Treasures from God’s Word and Digging for Spiritual Gems – “Remain Spiritually Awake during the Last Days” (Matthew 24)
Matthew 24:39 (w99 11/15 19 par. 5, ‘no note’)
Here we find Translation bias in the NWT to support the teachings of the organization. The NWT says:
“and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.”
A quick review of the Kingdom Interlinear shows the phrase “they took no note” is translated “and not they knew” (i.e ‘they knew nothing’). This conveys a different meaning.
That this is the true meaning of this passage is confirmed by Jesus’ next words in verses 42-44. Jesus three times emphasizes this point when he says ‘you do not know’, ‘if the householder had known’, ‘you do not think it to be’, regarding his coming. Verse 39 only makes sense in context if translated ‘they knew nothing’, because his coming would be like that of Noah’s day. It would be a shock to them.
A review of translations on Bible Hub will reveal (all 28!) either ‘they knew not’ or the equivalent. The Berean Bible reads particularly nicely and says “And they were oblivious, until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man.” The meaning here is crystal clear.
This verse does not, therefore, refer to people ignoring a “life-saving preaching message”, as the Organization contends.
Matthew 24:44 (jy 259 par. 5)
“On this account YOU too prove yourselves ready, because at an hour that YOU do not think to be it, the Son of man is coming.”
If Jesus stated that he will come at a time we do not expect, then how were the early Bible Students able to discern 1914? The simple answer is that it is a guess, backed up by making it a matter of faith, because it cannot be proven. How did they get insight that even Jesus did not have? Furthermore, if it could be worked out from the book of Daniel as well as from what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 24, then surely Jesus as God’s son could have done so?
Matthew 24:20 (Wintertime, Sabbath day) (nwtsty)
“Keep praying that YOUR flight may not occur in wintertime, nor on the Sabbath day”
From the wording of this verse, it clearly was applying to the first century Jews who had become Christians. There is no room for any antitypical fulfillment; no room for thinking that it will apply to use in our future. Nowadays, the Sabbath can be Friday, Saturday or Sunday depending on where one lives. Also, with Christians living all over the world, some of them will be in wintertime and some in summertime no matter when Armageddon strikes.
Matthew 24:36 (nor the Son)
“Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.”
In the first century Jehovah God had not yet seen fit to let Jesus know when he would come. Therefore how can we calculate it today? If the organization says we can calculate it today then they are saying that Jesus Christ was not able to calculate it in the first Century. I for one am not prepared to take such a stand against our Lord, Christ and Mediator.
Matthew 24:48 (evil slave)
“But if ever that evil slave should say in his heart, ‘My master is delaying,’
The current teaching of the organization is that the faithful slave is real and consists of 7 or 8 men. Yet, in the same parable, Jesus decided to make the evil slave a hypothetical construct. Does that make sense? They also claim the faithful slave is a composite slave. Let us examine every instance where Jesus used the word ‘slave’ in a parable.
- Matthew 18:23-35: parable about slaves owing debts to the master and each other.
- Matthew 25:14-30: parable about slaves given money to do business while the master was away.
- Mark 12:2-8: parable about vineyard and cultivators who killed the owners slaves then his son.
- Luke 12:35-40: parable about slaves watching for the master returning from his marriage.
- Luke 12:41-48: parallel passage to Matthew 24:45-51.
In every passage, when Jesus says ‘slave’, he means ‘slave’ singular, and he uses the plural ‘slaves’ for multiple slaves.
Indeed in the parallel passage to Matthew 24 in Luke 12:41-48 it is clear Jesus is talking about individual types of slave. After talking about slaves (v37) awaiting the return of their master, then he asks a rhetorical question ‘who is the faithful slave?’ In context he is expanding on the subject of slaves and their attitude to awaiting the master’s return.
How does he expand on this?
- The faithful slave will be the individual entrusted with caring for the master’s attendants, and who does so, and who is still awake on the return of the master.
- The ‘evil’ slave is self-indulgent, eating and drinking, and then abusing the attendants. He will be punished severely. He is punished severely for abusing his authority. A sin of commission.
