Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 24:34
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
34. This generation ] See note, ch. Mat 16:28.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This generation … – This age; this race of people. A generation is about 30 or 40 years. The destruction of Jerusalem took place about forty years after this was spoken. See the notes at Mat 16:28.
Till all these things … – Until these things shall be accomplished. Until events shall take place which shall be a fulfillment of these words, if there were nothing further intended. He does not mean to exclude the reference to the judgment, but to say that the destruction of Jerusalem would be such as to make appropriate the words of the prediction, were there nothing beyond. Compare the notes at Mat 1:22-23. So when death was threatened to Adam, the propriety of the threatening would have been seen, and the threatening would have been fulfilled, had people suffered only temporal death. At the same time the threatening had a fullness of meaning that would cover also, and justify, eternal death. Thus the words of Christ describing the destruction of Jerusalem had a fulness of signification that would meet also the events of the judgment, and whose meaning would not be entirely filled up until the world was closed.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 34. This generation shall not pass] , this race; i.e. the Jews shall not cease from being a distinct people, till all the counsels of God relative to them and the Gentiles be fulfilled. Some translate , this generation, meaning the persons who were then living, that they should not die before these signs, c., took place: but though this was true, as to the calamities that fell upon the Jews, and the destruction of their government, temple, c., yet as our Lord mentions Jerusalem’s continuing to be under the power of the Gentiles till the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, i.e. till all the nations of the world should receive the Gospel of Christ, after which the Jews themselves should be converted unto God, Ro 11:25, &c., I think it more proper not to restrain its meaning to the few years which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem but to understand it of the care taken by Divine providence to preserve them as a distinct people, and yet to keep them out of their own land, and from their temple service. See on Mr 13:30. But still it is literally true in reference to the destruction of Jerusalem. John probably lived to see these things come to pass compare Mt 16:28, with Joh 21:22; and there were some rabbins alive at the time when Christ spoke these words who lived till the city was destroyed, viz. Rabban Simeon, who perished with the city; R. Jochanan ben Zaccai, who outlived it; R. Zadoch, R. Ismael, and others. See Lightfoot.
The war began, as Josephus says, Ant. b. xx. c. 11. s. 1, in the second year of the government of Gessius Florus, who succeeded Albinus, successor of Porcius Festus, mentioned Ac 24:27, in the month of May, in the twelfth year of Nero, and the seventeenth of Agrippa, mentioned Acts 25 and 26, that is, in May, A. D. 66.
The temple was burnt August 10, A. D. 70, the same day and month on which it had been burnt by the king of Babylon: Josephus, Ant. b. xx. c. 11. s. 8.
The city was taken September 8, in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, or the year of Christ 70. Ant. b. vi. c. 10.
That was the end of the siege of Jerusalem, which began, as Josephus several times observes, about the fourteenth day of the month Nisan, or our April. See War, b. v. c. 3. s. 1, c. 13. s. 7; b. vi. c. 9. s. 3.
Dr. Lardner farther remarks, There is also an ancient inscription to the honour of Titus, “who, by his father’s directions and counsels, had subdued the Jewish nation and destroyed Jerusalem, which had never been destroyed by any generals, kings, or people, before.” The inscription may be seen in GRUTER, vol. i. p. 244. It is as follows: –
IMP. TITO. CAESARI. DIVI. VESPASIANI. F
VESPASIANO. AUG. PONTIFICI. MAXIMO
TRIB, POT. X. IMP. XVII. COS. VIII. P. P.
PRINCIPI. SUO. S. P. Q. R.
QUOD. PRAECEPTIS. PATRIS. CONSILIISQUE. ET
AUSPICIIS. GENTEM. JUDAEOROM. DOMUIT. ET
URBEM. HIEROSOLYMAM. OMNIBUS. ANTE. SE
DUCIBUS. REGIBUS. GENTIBUSQUE. AUT. FRUSTRA.
PETITAM. AUT. OMNINO. INTENTATAM. DELEVIT.
For this complete conquest of Jerusalem, Titus had a triumphal arch erected to his honour, which still exists. It stands on the Via Sacra, leading from the forum to the amphitheatre. On it are represented the spoils of the temple of God, such as the golden table of the show-bread, the golden candlestick with its seven branches, the ark of the covenant, the two golden trumpets, c., c. for a particular account see the note on Ex 25:31. On this arch, a correct model of which, taken on the spot, now stands before me, is the following inscription: –
SENATUS
POPULUSQUE ROMANUS
DIVO TITO. DIVI VESPASIANI. F
VESPASIANO AUGUSTO.
