Matthew 24:23-31

24:23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ ¹  or ‘There he is!’ do not believe him. 24:24 For false messiahs ²  and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 24:25 Remember, ³  I have told you ahead of time. 24:26 So then, if someone ⁴  says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ ⁵  do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him. 24:27 For just like the lightning ⁶  comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. 24:28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures ⁷  will gather. ⁸ 

The Arrival of the Son of Man

24:29 “Immediately ⁹  after the suffering ¹⁰  of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. ¹¹  24:30 Then ¹²  the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, ¹³  and ¹⁴  all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They ¹⁵  will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven ¹⁶  with power and great glory. 24:31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven ¹⁷  to the other.

¹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

² tn Or “false christs”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

³ tn Or “Pay attention!” Grk “Behold.”

⁴ tn Grk “they say.” The third person plural is used here as an indefinite and translated “someone” (ExSyn 402).

⁵ tn Or “in the desert.”

⁶ sn The Son of Man’s coming in power will be sudden and obvious like lightning. No one will need to point it out.

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn Grk “will be gathered.” The passive construction has been translated as an active one in English.

⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹⁰ tn Traditionally, “tribulation.”

¹¹ sn An allusion to Isa 13:10, 34:4 (LXX); Joel 2:10. The heavens were seen as the abode of heavenly forces, so their shaking indicates distress in the spiritual realm. Although some take the powers as a reference to bodies in the heavens (like stars and planets, “the heavenly bodies,” NIV) this is not as likely.

¹² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

¹³ tn Or “in the sky”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context.

¹⁴ tn Here τότε (tote, “then”) has not been translated to avoid redundancy in English.

¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

¹⁶ sn An allusion to Dan 7:13. Here is Jesus returning with full authority to judge.

¹⁷ tn Or “of the sky”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context.