In Matthew 24:34, Jesus said: "Verily, I say unto you, this generation [genea] shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
What did Jesus mean by "this generation?"
Some say that the word generation should
be rendered race, meaning the Jewish race. Others say that He meant
the generation alive
when the signs begin to occur, not the generation
when Jesus spoke these words.
The word translated generation is the Greek word "genea," which Strong's Exhaustive Concordance defines as "a generation" or by implication, an age. Berry's Interlinear defines it "the people of any given time," "an age of the world's duration." It is quite safe to render it generation, meaning the age contemporary with Jesus and those who lived at that time.
While it is true that the "great tribulation" was to come only upon the Jews (not the whole world), the word, genea, in this instance does not mean race, as some would claim who do not hold to this view.
If this generation is understood to be the one to whom Jesus spoke these predictions, it makes absolutely perfect sense. This is also fully consistent with all other renderings of the same Greek phrase used elsewhere in the Bible. This is a very important fact if we want the truth concerning this matter.
Examples: This wicked generation, Matthew 12:45. This generation seeks a sign, Mark 8:12. "This untoward generation," Acts 2:40. But first must He suffer many things and be rejected of "this generation," Luke 17:25. Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? Luke 7:31.
Not one of us would try to say that these phrases were spoken of any generation other than the one in which they were uttered. It is obvious, beyond question, that all refer to the generation of people contemporary with Jesus. Yet, our Scriptures under examination reflect the exact same meaning, and many, who are learned Bible scholars, suppose it to mean some later generation. Why? Because it fits the "futurist" doctrine. But it is not true. There is nothing in the Scriptures preceding His statements that would transfer it to some future generation. He said THIS generation.
In Luke 11:29 Jesus said of that generation: "This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah."
Then in Luke 11, verse 49, Jesus said: "For this reason also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill andsome they will persecute, 50 in order that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the alter and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.'" NASB.
Now doesn't it make perfect sense that He would fulfill His prophecy of destruction of the generation that was charged with the guilt of destroying the prophets and apostles and even Jesus Himself?
Jesus said: "Verily, I say unto you, this generation [genea] shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." (Luke 21:32 and Matthew 24:34)
If it could be interpreted "this generation (which is alive when these signs begin to occur) shall not pass until all be fulfilled," then we must again conclude that the fulfillments of those prophecies came about prior to A.D. 70. The record so dictates. All the signs did come at that time.
Donald G. Miller, in his Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, p. 148, THE LAYMAN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY, Vol. 18, had this to say about Luke 21:32: "If verse 32 can be referred to the destruction of Jerusalem, it presents no problem, for that took place within the lifetime of many to whom Jesus was speaking. If it does not relate to that, it presents us with an almost insoluble problem, for Jesus did not make guesses about the date of the end."
R.V.G. Tasker, in his GOSPEL OF ST. MARK, p. 205, said this of Mark 13:30: "This generation must surely be the generation of the Lord's ministry, who would indeed have lived to see the awful days of the siege of Jerusalem."
Jesus identified the generation that He was to destroy in His wrath when in Luke 17:25 He said: "But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation."
Referring again to Matthew 24:34, notice that the text says this generation shall not "pass." Some translations render it shall not "pass away," but a careful study of the Greek shows that it should be, as the King James Version has it, simply "pass," from the Greek word parelthe.
In Matthew 24:35, Jesus used a different word, pareleuontai, when He said "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. The Greek word for pass away, in both instances in this verse is the same. Although it has the same root as parelthe, it has a slightly different meaning.
So, the Greek text in Matthew 24:34 says: "Verily I say to you, in no wise will have passed this generation until all these things shall have taken place," [My rendering]. Jesus seems to have used the word generation more to indicate the passing of the time period of a generation than the passing of the people of that time period or generation. For those who had ears to hear, He told them that the promised wrath of God upon the Jews, including the destruction of their temple, would come in that generation. There seems to be no authority in the Bible at all to apply this statement to a later time.
Why did God wait so long after the crucifixion of Jesus before bringing the destruction of those people and the Temple? In the wilderness, God caused the children of Israel to wander for forty years, until that generation died off. In this instance, God allowed the Jews forty years to repent, before He brought destruction upon them through the instrument of the Roman Army in A. D. 70. Some believe that was not the end of that generation, but all Jesus said was "This generation shall not pass until all be fulfilled, so it could have gone beyond A.D. 70. Actually, I believe that it did go several years beyond that time to encompass additional events which wrapped up the predictions of Jesus.
There are various indicators in the Bible as to how long a generation is. The first people on the earth before the flood lived hundreds of years, to almost 1000. Then, after the flood, man's years were shortened, so the length of the generations probably changed. The length of the life-span of a man is not what is totally in place here. Many of the people who were listening to him had already lived a great part of their lives. But it would happen before they all died off.
There will be those who say, "Sure, those were fulfillments, back then, but that is not the "great tribulation" which is supposed to come in these last days." Many base their ideas about the "great tribulation" upon the book of The Revelation of John. There are many scholars who are convinced that the traditional dating of Revelation around A.D. 90 is wrong. Most believe that a date of A.D. 66 is more likely, based on considerable evidence. The A.D. 90 dating was on the word of one man, yet it was accepted as accurate. If, indeed, it was written before the fall of Jerusalem, as I believe it was, then all that it portends was also fulfilled by A.D. 79.
