This Generation Shall By No Means Pass Away…

Another topic I’ve seen come up is in Matthew 24:34, Mark 13:30 and Luke 21:32 when Jesus mentions that ‘This Generation will by no means pass away until all these things are accomplished.” referring to the second coming of Christ, the existing heavens and earth passing away, etc.

People look at this statement from Jesus and say, well the ‘generation’ (typically referring to a time frame of 30-100 years) of that time has long since died, therefore this didn’t come true, therefore Jesus wasn’t the son of God and so forth and so on.


There are a number of lines of reasoning as to why Jesus said this and varying explanations, but the first thing to examine I think is that actual Greek words used in recording Jesus’s statements because often that will shed some light on issues like this as English isn’t great at preserving the meaning of things when it’s been translated down.


This author posts a fairly detailed look at the Greek word ‘Genea’ HERE which is the word that has been translated into English as ‘Generation’

Who is this generation? Briefly stated, the tradition more or less equates the word genea with English ‘generation’. This may work in a few places, especially when the word occurs in the plural form, but in the phrase “this genea” it is misleading to use “generation.” It does not seem to agree with the meaning of the Greek phrase or the Hebrew behind it, and it does not make good sense in most places where the word occurs in the New Testament. Rather, genea means ‘a class of people bound together through a common origin or with a common bond.’ In certain contexts genea does have the very restricted sense of the English “generation,” but in most contexts it does not have this narrow sense. The English word “generation” has undergone a semantic shift so that the meaning today is very much narrowed down as compared to the Greek genea, the Latin generatio and “generation” in the English language as spoken when the King James translation was first made.

Even the Vulgate translation used four different Latin words to translate genea, one of which is generatio. But the word generatio is used to translate other Greek words as well, for example, Matt 1:1 genesis (GNB: family record) and Luke 22:18 genēma (fruit). In Danish we have the word “generation” as a modern adopted word. It has the same area of meaning as the corresponding English word, but it is never used to translate genea in the New Testament. In English there is evidence that the area of meaning of “generation” has narrowed down considerably since the time of the KJV translation. The evidence is that the word gennēma ‘brood’ in Matt 3:7 is translated by “generation” in KJV as well as the word genos ‘race, people’ in 1 Pet 2:9. The Oxford Universal Dictionary gives the following, now obsolete (latest attested use 1727) sense of “generation”: “class, kind or set of persons.”

The purpose of the above remarks was to show that the meaning of the Greek word genea is not at all equivalent to the modern English word “generation.” We shall now proceed to discuss what genea actually means.

1 The primary sense is ‘descendants, family, clan, that is, a group of people with a common ancestor’ (see for instance: New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, 2.35).

This primary sense occurs rarely in the New Testament. With the word in singular it occurs in Acts 8:33: “Who can describe his genea? For his life is taken up from the earth.” Both GNB (Good News Bible), JB (Jerusalem Bible) and NIV translate genea here by ‘descendants.’ The word occurs in plural in Matt 1:17 with a closely related sense of ‘succeeding sets of descendants, stages in a genealogy’ and is probably best translated generations: Matt 1:17 “So all the geneai from Abraham to David were fourteen geneai.”

2 The secondary sense is a natural extension of the first sense and can be stated thus: ‘a group of people with a common bond or characteristic; a certain class or type of people’. This sense is common in the New Testament. The Good News Bible (GNB) often translates it simply as “people.” The characteristic feature of the people referred to is in all cases drawn out from the context. I shall go through all New Testament occurrences of genea below (references in parentheses are to parallel passages).

Luke 16:8: “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own genea than the sons of light.” The important contextual clue to the characteristic of the group of people referred to is the word “own” which qualifies genea. Therefore, NIV, NEB (New English Bible) and JB have translated it as “dealing with [people of] their own kind.” The sense is “people like themselves in their worldliness” and not as J.B.Phillips puts it: “contemporaries.”

Acts 2:40: “For he [Peter] testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, “‘Save yourselves from this crooked genea’.” Here the contextual clue is “crooked.” GNB translates it reasonably well as “save yourselves from this wicked people.” The demonstrative “this” is anaphoric, referring back to the preceding context about the people who rejected the Messiah and nailed him to the cross (v. 36). A more meaning-based (idiomatic) translation of this verse might be: “Disassociate yourselves from those wicked people” or “Turn away from that kind of people, and be saved.”

Phil 2:15: “that you may be…without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse genea.” The contextual clue to the characteristic feature of the group of people referred to is “crooked and perverse.” GNB translates: “in a world of corrupt and sinful people.” NLT (New Living Translation) has “a dark world full of crooked and perverse people.”

