End

The concept of the end in Scripture encompasses both temporal finality and eschatological consummation. The Hebrew qēṣ and the Greek telos and synteleia carry a range of meanings: the physical termination of a thing, the completion or goal of a process, and the climactic end of the present age. The disciples' question about the end of the age in Matthew 24 reflects the Jewish apocalyptic framework in which history moves toward a divinely ordained culmination.

Daniel's prophecies repeatedly employ qēṣ for the end appointed for the kingdoms and tribulations of history, while the New Testament's synteleia tou aiōnos (consummation of the age) describes the wrap-up of the present era preceding the final judgment. The concept of the end is never purely temporal in biblical thought—it carries the freight of God's sovereign purpose, the fulfillment of his redemptive plan, and the transition from present conditions of sin and death to the eternal state. The end is thus both a terminus and a beginning, the closing of one economy and the opening of another.