Meditations in Matthew Twelve: Two Ages

Commentators often say the kingdom of God is Matthew’s major theme. For example, Donald A. Hagner says,

The central emphasis of the book is found in . . . ‘the gospel of the kingdom’ (Matt 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; cf. 26:13), namely, the good news that the reign or rule of God has begun to be realized in history through the presence of Jesus Christ.¹

Matthew shows how Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecies. He initiated the messianic age and now reigns as King in it (cp. Acts 2:30–36; et al.).

But the kingdom’s initiation required Jesus to bring an end to the Mosaic age. He said he would do so before his disciples completed their mission to Israel (Matt 10:22–23).² Jesus made the timeframe clear. “Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matt 16:28).

The Lord tied the end of the Mosaic age to the Temple’s fall. When he prophesied its demise, his disciples said, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matt 24:3, NKJV; emphasis added). The Temple was the preeminent symbol of the Mosaic age. It would fall in Jesus’s generation (Matt 24:34). The disciples knew this event would mark the end of that age.

That Jesus refers to the two ages in Matthew 12 is unsurprising. Our previous posts³ have shown how they appeared in earlier passages. In our present chapter, Jesus refers to the two ages in his discussion of the unforgivable sin. He said God will not forgive blasphemy against the Holy Spirit “either in this age (Gk. aiōn) or in the age to come” (Matt 12:32, NKJV).

What is surprising is the way commentators treat this statement. One is hard pressed to find a commentary that explains how this statement relates to Matthew’s larger two-age context. Some of them ignore the time reference. Others take it to be just “a dramatic way of saying ‘never’ (as in Mark 3:29).”⁴

It is true—Jesus meant God will never forgive blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But Matthew records this statement in an age-transition context. A literal translation of the Greek shows his emphasis on this temporal setting. Jesus says, “But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the one about to come.”⁵

Inmillennialism says we should recognize the Greek word mellō in Jesus’s statement. It provides a key to understanding this passage. Sadly, most translations and commentators ignore it.

This post will discuss Matthew 12 within its age-transition context. Jesus contrasts the age then “about to come” and the one “ready to vanish away” (Heb 8:13). He does this by drawing attention to three facts: 1.) his sovereignty over the Sabbath; 2.) his source of strength, and 3.) his superiority over Solomon.

Jesus’s Sovereignty Over the Sabbath

Jesus’s conflict with the Pharisees about the Sabbath (Matt 12:1–21) lay at the heart of age transition. The Sabbath—and the Temple authorities that enforced it—were the chief symbols of the Mosaic age.

Jesus asserted his authority over these symbols. Speaking of himself, he said, “in this place is one greater than the temple” (Matt 12:6). And, “the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day” (Matt 12:8).

These fundamental facts create the backdrop for the entire New Testament. Jesus would give his life to “save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). He would rise from the dead for their justification (Rom 4:25). Then he would ascend to the Father to receive his kingdom (Dan 7:14). His return in that generation to destroy the Temple would end the Mosaic age (Matt 24:1–3, 34).

This event would complete the age transition. In the messianic age, Christ would reign in his kingdom and his presence (Gk. parousia) would abide with his churches.

At least some Jews understood the Sabbath as a symbol of the new age. Mark F. Rooker makes this observation:

The observance of the Sabbath has always been a defining law for the Jewish people. During the intertestamental period the Jews chose death rather than resisting the enemy on the Sabbath (1 Macc 2:31–38). This was because the observance of the Sabbath was viewed as “equal to all other precepts of the Torah” (Exod Rabb 25:12). Among some Jews the Sabbath day was considered a foretaste of the world to come.⁶

The Jews who saw the Sabbath as “a foretaste of the world to come” were correct. Jesus was the Lord of the Sabbath and he was about to establish the world (i.e., age) to which it pointed.

We now live in that world—the messianic age. The Sabbath was “a shadow of those things about to come”⁷ in the new age. Now, Jesus himself provides the messianic-age rest the Mosaic-age Sabbath symbolized (cp. Heb 2:5; 3:7–4:13).

Inmillennialism says Jesus completed the transition to the new age in AD 70. He exercised his sovereignty over all Mosaic-age institutions. His return brought them to an end.

Jesus’s Source of Strength

Matthew’s next section shows the Holy Spirit to be the source of Jesus’s strength (Matt 12:21–37). Jesus had come to “bind the strong man (i.e., Satan)” and “spoil his house” in the kingdom age (cp. Rev 20:2).

The apostate Jews said Jesus worked miracles “by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.” This was an impudent rejection of him as the King of the messianic age.

Jesus’s ability to fulfill this mission depended on the power of the Holy Spirit. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18).

God gave Jesus the Holy Spirit without measure (John 3:34). Then, Jesus cast out devils by the Spirit to show the kingdom had arrived (Matt 12:28). He then “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God” (Heb 9:14). And, the Spirit then raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 8:11) to reign in the new age.

The prophet Joel placed this Spirit-empowerment in the context of age transition. Through him, God said,

I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. (Joel 2:28–29)

Peter said God fulfilled this prophecy on Pentecost (Acts 2:14–21). On this day, God baptized his “holy nation” (1 Pet 2:9)—the Israel of God (Gal 6:16) —with the Holy Spirit.

