Matthew 24:23-28

24:23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ ¹  or ‘There he is!’ do not believe him. 24:24 For false messiahs ²  and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 24:25 Remember, ³  I have told you ahead of time. 24:26 So then, if someone ⁴  says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ ⁵  do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him. 24:27 For just like the lightning ⁶  comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. 24:28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures ⁷  will gather. ⁸ 

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¹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

sn See the note on Christ in 1:16.

² tn Or “false christs”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

³ tn Or “Pay attention!” Grk “Behold.”

⁴ tn Grk “they say.” The third person plural is used here as an indefinite and translated “someone” (ExSyn 402).

⁵ tn Or “in the desert.”

⁶ sn The Son of Man’s coming in power will be sudden and obvious like lightning. No one will need to point it out.

⁷ tn The same Greek term can refer to “eagles” or “vultures” (L&N 4.42; BDAG 22 s.v. ἀετός), but in this context it must mean vultures because the gruesome image is one of dead bodies being consumed by scavengers.

sn Jesus’ answer is that when the judgment comes, the scenes of death will be obvious and so will the location of the judgment. See also Luke 17:37.

⁸ tn Grk “will be gathered.” The passive construction has been translated as an active one in English.