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Hi, Dylan —
Generally those verses would be interpreted
as referring, in some sense, to both
the destruction of the temple and
the apocalypse. The Temple was seen
by the Jews as a microcosm of the
world. Therefore, the destruction
of the Temple was seen as an image
of the destruction of the world.
(Not that destroying the Temple would
destroy the world, only that the
prophetic imagery tended to apply
somewhat indiscriminately to both
events.)
I can't give you a specific quote
from the Church Fathers on this subject,
nor do I know where this is treated.
I can only respond with my own recollection
of what I've heard over the years.
I don't see Matthew 24:9-14 as necessarily
referring to the prelude to the Second
Coming.
After all, these events did happen
in the first century. Verse 15 is
predicated on a Temple
so that would seem to rule out a
Second Coming interpretation.
Matthew 24:34 would seem to refer
to the destruction of the Temple.
As I said there is a mixture
of Second
Coming and temple destruction imagery
in the section because of the apocalyptic
style the Jews used; for example, verses 15-20 are very clearly fulfilled
in the first century, verses 20-25 could
be either, verses 26-28 would seem to
be the Second Coming although with
some imagination one could attribute
it to the first century, verse 29 could be either (there are historically
documented accounts of heavenly signs
occurring in the first century accompanying
the temple
destruction), verse 30 would
seem to be a Second Coming-only verse, verse 31 is more likely Second
Coming
but could be interpreted as first
century, verses 32-33 could be either.
The only thing I can recommend is
Dr. Scott Hahn's series on Revelation:
Dr. Hahn is Catholic
but he does sometimes rely, heavily,
on Protestant sources, but all of
it is consonant with the Catholic
faith. Another is his bible study
on Matthew: The
Gospel of Matthew.
Eric
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