Sign-Seeking Generation

Matt. 12:38-40; 16:1-2, 4; Mark 8:11-13; Luke 11:16, 29-30

(Huck 87, 119, 152; Aland 119, 154, 191;
Crook 141, 173, 218)^[1]

Updated: 21 October 2022

דּוֹר זֶה דּוֹר רָשָׁע הוּא סִימָן הוּא מְבַקֵּשׁ וְסִימָן לֹא יִנָּתֵן לוֹ [אֶלָּא] כְּשֵׁם שֶׁהָיָה יוֹנָה לְאַנְשֵׁי נִינְוֵה לְאוֹת כָּךְ יִהְיֶה בַּר אֱנָשׁ לְדוֹר זֶה

“This generation is a wicked one! It desperately searches for any sign of deliverance, but no such sign will be given to it. Rather, as Yonah was a portent of doom to the inhabitants of Nineveh, so henceforth will the Son of Man be a portent of doom to this generation.^[2]

Reconstruction

To view the reconstructed text of Sign-Seeking Generation, click on the link below:

Conclusion

Sign-Seeking Generation has charted an unusual course in the process of transmission through pre-synoptic stages to Luke and then to Mark and finally to Matthew. Originally an expression of Jesus’ pessimism regarding the militant nationalist ambitions of his contemporaries, Sign-Seeking Generation came to be used as an apology for the failure or refusal of the Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah. To counter the argument that if Jesus had been the Messiah he would have proved it to the entire Jewish people, Sign-Seeking Generation was variously used to suggest that Jesus had intentionally declined to give his contemporaries an authenticating sign (so Mark), or that Jesus’ death and resurrection was the sign that “the Jews” were unwilling to accept (so Matthew).

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• ^[1] For abbreviations and bibliographical references, see “Introduction to ‘The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction.’” ↩
• ^[2] This translation is a dynamic rendition of our reconstruction of the conjectured Hebrew source that stands behind the Greek of the Synoptic Gospels. It is not a translation of the Greek text of a canonical source. ↩