Olivet Discourse

Matthew 24:34 – An exegetical study

POST OVERVIEW. In Matthew 24-25, we find the so-called Olivet Discourse, where our Lord tells His disciples of the things that are to come in the future.

This is a long and technical article that does a detailed exegesis of Matthew 24:34 in order to discover the correct understanding of this difficult verse.

Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. – Matthew 24:34 (NASB)

AN INTERPRETIVE CHALLENGE

The reason I want to study this verse is because it presents us with an interpretive challenge. Jesus, the Son of God, is the Person speaking in this verse. Because Jesus is the Son of God, we know that He is always correct when He speaks. Yet, as we read this verse, we encounter a situation in which it seems that Jesus may not be correct. What do I mean?

THREE SIGNIFICANT FUTURE EVENTS

In response to questions from His disciples (Matthew 24:3), Jesus has just spoken to them about three significant future events, namely, about the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem, which occurred in AD 70, and about the events of the end of the age and the sign of His coming (παρουσία), both of which have not occurred to this day. Since we are in the 21st century almost two thousand years after Jesus spoke these words, it is obvious that “this generation” (24:34) has long since passed away, yet it seems that “all these things” have not taken place. So, this is the interpretive challenge: “How do we reconcile Jesus’ words with our historical reality?”

TWO POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

As we consider this quandary, it becomes apparent that there are only two possible solutions to this dilemma. Either the correct understanding of “this generation” in Matthew 24:34 reveals that Jesus spoke truth in this verse, or the correct understanding of “all these things” reveals the truth of Jesus’ words. In our study, we will examine each of these possible solutions to determine which one is the most reasonable.

AN OVERVIEW OF MATTHEW 24:2-35

Before we begin to dig deep into Matthew 24:34, however, it would be helpful to get an overview of Matthew 24:2-35 so that we can see the context of these verses and better understand our Lord’s teaching about the end of the age.

Jesus begins the dialog (Matt. 24:2) by making a prophecy about the destruction of the temple buildings. We know that the temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70, approximately forty years after Jesus spoke these words. The Greek and the English (NASB) of Matt. 24:2 follow.

Matthew 24:2

ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Οὐ βλέπετε ταῦτα πάντα; ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐ μὴ ἀφεθῇ ὧδε λίθος ἐπὶ λίθον ὃς οὐ καταλυθήσεται.

And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”

Matthew 24:3

This is a key verse in the discourse, because here the disciples ask the questions that will form the basis for Jesus’ prophecies about the future. The disciples ask three questions in Matt. 24:3 – “When . . . what . . . what?”

Just as an aside, it is likely that the disciples thought they were asking about one event with three different features. That is, they probably assumed that the destruction of the temple (“these things”), Jesus’ coming, and the end of the age would happen simultaneously in one cataclysmic event. In fact, however, they were asking questions about three distinct events.

  1. Prompted by Jesus’ words about the destruction of the temple and “all these things” in 24:2, the disciples ask, “When will (all) these things happen?” Here the disciples were asking the question, “When will the temple be destroyed?”
  2. Next, they ask, “What will be the sign of your coming?” Here the disciples were asking for the signs that will occur just before or during Jesus’ coming (παρουσία).
  3. Then they ask, “(What will be the sign) of the end of the age?” In other words, “What extraordinary events will occur in the last days of the last days that tell us that the end is near?”

These are the three questions the disciples asked Jesus, and these are the three questions that Jesus answers in Matthew 24:5-35. The disciples asked, “When . . . what . . . what?” and Jesus will answer their questions with “When . . . what . . . what.”

The verses that address each of the three questions are as follows:

  • Matt. 24:15-20 and 24:34 address the destruction of the temple (and of Jerusalem) (“all these things” in 24:2 and “these things” in 24:3). In 24:15-20, Jesus tells what will occur in AD 70 so that “not one stone will be left upon another” (24:2). Then in 24:34 Jesus tells when “all these things” will occur.
  • Matt. 24:5-14 and 24:21-28 tells what the signs of the end of the age will be. These are the extraordinary events that will occur which indicate the end is near. Within these verses there seems to be an intensification of evil as the end approaches. For example, 24:5-8 twice hints that things will get worse (24:6, 8), and then in 24:9-14 things do get worse until “then the end will come” (24:14). In 24:21-22, the “great tribulation” occurs and those days must be cut short to allow some of the elect to be saved. Finally, in 24:27-28, Jesus makes clear that His coming (“the coming of the Son of Man”) will mark the end of the age.  
  • Matt. 24:29-31 explicitly tells what the signs of the coming (παρουσία) of the Son of Man will be.

Now we will examine the two possible solutions.

