13:30a

Truly I tell you: Jesus often used the words Truly I tell you to introduce a statement that he wanted to emphasize. He was asking people to listen with extra attention. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

You can be sure that… (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
I tell you the truth… (New International Version)

See how you translated this phrase in 3:28a.

13:30b

this generation will not pass away: The expression pass away is a figure of speech called a euphemism. Jesus used it to refer to death. In this context it indicates that the people of this generation will not all die.

In some languages, it may be more natural to make this negative statement a positive statement. For example, the Contemporary English Version says:

some of the people of this generation will still be alive when…

It is possible to reorder 13:30b–c. See the General Comment on 13:30b–c below.

this generation: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as this generation means “people alive at this time.”

Here are some other ways to translate this expression:

the people now living (Good News Bible)
-or-
the present generation (Revised English Bible)

See also 8:12, where the same expression occurs. (Some scholars argue that the phrase “this generation” refers not to the generation alive in Jesus’ day but to the generation that will see the signs of the end times. Other suggest that the phrase means “this race”; that is, the race of Jewish people. It is recommended that you translate literally.)

13:30c

until all these things have happened: If you have translated the verb in 13:30b as “will not pass away,” it may be more natural to say “before” here instead of until. For example:

[this generation will not pass away] before all these events take place.

If you have translated the verb in 13:30b as “will still be alive,” it may be more natural to say “when” here instead of until. For example:

[some of the people of this generation will still be alive] when all these events happen.

all these things: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as all these things is a repetition of some words in 13:4a. In that verse the disciples asked Jesus: “when will these things happen?” There, the disciples clearly referred to the destruction of the temple. Here in 13:30c, the same phrase probably refers to all the events that Jesus said would happen before the temple was destroyed. (It is good to remember that the temple was destroyed in A.D.70. However, this may also happen again at the end of the world, and it may be a picture of the end of the world.)

You should translate the phrase all these things literally, because different people have different ideas about which events in chapter 13 the phrase refers to. If you wish, you could put a footnote here and say:

The phrase “all these things” is also found in 13:4, where it refers to the destruction of the temple.

General Comment on 13:30b–c

In some languages, it may be more natural to place 13:30c before 13:30b. For example:

30call these events will happen 30bbefore the people now living have all died.

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