Gawen

Hi everyone. I have 3 simple questions...

I know...I know..famous last words.

Matthew 24:34, Mark 13:30, and Luke 21:32 says: "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened."
A Christian at work tells me the correct translation does not say "generation" but "race"...as in race of people.

He also says the verse is aimed at the "reader" and not to the Disciples.

Lastly, he says the differences of the OT rules on divorce and Mat 5:31 is a case of marrying out of love and not lust.

Are these true? Mostly, I'm asking for any translation difficulties. If there are none, I can usually figure out the rest.

judge

How is the same word used throughout the gospels? Does it ever refer to race?

Gawen

Well, I mean really, "generation" and "race" are so different, I can't see how Greek or Hebrew could have something similar that would confuse the two...but one never knows (at least in my condition).

Gawen

BibleGateway says this:
I tell you the truth, this generation[e] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
e. Or race

Gawen

C'mon you guys. Fortytwo views and only one person says anything?

Amaleq13

I think you'll find the above covered in The contraversy of the paragraph "This Generation"

Chris Weimer

If it's not an historical Jesus, people don't like talking about it.

No, it's generation, not race. He's wrong.

Ask him if he wrote it, and if not, how could he possibly know.

The text says no such thing.

gstafleu

The Greek word used is "genea." If you look in dictionaries, you will find meanings like race, family, generation, offspring. So the first question is which translation does one choose here, and why. This I will leave to people who know more than I do.

I want to remark on the "race" translation though. The problem here is one as much of English as it is of Greek: what does "race" mean. There are at least two different common usages of "race" in contemporary English: the biological and the political versions. In the political version, people with white skin, black skin and yellow skin, to mention just three, are all of a different race. AFAIK these political "races" don't translate to biological races. So the first question to ask would be: if we were to translate "genea" as "race" in the relevant places, which version of "race" are we referring to and does that version of race match what the Greek tries to say.

Gerard Stafleu

Chris Weimer

New Testament usage indicates that "race" as in kin, Latin genus, is not how it's used. It literally means "birth", and from that you can conceive of the idea of those born at the same time, or in the same family.

You would also have to allow Matthew 12.45 to mean "evil race", which is not quite a radical reading, and 16.4, and 17.17, and other passages where it's clear that Jesus, a Jew himself, doesn't think that all Jews are evil. So it's certainly not "race" that Matthew was using, but the more preferred generation.

aa5874

How does a single Christian get the authority to determine the correct translation, and which version of the Bible has 'race' instead of 'generation'?

I do not think there were any verses for the 'race' to 'read' for a long time.