---
title: Matthew 24:3
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-24-3/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-24-3.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 24:3
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 24:3

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "What will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?"
- NWT (2013 revision): "What will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?"

## JW Usage

Matthew 24:3 is pivotal for JW eschatology. The NWT renders the disciples' question as asking about the "sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things." The word "presence" (translating parousia) is used to support the doctrine that Christ's return is an invisible presence that began in 1914. The phrase "conclusion of the system of things" (translating synteleias tou aionos) reinforces the Watchtower's framework of a current evil "system" that will end at Armageddon. The "composite sign" doctrine — wars, famines, earthquakes since 1914 — is built on this verse as the disciples' request for a sign.

## Protestant Usage

The Protestant reading notes that the disciples asked one question with three parts, all relating to the temple's destruction they had just been told about (Matt 24:1-2). The Greek synteleias tou aionos means "end of the age," not "conclusion of the system of things" — it refers to the close of the old covenant era, not a future societal collapse. Jesus was asked for one sign (to semeion, singular) and gave one: the Son of Man appearing in heaven (Matt 24:30). The wars, famines, and earthquakes in vv. 4-8 are what he told his disciples NOT to be alarmed by — "the end is not yet" (Matt 24:6). The Watchtower takes the very events Jesus said should not lead to eschatological conclusions and makes them the centrepiece of its eschatology. The "signs are not the sign" argument (040) exposes this inversion directly.

## NWT Issue

The NWT translates the Greek synteleias tou aionos as "conclusion of the system of things" rather than "end of the age." The Greek word aion means "age" or "world/universe" — never "system of things." This phrase appears in no Greek lexicon as a meaning of aion. The rendering is theologically motivated: it supports the Watchtower's eschatological framework of a current evil "system" that will be replaced at Armageddon, while obscuring the covenantal meaning of "end of the age" (i.e., the close of the old covenant era fulfilled in AD 70). Even the Watchtower's own Kingdom Interlinear Translation renders the Greek literally as "ages," contradicting the NWT main text. This is one of over 40 instances where the NWT renders aion as "system of things" — a systematic theological distortion documented in argument 111.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- ["Signs" Are Not "The Sign"](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/signs-not-the-sign.md) — Matthew 24:6–8 / Luke 21:8 [Eschatology]
- ["System of Things" — NWT's Theologically Motivated Rendering of Aion](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/nwt-system-of-things.md) — Hebrews 1:2 and the invisible Christological downgrade [NWT Translation]