This Generation - Matthew 24:34

Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.  Matthew 24:34 KJV

The twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew is undoubtedly an extremely important passage in the arsenal of pre-millennial prophecy teachers.  It is said to be an outline of signs and events that occur preceding and during the 7 year tribulation period.  This tribulation period is derived from Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks found in Daniel 9:24-27.  The 69th week ends at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus in AD 30-33 with the 70th week being in the future although that future may not be far off.

The 34th verse of Matthew chapter 24 is the decisive, pivotal verse for these same pre-millennial prophecy teachers.  Why?  Because the modern state of Israel was founded and recognized in 1948 and according to these teachers the countdown of “this generation” began.  Of course there are issues and debates about the time frame of a generation – is it 40 years (already past tense), 70 years, or some other calculation – but most agree that a number of Jews, alive in 1948, will still be living at the initiation of the 7 year tribulation period.

The same bias that prompted the translators of the Authorized Version to distort the meaning of the Greek “ethnos” and render it as “gentiles” (see previous post: “The Origin of the English Word “Gentiles” is also evident with the Greek words genes, genos and gennema, whose primary meaning in each case is “race”.

The Word Study dictionary presents “generation” as a definition but then widens the meaning by adding: “a multitude of contemporaries” which indicates that an ethnic group of people is the subject and not an interval of time.

As a matter of reference, let me point out that Strong’s Greek definitions is the only one of four Greek dictionaries in my library that lists “age” or “generation” as the primary meaning of “genos”.  The others – Thayer, Word Study, and Brown-Driver-Briggs – give “generation” a lower slot or is not listed at all.

In many passages they confused the racial meaning by rendering “genos” or "race" as "generation.”  In the following scripture passages the word "generation" makes no sense with the context:  Matthew 3:7. 12:34; 23:33, 24:34, Mark 13:30; Luke 3:7; 21:32; 1 Peter 2:9.

Defining “genos” as a time delineated generation in Matthew 24:34 presents a problem that detractors of the pre-millennial viewpoint are quick to point out – which is -  the generation Jesus was speaking to has already passed away.  To defend their position, pre-millennialists maintain that although Jesus was speaking to His disciples, He was referring to a future generation – that is, the generation living in 1948.  If the Lord tarries then other dates may be considered such as the Six-Day war of 1967, the Yom Kippur War of 1973, or some other date.

However, if the Lord Jesus was referring to the whole house of Israel (Jacob) as a race – i.e. the kingdoms of Judah and Israel (Ephraim) then the problem goes away, although other problems now crop up for the pre-millennialist. 

For the record, I am mostly in the pre-millennial camp.  Preterists believe that Daniel’s seventy weeks prophecy and Matthew chapter 24 have already been fulfilled in the events leading up to and ending with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.  There seem to be a few valid points in the Preterist view and there are valid points in the pre-millennial view.  My goal is to understand prophetic scripture in the simplest, most straightforward, and most unified manner possible without bending or distorting the literal rendering within the context it was intended.  Several popular prophecy writers claim to have the same goal but then travel the opposite direction when it comes to defending their biases and pre-conceived doctrines.  In my opinion, the pre-tribulation rapturists are the worst offenders, although I don’t completely discount their viewpoint either.

The modern nation of Israel specifically and worldwide Jewry generally, do not constitute the sum total of the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob).  The majority are Khazar-Jews and Edomite-Jews.  (refer to Your Father Is The Devil and Zionists, Jews, and the New World Order for information and history of “Those who call themselves Jews but are not”).  There may be a few descendants of Judah and the other tribes scattered among world Jewry but they are unaware of their true identity – they just consider themselves Jews.  The vast majority of true descendants of Israel (Jacob) and specifically the northern nation of Israel (Ephraim) are completely clueless and call themselves gentiles and the above mentioned Jews as the Chosen People of God.

Because world Jewry is not the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob) then several prophecies touted by pre-millennialists were not fulfilled in 1948 as they so confidently teach.  Two of these prophecies are found in Ezekiel chapter 37 – both involve the rejoining or reuniting of the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel.  The first is the prophecy of the dry bones found in verses 11-14 which is directed to the “whole house of Israel (Jacob).  In verse 14 the Lord God states that he will but His spirit in them, which in 1948 would mean they would be Christians, which they are definitely not.

The second prophecy, found in verses 16-22, involves joining the house of Judah with the house of Israel (Joseph/Ephraim).  As indicated in previous posts (The Origin of the English Word “Gentiles and Your Father Is The Devil) this has not happened by any stretch of the imagination. 

Eze 37:11-14 KJV  Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.  (12)  Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.  (13)  And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,  (14)  And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

Ezekiel 37:16-22 KJV  Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:  (17)  And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.  (18)  And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?  (19)  Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.  (20)  And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.  (21)  And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:  (22)  And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:

 

 

The Origin Of The English Word “Gentile”

AN UNFORTUNATE TRANSLATION ERROR

TECHNICAL ASPECTS

Ethnos – G1484 in Strong’s numbering system.  It is used 164 times in the New Testament translated “Nation or Nations” 64 times; “Gentiles” 93 times; “Heathen” 5 times; and “People” 2 times.

