Matthew 24:34

[Fidei Defensor]

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

What exactly does Jesus mean by this? Does anyone have any insight?

[cmotherofpirl]

since I have no bible handy can you post the revelant section?

[cappie]

24:34 Generation (Gk. genea), as used in different contexts, may mean “race” or “generation.” Some, therefore, take it to mean race here, so that Israel as a people will not cease existing until God fulfills His promises to them. Other peoples, like the Hittites and Amorites, have come and gone, but the Jew is still here. Another possibility is to say that genea describes a particular era in which people will see those end times. The events that happen will occur so rapidly that all will happen in one generation. Perhaps both are true. All includes the Antichrist, the Great Tribulation, and most importantly the stellar appearance of the Christ of glory.

[EcceNovaFacioOmni]

I have also read that the post-Ressurection era can be considered one "generation."

[phatcatholic]

[quote name='fidei defensor' date='Mar 29 2006, 06:50 PM']Matthew 24:34: "Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. "

What exactly does Jesus mean by this? Does anyone have any insight?
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a few catholic commentaries:

navarre commentary:[list][b]32-35.[/b] Seeing in the destruction of Jerusalem a symbol of the end of the world, St John Chrysostom applies to it this parable of the fig tree: "Here he also foretells a spiritual spring and a calm which, after the storm of the present life, the righteous will eperience; whereas for sinners there will be a winter after the spring they have had [. . .]. But this was not the only reason why he put befor ethem the parable of the fig tree, to tell them of the interval before his coming; he wanted to show them that his word would assuredly come true. As sure as the coming of spring is the coming of the Son of man" (Hom. on St Matthew, 77).
[/list]ignatius study bible:[list][b]24:34 this generation:[/b] The Greek denotes about a forty-year time span. Jesus' words would thus be accomplished within the lifetime of some of his hearers (cf. 10:23; 16:28; 23:36).
[b]will not pass away:[/b] The identical expression is used in the following verse, implying a close connection between the termination of Old Covenant era and the end of the visible world. Just as signs of chaos and catastrophe precede the collapse of the Old age and the coming of Christ's kingdom (24:3-30), so similar signs are expected befor ethe final days of the New age and Christ's Second Coming in glory.
[/list]NAB:[list][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.
[/list]catena aurea of st. thomas aquinas:[list][b]32-35.[/b]
Chrys., Hom. lxxvii: Because He had said that these things should come to pass “immediately after the tribulation of those days,” they might ask, How long time hence, He therefore gives them an instance in the fig.

Jerome: As much as to say, When the tender shoots first shew themselves in the stem of the fig tree, and the bud bursts into flower, and the bark puts forth leaves, ye perceive the approach of summer and the season of spring and growth; so when ye shall see all829 these things that are written, do not suppose that the end of the world is immediate, but that certain monitory signs and precursors are shewing its approach.

Chrys.: He shews that the interval of time shall not be great, but that the coming of Christ will be presently. By the comparison of the tree He signifies the spiritual summer and peace that the just shall enjoy after their winter, while sinners on the other hand shall have a winter after summer.

Origen: As the fig has its vital powers torpid within it through the season of winter, but when that is past its branches become tender by those very powers and put forth leaves; so the world and all those who are saved had before Christ’s coming their vital energies dormant within them as in a season of winter. Christ’s Spirit breathing upon them makes the branches of their hearts soft and tender, and that which was dormant within burgeons into leaf, and makes shew of fruit. To such the summer and the coming of the glory of the Word of God is nigh at hand.

Chrys.: This analogy also adds credit to His foregoing discourse; for wherever He speaks of what must by all means come to pass, Christ ever brings forward parallel physical laws.

Aug., Ep. 199, 22: That now from the Evangelic and Prophetic signs that we see come to pass, we ought to look that the Lord’s coming should be nigh, who is there that denies? For daily it draws ever more and more near, but of the exact time it is said, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” [Acts 1:7] See how long ago the Apostle said, “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” [Rom 13:11] What he spoke was not false, and yet how many years have elapsed, how much more may we not say that the Lord’s coming is at hand now, that so great an accession of time has been made?

Hilary: Mystically; The Synagogue is likened to the fig tree; [ed. note: See above on chap xxi, 19] its branch is Antichrist, the son of the Devil, the portion of sin, the maintainer of the law; when this shall begin to swell and to put forth leaves, then summer is nigh, i.e. the approach of the day of judgment shall be perceived.

Remig.: Or, when this fig shall again bud, that is, when the synagogue shall receive the word of holy preaching, as the preaching of Enoch and Elias, then we ought to understand that the day of the consummation is at hand.

