Saying 111

English

Jesus said, ‘The skies and the earth will roll up in your presence, and whoever is alive because of the Living One will not see death.’

Does Jesus not say, ‘The world is not worthy of the person who has found himself’?

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Interpretation

Compare Sayings 3, 11, 56, 59, and 80. This saying seems to comprise an older saying and one or two embellishments. In the oldest form, Jesus describes the imminent eschaton, when sky and earth will be destroyed and replaced. This was later appended with sayings about not ‘tasting death’ and the world being ‘worthy’.

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Parallels

Isaiah

34.4 All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall wither like a leaf withering on a vine, or fruit withering on a fig tree.

65.17 For I am about to create new skies and a new earth. The former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

Mark

13.31 ‘The sky and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.’

Matthew

5.18 ‘For truly I tell you, until the sky and the earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.’

Luke

21.33 ‘But it is easier for the sky and the earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped.’

John

11.25–26 Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.’

Revelation of John

20.11; 21.1 Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it. The earth and the sky fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. […] Then I saw a new sky and a new earth, for the first sky and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

2 Peter

3.11–13 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the skies will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new skies and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.