Matthew 24:23-31
Context24:23 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
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.
[24:23] 1 tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”
[24:24] 2 tn Or “false christs”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”
[24:25] 3 tn Or “Pay attention!” Grk “Behold.”
[24:26] 4 tn Grk “they say.” The third person plural is used here as an indefinite and translated “someone” (ExSyn 402).
[24:26] 5 tn Or “in the desert.”
[24:27] 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.
[24:28] 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.
[24:28] 8 tn Grk “will be gathered.” The passive construction has been translated as an active one in English.
[24:29] 9 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
[24:29] 10 tn Traditionally, “tribulation.”
[24:29] 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.
[24:30] 12 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
[24:30] 13 tn Or “in the sky”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context.
[24:30] 14 tn Here τότε (tote, “then”) has not been translated to avoid redundancy in English.
[24:30] 15 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
[24:30] 16 sn An allusion to Dan 7:13. Here is Jesus returning with full authority to judge.
[24:31] 17 tn Or “of the sky”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context.