John Topel, «What Kind of a Sign are Vultures? Luke 17,37b», Vol. 84 (2003) 403-411
The only consensus about the meaning of Jesus' proverb in Q, Matthew or Luke is that it is enigmatic. But closer attention to the trope itself and its literary context may give clues to its meaning in Luke 17. The two principal preoccupations of exegetes are 1) whether aetoi means eagles or vultures, and 2) how to define the literary context in which the proverb is to be read: does it refer to the coming day of the Son of Man (17,22-34) or of the last judgment (17,34-35)? This paper argues that aetoi here must mean vultures and the appropriate context for the interpretation of the proverb is the whole speech, for which its serves as the conclusion. There is a curious interplay between the Pharisees' "When" (v. 20) and the "Where?" (v. 37a) of the disciples. Attending to the polysemic possibilities of the proverb provides a meaning which knits the whole speech together.
answer that there will be no signs of (the time of) its arrival (17,20c) is the topic sentence for the whole discourse. He gives two reasons for this denial: 1) God's Reign will not arrive after signs of its future coming36 because it is already present among them (17,21d). But, turning to his disciples, he takes up their longings for a future and perfect Reign corresponding to the Pharisees' expectation. He equates that Reign with one of the days of the Son of Man (17,22) and tells them that he will not appear where "observers" want to point him out (17,23). This day will have no advance signs, because 2) it will come as suddenly as lightning flashes across the whole sky (17,24). Not only is there no way of predicting when the first (or subsequent) bolts of lightning will occur, but the first appearance of it does not presage its nearly simultaneous occurrence elsewhere in the sky, for it fills up the whole sky instantaneously37. The argument of the whole discourse is that the appearance of the Reign of God will be so sudden that there will be no time to say, "Here it is!" In 17,26-30 Jesus gives two examples from the Jewish tradition which emphasize the unexpectedness and suddenness of the coming of the Son of Man. Just as unexpectedly as the flood, and the fire and brimstone, caught Noah and Lot's neighbors in eating, drinking, marrying, buying and selling, planting and building - all natural events expecting and promoting continuity in life - so the day of the Son of Man, by its suddenness, will catch the disciples without advance warning. When disaster suddenly threatens, one spontaneously grabs one's most treasured possession before fleeing, but Jesus reinforces the suddenness and immediacy of that day by injunctions not to gather up their belongings (17,31), nor look back at the life they are leaving (17,32). What they are going into is a different life than the one they are clinging to (17,33). Presumably one shares an imminent fate with one's bedfellow, or with one's partner at work, but the Son of Man's judgment will take one and leave the other so suddenly that they will have no chance to change their status (17,34-35).
Luke concludes the speech (and provides the immediate context for the proverb) with the obtuse question of his disciples, whose "Where?" echoes the Pharisees' "When?" already so clearly rejected by Jesus38. When the whole context speaks of suddenness, and the absence of signs, this asking for the location jolts the reader. If this question echoes that of the Pharisees, the reader should expect Jesus to reply, "Neither are there indications of the place". That Jesus does not so reply, could reveal a Jesus exasperated by their dullness: an uncomprehending question gets an incomprehensible answer.