Text -- Luke 17:33-37 (NET)

17:33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. 17:34 I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 17:35 There will be two women grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” 17:36 [[EMPTY]] 17:37 Then the disciples said to him, “Where, Lord?” He replied to them, “Where the dead body is, there the vultures will gather.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Luk 17:33

¹ tn Or “tries to preserve”; Grk “seeks to gain.”

sn If there is no willingness to suffer the world’s rejection at this point, then one will not respond to Jesus (which is trying to keep his life) and then will be subject to this judgment (which is losing it).

² sn Whoever loses his life. Suffering and persecution caused by the world, even to death, cannot stop God from saving (Luke 12:4-6).

NET Notes: Luk 17:34

¹ sn There is debate among commentators and scholars over the phrase one will be taken and the other left about whether one is taken for judgment or for salvation. If the imagery is patterned after the rescue of Noah from the flood and Lot from Sodom, as some suggest, the ones taken are the saved (as Noah and Lot were) andthose left behind are judged. The imagery, however, is not directly tied to theidentification of the two groups. Its primary purposein context is topicture the sudden, surprisingseparation of the righteous and the judged (i.e., condemned) at the return of the Son of Man.

NET Notes: Luk 17:35

¹ tn Grk “at the same place.” According to L&N 46.16, this refers to a hand mill normally operated by two women.

NET Notes: Luk 17:36

¹ tc Several mss (D ˹³ [579] 700 al lat sy) add (with several variations among these witnesses) 17:36 “There will be two in the field; one will be taken and the other left.” It is not well enough attested to be original. Further, it is an assimilation to the parallel in Matt 24:40, which marks the addition as secondary. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.

NET Notes: Luk 17:37

¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

² tn Grk “they”; the referent (the disciples, v. 22) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Grk “answering, they said to him.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified in the translation.

⁴ sn The question “Where, Lord?” means, “Where will the judgment take place?”

⁵ tn Or “corpse.”

⁶ tn The same Greek term can refer to “eagles” or “vultures” (L&N 4.42; BDAG 22 s.v. ἀετός), but in this context it must mean vultures, because the gruesome image is one of dead bodies being consumed by scavengers.

sn Jesus’ answer is that when the judgment comes, the scenes of death will be obvious and so will the location of the judgment.

⁷ tn Grk “will be gathered.” The passive construction has been translated as an active one in English.