Editing Second Coming (section)

===Early Christianity===
{{see also|Olivet Discourse#Imminence|Historical Jesus#Apocalyptic prophet}}
Jesus told his [[Disciple (Christianity)|disciples]],

{{blockquote|Truly I tell you, this generation [greek: ''genea''] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.|Matthew 24:34–35, Mark 13:30–31, Luke 21:32–33<ref>{{bibleverse|Matt. 24:34–35; Mark 13:30–31; Luke 21:32–33|multi=yes}}</ref>}}

The most common English translation of ''genea'' is "generation",<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|24:34|ISV|Matthew 24:34 (ISV)}}</ref> which led some to conclude that the Second Coming was to be witnessed by the people living in the same generation as Jesus. According to historian [[Charles Freeman (historian)|Charles Freeman]], [[early Christians]] expected Jesus to return within a generation of his death, and the non-occurrence of the second coming surprised them.<ref>Freeman, Charles. ''[[The Closing of the Western Mind]]'', p. 133. Vintage. 2002.</ref> [[N. T. Wright]] disputes this.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Hope Deferred? Against the Dogma of Delay |journal=Early Christianity |url=https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/252715705/Wright_2018_EC_Hopedeferred_37.pdf |last=Wright |first=N.T. |issue=1 |volume=9 |pages=37–82 |doi=10.1628/ec-2018-0003 |year=2018 |hdl=10023/17178 |issn=1868-7032}}</ref>

In most German Bibles, ''genea'' is instead translated as "family/lineage" (Geschlecht).<ref name="Bible Gateway (German)2">{{cite web|title=Schlachter 2000|url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matth%C3%A4us%2024%3A34&version=SCH2000|access-date=2021-03-16|website=Bible Gateway (German)}}</ref> Likewise for Danish, Swedish and Norwegian (slægt, släkte and slekt, respectively).<ref name="Bible Gateway (Danish)2">{{cite web|title=Dette er Biblen på dansk|url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matth%C3%A6us%2024%3A34&version=DN1933|access-date=2021-03-16|website=Bible Gateway (Danish)}}</ref><ref name="Bible Gateway (Swedish)2">{{cite web|title=Svenska 1917|url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matteus%2024%3A34&version=SV1917|access-date=2021-03-16|website=Bible Gateway (Swedish)}}</ref><ref name="Bible Gateway (Norwegian)2">{{cite web|title=Det Norsk Bibelselskap 1930|url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matteus%2024%3A34&version=DNB1930|access-date=2021-03-16|website=Bible Gateway (Norwegian)}}</ref> The Danish linguist Iver Larsen argues that the word "generation" as it was used in the [[King James Version]] of the Bible (1611) had a wider meaning than it has today, and that the correct translation of ''genea'' in the context of the second coming is "kind of people" (specifically the "good" kind of people; the disciple's kind of people, who, like the words of Jesus, will endure through all the tribulations). In [[Psalm 14]], the King James version uses "generation" in this wide and outdated sense, when it declares that "God is in the generation of the righteous".<ref>{{bibleverse|Psalm|14|KJV|Psalm 14 (KJV)}}</ref> According to Larsen, the ''[[Oxford Universal Dictionary]]'' states that the latest attested use of ''genea'' in the sense of "class, kind or set of persons" dates from 1727. Larsen concludes that the meaning of "generation" in the English language has narrowed considerably since then.<ref name="Larsen 20102">{{cite journal|last=Larsen|first=Iver|date=2010-01-28|title=Generation is a wrong translation choice for Greek genea|url=https://www.academia.edu/37043228|access-date=2021-03-16|website=Academia.edu}}</ref>

Bible scholar Philip La Grange du Toit argues that ''genea'' is mostly used to describe a timeless and spiritual family/lineage of good or bad people in the New Testament, and that this is the case also for the second coming discourse in [[Matthew 24]]. In contrast to Larsen however, he argues that the word ''genea'' here denotes the "bad kind of people", because Jesus had used the word in that pejorative sense in the preceding context (chapter 23). He also lists the main competing translation alternatives, and some of the scholars who support the different views:

* "This generation" refers to Jesus's contemporaries who would witness "all these things" [πάντα ταῦτα] as outlined in verses 4–31, including Jesus' second coming (Davies & Allison 1997: 367–368; Hare 1993: 281; Maddox 1982: 111–115). Because Jesus' contemporaries did not witness his second coming, some contend that Jesus erred in his predictions (Luz 2005: 209; cf. Schweitzer 1910: 356–364).
* "This generation" refers to Jesus's contemporaries who would witness "all these things" as outlined in verses 4–22 or 4–28, pointing to the destruction of the temple in 70 CE and everything leading up to it. Jesus' second coming (vv. 29–31) is thus excluded from "all these things" (Blomberg 1992: 364; Carson 1984: 507; France 2007: 930; Hagner 1995: 715).
* "This generation" points to the Ἰουδαῖοι [Jews or Judaeans], implying that they as a race would last until the Parousia (Hendriksen 1973: 868–869; Schweizer 1976: 458).
* In [[patristic]] opinion, "this generation" points to the church against which the gates of [[Hades]] would not prevail (cf. [[Chrysostom]], Hom. Matt. 77:1; [[Eusebius]], Frag. in Lc. ad loc).
* 'This generation' points to some future generation, from Matthew's perspective, that sees "all these things" (Bock 1996: 538–539; Conzelmann 1982: 105).
* The words "take place" or "have happened" [γένηται] are interpreted as an ingressive [[aorist]]: "to begin" or "to have a beginning". In other words, "all these things" would start to happen in the generation of Jesus' present disciples, but would not necessarily finish in their time (Cranfield 1954: 291; Talbert 2010: 270).
* "This generation" points to a certain kind of people in accordance with the pejorative connotations to "generation" [γενεά] elsewhere in the gospel (Morris 1992: 613; Nelson 1996: 385; Rieske 2008: 225; see, e.g., Mt 11:16; 12:39, 41–42, 45; 16:4; 17:17; 23:36). While DeBruyn (2010: 190) and Lenski (1943: 953) interpret the expression in a similar way, they connect "this generation" to a certain kind of people from the Ἰουδαῖοι who resisted Jesus (cf. view 3 discussed earlier).<ref name="Du Toit p.2">{{cite journal|last=Du Toit|first=Philip La Grange|date=2018-08-15|title='This generation' in Matthew 24:34 as a timeless, spiritual generation akin to Genesis 3:15|journal=Verbum et Ecclesia|publisher=AOSIS|volume=39|issue=1|page=|doi=10.4102/ve.v39i1.1850|issn=2074-7705|doi-access=free}}</ref>