"Forty Years of Messiah"
"The Final Generation"
JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN SOURCES POINTING TO AD70 AS THE END TIME

"forty years was I grieved with that generation.."

• Forty Years "time is running out. Could we be at the end of the forty-year grace period? Could it have started with the Six Day War back in 1967? Our rabbis teach us that that in the seventh year - the Sabbatical year - will be wars, and the year after, the Messiah will come. In our recent history, we find that the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the first and second Intifada all took place during a Sabbatical year. And now we are approaching (in late 2007) another Sabbatical year. Could this be the end of the forty-year grace period that started in '67?"

Maimonides
"Jewish writings stipulate that forty years after the coming of the Messiah there will be a resurrection of the dead, and all who are lying in dust will rise to new life." (The 13 Principles and the Resurrection of the Dead)

H.J. Schoeps (1966)
(on the traditional views concerning the length of the intermediate Messianic kingdom) "fix a very short interval for the interim period, namely, forty years (R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus; Bar in Sanh. 99a; R. Aqiba: Midr. Teh. on Ps 90:15; Tanch. Eqeb 7b, Pes. Rabb. 4a). The two Tannaites, commenting on Ps 95:7, derive this time indication from the Messianically understood v.10 (forty years I loathed that generation) and from Deut. 8:2 by a parallelization with the forty years in the desert." (Paul, p. 100)

The Talmud
"Our Rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple.. the doors of the Hekal would open by themselves, until R. Johanan b. Zakkai rebuked them, saying: Hekal, Hekal, why wilt thou be the alarmed thyself (Predict thy own destruction) ? I know about thee that thou wilt be destroyed, for Zechariah ben Ido has already prophesied concerning thee: Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars" (The Soncino Talmud, Seder Mo'ed, vol. III Toma, p. 186)

'R. Eliezer [c. 80-120 AD] said, The days of the Messiah will be forty years. ...[quoted from Everyman's Talmud, by Abraham Cohen, pub. by E.P. Dutton & Co., 1949. Page 356].

The Rebbe often quotes the Zohar to the effect that the Resurrection will take place 40 years after the advent of Mashiach. (See Igros Kodesh, Vol. II, p. 75; Sefer HaSichos 5752, Vol. I, p. 274. However, there are also other references in the sichos (e.g., Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XXVII, p. 206; Sefer HaSichos 5733, Shabbos Parshas Balak, footnote 3)

Kung and Moltman  (1994)
"The reign of Jesus, God's glorified servant, will last forty years, followed by the 'Hour,' the end of the world on the day when God alone will sit in judgment at the universal resurrected." [Hans Kung and Jurgen Moltman, eds., Islam: A Challenge for Christianity (London: SCM Press, 1994), 108]

Hal Lindsey (1970)
"A generation in the Bible is something like forty years." (The Late Great Planet Earth. p. 148)

Lohse, TDNT
"The idea of the millennium which the divine works out here is to be understood against the backdrop of the Jewish apoc. traditions that he adopts and uses. In the expectation of an intermediate Messianic kingdom which shall precede the end and the coming of the reign of God, Eth. En. 91:12f; 93:1-14; Sib., 3, 652-660; 4 Esr. 7:28f; S. Bar. 29:3; 30:1-5; 40:3, two forms of eschatological hope are combined. Acc. to the older view the Messiah will be the end-time king restoring the Davidic monarchy and raising it to new heights. In apoc., however, a very different concept of the future age of salvation develops. On this view God's envoy will appear from heaven, the dead will rise again at his coming, and all men must come before his judgment-seat. Later an attempt was made to fuse the older national concept with the universal eschatology by putting the reign of the Messiah-King before the end of the world and the beginning of the new aeon. The earthly Messianic age will be for a limited term and it will be followed by a last assault of the powers of chaos prior to the commencement of the future world." (TDNT, Vol. IX, page 470)

J. Randall Price
 "The history of mankind is traced from the Creation (1QS 4:15-17) and leads up to the eschaton or the "latter generation" or the "end-time," finally culminating in the "Latter Days" (QpHab 4:1-2, 7-8, 10-14; cf. 2:5-7). This culminating period also looks forward in its description of this age ending the era of wickedness as "the decreed epoch of new things" (1QS 4:25; cf. Dan. 9:26-27; 11:35-36; Isa. 10:23; 28:22; 43:19)." 

"The Messiah of the Dead Sea Scrolls is clearly eschatological. His coming is at "the end of days," and is royal (Davidic), priestly (Aaronic), and prophetic (Mosaic) in nature."

