Luke 17:35-37

17:35 There will be two women grinding grain together; ¹  one will be taken and the other left.”

17:36 [[EMPTY]] ² 

17:37 Then ³  the disciples ⁴  said ⁵  to him, “Where, ⁶  Lord?” He replied to them, “Where the dead body ⁷  is, there the vultures ⁸  will gather.” ⁹ 

[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.

[17:36]  ² 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.

[17:37]  ³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[17:37]  ⁴ tn Grk “they”; the referent (the disciples, v. 22) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:37]  ⁵ tn Grk “answering, they said to him.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified in the translation.

[17:37]  ⁶ sn The question “Where, Lord?” means, “Where will the judgment take place?”

[17:37]  ⁷ tn Or “corpse.”

[17:37]  ⁸ 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.

[17:37]  ⁹ tn Grk “will be gathered.” The passive construction has been translated as an active one in English.