{Master, behold, what manner of stones and what manner of
buildings} (didaskale, ide potapoi lithoi kai potapai
oikodomai).  Mt 24:1  and  Lu 21:5  tell of the fact of the
comment, but Mark alone gives the precise words. Perhaps Peter
himself (Swete) was the one who sought thus by a pleasant
platitude to divert the Teacher's attention from the serious
topics of recent hours in the temple. It was not a new
observation, but the merest commonplace might serve at this
crisis. Josephus (_Ant_. xv. II, 3) speaks of the great size of
these stones and the beauty of the buildings. Some of these
stones at the southeastern and southwestern angles survive today
and measure from twenty to forty feet long and weigh a hundred
tons. Jesus had, of course, often observed them.