End of the World

The Greek word for 'end of the WORLD' in Matthew 24:3 is αἰῶνος 'aionos'.

(Some modern English versions translate it 'age' rather than 'world'.)

The disciples, like most Jews of the time, had a broad concept about 'the aionos' (the world/age).

And they shared concepts with most other Jews (except with the Sadducees) about certain events which they thought (based on the Old Testament) had to happen in relation to 'the end of the aionos'.

The same Greek word 'aionos' is used in Luke 1:70 where it describes not just the period of history in which the ancient nation of Israel existed; not just the period when the Torah - the Old Covenant, which God gave through Moses, was still in force; nor just the period when the Temple existed; nor just the Apostles' generation - the word is used to describe the period of human history from its very beginning.

So the Biblical definition of 'this present age' predates anything Judaean: it encompasses instead the whole of the present world as we currently know it.

That's the Bible-concept, the ancient Jewish concept, the disciples' concept, which Jesus affirmed, of 'the age' and of 'the end of the age'.

So actually the word 'world' isn't such a bad nuance after all for English translators to have perceived as inherent within the disciples' use of the Greek word.

Jesus was talking, in part, about the end of the world.