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Matthew 24: 34 and Luke 21: 32 have:
"Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled."
But that generation did pass away! There are explanations which state that these
verses mean that all the events described in the context will take place within the lifetime
of some future generation but that is not totally satisfying.
Matthew 10: 23 provides a worse problem:
"Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come."
What? The Second Coming of Christ with power and great glory before they had
gone over the cities of Israel? Well . . . . . it never happened! All these and more, are
problem passages and the solution to the difficulty is found in the notes of The
Companion Bible. We quote some of them:
till = the particle an and the subjunctive mood gives
Matt. 16: 28
this a hypothetical force.
till = Greek eos an. The particle an makes this
clause conditional: the condition being the
Mark 9: 1
repentance of the nation of Israel at the call of
Peter. Acts 3: 19-26. cp. 28: 25, 26.
till = here with the Greek an and the subjunctive
Matt. 24: 34
mood, marking the uncertainty which was
conditional on the repentance of the nation.
till all be fulfilled = till (Greek eos an) all may
possibly come to pass (not the same word as
fulfilled in verse 24). Had the nation repented at
Luke 21: 32
Peter's call in Acts 2: 38; 3: 19-26 "all that
the prophets had spoken" would have come to
pass.
Matt. 10: 23
till = see the four 10: 23; 16: 28; 23: 39; 24: 34.
This makes interesting and enlightening reading and there is further support for the
above. On pages 143 an 144 of volume XX of The Berean Expositor Mr. 100: H. Welch
writes on these verses:
"There is in each of these verses an untranslatable (untranslated) particle an, the effect
of which is to make the sentence contingent upon something expressed or implied. We
can gather from other scriptures, e.g., Acts 3: 19-21, that the Second Coming of the
Lord would not take place while Israel remained unrepentant.
..........
Matthew 16: 27, 28 refers to the same coming and kingdom. That coming would
takes place either within the lifetime of some who heard the words, or, failing that, would
possibly be deferred. This is implied by the particle "an", "if". Israel did not repent;
though granted nearly forty years in which to fulfil the implication of the "if". They
failed to do so, and when the longsuffering of God reached this limit, they were set aside,
and the possibility of the Lord's return during the lifetime of any of His early disciples
ceased to be practical truth."