The signs of the full end of the age

The previous study has investigated an possible reason why the Jews developed the two-tiered age concept. This view was obviously at the core of Jesus' own discourses when the topic was concerned. The idea was linked with the resurrection of the dead and the promise of eternal life, the coming of the kingdom of god, and the wrath that will accompany it.

The gospel writers obviously reflected upon "the teaching of the rabbis about the two-tiered present evil age and the future age of the Messiah." For them "the period between the resurrection of Jesus and that of all believers the “two ages” exist side by side. The old is passing away, and the new is present, but not in its fullness. [1]

In other words at some point there will be a full end of the present age, and the coming age is going to materialize in it's fullness!

This transitional period was probably inspired by the book of Daniel. The book of  Daniel has clearly linked the resurrection from the dead (Daniel 12:2) with the full end of the days (i.e. age), when he will also be raised to life to receive his reward of everlasting life. (Daniel 12:4; Daniel 12:13)

The Greek word used to express this basic idea of consumption, or full end of something is συντέλεια. [2] Matthew consistently uses the phrase συντελειας του αιωνος to convey what will happen at the full end of the age. This wording is used several times in Matthew (Matthew 13:39–40, 49; 24:3; 28:20) gospel.

Lets look at chapter thirteen and twenty four and investigate in immediate context what Matthew thought it will take place at the full end of the age he lived in.

In chapter thirteen Jesus is talking to the multitude in parables, which obviously wondered his disciples, because they questioned his action. (Matthew 13.10) He replied "Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given" to the disciples, "but not to" the general public. (Matthew 13.11-15) Than Jesus goes on to explain the parables in details.

In the parable of the weed and the net, Matthew gives an overlook of what will happen at the full end of the age (συντελειας του αιωνος). So what is it to be expected when the present age comes at it's full end?

According to the parable of the weed, at the full end of the age there will be a harvest, and the harvesters are the angels. The stage is the world [3] and the good seed are those who are deemed worthy to inherit the kingdom of god, while the weed are the evil doers (Matthew 13.38-39).

Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the (full YLT) end of the age [2]. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
(Matthew 13.40-42)

When the harvest is finished, and the full end of the age has come

then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. (Matthew 13.43)

In the parable of the net, Matthew explains again what will happen at the full end of the age.

“Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the (full YLT) end of the age [2]. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
(Matthew 13.47-50)

It is a vivid and dramatic imagery of the divine clean up of the coming kingdom of god. The great separation between the good and the evil, the one inheriting the kingdom of god and eternal life, the others thrown away into furnace of fire, the wrath that was about to come.

Those passages make it clear that there will be a judgment day at the full end of the age, and it is alluded that it will be a global all inclusive event [3]. But this passages indicate anything about the time when they are to occur.

Some episodes later, Jesus got outraged upon the teachers of the law and the Pharisee's. He spoke out the seven woes. By using the words of the John the Baptist (Matthew 3.7), Matthew gives a hint what would the coming wrath be:

“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?
(Matthew 23.33)

But why is it that they can't escape the sentence to hell? Because they killing gods prophets he sends to Jerusalem. (Matthew 23.34-35, 37-38)

Jesus makes it obvious that god is displeased with the Pharisee's and the teachers of the law, who kill all the prophets. Therefore they will kill him eventually, and so they will doom their sentence to hell! After the seven woes discourse, Jesus moves out of the temple, presumably to the mount of olives that was situated near Jerusalem, where the famously disputed olive discourse was given.

The disciples have approached Jesus and bragged about the marvelous temple building. (Matthew 24.1) To their shock, Jesus tells them that not a stone upon the other will be left, an allusion to the temple destruction. (Matthew 24.2) The disciples were immediately curious about this courageous statement. It is the house of god, how can it be destroyed, right? The question Jesus about the events and the signs when this will happen:

Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the (full YLT) end of the age [2]
(Mark 13.4 ;Matthew 24.3)

The question is concerning the full end of the age, which is connected with the temple destruction and the sign when the Messiah is to return.

In summery: The author of Matthew, and at some length the author of Mark, thought that at the full end of age, will come during the firrs century AD, when the temple will be destroyed, and the Messiah will come to establish the kingdom of god. At this point, the angels and will separate the wicked and the good, and god will reward them appropriately. The envisioned stage was the world.

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1. Reformation Study Bible ↩
2. συντελεια - Strong's Greek Lexicon Number ↩
3. κόσμος - Strong's Greek Lexicon Number ↩

The age to come

In the previous study we have seen that most likely John the Baptist and Jesus expected an imminent coming of the kingdom of god accompanied by divine wrath, in the age to come.