Strong’s G1074 appears once as “Nations” and in other places is translated as “generation(s)”, “time”, and “ages”.  G1085 appears twice as “nation(s)” and other times as:  kind, kindred, country, stock, offspring, born, diversities, and countrymen.

  G246 appears once as “nation.”

G1672 (Hellen) is used 6 times as “Gentiles”, with 40 instances translated as “Greek” or “Greeks” as it should be.

The English word - Gentile - has its origin from the Latin gentelisis and the French gentil, both derived from the Latin root gens, meaning - "A Selected Clan or Race of the same ethnic stock.”

The word “ethnos” (G1484) literally means ‘nation’ or a homogenous race of people.  It is not applicable to an individual. A person cannot be addressed as a nation or race.  The idea that a person can be called a "gentile" - stems from an incorrect translation of the original word.

THE ORIGIN AND USAGE

It appears that the translators of the Authorized Version of the Bible are responsible for the perpetuation of the word “Gentile” in the English language.  It was evidently coined by the translators to correspond with their personal understanding and bias that excluded the national theme of Israel as the northern ten tribes from the Old Testament and referred to in the New Testament.   Lacking knowledge of the location and racial makeup of the dispersed nation of Israel, they considered “Israel” and “Jew” as interchangeable terms.

Due to centuries of mass indoctrination, in the minds of most people, the world is now divided into two groups of people – the Jews and everyone else as if the Jews constitute the entirety of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel.  I have heard people refer to Abraham as a Jew and the Israelites in Egypt prior to the exodus as Jews.  The term “Jew” did not even appear until the southern kingdom of Judah was taken captive to Babylon.  Jew is an abbreviated slang term for Judahite, a resident of the southern kingdom of Judah, much like the Japanese, during WWII, were referred to as “Japs”.

In the translator’s understanding, the area around New Testament Judea contained all the people of the Birthright promise that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob which consisted, after the death of Solomon, of the nations of Judah and Israel.  Recall from previous posts that the northern nation of Israel was conquered by Assyria who deported the vast majority (but not all) of the Israelites to the northeastern region of their territory.  A hundred plus years later, the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians with three different deportations.  Most (but not all) of the Judahites were taken captive back to Babylon.  Seventy years later some (but not all) of the captives were allowed to return.

Had the translators used the word "nation" in every occurrence, the context would dictate whether “ethnos” was applicable to the nation of Israel or nations of a non-Israelite race and much confusion concerning the New Testament message would have been avoided.

This unfortunate translation of introducing the previously unknown word “gentile” into the Bible and the English language has become a de facto convention around the world.  There are no popular commentaries, eschatology books, or Bible studies that do not employ the concept of the modern “Jews” as the totality of every instance of words such as:  Jew, Zion, Israel, and Israelite.  Almost all secular encyclopedias and dictionaries, give a definition of ‘gentile’ as a ‘non-Jew’ with no further elaboration.

Bible scholars, preachers, pastors, and teachers design convoluted and confusing explanations for sections of Paul’s letters because they believe his epistles were addressed to some foreign group of people of a non-Israelite race called “Gentiles.”  Many Church doctrines are erroneous and full of contradictions because of this misunderstanding.  In Matthew 10:5-6 the Lord Jesus sent His disciples to deliver the message of the Kingdom to the lost sheep of the house of Israel only.

These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles (ethnos: the multitude – in this instance the ethnos refers to Judea), and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  (Matthew 10:5-6 KJV)

NOTE that in the above scripture reference, the word “ethnos” defined as: a nation, a race, or a homogenous ethnic group can even refer to the Jews of the province of Judea because the disciples were sent out of Judea.

The same bias that prompted the translators of the Authorized Version to distort the meaning of ethnos, is also evident with the Greek words genes, genos and gennema, whose primary meaning in each instance is “race.”

In many passages they confused the racial meaning by rendering “genos” or "race" as "generation.”  In the following scripture passages the word "generation" makes no sense with the context:  Matthew 3:7. 12:34; 23:33, 24:34, Mark 13:30; Luke 3:7; 21:32; 1 Peter 2:9.

Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.  (Matthew 24:34 KJV)  The generation Jesus was talking to has already passed but the race of Israelites is still alive and well and will be at the return of Jesus.  This causes many prophecy expositors to proclaim that the ‘generation’ referred to in this verse commenced in 1948 with the recognition of the modern state of Israel.  However, they are running out of time and may soon be forced to view this verse with its original intent.

Paul recognized that the Israelites, among the nations, were blind to their identity.

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel (northern 10 tribes), until the fullness of the Gentiles (Nations or races) be come in.  (Rom 11:25 KJV)

Jeremiah lived around 100 to 130 years after the nation of Israel was deported by Assyria.  He indicated that Israel were like lost sheep and had forgotten their national origins.

Jeremiah 50:4-6 KJV  In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together….  (5)  They shall ask the way to Zion….saying….let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant…. (6)  My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.

Many difficult Bible passages can be more easily understood when the target population that the message was intended for is known.  All translations are subject to the biases and world views of the translators.  Anyone who believes that the pens of the King James translators were any more directed by God than any other are deluded – the pens of the original Hebrew and Greek authors – Yes – others not so much.