Matt 17:17: (Mark 9:19; Luke 9:41) “O, faithless and perverse genea how long shall I stay with you?” Again the characteristic feature of the people referred to is shown by the qualifiers: faithless and perverse. Many commentators claim that the word genea has a pejorative character. This is reading the meaning of the contexts into the meaning of the word. This is what James Barr called “illegitimate totality transfer” (1961:218). Rather, the word genea in itself is neutral. The pejorative part of the overall meaning is supplied solely by the connotations of the context. GNB translates this verse as “How unbelieving and wrong you people are.” J.B.Phillips has: “You really are an unbelieving and difficult people.” NLT has “You stubborn, faithless people!” The actual reference is mainly to the disciples.

Matt 12:39: (Mark 8:12; Matt 16:4; Luke 11:29) “Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.’ But he answered them [scribes and Pharisees], ‘An evil and adulterous genea seeks for a sign…’ “ As usual, the characteristics of the people referred to is shown by the qualifiers: “evil and (spiritually) adulterous.” The actual reference is to those scribes and Pharisees who demanded signs but did not want to accept Jesus. In translating this passage, the GNB deviates from the pattern set by the examples quoted above. It says: “How evil and godless are the people of this day.” Nothing in the Greek text can justify the addition of the words “of this day.” Maybe the GNB translators had not realised at this point that genea is not the same as “generation”? Or maybe they were influenced by Matt 23:36 discussed below? CEV (Contemporary English Version) is better: “You want a sign because you are evil and won’t believe!” Matt 23:36 (Luke 11:50): “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (See v.23,25,27,29) Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this genea.” Having seen the pattern from the examples above where genea in itself refers to a class or type of people and the qualifying word(s) and the context describe the characteristic feature of the people, it is natural to expect the qualifying word “this” to point to the characteristics of the group of people referred to. The first instance of “this” refers back to the punishment mentioned in verses 33 and 35 (judgment of hell and the blood of all the righteous). It seems most likely that the phrase “this genea” refers back to the group of people he has just been speaking about. Since this is probably a new thought to many people, I shall spell out some of the arguments in more detail.

There are basically two possible interpretations of the meaning of the demonstrative in the phrase “this genea.” (1) Either it refers to the “people living now” in contrast to people living at another time in history or (2) it refers to something mentioned in the preceding linguistic context. Interpretation (1) is very difficult to reconcile with the basic meaning of the phrase tēn genean tautēn and it also does not fit well with the context. First, there is nothing in the context which supports an idea of temporal contrast. Second, nowhere else can the word “this” possibly be understood as meaning “living now.” Third, and most important, in ALL instances of the phrase “this genea,” the demonstrative follows the noun. As mentioned in section 1 of the full article referenced below, this means that the focus is on genea, not on “this.” If the expression had included a contrast between the generation of that time and any other generation, the word houtos should have preceded genea instead of following it. The second interpretation makes much better sense and is in accordance with the meaning attested to the words “this” and genea elsewhere, that is, “this” is a reference to something in the preceding linguistic context, and genea is a certain type of people.

Now let us look at the context of Matt 23:36. The relevant context is 23:1-39. The whole chapter is one long description and denunciation of the practices of certain hypocritical “scribes and Pharisees” and their like. In verse 35 the reference is broadened to similar people in the past who killed the righteous people (with an obvious sting to the self-righteous Pharisees who would soon kill the righteous Jesus). In verse 37 it is broadened to the people of Jerusalem as representing those people who kill the prophets. Upon SUCH PEOPLE (‘this genea’) will come a great punishment (‘all these things’). A possible, more faithful translation of tēn genean tautēn in v. 36 might be “you and people like you.”

Matt 24:34: (Mark 13:30, Luke 21:32) “Truly, I say to you [disciples], this genea will not pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” This is one of the most difficult verses to interpret. Some have argued that the phrase “passing away” suggests that a temporal element is present in the sense of genea here. This does not sound convincing. The next verse says that “heaven and earth” will pass away, while “my words” will not pass away, but no one would suggest that “heaven,” “earth” and “my words” thereby acquire a temporal sense. The word “pass away” does not mean ‘to die’ as GNB suggests. The meaning is much broader and there is no restriction that the subject must be animate as there is in the word “to die.” It simply means “come to an end, cease to exist.” The most obvious meaning of the verse is that certain “things” will continue to exist, while other “things” will cease to exist. Heaven and earth will cease to exist (at least in the present form), but both “my words” and “this class of people” will continue to exist in spite of opposition and tribulation.