Aug., Quaest. Ev., i, 39: Or, by the fig tree understand the human race, by reason of the830 temptations of the flesh. “When its branch is tender,” i.e. when the sons of men through faith in Christ have progressed towards spiritual fruits, and the honour of their adoption to be the sons of God has shone forth in them.

Hilary: To give sure credit to the things which should come to pass He adds, “Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled.” By saying “Verily,” He gives asseveration to the truth.

Origen: The uninstructed refer the words to the destruction of Jerusalem, and suppose them to have been said of that generation which saw Christ’s death, that it should not pass away before the city should be destroyed. But I doubt that they would succeed in thus expounding every word from that, “one stone shall not be left upon another,” to that, “it is even at the door;” in some perhaps they would succeed, in others not altogether.

Chrys.: All these things therefore mean what was said of the end of Jerusalem, of the false prophets, and the false Christs, and all the rest which shall happen down to the time of Christ’s coming, That He said, “This generation,” He meant not of the men then living, but of the generation of the faithful; for so Scripture uses to speak of generations, not of time only, but of place, life, and conversation; as it is said, “This, is the generation of them that seek the Lord.” [Ps 24:6]

Herein He teaches that Jerusalem shall perish, and the greater part of the Jews be destroyed, but that no trial shall overthrow the generation of the faithful.

Origen: Yet shall the generation of the Church survive the whole of this world, that it may inherit the world to come, yet it shall not pass away until all these things have come to pass. But when all these shall have been fulfilled, then not the earth only but the heavens also shall pass away; that is, not only the men whose life is earthly, and who are therefore called the earth, but also they whose conversation is in heaven, and who are therefore called the heaven; these “shall pass away” to things to come, that they may come to better things.

But the words spoken by the Saviour shall not pass away, because they effect and shall ever effect their purpose; but the perfect and they that admit no further improvement, passing through what they are, come to that which they are not; and this is that, “My words shall not pass away.” And perhaps the words of Moses and the Prophets have passed away, because all that they prophesied has831 been fulfilled; but the words of Christ are always complete, daily fulfilling and to be fulfilled in the saints. Or perhaps we ought not to say that the words of Moses and the Prophets are once for all fulfilled; seeing they also are the words of the Son of God, and are fulfilled continually.

Jerome: Or, by “generation” here He means the whole human race, and the Jews in particular. And He adds, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away,” to confirm their faith in what has gone before; as though He had said, it is easier to destroy things solid and immovable, than that aught should fail of my words.

Hilary: For heaven and earth have in their constitution no necessity of existence, but Christ’s words derived from eternity have in them such virtue that they must needs abide.

Jerome: The heaven and the earth shall pass away by a change, not by annihilation; for how should the “sun be darkened, and the moon not give her light,” if earth and heaven in which these are should be no more?

Raban.: The heaven which shall pass away is not the starry [marg. note: sidereum] but the atmospheric [marg. note: aereum] heaven which of old was destroyed by the deluge.

Chrys.: He brings forward the elements of the earth to shew that the Church is of more value than either heaven or earth, and that He is Maker of all things. [marg. note: 2 Pet 3:5]
[/list]Fr. William G. Most commentaries:[list][b]Chapter 24: the end of time and of Jerusalem:[/b] We are not dividing this chapter as usual, since there is so much difference among commentators about it. At first sight, it seems the disciples ask Him two questions: about the signs for the fall of Jerusalem, and about the sings for His return at the end. Some think that in the minds of the disciples, both were taken together, that they would both happen at about the same time.

But if we turn to what as in the mind of Christ, there are clearly two events, for the fall of Jerusalem happened in 70 AD, the end is not yet here.

We have spoken before of multiple fulfillment of prophecies (cf. Free From All error, chapter 5 ). It is likely that we have a large example of it here. We mean that all the signs went through before 70 AD, and of course, can go through again before tHis second coming. The following content is summarized from chapter 5 of Free From All Error.

1) "Many will come in my name, saying: "'I am the Christ', and will lead many astray." There were false Messiahs before 70. Thus Acts 5: 36-37 tells of revolts led by Theudas and Judas of Galilee. Now Judas seems to belong to an earlier time, about 6-7 AD. Josephus however puts Theudas in the 40s AD. To explain: Josephus is not always accurate; or, Luke may be following the Greek genre of history in which speeches may sometimes be made up to fit an occasion, without solid basis.

Acts 21:38 speaks of another false Messiah from Egypt, but does not give his name.

2) Wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes. But Jesus adds "All this is only the beginning of sufferings." So these signs which are general enough to apply to almost any period of history, are not signs immediately before the end.

There were many wars before 70, especially the great Jewish revolt starting in 66 AD. Also 69 was the year of the four Emperors: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian. The first three each ruled just a few months after the fall of Nero. Vespasian finally was able to hold the throne. And there were famines in the time of Emperor Claudius (42-54). Acts 11:28 says a prophet called Agabus predicted a severe famine.

There were pestilences too. Tacitus in Annals 16:13 says that the year 65 was "a year of shame and of so many evil deeds, [which] heaven also marked by storms and pestilence. Campania was devastated by a hurricane, which destroyed everywhere country houses, plantations and crops, and carried its rage to the vicinity of Rome, where a dreadful plague was sweeping away people of all classes... the houses were filled with corpses, and the streets with funerals."

Tacitus also tells of earthquakes in various places in the empire: In the Province of Asia in 53 (Annals 12:58); in Rome in 51 AD (Annals 12:43); in Campania and especially Pompeii in 62 AD (Annals 15: 22). Seneca the philosopher and Josephus also tell of earthquakes.

Jesus also foretold persecutions. There were many of those before 70 AD, and many of them from the Jews, who persistently pursued St. Paul, and once thought they had him dead by stoning. Nero's persecution also came in this period.

24:12 is frightening: Because sin will go the limit, the love of most people will grow cold. There was immense sin in this period of course, perhaps not as great as that which will come before the end, to which specially applies Lk 18:8: "When the Son of Man comes, do you think He will find faith upon the earth?"

24:14 says the Gospel must be preached throughout the world, and then the end will come." St. Paul told the Romans (15:23) that he no longer had a place to preach in the whole eastern Mediterranean. But before the real end, the Gospel will have reached throughout the globe.

A specially difficult line is 24:15: "When you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel (9:27) standing in the holy place... then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." Daniel spoke of the desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes (167-65). The Emperor Caligula in 40 AD ordered that a statue be place in the Jerusalem Temple, but it seems his subordinates had the good judgment to ignore that order. Yet Eusebius (Histories 3. 5) reports that many Christians in Jerusalem did see something that caused them to flee to the city of Pella before the fall of Jerusalem. Probably they had seen the Roman eagles on the standards of the soldiers in the outer temple area. The soldiers actually worshipped those eagles, and so they were really idols.

Another difficult line is 24:29-31: "Right after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in the sky."

For certain this passage is basically of apocalyptic genre. And we know that such language was used earlier, by Isaiah 13:9-10: "The day of the Lord comes, cruel with wrath... for the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light." But Isaiah spoke only of the fall of Babylon. Isaiah spoke similarly in 34:4 on the fall of Edom, as did Ezekiel 32:7-8 on distress coming to Egypt. So such language could apply to coming fall of Jerusalem, more terrible than that of Babylon.

However, the last words of 24:31 may apply only to the final end, when the sign of the Son of Man - mostly likely the cross -will appear in the sky. This is what Jesus Himself seems to have spoken of in Mt 26:64 to the High Priest saying he would see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven.

24:43 says this generation will not pass away until it all is fulfilled. Yes, we have seen that at least practically all the signs enumerated did come before 70 A.D. They will come most fully before the final end.

Finally, Jesus warns that the signs are not so clear that most people will read them: "As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." People will be eating, drinking, marrying - that is, business as usual. And suddenly it will be there. So St. Paul told the Thessalonians (1 Th. 5:2-3) that the day will come like a thief in the night. Cf. 2 Pet 3:10. His coming will be as obvious as lightening flashing from one end of the sky to the other:24:27. And as obvious also as a carcass with vultures circling around it: 14:28. Verses 40-43 tell of one being taken to reward, the other to punishment at that coming. So watch.
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i hope that helps

peace,
nick

[phatcatholic]

[quote name='cappie' date='Mar 29 2006, 08:32 PM']24:34 Generation (Gk. genea), as used in different contexts, may mean “race” or “generation.” Some, therefore, take it to mean race here, so that Israel as a people will not cease existing until God fulfills His promises to them. Other peoples, like the Hittites and Amorites, have come and gone, but the Jew is still here. Another possibility is to say that genea describes a particular era in which people will see those end times. The events that happen will occur so rapidly that all will happen in one generation. Perhaps both are true. All includes the Antichrist, the Great Tribulation, and most importantly the stellar appearance of the Christ of glory.
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what is this from?

[cmotherofpirl]

I love Father Most The major difficulty is for those people who think Matthew was written after 70AD.