Fence Sitter wrote:
yes, like a lot of other similar apocalyptic prophets from the same time, or even prophets in general, Jesus was just wrong about what was going to happen in the near future. When we know it is Jesus actually speaking, as opposed to a future redactor, I do not believe he ever talks as if he were speaking to future generations, but of course that is a dispute that is been going on since Albert Switzer and even before. See The Quest of the Historical Jesus
That's because by the time people actually wrote down what he said, it was clear he was wrong about when and where the Kingdom of God was going to happen or be so they had to change it.
Fence Sitter, I think there is a distinct possibility that Jesus was wrong about the timing. I do not find that a big detraction from Jesus and it appears that first century Christians did not either. Though I believe the traditional incarnation doctrine I do not at all believe Jesus was living his life knowing everything. Instead he made his way by learning observing and trying to understand like the rest of us. I find the idea of Jesus being other than that absurd.
If Jesus did not know everything about the coming of the Kingdom of God he was searching out its meaning and how it could come to be. Different Jewish prophets would have some variations in their understanding of how their hope worked. In general they would be trying to answer how is the will of God to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Though Jesus had a number of things to say about that the beatitudes are a very good summary. I cannot imagine trying to compress those powerful living suggestions into a ticket to some heavenly kingdom. People find it much more useful as an ongoing living project.
In those terms it is quite possible to think of the completion Jesus spoke of as soon to be his crucifixion. However I do not know if that was all that Jesus was thinking of at the time. Perhaps he was finding out on the way.
In Schweizer's summary: "But in reality that which is eternal in the words of Jesus is due to the very fact that they are based on an eschatological worldview and contain the expression of a mind for which the contemporary world with its historical and social circumstances no longer had an existence. They are appropriate therefore to any world, for in every world they raise the man who dares to meet their challenge and does not turn and twist them into meaninglessness ... making him inwardly free so that he is fitted to be in his own world and in his own time, a simple channel for the of the power of Jesus."