Did Jesus expect to return within a generation? Matthew 24:34

The passages

Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

Matthew 24:34

Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Matthew 16:28

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

Mark 13:32

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

1 Thessalonians 4:15

The problem

A plain reading of these sayings is that the end was near for the first hearers. Paul writes as if he expects to be alive at the return. Two thousand years later, the generation has passed. The later letter of 2 Peter answers scoffers who ask where the promise of his coming is (3:4), saying that a day is as a thousand years to God.

What believers and scholars say

"These things" means the fall of Jerusalem. Many interpreters, ancient and modern, hold that Matthew 24 mixes two events. The destruction of the Temple in AD 70 came within the generation, and the return remains in the future. France develops this view, and says that "coming" language in the prophets often describes judgment in history.

"Generation" can mean "race" or "kind". Some argue that the word means the Jewish people, or all those who see the signs. The standard lexical sense is a group living at one time, and many scholars find the alternative strained.

Jesus was mistaken, or the church was. Schweitzer argued that Jesus did expect the end soon and was wrong, and that this is central to understanding him. Allison continues the argument in the form of apocalyptic prophet. Lewis accepted that Mark 13:32 admits Jesus's ignorance of the day and called it the most embarrassing verse in the Bible, while continuing to hold his faith.

Delay is built into the story. Parables of delay (the ten virgins, the faithful servant) suggest that Jesus did not set a date. Believers point to these as signs that the church was never promised an exact time.

Where this leaves it

If you read the sayings together, they point both ways: soon, and not known. Believers have found in that a reason for readiness. Critics find in it a prophecy that failed on its first terms. The text offers support to both readings, and what a reader concludes depends in part on how much they expect a prophet to know.