ACC ~ Mark 13 v31a

WHAT IS MEANT BY “PASS AWAY”?

METHODIUS: It is usual for the Scriptures to call the change of the world from its present dire condition to a better and more glorious one by the idiom of “destruction.” For its earlier form is thereby lost in the change of all things to a state of greater splendor. This is not a contradiction or absurdity. Paul says that it is not the world as such but the “fashion of this world” [1] that passes away. So it is Scripture’s habit to call the passing from worse to better as “destruction.” Think of a child who passes from a childish stage to amore mature stage. We sometimes express this as an undoing of outmoded patterns. ON THE RESURRECTION 9. [2]

[1] 1 Cor 7:31.

[2] PG 18:276; ANF 6:366**; cf. AEG 5:161.