Written criticism – This generation will not pass away until all this comes to pass
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III explained that Christ’s saying, “Truly I tell you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled,” refers not to the Second Coming, but to the destruction of Jerusalem.
He noted that in Mark 13 and Matthew 24, the Lord spoke two interwoven prophecies—one about Jerusalem’s fall and the other about His second coming. The overlap between them sometimes causes confusion.
When Jesus said that “this generation shall not pass,” He was referring to the prophecies of Jerusalem’s destruction, which were fulfilled in A.D. 70 when the Roman general Titus destroyed the city, about 36 years after the Crucifixion—exactly within that generation.
By contrast, the passages that mention the sun darkening, stars falling, and the sign of the Son of Man appearing in heaven clearly describe the final coming of Christ at the end of time.
Pope Shenouda also explained that phrases like “till the Son of Man comes” sometimes signify a figurative coming—Christ’s unseen coming in judgment upon Jerusalem.
He concluded that the Lord’s words are perfectly accurate: Christ spoke of two distinct comings—the first symbolic and judicial, fulfilled in Jerusalem’s destruction, and the second glorious and eternal, still to come.
