Meditations in Matthew 26—Time Stamps (2)

We have now come to the last five days of Jesus’s life on earth. Philip later used Isa 53:7–8 to show the Ethiopian eunuch what happened next:

He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth. (Acts 8:32–33)

Matthew 26 describes the events leading up to Jesus’s death. They happened between late Tuesday and early Friday morning of Passion Week (AD 30).¹

This chapter uses at least five time stamps. Our last post examined three. This post will look at two more.

These time indicators possess a clear meaning in non-prophetic texts. Our point is that they keep their basic meaning in prophetic passages, too. We should not let a prophetic model force us to redefine them. Instead, we should allow these time stamps to shape our prophetic model.

From Now (on)

Our first time stamp is the phrase “from now (on).” It occurs twice in Matt 26 and shows the pivotal nature of what Jesus was about to do. Both occurrences involve the kingdom of God.

Clear Context(s)

The non-prophetic meaning of this phrase is clear. Jesus used it when he instituted the Lord’s Supper.² He said, “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now (Gk. ap’ arti) on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matt 26:29).

The Jews had celebrated Passover for 1,500 years. Jesus was transforming it into the Lord’s Supper (Matt 26:17–28; cp. 1 Cor 11:23–26).

This was a crucial change. Beyond this point—“from now on”—Jesus would not take the Lord’s Supper with his disciples as he was now doing. He would no longer eat with them “in His humiliation” (Acts 8:33). The meaning of this phrase here is not controversial. 

We will make a few observations about the second part of this verse. Jesus said he would “drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

To better understand Jesus’s meaning, let’s remember the typology God built into Israel’s history. Moses instituted the Passover the night before Israel’s Exodus from Egypt. This was a unique celebration of the Passover. It was the only time Israel would celebrate this feast as slaves. 

From then on, they would celebrate it as God’s redeemed people (e.g., Deut 7:8). They would do so in the wilderness for forty years (i.e., one generation). They would then continue to do so in the Promised Land. That was the type (cp. 1 Cor 10:6, 11). 

Now, Jesus was fulfilling the antitype. He was instituting the Lord’s Supper the night before his crucifixion. The next day Jesus saved his people through his Exodus (cp. Matt 1:21 and the Greek of Luke 9:31).

From that point on, Jesus’s disciples would celebrate the Supper as the “Redeemed of the Lord” (Isa 62:12) in the kingdom of God. They would observe it in the “last days” of the Mosaic age. This lasted forty years (i.e., one generation) from AD 30 to AD 70. After the Temple’s fall, they continued to take the Lord’s Supper in the messianic-age kingdom (Matt 24:1–3, 34). These events fulfilled the typology.

After Passion week, Jesus communed with his disciples “in a new way” (Matt 26:29 HCSB). He was no longer in the body of his humiliation. They were no longer the slaves of sin and death. The kingdom of God had come.

The meaning “from now (on)” points to this profound “last days” transition point.

Prophetic Contexts

We should not change the meaning of this phrase in prophetic contexts. 

Let’s consider two such passages. One occurs in our present chapter: “Jesus said to him, It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter (Gk. ap’ arti) you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming (Gk. erchomai) on the clouds of heaven” (Matt 26:64). 

A recent post (here) showed that “the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power” refers to Jesus’s kingdom reign. Jesus said the disciples would see that reign “from now on.”³ That reign began in the “last days” of the Mosaic age and continues to this day.

So far, so good. 

But the rest of this verse makes some Bible students uncomfortable. Jesus said the disciples would see the Son of Man on his throne. They would also see “the Son of Man … coming on the clouds of heaven.” 

We must not divorce these two things. The same disciples who saw Jesus reigning “from now on” would also see him coming. 

Inmillennialism says this “coming” refers to an event in the disciples’ generation. Jesus had just taught this same truth in the Olivet Discourse. On Tuesday of Passion Week, he said the disciples would “see the Son of Man coming” in their generation (Matt 24:30, 34).

“From now on” (or “hereafter”) means the disciples’ immediate future in Matt 26:29. It has the same meaning in Matt 26:64b.

Revelation supplies our second example of this time stamp in a prophetic context. “Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on (Gk. ap’ arti)” (Rev 14:13). 

This “from now on” comes after (or at least during) the “great tribulation.” During this period, the Lamb (i.e., Jesus) delivers “one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads” (Rev 14:1). This phrase—“from now on”—also follows the announcement that “Babylon is fallen” (Rev 14:8).

This creates the following sequence:

Great tribulation —> Fall of Babylon —> Better death “from now on.”

Most prophetic models teach these events are in our future. One writer says the 144,000 in Rev 14:1 “is the same group mentioned in [Rev 7:4–8], except that here they are in a later period of the Tribulation. Chronologically the vision anticipates the triumph of the 144,000 still intact at the time of Jesus Christ’s return from heaven to earth.”⁴ He says the “great tribulation” is a future event.

Another writer says the Babylon of Rev 14:8 represents “the world as center of seduction.”⁵ This “Babylon” will one day fall.

