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.
times29; the whole discourse throbs with expectation of the day of the arrival of the Son of Man's judgment and the arrival of the perfect Reign of God.
The besetting problem which leads to this over-emphasis is Zmijewski's decision to make the immediate context of the proverb (the sayings on judgment in 17,34-35) determine the meaning of the proverb for the speech as a whole. But this procedure is dubious here, for two reasons. First, the disciples' question and Jesus' proverbial answer in 17,37 do not flow naturally out of 17,34-35; both a casual and a critical reader experience a disconcerting break between 17,35 and 17,37. The pou=, without any predicate or substantives, remains undefined, unconnected to 17,34-35. Further, if Luke had wanted to anchor the proverb in 17,34-35 he could have done so by changing the singular sw=ma to the plural sw/mata "corpses" to refer to the bodies "being left" and "being taken" in 17,34-3530. For these reasons commentators have taken the proverb to refer to the whole discourse's question about the time and signs of the Son of Man's return as judge to usher in the reign of God.
Secondly, if, as Zmiejewski himself and many commentators say31, Luke really meant the disciples' question to echo the Pharisees' question in 17,20, and so to have the proverb conclude and round off the discourse, then the whole discourse in 17,20-37 is surely the better context in which to interpret the proverb32. Consequently, our exegesis will proceed from a new examination of the context of the sermon as a whole.
The remote context of 17,20-37 is the journey narrative (9,51-19,44)33. On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus teaches the way of discipleship, applying the ethics of the Sermon on the Plain (6,20-49)34.
The proximate context of the proverb is the Pharisees' question, which provokes the discourse: "When is the Reign of God coming?"35 Jesus'