We have already seen that various translations refer to Jesus’ speech in Matthew 24 and 25 as: Discourse on the last things. The NBV translation has above Matthew 24: the coming of the Son of Man. That is of course also about it, because Matthew 24:30 describes how the Son of man appears on the clouds of heaven. We would call this His second coming.
end of the world?
And there are quite a few misunderstandings about His second coming. Not least inspired by some Bible translations. For example, the Revised Statenvertaling puts above the section: the signs of the end of the world.
The reason for Jesus’ speech is that the disciples show Jesus the temple, whereupon the Lord says that it will be destroyed (Matt. 24:1-2). The disciples then ask three questions: When will these things be? What is the sign of Your (second) coming (>parousia)? And: what is the sign of the end of the aeon? (Matt.24:3).
era
The (Revised) Statenvertaling, NBG and NBV translate the latter as: end of the world, but that is wrong. After all, the Kingdom of the Messiah will be established in this world and that is what Matthew 24 talks about. It doesn’t talk about the end of the world.
We will come back to it in more detail, but the Greek word aeon, here translated world, means an age. The Telos translation therefore renders it as end of the century.
The Bible calls the age in which we now live the evil aeon (>age) and this aeon will be succeeded by the aeon to come (Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30). And then it makes sense. Not the world is ended, but the present era is completed and succeeded by a new age.
What should not go unmentioned is that the translators of the current translations, such as the Statenvertaling and NKJV translation, have translated the word aeon by far the most times with eternity, but they could not do that here, because then it would read: end of eternity. It is very important to understand this concept correctly. After all, if we rely on the translations, we are being misled.
a thousand years
This new age, the age of the eon to come, is the period in which Satan is bound, an aon that will last a thousand years (Rev.20:2). Matthew 24 describes the transition from this current evil eon, in which the god of this eon, Satan (2 Cor. 4:4), reigns, to the aeon to come, in which Satan will be bound and the Messiah will rule from the throne of David in Jerusalem throughout the earth (Matt. 19:28; 25:31; Luke 1:32).
Matthew 25
Furthermore, it is good to mention in these introductory words that we only find the end of Jesus’ speech in Matthew 26:1, which says: And it came to pass, when Jesus had brought all these words to an end…
Matthew 25, which begins with some parables, is also part of this speech and should be read in the context of Matthew 24. For example, the parable of the wise and foolish virgins is not a story that can simply be taken out of context and applied to us, but it is explicitly stated: then (>at that time) the kingdom of heaven will be compared to ten virgins (Matt.25:1).
Israel aside
In the coming blogs I want to discuss Matthew 24 and 25. That the Jewish people would be set aside is mentioned in the previous chapter, Matthew 23. We will begin the discussion there, because it is the reason for this speech by Jesus.