“The Senate and People of Rome, to the Divine Titus, son of the Divine Vespasian and to Vespasian the Emperor.”
On this occasion, a medal was struck with the following inscription round a laureated head of the emperor: – IMP.erator J.ulius CAES.ar VESP.asianus AUG.ustus. P.ontifex M.aximus, TR.ibunitia, P.otestate P.ater P.atrice CO.nS.ul VIII. – On the obverse are represented a palm tree, the emblem of the land of Judaea; the emperor with a trophy standing on the left; Judea, under the figure of a distressed woman, sitting at the foot of the tree weeping, with her head bowed down, supported by her left hand, with the legend JUDAEA CAPTA. S.enatus C.onsultus. at the bottom. This is not only an extraordinary fulfilment of our Lord’s prediction, but a literal accomplishment of a prophecy delivered about 800 years before, Isa 3:26, And she, desolate, shall sit upon the ground.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass,…. Not the generation of men in general; as if the sense was, that mankind should not cease, until the accomplishment of these things; nor the generation, or people of the Jews, who should continue to be a people, until all were fulfilled; nor the generation of Christians; as if the meaning was, that there should be always a set of Christians, or believers in Christ in the world, until all these events came to pass; but it respects that present age, or generation of men then living in it; and the sense is, that all the men of that age should not die, but some should live
till all these things were fulfilled; see Mt 16:28 as many did, and as there is reason to believe they might, and must, since all these things had their accomplishment, in and about forty years after this: and certain it is, that John, one of the disciples of Christ, outlived the time by many years; and, as Dr. Lightfoot observes, many of the Jewish doctors now living, when Christ spoke these words, lived until the city was destroyed; as Rabban Simeon, who perished with it, R. Jochanan ben Zaccai, who outlived it, R. Zadoch, R. Ishmael, and others: this is a full and clear proof, that not anything that is said before, relates to the second coming of Christ, the day of judgment, and end of the world; but that all belong to the coming of the son of man, in the destruction of Jerusalem, and to the end of the Jewish state.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This generation ( ). The problem is whether Jesus is here referring to the destruction of Jerusalem or to the second coming and end of the world. If to the destruction of Jerusalem, there was a literal fulfilment. In the Old Testament a generation was reckoned as forty years. This is the natural way to take verse 34 as of 33 (Bruce), “all things” meaning the same in both verses.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
34. This generation shall not pass away. Though Christ employs a general expression, yet he does not extend the discourses to all the miseries which would befall the Church, but merely informs them, that before a single generation shall have been completed, they will learn by experience the truth of what he has said. For within fifty years the city was destroyed and the temple was razed, the whole country was reduced to a hideous desert, and the obstinacy of the world rose up against God. Nay more, their rage was inflamed to exterminate the doctrine of salvation, false teachers arose to corrupt the pure gospel by their impostures, religion sustained amazing shocks, and the whole company of the godly was miserably distressed. Now though the same evils were perpetrated in uninterrupted succession for many ages afterwards, yet what Christ said was true, that, before the close of a single generation, believers would feel in reality, and by undoubted experience, the truth of his prediction; for the apostles endured the same things which we see in the present day. (155) And yet it was not the design of Christ to promise to his followers that their calamities would be terminated within a short time, (for then he would have contradicted himself, having previously warned them that the end was not yet;) but, in order to encourage them to perseverance, he expressly foretold that those things related to their own age. The meaning therefore is: “This prophecy does not relate to evils that are distant, and which posterity will see after the lapse of many centuries, but which are now hanging over you, and ready to fall in one mass, so that there is no part of it which the present generation will not experience.” So then, while our Lord heaps upon a, single generation every kind of calamities, he does not by any means exempt future ages from the same kind of sufferings, but only enjoins the disciples to be prepared for enduring them all with firmness.
