Parousia, The

The word denotes “coming,” “arrival.” It is never applied to the birth of Christ, and could be applied to His second coming only, partly because it had already become a fixed Messianic term, partly because there was a point of view from which the future appearance of Jesus appeared the sole adequate expression of His Messianic dignity and glory. The explicit distinction between “first advent” and “second advent” is not found in the New Testament. It occurs in Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, Testament of Abraham 92:16. In the New Testament it is approached in Hebrews 9:28 and in the use of epipháneia for both the past appearance of Christ and His future manifestation (2 Thessalonians 2:8; 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Timothy 1:10; 4:1; Titus 2:11, 13). The Christian use of the word parousia is more or less colored by the consciousness of the present bodily absence of Jesus from His own, and consequently suggests the thought of His future abiding presence, without, however, formally coming to mean the state of the Saviour’s presence with believers (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Parousia occurs in Matthew 24:3, 17, 39; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 8; James 5:7-8; 2 Peter 1:16; 3:4, 12; 1 John 2:28. A synonymous term is apokálupsis, “revelation,” probably also of pre-Christian origin (compare Apocrypha Baruch 29:3; 30:1; 4 Ezra (2 Esdras) Ezra 7:28; Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, Testament of Levi 18; John 7:27; 1 Peter 1:20). It could be adopted by Christians because Christ had been withdrawn into heaven and would be publicly demonstrated the Christ on His return, hence used with special reference to enemies and unbelievers (Luke 17:30; Acts 3:21; 1 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8; 1 Peter 1:13, 10; 5:4). Another synonymous term is “the day of the (Our) Lord,” “the day,” “that day,” “the day of Jesus Christ.” This is the rendering of the well-known Old Testament phrase. Though there is no reason in any particular passage why “the Lord” should not be Christ, the possibility exists that in some cases it may refer to God (compare “day of God” in 2 Peter 3:12). On the other hand, what the Old Testament with the use of this phrase predicates of God is sometimes in the New Testament purposely transferred to Christ. “Day,” while employed of the parousia generally, is, as in the Old Testament, mostly associated with the judgment, so as to become a synonym for judgment (compare Acts 19:38; 1 Corinthians 4:3). The phrase is found in Matthew 7:22; 24:36; Mark 13:32; Luke 10:12; 17:24; 21:34; Acts 2:20; Romans 13:12; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 3:13; 5:5; 2 Corinthians 1:14; Philippians 1:6; 2:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 4 (compare 1 Thessalonians 5:5, 8); 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2 Timothy 1:12, 18; 4:8; Hebrews 10:25; 2 Peter 3:10.

