The Verse That Sounds Like a Mistake
Jesus is sending the Twelve out on a mission to the towns of Israel. He warns them they will be hated, beaten, and dragged before governors. Then he says something that has troubled readers for two thousand years: “When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 10:23). On its surface, this sentence seems to predict that Jesus will return in glory before the apostles finish a single missionary tour of Galilee. Skeptics seize on this verse as proof that Jesus was a failed prophet. The Greek, however, tells a different story.
Two Greek Words for “Coming”
Matthew is precise. When he describes the final, world-ending return of Christ at the Last Day, he uses the noun parousia, the technical term for the royal arrival of a king. Matthew 24:27, 24:37, and 24:39 all use parousia for the Second Coming. In Matthew 10:23, however, the word for “comes” is the verb erchomai, in the aorist subjunctive elthē. This is the standard biblical word for God’s temporal visitations in judgment: the way the Old Testament prophets speak of the Lord “coming” against a city or a nation. Matthew chose his vocabulary deliberately. The Son of Man’s parousia is one event; his coming in temporal judgment is something else altogether.
What Did Jesus Mean? Four Readings
| Interpretation | What It Teaches | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Jesus was wrong (skeptical) | Jesus genuinely expected the world to end within his apostles’ lifetimes and was simply mistaken. The Gospel writers preserved his error. | Rejected. The Greek deliberately uses two different words for two different kinds of “coming.” The verse cannot mean what skeptics claim. |
| Judgment on Jerusalem (AD 70) | “Coming” refers to Christ’s temporal visitation in judgment when Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. The prophecy was fulfilled within that generation. | Strongly favored. Concordia Commentary; matches the Greek distinction and the urgent first-century mission context. |
| The unfinished mission | The mission to Israel begun in Matthew 10 is never recorded as completed. It runs through the entire Church age and ends only at Christ’s return in glory. | Plausible. International Critical Commentary; resolves the timeline by extending the mission rather than redefining the “coming.” |
| Luther’s reading | “Until the Son of Man comes” refers to Christ’s final return at the Last Day. The verse describes the worldwide preaching of the Gospel throughout the Church age. | Honored. Luther’s broader eschatological reading is consistent with the unfinished-mission view and adds pastoral depth. |
Why This Matters
Jesus was not a failed prophet. He was warning his apostles that the time was short, the persecution would be fierce, and the judgment on the nation that rejected him was already on the horizon. That judgment fell in AD 70, exactly within the lifetime of that generation, when the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple to the ground. The verse also speaks beyond AD 70. The mission to preach the Gospel under persecution is never recorded as finished. It continues. We are still in the towns of Israel, still moving, still preaching, still fleeing when we must, until the Son of Man comes in glory at the Last Day. The urgency Jesus pressed upon the Twelve has not expired. It has been handed to us.