(155) “ Que nous voyons aujourdhui advenir aux fideles;” — “which we see in the present day happen to believers.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(34) This generation shall not pass . . .The natural meaning of the words is, beyond question. that which takes generation in the ordinary sense (as in Mat. 1:17, Act. 13:36, and elsewhere) for those who are living at any given period. So it was on this generation (Mat. 23:36) that the accumulated judgments were to fall. The desire to bring the words into more apparent harmony with history has led some interpreters to take generation in the sense of race or people, and so to see in the words a prophecy of the perpetuity of the existence of the Jews as a distinct people till the end of the world. But for this meaning there is not the shadow of authority; nor does it remove the difficulty which it was invented to explain. The words of Mat. 16:28 state the same fact in language which does not admit of any such explanation.
Till all these things be fulfilled.Better, till all these things come to pass. The words do not necessarily imply more than the commencement of a process, the first unrolling of the scroll of the coming ages.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
34. This generation shall not pass till all THESE THINGS be fulfilled This celebrated verse has been quoted by many orthodox expositors, indeed by their great body in modern times, to show that all the events named in the discourse thus far take place in that generation. Certainly this cannot be true of Luk 21:24, for the events of that verse did not transpire during that generation. We trust that we have made it plain that the these things of this verse are simply the answer to the these things inquired about by the disciples in verse third. They ask when these things shall be. He is now prepared to answer: These things shall be before this present generation passes. But the these things of the question only comprehend the overthrow of the city and temple. This is identical with the these things of the thirty-third verse.
Precisely parallel to this verse is Mat 23:36: “Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation.” And by the these things of that verse plainly were meant the destruction of the city and state. And this parallelism, it might be remarked by the way, goes to show the incorrectness of the interpretation which some have adopted, by which the word generation is made to signify race. Were it to signify race, what race is indicated by this race? It might mean the human race, or the Jewish race, or the Christians, as Dr. Clarke supposes; and thus we are thrown into a state of perfect vagueness. But this rendering of the word has met with but little favour among scholars.
Of the overthrow of the temple, the disciples ask: “When shall THESE THINGS be?” Of that same event the Lord replies, after giving its full attendant details: “This generation shall not pass till all THESE THINGS be fulfilled.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Truly I say to you, This generation will not pass away, until all these things be accomplished.”
But so that they will not begin to think that this means that they do not need to consider what He has been talking about because it is likely to be delayed, He assures them that ‘all these things’, all the things that must happen prior to His return as outlined, will happen within that generation. But He immediately points out that as He does not know when the time of His coming will be, He cannot give them any assurances about that, only that from that time on they can recognise that He is ‘near’ and ‘at the doors’ so that it can happen at any time within the will and purpose of God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 24:34. This generation shall not pass, &c. Our Lord proceeds to declare, that the time of his coming was at no very great distance; and to shew that he has been speaking all the while of the destruction of Jerusalem, he affirms with his usual asseveration, Verily, I say unto you, &c. It is therefore matter of wonder how any man can refer part of the foregoing discourse to the destruction of Jerusalem, and part of it to the end of the world, or any other distant event, when it is said so positively here, all these things shall be fulfilled in this generation. See Bishop Newton, and Mar 9:1.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 24:34 . Declaration to the effect that all this is to take place before the generation then living should pass away. The well-nigh absurd manner in which it has been attempted to force into the words such meanings as: the creation (Maldonatus), or: the human race (Jerome), or: the Jewish nation (Jansen, Calovius, Wolf, Heumann, Storr, Dorner, Hebart, Auberlen; see, on the other hand, on Mar 13:30 ), or: “the class of men consisting of my believers ” (Origen, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Clarius, Paulus, Lange), resembles the unreasonable way in which Ebrard, following up his erroneous reference of (see on Mat 24:33 ), imports into the saying the idea: inde ab ipsorum (discipulorum) aetate omnibus ecclesiae temporibus interfutura , an imaginary view which passages like Mat 10:23 , Mat 16:28 , Mat 23:39 , should have been sufficient to prevent. This also in opposition to the interpretation of Cremer: “ the generation of the elect now in question,” and that of Klostermann: “the (future) generation which is to witness those events ,” both of which are foreign to the sense. Comp. Mat 23:36 .