The A.D. 70 desolation of Jerusalem and
the temple is the only
"great tribulation" prophesied in the Bible, so if there is to
be another, you have to get it from some other than Biblical source.
I challenge you to
prove me wrong on this.
The fact is, there can be only one fulfillment of the "great tribulation" which Jesus predicted. The Bible contains two Scriptures which absolutely preclude a dual fulfillment.
Matthew 24:21 speaks of this "great tribulation," using the Greek word "thlipsis," and Mark 13:19 calls it "Affliction," from the exact same Greek word. Both instances state that it will be unparalleled in past or future history. This means that it can only happen one time. These Scriptures make this very clear:
"For this shall be great tribulation [thlipsis] such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be." Matthew 24:21. "for in those days shall be affliction [thlipsis] such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be." Mark 13:19.
"Such as was not since the beginning" indicates that it had never happened to that degree before, and "nor ever shall be" states that this "great tribulation" foretold by Jesus will never happen again.
You cannot expect a repeat of something that Jesus said could only happen once. And this is the only "great tribulation" that He foretold, "days of vengeance" upon the Jews, in fulfillment of Prophecy.
Similar language was used concerning the wisdom of Solomon, in 1 Kings 2:12. God said, "I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be." We know that Solomon is accepted as the wisest man that ever lived.
Recall that, earlier, we wrote of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by Nebuchadnezzar beginning in 605 B.C. when he took the city, and ending when he destroyed the temple in 587 B.C. Although this was a similar destruction to the one in A.D. 70, it was not as severe in terms of the horrors of it and it occurred long before Jesus made His predictions concerning the "great tribulation."
Later in this writing, we will speak of a destruction of the city of Jerusalem, but not the temple which occurred in A.D. 135. Again it was not as severe, and since there was no temple to be destroyed, it could not qualify as the "great tribulation."
Warburton is quoted as having said: "One of the most awful eras in God's economy of grace, and the most awful revolution in all God's religious dispensations." Orelli said: "A greater catastrophe than the mortal combat of the Jewish people with the Roman world-power, and the destruction of the holy city, is unknown to the history of the world."
Farrar called it "the most awful in history.1
Adam Clarke wrote: "No history can furnish us with a parallel to the calamities and miseries of the Jews.2
Eusebius wrote: "Such was the punishment of the Jews for their iniquity against the Christ of God, and for their impiety. But one should add to this the prophecy of our Savior, a prophecy in which there was no lie, and by which He foretold these very things: Woe to those who are with child and give suck in those days. Pray that your flight be not in winter nor on a Sabbath day. [The Sabbath means almost nothing to most Christians today]. For there shall then be a great affliction such as never happened from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall happen."3 "These things happened in the second year of Vespasian [A.D. 68-79] and in accordance with the prophetic utterances of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who by divine power foresaw the events as though they were already happening. He shed tears at them and lamented, for so it is set down in the writings of the holy evangelists who also gave His words.4
Josephus, speaking of the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem said this: "I cannot refrain from saying what my emotion bids me. It seems to me that if the Romans had proven powerless against the sinner, the city [Jerusalem] would have been engulfed by an earthquake or flood, or it would have shared the thunderbolts of Sodom, for it had brought forth a generation more ungodly than these. Because of the folly of these men, the entire nation perished."5
In Acts 2:40, Peter called it a perverse [untoward] generation.
In the preface of "The Wars of the Jews" or "the History of the Destruction of Jerusalem," COMPLETE WORKS OF JOSEPHUS, p.427, Josephus wrote: "Whereas the war which the Jews made with the Romans hath been the greatest of all, not only that have been in our times, but, in a manner, of those that ever were heard of; both of those wherein cities have fought against cities or nations against nations...."
Josephus described it in a similar way to that of Jesus, when He said: "such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be." Mark 13:19.
This destruction was so complete that every synagogue and every tombstone with a Jewish inscription was destroyed, leaving no sign that a single Jew had ever lived in Palestine.
"And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Matthew 24:22, Mark 13:20.
Jesus prophesied of the destruction of Jerusalem, in that generation, Matthew 23:36 and that the temple would not be left one stone upon another that would not be thrown down, and that God's people were to flee when they saw the city surrounded with armies, and that if the days were not shortened, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days were shortened.
Luke continued, "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: [notice, they, not you] and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Luke 21:24.
Let me pose a question. What race of people on this earth has been led away captive and scattered into all nations? Only the Jews have been so completely dispersed, yet retained their identity. This was not true of the house of Israel (ten northern tribes dispersed about 721, B.C. who melted into other civilizations).
The first part of Luke 21:24 was exactly fulfilled
between A.D. 66 and A.D. 73, as attested to by Josephus. The Romans completely
destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and an estimated 1,100,000 Jews died
by the edge of the sword, or by starvation, and many were led away captive
into all nations. Of the latter group, some of the recorded figures are:
2,130 at Joppa, 1200 at Jotapata, 6000 young men at Tarichea who were sent
to Nero, over 30,000 others sold or given to Agrippa. Of the Gadarenes,
2200, Idumea, 1000, and Josephus says the total was about 97,000 who were
taken captive.
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