Verily I say unto you, &c.— A late writer, whose criticism is at least ingenious, observes, that "this clause, of the prediction has not merely been generally misapprehended, but moreover falsely translated; and this is the opinion of men who holdthefirstrankinscripturalcriticism,namely, of Mede, Wolfius, Brenius, Markius, Sykes, &c. A Mr. Hayne had applied this part of our Lord's prophesy to the destruction of Jerusalem: Mr. Mede replies to him, 'I answer, first, while you endeavour in this manner to establish a ground for the first coming of Christ, you bereave the church of those principal passages of the scripture, whereon she hath always grounded her faith of the second coming. Secondly, you ground all this upon the ambiguity of the word generation; whereas the word γενεα signifies not only an age, but a people, a nation, a progeny, and so ought to be here taken; viz.—the nation of the Jews should not perish, till all these things were fulfilled.—Chrysostome among the ancients,* and Flaccius Illyricus (a man well skilled in the style of scripture) among the moderns, and those who follow them, might have admonished others to take the word γενεα in this acceptation, rather than, by turning it into an age or generation, to put this prophesy in little-ease, and the whole harmony of scripture out of frame, by I know not what confused interpretation.' I only add, that Dr. Sykes declares himself the more confirmed in this translation, 'from the remarkable, and, indeed, unparalleled, preservation of the Jews in the midst of hatred and continual persecutions.' The meaning then is, The Jewish nation shall assuredly subsist as a distinct people, till all that has been previously mentioned shall have been fulfilled, not only during the most corrupt period of the church, but until the antichristian governments of the world shall have been dissolved, and the religion of Jesus shall have begun to shine with its perfect brightness. And what is there in the existing circumstances of the world, or of the Jews, which contradicts this assertion, or renders it incapable of being verified?"
* "Indeed by the Fathers in general, who may be admitted to have been competent judges of the meaning of the word, γενεα was not understood as signifying the generation then living. Some persons, however, there were, who held this opinion; but, says Maldonatus, Origen entitles them simplices."
"The language of Christ is expressed with all possible strength. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away: that is, says Bishop Newton, 'Heaven and earth shall sooner or more easily pass away; the frame of the universe shall sooner or more easily be dissolved, than my words not be fulfilled.' And surely the prediction of the Jews remaining as a separate people was a fact of sufficient importance,andsufficientlyinterestingtothepersonswhomourLordwasaddressing, to account why he annexed it to an affirmation thus striking and solemn."