"In Dead Sea texts which depict this period of great spiritual declension of Israel, the apostasy is said to be spearheaded by a figure refer to as "Belial" and a "son of Belial." The term appears also in the New Testament at 2 Cor. 6:15. In other texts, this figure is called "son/man of sin" (cf. CD 6:15; 13:14; 1QS 9:16; 10:19). This expression is quite similar to an expression found in the Pauline description of the eschatological desecrator, the Antichrist, in 2 Thess. 2:3b. It is complemented by another term "son of iniquity" in 1QS 3:21, which is comparable to the phrase "the man of lawlessness" paired with "man of sin" in 2 Thess. 2:3. Even the phrase "the mystery of lawlessness," found only at 2 Thess. 2:7, has an almost identical expression at Qumran: "the mystery of iniquity" (The Eschatology of the Dead Sea Scrolls)

J.A.T. Robinson (1976)
"I believe that John represents in date, as theology, not only the omega but also the alpha of New Testament development. He bestrides the period like a colossus and marks out its span, the span that lies between two dramatic moments in Jerusalem which boldly we may date with unusual precision. The first was when, on 9 April 30, 'early on the Sunday morning, while it was still dark,' one man 'saw and believed' (Jno. 20:1-9). And the second was when, on 26 September 70, 'the dawn of the eight day of the month Gorpiaeus broke upon Jerusalem in flames.' Over those forty years, I believe, all the books of the New Testament came to completion, and during most of that period, if we are right, the Johannine literature was in the process of maturation." (p. 311)

Albert Barnes (1949)
"This generation, &c. - This age; this race of men. A generation is about thirty of forty years. The destruction of Jerusalem took place about forty years after this was spoken. See Notes on Mat. 16:28." (Notes, Matthew 24:34)

John Bunyan
"A heathenish and prodigious act; for therein he showed, not only his malice against the Jewish nation, but also against their worship, and consequently their God. An action, I say, not only heathenish, but prodigious also; for the Lord Jesus, paraphrasing upon this fact of his, teacheth the Jews, that without repentance ‘they should all likewise perish.’ ‘Likewise,’ that is by the hand and rage of the Roman empire. Neither should they be more able to avoid the stroke, than were those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them (Luke 13:1-5). The fulfilling of which prophecy, for their hardness of heart, and impenitency, was in the days of Titus, son of Vespasian, about forty years after the death of Christ. " (The Doom and Downfall of Fruitless Professors)

John Gill (1809)
(On Psalm 95) Ver. 10. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, &c.] The generation of the wilderness, as the Jews commonly call them; and which was a stubborn and a rebellious one, whose heart and spirit were not right with God, #Ps 78:8, wherefore, speaking after the manner of men, God was grieved with them, as he was with the old world, #Ge 6:6, or he was "weary" of them, and "loathed" them as the word {l} sometimes signifies; wherefore, after the affair of the spies, to which Aben Ezra thinks this had reference, they did not hear from the mouth of the Lord, there was no prophecy sent them by the hand of Moses, as the same writer observes; nor any history or account of them, from that time till they came to the border of Canaan; so greatly was their conduct and behaviour resented: and it was much such a term of time that was between the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist and of Christ, and the destruction of Jerusalem; during which time the Jews tempted Christ, tried his patience, saw his works, and grieved his Spirit, which brought at last ruin upon them:"

(On Hebrews 3) and saw my works forty years; that is, God's works of providence, in furnishing them with the necessaries of life, in guiding, protecting, and supporting them for the space of forty years, in the wilderness; and his miracles, and the punishment of their enemies; yet they saw and perceived not, but all this time sinned against the Lord, see #De 29:2-8 the space of time, forty years, is in the psalm placed to the beginning of the next verse, and is joined with God's grief and indignation at the people, as it is also by the apostle, in #Heb 3:17 but the people's sin, and God's grief at it, being of equal duration, it matters not to which it is placed, and therefore to both; perhaps, one reason of its being repeated, and so much notice taken of it is, because there was just this number of years from Christ's sufferings, to the destruction of Jerusalem; which the apostle might have in view."

Philip Mauro (1923)
"Yet the predicted judgment did not immediately follow; for Christ prayed for His murderers in His dying hour, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Lu. 23:34). In answer to that prayer the full probationary period of forty years (A.D. 30 to A.D. 70) was added to their national existence, during which time repentance and remission of sins was preached to them in the Name of the crucified and risen One, and tens of thousands of Jews were saved. " (Seventy Weeks, ch. 5)

Dr. Stafford North (1998)
"Just as Daniel predicted, in 70 A.D., forty years after the anointed one was cut off, the Roman armies marched on Jerusalem.  After a siege of 134 days, designed to weaken resistance, the Roman army broke through the walls, destroyed the city and burned the temple.  Then, they put their ensigns over the eastern gate of the temple and offered sacrifices to them. (Josephus: War VI, vi. 1 [316]).