FIRST POSSIBLE SOLUTION: CHANGE THE MEANING OF “THIS GENERATION”

In the first possible solution, the assumption is made that “all these things” includes all the events Jesus has mentioned in the discourse so far in 24:2-31. So, according to this view, “all these things” is interpreted to include the destruction of the temple in AD 70 (24:15-20) plus the events of the end of the age (24:5-14 and 24:21-28) plus the sign of the coming (παρουσία) of the Son of Man (24:29-31). We also know that, according to the Lord Jesus (24:34), “all these things” will take place before “this generation” passes away. Thus, the interpretive task for this possible solution is to find a meaning for “this generation” that allows “all these things” to take place before “this generation” passes away.

How would we go about completing this “interpretive task?” In considering the phrase “this generation,” one well-known Bible teacher, who holds to the view that “all these things” includes all the events Jesus has mentioned in the discourse so far in 24:2-31, explained his position this way: “ ‘This generation’ in 24:34 cannot refer to the generation living at that (sic) time of Christ, for ‘all these things’ (vv. 15-31) did not ‘take place’ in their lifetimes; rather (it is) a reference to the generation alive at the time when those final hard labor pains (v. 8) begin.” To state this position in other words, we might say that, when referring to “this generation” in Matt. 24:34, Jesus was not speaking about “this generation” at all but was speaking about “that generation” who would be living many years in the future.

A SOLUTION THAT IS NOT A SOLUTION

In the attempt to maintain the necessary condition that Jesus is always true in His prophecies, this proposed solution has ignored the plain meaning of the inspired text of Matt. 24:34 and has imposed another meaning instead. In the inspired text, our Lord said, “This generation (Greek ἡ γενεὰ αὕτη) will not pass away until . . .” The only proper meaning of “this generation” in this verse is as a reference to the people who were living at the time Jesus spoke these words. The following observations support this statement.

  1. When speaking in terms of time, the word “this” (οὗτος in the Greek) refers to now or the current time. For example, Joshua 24:15 says, “Choose you this day whom you will serve,” meaning “Choose now.” By contrast, in temporal terms the word “that” (ἐκεῖνος in the Greek) refers to not-now. For example, in eschatology, the end of the age will occur on that day, which is not-now. Therefore, when Jesus speaks of “this generation,” He is referring to the generation living while He was speaking, that is, the generation living “now.”
  2. In Matthew 24:2-35, in every instance when our Lord speaks about the future, He uses the word “that” (plural of “that” is “those”). We read in 24:19 about “those days” in the future when Jerusalem is being destroyed. Again in 24:22 we twice encounter “those days” talking about the future days of the great tribulation. In 24:29, “those days” also refers to the future. Thus, if in 24:34 Jesus had intended to refer to a future generation, He would have spoken of “that generation.” Since Jesus speaks instead of “this generation,” we conclude that He is referring to the generation living while He was on earth.
  3. Aside from 24:34, the phrase “this generation” appears five other times in the gospel of Matthew, in 11:16; 12:41, 42, 45; and 23:36. The context of the first four appearances requires that Jesus is referring to the generation to whom He was speaking. In the fifth appearance (23:36), while it is not required that Jesus is speaking just to His own contemporaries, it is certain that He is not speaking to an unspecified group of people living thousands of years in the future. This evidence indicates that, in 24:34, Jesus is referring to the generation living when He made this prophecy.

This cumulative evidence leads to the conclusion that, when our Lord said, “This generation (Greek ἡ γενεὰ αὕτη) will not pass away,” He was certainly referring to the people who were living at the time He spoke these words. Since that is the case, we are forced to reject the first proposed solution and turn our attention to the second alternative.

“UNTIL ALL THESE THINGS TAKE PLACE”

In our study so far, we have reached an exegetical dead-end in trying to interpret “this generation” in any sense other than the normal, natural meaning. We have concluded that “this generation” is “the generation living at the time Jesus spoke these words.” Therefore we will now consider the other possible solution, namely, a correct understanding of the phrase “all these things.”

Admittedly, at first reading of Matt. 24:34, it seems that, when Jesus says “all these things” in this verse, He is referring to all the events that He has mentioned since the start of the discourse. But we will discover that, although this might be our first assumption, this is not the required interpretation.

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR. We know, from our previous work, that “this generation” refers to the generation living when Jesus spoke these words. We also know, from 24:34, that “all these things” will take place before “this generation” passes away. So, to put this into concrete terms, we know that “all these things” will take place within the time span of a normal generation, say, the next thirty to fifty years. We therefore conclude that “all these things,” whatever that includes, will take place between AD 60 and AD 80.

