{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/009/0090431.htm","path":"chr/ecf/009/0090431.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/009/0090431.htm","text":"34. Meaning of \u201cUntil.\u201d No Limitation of Promise.\nBut since some one may think that the promise of the Saviour prescribes a limit of time to their not tasting of death, namely, that they will not taste of death \u201cuntil\u201d 5770 they see the Son of man coming in His own kingdom, but after this will taste of it, let us show that according to the scriptural usage the word \u201cuntil\u201d signifies that the time concerning the thing signified is pressing, but is not so defined that after the \u201cuntil,\u201d that which is contrary to the thing signified should at all take place. Now, the Saviour says to the eleven disciples when He rose from the dead, this among other things, \u201cLo, I am with you all the days, even until the consummation of the age.\u201d 5771 When He said this, did He promise that He was going to be with them until the consummation of the age, but that after the consummation of the age, when another age was at hand, which is \u201ccalled the age to come,\u201d He would be no longer with them?\u2014so that according to this, the condition of the disciples would be better before the consummation of the age than after the consummation of the age? But I do not think that any one will dare to say, that after the consummation of the age the Son of God will be no longer with the disciples, because the expression declares that He will be with them for so long, until the consummation of the age is at hand; for it is clear that the matter under inquiry was, whether the Son of God was forthwith going to be with His disciples before the age to come and the hoped for promises of God which were given as a recompense. But there might have been a question\u2014it being granted that He would be with them\u2014whether sometimes He was present with them, and sometimes not present. Wherefore setting us free from the suspicion that might have arisen from doubt, He declared that now and even all the days He would be with the disciples, and that He would not leave those who had become His disciples until the consummation of the age; (because He said \u201call the days\u201d He did not deny that by night, when the sun set, He would be present with them.) But if such is the force of the words, \u201cuntil the consummation of the age,\u201d plainly we shall not be compelled to admit that those who see the Son of man coming in His own kingdom shall taste of death, after being deemed worthy of beholding Him in such guise. But as in the case of the passage we brought forward, the urgent necessity was to teach us that \u201cuntil the consummation of the age\u201d He would not leave us but be with us all the days; so also in this case I think that it is clear to those who know how to look at the logical coherence of things that He who has seen once for all \u201cthe Son of man coming in His own kingdom,\u201d and seen Him \u201cin His own glory,\u201d and seen \u201cthe kingdom of God come with power,\u201d could not possibly taste of death after the contemplation of things so good and great. But apart from the word of the promise of Jesus, we have conjectured not without reason that we would taste of death, so long as we were not yet held worthy to see \u201cthe kingdom of God come with power,\u201d and \u201cthe Son of man coming in His own glory and in His own kingdom.\u201d","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol IX: Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.: Chapter XXXIV","type":"page"}