The is the same as that of Mat 24:33 , and therefore denoting neither the mere prognostics of the second advent, or, to be more definite, “ the taking away of the kingdom from Israel ” (Gess), nor specially the destruction of Jerusalem (Schott, E. J. Meyer, Hoelemann, Bumlein in Klaiber’s Stud . I. 3, p. 41 ff.). That the second advent itself is intended to be included, is likewise evident from Mat 24:36 , in which the subject of the day and hour of the advent is introduced.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Ver. 34. This generation shall not pass ] viz. That generation that immediately precedes the end of the world. That this is the sense, appears by the antithesis, Mat 24:36 ; “But of that day and hour knoweth no man,” q.d. the generation and age wherein Christ shall come ye may know by the signs that foreshow it, but the day and hour ye must not look to know, be you never so intelligent.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 24:34 Solemn assurance that the predicted will come to pass. is most naturally taken to mean the same things as in Mat 24:33 , he main subject of the discourse, the impending destruction of the Jewish state. Jesus was quite certain that they would happen within the then living generation ( ), not merely through miraculous foresight but through clear insight into the moral forces at work.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
This generation. See note on Mat 11:16.
not = by no means. Greek. ou me. App-105.
till. Here with Greek “an”, and the Subjunctive Mood, marking the uncertainty, which was conditional on the repentance of the nation. Note the four “tills” (Mat 10:23; Mat 16:28; Mat 23:39; Mat 24:34), and compare what is certain with what is uncertain.
be fulfilled = may have begun to arise, or take place: referring specially to the first “sign” in Mat 24:4, in response to the first question in Mat 24:3; not the same word as in Luk 21:24, but the same as in Mat 24:32.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 24:34. , generation) sc. an age of men. This notion, which agrees with the event, corresponds most properly with the question, when? etc., proposed in ver, 3; cf. Mat 24:15; Mat 24:20, ch. Mat 23:36; Luk 23:38. From the date of this prediction to the destruction of Jerusalem was a space of forty years, and from the true year of our Lords nativity to that event was a space of about seventy-five years. The Jews, however (as, for example, in Seder Olam), reckon seventy-five years as one generation, and the words, , shall not pass away, intimate that the greater part of that generation, but not the whole of it, should have passed away before all the events indicated should have come to pass. The prediction is true with respect to either the forty or the seventy-five years.[1062] So accurately did the Evangelist describe it many years before the event took place.
[1062] Various things [agreeing with our Lords prophecy] can be brought forward from the writers of the Talmud, which are reported by them to have happened in the forty years before the destruction of the temple and the city, and which thus, with sufficient accuracy, harmonise with the history of the Passion.-Harm., p. 481.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
This generation
(Greek – ,” the primary definition of which is, “race, kind, family, stock, breed).” (So all lexicons.) That the word is used in this sense because none of “these things,” i.e. the world-wide preaching of the kingdom, the great tribulation, the return of the Lord in visible glory, and the regathering of the elect, occurred at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, A.D. 70. The promise is, therefore, that the generation–nation, or family of Israel– will be preserved unto “these things”; a promise wonderfully fulfilled to this day.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
This: Mat 12:45, Mat 16:28, Mat 23:36, Mar 13:30, Mar 13:31, Luk 11:50, Luk 21:32, Luk 21:33
Reciprocal: Psa 119:89 – For ever Eze 10:7 – and went Eze 12:23 – The days Mat 5:18 – verily Mat 10:15 – verily Mat 11:16 – this Eph 4:10 – fill Heb 10:25 – as ye
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
ABIDING WORDS
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.
Mat 24:34-35
We know how truly all the things mentioned in the earlier part of this chapter were fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem before the passing of that generation. But our thoughts are to be centred upon Christs words. We know how true it is literally that Christs words are not passing away.
I. True of the Bible.We see the copies fly from the presses of the Bible Society at the rate of a Bible per minute, and when we see that Gods Word is being distributed to the ends of the earth, we see how, in Gods marvellous providence, it is being fulfilled that His words are not passing away.
II. True of Christs promises.And again, in reference to the promises of Christ, all are being fulfilled. These predictions about the end of Jerusalem were literally fulfilled, and is it not equally true that those who come to Christ Jesus find in Him pardon and peace? Not one of His words has passed away.
III. True of Christs principles.It is true also in reference to the principles of Christ. Christ here gives to his disciples a kind of pledge as regards the fulfilment of His promise. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Christ has given two standing pledges with reference to the fulfilment of His promise, so that when it seems to us that our Master delayeth His coming, we may look to the right and to the left, and rest upon Christs pledges that His words shall not pass away, e.g. the existence of the Jewish people on the one hand and the Christian Church on the other.
