Matthew 26:64 Study Archive
Jesus saith unto him.. Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Jesus saith unto him.. Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
- 2008: Todd Dennis, Matthew 26:64 is NOT a Preterist “Time Indicator
James (AD 62)
“Why do ye ask me concerning Jesus, the Son of Man ? He himself sitteth in heaven at the right hand of the great Power, and is about to come upon the clouds of heaven.” (Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History – Chapter XXIII)
Hank Hanegraaff
“Jesus was the One who in the Olivet Discourse made the mother of all prophecies. He said ‘not one stone here will be left upon another, every one will be thrown down.’ And He based His deity on that just like He did on the resurrection. If that prophecy had not been fulfilled, Jesus would indeed have been a false prophet. In fact, when He was before Caiaphas the High Priest, He said to Caiaphas, ‘you will see the Son of Man coming on clouds and seated at the right hand of the Mighty One.’ In other words, He said to him, ‘you will see my vindication and exaltation. And, indeed, the very court that condemned Him to death saw His vindication and exaltation when Jerusalem was destroyed.. The utter destruction of Jerusalem takes places and vindicates what Jesus Christ has said.” (Voice of Reason 11/21)
John Gill (1809)
“And then shall the tribes of the earth, or land, mourn; that is, the land of Judea; for other lands, and countries, were not usually divided into tribes, as that was; neither were they affected with the calamities and desolations of it, and the vengeance of the son of man upon it; at least not so as to mourn on that account, but rather were glad and rejoiced: and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. The Arabic version reads it, “ye shall see”, as is expressed by Christ, in #Mt 26:64. Where the high priest, chief priests, Scribes, and elders, and the whole sanhedrim of the Jews are spoken to: and as the same persons, namely, the Jews, are meant here as there; so the same coming of the son of man is intended; not his coming at the last day to judgment; though that will be in the clouds of heaven, and with great power and glory; but his coming to bring on, and give the finishing stroke to the destruction of that people, which was a dark and cloudy dispensation to them: and when they felt the power of his arm, might, if not blind and stupid to the last degree, see the glory of his person, that he was more than a mere man, and no other than the Son of God, whom they had despised, rejected, and crucified; and who came to set up his kingdom and glory in a more visible and peculiar manner, among the Gentiles.”
Kenneth Gentry
“The final collapse of Jerusalem and the Temple.. Through these events the Jews were to “see” the Son of Man in His judgment-coming in terrifying cloud-glory: clouds are symbols of divine majesty often entailing stormy destruction. The members of the Sanhedrin and others would experience such in their life times (Matt. 26:64; Mark 9:1; cf. Rev 1:7 with Rev 1:1,3).” (ibid. 348)
Henry Hammond (1634)
“Coming… the presence, or the coming of Christ is one of the phrases that is noted in his book to signifie the destruction of the Jews…
“…That this is the meaning of his coming in glory with his angels, Matt. 16:27 hath been shewed already. So again Matt 26:64, his coming in the clouds of heaven.. as the very Jews have observed, that that phrase signifies the inflection of judgment or punishment, so that it doth so here..” (p. 119)
J. Marcellus Kik (1971)
“But of special importance for the right understanding of it is Matt. 26:64, where Jesus says to the high priest, ‘But I say unto you, from henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.’ There the Lord comes upon the clouds to the judgment of Jerusalem, as a manifest proof that we are not to think merely of His coming at the last day, and that the words do not point to a visible appearing. There also the Lord does not come merely to the proper catastrophe on the clouds; He comes from henceforth; so that His whole secret and concealed agency towards the destruction of Jerusalem is comprehended under His coming.” (An Eschatology of Victory, 1971, p. 39)
C. Jonathan Seraiah
“It is true that the “eschatology” of the New Testament is predominantly preterist. For those unfamiliar with the preterist perspective, it is the ancient view that many of the eschatological passages of the New Testament were fulfilled (completely) in the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. This view may sound novel, but in reality there have been orthodox adherents to it throughout church history (e.g., Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius, John Lightfoot, John Owen, Milton Terry, Jay Adams). This interpretation does not deny the Final Coming of Christ; it merely finds that not all “coming” passages refer to that event. The preterist interpretation is actually the most faithful to the biblical text because it recognizes that Old Testament prophetic terminology was used by the New Testament authors. This recognition is helpful in distinguishing the prophecies of Christ’s coming that were near, in the first century (Matt. 10:23; 16:28; 24:30; 26:64; 1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Thess. 1:7; James 5:7-9; 1 Pet. 4:7; Rev. 1:3, 7; etc.) and thus fulfilled in a.d. 70, from those that were far (John 5:28-29; Acts 1:11; 17:31; 1 Cor. 15:23-24; 1 Thess. 4:16; 1 Jn. 3:2; etc.) and thus not yet fulfilled even in our day. It also helps to distinguish between a spiritual “coming” (invisible for temporal judgment, as in a.d. 70) and a physical coming (visible for eternal judgment).” (End of All Things)