- There are two additional types of slave mentioned in Luke’s version of this parable. (Luke 12:41-48) Both fail to do the master’s will; one knowingly, and the other in ignorance. One is punished severely and the other lightly.
These are clearly types of slaves, and it depends on their actions as to what type they are. So on the basis of this passage in Luke, the faithful slave is not a group of men living in Warwick, New York. Indeed, rather than staying alert for the arrival of the master they have been constantly giving false alarms as to his arrival, and in doing, have so exhausted the attendants by crying wolf too many times that many have fallen away. Additionally the evil slave is a type of slave who forgets about Jesus’ return and instead abuses his fellow slaves.
Matthew 24:3 (conclusion of the system of things)
The NWT 2013 edition Glossary defines it as “The period of time leading up to the end of the system of things, or state of affairs, dominated by Satan. It runs concurrently with Christ’s presence.”
Hebrews 9:26 talking about Jesus says “But now he [Jesus] has manifested himself once for all time at the conclusion of the systems of things to put sin away through the sacrifice of himself”. So the Apostle Paul considered the first century (before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans) as the conclusion of the system of things, not as an event centuries in the future. The book of Hebrews was written about 61 CE, only 5 years before the Jewish revolt started and 9 years before the destruction of Jerusalem and the majority of the nation of Israel.
Who is correct? Romans 3:4 says “But let God be found true, though every man [and organization made of men] be found a liar.
Video – Close to the End of this System of Things
This is a portion from a previous Monthly Broadcast. It is an attempt to reinforce the overlapping generations teaching.
But before examining it, let us check the meaning of the following words from the dictionary.
- Generation: – All of the people born and living at the same time regarded collectively and viewed as lasting 30 years; the average age period between the birth of the parents and the birth of the offspring.
- Contemporaries: – A person of roughly the same age as another. From Latin – con = together with, and tempus = time.
The implications of these definitions are:
- For a generation:
- Will be limited to people with a 30-year span of birth dates.
- Any group of people considered to be a generation will not include those young enough to be the children of that group of people.
- Will be born and live at the same time, not overlap.
- For contemporaries:
- Someone who is 50 and another who is 20 would not fall into the category of ‘roughly the same age’.
- While we cannot be precise, for a 50-year old, his contemporaries would likely be aged between 45 and 55, those he would have known at school for instance, being slightly younger and slightly older.
Having set the basis by which we can understand Jesus words, let us examine the video.
David Splane opened by asking what scripture comes to mind to understand a generation. He suggests Exodus 1:6. This is an interesting choice, as it allows the organization to stretch the meaning and the time (although not legitimately). If he had chosen Exodus 20:5 for instance which talks about “the error of fathers upon sons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation.” It is quite clear from this scripture that fathers is the first generation, sons are the second generation, then the grandsons the third generation, and great-grandsons the fourth generation. So looking at Exodus 1:6 it talks of Joseph and his brothers and all that generation. The normal understanding would be that Joseph and his brothers and those born around the same time. So the interpretation put forward by David Splane that the generation had to live sometime in Joseph’s lifespan is disingenuous. Joseph’s children were not in his generation and yet they lived in their father’s lifespan.
David Splane moves on to Matthew 24:32-34 stating that all the things Jesus mentioned started to occur from 1914 onwards, which meant Jesus was near at the doors. He further says only the anointed saw the signs and discerned the signs which meant something invisible was happening. Although no scriptural support is given for the invisible aspect. One of those claiming to be anointed was Fred Franz born in 1893 and baptised in November 1913. David Splane mentions others such as Rutherford, McMillan and Van Amburgh who were also ‘anointed’ at the time of 1914. They would qualify as the generation of Fred Franz according to the dictionary definition. But then he goes on to include Swingle, Knorr and Henschel as contemporaries of the first group mentioned even though they were born much later and anointed later. However, we can see by the dictionary definitions above that cannot be the case. David Splane does that so they can stretch contemporaries to include the current governing body.
