"THE END"

"THE END" 

 “I Am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.” In the context of the destruction of the Jewish nation, people and holy city, these words become doubly significant. Not only was Christ the Author and Creator of the universe, but He now shows Himself to be the Author and Finisher of the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, and the City of Jerusalem. In His perfect fulfillment of the Old Covenant, the promises, and the prophecies, He brings it to its end and becomes the originator of the New Covenant. In Him the concept of nationhood, race and territory has found its fulfillment, its completion and perfection. In Him it continues in a new and living way, the Church, His Body. In Him, the old is not destroyed and annihilated but rather has become the seed crop and surety of the new Life.

What does the phrase “the end” mean in its Biblical context? Since it contains the definite article the, we know that it is speaking of a previously known and well defined “end.” Does this refer, then, to the final consummation and cessation of planet earth? For the answer we must look at the usage of the phrase in other Biblical passages.

The Eschaton or the Telos?

            Two Greek words are translated “the end” or “last (days, or time).” These two words, or some form of them, are eschaton and telos. We must distinguish between these two words  to understand what is meant in each reference.

           There is a strong tradition in modern dispensational doctrines of the prophetic "last days," that the phrase “the end” always refers to the “eschaton,” a Greek word meaning “the last, extreme, uttermost (of place or time); the last state.” The study of last things is therefore called “eschatology.” However, the word eschaton[1] occurs in Matthew 12:45 and Luke 11:26 as "the last state of a man." 2Peter 2:20 translates it as "the latter end" of one who has had the knowledge of the Lord and turned back again from it. In these three instances it refers to the final state of a man who has rejected the knowledge of God. It is used in Mark 5:23 as “point of death.” It is also used in a plural form in Acts 13:47, “ends of the earth.”[2] In this instance it refers to geographical extent and not to time. Therefore we see from this that the “eschaton” does not always refer to the end of planet earth or the whole natural creation. It may refer to the final end of some certain thing, for example, a man's life, or the end of a journey. It indicates something that is dying or ceasing to exist.

            Telos, on the other hand, speaks of “perfection,” “maturity,” “fulfillment,” “accomplishment,” “verification (of a prophecy)." Although the word eschaton is sometimes used interchangeably with telos, there is a distinct difference in their meanings. The difference between eschaton and telos is between that which is dying, being destroyed or annihilated and that which is attaining a full maturity, which is able to reproduce itself and which is achieving its desired purpose, living on in its new state of being.

But people are often confused by the fact that the Greek word telos is also translated “end.”[3] Bullinger defines telos as “…fulfillment or completion of anything (Latin effectus) i.e. its purpose or issue, (not its cessation).  It denotes strictly, not the ending of a departed state, but, the arrival of a complete or perfect one.”  A form of the word is used in Matthew 11:1 where Jesus is said to have “made an end” of teaching His disciples, (KJV) or “…finished instructing his twelve disciples,” (RSV). In this case it clearly means “…to complete, fulfill, accomplish, execute fully.” As used in Matthew 10:22, “…he that endureth to the end, (teleo), shall be saved,” it means “…to completion or fulfilling of the perfection of the preaching of the Gospel.”[4]

Another form of the word telos is translated "finisher" and is used of Jesus in Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” Here it is very clearly speaking of “finisher” as one who brings something to its completion, perfection or fulfillment.

The difference between the two words becomes clear by observing the usage of eschaton in Matthew 12:45, “latter end,” and Mark 5:23, “point of death” as compared to the passages where telos is translated “perfect” such as Ephesians 4:13: “Till we come …unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”[5]

The “End” as Foretold by Daniel

What was “the end” that the believers in the New Testament era expected?  I submit that it was “the end” as foretold by the prophet Daniel, 9:24-27; 12:1-12, foretelling the time of the end of the Jewish nation, Israel, city, Jerusalem, and people, the Jews. Since the appointed time of “seventy weeks” had come to its close and the “time, times and dividing of times” had also been fulfilled, and since the Messiah had come as predicted, they had every reason to believe that “the end” was at hand.

