End of the World 2- Second Coming?

Jesus never told his apostles about a second coming in Matthew 24.

Matthew chapter 24 is supposedly about the “end of the world.” In an earlier article, we looked at the Greek words translated as “end of the world,” which actually mean “the culmination of this era” of, more personally, “the culmination of a lifetime.” Here we look at another phrase in Matthew 24 that has taken a large role in Christian teaching, the phrase “the coming of the son of man.”

The word translated as “coming” appears first in Matthew 24:3 spoken by his students. After Jesus describes the temple falling, they ask him (KJV), “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” The problem is that the Greek word translated here as “coming” means “presence.” In a later article, we will look at the actual uses of the Greek word usually translated as “coming” in Matthew 24, but this word is unrelated to that one.

The Greek Word

The word spoken first by the apostles is used by Jesus himself only three times, all three in chapter twenty-four of Matthew, all three in the same phrase translated in all Bibles as “the coming of the son of man.”

This Greek word is parousia (παρουσία) meaning "presence", "arrival", "occasion", and "situation." It has nothing to do with the verb usually translated as "come" in the Bible, erchomai (ἔρχονται) used by Jesus in 198 verses, discussed in the next article. This parousia has the same root and structure as the mystery word, epiousios, discussed here. Parousia is from the present participle of the verb meaning "to have arrived" and "to be present,” pareimi.

Think about the context for a moment. This phrase, “thy coming” is spoken by the apostles to Jesus. Jesus is with them at the time. They were asking about what his presence meant, not about any second coming in the future. They wanted to know if his presence culminates in the Temple being destroyed. This is what they saw as the culmination of an era, the destruction of Solomon’s temple the culmination of an earlier period. In using this word himself, Jesus is simply repeating their word, answering their specific question, though not in the way they expected.

The Sign of His Presence

Specifically, Jesus’s students asked literally about “the sign of this your presence.” Today, we might say “the significance of your presence,” to capture the apostle’s question. The Greek word “sign,” however, also means a sign from the gods, what we call an “omen.” The same word also is used to describe “constellations” because of their use as signs in astrology. That idea plays a key role in Matthew 24, referred to in many of its verses.

This leads to Jesus referring to his presence as a “flash” in the sky in Matthew 24:27. Since he describes this flash as “rising” and “setting,” not “east” and “west,” this flash seems to describe a comet or perhaps a nova. The Bible translates the Greek word “shining” as “lightning” but lightning doesn’t rise and set, like a comet, constellation, or nova, nor does lightning travel from horizon to horizon, but from the sky to ground. Jesus is perhaps referring to the comet or nova we call the “star of Bethlehem,” the one signaling his birth. More broadly, this flash may be symbolic of a flash of awareness of a higher plane of existence.

We see more evidence that he is referring to a stellar event in Matthew 24:30, people seeing the “sign of the son of man” in the sky. In his next verse, Jesus uses the Greek word for “comet,” saying literally, “And he will send his messengers along with a great comet.” The English Bible translates comet” as “trumpet,” because the Greek word “comet” also means “trumpet,” because of the instrument’s similar shape. Since “trumpet” makes no sense here, the context being a “sign in the sky,” the Greek word for “sound” was added to the later Greek text, but no such word appears in the original Greek.

The Comparison to Noah

Jesus says two contradictory things about his presence, mistranslated during the culmination of the era and the culmination of a lifetime. First, in Matthew 24:27 and after, he says that it is an omen of change, a flash in the sky. Then, he repeats the phrase “the presence of the son of the man” in two later verses, Matthew 24:37 and Matthew 24:39. Those verses compare his presence to the days of Noah. In them, he says that people missed the signs until the crisis arose, living their lives, thinking that the world unchanged.

Does the comparison to Noah mean that Jesus is describing the end of the world and his second coming? No, because the story of Noah doesn’t describe the end but a beginning. It takes place in Genesis, the book whose name means “beginning.” The story of Noah was seen as a new beginning, not as an end.

Jesus goes to some trouble to indicate that the culmination of this epoch is not going to be as deadly as the era of Noah. He has already advised those watching for this crisis to head for the hills in Matthew 24:16 and its following verses, which indicate the people have a difficult physical path to survival. After Matthew 24:39, people ignoring the signs can be “caught up” in the crisis, but only one out of two. So, we have a crisis people can flee, one affecting half the population that does not flee. This describes the Roman destruction of Judea, not an end of the world. More broadly, it may symbolically describe those who do not change their lives despite the flashes of insight that they should.

Conclusion: Always with You

This brings us to Jesus’s last mention of “the culmination of the era.” These are, appropriately, his last words in Matthew. That phrase is spoken after Jesus’s resurrection. Does he predict a second coming in that phrase? No, just the opposite.

The verse is Matthew 28:20, and in it, he says, literally, “Look! I myself am with you all days until the culmination of this era.” Or, more personally, “the culmination of this lifetime.” If we take Jesus at his word, Jesus is still with us, inside of us, not in his body but our own.

Jesus’s birth and presence were signs of the culmination of one epoch and the birth of another, a flash in the sky. This is a truth testified to by our calendar. The fall of the temple in Jerusalem was a sign of the end of that age, his presence a portent of it. Would the apostles have to watch and wait, keeping the faith for a period of time? Yes, in the time between Jesus's death and his resurrection. And again between his ascension and Pentecost, when the spirit, the holy one, came into them. And in the time before the coming of the Has Jesus disappeared since his resurrection? His body has, but his presence remains, within the growing number of Christians.

Note: Starting on August 31, I will be examing all the “end time” verses in Matthew Chapter 24 in detail, one verse at a time, day after day on the front page of ChristsWords.com. There is a lot of fun stuff there, almost all of it lost in translation The goal will be to sort out, according to the Greek words he used, his original meaning.