Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 21:32
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
32. This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled ] This verse has a nearer and a farther meaning. That very generation would not have passed when, 40 years later, the Jewish nation was crushed, and the Mosaic dispensation rendered impossible. But genea also means race, and the Jewish race shall last till the end of all things.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 32. This generation] This race of men; but see on Mt 24:34, and Mr 13:30.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
32. This generationnot “thisnation,” as some interpret it, which, though admissible initself, seems very unnatural here. It is rather as in Lu9:27.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Verily I say unto you, this generation,….
[See comments on Mt 24:34].
[See comments on Mt 24:35]. All the Oriental versions read here as there, “all these things”; before related.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This generation ( ). Naturally people then living.
Shall not pass away ( ). Second aorist active subjunctive of . Strongest possible negative with .
Till all things be accomplished ( ). Second aorist middle subjunctive of with , common idiom. The words give a great deal of trouble to critics. Some apply them to the whole discourse including the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, the second coming and the end of the world. Some of these argue that Jesus was simply mistaken in his eschatology, some that he has not been properly reported in the Gospels. Others apply them only to the destruction of Jerusalem which did take place in A.D. 70 before that generation passed away. It must be said for this view that it is not easy in this great eschatological discourse to tell clearly when Jesus is discussing the destruction of Jerusalem and when the second coming. Plummer offers this solution: “The reference, therefore, is to the destruction of Jerusalem regarded as the type of the end of the world.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “Verily I say unto you,” (amen lego humin) “Truly I tell you all,” Mat 24:33-34; Mat 12:45; Mat 23:35-36. Regarding this “wicked generation”, the Jews who had rejected Him.
2) “This generation shall not pass away,” (hoti ou me parelthe he genea aute) “That this generation will by no means pass away,” alluding to the Jewish generation of natural Israel who had rejected Him, Mat 23:36-39. This race, generation, or family people of Israel is meant by the Gk. “genea.”
3) “Till all be fulfilled.” (heos an pants genetai) “Until all things happen,” or come to be fulfilled, that have been prophesied concerning them, in their pre-dispersion suffering in Judea, the destruction of the temple, and the city of Jerusalem, and their being scattered throughout all nations, till near the end of the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, Luk 21:20-24; Mat 24:34; Mar 13:30.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(32, 33) Verily I say unto you . . .Here the variation ceases for a time, and the two verses are identical with Mat. 24:34-35, and Mar. 13:30-31.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
32. This generation Dr. Nast, in his excellent Commentary, would render the word as synonymous with race. And this would make the verse affirm that the Jewish race would last through all these troubles. Dr. Clarke also favours that rendering; and it has been current among maintainers of an approaching Second Advent for the last thirty years. Few scholars, however, would agree to escape the difficulties of this discourse by such a philology. Dr. Alexander, in his commentary on Mar 13:30, thus strongly treats this view of the word: “But although some English writers still adhere to that interpretation, others of the same class, and the German philologists, almost without exception, treat it as a sheer invention, without any authority, either in classical or Hellenistic usage, so that some of the best lexicons do not give this definition even to condemn it. Of the few alleged examples, chiefly in the Septuagint version, all admit of being taken in one of the acknowledged senses, which in the New Testament are three in number, all reducible to one and the same radical idea, that of a contemporary race, or the aggregate of those living at the same time. This is the direct sense in the great majority of cases, (such as Mar 8:12; Mar 8:38; Mar 9:19; Mat 11:16; Mat 12:39-45; Mat 16:4; Mat 23:36; Luk 7:31; Luk 16:8; Luk 17:25; Act 2:40; Act 13:36; Php 2:15; Heb 3:10,) and is scarcely modified when transferred from men to time, (as in Act 14:16; Act 15:2 l; Eph 3:5; Eph 3:21; Col 1:26,) or to the stages of descent and degrees of genealogical succession, (as in Mat 1:17.) Common to all these cases is the radical idea of contemporaneous existence, which it would be monstrous, therefore, to exclude in that before us, as we must do if we understand it of the whole race in its successive generations. It follows, therefore, that unless we forge a meaning for the word in this place, which is not only unexampled elsewhere, but directly contradictory to its essential meaning everywhere, we must understand our Lord as saying that the contemporary race or generation, that is, those then living, should not pass away or die till all these prophecies had been accomplished.” We may add that specially unequivocal are the parallel passages, Mat 23:36 and Luk 11:50-51. In the former of these two passages it is a very strange interpretation which makes the Saviour say that all the blood of the martyrs, from Abel to Zacharias, shall fall upon the Jewish race, and not upon some other race. The clear meaning is, that the penalty of the accumulated guilt of all the preceding generations should finally fall upon that generation. And the admission of this fixes of course the sense of the present passage. Our Lord must be understood as maintaining in all three passages, that that generation should be the object of hereditary penalty.
