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When Will These Things Come To Pass - Mark 13
When Will These Things Come To Pass - Mark 13
This chapter (and its parallels in Matt. 24 / Luke 21) is one of the most controversial of Jesus' dialogues. It is the foundation of much speculation on the 'end times'.
The one statement that tends to be the center of controversy is verse 30: "Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." If 'this generation' is given its normal meaning then it would refer to the lifetime of the apostles and thus point to the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of the temple, and the end of the priesthood and sacrifices.
Some would give it special definitions that allow it to apply to the 'generation of people' who will be alive when Jesus returns. Some thus apply this whole dialogue to the 2nd coming and thus make it almost completely irrelevant and non-understandable by the first century Christians. Others flip back and forth, making one verse apply to the first century and the next apply to the 2nd coming. Sometimes they will even split a verse making each half apply to a different event.
Generation comes from the Greek word "genea". Its standard definition in Greek lexicons is that 'genea' refers to “the sum total of those born at the same time, expanded to include all those living at a given time, generation, contemporaries. (Bauer) “This cannot well mean anything but the generation living when these words were spoken” (Plummer, 485)
It is used 5 times in Mark (8:12, 38; 9:19; 13:30). It does carry its normal meaning in all of these verses. Thus, to give it a special meaning one must have compelling evidence from the context. The 'compelling evidence' is in my estimation usually the personal theology concerning the 'end times' of whoever is writing about this. Such may be compelling to the one writing but is not compelling from a textual standpoint.
Every generation has thought of itself as 'special' and has had its share of people claiming that THIS is the generation of the end times. Booklets like '88 Reasons Jesus Will Return in 1988' have been written in every generation.
I take it that Jesus meant THIS GENERATION of the apostles to whom he was speaking. Thus verses 1-29 do in fact refer to the catastrophe that befell Jerusalem and the temple in the first century. Such was the end of 'the age'.
Hugh DeLong
