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Mat_24:31. Καὶ ἀποστελεῖ ] And He will send forth, i.e. from the clouds of heaven, 1Th_4:16-17.
τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ ] the angels specially employed in His service.
μετὰ σάλπιγγος φωνῆς μεγάλ .] with (having as an accompaniment) a trumpet of a loud sound. The second genitive qualifies and is governed by the first; see Buttmann, Neut. Gr. p. 295 [E. T. 343]. The idea is not that the individual angels blow trumpets, but what is meant (Isa_27:13) is the last trumpet (1Co_15:52), the trumpet of God (1Th_4:16), which is sounded while the Messiah is sending forth the angels. The resurrection of believers is also to be understood as taking place on the sound of this trumpet being heard (1 Cor. as above; 1 Thess. as above).
ἐπισυνάξουσι ] gather together (Mat_23:27; 2Th_2:1; 2Ma_1:27; 2Ma_2:18), namely, toward the place where He is in the act of appearing upon earth. This gathering together of the elect, which is to be a gathering from every quarter (comp. Rev_1:7), and from the whole compass of the earth, is an act and accompaniment of the second advent (in answer to Cremer’s distinction, see Hoelemann, p. 171). But the ἁρπάζεσθαι εἰς ἀέρα , to meet the Lord as He approaches (1Th_4:17), is to be regarded as taking place after this gathering together has been effected.
τοὺς ἐκλεκτ . αὐτοῦ ] the elect belonging to Him (chosen by God for the Messianic kingdom, as in Mat_24:22). Comp. Rom_1:6.
ἀπὸ ἄκρων οὐραν .] ab extremitatibus coelorum usque ad extremitates eorum, i.e. from one horizon to the other (for οὐρανῶν without the article, see Winer, p, 115 [E. T. 150]), therefore from the whole earth (Mat_24:14), on which the extremities of the sky seem to rest. Deu_4:32; Deu_30:4; Psa_19:7.
As showing the exegetical abuses to which this grand passage has been subjected, take the following, Lightfoot: “emittet filius homines ministros suos cum tuba evangelica,” etc.; Kuinoel (comp. Wetstein): “in tanta calamitate Judaeis, adversariis religionis Christianae, infligenda, ubivis locorum Christi sectatores per dei providentiam illaesi servabuntur,” etc.; Olshausen: he will send out men armed with the awakening power of the Spirit of God, for the purpose of assembling believers at a place of safety. This is substantially the view of Tholuck also.
It may be observed, moreover, that this passage forbids the view of Köstlin, p. 26, that our Gospel does not contain a specifically Christian, but merely an ethical universalism (as contrasted with Jewish obduracy). See, on the other hand, especially Mat_8:11, Mat_22:9 f., Mat_25:31 ff., Mat_28:19, etc.