The Last Generation

[Neithan]

Matthew 24:34: "Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place."

(See also: Mark 15:30 and Luke 21:32)

How does the Church interpret these passages? It seems obvious from the text that Jesus means this generation, as in the one living at the time He spoke these words. What is He referring to? He does say “But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matthew 24:36) so is He admitting ignorance? Or is He indicating only that the exact time of the parousia will be a surprise, with the term in years as He says, that present generation?

Taken with other passages such as Matthew 16:28: "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." It seems as though these are failed prophecies, as though Jesus is saying that the Second Coming will happen before all the living at that time were dead.

Some Christians say that Christ is actually referring to some future age, when the last things will take place all within a timeframe of one generation, but that to me seems like wishful thinking, quite a stretch of the plain text. Other’s point to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the Jewish diaspora, but clearly not “all these things” happened before then, which Jesus predicted. The urgency with which St. Paul and the Apostles wrote their letters, as well as the tone of the Didache, seems to imply that they understood Christ’s return to happen soon. In Revelation He proclaims “I am coming quickly…” (3:11) and “Behold, I am coming soon” (22:7). Is 2000 years soon? It certainly doesn’t seem quickly.

It seems obvious to me that the Apostles and Jesus Himself are saying that His Second Coming would happen soon after His Ascension, during the generation He was actually speaking to. What is the Church’s Traditional understanding of all of this?

Who, what, or when is this last generation?

 

[Seeks_God]

I’m not exactly sure but you can think of generations in this way:

The time of Noah is a generation.
The time of the Hebrew’s slavery in Egypt is a generation.
The time of the Exodus is a generation.
The establishment of Israel is a generation.
etc…

These were all generations that took place well over the number of lifetimes that we tend to think of generations. The Church also teaches that the Last Days really have already started. And began at the time of Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection…we are IN the generation he referred to, and we don’t know when He will come to judge us. This is the reason why Catholics really don’t want people to wait to accept Jesus as the Redeemer, Saviour and God…

 

[Seeks_God]

Neithan:

Some Christians say that Christ is actually referring to some future age, when the last things will take place all within a timeframe of one generation, but that to me seems like wishful thinking, quite a stretch of the plain text. Other’s point to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the Jewish diaspora, but clearly not “all these things” happened before then, which Jesus predicted. The urgency with which St. Paul and the Apostles wrote their letters, as well as the tone of the Didache, seems to imply that they understood Christ’s return to happen soon. In Revelation He proclaims “I am coming quickly…” (3:11) and “Behold, I am coming soon” (22:7). Is 2000 years soon? It certainly doesn’t seem quickly.

I think 2000 years is relatively small compared to the entire history of humanity. The Apostles did in fact believe that Jesus’ coming was imminent, but the Apostle’s didn’t fully understand the prediction of Our Lord’s Passion either. Revelation is the most difficult book to interpret and I would behoove you to appreciate that many more people have tangled with these ideas…

 

[Deborah]

Matthew 24:24 “Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.”
We can read Matthew 24 literally as the foretelling if the Destruction of the temple in 70 AD.
If you look back to the verses leading into Matthew 24 you see Matthew 23:37-39 (The
Lament over Jerusalem) *“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those
sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her
young under her wings, but you were unwilling! Behold, your house will be abandoned,
desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord.’” * (I suppose I could have left of the first verse but Jesus saying, “I yearned to gather your children” is too good to pass up)
Chapter 24 then starts off Matthew 24:1-3 (The Destruction of the Temple foretold)
*Jesus left the temple area and was going away, when his disciples approaced him to point out
the temple buildings. He said to them in reply, “You see all these things, do you not? Amen, I
say to you, there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”
*

 

[clarkal]

In the same vein:

How do you guys interpret the scripture where St. Paul says that those married should live as though they weren’t because they were living in the ‘last days’?

 

[Neithan]

See also: Mark 15:30

Sorry, that’s 13:30. not 15:30!
Seeks God:

I think 2000 years is relatively small compared to the entire history of humanity.

Well, the collective history of Neolithic man is about 10 000 years. So approximately 1/5 the time of the whole of human civilization has passed since Christ. That’s pretty substantial!

These were all generations that took place well over the number of lifetimes that we tend to think of generations.

So, what does Jesus mean when He uses this word (genea)? Some indefinite period of time? Why the need to mention it all, then? 2000 years, any way you look at it, doesn’t seem to fit into the term. So then, He must be referring to a group of people, but who? The New American Bible notes for Matthew 24:34:
“The difficulty raised by this verse cannot be satisfactorily removed by the supposition that this generation means the Jewish people throughout the course of their history, much less the entire human race. Perhaps for Matthew it means the generation to which he and his community belonged”; however, this passage appears in both Mark and Luke, so it couldn’t just refer to Matthew! There are no appended notes for the the other two, unfortunately.

I would behoove you to appreciate that many more people have tangled with these ideas…

Naturally, if I was ignorant of that fact I wouldn’t even bother to ask this question.

Deborah:

We can read Matthew 24 literally as the foretelling if the Destruction of the temple in 70 AD.

Perhaps, but clearly not everything Jesus describes between Matthew 24:1 and Matthew 24:34 took place before then. He says “…until all these things have taken place” not just one or a few of them. Why does the Church take some of these as signs of the parousia, which obviously haven’t happened yet? The ‘great tribulation’ is mentioned in Matthew 24:21, so Jesus must be including it during the generation He speaks of.

clarkal:

How do you guys interpret the scripture where St. Paul says that those married should live as though they weren’t because they were living in the ‘last days’?

