How should Matthew 24 be divided between AD 70 and the end of the world?
Brenda asks for the Catholic reading of Matthew 24, which mixes the destruction of Jerusalem with the end of the world, and how to tell when the text shifts between them.
Answer
The Church has no defined interpretation of Matthew 24, so we have to work it out, and the difficulty is that one chapter blends two time periods. Here is how it breaks up. Verses 1 to 3 are the disciples' question. Verses 4 to 14 cover the whole span from Christ speaking in AD 33 to the end of the world. Verses 15 to 22 deal only with AD 33 to AD 70, when Titus destroyed Jerusalem. Verses 23 to 28 go back to the long span to the end of the world. Verses 29 to 31, where the sun is darkened and the angels gather the elect, refer exclusively to the end of the world. Verses 32 to 42 return to the long span. So only two sections are narrow: 15 to 22 for AD 70, and 29 to 31 for the end. On 'this generation,' the Greek has the article and the demonstrative, an emphatic way of pointing to the very generation then living, the Jews of AD 33 to 70, though it can be extended to a wicked kind of generation in the general sense.