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.
of Lev 11,13; Deut 14,12), but in ordinary speech a)eto/j describes both birds16. The unreflective person cannot distinguish one from another in flight, and observers in the ancient world knew that both birds ate carrion17. Thus, in lexical semantics, the paradigmatic meaning of a)eto/j is "a soaring bird of prey." Then the relationships supplied by context would determine its more precise syntagmatic meaning18.
Some clarifications from ornithology might help interpreters and translators specify what Luke may have meant19. The Accipitridae are birds of prey, including hawks, eagles, and Old World vultures20. Eagles are territorial birds, hunting tracts of land by themselves or with their partner. They are equipped with strong feet and talons for striking and gripping live prey and ripping their kill. Old World vultures have weak feet and talons, and so exist off carrion. In general, then, eagles and hawks kill their prey; vultures are scavengers.
A few species of eagles, however, eat a fair amount of carrion. This is mostly opportunistic or need-based behavior (for example, during winter when live prey is scarce). But, as territorial birds, they do not feed in flocks on the same carcass; they will drive off all others if they can. Though in dire necessity vultures will take live prey, they feed almost exclusively on carrion. They congregate around carrion, and many eat at one time on the same carcass21.
Popular proverbial speech is based on general behavior, not on the distinctions of scientists, and so when a proverb describes an a)eto/j as attacking living prey, it is an eagle; when it gathers to feed in a flock on a single carcass, it is a vulture. Our proverb, with its added syntagmatic relationships of carrion and, especially, of the gathering of the flock around one body, may be one of the clearest examples of a)eto/j used of vultures in Greek and biblical literature. In Luke 17,37, then, where the a)etoi/ congregate about a single dead body, Jesus means vultures22.
There are three, or perhaps four, vultures which inhabit or visit Israel today. The most common is the Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus), measuring about 40" from head to tip of tail, with a long neck. Its beak is not large or