This deduction is especially helpful because, in Matt. 24:3, the disciples had asked Jesus a “when” question regarding the destruction of the temple. The disciples’ question, “When will these things happen?” in 24:3 was prompted by Jesus’ statements in 24:2 about the destruction of “all these things” in the temple. We had mentioned earlier that, when the disciples asked, “When . . . what . . . what?” in 24:3, Jesus had answered “When . . . what . . . what” in 24:5-35 but, until 24:34, Jesus has not given the disciples a “when” answer. But now we observe that the only place in the discourse where Jesus offers a “when” answer is here in 24:34. That is, Jesus’ only guidance on when the temple will be destroyed is here in 24:34 where He says, “Before this generation passes away.” Of course, we also know something the disciples did not know. We know that the temple was, in fact, destroyed in AD 70, about forty years after Jesus spoke these words and therefore also before “this generation” passed away.

THE INTERPRETIVE TASK. All of this leads us to a “crisis of interpretation.” From what we know and what we have just deduced, we are persuaded that, in Matthew 24:34, Jesus is only prophesying the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Thus, the interpretive task becomes justifying our claim that “all these things” in Matthew 24:34 applies only to the destruction of the temple and does not include Jesus’ coming or the end of the age. We will offer three pieces of evidence which justify the claim.

EVIDENCE / THE CASE

Our first piece of evidence involves Matt. 24:33 and this verse’s role in the discourse.

33 so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. – Matthew 24:33 (NASB)

EVIDENCE OF MATTHEW 24:33. In Matthew 24:33, it is apparent that Jesus is answering the disciples’ question (24:3) about His return and, by association, about the end of the age, but there is nothing in this verse to suggest that He is saying anything about the destruction of the temple. This is especially informative for us since we now know that the destruction of the temple and the return of Jesus are separated by at least two millennia. This means that when Jesus refers to “all these things” in 24:33, He is only referring to “the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age” (24:3).

We can also see in 24:33 that Jesus is answering a “what” question, not a “when” question. The phrase, “When you see all these things,” refers to “what will be the signs” in 24:3, but it supplies no information about when. That means that from Matthew 24:5-33, Jesus has not answered the disciples’ question about “when” the temple will be destroyed. We suggest that the missing answer is supplied in Matthew 24:34.

TEXTUAL COMPARISON OF MATTHEW 24:2 AND 24:34. To review, in Matt. 24:2 Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple when “all these things” will be torn down. Then in 24:3, the disciples ask Jesus, “When will these things happen?” certainly in reference to the destruction of the temple. In 24:15-20, Jesus details what the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem will be like and finally, in 24:34, He tells the disciples when this event will happen. The verses are below. (NASB – any emphasis is mine)

And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” – Matthew 24:2

As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” – Matthew 24:3

“Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” – Matthew 24:34

COMMENTS / OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE TEXT. Notice that the identical phrase, “all these things,” appears in both 24:2 and in 24:34. This could be interpreted as a rhetorical device to connect the two verses and to show that “all these things,” refers to the same things in both verses; namely, the destruction of the temple.

Also observe that in both 24:2 and in 24:34 Jesus uses the phrase, “Truly I say to you.” This is significant for two reasons. First, this phrase causes 24:2 and 24:34-35 to stand out and to show that they serve as bookends to this section (Matt. 24:2-35) of the Olivet Discourse about the events of the end times. The purpose of these “bookend” verses is to open the section and then to conclude the section. Here, Jesus opens the section predicting the destruction of the temple and concludes the section by telling when that destruction will take place.

But second, in this section of the Olivet Discourse (24:2-35), “Truly I say to you” appears only twice, only in 24:2 and in 24:34. As above with the phrase “all these things,” so also here this could be interpreted as a rhetorical device to connect the two verses and to show that they refer to the same things; namely, to the destruction of the temple.

These observations suggest that there are textual reasons to think that 24:34 is referring only to the destruction of the temple.

JESUS’ LIMITED KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE TIMING OF HIS COMING. The third piece of evidence in favor of understanding “all these things” in 24:34 as referring only to the destruction of the temple has to do with what Jesus says about His own knowledge about the timing of His coming (παρουσία). Note that in Matt. 24:36, Jesus says that “Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” Jesus is clearly speaking about His coming (παρουσία) and He admits that even He, the Son of God, does not know the timing of His coming or the timing of the end of the age. He therefore cannot make predictions about when all these things (including His coming) will take place. We conclude that, in Matthew 24:34, Jesus cannot be declaring that His coming will occur before this generation passes away, because He has admitted (24:36) that He does not know when His coming will occur. Because Jesus cannot tell the “when” of His coming or the “when” of the end of the age, the only “when” He can be giving in Matthew 24:34 is the timing of the destruction of the temple. So we conclude that all these things in 24:34 refers to all the events around the destruction of the temple.   

SUMMARY

Based on the work presented in this article, we conclude that all these things in Matthew 24:34 refers only to the events surrounding the destruction of the temple and does not refer to either the coming of Jesus or to the events of the end of the age.