At the 9:40 minute David Splane makes the bold and unsupported claim that in order to be part of ‘this Generation’ someone would have to have been anointed before 1992. This is language gymnastics. Even if 1914 were the start of the last days, which is another whole subject in itself, it would have to be the generation that was alive at the time of the start of those days. This, even at a stretch, would restrict it to those born between about 1900 and 1920. All this generation have now passed away. Were any of the present Governing Body ‘born and living at the same time’ as Fred Franz? Not anywhere near according to normal English usage of the terms. All of the current Governing Body were born long after 1920. He then states the newly anointed would have to be a contemporary of Fred Franz. Hence as even those so-called contemporaries are almost passing away now, then Armageddon must be at the doors is the conclusion. However this whole video is a travesty of the English language and the words that Jesus spoke.
P.S. The day after completing this review Meleti released his video discussing this doctrine of ‘overlapping generations’ as it has been named. No doubt you will find it interesting that independently we come to the same conclusions based on common sense, and more importantly God’s Word and its self-explanation.
Jesus, The Way (jy Chapter 13) – Learn from the way Jesus faced Temptations.
Nothing of note.
A little bit of consistency on David Splane’s part would have been interesting, to use his terminology. He states re Exodus 1:6 that all Joseph’s brothers were part of the same generation, and then proceeds to explain the obvious – namely that someone who died before Joseph, or was born after him, could not be part of the same generation. However Exodus 1 does not try and state who made up that generation – it is just a general term – so there is no suggestion that the children of Joseph’s brothers were part of the same generation. Therefore we… Read more »
Good work Tadua. I have been spending the last 4 years trying to re read Matthew 24 and 25. It is a struggle to remove what has already been put there. My findings to date are as follows: 1. The word parousia and how it came to have the meaning of invisible presence is interesting. The expectation was that 1874 was the return of Christ based on Barbour’s chronology. This failed and the various people involved tried to figure out the problem. Then someone called brother Keith spotted the translation in Benjamin Wilson’s 1865 Emphatic Diaglott the use of the… Read more »
Now if you were asked by someone to identify a scripture that tells us what a generation is, what scripture would you turn to? David Splane’s choice in the September 2015 broadcast was Exodus 1:6 which talks about Joseph, his brothers and all that generation. Interestingly, exactly one year later in the September 2016 broadcast at the 2:20 mark, David Splane again makes a comment about Joseph’s generation. Yet how does this harmonize with what was said a year earlier? It was also released as a talk on the JW app entitled: Enhance Your Bible Reading.
The Apostle Matthew makes it abundantly clear in Mathew 1:17 where he lists the groups of 14 Generations from Abraham to Jesus Christ. so who is adding to God’s inspired word?
Interesting regarding Noah The covenant was made only with Noah and his family only. God never told Noah the invite was for everybody. The Bible specifically states in Genesis 6:17-18, “Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” That seems to be pretty clear that God’s plan… Read more »
One interesting point when looking at Exodus 1:6 is to read the verses before to get context. Was the phrase meaning overlapping ages of Joseph’s brothers or if you take context by reading verses prior when you read Exodus 1:5 was it referring to those born to Jacob? 70 born to Jacob. Verse 6 then covers Joseph and his brothers dying and then the 70 born to Jacob “that” generation is referred to in this verse. Pretty clear to me on what a generation is those born to Jacob being the 70.
What is most important about understanding “generation” is not what a dictionary says, but what the Bible says. And it says a generation is about 40 years, period. Not 70, 80 or 100 – nor does it overlap anything. Apologies for the lengthy post below … How do we know what a biblical generation is? Ex. 20:5, Num. 14:18 and Job 42:16 show this to be the transition from father to son. Apparently, the average time between a father’s first son and his son’s first son is a generation. How long was that? About 40 years. That is longer than… Read more »
If you apply Job 42:16 then you would come up with 35 years in a generation. This is perhaps the most revealing scripture in the Bible that tells us how long a generation is in my opinion.