Luk 21:34-36 give the compressed substance of Mat 25:1-30.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Truly I say to you, This generation will not pass away, until all things be accomplished.”
And indeed, He declares, all ‘these things’ that He has described as necessary before His coming will be accomplished within the lifetime of the current generation. It must necessarily be so. The blood of all the prophets would be required of this generation because of what they were going to do to God’s beloved Son (Luk 11:50-51). The judgment on Jerusalem must therefore necessarily happen within this generation.
This would then indicate that His return could also be within that time period, but would not necessarily be so, for His coming is not part of ‘these things’, it is the fulfilment resulting after ‘these things’. So the claim is that while all ‘these things’ that must take place before His coming will occur within a generation, the coming itself would not necessarily occur within that time period (for He did not know when it would be). All they could know when all these thing had occurred was that it was ‘near’, that is, could possibly arrive at any time.
That Jesus was at this point no more aware than His disciples of how long would be the period between the destruction of Jerusalem and His coming comes out in these words. Later revelation would reveal that it would be a long, indeterminate, unlimited period, cited as a round ‘thousand years’ (Rev 20:3-7), a period which to first century man would indicate immeasurable time.
However, the word genea can in fact mean, 1) the descendants of a common ancestor, that is, those ‘generated’ from such an ancestor (thus a particular race, e.g. the Jews); 2) a group of people born at the same time (‘generation’ thus for example being seen as shorthand for ‘the people in that generation’); or 3) a period of time occupied by such a group of people (roughly a period of forty years). It has therefore been suggested that ‘this generation’ could be interpreted in any one of a number of different ways as follows:
1). ‘This generation’ (this ‘race’) could mean the race of the Jews as ‘generated’ from Israel/Jacob, those who were born of Israel/Jacob. This would then be promising that the Jews as a race would not cease to exist before all these things were accomplished. It would be declaring that they would still be around at the end, and unlike other nations, would not just have disappeared. It would be a word of hope for the Jews. Certainly the fact of the survival of the Jews as a distinct entity through the centuries must be seen as quite remarkable. But there are other explanations for their survival, (the Arabs have also survived, and also see themselves as descendants of Abraham), and it is not a natural meaning of the phrase in this context without further amplification.
2). ‘This generation’, which is a phrase used regularly by Jesus of unbelievers who do not respond to His words (see Luk 7:31; Luk 9:41; Luk 11:29-32), could be seen as signifying people with a certain attitude against Him, like the ‘generation of vipers’ (those born of vipers) in Luk 3:7, thus indicating a type of people who will not die out before the second coming. But it would again be an unusual use of the word without further amplification.
3). ‘This generation’ could indicate a generation in which certain of the events described will happen in the future, a generation which will then not pass away before all is fulfilled, e.g. the final generation at the end. The idea here would be to stress that all that is described must occur within the one generation, although in this case it is a later generation, ‘this’ referring to the generation who will actually be involved.
4). ‘This generation’ could mean the current generation when Jesus was speaking which would not pass away before all that necessarily had to lead up to His coming, especially the destruction of Jerusalem, was fulfilled. This is the most natural and straightforward meaning of the term.
We opt for the fourth as being Jesus’ intention, simply because it is the most natural significance of the phrase and ties in with the thought that the blood of the prophets will be required of this generation. The point that He is then also stressing is that all that must necessarily lead up to His coming will be fulfilled within that generation so that His coming need not necessarily be looked at as something that will happen only in a remote future, long after that time. This holding out of the future as imminent, part of which had not yet been fulfilled by the time of Jesus, is seen as constant in the prophets. The aim was to keep people in expectancy. On the other hand it always left open the options that what was to happen might be soon, or might be in the more distant future. The point then is that by the time the current generation is passing away His coming will be ‘near’, that is, will be such that it could possibly occur at any time. Jesus did not want His followers to lose sight of the fact that the time of His return was unknown, even to Him. Thus he wanted them to see it as ‘imminent’ (that is, as possibly happening at any time), so that they must always be anticipating the possibility of it. Not knowing when it would be He knew that it could be near or far. There was no other way of presenting it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 21:32. Verily I say unto you, &c. A late writer, whose criticism is at least ingenious, observes, that “this clause, of the prediction has not merely been generally misapprehended, but moreover falsely translated; and this is the opinion of men who holdthefirstrankinscripturalcriticism,namely, of Mede, Wolfius, Brenius, Markius, Sykes, &c. A Mr. Hayne had applied this part of our Lord’s prophesy to the destruction of Jerusalem: Mr. Mede replies to him, ‘I answer, first, while you endeavour in this manner to establish a ground for the first coming of Christ, you bereave the church of those principal passages of the scripture, whereon she hath always grounded her faith of the second coming. Secondly, you ground all this upon the ambiguity of the word generation; whereas the word signifies not only an age, but a people, a nation, a progeny, and so ought to be here taken; viz.the nation of the Jews should not perish, till all these things were fulfilled.Chrysostome among the ancients,* and Flaccius Illyricus (a man well skilled in the style of scripture) among the moderns, and those who follow them, might have admonished others to take the word in this acceptation, rather than, by turning it into an age or generation, to put this prophesy in little-ease, and the whole harmony of scripture out of frame, by I know not what confused interpretation.’ I only add, that Dr. Sykes declares himself the more confirmed in this translation, ‘from the remarkable, and, indeed, unparalleled, preservation of the Jews in the midst of hatred and continual persecutions.’ The meaning then is, The Jewish nation shall assuredly subsist as a distinct people, till all that has been previously mentioned shall have been fulfilled, not only during the most corrupt period of the church, but until the antichristian governments of the world shall have been dissolved, and the religion of Jesus shall have begun to shine with its perfect brightness. And what is there in the existing circumstances of the world, or of the Jews, which contradicts this assertion, or renders it incapable of being verified?”
