grammar's own hint of a personal desolator. At v. 30 ἡ γενεὰ αὕτη is glossed with its natural sense — Jesus' contemporaries — while the rival referents ('the Jewish people,' 'the final generation') are named and the tension with v. 32 is left standing, not harmonized: οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός is kept as the harder reading it is, the Son's confessed ignorance of the day set immediately beside the sworn permanence of his words (v. 31). Nor does the layout decide where the near horizon (the temple's fall — the ταῦτα of vv. 2, 4, 29, 30) gives way to the far one (that Day — vv. 24–27, 32); the tags track the seam at μετὰ τὴν θλῖψιν ἐκείνην (v. 24) and περὶ δὲ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης (v. 32), where ταῦτα-language stops and ἐκείνη-language begins. The four night-watches of v. 35 (evening, midnight, cockcrow, dawn) are tagged as the very hours of the passion narrative about to open, and the discourse's last word — γρηγορεῖτε, widened to πᾶσιν — hands the doorkeeper's charge to every reader.