There could not have been a more precise fulfillment of the prophecies of both Daniel and Christ.  The city was destroyed and desecrated.  Even the stones of the temple were cast down and not one remained upon another."  (Armageddon Again? A Reply to Hal Lindsey, Oklahoma City, OK: Author, 1991, p. 47-48)

C.H. Spurgeon (1868)
"The Kingly Prophet foretold the time of the end: "Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation." It was before that generation had passed away that Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed. There was a sufficient interval for the full proclamation of the gospel by the apostles and evangelists of the early Christian Church, and for the gathering out of those who recognized the crucified Christ as their true Messiah. Then came the awful end, which the Savior foresaw and foretold, and the prospect of which wrung from his lips and heart the sorrowful lament that followed his prophecy of the doom awaiting his guilty capital." (in loc.)

"The King left his followers in no doubt as to when these things should happen: "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." It was just about the ordinary limit of a generation when the Roman armies compassed Jerusalem, whose measure of iniquity was then full, and overflowed in misery, agony, distress, and bloodshed such as the world never saw before or since. Jesus was a true Prophet; everything that he foretold was literally fulfilled." (Matthew, The Gospel of the Kingdom, in loc.)

Rudolph Stier (1851)
(On Matthew 24:34) "(this refers) to the generation living in that then extant and most important age." (Reden Jesu, in loc.)

(On Matthew 12:43-45) "In the period between the ascension of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem, especially towards the end of it, this nation shows itself, one might say, as if possessed by seven thousand devils.' (Reden Jesu; Matt. xii, 43-45)

John Wesley (1754)
"This generation of men now living shall not pass till all these things be done - The expression implies that great part of that generation would be passed away, but not the whole. Just so it was; for the city and temple were destroyed thirty-nine or forty years after." (Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament)

B.F. Westcott (1889)
"Jewish teachers distinguished a 'present age' (this age) from 'that age' (the age to come). Between 'the present age' of imperfection and conflict and trial and 'the age to come' of the perfect reign of God they placed 'the days of the Messiah,' which they sometimes reckoned in the former, sometimes in the latter, and sometimes distinct from both. They were, however, commonly agreed that the passage from one age to the other would be through a period of intense sorrow and anguish, 'the travail-pains' of the new birth (Mt. 24:8). The apostolic writers, fully conscious of the spiritual crisis through which they were passing speak of their own time as the 'last days' (Acts 2:17; James 5:3; comp. 2 Tim. 3:1); the 'last hour' (1 Jno. 2:18); the 'end of the times' (1 Peter 1:20; 2 Pet. 3:3); 'the last time' (Jude 18)."
 

Other Related Passages of Scripture

Forty Years

Ge 25:20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.

Ge 26:34 ¶ And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:

Jos 5:6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Jos 14:7 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadeshbarnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.

Jud 3:11 And the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

Jud 8:28 Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.

Jud 13:1 ¶ And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

1Sa 4:18 And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.

2 Sam 15:7 And it came to pass after forty years, that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the LORD, in Hebron.

Ezekiel 29:11 No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

Ezekiel 29:12 And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. (cf. Rev. 11:8)

Ezekiel 29:13 Yet thus saith the Lord GOD; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered:

Acts 4:22 For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.

Acts 7:42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?

Acts 13:18 And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.

Acts 13:21 And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.

1 Kings 2:11 And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.

2 Chron 9:30 And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.

2 Chron. 24:1 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem.

Acts 7:23 And when he (Moses) was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

Acts 7:30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

Hebrews 3:17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

Forty Days

Using The Following Principles for the Forty Days:

Nu 14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

Ezekiel 4:6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

Ge 7:17 ¶ And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.

Ex 24:18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. (After which he "came down")

Numbers 13:25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

Jonah 3:4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Luke 4:2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

Acts 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

PERIODS AND NUMBERS
(1) Forty Days

-- Flood lasted # Ge 7:17
-- Noah sends forth a raven at end of # Ge 8:6
-- The embalming of Jacob occupied # Ge 50:3
-- Moses on the mount fasting # Ex 24:18 34:28
-- Spies in the land of Canaan # Nu 13:25
-- Moses in prayer for Israel # De 9:25
-- Goliath's defiance lasted # 1Sa 17:16
-- Elijah's meal lasted # 1Ki 19:8
-- Ezekiel's typical period # Eze 4:6
-- Jonah's warning concerning the destruction of Nineveh # Jon 3:4
-- Christ's Temptation # Lu 4:2
-- Christ's appearance after the resurrection # Ac 1:3

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