It has been suggested that the phrase might refer to the Jewish people as a whole. This, too, I find rather unconvincing. Although the other instances of “this genea” do seem to refer to a group of the Jews, namely those who rejected Jesus as Messiah, this does not necessarily mean that “this genea” always has to refer to Jews. One important difference is that where it refers to the Jews who rejected Jesus, the context has very negative and judgmental connotations. But in this context, the connotations are positive. Whatever the reference is, that class of people will endure through tribulations. By parallelism, the phrase is closely connected to “my words” which is also positive and has endurance. Who would ensure that the words of Jesus were kept in existence through difficult times? It seems to me that “this genea” in this verse most naturally refers to the class of Christians keeping the word of God throughout the ages until the end of heaven and earth. This ties in well with the whole discourse of Matt 24 being directed to the disciples in private (v. 3) and the frequent use of the word “elect” to signify an important thematic participant in the discourse (v. 22,24,31).

 

This author HERE posts a good explanation on this topic that I believe to be correct which coincides with the ‘Genea’ meaning as described above.

 


 

So to sum up my belief on this topic, it seems to me if you look at the original Greek words used and their meaning, coupled with the previous uses of the words in the Gospels as describing a group of people based on characteristics (faithless, faithful etc.) that Jesus is referring to this whole group of people who match these criteria throughout time as the ‘generation’, not a people living within a certain set of years, if that makes sense.

 

 

 

Dreams

Typically not what I normally write, but I feel like this needs to be shared so here it is:
 
I had an interesting/unusual dream the other night, followed by a second immediately after. As the dream began it was impressed upon me that I needed to remember what I see as it was important and God was telling me something. I typically do not remember my dreams so I was at first concerned that I would forget it, but I figured if it was indeed something God was telling me that He would cause me to remember and that seems to have been the case.
 
So in the first dream I was looking out at a field that had a number of sheep grazing. As I watched some of the sheep slowly changed into wolves, the remaining sheep didn’t seem aware of the change and just continued to graze, oddly the wolves also didn’t change behavior. As I continued to watch, a few of the wolves slowly changed back to sheep, which seemed quite strange. The dream ended with both sheep and wolves in the pasture, the sheep continued to be oblivious to the wolves, likewise the wolves didn’t seem to behave any differently than before, but continued to act like sheep.
 
The second dream followed immediately after, and I believe are related as I will explain further. 
 
In the second dream I found myself in a clearing by a lake (I think) in the wilderness, there was no civilization of any kind I could see or anyone else there. Before me was the stump of a tree, freshly cut. On the stump was a mailer envelope (one of those padded yellow larger ones). I approached the stump and picked up the envelope, written on the address section was my name. Seemed acceptable to open it so I did so and dumped the contents out onto the stump. In the envelope was nothing but some fishing line and plain hooks. As I looked at them and thought about what I should try to do with them, concerned that it was going to be difficult to catch anything with only a line and hook (no bait, lures or even rod) the words Jesus spoke to the fishermen came immediately to my mind: “I will make you fishers of men.”. I then woke up.
 
I contemplated the dreams for the next few days and I believe they are both a warning and encouragement to myself and all God’s children who are living through this day and age. Several verses of scripture have come to mind regarding these and I’ll share a few of them that I feel are very relevant:
 
Phillipians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Jude 1:4 “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Proverbs 4:23-27 “23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. 24 Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. 26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. 27 Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.”
Matthew 7:15-18 “15 Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”
2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions…”
Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
Galatians 1:6-8 “6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”
 
2 Timothy 3:1-17 “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
 
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In the time when the Christian Church was new, the apostles were already warning God’s people that there was and would be ‘wolves’ among them, seeking to corrupt and change the Gospel which was delivered to them. It seems to me that we have ‘progressed’ to a day and age where there are just as many ‘wolves’ in ‘Christianity’ as there are sheep and shepherds. Many of which believe they are doing the work of God, oblivious to the fact they are indeed at enmity with Him. I believe we have been instructed to ‘guard our hearts and minds’, and not only our own but we have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters as well in this area. We live in a culture/society that avoids accountability of any kind, and this seems to be reflected in the Christian culture of our time as well, and I don’t believe that is how God says we should live as a Church.
 
We live in a time when we can pick and choose literally any ‘gospel’ or doctrine that claims to be Christian that suits our own personal views, morals, ideals, etc. If we don’t like the teachings or doctrine of one group we can just go to a different one, one that suits our own passions as it were. I hear many teachers and preachers talking about things that at first seem like great things, things that I want to stand behind and things that I am naturally drawn too because they appeal, often very inconspicuously and seemingly innocently to my personal morals and views on various situations like governments/politics, lifestyles, rights and freedoms, etc. I am constantly finding I have to examine those things carefully, trying to figure out the real message behind those words, comparing it with God’s Word, looking at what kind of fruit is produced by that doctrine and by those speaking it, etc. and to guard my heart against such things if they turn out to be different from the Gospel of the Bible and/or just unprofitable in my walk with God.
 
