A simple mention is to say “the Flood” or “Noah”.
Instead, we have this:
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Jesus is not merely mentioning the days of Noah, but He is comparing them with what will happen at the Second Coming of Jesus. It is necessary for people to know the story of Noah, therefore. Jesus is building a parallel that requires an understanding of Noah and the Flood. This alone is far more than “simply mentioning”. Jesus is building a theological point, using the “days of Noah” as a foundation. Clearly, “the days of Noah” - the story of the flood, is more important than something that is a “simple mention”.
For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,
Jesus now explains what actually was happening in the days before the flood. This is far beyond a “simple mention” - in fact, He is adding to the Old Testament story these details that were not there before.
Plus, is Jesus telling a lie here or not? He explains that there were days before the flood and people were living without regard to God (not that eating or marrying are bad, but that they put focus on those things and not on the prophetic Word).
until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. (Matthew 24:37–39)
Again, the comparison continues. Jesus is using the story of Noah to make an important theological point.
Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on Luke 17:26-37
BEDE; The coming of our Lord, which He had compared to lightning flying swiftly across the heavens,** He now likens to the days of Noah and Lot, when a sudden destruction came upon mankind**.
CHRYS. For refusing to believe the words of warning
they were suddenly visited with a real punishment from God; but their unbelief proceeded from self-indulgence, and softness of mind. For such as a man’s wishes and inclinations are, will also be his expectations. Therefore it follows, they eat and drank.
AMBROSE;
He rightly declares the deluge to have been caused by our sins, for God did not create evil, but our deservings found it out for themselves. Let it not however be supposed that marriages, or again meat and drink, are condemned, seeing that by the one succession is sustained, by the other nature, but moderation is to be sought for in all things. For whatsoever is more than this is of evil.
BEDE; Now Noah builds the ark mystically. The Lord builds His Church of Christ’s faithful servants, by uniting them together in one, as smooth pieces of wood; and when it is perfectly finished, He enters it: as at the day of Judgment, He who ever dwells within His Church enlightens it with His visible presence.
But while the ark is in building, the wicked flourish, when it is entered, they perish; as they who revile the saints in their warfare here, shall when they are crowned hereafter be smitten with eternal condemnation.
EUSEBIUS.
Having used the example of the deluge, that no one might expect a future deluge by water, our Lord cites, secondly, the example of Lot, to show the manner of the destruction of the wicked, namely, that the wrath of God would descend upon them by fire from heaven.
BEDE; Passing by the unutterable wickedness of the Sodomites, He mentions only those which may be thought trifling offenses, or none at all; that you may understand how fearfully unlawful pleasures are punished, when lawful pleasures taken to excess receive for their reward fire and brimstone.
EUSEB. He does not say that fire came down from heaven upon the wicked Sodomites before that Lot went out from them,
just as the deluge did not swallow up the inhabitants of the earth before that Noah entered the ark; for as long as Noah and Lot dwelt with the wicked, God suspended His anger that they might not perish together with the sinners, but when He would destroy those, He withdrew the righteous. So also at the end of the world, the consummation shall not come before all the just are separated from the wicked.
Theophylact: For when Antichrist has come, then shall men become wanton, given up to abominable vices, as the Apostle says, Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. For if Antichrist is the dwelling-place of every sin, what else will he then implant in the miserable race of men, but what belongs to himself.
And this our Lord implies by the instances of the deluge and the people of Sodom.