* “Indeed by the Fathers in general, who may be admitted to have been competent judges of the meaning of the word, was not understood as signifying the generation then living. Some persons, however, there were, who held this opinion; but, says Maldonatus, Origen entitles them simplices.”
“The language of Christ is expressed with all possible strength. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away: that is, says Bishop Newton, ‘Heaven and earth shall sooner or more easily pass away; the frame of the universe shall sooner or more easily be dissolved, than my words not be fulfilled.’ And surely the prediction of the Jews remaining as a separate people was a fact of sufficient importance,andsufficientlyinterestingtothepersonswhomourLordwasaddressing, to account why he annexed it to an affirmation thus striking and solemn.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Luk 21:32-33 : with slight change as in parallels, even to the retention of usually replaced by . Presumably means for Lk., as it must have done for the Twelve to whom the words were spoken, the generation to which Jesus Himself belonged. Hahn holds that refers to the generation within whose time the events mentioned in Luk 21:25-26 shall happen (so also Klostermann).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Verily. See note on Mat 5:18. This generation. See note on Mat 11:16.
till all be fulfilled = till (Greek. eos an) all may possiblyto pass. (Not the same word as “fulfilled” in Luk 21:24.) Had the nation repented at Peter’s call, in Act 2:38; Act 3:19-26, “all that the prophets had spoken” would have come to pass.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Luk 21:32. [ , this generation) A period of forty years elapsed between this discourse and the destruction of Jerusalem.-V. g.]- , all things be fulfilled) He is speaking of those things which formed the subject of the question in Luk 21:7. and which are discussed from Luk 21:8 to Luk 21:24; although not even is the appendix added, Luk 21:25-27, altogether excluded; for once that the beginning has been made, all the other events successively go forward without intermission, and are continually coming to pass, and roll onward towards the end.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Luk 11:50, Luk 11:51, Mat 16:28, Mat 23:36, Mat 24:34, Mar 13:30
Reciprocal: Zec 11:10 – Beauty Mat 5:18 – verily Luk 21:7 – when
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3
This paragraph refers to the destruction of Jerusalem. See the notes on Mat 24:34-35, giving special attention to the word “generation.”
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
This verse begins Jesus’ final word confirming the certainty of His prophecy. He introduced it with the solemn "Truly I say to you" or "I tell you the truth."
"This generation" refers to the unbelieving Jews who were alive when Jesus spoke, as it usually does in the Gospels (cf. Luk 3:7; Luk 7:31; Luk 9:41; Luk 11:29-32; Luk 11:50-51; Luk 17:25; Mar 11:14; Act 2:40). Jesus may have meant that that generation would not disappear until the fulfillment of all that He had predicted had begun. A better interpretation is that "this generation" refers to the generation referred to in Luk 21:25 that will see the beginning of the end in the cosmic signs. [Note: Bock, Luke, pp. 538-39, M. Bailey, pp. 146-47, and Wiersbe, 1:263. For a discussion of other interpretations, see my note on Matthew 24:34; Maddox, pp. 111-15; and Morris, pp. 300-1.] The destruction of Jerusalem was the beginning of the fulfillment of what Jesus had predicted in this discourse. Obviously all the things that He predicted here did not happen within the lifetime of His hearers. He evidently regarded the beginning of fulfillment as a guarantee of complete fulfillment. This was a common Semitic viewpoint. The Semites regarded a part of the whole as the whole (cf. Deu 26:5-10; 1Ki 13:32; Jer 31:5; 2Sa 5:6-10; Rev 14:1; Rev 22:1; Rom 15:19-24). The name that some scholars have given this viewpoint is representative universalism. [Note: See A. J. Mattill Jr., "Representative Universalism and the Conquest of Canaan," Concordia Theological Monthly 35:1 (1967):8-17.]