We live in a day and age where many of our spiritual ‘teachers’ and ‘elders’ and ‘leaders’ are highly skilled public speakers who are very charismatic and charming, speaking nice things that often sound profound and ‘good’ but in reality are spiritually empty and rooted in all kinds of evil; pride, selfishness, love of money, etc. Things that sound ‘loving’ and ‘kind’ but in reality spark division and dissension and draw people away from God into their own teachings/doctrines and steal the joy of Christ from those who listen, replacing it with the cares of the world; taking our focus away from God and His kingdom.
 
I think it is incredibly important we are not ignorant of these designs, and train our hearts and minds to search out the things of God and differentiate the things of God from the things of this world. The lines between what is of this world and what is of God have been increasingly blurred over the past years, to the point where, as a horrifying example, we live in a culture/society that not only encourages the murder of unborn children but actually condemns anyone who doesn’t support such an atrocity. This type of thing should be unthinkable, yet as disturbing as it is, this is a ‘normal’ part of our culture, something we rarely think twice about even if we ‘disagree’ with it. That in itself speaks to how far we have fallen from God, and people wonder why God would ‘allow’ things like disease or natural disasters or wars, etc. that affect ‘innocent’ and ‘basically good’ people… I cannot fathom the depths of God’s patience and mercy with us and our foolishness/wickedness, and I’m thankful and amazed that God maintains and preserves a remnant throughout the various ages and stages of civilization/life.
 
I was encouraged by the last part of the first dream, in that some of the wolves were changing back to sheep, eluding that there are some who will abandon the doctrine of the world they have become entangled with and take up the Gospel of Christ. I am confident we all know people who have fallen into such doctrine, and am exceedingly thankful and hopeful that by God’s grace and mercy they can yet be saved.
 
 
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The second dream really struck home the simplicity of Christ’s gospel and I think is a critical reminder and warning to us as well.
 
As I contemplated it I realized that when men try to ‘beautify’ or make the Gospel more ‘palatable’ or ‘appealing’ to others, they are simply adding their own bait, lures, equipment, etc. in an effort to ‘attract’ more fish. The conclusion I came to is that, while in theory this sounds ‘good’, I mean, the more people that are ‘saved’ the better right so it makes perfect sense to try and appeal to the widest audience possible, the fact is however that the fish/people which are attracted to a different gospel, one they have been drawn too with shiny and glittering lures, with sweet smelling and tasting bait, a gospel taught by men with modern and fancy fishing equipment, preached from the decks of expensive and impressive fishing boats… These are not the people/fish God is interested in catching, and the state of the countless churches and ‘Christian’ organizations I think is a resounding testament to this. I think that men often begin this deviation from Christ with the best of intentions and desires, and it seems that, like the wolves who didn’t know they had become or were becoming wolves, many believe they are serving God still and doing what is right.
 
The Gospel of Christ is one preached by the poor and humble in spirit, with bare or poorly shod feet on harsh, often desolate beaches, in waters that more often than not seem to be devoid of life and futile to fish in. A Gospel whose workers fish with calloused hands, throwing bare lines and hooks into waters time and time again with no illusions that there is anything they have or can create or offer to get a precious fish to bite, but trusting that Christ in His mercy will provide His body and blood to draw in those He has called. It is a Gospel that does not attract many people, and one that is contrary to culture/society, and one that many will hate and take offense too. It is the Gospel of a cross and nothing more or less. Foolishness to those who are perishing, but life to those who are being saved.
 
If we are devoting our thoughts and time and energy and opening our hearts to any other Gospel except this Gospel of Christ, we are working in vain. Guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, keep your focus on the Kingdom of God and not on the things of this world, which are passing away, love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you, be wise as serpents, innocent as doves, do everything in faith, avoid foolish arguments and dissensions, love your neighbor as yourself, love the Lord your God and obey His commandments. Take up your cross, deny yourself, follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.
 
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Lately I have been feeling like I am in a state of mourning and despair regarding our culture/society and the Church which seems more divided and petty and foolish/misled than ever. While I think it’s certainly valid to mourn/lament for the very obvious and clear departure from God’s plan and our continued straying as a culture/society/Church, it’s crucial we don’t lose hope. This verse also has been impressed upon me as a result of these dreams and I hope it will encourage yourself and others too:
 
Galatians 6:9 “9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
 
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