Matthew 24:34

dixonps at juno.com dixonps at juno.com
Sat Jan 29 17:45:31 EST 2000




On Sat, 29 Jan 2000 14:11:31 -0600 Steven Craig Miller
<scmiller at www.plantnet.com> writes:
> To: Grant Polle,
>
> The Matthean Jesus used this phrase "this generation" a number of 
> times at 
> Mt 11:16; 12:41-42,45; 23:36; and 24:34. IMO, the phrase "this 
> generation" 
> (as it appears in the Matthean gospel) can only refer to those who 
> lived 
> during the time when Jesus himself lived. What grammatical 
> justification is 
> there for taking it any other way?

I copy and paste the below for starters: (BAG)

-----------------------------
 
1. lit., those descended fr. a common ancestor, a clan (Pind., Pyth. 10,
42 the Hyperboreans are a iJera; geneav; Diod. S. 18, 56, 7; Jos., Ant.
17, 220), then race, kind gener. This may be the mng. in Lk 16:8 eij"
th;n g. th;n eJautw`n the children of this age are more prudent in
relation to their own clan (i.e., people of their own kind) than are the
children of light, but see GRBeasley-Murray, A Commentary on Mk 13, ’57,
99-102. The meaning nation is possible, e.g., in Mt 23:36; but s. also 2.
Bauer, Walter, Gingrich, F. Wilbur, and Danker, Frederick W., A
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian
Literature, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press) 1979.

-------------------------------

Then, we might want to consider the LXX has Deut 32:5, 20;
Ps 12:;7; 78:8, etc where the GENEA evidently has a meaning
that goes beyond a group of contemporaries.

Or, consider that the usage in Phil 2:15 and Heb 3:10 cannot be
confined to a group of contemporaries.

This, coupled with the logical problem of requiring that Mt 24:29-31
be fulfilled history and not a reference to a yet unfulfilled prophecy
regarding the return of Christ, might cause us to consider that
the meaning in Mt 24:34 is something other than that group of
contemporaries.

Paul Dixon



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