Vultures or Eagles?

[faithbound]

Can someone please help me to understand Luke 17:34-37? Does this answer the question to why the left behind Baptist use this verse for their justification? Plus there are different versions that use eagles and some that use vultures, which is it and how am I suppose to understand this verse?
Thank you and God Bless.

 

[Huiou_Theou]

As a side point, Eagles are scavengers as well as hunters.
In a sense they are a powerful vulture.

As to the verse,
I have no official Catholic interpretation of how you ‘should’ understand it, but here’s a few thoughts.

KJV

Luke17:34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
Luke17:35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Luke17:36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Luke17:37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

First of all, notice there is not an indication of whether it is the justified who are taken (believers) or the unjustified in the passage itself.

In the parable of the wheat and the tares, the tares are gathered to be burned.

In the passage, verse 37, where are they taken? or “where” is the seperation.
If it is the former, then it is to death where the viltures will feed.
If it is the latter, then consider the judgement of the world:

The world was judged, and redemtion worked “where” the crucifixion happened. Vengence is the lords.

Hope that is a start for you.

 

[Verbum]

Hi Faithbound,

In the Middle East, at least, there are eagles species that are scavengers…That would correspond to our vultures. That is why, although the Greek says “eagle”, many translations use “vulture” so people will understand that we are talking about scavengers.

As for Baptists, I don’t know what you are referring to.

Verbum

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

Huiou Theou:

As a side point, Eagles are scavengers as well as hunters.
In a sense they are a powerful vulture.

As to the verse,
I have no official Catholic interpretation of how you ‘should’ understand it, but here’s a few thoughts.

KJV

First of all, notice there is not an indication of whether it is the justified who are taken (believers) or the unjustified in the passage itself.

In the parable of the wheat and the tares, the tares are gathered to be burned.

In the passage, verse 37, where are they taken? or “where” is the seperation.
If it is the former, then it is to death where the viltures will feed.
If it is the latter, then consider the judgement of the world:

The world was judged, and redemtion worked “where” the crucifixion happened. Vengence is the lords.

Hope that is a start for you.

As a footnote: “eagles” may also refer to the eagle standards of the Roman legions, and be a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in AD 70.​

A reference to Ezekiel 38 & 39 is also possible, for the birds of the air eat the flesh of those who fall in the apocalyptic battle which destroys “Gog” and “Magog” - and the Revelation draws on these chapters.

blueletterbible.org/tmp_dir/words/g/1116875094-3966.html

Jer 19:9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

[Cannibalism during the siege of Jerusalem is recorded by the historian Josephus.]

:18Eze 39 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.

Compare with this:

blueletterbible.org/kjv/Rev/Rev019.html

Rev 19:17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

Rev 19:18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all [men, both] free and bond, both small and great.

See more at: blueletterbible.org/tmp_dir/words/e/1116874918-6339.html ##

 

[catholic2]

faithbound:

Can someone please help me to understand Luke 17:34-37? Does this answer the question to why the left behind Baptist use this verse for their justification? Plus there are different versions that use eagles and some that use vultures, which is it and how am I suppose to understand this verse?
Thank you and God Bless.

Take the verse in context from v20 on. Here the discussion is on the coming of the Son of Man.
v30: “In the same wise will it be on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”

v37: “He said to them, ‘Wherever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together’.”

The body is the Son of Man, and the eagles (or vultures) are those who are “raptured” to meet Him in the sky. It is a poignant allusion to our Lord when He said that unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you shall not have life within you.

shalom

 

[catholic2]

The original Greek uses the word for Eagles in Luke.

There is another Greek word for Vulture which is found in Deuteronomy 14:12-13, where both the words for eagle and vulture are used in the Greek Septuagint.