What was Jesus referring to in Matthew 28:18-20's "end of the age"? -- C.G.

In my view, there are two ways to look at this phrase:

1) The end of the Jewish age, foretold in chapter 24. But this seems too narrow an understanding.
2) By extension, the end of history -- which would explain why Matthew, writing probably after 70 AD, would have saved this material. It had a deeper significance for the early church than merely the Destruction of Jerusalem, which facilitated the break with Judaism and pushed Christianity out of the nest, so to speak.