End of the World 3 - The Real "Coming"

This is the third and last article about the verses of Matthew 24, which supposedly describe the end of the world and the second coming. The first article examines how the Greek words translated as “end of the world” actually mean “the culmination of an era.” The second article examines how the words translated as “the coming of the son of man” actually refer to “the presence of the son of man.” This third article looks at those verses in Matthew 24 that do refer to the “coming” of Jesus, but perhaps not as those preaching a second coming see it.

The Greek Word Translated as “Coming”

In the KJV and most other translations of the NT, the Greek word usually translated as "come" doesn't have the same narrow meaning as the English word. However, despite its different shades of meaning, most Biblical translations stick to us the English word "come" even when they have to add ideas to make that sense work. Jesus often uses this Greek word to mean "come," but he uses its other shades of meaning as well, including “to start” and “to go.” It is the second most common verb Jesus uses, after the word “to be,” and that count doesn’t include all the other verbs having this word as their root.

The actual Greek word is erchomai (ἔρχομαι) which primarily means "to start," and "to set out." However, it usually has more the sense of "set out" because it usually refers to some form of motion. Jesus doesn't often use it sense simply of beginning something. The word can be used to mean both "to come" and "to go." It means "to go" on a journey, that is, "to start a journey." However, it also means "to arrive" at a place," that is, “to start someplace new.” I often translate this verb as “to show up” because that phrase seems to capture the idea of starting someplace new.

“Coming” in Matthew 24

As the second most common verb Jesus uses, we would expect it to appear many times in Matthew 24 and it does. However, Jesus uses it only in four verses to refer to his own coming, but in one of those verses we would have to accept the idea that Jesus referred to himself as a “thief.”

The most interesting verse is Matthew 24:30, which describes “the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky.” This verse is especially interesting because it is a paraphrase of a prophetic Old Testament quote from Daniel 7:13. Jesus refers to this quote after several verses describing signs in the sky, and this verse continues that theme beginning with a “sign” of the son of man “shining” in the sky, very possibly a comet or nova. Jesus knew that his own birth was heralded by the “star” of Bethlehem. At this point, Jesus had already told the Apostles about his own death and awakening. This is why the mention of “clouds” is important here. Jesus uses the Greek word for “clouds” only six times, each similar to this verse in the sense that they are all references to the afterlife. The Greek word for “clouds” was a metaphor for death, spirits seen as breath, the clouds of breath leaving the body. So this verse seems to be both a reference to his first coming, heralded by a “star,” and to his “second” coming, his awakening from the dead.

The other three uses of erchomai appear in three verses in a row. In English translation, translators try to make the “come” in these verses sound like the future tense, but all are in the present tense. Various techniques are used, adding the “will” below is the most blatant. Progressive English verb forms (“is coming” and“was coming”) are also used as a kind of sleight of hand to disguise the present tense. The first of these verses is Matthew 24:42, where Jesus tells his apostles to stay awake, watching, because they do not know when “their master is coming.” This verse is followed by a verse advising managers staying awake because they don’t know when the “thief is coming.” The final reference is to the son of man coming in Matthew 24:44, (NIV): “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

What are we supposed to make of this? Is Jesus comparing himself to a thief that comes in the night to destroy a home?

Or we can assume they describe Jesus’s unpredictability in life. When in the Gospels are the apostles famously awoken from sleep by Jesus when they should have been watching? In the Garden of Gethsemani, right before Judas betrays him. Could Judas be the “thief” in the night who comes to destroy their home? In Greek, the final verse says they must be ready because they can never predict when he shows up.

However, here we must also remember that erchomai means “to go” as well as “to come.” In the Garden of Gethsemani, the apostles were unprepared for Jesus’s leaving, not his coming, his lifting up onto the cross, a going. Later, however, they seemed equally unprepared for his reappearance after his death, his awakening from the grave, a coming.

Conclusion

In my examination of Matthew 24 I refused to overlook Matthew 28:20, Jesus saying, after his resurrection, literally, “Look! I myself am with you all days until the culmination of this era.” In talking to his apostles about the meaning of his presence regarding the fall of the Temple, the end of an era, he covers a lot of territory relating to the fall of Judea and how he sees it as related to both his first coming, being born and his second coming, being awakened from the dead. His lessons can be related to the death of any civilization and our own individual deaths. Does much of it, however, apply to the apocalyptic end of the world taught by Christianity?

Yes, in one verse, Matthew 24:35, Jesus repeats a line from the Sermon on the Mount about the sky and earth “passing by” but his words surviving. In the next verse, however, he admits not knowing when that passing happens. This seems to be a clear statement that the rest of his words in Matthew 24 should not be taken to refer to the end of the world, but simply to the passing of the age of the Second Temple.