Matthew 24:34

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Sat Jan 29 19:15:37 EST 2000


To: Paul Dixon,

PD: << I copy and paste the below for starters: (BAG): "1. lit., those 
descended fr. a common ancestor, a clan ... then race, kind gener. This may 
be the mng. in Lk 16:8 ... 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 ... 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) >>

First of all, your quotation comes from BAGD [1979] and not BAG [1957].

Second, BAGD goes on to suggest: << 2. basically, the sum total of those 
born at the same time, expanded to include all those living at a given time 
'generation, contemporaries' ...; Jesus looks upon the who contemp. 
generation of the Jews as a uniform mass confronting him ... (cf. Gen 7:1; 
Ps 11:8) Mt 11:16; 12:41f; 23:36; 24:34; ...>>

Thus BAGD concurs with the interpretation which I presented in my earlier 
message, with the exception that BAGD notes that with Mt 23:36 there are 
two possible interpretations.

As for Mt 23:36, Davies & Allison [1997] write:

<< 'This generation' refers ... to the contemporaries of Jesus and his 
followers" (3:319).

PD: << 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. >>

Out of the six passages you have cited here, only one of them refers to 
"this generation" and it IMO supports my position! The passage is Ps 11:7 
LXX. Hans-Joachim Kraus, in his commentary on (the Hebrew text of) the 
Psalms, writes that the Hebrew word at Ps 12:7 [11:7 LXX] translated as 
"generation" (NRSV) << qualifies the entire generation now alive in the 
sense of vv. 1ff. This manner of speaking is taken up in the NT: cf. Matt. 
11:16; 12:41f; 23:36; and often >> (210).

PD: << 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. >>

Your statement here doesn't seem to make much sense, at least I can't seem 
to make any sense out of it. No one has suggested that Mt 24:29-31 was 
"fulfilled history." In fact, I would think that everyone would assume that 
Mt 24:29-31 has never been fulfilled, and thus it is obviously a "yet 
unfulfilled prophecy regarding the return of Christ." So what was your 
point here?

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
FWIW: I'm neither a clergy-person, nor an academic (and I have no post-grad 
degrees).




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