Did Jesus say he would return within his own generation?

Jesus was answering a two-part question. When he said the temple would be thrown down, the disciples asked, “when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3). In his answer he sets a time limit for “all these things” (24:34), but of “that day and hour” he says that no one knows it, not even the angels (24:36); Mark, and the oldest copies of Matthew, add that not even the Son knew it (Mark 13:32). Many readers take this change of phrase as the hinge of the discourse: “these things” belong to that generation, while ‘that day’, the day of his coming, has no date at all.

The Greek genea usually means the people alive at one time, and a chapter earlier Jesus uses the phrase in just that sense, of the judgement about to fall on Jerusalem: “All these things shall come upon this generation” (Matthew 23:36). Many Christians, John Gill among them, therefore take “all these things” to be the events leading up to the fall of Jerusalem and its temple to the Romans in AD 70, about forty years later, when many of Jesus’ hearers were still alive. Others think the discourse also looks beyond AD 70 to the end of the age, and read ‘this generation’ differently (see below). Christians agree that Jesus’ words came true; they differ over how much of Matthew 24 was fulfilled in AD 70.

Paul’s words are answered the same way. ‘We which are alive’ groups him with the believers who will be living when the Lord comes, whoever they may be. He sets no date, and in the same letter he says the day will come “as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2).

Fulfilled in AD 70 (partial preterist)

On this reading everything up to Matthew 24:34 was fulfilled when Jerusalem fell. The darkened sun and falling stars, and the Son of Man coming on the clouds, are the Old Testament’s language for God’s judgement on a nation and for the Son of Man’s vindication (Isaiah 13:10; Daniel 7:13). Many who hold this view see the second coming come into view at 24:36, with ‘that day’, for which no sign or date is given. John Gill went further and took the whole chapter, 24:36 included, of the judgement on Jerusalem, so that the time limit of 24:34 was met in full.

Already and not yet

Many hold that the prophecy has a near and a far fulfilment. The fall of Jerusalem fulfilled it within that generation and also foreshadowed the end of the age, which will fill its meaning out completely. Albert Barnes took this view, and Luke’s mention of “the times of the Gentiles” between Jerusalem’s fall and the signs in the heavens (Luke 21:24–25) is often cited for it.

The generation that sees the signs (futurist)

Others take ‘this generation’ to mean the people alive when the signs begin (Matthew 24:33): once the final events start, they will all be completed within one lifetime. Got Questions takes this view.

‘This race’

Some older writers took genea in the sense of ‘race’ or ‘people’: the Jewish people would not pass away before the end. Most commentators think the word does not carry that sense here.

This question is still debated. Christians differ over which parts of Matthew 24 refer to AD 70 and which to the end of the age, and over what ‘this generation’ means. What the main readings share is that Jesus set a limit only for ‘all these things’, and none for the day of his coming.