'Never, never, never give up' -
Winston Churchill
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away/come beside/arrive. (Matthew 24 NWT)
36 But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. (Matthew 24
KJV)
36 Concerning that day and hour nobody has seen, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. (Matthew 24
NWT adapted from the Greek)
36 But as to that day and that hour, no one knows, neither the angels of Heaven, except My Father only. (Matthew 24 GLT)
36 'And concerning that day and the hour no one hath known -- not even the messengers of the heavens -- except my Father only; (Matthew 24 YLT)
36 About and the day that and hour no one knows, nor the messengers of the heavens, except the Father alone. (Matthew 24 ED)
36 About but the day that and hour no one has known, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, if not the Father only. (Matthew 24 KIT)
36 Peri. de. th/j h`me,raj evkei,nhj kai. w[raj ouvdei.j oi=den ouvde. oi` a;ggeloi tw/n ouvranw/n ouvde. o` ui`o,j eiv mh. o` path.r mo,noj (Matthew 24 WHO)
36 peri de thj hmeraj ekeinhj kai wraj oudeij oide oude oi aggeloi tw ouranwn oude o uioj ei mh o pathr monoj (Matthew 24 SCSα)
36 peri de thj hmeraj ekeinhj kai wraj oudeij oiden oude oi aggeloi twn ouranwn oude o uioj ei mh o pathr monoj (Matthew 24
VatB)
32
Concerning that day or the hour nobody knows, neither the
angels in heaven nor the Son, but the Father.
33 Keep looking, keep awake, for you
do not know when the appointed time is (Mark 13).
Most bibles translate these two verses more or less as above. But the Greek does not say this at all. The Greek word translated 'knows' is oiden . This is the 3rd person singular perfect tense of eido, which means 'I see' like the Latin 'Video'. The perfect tense is used for completed actions in the past. So oiden literally means 'he has seen' . Now either this Greek word 'oiden' is in the present tense or it is in the past tense.
To quote Liddell & Scott Greek Lexicon under 'Eido':
'To know:- the perfect tense "Oida", I have seen, as a present tense verb, in the sense I know, for what one has seen one knows.'
What this means is that: 'Concerning that day or the hour nobody knows' is a linguistically possible sense of the Greek, and this is where the confusion has arisen. But it is not what the Greek actually says, no, the exact literal translation is: 'Concerning that day or the hour nobody has seen (with his mind)' this being meant in the sense of 'Concerning that day or the hour nobody has known.' Young's Literal Translation of the bible has: 'Nobody has known', and ironically the Greek Interlinear Translation of the Watchtower, the Kingdom Interlinear Translation has 'Nobody has known'!
36 About but the day that and hour no one has known, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, if not the Father only (Matthew 24 - Watchtower Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures)
32 And concerning that day and the hour, no one hath known, no even the messengers who are in the heaven, not even the son, except the father (Mark 13 - Young's Literal Translation).
'No one has known', or 'Nobody has seen' has a whole different connotation from 'no one knows' or 'nobody knows', because it is actually saying 'nobody has known in the past'. So with the exact translation, it is evident that Jesus was simply saying that no creation had yet been granted a knowledge of the day or the hour from time indefinite up to that time, which was Nisan 11, 33 CE. In any event these two scriptures, seeing as they are written in the past tense cannot be a prohibition on future knowledge of that 'day' and that 'hour'.
No statement about past knowledge can be a prohibition on future knowledge
No man knows for certain the date of his marriage until he has become engaged
Jesus likewise did not know the date of Armageddon, which is the date of his marriage to his new covenant bride until he had proposed to them on 33Nisan14. This is why he said what he did on 33Nisan11.
Furthermore we cannot ignore the words of the prophet Amos who says...
7 The sovereign Lord Jehovah will not do a single thing without revealing his confidential matter to his servants the prophets (Amos 3).
Obviously at Armageddon God does quite a few very important things and the timing of these things is a confidential matter of his.
7
Let us rejoice and be overjoyed and let us give him
the glory because the marriage of the lamb has arrived and his wife has
prepared herself....
9...Happy are those invited to the evening meal of the lambs
marriage (Revelation 19).
Members of the new covenant are these happy ones, the evening meal of the
lamb's marriage is the coronation of the kings in the kingdom of God, on
2008Nisan14, the last day of this system - see [16].
As Paul said:
1 Now as for the times and the
seasons, brothers, you need nothing to be written to you.
2 For you yourselves know quite well that the Lord's day is coming
exactly as a thief in the night.
3 Whenever it is that they are saying: Peace and
security! then sudden destruction is to be instantly upon them just as the pang
of distress upon a pregnant woman; and they will by no means escape.
4 But you, brothers, you are not in darkness, so
that that day should come upon you as it would thieves (who operate under a
cloak of darkness),
5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We belong neither
to night nor to darkness.
So Jehovah's day which in this context is the one that lasts 1,000 years (is it?) comes as a thief in the night to those in the darkness. But to those in the light it does not come as a thief in the night, it comes in the day, so they can see it coming. It does not come upon them as the day comes upon thieves, because they do not operate under the cover of darkness, they have nothing to hide. So those who walk in the light plainly see this day coming.