IV. True of Gods Word in the heart.If that incorruptible seed of the Kingdom be implanted in the heart, and quickened by Gods Holy Spirit, it will never pass away.
Bishop J. W. Bardsley.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE WORDS OF CHRIST
These words are found also in St. Mar 13:31, and in St. Luk 21:33.
There are three things which specially strike us in the Words of Christ. The first is
I. Strength.They are sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb 4:12). The two edges are either for conviction or destruction. Millions have lived in the light and died in the strength of the Promises of Christ.
II. Sweetness.Tenderness is wedded to strength. There is bread, and honey on the bread. No wonder they brought tears to so many eyes. No wonder St. Peter said, in answer to our Lords question, Will ye also go away?Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the Words of eternal life.
III. Simplicity.Butler truly said, no man could say beforehand what a Divine Revelation would be. How thankful we should be that Christs Words are sublime in their very simplicity! Christs Words are to be used. Nineteen centuries have not found all the meaning of these Words. The Bible, said Bishop Butler, contains many truths as yet undiscovered.
The Rev. F. Harper.
(THIRD OUTLINE)
THE WORDS OF CHRIST FOR THE WORLDS NEED
I. The position and claim of the speaker.Uttered by an ordinary mortal, or even by the greatest and the most gifted of the sons of men, the words of the text would have been felt to be an empty boast, an intolerable pretension, and even something worse. The words imply that Christs teachings were to be inexhaustible and unchangeable. He had just foretold His own death. Yet almost in the very same words He foretells for His utterances immortality. And why? Because those words of His are the words of truth, and truth is imperishable and unchangeable.
II. The work they have to do.Christs words are imperishable and unchangeable because they have a great and enduring work to fulfil.
(a) In the promotion of peace. Europe is one vast military camp. What is the real remedy for this alarming state of things? Will culture, or legislation, or education avail? Will even the well-meant efforts of philanthropy produce anything like a permanent impression? Depend upon it that the Church of the living God is the one true peace-preservation society; the prevalence of the principles of that gospel which teaches us to love one another, to love even our enemies, and to pray for them who despitefully use us; and we are assured, on an authority that we cannot question, that these principles are destined in the end to prevail.
(b) In the regeneration of society. Society in the present day no doubt presents a fair exterior, and civilisation is high-wrought and refined; but is there no dark fringe to the glittering fabric? And what will be effectual in combatting the evils? Revealed religion, Christianity, those words of the Lord Jesus Christ are the essential safeguards of public morality, as they present the only strong and reliable rules for right action.
(c) In the cure of lawlessness. Admittedly there is a spirit of lawlessness abroad; there isexplain it how we willprevalent a rebellion in mens minds against authority of every kind and description. And what is to be the remedy? The one efficacious remedy is the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; that which respects the individual in the best and highest sense; that which preaches true liberty, and equality, and fraternity; that which recognises the unspeakable importance of the individual.
The world never needed the words of Christ as much as it needs them now.
Dean Forrest.
Illustration
Livingstone once said to Stanley: All that I am I owe to Christ Jesus, revealed to me in His Divine Book. O Stanley, Stanley! here is the source of strength and the transforming power.
(FOURTH OUTLINE)
THINGS WHICH ENDURE
I. A grand antithesis.Heaven and earthmy words. The terms heaven and earth had a lesser and a larger significance: that of prophetic symbolism, which referred to rulers and subjects, etc., and that which refers to the whole world of which we are the inhabitants. But what is true of the one may because of that be presumptively true of the other. In either case a wonderful oppositionon the one hand a vast world-power, on the other a Galilean peasant. All efforts to explain away the person and work of Christ on merely natural grounds, or His doctrine concerning Himself, so as to leave unimpaired our respect for His wisdom, truthfulness, or sanity, have successively failed. It is in the fulness of His personality and pretensions that He is to be accepted or rejected.
II. A suggested test.Shall pass away, shall not pass away. In the first interpretation of His words, viz., as the language of prophetic hyperbole, the means of proof or disproof lay at hand. What was then still future to them, they lived to see. The worlds history of the Church, has since observed the very course which He indicated. The evidence is therefore crescent and cumulative. And what has been proved to be true through our partial experience in the past, is rendered overwhelmingly probable and trust worthy as regards the whole future of the world.