It is on the time to closely scrutinise the text and it's wording. At close examination it appears that

the greater portion of the ancient Hebrew scriptures shows no awareness of any more than one age in time. By far the most common use of the Hebrew word עולם and its Greek translation αιων is in expressions of eternity, to say forever [1]. The usual expression for eternity past is מעולם (from the age). The usual expression for eternity future is לעולם (to the age) or עד־עולם (until the age). And the term is almost always singular in the Hebrew scriptures. ... More to the point, nowhere in the preexilic and early postexilic books do we read any apocalyptic speculation on the two ages. So far as we can tell, only one age was ever in view throughout this most ancient period. [2]

It appears that the pre-exilic hebrew scripture is demonstratively unaware of any division in ages. The question than is: what caused the eschatological view of two ages to emerge?

Now as the story goes, the god of the old testament had made a promise to Abraham to give him land for his descendants, which will be theirs for ever (Genesis 13.15). God also found king David to his liking, therefore he promised to him an everlasting kingdom (2 Samuel 7.16). But obviously this did not come to pass as history tells us, and the Israelis were taken captive and exiled (2 Kings 25.1-30;2 Chronicles 36.15-21).

What solution does a deep religious mind comes up with to resolve such cognitive dissonance?  The solution is stunningly simple.

God is going to fulfil his promise of everlasting land and kingdom in the age to come, and repay all injustices done in the present age.

Post-exilic writers had two separate events in mind that should occur when that age comes:

1. The Israelis will return from exile, and the everlasting possession of the land and it's everlasting kingdom are going to be established (Tobit 14.5; Luke 1.67-77), while god will rejuvenate the earth and make even the carnivores harmless (Isaiah 11.6-9). 
2. Those who died in struggle for the kingdom of god are going to be brought back to life (Daniel 12:2;Daniel 12:13)

The gospel writers obviously were familiar with this eschatological perspective. This idea appears to be central to Jesus' discourses when the issue is at hand. Here are some examples.

The blasphemy of the holy spirit was not to be forgiven "either in this age or in the age to come" (Matthew 12.32). The phrase "this age" references the present age of Jesus' generation.

Jesus has promised his disciples that anyone who abandon his earthly wealth and family "for the sake of the kingdom of God" will "receive a hundredfold now in the present age" but "in the age to come" even "eternal life" (Mark 10.29-30; Luke 18.29-30).

The phrase “this time” with its counterpart “the age to come” reflects the teaching of the rabbis about the two-tiered present evil age and the future age of the Messiah. [3]

When Jesus was debating the Saducees about the resurrection, he clearly told them that the sons of "this age marry", "but those deemed worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor give in marriage" (Luke 20.34-36). The accent is put on the current age, to contrast the one to come, the age of resurrection, to which Jesus is the first fruit according to Paul (1 Corinthians 15:23).

In short, the present age is at it's end, and the next age is on the verge to come, the age when eternal life is the rewarded to the faithful. But closer look reveals that the gospel writers have some kind of transitional period between the two ages, when both are in place.

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1. Text Excavation - Forever and ever ↩
2. Text Excavation - The two ages ↩
3. Reformation Study Bible ↩

The kingdom of god

In the previous study it was revealed that the kingdom of god is contextually connected to the coming wrath, at least according to the gospel of Matthew.

What would that mean to a first century public?

In the first century Jewish thought, the idea had already been formed that there will be a coming Messianic kingdom.

Jesus’ teaching in Mark is apocalyptic: “The time has been fulfilled” (Mark 1.15) implies that this current evil age, seen on a time line, is almost over. The end is almost within sight. “The Kingdom of God is near” (Mark 1.15) means that God will soon intervene in this age and overthrow its wicked powers and the kingdoms they support, such as Rome, and establish his own kingdom, a kingdom of truth, peace, and justice. “Repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1.15) means that people need to prepare for this coming kingdom by changing their lives, beginning to align themselves with the forces of good instead of the forces of evil, and by accepting Jesus’ teaching that it was soon to happen. [1]

In modern days the word apocalypse is loaded with images of total earthly destruction, but the word it self comes from the greek word 'αποκαλυψις' and means to reveal something. But what is it to be revealed?

...we misunderstand ancient Jewish and/or Christian eschatology if we think it was about the end of the world, if we think it was about the divine destruction of this physical earth. In the King James Version of the Bible, the phrase “end of the world” is repeated in (Matthew 13.39,49) and in chapter (Matthew 24.3,20). But the Greek term translated there as “world” is actually 'αιων', from which we get our word eon, meaning a period, a time, an era. What is to end is this present “era” of evil and injustice, suffering and oppression. ... For ancient Jews and Christians,only God could destroy the earth, but God would never do that. Why? Because six times during creation God declared the product “good,” and when all was finished,“God saw everything ... was very good” (Genesis 1:31)... therefore, God would never destroy God’s own creation. [2]

To the Jews of the first century, the reference to the coming kingdom of god would have certainly brought the promised Messianic kingdom in mind, which was expected to endure for ever (Daniel 2.44). The coming wrath is that of god, against those that did not align them with the forces of good.