1 Cor. 7: 29-31: “I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.”

This is a good example of how St. Paul writes as if the Second Coming will happen soon, as Jesus had predicted, within His generation, not more than 100 years.

A possible interpretation could be found with the aramaic word for generation, sharvtho, which could also mean a family tree, or geneology. Which family? He spoke to the Apostles, so perhaps he was indicating their family lines? Are there living descendants of the Apostles today? This also doesn’t seem to work because Jesus mentions generation in the singular, not “these” but “this generation.” Some people interpret it as Christians, the Christian family as a whole. That seems like a bit of a stretch as well, and is not easily discernible without rigorous exegesis.

 

[Seeks_God]

Neithan,

“*Well, the collective history of Neolithic man is about 10 000 years. So approximately 1/5 the time of the whole of human civilization has passed since Christ. That’s pretty substantial!”
*
-This is a debateable topic in and of itself. I was reading an article the other day that was dating human DNA at around 200, 000 years. Looking at that, then 2000 years is only 0.01 of that total time frame.

“So, what does Jesus mean when He uses this word (genea)? Some indefinite period of time? Why the need to mention it all, then? 2000 years, any way you look at it, doesn’t seem to fit into the term. So then, He must be referring to a group of people, but who? The New American Bible notes for Matthew 24:34:
“The difficulty raised by this verse cannot be satisfactorily removed by the supposition that this generation means the Jewish people throughout the course of their history, much less the entire human race. Perhaps for Matthew it means the generation to which he and his community belonged”; however, this passage appears in both Mark and Luke, so it couldn’t just refer to Matthew! There are no appended notes for the the other two, unfortunately.”
**
-Could Jesus be referring to generation as His Church? The Apostles believed Jesus was coming back in their lifetime, but remember, they also did not know what Jesus meant when He predicted His Passion. And in another sense, Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem - which occurred in 70 A.D. The Aposteles were still alive then - during the persecutions of the Emperor Nero (beleived to be A anti-christ). Jesus also said his New Jerusalem (beleived to be the Catholic Church) would reign for 1000 years (1000 simply means a long time), before He returned.

"Naturally, if I was ignorant of that fact I wouldn’t even bother to ask this question. "
**
I didn’t mean this in condescension - I meant that there is more peace in your relationship with Jesus, then there is in worrying about when He returns.

SG

 

[Neithan]

-This is a debateable topic in and of itself. I was reading an article the other day that was dating human DNA at around 200, 000 years. Looking at that, then 2000 years is only 0.01 of that total time frame.

Yeah, that’s the history of the whole human species though, but our civilization, with agriculture and all that, only goes back about 10 000 years. Early Genesis places Adam around the time of the first farmers, so it could be interpreted that 1/5 of the time since literal-historical Adam has passed since Christ.

Could Jesus be referring to generation as His Church? The Apostles believed Jesus was coming back in their lifetime, but remember, they also did not know what Jesus meant when He predicted His Passion. And in another sense, Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem - which occurred in 70 A.D. The Aposteles were still alive then - during the persecutions of the Emperor Nero (beleived to be A anti-christ). Jesus also said his New Jerusalem (beleived to be the Catholic Church) would reign for 1000 years (1000 simply means a long time), before He returned.
Could He have been referring to the Church? This seems unlikely, because it would be implicit that His Church would survive until His Second Coming, plus he is saying “this generation” not “my generation” or in any way indicating a special relationship to Himself (and the Church is His Body!)

Theophylact did suggest this, however, I would go along more with the Venerable Bede, who argued that Jesus is actually referring to the Jewish people, since the aramaic "

sharbeta" could very well mean “people,” “nation,” or “race,” which it must, if Jesus wasn’t wrong. Since the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 may imply the destruction of the Jews, Jesus would here be hinting in fact, that this would only be the beginning and by no means the completion of His prophecy. This makes sense to me. But why didn’t He say it more clearly? Why did His Apostles and St. Paul misinterpret?

What confuses me most, is why do the editors of the New American Bible note
“The difficulty raised by this verse [Matthew 24:34] cannot be satisfactorily removed by the supposition that this generation means the Jewish people throughout the course of their history” ??? They offer no further proof or argument and make no such notes on the other two Synoptic Gospel passages. They then suggest it means Matthew’s generation, as in his family or community, which is even more confusing.

I didn’t mean this in condescension - I meant that there is more peace in your relationship with Jesus, then there is in worrying about when He returns.
I’m someone who can never be comfortable in the faith, I’m always challenging it. We need to know that we are waiting for something that wasn’t supposed to happen millennia ago.

Thanks!

 

[cc42]

“This generation” refers to a type of people, namely the way that people resond to God (this is what the NRSV commentary alludes to in one version). Or as a poster said above it is about the Christian generation which Jesus established.

 

[cap76]

Who, what, or when is this last generation?

Who? The Jews He was speaking to.

What? The destruction of the temple.

When? 40 years after Jesus spoke to that generation, Titus came and slaughtered that generation and leveled the temple.

 

[QNDNNDQDCE]

Another point worthy of consideration is that Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:28 may refer to the Transfiguration. This would fit with the context since the Transfiguration occurs immediately following this and Jesus’ use of the words “some of you.”