Soli Deo gloria            rmb                 10/31/2023                 #676

For this reason, you also must be ready (Matthew 24:44)

NOTE: This post is an excerpt from my upcoming book, The Last Act of the Drama: A guide for the end-times. rmb

In His teaching on the Mount of Olives, our Lord commands His people to be ready and to be on the alert. “Therefore, be on the alert (Matthew 24:42), for you do not know which day your Lord is coming,” and “For this reason, you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will (24:44).” Regardless of the details, the Lord Jesus will certainly return one day in power and in glory. Knowing this, His disciples persevere in faith and wait for the trumpet sound and for the appearance of the Rider on the white horse (Revelation 19:11-16). Our main “end-times task” is still to be ready when our King comes.

But how is the disciple to be ready for the return of King Jesus? The following are some specific suggestions from my own efforts to be ready during these last days.

GROW YOUR TRUST IN GOD

Grow your trust in God by regularly reminding yourself who He is, what He has done in creation, what He has done in His redemptive plan, and what He has done in your life, not only in your salvation but also in myriad providences and answered prayers and blessings that He has poured out on you.

The goal here is for your trust in God and your experience of His greatness to overwhelm all fears. The LORD declares that He is God, and there is no other. He is sovereign over all things, and that means over ALL things. He has displayed His glory in His creation, which He spoke into existence from nothing (ex nihilo), so that His people would give Him glory and know His power (Romans 1:20). He has conceived and executed His redemptive plan that allows Him to forgive wretched sinners like me. The Lord remains just even though He is the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). And, if you are in Christ, God has redeemed you and called you by name, and you are forever His child and treasured possession (Isaiah 43:1). God has proven Himself faithful. So then, even if “the mountains slip into the heart of the sea” (Psalm 46:2) and everything in our world collapses, we will not fear because God is our refuge and strength (46:1). We get ready, then, by making sure that our trust in God will not waver regardless of what happens.

GROW DEEP IN YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S WORD

Your Bible is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18). It is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). It is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105). The Bible has been breathed out by the third Person of the Trinity (2 Timothy 3:16) so that His people will be ready for the battle. As the lawlessness and persecution of the end of the age intensify, we must wield the sword of the Spirit with precision and skill. The strategy is straightforward: Know your Bible and believe what it says as truth from God. Know your Bible so well that all fear is consumed in your reverent love of God and your unwavering trust in Him. In this way you will be ready to persevere until the King comes.

GROW IN YOUR LOVE FOR CHRIST’S CHURCH

In His grace, at our salvation, the Lord sealed us with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13) and joined us to the body of Christ, which is the church of all believers in Jesus in the world. Now, as those who have been joined to Christ, we enjoy fellowship not only with God the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, but also with all the saints who will make up “the great multitude which no one could count from every nation and tribe and people and tongue standing before the throne” in heaven (Revelation 7:9). That worship will go on forever, but now on this side of eternity, we also get to worship with the saints in our local church. And one of the most powerful and effective ways to be ready for Jesus’ coming is to learn to love the saints in your local church. As the end of the age draws near, it is the local church that will provide the encouragement we need to press on. The author of Hebrews says this:

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. – Hebrews 10:23-25

Especially as we contemplate persecution and think about being hated by the world because of our faith in Jesus, the blessing of the local church, of real flesh and blood followers of Jesus who are committed to loving us to the end, becomes sweeter. Notice that the author of Hebrews exhorts “us” to hold fast the confession of “our” hope. We don’t have to go it alone. We will be ready for Jesus because the saints in our local church have continually stimulated us to live out our faith and to persevere. We will continue to assemble as a body of believers because we enjoy our time together and because we need the encouragement, especially as we “see the day drawing near.” So, loving the saints in my local church is part of what it means to be ready.

GENERAL TACTICS FOR THE END-TIMES

Lastly, there are also some other tactics that help me keep my eyes fixed on Jesus and not be distracted and not be “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind” (Ephesians 4:14) of culture and every scheme of the devil (2 Cor. 2:11; Ephesians 6:11). These tactics are not intended to sound drastic or dramatic but are meant to communicate the immense importance of our perseverance. Our enemy is committed to our destruction, and we must therefore be committed to glorifying the Lord through our perseverance in holiness.

  • Expect persecution so that you are not surprised by it (1 Peter 4:12).
  • Prepare for persecution. This may involve envisioning specific persecution and deciding now how you will respond then. Again, the local church would be a tremendous encouragement here as we resolve together now how we will respond then. There is tremendous power in that type of commitment.
  • Commit now to persevere to the end no matter what comes. “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). It is only the one who endures to the end who will be saved. Be ready to persevere to the end.
  • Finally, resolve now to die rather than deny Christ. Make that decision now while the skies are still mostly blue. “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

These suggestions should help you to be ready when the last trumpet sounds.

SDG rmb 9/16/2021 #434