Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near--at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.1
Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near (Matthew 24:32).
The English word parable is almost a direct transliteration of the term found here in the Greek: παραβολη [parabolē]
So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near--at the doors! (Matthew 24:33)
Condition | Connection | Result |
---|---|---|
when branch becomes tender and puts forth leaves | you know that | summer is near |
when you see all these things | know that | it is near--at the doors! |
Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place (Matthew 24:34).
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away (Matthew 24:35).
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only (Matthew 24:36).
As clear as this verse would appear to be concerning the fruitlessness of trying to predict the arrival of Christ, it still has not prevented a multitude of Christian interpreters from attempting to do just that. Although one could no doubt find predictions of the Second Coming all through the interadvent age, a few of the more recent should serve to illustrate the foolishness of the practice.
Endnotes:
1. | NKJV, Mat. 24:32-36 |
2. | Neither the reference in Matthew 21:18-20 nor that in Mark 11:12-14 with its interpretation in 11:20-26, gives any indication that it is referring to Israel, any more than the mountain referred to in the passage. Accordingly, while this interpretation is held by many, there is no clear Scriptural warrant. Ref-1268, p. 192 |
3. | Ref-0187, Luke 13:6 |
4. | Ref-0089, Luke 13:6 |
5. | Although Lindsey did not claim to know the dates of future events with any certainty, he suggested that Matthew 24:32-34 indicated that Jesus' return might be within "one generation" of the rebirth of the state of Israel, and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, and Lindsey asserted that "in the Bible" one generation is forty years. Some readers took this as an indication that the Tribulation or the Rapture would occur no later than 1988. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late,_Great_Planet_Earth] |
6. | . . . panta tauta in Mat. 24:33 refers rather to all the events of Mat. 24:4�26 including the abomination that causes desolation (Mat. 24:15) and the great tribulation that proceeds from it (Mat. 24:21�26). NEIL, p. 379 |
7. | NEIL, p. 381 |
8. | Ref-0617 |
9. | Ref-0227 |
10. | "This generation will not pass away till all these things take place. But when Christ comes in judgment they are destroyed. NEIL, p. 375 |
11. | Narrative criticism will be employed in this paper to show that this generation in Matt 24:34 refers to a kind of people characterized by Matthew as unbelieving and headed toward eschatological judgment. In the context of the discourse it refers to that type of consummately evil and unbelieving people who deceive and persecute the disciples of Christ until the time of the parousia, when the true followers of Jesus are vindicated and this generation passes away in judgment. NEIL, p. 367 |
12. | The pejorative adjectives given to this generation (evil, adulterous, faithless, perverse; cf. Mat. 12:39, 45; 16:4; 17:17) throughout the gospel are qualities that distinguish those who are subjects of the kingdom from those who are not. NEIL, p. 375 |
13. | RIESKE, pp. 219, 223 |
14. | Therefore rather than defining γενέα as a kind of people, it should be defined with its clear genealogical sense, except that the family connection is not natural descent but spiritual descent. RIESKE, p. 225 |
15. | . . . several factors work against this interpretation. First, the solidarity that Jesus asserted between the scribes and Pharisees and those who murdered Gods messengers in the past is certainly well established in verses 34�35. Thus it seems best, as suggested, to understand the epithet this generation in verse 36 as referring to the entire corporate entity composed of people from the past and present, not just the Jews of that time period. As Gundry writes, Jesus involving them in the bygone murder of an OT prophet (v 35) shows that he does not take this generation in a sense chronologically limited to Jesus contemporaries. . . . In other words, if the you who constitute this generation includes those who murdered Zechariah in OT times, this generation can hardly bear the chronological limitation usually imposed on it. Second, the nature of the charge (that of all the bloodguilt for present and past martyrdom) that is brought against this γενέα seems to be too weighty a charge to be laid on just one group of Jews living at a certain time period. As has been asserted, the charge was not based simply on the specific act of killing the Messiah but on the killing of all those whom God sends who carry His message of salvation. RIESKE, p. 222 |
16. | Concerning the passing of heaven and earth: Ps. 102:26; Isa. 34:4; 51:6; 65:17; 1Cor. 7:31; 2Pe. 3:7-12; Rev. 20:11; Rev. 21:1. |
17. | http://www.isitso.org/guide/whise.html |
Sources:
NEIL | Neil D. Nelson, Jr., 'This Generation' In Matt 24:34: A Literary Critical Perspective, vol. 38, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society Volume 38, 3, (Lynchburg, VA: The Evangelical Theological Society, 1995). |
NKJV | Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture references are from the New King James Version, copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. |
RIESKE | Susan M. Rieske, What Is the Meaning of This Generation in Matthew 23:36?, vol. 165, Bibliotheca Sacra Volume 165, 658, (Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological Seminary, 2008) |
Ref-0089 | John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1997). |
Ref-0187 | Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997). |
Ref-0227 | Arndt, William, F. Wilbur Gingrich, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature : A Translation and Adaption of the Fourth Revised and Augmented Edition of Walter Bauer's Griechisch-Deutsches Worterbuch Zu Den Schrift En Des Neuen Testaments Und Der Ubrigen Urchristlichen Literatur. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, c1979. ISBN:0-226-03932-3d. |
Ref-0617 | Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Greek (New Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc. |
Ref-1268 | John Walvoord, Matthew: Thy Kingdom Come (Chicago, IL: Moody Bible Institute, 1974). ISBN:08024-5189-6e. |