Was Jesus Wrong? (Mark 13:30)

Mark 13:30 is one of the hardest verses to interpret in the New Testament: “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” This saying follows the Olivet Discourse, in which Jesus teaches his return (parousia) and the signs which must precede it. The trouble here, of course, is that the generation to which Jesus was speaking is now long gone, and no parousia has come. 

I will not engage here in a full discussion of the New Testament eschatology with respect to the timing of Jesus’s return here. (Expect more posts and a fuller treatment later!). Nor will I engage in a detailed assessment on any particular view. I wish only to briefly discuss a few options and which one I currently prefer. 

The first option is that Jesus erred in his prediction. This view should not be considered an option for orthodox Christians, though some Christians have bitten the bullet (e.g. Dale Allison). [1] But even putting theology aside, we can show that this view doesn’t sit well with the text of Mark itself. In 13:32-35, Jesus says that he does not know the timing of his return. One can harmonize this with 13:30 if he wishes to say that Jesus knew the generational time but not the exact time. Such a move already concedes, however, that an apparent discrepancy exists and this move makes this theory more complicated. There are also good historical arguments against this position, but, again, these will have to be analyzed in a later post. 

The second is that the Olivet Discourse has nothing to do with the parousia and everything to do with the temple destruction in AD 70, so that “these things” refers only to the temple destruction. [2] This is initially an attractive view, but it does not fit well with Paul’s reuse of the same “coming on the clouds” imagery in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 with the parousia clearly in mind. Moreover, what Paul says comes from “a word of the Lord” — most likely the Jesus-tradition. This option also has trouble explaining Matthew’s presentation of the Olivet Discourse, in which the disciples’ question more clearly pertains to “the end of the age” (Matt. 24:3). 

The third is that “these things” refers only to the events mentioned before verses 24-27. In support of this view, Ben Witherington argues that “these things” in verse 30 refers back to “all these things” in verse 23. In his view, “that day or hour” whose timing Jesus does not know (v. 32) refers to the parousia which occurs “after that tribulation” (v. 24) described in verses 23 and before. [2] I would be curious to see how this view interprets the word “immediately” in Matthew’s version of Olivet Discourse (26:29), however. If the events in Matthew 26:9-14 (Mark 13:9-13) refer to those leading up to the temple destruction, in what sense can it be said that the parousia will come “immediately” afterwards? [3]

The fourth is that the word for “generation”, genea, refers not to a group characterized by a time span of 30-40 years but a group characterized by their rejection of Jesus’s message. Jesus would then be associating this “generation” with the eschatological generation of wickedness mentioned in other Jewish texts. Steffen Jöris [4] and Adam Winn [5] have argued along these lines. However, it is not clear to me that these scholars have shown genea to be able to have as atemporal a meaning as this view requires (though Luke 16:8 might be an exception). 

The fifth view is the one I hold to for now. This view hinges on the meaning of genētai (translated in my ESV as “take place”). This verb can plausibly be taken as an “ingressive aorist”. This aorist “may be used to stress the beginning of an action or entrance into a state.” Moreover, “the ingressive aorist is quite common.” [6] If genētai is understood this way, Mark 13:30 can be rendered, “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things begin to take place.” Jesus is saying that “this generation” will live to see the beginnings of the thlipsis.

Luke 1:20 offers an intriguing grammatical parallel. The angel Gabriel says to Zechariah: “And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the days these things take place [genētai], because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” The phrase “these things” refers to what is spoken by the angel in verses 13-17, which includes his wife bearing a son, who will “turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God”, and “go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” However, Zechariah’s tongue is loosed after the boy is named, well before all “these things” have taken place (1:64). Thus genētai in 1:20 likely is an ingressive aorist and has the meaning of “begin to take place”. [7]

[1] Dale C. Allison, Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998). 

[2] So, e.g. N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2019): 570. 

[3] Ben Witherington, Jesus, Paul, and the End of the World. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992) 42. This option is also defended by C. E. B. Cranfield, “St Mark 13”, Scottish Journal of Theology 7 (1954): 284-303. 

[4] The “tribulation” in Matthew 24:29 in my view refers to the “tribulation” in verse 9, not the “tribulation of verse 21. The “great tribulation” of verses 15-22 (i.e. the temple destruction) describe as especially sharp “birth pain” which will be felt somewhere in the more general “tribulation” period described in verses 9-14. This is suggested by the fact that the section of verses 15-22 begins after a summary of the general “tribulation” period, which ends with “and then the end will come” (v. 14). In other words, the temple destruction does not chronologically follow the general “tribulation” of verses 9-14 or chronologically precede the parousia described in verses 29-31. 

[5] Steffen Joris, “The Use and Function of genea in the Gospel of Mark: New Light on Mark 13:30.” PhD dissertation, LaTrope University, 2013. 

[6] Adam Winn, “‘This Generation’: Reconsidering Mark 13:30 in Light of Eschatological Expectations in Second Temple Judaism.” Bulletin for Biblical Research 30.4 (2020): 540-560. 

[7] Dan B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 1996) 558.

[8] The parallel to Luke 1:20 is pointed out by Royce Gordon Gruenler, https://www.billmounce.com/newtestamentgreek1/exegetical-insight-chapter-22.