The parousia is preceded by certain signs heralding its approach. Judaism, on the basis of the Old Testament, had worked out the doctrine of “the woes of the Messiah,” ḥebhelē ha-māshīaḥ, the calamities and afflictions attendant upon the close of the present and the beginning of the coming age being interpreted as birth pains of the latter. This is transferred in the New Testament to the parousia of Christ. The phrase occurs only in Matthew 24:8; Mark 13:8, the idea, in Romans 8:22, and allusions to it occur probably in 1 Corinthians 7:26; 1 Thessalonians 3:3; 5 Besides these general “woes,” and also in accord with Jewish doctrine, the appearance of the Antichrist is made to precede the final crisis. Without Jewish precedent, the New Testament links with the parousia as preparatory to it, the pouring out of the Spirit, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, the conversion of Israel and the preaching of the gospel to all the nations. The problem of the sequence and interrelation of these several precursors of the end is a most difficult and complicated one and, as would seem, at the present not ripe for solution. The “woes” which in our Lord’s eschatological discourse (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21) are mentioned in more or less close accord with Jewish teaching are: (1) wars, earthquakes and famines, “the beginning of travail”; (2) The great tribulation; (3) commotions among the heavenly bodies; compare Revelation 6:2-17. For Jewish parallels to these, compare Charles, Eschatology, 326, 327. Because of this element which the discourse has in common with Jewish apocalypses, it has been assumed by Colani, Weiffenbach, Weizsäcker, Wendt, et al., that here two sources have been welded together, an actual prophecy of Jesus, and a Jewish or Jewish-Christian apocalypse from the time of the Jewish War 68-70 (Historia Ecclesiastica, III, 5, 3). In the text of Mark this so-called “small apocalypse” is believed to consist of Mark 13:7, 13:8, 13:14-20, 13:24-27, 13:30, 13:31. But this hypothesis mainly springs from the disinclination to ascribe to Jesus realistic eschatological expectations, and the entirely unwarranted assumption that He must have spoken of the end in purely ethical and religious terms only. That the typically Jewish “woes” bear no direct relation to the disciples and their faith is not a sufficient reason for declaring the prediction of them unworthy of Jesus. A contradiction is pointed out between the two representations, that the parousia will come suddenly, unexpectedly, and that it will come heralded by these signs. Especially in Mark 13:30, 13:32 the contradiction is said to be pointed. To this it may be replied that even after the removal of the assumed apocalypse the same twofold representation remains present in what is recognized as genuine discourse of Jesus, namely, in Mark 13:28, 13:29 as compared with Mark 13:32, 13:33-37 and other similar admonitions to watchfulness. A real contradiction between Mark 13:30 and Mark 13:32 does not exist. Our Lord could consistently affirm both: “This generation shall not pass away, until all these things be accomplished,” and “of that day or that hour knoweth no one.” To be sure, the solution should not be sought by understanding “this generation” of the Jewish race or of the human race. It must mean, according to ordinary usage, then living generation. Nor does it help matters to distinguish between the prediction of the parousia within certain wide limits and the denial of knowledge as to the precise day and hour. In point of fact the two statements do not refer to the same matter at all. “That day or that hour” in Mark 13:32 does not have “these things” of Mark 13:30 for its antecedent. Both by the demonstrative pronoun “that” and by “but” it is marked as an absolute self-explanatory conception. It simply signifies as elsewhere the day of the Lord, the day of judgment. Of “these things,” the exact meaning of which phrase must be determined from the foregoing, Jesus declares that they will come to pass within that generation; but concerning the parousia, “that (great) day,” He declares that no one but God knows the time of its occurrence. The correctness of this view is confirmed by the preceding parable, Mark 13:28, 13:29, where in precisely the same way “these things” and the parousia are distinguished. The question remains how much “these things” (Mark 13:29; Luke 21:31), “all these things” (Matthew 24:33, 24:14, Mark 13:30), “all things” (Luke 21:32) is intended to cover of what is described in the preceding discourse. The answer will depend on what is there represented as belonging to the precursors of the end, and what as strictly constituting part of the end itself; and on the other question whether Jesus predicts one end with its premonitory signs, or refers to two crises each of which will be heralded by its own series of signs. Here two views deserve consideration. According to the one (advocated by Zahn in his Commentary on Mt, 652-66) the signs cover only Matthew 24:4-14. What is related afterward, namely, “the abomination of desolation,” great tribulation, false prophets and Christs, commotions in the heavens, the sign of the Son of Man, all this belongs to “the end” itself, in the absolute sense, and is therefore comprehended in the parousia and excepted from the prediction that it will happen in that generation, while included in the declaration that only God knows the time of its coming. The destruction of the temple and the holy city, though not explicitly mentioned in Matthew 24:4-14, would be included in what is there said of wars and tribulation. The prediction thus interpreted would have been literally fulfilled. The objections to this view are: (1) It is unnatural thus to subsume what is related in Matthew 24:15-29 under “the end.” From a formal point of view it does not differ from the phenomena of Matthew 24:4-14 which are “signs.” (2) It creates the difficulty, that the existence of the temple and the temple-worship in Jerusalem are presupposed in the last days immediately before the parousia. The “abomination of desolation” taken from Daniel 8:13; 9:27; 11:31; 12:11; compare Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 49:2—according to some, the destruction of the city and temple, better a desecration of the temple-site by the setting up of something idolatrous, as a result of which it becomes desolate—and the flight from Judea, are put among events which, together with the parousia, constitute the end of the world. This would seem to involve chiliasm of a very pronounced sort. The difficulty recurs in the strictly eschatological interpretation of 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 3, where “the man of sin” (see SIN, MAN OF) is represented as sitting in “the temple of God” and in Revelation 11:1-2, where “the temple of God” and “the altar,” and “the court which is without the temple” and “the holy city” figure in an episode inserted between the sounding of the trumpet of the sixth angel and that of the seventh. On the other hand it ought to be remembered that eschatological prophecy makes use of ancient traditional imagery and stereotyped formulas, which, precisely because they are fixed and applied to all situations, cannot always bear a literal sense, but must be subject to a certain degree of symbolical and spiritualizing interpretation. In the present case the profanation of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes may have furnished the imagery in which, by Jesus, Paul and John, anti-Christian developments are described of a nature which has nothing to do with Israel, Jerusalem or the temple, literally understood. (3) It is not easy to conceive of the preaching of the gospel to all the nations as falling within the lifetime of that generation. It is true Romans 1:13; 10:18; 15:19-24; Colossians 1:6; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Timothy 4:17 might be quoted in support of such a view. In the statement of Jesus, however, it is definitely predicted that the preaching of the gospel to all the nations not only must happen before the end, but that it straightway precedes the end: “Then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14). To distinguish between the preaching of the gospel to all the nations and the completion of the Gentile mission, as Zahn proposes, is artificial. As over against these objections, however, it must be admitted that the grouping of all these later phenomena before the end proper avoids the difficulty arising from “immediately” in Matthew 24:29 and from “in those days” in Mark 13:24.

