Bible Synapse
Did Jesus say he would come before the disciples had gone through the towns of Israel?
Hard question · Prophecy and its fulfilment · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Jesus warns the twelve that they will be scourged in synagogues and brought before governors and kings “for a testimony against them and the Gentiles”.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
“He that endureth to the end shall be saved”; when persecuted, they are to flee to another town, for “Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.”
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
“He that shall endure unto the end” will be saved, and the gospel will be preached to all nations; “and then shall the end come”.
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
The objection
Sending out the twelve, Jesus told them, “Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come” (Matthew 10:23). Later he said that the gospel must first be preached to all nations, “and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14). The first saying seems to place his coming within a short mission in Israel; the second places the end after a mission to the whole world.
The answer
From Matthew 10:16 on, Jesus looks beyond the short first mission to the whole later work of the twelve. On that first tour they were sent only to Israel (10:5–6), and they were not dragged before governors and kings; but here he warns that they will be, “for a testimony against them and the Gentiles” (10:18). The same warnings return in his teaching about the end: they will be hated for his name’s sake, and “he that endureth to the end shall be saved” (10:22; compare 24:9, 13). Read in this setting, 10:23 tells them that the work among Israel’s towns will not be finished before he comes, so when they are persecuted in one place they should move on to the next rather than give up. Craig Blomberg argues for this reading.
Matthew 24:14 adds that the gospel will also reach all nations before the end. The two sayings fit together: when the Son of Man comes, the mission to the nations will have gone out, and the mission to Israel will still be going on. Neither saying says that the end will come within the disciples’ lifetime.
Other answers Christians give
His coming in judgement on Jerusalem
Albert Barnes and John Gill took ‘till the Son of man be come’ to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, which ended the old order in Israel about forty years later, before the apostles had preached in every town. Gill also allowed that it might mean Jesus’ resurrection, or the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, when his kingdom was openly established.
Jesus would rejoin them
Some take the words to mean simply that Jesus would catch up with the twelve before they had finished their tour, as he followed them preaching ‘in their cities’ (Matthew 11:1). Most commentators think this too slight a meaning, since elsewhere the Son of Man’s ‘coming’ is his coming in glory.
Still open
This is one of the hardest sayings in the Gospels, and Christian scholars are divided over which coming Jesus meant. On each of the main readings, Matthew 10:23 and 24:14 do not conflict.
From the classic commentators
which is not to be understood of his second coming to judgment, but either of his resurrection from the dead, when he was declared to be the Son of God, and when his glorification beganJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on Matthew 10:23 (1746–1763)