III. A consequent claim.This is not expressed, but implied. The veracity and prescience of Christ have a practical bearing. His words assert themselves as laws, principles of the world, forces securing their own fulfilment. This is the deep source and ground of His authority. Such a Prophet could be none other than the Lord of all things. And He reveals Himself as the Saviour of the world.
The Rev. St. John A. Frere.
Illustration
There is an oft-told story of the last hours of Sir Walter Scott. He lies on a sofa in his library that looks out on the Tweed, and asks his son-in-law to read to him. There are twenty thousand beautiful volumes round the walls. What book would you like? says Lockhart. Why do you ask? replies Sir Walter: there is but one. And so the Bible was brought, and His sweet sayings read Who spake as never man spake. The philosophies of the world die and are forgotten like the dead leaves of autumn, but Christs Words still guide countless lives, comfort countless sorrows, and crown countless death-beds with sure and certain hope.
(FIFTH OUTLINE)
CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRISTS WORDS
I. Their authority.The scribes were masters of a kind of reasoning which, however little suited to Western and modern tastes, was in its way subtle and effective. It was the instrument with which they worked; and they only succeeded at all if they could get people to attend to it. With our Lord it was otherwise. He, generally speaking, takes no account whatever of those means of producing conviction which, in merely human speakers, command success. He is careful indeed to teach as men are able to bear; but, if they are able, He is indifferent to the inward opposition which His words arouse. He ignores or He defies it; He makes no concessions to passion; He awes rather than satisfies the reason. He does not reason, at least as a rule; He affirms the truth, leaving it to make its own way in the soul.
II. Their elevation.Christs words rise high above the prejudices and passions of the people, on whose goodwill a human teacher in His position would have felt himself to be entirely dependent. Contrast Him with the great names in ancient philosophy, who kept their best thoughts about truth for a few choice spirits. The chosen motto of His work was, The poor have the Gospel preached to them. As we listen to Him we are conscious always and everywhere of matchless elevation. He is far above His countrymen,far above the wisest wisdom of His time,far above the wisest wisdom of all succeeding ages of which He has not been directly or indirectly the Author. As we listen to Him we feel that He lives and speaks in an atmosphere to which we only ascend at rare intervals.
III. Their awful depth.Many of Christs words were addressed to the people, and they were correspondingly simple in form; they were without any of the apparatus of learning, or the pretence of culture; they attracted by their studied simplicity: the common people heard Him gladly. Yet they have depths in them which are explored sometimes by theology, sometimes by the experiences of life, but which elude complete investigation. They have about them that character of infinitude which belongs to the more than human mind from which they proceed.
Canon Liddon.
Illustration
When a man is strong and in good spirits he likes to toy with speculations; but when he is sick, and suffering, and has another state of existence looming, however indistinctly, before him, he desires truth;a truth, too, which dares to assert itself as truth, which knows its responsibilities, its frontiers, its premises and its consequences, its foes and its supporters. To talk at the bedside of a dying man as if you were doubtful about everything, but above all afraid of offending the literary susceptibilities of some very cultivated sceptics, would be clearly impossible.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
4:34
In keeping with the preceding verse we may conclude that the present one is in the bracket of the destruction of Jerusalem. Generation is from GENEA, which Thayer defines at this place, “The whole multitude of men living at the same time.” Jesus spoke these words in about 30 A. D., and the destruction of Jerusalem was in 70 A. D. We know that the entire population would not have died in 40 years, so the prediction was fulfilled according to the words of our Lord.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
[This generation shall not pass, etc.] hence it appears plain enough, that the foregoing verses are not to be understood of the last judgment, but, as we said, of the destruction of Jerusalem. There were some among the disciples (particularly John), who lived to see these things come to pass. With Mat 16:28; compare Joh 21:22. And there were some Rabbins alive at the time when Christ spoke these things, that lived till the city was destroyed, viz. Rabban Simeon, who perished with the city, R. Jochanan Ben Zaccai, who outlived it, R. Zadoch, R. Ismael, and others.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mat 24:34. This generation. Explanations. (1.) Generation in the literal sense, the reference being to the destruction of Jerusalem. This is opposed by Mat 24:36, nor is it allowable to accept a double sense in general, and confine this phrase to a single sense. (2.) Generation in the sense of race, as often. (a) Applied to the Jewish nation, meaning that the Jewish people shall-remain until the fulfilment of all these things, and that one of the signs of the final fulfilment, will be a sudden greening of that withered race. This is the most striking and natural view, (b) Applied to the spiritual Israel, the generation of true believers. The single advantage of this is that it extends ye, in Mat 24:33, to the whole body of believers; but that would be easily so understood without this.
