The word translated “generation” in Matt 25:34 is the greek word “genea” which can refer to a single step in a family line, but can also denote a bloodline, nation, family, race, kind, or age. I think this is the sense in which it is being used here. - Strong's Greek: 1074. γενεά (genea) -- race, family, generation genea: race, family, generation Original Word: γενεά, ᾶς, ἡ Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration: genea Phonetic Spelling: (ghen-eh-ah') Definition: race, family, generation Usage: a generation; if repeated twice or with another time word, practically indicates infinity of time. NAS Exhaustive Concordance Word Origin from ginomai Definition race, family, generation NASB Translation generation (32), generations (10), kind (1). Thayer's Greek Lexicon STRONGS NT 1074: γενεά 1. a begetting, birth, nativity: Herodotus 3, 33; Xenophon, Cyril 1, 2, 8, etc.; (others make the collective sense the primary significance, see Curtius as above). 2. passively, that which has been begotten, men of the same stock, a family; a. properly, as early as Homer; equivalent to מִשְׁפָּחַה, Genesis 31:3, etc. σῴζειν Ρ᾽αχαβην καί τήν γενεάναὐτῆς, Josephus, Antiquities 5, 1, 5. the several ranks in a natural descent, the successive members of a genealogy: Matthew 1:17(ἑβδόμῃ γενεά οὗτος ἐστιν ἀπό τοῦπρώτου, Philo, vit. Moys. i. § 2). b. metaphorically, a race of men very like each other in endowments, pursuits, character; and especially in a bad sense a perverse race: Matthew 17:17; Mark 9:19; Luke 9:41; Luke 16:8; (Acts 2:40). 3. the whole multitude of men living at the same time: Matthew 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 1:48 (πᾶσαι αἱγενεαί); ; Philippians 2:15; used especially of the Jewish race living at one and the same period: Matthew 11:16; Matthew 12:39, 41f, 45; Matthew 16:4; Matthew 23:36; Mark 8:12, 38; Luke 11:29f, 32, 50; Luke 17:25; Acts 13:36; Hebrews 3:10; ἄνθρωποι τῆς γενεάς ταύτης, Luke 7:31; ἄνδρες τῆς γενεάς ταύτης, Luke 11:31; τήν δέ γενεάν αὐτοῦ τίςδιηγήσεται, who can describe the wickedness of the present generation, Acts 8:33 (from Isaiah 53:8 the Sept.) (but cf. Meyer, at the passage). 4. an age (i. e. the time ordinarily occupied by each successive generation), the space of from 30 to 33 years (Herodotus 2, 142, et al.; Heraclitus in Plutarch, def. orac. c. 11), or ὁ χρόνος, ἐν ᾧ γεννωντα παρέχειτόν ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννημένον ὁ γεννησας(Plutarch, the passage cited); in the N. T. common in plural: Ephesians 3:5(Winers Grammar, § 31, 9 a.; Buttmann, 186 (161)); παρῳχημέναιςγενεαῖς in ages gone by, Acts 14:16; ἀπό τῶν γενεῶν for ages, since the generations began, Colossians 1:26; ἐκ γενεῶν ἀρχαίων from the generations of old, from ancient times down, Acts 15:21; εἰς γενεάς γενεῶνunto generations of generations, through all ages, forever (a phrase which assumes that the longer ages are made up of shorter; see αἰών, 1 a.): Luke 1:50 R L (דּורִים לְדור, Isaiah 51:8); εἰς γενεάς καί γενεάς unto generations and generations, ibid. TTr WH equivalent to וָדור לְדור, Psalm 89:2; Isaiah 34:17; very often in the Sept.; (add, εἰς πάσας τάς γενεάς τοῦαἰῶνος τῶν αἰώνων, Ephesians 3:21, cf. Ellicott at the passage) (γενεά is used of a century in Genesis 15:16, cf. Knobel at the passage, and on the senses of the word see the full remarks of Keim, iii. 206 (v. 245 English translation)). Strong's Exhaustive Concordance age, generation From (a presumed derivative of) genos; a generation; by implication, an age (the period or the persons) -- age, generation, nation, time. From the primary root: Strong's Greek: 1085. γένος (genos) -- family, offspring, race, nation, kind. (race, kind, nation, offspring. From ginomai; "kin" (abstract or concrete, literal or figurative, individual or collective) -- born, country(-man), diversity, generation, kind(-red), nation, offspring, stock. see GREEK ginomai) - The verse follows the parable of the fig tree, which some say is a symbol of Israel, and which brings to mind the fig tree outside Jerusalem which Jesus cursed because it bore no fruit, and which dried up and died. The fact that a fig tree usually bears fruit before it’s leaves come forth, and that Adam and Eve tried to conceal their nakedness with fig leaves may also be relevant. 32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: 33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. 34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. 35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Matthew 24 KJV