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Mat_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 Luk_17:37. The carcase is a metaphorical expression denoting the spiritually dead (Mat_8:22; Luk_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 Mat_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 Mat_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 Mat_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 , Mat_24:31). Similarly such early expositors as Chrysostom (who thinks the angels and martyrs are intended to be included), Jerome, Theophylact ( ὥσπερ ἐπὶ νεκρὸν σῶμα συνάγονται ὀξέως οἱ ἀετοὶ , οὕτω καὶ ἔνθα ἂν εἴη ὁ Χριστός , ἐλεύσονται πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι ), Euthymius Zigabenus, Münster, Luther, Erasmus (“non deerunt capiti sua membra”), Beza, Calvin, Clarius, Zeger, Calovius, Jansen. But how inappropriate and incongruous it would be to compare the Messiah (who is conceived of as τροφὴ πνευματική , Euthymius Zigabenus) to the carcase; which is all the more offensive when, with Jerome, πτῶμα is supposed to contain a reference to the death of Jesus—a view which Calvin rejected. Wittichen in the Jahrb. f. D. Theol. 1862, p. 337, reverses the subjects of comparison, and takes the carcase as representing the Israelitish ἐκλεκτοί , and the eagles as representing the Messiah. But this interpretation is likewise forbidden by the incongruity that would result from the similitude of the carcase so suggestive of the domain of death, as well as by that universal character of the advent to which the context bears testimony. With astonishing disregard of the context, Kaeuffer observes: “ μὴ πιστεύσητε , sc. illis, nam ubi materies ad praedandum, ibi praedatores avidi, h. e. nam in fraudem vestram erit.” On the question as to whether πτῶμα without a qualifying genitive be good Greek, see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 375.
οἱ ἀετοί ] are the carrion-kites (vultur percnopterus, Linnaeus) which the ancients regarded as belonging to the eagle species. See Plin. N. H. x. 3; Aristot. ix. 22. For the similitude, comp. Job_39:30; Hos_8:1; Hab_1:8; Pro_30:17; Eze_39:17.