Matthew 10:23 – ‘Before the Son of Man comes’
This entry is part 30 of 90 in the series: Troublesome texts
- Genesis 1:26 – Why a plural name for God?
- Genesis 3 – traditional and revisionist readings
- Genesis 5 – the ages of the antedeluvians
- Genesis 6:1f – ‘The sons of God’
- Genesis 6-8 – A worldwide flood?
- Genesis 12:3 – ‘I will bless those who bless you’
- Genesis 22 – “Abraham, kill your son”
- Exodus – Who hardened Pharaoh’s heart?
- Exodus 12:37 – How many Israelites left Egypt?
- Joshua 6 – the fall of Jericho
- Joshua 10 – Joshua’s ‘long day’
- Judges 19:11-28 – The priest and the concubine
- 2 Sam 24:1, 1 Chron 21:1 – Who incited David?
- 1 Kings 20:30 – ‘The wall collapsed on 27,000 of them’
- Psalm 105:15 – ‘Touch not my anointed’
- Psalm 137:8f – ‘Happy is he who dashes your infants against the rocks’
- Isaiah 7:14/Matthew 1:23 – “The virgin will conceive”
- Daniel 7:13 – ‘Coming with the clouds of heaven’
- Jonah – history or fiction?
- Mt 1:1-17 and Lk 3:23-38 – the genealogies of Jesus
- Matthew 2:1 – ‘Magi from the east’
- Matthew 2:2 – The star of Bethlehem
- Matthew 2:8f – Can God speak through astrology?
- Matthew 2:23 – ‘Jesus would be called a Nazarene’
- Matthew 5:21f – Did Jesus reject the Old Testament?
- Matthew 7:16,20 – ‘You will recognise them by their fruit’
- Matthew 8:5/Luke 7:3 – Who asked Jesus to help?
- Matthew 8:5/Luke 7:7 – son? servant? male lover?
- Matthew 8:28 – Gadara or Gerasa?
- Matthew 10:23 – ‘Before the Son of Man comes’
- Matthew 11:12 – Forceful entry, or violent opposition, to the kingdom?
- Matthew 12:40 – Three days and three nights
- The Parable of the Sower – return from exile?
- Mt 15:21-28/Mk 7:24-30 – Jesus and the Canaanite woman
- Matthew 18:10 – What about ‘guardian angels’?
- Matthew 18:20 – ‘Where two or three are gathered…’
- Matthew 16:18 – Peter the rock?
- Matthew 21:7 – One animal or two?
- Matthew 24:34 – This generation will not pass away?
- Matthew 25:40 – ‘These brothers of mine’
- Matthew 27:46/Mark 15:34 – Jesus’ cry of dereliction
- Matthew 27:52f – Many bodies raised?
- Mark 1:41 – ‘Compassion’, or ‘anger/indignation’?
- Mark 2:25f – ‘When Abiathar was high priest’
- Mark 4:31 – ‘The smallest of all the seeds’?
- Mark 6:45 – ‘To Bethsaida’
- Mark 12:41-44/Luke 21:1-4 – ‘The widow’s mite’
- Luke 2:1f – Quirinius and ‘the first registration’
- Luke 2:7 – ‘No room at the inn’
- Luke 2:8 – Shepherds: a despised class?
- Luke 4:16-19 – An incomplete quotation?
- Luke 7:2 – ‘Highly valued servant’ or ‘gay lover’?
- John 1:1 – ‘The Word was God’
- John 2:6 – symbol or history?
- John 2:12 – Did Mary bear other children?
- When did Jesus cleanse the Temple?
- John 3:16f – What is meant by ‘the world’?
- John 4:44 – ‘His own country’
- John 7:53-8:11 – The woman caught in adultery
- John 14:6 – “No one comes to the Father except through me”
- John 14:12 – ‘Greater deeds’
- John 20:21 – “Just as the Father has sent me, I also send you.”
- Acts 5:1-11 – Ananias and Sapphira
- Romans 1:5 – ‘The obedience of faith’
- Romans 1:18 – Wrath: personal or impersonal?
- Rom 3:22; Gal 2:16 – faith in, or faithfulness of Christ?
- Romans 5:18 – ‘Life for all?’
- Rom 7:24 – Who is the ‘wretched man’?