Till all these things, including apparently both the signs and the coming.
Be done, literally, become. The idea of actual occurrence is the prominent one, not that of fulfilment.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
24:34 Verily I say unto you, This {t} generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
(t) This age: the word “generation” or “age” is here being used for the men of this age.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus first stressed the importance of what He would say.
What did He mean by "this generation?" Many interpreters have concluded that Jesus meant the generation of disciples to whom He spoke (cf. Mat 11:16; Mat 12:39; Mat 12:41-42; Mat 12:45; Mat 16:4; Mat 17:17; Mat 23:36). Some within this group of interpreters have concluded that because these signs did not occur before that generation of disciples died Jesus made a mistake. [Note: E.g., M’Neile, p. 355.] This solution is unacceptable in view of who Jesus was. Other interpreters in this group have concluded that since these signs did not appear during the lifetime of that generation of disciples Jesus must have been speaking metaphorically, not literally. [Note: E.g., Kik, pp. 10-12; and Plummer, p. 338.] They say the destruction of Jerusalem fulfilled what Jesus predicted. This solution is also unacceptable because there is nothing in the text to indicate that Jesus meant that the disciples should understand the signs non-literally. Moreover numerous similar prophecies concerning Messiah’s first coming happened literally.
Perhaps Jesus meant that the generation of disciples that saw the future signs would also witness His return. [Note: Carl Armerding, The Olivet Discourse, p. 44; Charles Lee Feinberg, Israel in the Last Days: The Olivet Discourse, p. 22; Toussaint, Behold the . . ., pp. 279-80; Barbieri, p. 78; Bailey, in The New . . ., pp. 51-52.] However the demonstrative pronoun "this" (Gr. aute) seems to stress the generation Jesus was addressing. But this pronoun could refer to the end times rather than to that generation. [Note: George Benedict Winer, Grammar of the Idiom of the New Testament, p. 157.] I prefer this view.
Other interpreters have noted that "generation" (Gr. genea) can refer to a race of people, not just to one generation (cf. Mat 16:4; Php 2:15). [Note: Cremer, pp. 148-49.] They conclude that Jesus meant the Jewish race would not end before all these signs had attained fulfillment. [Note: E.g., English, p. 179; and Gaebelein, 2:214-15.] This is a possible solution, but it seems unusual that Jesus would introduce the continuing existence of the Jewish race to confirm the fulfillment of these signs.
Another view has focused attention on the words "take place" or "have happened" (Gr. genetai) that occur in all three synoptic accounts. The Greek word meant "to begin" or "to have a beginning." Advocates affirm that Jesus meant that the fulfillment of "all these things" would begin in the generation of His present disciples (cf. Mat 24:33), but complete fulfillment would not come until later. [Note: E.g., Cranfield, "St. Mark 13," Scottish Journal of Theology 7 (July 1954):291; C. E. Stowe, "The Eschatology of Christ, With Special Reference to the Discourse in Matt. XXIV. and XXV.," Bibliotheca Sacra 7 (July 1850):471; Mark L. Hitchcock, "A Critique of the Preterist View of ’Soon’ and ’Near’ in Revelation," Bibliotheca Sacra 163:652 (October-December 2006):467-78.] However, Jesus said "all" those things would begin during that generation. It is possible that "all" those things would begin during that generation if one interprets "all those things" as the signs as a whole (cf. Mat 24:32). The earliest signs then would correspond to the branches of the fig tree becoming tender. This would be the first evidence of fulfillment shaping up. "This generation" then "represents an evil class of people who will oppose Jesus’ disciples until the day He returns." [Note: Neil D. Nelson Jr., "’This Generation" in Mat 24:34 : A Literary Critical Perspective," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 38:3 (September 1996):385. See also Lawrence A. DeBruyn, "Preterism and ’This Generation,’" Bibliotheca Sacra 167:666 (April-June 2010):180-200.]