R.C. Sproul (1998)
“When such passages are grouped together as DeMar has done, they strongly suggest a near-time fulfillment. Some of them can be handled more easily than others. For example, number 2 (Matthew 26:64), which gives Jesus’ words to Pontius Pilate [sic], may refer to an indefinite future. Pilate’s “seeing” the coming of Christ in the “hereafter” does not demand a first-century fulfillment.” (The Last Days According to Jesus, MI: Baker, 1998, p. 89) – Pilate fixed to ‘Caiaphas’ in paperback edition)
Milton Terry
“The mourning of all the tribes of the land is the universal wail and lamentation of Judaism over its national overthrow. In the fall of their city and Temple the priests, scribes, and elders saw “the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power” (Matt. 26:64), and thus it was made manifest to all who read the prophecy aright that “Jesus the Galilean” has conquered. The gathering of Christ’s elect from the four winds is the true fulfillment of numerous prophecies which promise the chosen people that they shall be gathered out of all lands and established forever in the mountain of God (comp. Amos 9:14,15; Jer. 23:5-8; 32:37-40; Ezek. 37:21-28). The time and manner of this universal ingathering of the elect ones cannot be determined from the language of any of these prophecies. As well might one presume to determine from Jesus’s words in John 12:32, where, when, and in what manner, when the Christ is “lifted up out of the earth,” he will draw all men unto himself. The point made emphatic, in the eschatological discourse of Jesus, is that all things contemplated in the apocalyptic symbolism employed to depict his coming and reign would follow “immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Matt. 24:29); or, as Mark has it, “in those days, after that tribulation.” That is, the coming of the kingdom of the Son of man is coincident with the overthrow of Judaism and its temple, and follows immediately in those very days. (Biblical Apocalyptics, pp. 245)
“Matthew reads (xxvi, 64), ‘From this time … ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ We maintain that this language cannot be naturally interpreted as a reference to an event belonging to a far distant period of time. It is something that is to take place from this time onward, and something which the high priest and his associates are to see. We quote with great satisfaction the comment of Gould in the International Critical Commentary on Mark (p. 252): ‘This settles two things: first, that the coming is not a single event, any more than the sitting on the right hand of power; and second, that it was a thing which was to begin with the very time of our Lord’s departure from the world. Moreover, the two things, the sitting on the right hand of power, and the coming are connected in such a way as to mean that he is to assume power in heaven and exercise it here in the world. The period beginning with the departure of Jesus from the world was to be marked by this assumption of heavenly power by the Christ, and by repeated interferences in crises of the world’s history, of which the destruction of Jerusalem was the first’ ” (Milton Terry, Biblical Apocalyptics, pp. 222-223).
Foy E. Wallace (1966)
“The coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven is not a reference to the second coming of Christ but to he coming foretold by Jesus to Caiaphas in Matthew 26:64.. The reference to the Son of man coming “with power and great glory” and “sitting in the right hand of power” is emphasis on the magnitude of the things that occurred. The Son of man came in power in the transpiring events.” (The Book of Revelation, TX: Wallace Publications, 1966, p.354)
BIBLE TRANSLATIONS
American Standard (1901)
Jesus said unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.
Contemporary English Version (1995)
“That is what you say!” Jesus answered. “But I tell all of you, ‘Soon you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right side of God All-Powerful and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ “
Darby Translation (1890)
Jesus says to him, *Thou* hast said. Moreover, I say to you, From henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.
New American Standard Bible Update (1995)
Jesus *said to him, ” You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”
New King James Version (1982)
Jesus said to him, “[It is as] you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
NIV
“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
- Date: 20 Apr 2002
- Time: 04:20:00
Does anyone have the Weymouth version of this to add? Thanks!
- Date: 22 Apr 2002
- Time: 18:54:45
Sproul didn’t look up the reference to make sure he was being accurate??? How surprising for one so respected for his knowledge! It’s truly frustrating that so many partial preterists have turned to “muddying the water” concerning the time frame statements in order to “refute” full preterism.