- Romans 11:26a – ‘And so all Israel will be saved’
- 1 Corinthians 14:34 – ‘Women should be silent in the churches’
- 1 Corinthians 15:29 – ‘Baptized for the dead’
- 1 Corinthians 15:44 – ‘Raised a spiritual body’
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 – ‘God made Christ to be sin for us’
- Galatians 3:17 – How much later?
- Galatians 3:28 – ‘Neither male nor female’
- Galatians 6:2 – ‘The law of Christ’
- Galatians 6:16 – The Israel of God
- Ephesians 1:10 – ‘The fullness of the times’
- Ephesians 5:23- ‘The head of a wife is her husband’
- Colossians 1:19f – Universal reconciliation?
- 1 Thessalonians 2:14f – ‘The Jews, who killed Jesus’
- 1 Timothy 2:4 – ‘God wants all people to be saved’
- 1 Timothy 2:15 – ‘Saved through child-bearing’
- 1 Timothy 4:10 – ‘The Saviour of all people’
- Hebrews 6:4-6 – Who are these people?
- Hebrews 12:1 – Who are these witnesses?
- 1 Peter 3:18-20 – Christ and the spirits in prison
- 2 Peter 3:9 – ‘The Lord wishes all to come to repentance’
- Jude 7 – ‘Unnatural desire’
- Revelation 14:11 – ‘No rest day or night’
Matthew 10:23 – “I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
What does ‘before the Son of Man comes’ mean?
Mistaken expectation? According to Mounce, Albert Schweitzer based his entire scheme of thoroughgoing eschatology on this verse. He held that Jesus thought that the mission of the Twelve would bring in the kingdom. He was disappointed when it did not turn out that way. Later Jesus attempted to bring in the kingdom by his own vicarious suffering. That was his final disappointment (Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, pp. 358–63).’ Even Hagner entertains the possibility that Jesus assumed that the parousia was in the near future, and that he was proved wrong. He suggests that this view has the benefit of taking into account ‘Jesus’ full humanity and his own self-confessed ignorance about the time of his parousia (Mt 24:36).’
Post-resurrection exaltation? Tasker (followed by Mounce) says that the verse is best understood ‘with reference to the coming of the Son of Man in triumph after His resurrection.’
Destruction of Jerusalem? Carson (EBC) says that this verse is one of the most difficult in the entire NT. He understands the coming of the Son of Man as ‘his coming in judgment against the Jews, culminating in the sack of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple.’ After considering a range of alternatives, Hagner decides in favour of this interpretation. Barnes took this view also, citing Mt 24:30; Mk 13:26; Lk 21:27, 32 in support.
The end of the age? Blomberg thinks that this is ‘a reference to the perpetually incomplete Jewish mission, in keeping with Matthew’s emphasis on Israel’s obduracy. Christ will return before his followers have fully evangelized the Jews. But they must keep at it throughout the entire church age.’ Wilkins takes a similar view.
Non-specific fulfilment? France acknowledges that, for many readers, the idea of ‘the Son of Man coming’ would be suggestive of Christ’s Second Coming. Referring to Dan 7:13 as the source of this and the other ‘Son of Man’ sayings (see esp. Mt 10:23; 16:27–28; 19:28; 24:30; 25:31; 26:64; 28:18), France notes that in Dan 7:13f the Son of Man ‘comes’ before God (not to earth) in order to be enthroned as king.
France further argues that this ‘coming’ does not refer to any specific historical event, but is, rather, evocative of Christ’s ‘eventual vindication and sovereign authority’. Thus, it can refer to various stages of his exaltation, beginning with his resurrection and the generation immediately following, Mt 16:28; 24:34; 26:64; 28:18, and culminating in his parousia Mt 19:28; 25:31.
It seems less clear to France where this present saying fits into the trajectory. His ‘best guess’ is that ‘the coming of the Son of Man’ here refers to that time when Christ’s mission is extended from the boundaries of Israel to ‘all nations’.
Prophetic foreshortening? Hendriksen thinks that our Lord may have in view both his resurrection and his coming at the end of the age. The two events mark the beginning and the culmination of God’s decisive intervention in human history. Bewes (The Top 100 Questions, p256) offers this paraphrase: ‘When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for I solemnly assure you that the time is short – you won’t get through all the towns of Israel before the event of my coming in glory gets initiated. The whole process is just about to start!’