Joel also foretold the judgment that would come on apostate Israel in Jesus’s generation. He records God saying,

I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. (Joel 2:30–32)

Jesus used this imagery to describe the Temple’s destruction (Matt 24:29). As we said above, this judgment would end the Mosaic age and fully establish the messianic age.⁸

The power to end the Mosaic age and carry the messianic age forward came from the Holy Spirit. Stephen rebuked the apostate Jews just before they killed him. He said, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye” (Acts 7:51; emphasis added).

So, Jesus’s messianic-age power—the Holy Spirit—triumphed over all Mosaic-age resistance. It will also triumph during the messianic age. All Christ’s enemies will become his footstool (Psa 110:1; et al.).

God would not forgive the blasphemy of the apostate Jews. Not in the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the then-present Mosaic age or in the messianic age that was about to come. That he would not forgive them in the eternal state went without saying.

Jesus’s Superiority to Solomon

The final section of this chapter (Matt 12:38–50) continues the contrast of the two ages. It does so in two ways.

First, Jesus speaks of the judgment about to fall in his generation (Matt 12:38–45). Fifteen centuries earlier, God had given Moses a song (Deut 31:19). Israel would hear it sung during their “latter days” (Deut 31:29). It would be God’s witness against them.

The song described the “last days” Jews. “They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation” (Deut 32:5).

That generation was living during Jesus’s lifetime. He said this “evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas” (Matt 12:39). Nineveh repented after hearing Jonah preach. Jesus’s generation would not do so, even though “a greater than Jonas” was there (Matt 12:41).⁹

The queen of Sheba had marveled at Solomon’s glory (Matt 12:42; cp.1 Kings 10:1–13).¹⁰ Now, Jesus—a greater King than Solomon—was present. The true Israel sang, shouted, and rejoiced because of his presence (cp. Zeph 3:14–20). Apostate Israel put him to death (cp. Psa 2:1–6).

Jesus described the judgment that would soon come on his generation (Matt 12:43–45). He had cast out “the unclean spirit” from their house. (This compares to binding the strongman in Matt 12:29.) The spirit would return with “seven other spirits more wicked than himself.” They would re-enter apostate Israel, making that nation’s last state worse than its first.

God’s judgment fell on that wicked generation in the “great tribulation” (cp. Matt 24:21, 34). This judgment ended the Mosaic age (Matt 24:1–3) in AD 70.

Jesus made a second, more subtle, reference to the two ages in this section (Matt 12:46–50). In the Mosaic age, covenant membership came through physical descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The flesh defined one’s mother, brothers, and sisters.

In the messianic age, things would be different. “The whole family in heaven and earth” (Eph 3:15) would comprise all those who were born from above. Jesus said, “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Spiritual birth replaced carnal birth.

The Mosaic age and its genealogy-based families were about to perish. In the messianic age, Jesus said: “whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matt 12:50).

Conclusion

Matthew’s emphasis on the kingdom of God led to a corresponding stress on the two ages involved. The Mosaic age had its Sabbath, Temple, ceremonies, and priesthood. These would soon vanish away. Jesus would take their place.

The old age had a law, but it was “weak through the flesh” (Rom 8:3). The new age operated through the strength of the Holy Spirit. In it, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made [us] free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2).

The old age boasted a kingly lineage. God told King Solomon, “I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee” (1 Kings 3:12). “None like thee,” that is, in the Mosaic age.

When the messianic age arrived, “a greater than Solomon” appeared. In it, Jesus is “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim 6:15; cp. Rev 17:14; 19:16). He has no rival, not even Solomon.

Let us not read our perspective into Matthew 12. The words “in this age or in the age to come” (Matt 12:32) do not refer to our age and the eternal state that follows it.¹¹ They refer to the Mosaic age and the messianic age that followed it. This is the perspective built into inmillennialism.

1. Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1–13, vol. 33A of Word Biblical Commentary ed. Bruce M. Metzger (Dallas: Word, 1995), lx.
2. See our post Meditations in Matthew Ten: The Jewish Mission.
3. See Meditations in Matthew Nine: Age Transition and Meditations in Matthew Eleven: Age Transition (again).
4. D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in vol. 8 of Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 292.
5. Kenneth S. Wuest, Expanded Translation of the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961), 30. Emphasis added. Or, “not in this the age and not in the one being about to be.”—Paul R. McReynolds, Word Study Greek-English New Testament (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1999), 30. Emphasis added.
6. Mark F. Rooker, Leviticus, vol. 3A of The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2000), 254. Emphasis added.
7. Col 2:17 in Wuest, Greek New Testament, 472.
8. The judgment portrayed by the cosmic collapse imagery occurred 40 years later. Jesus came to destroy the Temple in AD 70.
9. The New Testament refers to this generation in several places: Matt 12:39; 16:4; 17:17; 23:33; 24:34; Luke 9:41; Acts 2:40; Phil 2:15; et. al.
10. The image in this post is The Queen of Sheba before Solomon by Nikolaus Knüpfer (ca. 1609). This file (here) is in the public domain (PD-US).
11. Or, if you are premillennial, our age and the millennium that follows it.