This Generation Shall Not Pass Away

This Generation Shall Not Pass Away
By
James Scott Trimm

In the Book of Matthew in the King James Version we see Yeshua’s Talmidim asking him about the time of his return:

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
(Matt. 24:3 KJV)

Then after a several verses, Yeshua says:

32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
(Matt. 24:32-34 KJV)

Some have been puzzled by this and asked why Yeshua did not return by the end of the generation of the disciples, was he a false prophet?

As I have said many time before, there are some passages in the New Testament which do not make sense at all in Greek, but only begin to make sense when we look at them in Hebrew and Aramaic, and the answer to this question is clear to see in the original Hebrew.

First let us look at verses 32-34 as they appear in the Hebrew of the DuTillet Manuscript of Matthew:

32 Learn you the parable from the fig tree: when its branch is tender, and the leaves
sprout, you know that the summer fruit is near.
33 So likewise you, when you will see all these things, know that it is near--even at the
doors.
34 Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away, until the whole is accomplished.
(Matt. 24:32-34 HRV)

We can see plainly that “this generation” that “will not pass away” in verse 34 is the same as those who “will see all these things” in verse 33 and these are those who see the “summer fruit” in verse 33.

Now the Hebrew word for “summer fruit” in the DuTillet Hebrew Matthew manuscript of Matthew is קיץ.  This is an ambiguous word which can be translated either “summer” or “summer fruit” especially that of the fig tree but was misunderstood by the Greek translator as “summer”.  In fact the reference is to the “summer fruit” of the fig tree which is specifically mentioned here.

The word קיץ here is a word play in the Hebrew point back a few verses to verse 13 where we read:

But whoever endures to the end,
the same will be saved.
(Matt. 24:13 HRV)

The word for “end” in the DuTillet Hebrew manuscript for this verse is קץ which is a wordplay for קיץ “summer fruit”

1 Thus the Adonai YHWH showed me--and behold, a basket of summer fruit (קיץ).
2 And He said: Amos, what see you? And I said, A basket of summer fruit (קיץ). Then said YHWH unto me: The end (קץ) is come upon My people Yisra’el; I will not again pardon them any more.
(Amos 8:1-2 HRV)

The “this generation” which “will not pass away, until the whole is accomplished” (vs. 34) is those who “will see all these things” (vs. 33) referring to “the summer fruit” (קיץ) (vs. 32) which are the same as those “who endure to the end” (קץ) (vs. 13)

This refers not to the generation which Yeshua was speaking to in verse 3, but to those who endure to the end in verse 13.