What is Matthew 24 about?

It is Jesus' answer, given on the Mount of Olives, to a question from his disciples about when the temple would be destroyed and what would signal the end of the age. It is usually called the Olivet Discourse.

Has Matthew 24 already been fulfilled?

Preterists say most or all of it was fulfilled in the Jewish war of AD 66 to 70. Futurists say the central section is still ahead. Historicists spread it across church history, and idealists read it as a recurring pattern rather than dated events.

What is the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24:15?

The phrase comes from Daniel. Its historical pattern is Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrating the temple in 167 BC. Readers differ over whether Jesus pointed to the Roman armies of AD 70, a future figure in a rebuilt temple, or a power in church history.

What does this generation shall not pass mean in Matthew 24:34?

The Greek genea normally means the people alive at one time. Preterists take it as Jesus' own contemporaries, futurists as the generation that sees the final signs, and some read it as the Jewish people enduring to the end.

Do Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 say the same thing?

They overlap closely, but Luke 21:20 says "Jerusalem compassed with armies" where Matthew 24:15 says "the abomination of desolation", and that difference carries much of the argument between the readings.

Matthew 24 Explained, Verse by Verse, in Every Major Reading

Matthew 24 is fifty-one verses long, and Christians have been reading it in four recognisable ways for centuries. The disagreement is almost never about what the words say. It is about where on a timeline each section belongs.

Here is the short version. Preterists place most of the chapter in the past, in the Jewish war that ended with the burning of Jerusalem in AD 70. Futurists place the central sections still ahead of us. Historicists spread the chapter across the whole of church history. Idealists read it as a description of the age rather than a schedule of dated events. Below is the chapter in order, with each section marked for how the four take it.

The four readings, defined once

Preterist, from the Latin praeter, "past". Partial preterists, including R.C. Sproul in The Last Days According to Jesus and Kenneth Gentry, read the discourse as fulfilled in AD 70 while keeping the final return of Christ future. Full preterists put everything in the first century.

Futurist. The central sections describe events still to come. Dispensational futurists such as John Walvoord and J. Dwight Pentecost map the chapter onto Daniel's seventieth week.

Historicist. The chapter unfolds progressively across church history. This was the majority Protestant approach for centuries and survives today chiefly among Seventh-day Adventists.

Idealist, also called the symbolic or timeless view. The passage describes what the whole age between Christ's comings looks like. William Hendriksen's More Than Conquerors is the standard example.

The whole chapter at a glance

Section	Preterist	Futurist	Historicist	Idealist
vv 1-3, the question	Past	Two questions, one past one future	Past, opening a long span	Framing device
vv 4-14, birth pangs	Past, before AD 70	Future, first half of the seven years	The whole church age	Every age
vv 15-22, abomination	Past, AD 66-70	Future, a rebuilt temple	Church history, papal era	Any desecrating power
vv 23-28, false christs	Past	Future	Recurring	Every age
vv 29-31, the coming	Past, as judgement imagery	Future, visible return	v 29 past, vv 30-31 future	Future return
vv 32-35, this generation	Jesus' contemporaries	The final generation	The generation seeing the signs	Humanity, or the wicked
vv 36-44, no one knows	Applies then	Applies now	Applies now	Applies always
vv 45-51, the servant	Same for all four	Same	Same	Same

Verses 1 to 3: the question

Jesus leaves the temple, says not one stone will be left on another, and on the Mount of Olives the disciples ask him privately: "when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"

"End of the world" translates sunteleia tou aiōnos, the completion of the age. Preterists say the disciples asked one question about one thing, the end of the temple order, and Jesus answered it. Futurists hear two questions, one about the temple and one about a later coming, and say Jesus answers them in turn. That single decision about the question shapes everything that follows.

Verses 4 to 14: the birth pangs

False christs, wars and rumours of wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecution, betrayal, cooling love, and the gospel preached in all the world.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Matthew 24:6

Preterist: past. Every item is documented before AD 70. Acts 11:28 records a famine under Claudius, Josephus records messianic claimants, and Paul writes in Colossians 1:23 that the gospel "was preached to every creature which is under heaven". Futurist: future. The list runs item for item alongside the seals of Revelation 6, and belongs to the first half of the seven years. Historicist: the church age, running from the apostles to the present. Idealist: always. Jesus is describing the permanent conditions of the age, which is why he says the end is not yet.

