Matthew 24:28

Carcase (πτῶμα) From πίπτω, to fall. Originally a fall, and thence a fallen body; a corpse. Compare Lat. cadaver, from cado, to fall. See Mark 6:29; Revelation 11:8. On the saying itself, compare Job 39:30. Eagles (ἀετιό) Rev. puts vultures in margin. The griffon vulture is meant, which surpasses the eagle in size and power. Aristotle notes how this bird scents its prey from afar, and congregates in the wake of an army. In the Russian war vast numbers were collected in the Crimea, and remained until the end of the campaign in the neighborhood of the camp, although previously scarcely known in the country.

28 . wheresoever the carcase is ] The spiritual perception will discern when the Lord comes and where, by a subtle sense like that by which the vulture is cognisant of his distant prey. Another interpretation fixes upon the idea of corruption in the body, and taking the “eagles” to mean the eagles of the Roman standards reads the sense thus: “where the corrupt body of sin lies there will the eagles of vengeance be gathered.” This view is excluded by the division of the prophecy adopted in these notes.

{5} For wheresoever the {m} carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. (5) The only remedy against the furious rage of the world is that of being gathered and joined to Christ. (m) Christ, who will come with speed; and his presence will be with a majesty to whom all will flock, just like Eagles.

Matthew 24:28 . πτῶμα , carcase, as in Matthew 14:12 , q.v. — ἀετοί , eagles, doubtless the carrion vultures are meant. The reference of this proverbial saying, as old as the book of Job ( Job 39:30 ), in this place is not clear. In the best text it comes in without connecting particle, the γὰρ of T. R. being wanting. If we connect it with Matthew 24:27 the idea will be that Messiah’s judicial function will be as universal as His appearance (Meyer and Weiss). But does not Matthew 24:28 as well as Matthew 24:27 refer to what is said about the false Christs, and mean: heed not these pretended Saviours; Israel cannot be saved: she is dead and must become the prey of the vultures? (So Lutteroth.) In this view the Jewish people are the carcase and the Roman army the eagles.

(28) Wheresoever the carcase is. —Two interpretations of this verse may, without much risk of error, be at once rejected:—(1) That which sees in the “eagles” the well-known symbols of the strength of the Roman legions, and in the “carcass” the decayed and corrupted Judaism which those legions came to destroy. This, true as far as it goes, is too narrow and localised in its range for so wide and far-reaching a comparison. (2) The strange fantastic imagination of many of the Fathers that the “carcass” is Christ Himself, as crucified and slain, and that the eagles are His true saints and servants who hasten to meet Him in His coming. Those who picture to themselves with what purpose and with what results the vultures of the East swoop down on the carrion which they scent far off upon the breeze, will surely find such an explanation at once revolting and irrational. What the enigmatic proverb (if indeed it be enigmatic) means, is that wherever life is gone, wherever a church or nation is decaying and putrescent, there to the end of time will God’s ministers of vengeance, the vultures that do their work of destruction, and so leave room for new forms of life by sweeping off that which was “ready to vanish away” (comp. Hebrews 8:13 for the phrase and thought), assuredly be found. What the disciples should witness in the fall of Jerusalem would repeat itself scores of times in the world’s history, and be fulfilled on the largest scale at the end of all things.

Matthew 24:28 . Ὅπου γὰρ κ . τ . λ ., for where , etc.) This adage is combined here with the mention of the false teachers which occurs in Matthew 24:23 ; but in Luke 17:37 ; Luke 17:31-32 , with that of sufferings caused by war. The carcase , therefore, must be carnal Judaism, devoid of that life by which the body of Christ is sustained, and yet boasting some appearance of a body, upon which, as upon a carcase left to them, the eagles will pounce greedily and in great numbers.—( συναχθήσονται , will be gathered together —the future tense.) Christ, however, who comes as the lightning, is not to be sought for at that carcase; Matthew 24:23 ; Matthew 24:27 . All kinds of eagles are not carnivorous, but only some species;[1050] cf. Job 39:30 . These eagles are partly the false Christs and false prophets, partly the Roman forces. The Romans bore an eagle on their standards, and were not the first nation who did so; and some are of opinion that the eagle in this passage, and the boar in Psalm 80:14 (13) allude to their military standards; cf. Hosea 8:1 . [1050] Bengel would seem to mean, they do not all feed on carrion, as vultures do. The Greek word comprehends both tribes, the latter of which are probably meant in the text.—(I. B.)

Matthew 24:28 . Confirmation of the truth that the advent will announce its presence everywhere, and that from the point of view of the retributive punishment which the coming One will be called upon everywhere to execute. The emphasis of this figurative adage is on ὅπου ἐὰν ᾖ and ἐκεῖ : “ Wherever the carcase may happen to be, there will the eagles be gathered together,”—on no spot where there is a carcase will this gathering fail, so that, when the Messiah shall have come, He will reveal Himself everywhere in this aspect also (namely, as an avenger). Such is the sense in which this saying was evidently understood as early as the time of Luke 17:37 . The carcase is a metaphorical expression denoting the spiritually dead ( Matthew 8:22 ; Luke 16:24 ) who are doomed to the Messianic ἀπώλεια , while the words συναχθήσονται (namely, at the advent) οἱ ἀετοί convey the same idea as that expressed in Matthew 13:41 , and which is as follows: the angels , who are sent forth by the Messiah for the purpose, συλλέξουσιν ἐκ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ πάντα τὰ σκάνδαλα , καὶ βαλοῦσιν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν κάμινον τοῦ πυρός , the only difference being, that in our passage the prophetic imagery depicting the mode of punishment is not that of consuming by fire, and that for the simple reason that the latter would not harmonize with the idea of the carcase and the eagles (Bleek, Luthardt, Auberlen).

Others (Lightfoot, Hammond, Clericus, Wolf, Wetstein) have erroneously supposed that the carcase alludes to Jerusalem or the Jews , and that the eagles are intended to denote the Roman legions with their standards (Xen. Anab , i. 10. 12; Plut. Mar. 23). But it is the advent that is in question; while, according to Matthew 24:23-27 , ὅπου ἐὰν ᾖ cannot be taken as referring to any one particular locality, so that Hoelemann is also in error, inasmuch as, though he interprets the eagles as representing the Messiah and His angel-hosts , he nevertheless understands the carcase to mean Jerusalem as intended to form the central scene of the advent. It is no less mistaken to explain the latter of “the corpses of Judaism ” (Hilgenfeld), on the ground that, as Keim also supposes, Christ means to represent Himself “as Him who is to win the spoils amid the physical and moral ruins of Israel .” According to Cremer, the carcase denotes the anti-Messianic agitation previously described, which is destined to be suppressed and punished by the imperial power (the eagles). This view is erroneous; for, according to Matthew 24:27 , the συναχθ . οἱ ἀετοί can only represent the παρουσία τ . υἱοῦ τ . ἀνθρ . Fritzsche and Fleck, p. 384: “ubi Messias , ibi homines, qui ejus potestatis futuri sint ” ( οἱ ἐκλεκτοί , Matthew 24:31 ).