Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

Matthew 24:34 (also Mark 13:30 and Luke 21:32

---

These words come in the midst of a long discourse on future events. The difficulty is that Jesus’ contemporary generation is long gone, but many of the events match Revelation’s end-of-time description. What’s up?

Scholars have struggled with this for centuries, so I’m not likely to completely solve it in this one article. But I’ll give it a shot.

---

For starters, here is a paraphrase of the passage, starting at Matthew 24:1 and continuing for the entire chapter, with some side trips to the parallel passages by Mark and Luke.

• Disciples: “Look at this temple, all the gorgeous stonework!”
• Jesus: “I tell you, it will all be torn down, with not one stone left on top of another.”
• Disciples: “When will these things happen, and what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?”
  • Only Matthew mentions “sign of your coming” or “end of the age”. Mark and Luke stop at “these things”, i.e. the destruction of the temple.
• Jesus: “Many will try to mislead you, saying they come in my name. There will be wars and rumors of wars. There will be famines and earthquakes. But these are not yet the end; they are just the beginning of the end.”
• “You will have tribulation, and be hated and killed, because of my name. Many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. Lawlessness will increase, and because of that, the love of many people will grow cold.”
• “The one who endures to the end will be saved. The gospel will be preached to the entire world, and then the end will come.”
• “When you see the ‘abomination of desolation’ that Daniel foretold, run! Leave Judea, head to the mountains. Don’t hesitate or turn back for anything.”
  • Luke says “Jerusalem surrounded by armies” instead of “abomination of desolation”.
• “Pray for this not to happen in the winter, or on Sabbath. And woe to pregnant women or those nursing babies during this time! It will be the worst tribulation the world has ever known. If God didn’t cut it short, no one would survive.”
  • Luke says “great distress“, that Jews will be taken captive, and that “Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.“
• “If someone says they have seen Me, don’t believe them. When I come, it will be unmistakable!”
• “After the horrible tribulation, even the sun and moon will be affected. Then I’ll come in great glory, on clouds with angels and trumpet sound, and gather all those who believe in Me.”
• “Just as you can tell summer is near when the trees start to leaf out, you’ll know that I am near when all these things happen.”
• “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.“
• “But exactly when it will be…even I don’t know. It will be very sudden, so always be alert. It might happen at any moment.”

---

Two Questions, One Answer

The conversation started with Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. That led His disciples to ask two questions: When will the temple be destroyed, and how will we know that Jesus is bringing history to its conclusion? Jesus responded to both questions with one blended answer.

Everything up to “run when you see this…” easily matches the temple destruction, which did come to pass in 70 A.D. ¹, within the lifetime of Jesus’ listeners. Even the “gospel preached to the entire world” had a fulfillment in that it had reached all the way to Rome, the center of the world as they knew it, by that time. Christians in Jerusalem did take Jesus’ advice, and fled the city when they saw the Roman attack coming ².

The disciples probably thought of their questions as one single compound question. All of Jewish life centered on that temple. So to them, the destruction of the temple must surely indicate the end of everything.

However, most of the predicted events are still happening. There are wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, and persecution going on even as I type. The destruction of 70 A.D. was very bad, but it wasn’t “the worst tribulation the world has ever known” with great cosmological signs. And, of course, Jesus hasn’t yet returned with trumpets and angels.

So what exactly was Jesus saying that “this generation” would see take place?

---

Multiple Fulfillment

There is precedent in the Bible to have more than one fulfillment of a single prophecy. Here are some examples:

• Prophecy: Isaiah said “a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14) in about 700 B.C. as a sign to King Ahaz that the attack he feared would not come to pass.
  • First fulfillment: Isaiah’s son was born within the next couple of years, and King Ahaz’s enemies were conquered by Assyria within that time frame.
  • Subsequent fulfillment: Seven centuries later, Matthew’s gospel quotes this prophecy as a reference to Jesus’ birth (Matthew 1:22-23).
• Prophecy: Nathan prophesied that God would give King David a son to establish his dynasty forever (2 Samuel 7:8-17).
  • First fulfillment: David’s son Solomon succeeded him as king and arguably surpassed him in fame and power.
  • Subsequent fulfillment: Jesus is a literal descendant of David and is the eternal King whose reign will never end.
• Prophecy: As mentioned in the text, Daniel predicted an “abomination of desolation”, the defilement of the altar within the temple (Daniel 11:31) by a king who defies God and oppresses the Jews.
  • First fulfillment: This happened under the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes in 170 A.D., when he sacrificed a pig on the sacred altar.
  • Subsequent fulfillment: The destruction of the temple in 70 A.D.? Or the Antichrist at the end of time? Or both?

