We take a look at two separate predictions made by Jesus in the New Testament which might be a source of confusion for some. There are four verses to look at.

The first is from Matthew 16 which alludes to the Second Coming of Jesus, seemingly in the apostles’ lifetime:

“(27) For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. (28) Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew16:27,28)

In the next verse, we might say that Jesus is talking about his Resurrection itself when he appears to the disciples rather than his second coming:
“ When they persecute you in this town, flee to the next, for truly I tell you, you will not have finished going through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” (Matthew 10:23)

Next, we look at Matthew 16 theme as it is repeated with slight variation in Mark 8:38,9:1 and Luke 9:26,27.

^“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.” (Mark 8:38, 9:1)

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:26,27)

Let us examine using the passage from Matthew 16 as the template. The important thing to note about the two verses therein is that they do not refer to the same event. Verse 27 clearly does refer to Judgement Day “he will repay their sins”. However having said that, Jesus in the next verse (v.28) has already moved on to a different event that will have a more recent fulfilment. This is like a man who says to his family: “I’ll be back home one day…see you tonite”, because he’s departing the next day on a long journey, but for now he’s just going out on a short errand. This does not need to sound contrived, because both these are epiphanies, the first a public one while the second one which will be given to a few “some“. Thus they are two verses with a common theme, and hence Jesus pairs them together. With regards to the latter verse (v.28), Jesus did “come in his kingdom” when he rose from the Dead in Glory, his Body no more being subject to it, nor any earthly forces (eg. he could pass through walls as is stated in the Gospels) and this was witnessed in the post-Resurrection events by “some” of this disciples. Further, the fact that Jesus has already stated “the Kingdom of God is within you” and “the Kingdom of God is at hand” seems to warrant this interpretation too, and we know that the Kingdom of God is here with the arrival of Jesus anyway. An alternative interpretation of v.28 might be that it is referring to the apostle who witness the Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor. In favor of this second interpretation is the fact that in all the three Synoptics, this quote is indeed immediately followed up by the Transfiguration narrative.

The second passage to consider is the one from Matthew 24 where Jesus describes an apocalyptic end-of-world scenario and then ends with the prediction:

“this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place” (Matthew 24:24)

Did Jesus mean that the end of the world was to come in the apostles’ lifetime? The word for “generation” in Greek is genea, which can also mean “race”. Jesus could therefore be referring to the entire Jewish race as being present on that last Day. In support of this we can also look at the use of the term “generation” in the previous example where Jesus says specifically in Mark 8:38 “those who are ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of the the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels”, where he is seemingly referring to the whole of humanity. Thus we are able to conclude that Jesus is not speaking of the current generation at the time, rather of the one that is to witness the end-times. He gives the description of the signs of destruction on the Heavens and goes on to state: “all the tribes of the nations will mourn (indicating the future)… THIS GENERATION will not pass away…”. The generation which experiences those signs will not pass away until all is completed and the end comes. As a further consideration, it would not seem to make sense that it was Jesus’ intention to predict the final hour in these verses, when he specifically states that he will not do so elsewhere (eg. Mark13:32).

We can note a third passage Matthew 23:36 “truly I tell you all this will come upon this generation” which seems to be related to v.35 before it with Jesus reprimanding the pharisees and scribes: “So that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.” Here Jesus is merely predicting the future outcome of that generation.

Finally we have to make a note that it would seem from a reading of the epistles that some of Jesus’ closest followers like St. Paul were possibly mistaken in their belief in an imminent end-of-the-world. I would reply that although this might come through in the text sometimes, it does not necessarily change the arguments as stated above, that is, if some of Jesus apostles were indeed mistaken about the implication of his own words with regards to timing, it does not change the argument here.