The Context of the Olivet Discourse: Who?

The Context of the Olivet Discourse:
Who experiences the events?

Foundational to understanding scripture is using the correct hermeneutic, or interpretive model. The Historical-Grammatical-Cultural-Literary Hermeneutic should be the first used to correctly understand scripture. If unsure of what the HGCL hermeneutic is, I encourage you to do a Google search and read about it. In short it is about considering the scriptures in the local context of the literary narrative writing, the broader context of the whole of Biblical revelation, the historic context of when, by whom and to whom they were written, the context of the culture in which they were written so to understand the meaning of the readers.

In considering the literary narrative of the Olivet discourse as recorded in Matthew 24,25; Luke 21; and Mark 13, we can read that the context indicates that those who Jesus was speaking directly to, that evening in the garden on the Mount of Olives, were the ones who would experience the events that Jesus tells them about. Those disciples, that generation then living would see those events, and not some future generation as so many popular teachers teach today.

The setting is that during that day Jesus and his disciples were in the temple courts. Jesus had been addressing the people, proclaiming the kingdom of God. It was on this day that he over turned the tables of the money changers and sellers of sacrificial offerings, who were set up in the court of the Gentiles, making a business of what should have been a place of prayer.

During this day Jesus proclaims the judgment of God upon the scribes, the priests, and the Pharisees. And during this time the final plans were started to be formed among the Jewish leaders as to how to deal with this instigator, Jesus of Nazareth.

As they were leaving the temple that day, the disciples were discussing the greatness of the temple. Jesus declares that the whole of the temple would be destroyed, with not one stone left upon another.

They went to the garden on the Mount of Olives as was their habit while in Jerusalem, to spend the night. Four of Jesus’ disciples, Peter, James, John and Andrew came to him and asked him about what he had been talking about that day. They asked him, “"Tell us, when will these things take place, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" (Matt. 24:3)

Jesus answers them with a dialogue that contains events that they and all of Israel would experience in their life times.  He gives the disciples specific warnings about the persecution, the imprisonment, beatings and deaths that would occur to them. He gives them the sign, “when you see the armies camped about Jerusalem”, of when to leave Judea for the safety of the mountains. 

In the whole of this narrative Jesus is telling the disciples what they will experience, giving them warning ahead of time so that they would not fear, but have hope in God, remaining faithful during this coming great time of suffering.

Understanding the context of the literary narrative of the Olivet Discourse we see that those who Jesus says will live through these events are the disciples specifically, and generally Israel within the life times of that generation then living.