The other view has been most lucidly set forth by Briggs, Messiah of the Gospels, 132-65. It makes Jesus’ discourse relate to two things: (1) the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple; (2) the end of the world. He further assumes that the disciples are informed with respect to two points: (1) the time; (2) the signs. In the answer to the time, however, the two things are not sharply distinguished, but united into one prophetic perspective, the parousia standing out more conspicuously. The definition of the time of this complex development is: (a) negative (Mark 13:5-8); (b) positive (Mark 13:9-13). On the other hand in describing the signs Jesus discriminates between (a) the signs of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (Mark 13:14-20); (b) the signs of the parousia (Mark 13:24-27). This view has in its favor that the destruction of the temple and the city, which in the question of the disciples figured as an eschatological event, is recognized as such in the answer of Jesus, and not alluded to after a mere incidental fashion, as among the signs. Especially the version of Luke 21:20-24 proves that it figures as an event. This view also renders easier the restriction of Mark 13:30 to the first event and its signs. It places “the abomination of desolation” in the period preceding the national catastrophe. The view that the two events are successively discussed is further favored by the movement of thought in Mark 13:32. Here, after the Apocalypse has been brought to a close, the application to the disciples is made, and, in the same order as was observed in the prophecy, first, the true attitude toward the national crisis is defined in the parable of the Fig Tree and the solemn assurance appended that it will happen in this generation (Mark 13:28-31); secondly, the true attitude toward the parousia is defined (Mark 13:32-37). The only serious objection that may be urged against this view arises from the close concatenation of the section relating to the national crisis with the section relating to the parousia (Matthew 24:29: “immediately after ... those days”; Mark 13:24: “in those days”). The question is whether this mode of speaking can be explained on the principle of the well-known foreshortening of the perspective of prophecy.

To continue reading this Bible article, click here.

Author: International Std. Bible Encyclopedia

Keywords: Parousia The, Eschatology, Future things, Future, Last days, Return of Jesus, Return of Christ, Parousia, Rapture, Resurrection, Final resurrection, Resurrection of the dead, Jesus' return, Christ's return, Final judgment, Final judgement, Millenium, Day of the Lord, 70 AD, Antichrist

Source: James Orr (editor), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 5 volume set.

Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.