Richard M. Davidson
“Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” Matthew 24:34.
Matthew 24:34 has been regarded as one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament. C. S. Lewis called this passage “the most embarrassing verse in the Bible.”1 This verse has been frequently cited by Jews, Muslims, and agnostics as one of the main arguments against Christ, Christianity, and the New Testament. If Jesus predicted that He would come again in His generation, as many have interpreted Matthew 24:34 to teach, then His prediction clearly failed, and the veracity of His Messianic claims, of Christianity in general, and of the New Testament Scriptures, is called into question. Did Jesus mistakenly predict that His second advent would come in the first century?
Many nineteenth-century Adventists saw this passage as appearing in the context of the signs of Christ’s second coming, in verses 27–51, and interpreted it as a promise that Christ would surely come within the lifetime of those who witnessed the cosmic signs connected with the Great Second Advent Awakening of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The passing of time, and the death of the eyewitnesses of these signs brought disillusionment to many in the early Seventh-day Adventist movement. The question remains: has the prophecy of Matthew 24:34 failed?
The meaning of “these things” – The key to unlocking the meaning of Matthew 24:34, and of the whole chapter, is found in the pattern of words used in the historical context of verses 1-3. In verse 1 the disciples pointed out to Jesus the magnificent buildings of the Jerusalem temple, and in verse 2, Jesus responds, “Do you not see all these things [tauta]? Assuredly I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” In this verse the Greek word tauta, translated as “these things,” clearly refers to the Jerusalem temple in the context of its imminent destruction. Then in verse 3, as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives overlooking the temple, the disciples came to Him privately, and asked, “Tell us, when will these things [tauta] be? And what will be the sign of your coming [parousia] and of the end [synteleia] of the age?”
Note that the disciples ask two basic questions: (1) regarding the tauta (“these things”), which from the context of the previous verse refers clearly to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple; and (2) regarding the sign of the parousia (“coming”) and of the synteleia (“end”) of the age. These terms elsewhere in Matthew always refer to Christ’s second coming.2 The disciples, with their dimmed understanding of Jesus’ Messianic mission, probably did not distinguish between these two events in their minds, but it is evident that Jesus draws a careful distinction in His Olivet discourse, based upon the very terminology that He and the disciples had used. Throughout Matthew 24 the term tauta “these things” consistently refers to events connected with the destruction of Jerusalem, and the terms parousia “coming” and synteleia “end” refer to events connected with the second advent of Christ.3
“These things” as a reference to Christ’s generation – In light of this pattern that is followed throughout the chapter, we are ready to look more closely at verse 34: “Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things [tauta] are fulfilled.” To what do “these things” refer? Consistent with usage elsewhere in the chapter, it refers to the events leading up to and including the destruction of Jerusalem and not to Christ’s second coming.
Further confirmation that verse 34 is referring to the generation of the first century AD, and not to the generation at the end of the world, comes from an analysis of the whole phrase “this generation” (he genea haute). A look at the usage of this phrase elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel reveals that invariably the phrase denotes Jesus’ contemporary generation (see Matt 11:16; 12:41, 42, 45; 23:36).
Finally, if one views Matthew 24:34 in the larger context of Jesus’ woes upon the scribes and Pharisees, in the previous chapter, there is a close parallel to the very wording of Jesus’ prediction. In Matthew 23, the context is clearly the condemnation of the Jewish leaders for rejecting Jesus, with the pronouncement of doom upon national Israel as a socio-political entity: “See, your house is left to you desolate” (v. 38). In the previous verse comes the parallel with our passage: “Truly, I say to you, all these things [tauta] will come upon this generation [epi ten genean tauten]“ (v. 36).
“This generation” and the destruction of Jerusalem – If one takes the phrase “this generation” to refer to Jesus’ contemporary generation, those to whom He was speaking in AD 31, and if one assumes the length of a generation in biblical thought to be about forty years,4 then the destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70) takes place exactly on time just before Jesus’ generation passes away (AD 31 + 40 years ≈ AD 70).
In summary, then, Matthew 24:34 states that “this generation,” i.e., the generation contemporary with Jesus, would not pass away until all “these things,” i.e., events leading up to, and including, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, would be fulfilled. And since verse 34 does not refer to the Second Advent, the prophecy has not failed, but was fulfilled, in the first century AD, right on time!
Signs fulfilled prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70:
a) False Messiahs—Menahem, Theudas, and others convinced thousands of followers of their Messianic claims (Josephus, Wars, 2.17.8, 9; Antiquities 20.5.1 17.10.6, 7).
b) Wars—In those days Israel was filled with wars and rumours of wars, due in part to the fanatic actions of the Zealots (Josephus, Wars, 2:17).
c) Natural catastrophes—A famine under Claudius (A.D. 49) mentioned in Acts 11:28; a pestilence in Rome, in A.D. 65 (Tacitus, Annals, 16:13); earthquakes (Acts 16:26; Josephus, Wars, 4:286, 287).
d) Persecutions—At that time the Christians suffered repeated persecutions, from the stoning of Stephen to the terrible persecution under Nero (cf. Acts 12, 14, etc.).
1 C. S. Lewis, “The World’s Last Night,” in The Essential C. S. Lewis, ed. Lyle W. Dorsett (New York: Touchstone, Simon and Schuster, 1996), 385.
2 The Greek word parousia (“coming”) occurs in Matthew only in chap. 24 (vv. 3, 27, 37, 39), all clearly referring to Christ’s second coming in glory. For the consistent use of the term synteleia (“end”) in Matthew with reference to the “end of the age” (second advent of Christ), see Matthew 13:39, 40, 49; 28:20.
3 For detailed analysis of this consistent usage of terminology in Matthew 24, see Richard Davidson, “‘This Generation Shall Not Pass’ (Matt 24:34): Failed Or Fulfilled Prophecy?” in The Cosmic Battle for Planet Earth: Essays in Honor of Norman R. Gulley, eds. Ron Du Preez and Jiří Moskala (Berrien Springs, MI: Old Testament Department, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, 2003), 307–319.
4 Note especially the wilderness generation at the time of the Exodus that passed off the scene in forty years (Num 14:29-34; 32:11, 12; Deut 1:34, 35). It seems likely that Jesus borrowed the phrase “this evil generation” (Matthew 12:45) from its usage in Deuteronomy 1:35, in which it refers to the generation that passed away in forty years, and the shortened version “this generation” probably also harks back to this Old Testament usage.
Jerusalem