In Matthew 16:28, was Jesus promising that he would return in the time of his followers?

Question

Well, sorry if my question is dumb, but I'd like to know if my question is true or it's more a question of interpretation. Anyway, if it's true how would this impact on the rest of New Testament?

Passages: Matthew 16:28, Luke 9:27, Mark 9:1. I also have some parts that aren't exactly passages but may someone know:

• Mark: Jesus berates his apostles in a house in Jerusalem and ascends to heaven.
• Matthew: Jesus sends two women to tell his apostles to go to Galilee, which they do, a three-day walk from Jerusalem.
• Luke: Jesus meets two disciples who take him to the apostle, then he leads them out to Bethany and ascends to heaven. On the same day, he leaves the tomb.
• John: Jesus meets his apostles in Jerusalem, then they all go to Galilee. No ascent to heaven is mentioned.
• Acts: Jesus tells his apostles to not leave Jerusalem and stays with them 40 days, then ascends to heaven.

Obs. : That's not my true opinion on it, but a guy brought it up in a conversation and now I'm interested.

Matthew 16:28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Luke 9:27 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

Mark 9:1 And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

Answer 1

From the context, in verse 24, it is evident that the people who were "standing there" and to whom he was speaking included the twelve disciples. So it isn't a stretch to understand verse 28 to be saying that some of the twelve would still be alive when Jesus returned in the glory of his Father (IE: God) with God's angels, in judgment.

That is not theology or eisegesis, strictly extremely simple exegesis.

So yes, Jesus unambiguously provided the disciples a promise that the arrival of the Kingdom of God and the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple and the Sinai covenant based Jewish theocracy would occur within the lifetime of some of the twelve.

Jesus made many other similar time promises:

[Matthew 12:41-42 NASB20] (41) "The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, [something] greater than Jonah is here. (42) "[The] Queen of [the] South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, [something] greater than Solomon is here.

[Matthew 24:34 NASB20] (34) "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

[Mark 13:30 NASB20] (30) "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

[Luke 11:29-32, 51 NASB20] (29) Now as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "This generation is a wicked generation; it demands a sign, and [so] no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. (30) "For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. (31) "The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, [something] greater than Solomon is here. (32) "The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, [something] greater than Jonah is here. ... (51) from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house [of God;] yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.'

[Luke 17:25 NASB20] (25) "But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

[Revelation 3:11 NASB20] (11) 'I am coming quickly; hold firmly to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

[Revelation 22:7, 20 NASB20] (7) "And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." ... (20) He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

[Revelation 2:16 NASB20] (16) 'Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will wage war against them with the sword of My mouth.

And we see it promised elsewhere:

[Matthew 3:10-12 NKJV] (10) "And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (11) "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (12) "His winnowing fan [is] in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

The promised destruction of the Temple, Jerusalem and the Jewish theocracy were, in fact, accomplished c. 70 AD/CE in the form of the horrific nightmare seven year war with Rome.

Related:

https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/a/29271/20832

Answer 2

how would this impact on the rest of New Testament ?

I'll concentrate on this question only.

On one occasion, in John 21:

20 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) 21When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

22Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” 23Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

Jesus did not say that John would or would not remain alive because only the Father knows when is Jesus' 2nd coming.

On another occasion in Act 1:

3After his [Jesus] suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. ...

6Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

As far as we are concerned, our responsibility is to spread the good news.

Answer 3

It is very easy to misunderstand not only the verses quoted by Marcozs, but also other verses, which may give the impression that "the Son of Man coming in his kingdom" was seen as imminent by Jesus.

Let's concentrate on Matthew.

Three verses of Matthew on the Coming of the Son of Man

1. "I tell you the truth, there are some standing here who will not experience death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matt 16:28)

Jesus knows what lies ahead for him, so much so that, immediately after Peter has proclaimed that he is the Messiah, he bids all present to total silence, announces that his way will be, contrary to common Messianic expectations (not Isaiah's prophecies of the Suffering "Servant of the LORD", though, see Isaiah 42:1-7; 49:1-13; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12 ...) the way of persecution, of the cross, of an ignominious death.

It is as some sort of compensation for the fact that the First Coming will not satisfy the Messianic expectations (or rather it will satisfy them in a paradoxical, totally unexpected way) that Jesus, as a support for the faith of the "Columns of the Church", Peter, James and John, takes them with himself and lets them partake of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13; cp. Mark 9:2-13, Luke 9:28-36)

The Transfiguration is a foretaste of the Second Coming.

2. "Whenever they persecute you in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes." (Matt 10:23)

This is before Peter's Messianic Confession at Caesarea Philippi. "Son of Man" is an expression which is used in the Gospels and Acts as may times as Messiah or Christ (79 times). Besides, while Jesus often openly refers to himself as the "Son of man", he never openly refers to himself as the Messiah/Christ, other than on two occasions only: once in private, in front of the Samaritan woman (John 4:25-26); the second, and dramatically decisive one, in front of Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:63-64), when he identified himself as the Messiah/Christ and, at the same time implied clearly that the expression "Son of man" was not generic or obscure, but made reference precisely to the messianic figure of the "Son of man" of Daniel 7:13-14.

The Messiah/Christ and the "Son of man" are one and the same.

3. "I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." (Matt 24:34)

The original Greek translated with the English "this generation" is γενεα αυτη (genea autē), where autē does NOT mean "this one here, in front of me" BUT "this same one", viz. that will witness all the signs that I have spoken about and in particular the signs of The Arrival of the Son of Man (Matt 24:29-31)

The Second Coming will happen within the span of a generation from the signs that announce it.