Verses 15 to 22: the abomination of desolation

The phrase is borrowed from Daniel, and its historical pattern is Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who desecrated the temple in 167 BC. Jesus tells those in Judaea to flee to the mountains when they see it.

Reading	What stands in the holy place	When
Preterist	Roman armies surrounding the city, or the Zealots occupying the temple during the revolt	AD 66-70
Futurist	A future figure enthroning himself in a rebuilt temple, as in 2 Thessalonians 2:4	Still ahead
Historicist	An ecclesiastical power claiming the place of Christ, usually dated 538 to 1798	Church history
Idealist	Whatever profanes what is holy, in any century	Recurring

Two pieces of evidence carry most of the weight here. Luke's parallel replaces the phrase with "when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies" (Luke 21:20), which preterists treat as Luke explaining Matthew. And Eusebius records that Christians fled Jerusalem to Pella before the siege, which reads like obedience to verse 16, though historians still argue about that tradition.

Verses 23 to 28: false christs and secret chambers

Jesus warns that impostors will do signs and wonders, and that his own coming will not be hidden.

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Matthew 24:27

All four readings agree on the force of this: a coming that has to be reported to you is not the one Jesus described. Preterists apply it to first-century claimants. Futurists apply it to the end. Idealists apply it to every generation. It is one of the few places where the four barely differ.

Verses 29 to 31: the sun darkened and the Son of man

This is where the readings separate most sharply. Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun goes dark, the stars fall, the Son of man appears in the clouds, and angels gather the elect with a trumpet.

Preterist: past. Darkened sun and falling stars are standard Old Testament idiom for the collapse of a political order. Isaiah 13:10 uses it of Babylon and Ezekiel 32:7 of Egypt, neither literally. On this reading, Daniel 7:13 has the Son of man coming to the Ancient of Days rather than to earth, so the "coming" is an enthronement and a judgement on Jerusalem.

Futurist: future and literal. The order of the verse governs the whole rapture debate: the gathering happens after the tribulation.

Historicist: verse 29 has already occurred, in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the Dark Day of 19 May 1780 and the meteor storm of 13 November 1833, with verses 30 and 31 still ahead.

Idealist: the language is symbolic but the event is real, the actual return at the end of the age.

Verses 32 to 35: the fig tree and this generation

Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Matthew 24:34

This verse is the hinge of the chapter. Genea, generation, normally means the people alive at one time, and it is used that way elsewhere in Matthew.

Preterists take it plainly: Jesus meant his own hearers, so the things described happened to them. Futurists take "this generation" as the generation that sees the signs of verses 15 to 29, which is future. An older futurist option reads genea as race or people, the Jews preserved to the end. Idealists read it as the persistent unbelieving generation.

Whichever way you go, verse 34 has to be paid for somewhere: either the events are past, or the generation is not the one standing there.

Verses 36 to 44: no man knows the day

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Matthew 24:36

Every reading agrees that this rules out date-setting. There is one genuine difference worth knowing. In verses 40 and 41 one is taken and one is left. Futurists commonly read the taking as the rapture. Preterists and many others read it against verse 39, where the flood "took them all away", and conclude that being taken is the judgement and being left is the rescue.

Verses 45 to 51: the faithful and evil servant

The chapter ends with a household steward who either feeds his master's household or beats his fellow servants while the master delays. Here the four readings converge completely. The point is not chronology but conduct in the interval, however long the interval turns out to be.

That convergence is the honest bottom line of Matthew 24. Four serious traditions place the events in four different centuries and arrive at the same instruction, which suggests the chapter was built to survive being read from anywhere in history.

The work worth doing next is not deciding who wins, but reading the chapter slowly enough to see what it actually says before the schemes arrive, and knowing which scheme is speaking when a teacher explains it to you.