That third example is relevant to our discussion. Jesus predicts another “abomination of desolation”. Was that fulfilled by the temple destruction, or is it still in the future? Most of what Jesus says here can be taken to refer to both the temple and also the end of time. It’s not an “either/or” question; it’s “both/and”.

---

This Generation

To me, the most problematic part of this passage is the statement “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” If that means that Jesus’ contemporaries will see the complete end of history — Jesus coming on the clouds with angels, trumpets, and glory — then something is very wrong.

Other interpretations of “this generation” have been suggested:

• This line refers to only the first part of the answer, up to the “run when you see this…”.
• The generation in question is really all of the Jews, or all of the church, who will remain distinct entities — not passing away as historical people groups — until Jesus returns.
• There will be a future single generation who sees these things happen. “This” doesn’t start until that generation is born.
  • Or another aspect of multiple fulfillment: The contemporary generation was “this” for the temple destruction, and a future one will be “this” for the end times.
• The verb tense could mean that these things start to happen during the contemporary generation, but then continue to a completion that is still in the future.

Frankly, none of these is completely satisfying to me, even though each has been espoused by respected Biblical scholars. They all certainly seem plausible, but none of them feel completely true to the entire text. So I was pleased to find this article by a New Testament professor from South Africa named Philip La Grange Du Toit, who noticed an alternative interpretation. (He is not the only person with this interpretation. This PDF is an academic paper by Danish linguist and Wycliffe Bible translator Iver Larsen making the same argument.)

Dr. Du Toit notes that that Jesus uses the term “generation” — or other generational language such as “sons of” — with the broader meaning of a particular kind of people rather than a specific lineage or time frame. Two generations (or “sons”) are consistently described: “those opposed to God” and “those allied with God”. An example of the latter is in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9) When phrased as “this” generation, though, it always means the former, with a negative connotation.

Jesus told the Pharisees “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.” (John 8:44) Dr. Du Toit proposes that to be the generation in question, a timeless reference to those who act in concert with Satan. He ultimately associates “this generation” with the “seed of the serpent” from the very first prophecy of the Messiah in Genesis.

I will put enmity
Between you [Satan, the serpent who deceived Eve] and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.

Genesis 3:15

How does Dr. Du Toit come to that conclusion? Here are some of the verses he references.

• In Matthew 3:7, 12:34, and 23:33, Jesus calls the Pharisees a “brood of vipers“. It’s not a long step from there to idealogical children of the serpent.
• In Matthew 11:16, He talks about “this generation” being like a group of children who can never be satisfied.
• In Matthew 12:39-45, He rebukes “a wicked and adulterous generation” that demands more and more proof of His identity. He continues on to say that even the people of Nineveh, and the Queen of the South who visited Solomon, would rise up against “this wicked generation” for not accepting the truth that is right before their eyes.
• In Matthew 17:17, He says “You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?“

I am not qualified to say for sure which of these several interpretations of “this generation” is correct. But Dr. Du Toit’s is the one that I find most satisfying. His interpretation fits well into this passage, and seems true to the rest of Scripture. Opposition to God by Satan — and by a millennia-long generation of sinful human beings with attitudes born of that same spirit — will continue until it is forcibly stopped by God. It will not pass away until Jesus returns and all the things that He predicted have come to pass.

---

Bottom Line

The disciples asked “When will the temple be destroyed as You predict, and how will we know it’s time for You to come and end everything?” Jesus answered “There will always be many hardships. Watch especially for the ones that come all the way into the temple. But be prepared always, because once the end starts suddenly, it will finish quickly. Stay ready!”

That advice is still just as valid today!

1. Here is a description of that destruction, written by 1st-century historian Josephus.
2. This article gives more detail on the lead-up to the temple destruction, and the Christians’ exodus from the city.
   This one describes the archaeological work at the town of Pella, said to be the Christians’ destination when they fled.