The account in Job mentions 140 years and 4 generations, and if all we do is divde 140 by 4 then yes that gives us 35, but the account is light on specifics. Job “saw” four generations, but how long was Job alive during the fourth generation? It doesnt say. There is enough uncertainty that the exact average length of a generation cant be determined here. Still, what information is available shows it to be close to and consistent with the 40 year generation length in other bible accounts.
The thing with the overlapping generation teaching is that if the end keeps failing to arrive, you can keep on overlapping generations till it does. Or something like that.
The account of Noah as told by the Faithful and Discreet Slave is one of the first big awakenings I had as a Christian. Oddly it came from reading a book about Norwegian Black Metal years and years ago. To condense it if anyone studies any pagan cultures and their mythology you can’t help but walk away with the very real conclusion that these early Gods (Satan, Demon-Kings… etc) seemed to take care of their people and have an invested interest in their success in the world. Lending them technology and information unavailable for the most part to other cultures.… Read more »
Also I believe this teaching of an “overlapping generation” added with the monthly broadcasts has been one of the lead factors of so many of the faithful slipping away in recent years.
And all they had to say was “We do not know the day or the hour. Neither Jesus nor Jehovah has told us, so we must just wait”. This might have affected the urgency of the preaching work, but the honesty would have encouraged many more not to leave, and , after seeing the effects of that honesty, might have encouraged them to be more careful about what they said in the future.
Every time I try to wrap my head around the overlapping generation concept, it just doesn’t compute – literally or figuratively. Here is how I get to that: Let’s say 1914 was “the year”. If you were a person alive in 1914 with the wherewithal to figure out that 1914 started the Last Days, you’d be pretty smart, since hardly anyone else on earth DID figure it out. You couldn’t be a baby. I am figuring that someone would need to be around 20 years old in order to have time to obtain sufficient Bible knowledge and to reason on… Read more »
In a way I am grateful for this Overlapping Nonsense. It made me finally start to wake up to all the rest of the nonsensical doctrines.
Wonderful article. I personally would like to add Matthew 24:11, which talks about false prophets. Not long ago many people were mislead into thinking 1975 was the year Armageddon was to come and so many of them sold their homes and properties in anticipation of that year. But as we know in a few verses later at verse 36, no one knows except the father.
Thank you Tadua for the article with many nice points to consider. I especially enjoyed the part on the way Jesus placed his words about those before the flood not knowing in vs. 39 in between the words about no one knowing when he would come in vs. 36 and 42 and how it doesn’t make sense to change Jesus words in the one verse to “took no note”. I have always thought that if God had given Noah a specific assignment to warn everyone else about the coming flood why is that assignment not found in the instructions he… Read more »
Hi gracefulbranches and welcome. You raised an interesting point with the 1Peter 3:20 scripture moving me to take a closer look. According to various Lexicons on biblehub, the original Greek seems to convey the meaning that God showed long suffering while waiting eagerly to decisively put that wicked world to an end. In other words, God was not sitting back twiddling his thumbs enjoying the rest, rather he was restraining himself from bringing that world to destruction because of its wickedness. On that basis it is difficult to see how God would have been too happy with Noah if Noah… Read more »
Hi Tadua, thanks for getting the ball rolling on a week with so many dodgy teachings, including your reminder on the “Took no note” in 24:49. May I add the following :- Matthew 24:23 states clearly that if anyone says “Here is the Christ” do not believe him. That seems pretty conclusive. Matthew 23:36 says “Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation”. Jesus was speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees. So on whom would all these things come ? very old Pharisees ? Maybe . Younger Pharisees ? – definitely. Young children ? Jesus… Read more »
Hi Leonardo Thanks for your comments. Yes, it truly was a week for: how much time and space have I got for all the dodgy teachings. Re the heavens opening up, I couldn’t agree more with you. My relevant research on another topic indicates the Greek word used here for heavens is only used in the context of the sky, I.e. atmospheric heavens, not outer space heavens, or Jehovah’s presence heavens. This would therefore automatically exclude ‘a download of knowledge’ on the basis of the heavens being opened up. If it happened then and it’s a big if, then the… Read more »