             Another two words that are often confused are the Greek words cosmos and aion for they are both translated in the KJV as "world," even in the same verse:

For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world [cosmos], but now once in the end of the world  [aion] hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26)

It is clear that the writer of the Book of Hebrews believed he was living in “the end (teleo) of the age, (aion),” but not necessarily the “end of the world, (cosmos).” He saw that the revelation of Jesus Christ would be the fulfillment of the prophecy that the seventy weeks would bring an end to the city, nation, and people as foretold in Daniel 9:26, but not the end of the planet earth. This shows that the “end of the world” expected in the New Testament was not the eschaton, but the telos, the fulfillment of all that God had foretold. It was the “end of the age,” (aion[6]], that is, the end of the Jewish nation, people, and city but not the end of the planet. In fact the beginning of the new crop from the old seed.

The word translated “end” here, (Hebrews 9:26), a form of the word teleo, indicates an expected fulfillment, or completion of a process or a perfecting or maturing of the thing that was to end. That thing that was coming to its fulfillment or maturity was the Israel of God.

When Jesus said: “I Am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end,” in Revelation 1:8 and 22:13, the word “end” is from teleo, (#4930), signifying completion, fulfillment, finish.

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[1] See D. S. Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, (Philadelphia, Westminster Press 1964), 217.

[2] Bullinger, Lexicon, 249.

[3] For forms of the word see Strong, James, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, (Iowa Falls, Iowa, World Bible Publishers, Copyright 1890), #5046 through 5056 and #4930.

[4] The KJV of the following Scriptures translate a form of the word telos as "end": Matthew 10:22; 11:1; 24:6, 13, 14, 31; 26:58; 28:1; Mark 3:26; 13:7, 13; Luke 1:33; 21:9; 22:37; John 13:1; Romans 1; 11; 4:16; 6:21-22; 10:4; 14:9; I Cor. 1:8; 10:11; II Cor. 1:13; 3:13; 11:15; Philippians. 3:19;  I Thessalonians 3:13; I Timothy 1:5; Hebrews 3:6, 14; 6:8, 11; 7:3; James 5:11; 1Peter 1:9; 4:7, 17; 2Peter 2:20; Revelation 2:26; 21:6; 22:13.

[5] Some other instances of the translation of telos, (or a form of the word), as "perfect" are: Philippians 3:12, 15; Colossians 1:28; 4:12; Heb. 2:10; 5:9; 7:19; 9:9, 11; 10:1; 11:40; 12:23; James 1:4, 17, 25; 2:22; 3:2; 1 John 4:17, 18.

[6] Some of the passages that translate the Greek word aion as "world" are: Matthew 12:32; 13:22, 39, 40, 49; 24:3; 28:20; Mark 4:19; 10:30; Luke 16:8; 18:30; 20:34-35; Romans 12:2; 1Corinthians 1:20 ["disputer of this world, aion: and "wisdom of this world, cosmos"; 2:6, 7, 8; 3:18, aion; [3:19, cosmos]; 10:11; 2Corinthians 4:4; Galatians. 1:4; Ephesians 1:21; 3:9, 21; 1Timothy 6:17; 2Timothy 1:9; 4:10; Titus 2:12 ["worldly" = cosmos; "world" = aion]; Heb. 1:2; 6:5; 9:26 [see above discussion of this verse]; 11:3.

   Other passages translating the word aion as "world" are: Acts 15:18; John 9:32; 1Corinthians 8:13; Ephesians 3:5 ["ages,"]; 21 ["throughout all ages" and "world without end"]. Bullinger, (901), points out that aion is used to indicate an age that is "…adjusted or fitted out by God, (Hebrews 11:3), according to what is called in Ephesians 3:11 "the purpose of the ages or dispensations.'’’

This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context. My Book is available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is also available online at www.amazon.com  or www.xulonpress.com. Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net .