Matthew 19:28

These words may refer to the position to be accorded the Apostles in the Church, after the resurrection, personally during their lives, afterwards through their writings and teaching: or they may have a real Eschatological sense, that is, they may refer to the new conditions after the final consummation.

In the regeneration] cp. Luke 22:28. The word occurs only once again in the NT., viz. Titus 3:5, where it is used of the grace of baptism. Here it is an open question whether by the Regeneration Jesus means His own resurrection, or the general resurrection at the last day, accompanied by the renewal of all created things.

Dalman says, 'The unusual expression “regeneration” is distinctly Greek, and cannot be translated literally into Hebrew or Aramaic' The idea, however, is Hebrew, for it was believed that the Messiah would restore the world to its primitive perfection. There are also many analogies for the use of Regeneration in the sense of a personal resurrection. Josephus speaks of the resurrection as 'being born a second time.' St. Paul speaks of Christ's resurrection as His birth or begetting into a new and glorious life (Acts 13:33). Among the Greeks, too, Regeneration was the usual term for the transmigration of a man's soul into another body to begin a new life, which would be a kind of resurrection.

Judging] may also mean 'ruling.'

The twelve tribes of Israel] i.e. not the unbelieving Jews who would reject the apostles' preaching, but the Universal Church, the tribes of the New Israel of God. See Revelation 7, where the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:4) are identical with 'the great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and kindred and people and tongues' (Matthew 19:9). The apostles at the time (perhaps even the evangelist when he wrote) understood it of Israel after the flesh, but in this case, as in so many others, enlightenment was to come later (see Intro.).