“THE END OF THE WORLD”

Hugo McCord

The marching orders of Jesus, according to the Freed-Hardeman Version of Matthew 28:18-20, were:

All authority in heaven and on the earth has been given to me. Go and make disciples of all nations, immersing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you, and behold! I am with you all the days to the end of the world.

A careful student of the Scriptures suggests a replacement of “the end of the world” with “the completion of the age.” Hers is an accurate translation of sunteleia aionos, but not the only accurate one. The FHV does not use “the completion of the age” because to some people (by misusing Matthew 24:3) the phrase means “the completion of the [Jewish] age” in 70 A.D.

What Jesus was talking about in his marching orders was not to end in 70 A.D. It was to last “all the days, even to the end of the world.” Sometimes the word aion, normally “age,” is correctly rendered “world” or “universe” (cf. Hebrews 1:2; 11:3, NIV).

That Jesus had “the end of the world” in mind is shown in what he had previously told his disciples that is going to happen at the sunteleia aionos: at the “harvest” the “reapers are the angels” (Matthew 13:39), and “the weeds [tares] are gathered and burned (Matthew 13:40), and “the angels will come and separate the righteous from the wicked” (Matthew 13:49). These occurrences show that the translation “the completion of the age” is not as precise as “the end of the world.”