The kingdom of god was certainly not about a transfer of recently destroyed earth to heavenly realms. It was about rejuvenating the earth, transforming it into peaceful place.

... for example, for Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer the Kingdom of God is about the will of God “on earth as in heaven.”The original mock-up for God’s earthly kingdom has been retained in heaven—like the model in an architect’s office—but the final construction site will be on the earth itself. [3]
see also (Isaiah 11.6–9)

According to Mark and Matthew, John and Jesus were preaching the imminence of the coming of the kingdom of god. People had to repent and make their paths straight, otherwise they will experience the wrath of god. At least Matthew thought that god's forgiveness was restrained from the religious elite.

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1. Barth Ehrman, Jesus Interrupted, p. 78 ↩
2. John Dominic Crossan, God and Empire, p. 78 ↩
3. John Dominic Crossan, God and Empire, p. 79 ↩

The coming wrath

Eschatology involves a judgment and punishment of those who have transgressed against a deity. The deity on the  other hand is offering rewards to those who have been faithful. The opening of the earliest gospel does not include judgement allusions, yet the later gospel who follow it's opening appears to gradually introduce this aspect into the story.

The earliest gospel introduces the John the Baptist in it's opening chapter! His mission is to prepare the way for the coming Messiah (Mark 1.1), and Mark thinks that this is a fulfilment of a prophecy (Mark 1.2-3; Malachi 3.2; Isaiah 40.3).

The prophecy has it's first century cultural significance that Mark had to address, and will be examined in later study, although he failed to address it properly, because he attributes the prophecy falsely to Isaiah.

The later gospel of Matthew basically follows the story line in Mark. According to Mark and Matthew people were drawing from the "whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him" (Mark 1.5; Matthew 3.5).

At this point Matthew introduces an interesting aspect of the story, something not known to the gospel of Mark; John the Baptist is now addressing part of his public directly:

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
(Matthew 3.7)

The wrath the Baptist is talking about is a imminent wrath. It is so imminent in so far that the "ax is already at the root of the trees" (Matthew 3.10). Taken in context, the imminent wrath is directly linked with the "Kingdom of Heaven that has come near" (Matthew 3.2), and the one that is coming in power (Matthew 3.11)  most likely the awaited Messiah, the main protagonist of Matthews story.

In other words, what Matthew is telling his public, is that John the Baptist has singled out his enemies. This are the  Pharisees and Sadducees, the established religious elite of the time, and they are subjects of the wrath that is coming with the future kingdom of god, established by the Messiah.

The gospel that follows is that of Luke. In this gospel John the Baptist addresses the coming wrath as well:

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
(Luke 3.7)

The wrath is still imminent (Luke 3.9), but is not connected contextually to the kingdom to come or the Messiah who is going to establish it. Unlike Matthew, here the coming wrath extends to all those who were coming to John, not just the religious elite!

This is the situation we find here; in Marks gospel after the introduction to the John the Baptist, Jesus' is baptised, and his message is about the nearness of the kingdom of god (Mark 1.15) but has no explicit mention to any coming wrath. Matthew goes along this line and syncs the message of John with that of Marks Jesus' (Matthew 3.2; Matthew 4.17) and contextually connects it to the coming wrath (Matthew 3.7). Luke on the other hand has retained the reference to the coming wrath (Luke 3.7) but contextually has no link to the kingdom to come.

It appears that the introduction to the coming wrath has different narrative purpose in both of the gospels.

Eschaton

If a scripture is interpreted in many different ways, the most likely reason for that is its obvious meaning and its implication.

Eschaton is a Greek word that means an ending of something. It is mostly used to convey a world view that envisions a divine intervention in human history in order to bring injustice to an end.

The Olive discourse is a part of the synoptic gospels, where Jesus is explaining Christian eschatology to his inner circle disciples. This very words of Jesus have brought about many different eschatology doctrines, that still deeply divide the Christian world.

This notes will be mostly concerned with the Preterist eschatology.

“Preterism is a view in Christian eschatology which holds that some or all of the biblical prophecies concerning the Last Days refer to events which took place in the first century after Christ’s birth, especially associated with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The term preterism comes from the Latin praeter, meaning past, since this view deems certain biblical prophecies as past, or already fulfilled.”[1]

Preterism maintains that in the Olive discourse Jesus does not describe the great tribulation that should take place at the end of the word, but the “full end of the age” of the Jewish temple and the age of Judaism, in 70 AD.


Close examination of the material suggests that prophecies given in the Olivet Discourse were understood in a such a way, that a new age would usher in the life span of the gospel writers, culminating into the new kingdom of god, Israel, which would effectively bring the end of times, end of the world. Only after the fall of Jerusalem, the Preterist view subsequently emerged as response to unfulfilled prophecy.

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1. Theopedia: Preterism↩