What Does Mark 13:30 Mean?
Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things come to be.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.THE KEY
The Greek repeats one seed in “generation” and “be done”: the generation does not pass until all these things come to be.
THE MEANING
This saying speaks now as a boundary on waiting: the generation named here does not pass before all these things come to be. The sentence ties a generation’s passing to the completion of what is in view, so its horizon is not left open-ended.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the things named here may remain indefinitely unfinished as the generation in view passes away.
THE ROOT
γενεά
genea
GROWS FROM
γεν-
gen-
Be born; come into being.
The sentence echoes this seed in γενεά (genea, generation) and γένηται (genētai, come to be). English makes “generation” and “be done” sound unrelated, while the Greek binds the generation’s passing to all that comes into being.
ALSO GROWS
ginomai: Become, happen, come to be.
γίνομαι
“Be done” translates γένηται, a form of this verb, echoing the root in “generation.”
genos: Kind, lineage, offspring.
γένος
This branch shows how generation can name a people or lineage as well as a span of time.
genesis: Birth, origin, coming into being.
γένεσις
It carries the same seed of coming into existence that the verse repeats in “be done.”
THE PATTERN
A spoken word has a set horizon: what it announces comes to completion.
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and at the end it will breathe and not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it. Because it will surely come, it will not stay behind.Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass by, until all things come to be.THE THREAD
So also you, when you see these things coming to be, know that it is near, even at the doors.The previous verse uses the same γίνομαι (ginomai, come to be) root when it says these things “come to pass.” The Greek links their visible unfolding to the boundary in this verse: what you see coming to be is what the generation’s passing waits on.
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