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.