But such future-oriented interpretations create a problem. How do these events improve the death of God’s saints? Will saints who die after some future event(s) experience a more blessed death than we?

One writer answers in the affirmative. He says, “This beatitude … is pronounced primarily upon those who are about to suffer martyrdom, not upon the saints in general.”⁶ 

There is no hint of this qualification in the passage. The blessing is to those who believe the gospel among all nations (Rev 14:6), not to a select few after some future event.

Inmillennialism says this beatitude is to the saints in general. The “great tribulation” was a first-century event (Matt 24:21, 34) that flowed from Christ’s enthronement. Babylon represents apostate Jerusalem, whom Jesus judged in his generation (Matt 23:36–37). 

These events started the messianic age. Now, saints go to be with the Lord at death (2 Cor 5:8). They live and reign with him (Rev 20:4). John was saying, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” He meant the dead who die in the new age. 

This understanding allows “from now on” in Rev 14:13 to keep a meaning similar to what it had in Matt 26:29.

Immediately

Our second time stamp is the word “immediately.” We will be brief.

Clear Context(s)

The meaning of this word is clear in Matt 26’s non-prophetic contexts. Speaking of Judas’s betrayal, Matthew says, “Immediately (Gk. eutheōs) he went up to Jesus and said, Greetings, Rabbi! and kissed Him” (Matt 26:49). Later that night, Peter also betrayed the Lord. “Immediately (Gk. eutheōs) a rooster crowed” (Matt 26:74). It means “shortly, soon.”⁷

Prophetic Contexts

Things get more complicated in prophetic contexts. The Olivet Discourse provides one. Jesus said, “Immediately (Gk. eutheōs) after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Matt 24:29). 

Jesus had mentioned days of tribulation three times earlier in his Discourse: Matt 24:9, Matt 24:21, and Matt 24:22. He said the cosmic collapse would occur “immediately after the tribulation of those days.”

Most prophetic commentators believe this cosmic collapse is a physical event in our future. They also believe Jesus spoke, at least in part, of tribulations in his generation. But their prophetic models cannot allow the cosmic collapse to “immediately” follow those tribulations.

For example, D. A. Carson says “immediately” in Matt 24:29 is a “reference back to the [tribulation] of [Matt 24:9, 22], not to the ‘great distress’ of [Matt 15–21].”⁸

 So, Carson applies “immediately” to the first and third mentions of tribulation, but not to the second. He then reverses the order of the second and third instances and inserts an entire (unmentioned) age between them!

According to this scheme, “those days” of Matt 24:22 come before the “great tribulation” of Matt 24:21. And, the entire messianic age intervenes. This produces the following sequence:

“Those days” of tribulation (Matt 24:9, 22) —> the messianic age (not mentioned) —> the “great tribulation” (Matt 24:21) —> cosmic collapse (Matt 24:29)

There is nothing in the text that justifies this rearrangement and insertion.

Inmillennialism makes these moves unnecessary. The tribulations of Matt 24:9 are among the signs that do not point to the end of the Mosaic age (Matt 24:6). The “great tribulation” of Matt 24:21 is identical to “those days” of Matt 24:22. They refer to the 3-1/2 years of the Jewish wars leading up to the Temple’s fall in AD 70.

The cosmic collapse of Matt 24:29 is standard prophetic imagery for God’s judgment of a nation. Jesus applied it to the end of the Mosaic age when God took the kingdom from Israel after the flesh and gave it to Israel after the Spirit (Matt 21:43). This followed “immediately” after Israel’s “great tribulation.”

In inmillennialism, the sequence follows the text:

Preliminary tribulations (Matt 24:9) —> The “great tribulation” (Matt 24:21) —> “Those days” of tribulation (Matt 24:22) —> the “immediate” cosmic collapse (i.e., Israel’s destruction; Matt 24:29).

All of these occurred in Jesus’s generation (Matt 24:34). So, the word “immediately” (Gk. eutheōs) means the same in Matt 24:29 as it does in Matt 26:49 and Matt 26:74.

Conclusion

Inmillennialism allows the time stamps “at hand,” “an hour,” “a little (time),” “from now on,” and “immediately” to retain their usual meanings in prophetic contexts. Other prophetic models require unnatural, unintuitive, and unsupported interpretations of these chronological markers.

Jesus “offered one sacrifice for sins forever, [then] sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool” (Heb 10:12–13). This began a series of transitional events that ended the Mosaic age and began the messianic age. These events happened in Jesus’s generation.

We need to ensure that our prophetic model does not distort the word of God regarding these time stamps.

1. A. T. Robertson, A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ (New York: Harper, 1922), 185–214.
2. The image in this post is The Last Supper by Juan de Juanes (circa 1562). This file (here) is in the public domain (PD-US).
3. William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1973), 405.
4. John F. Walvoord, “Revelation,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1985), 2:964.
5. William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1939), 186.
6. George Eldon Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 198. Emphasis added.
7. Joseph Thayer and James Strong, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Coded With Strong’s Concordance Numbers (Milford, MI: Mott Media, 1982), 258.
8. D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in Matthew, Mark, Luke, vol. 8 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 504.