Luke 17:26-30

“ And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27. They did eat, they drank, they married, and were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark; and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28. Likewise also, as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. ”

While believers sigh with growing ardour for the return of their Lord, carnal security more or less complete takes possession of the race. It is an epoch like those which have preceded all the great catastrophes of history. The business of earthly life is carried through with regularity; but religious feeling gradually disappears from the heart of men who have become secularized. The days of Noe denote the 120 years during which the ark was a-building. ᾿Εξεγαμίζοντο strictly means, were given in marriage, that is to say, young daughters by their parents. The finite verbs ἤσθιον, ἔπινον (Luke 17:28), ἔβρεξε (Luke 17:29), are in apposition to ἐγένετο, and, as such, are still dependent on ὡς. The apodosis does not occur till Luke 17:30. This form is analogous to the Hebrew construction which we have so often observed in Luke (ἐγένετο, with a finite verb for its subject). ῎Εβρεξε is generally regarded as active: God caused it to rain. Comp. Genesis 19:24, καὶ κύριος ἔβρεξεν (Matthew 5:45). But as in this case the ἀπ᾿ οὐρανοῦ would be pleonastic, and as βρέχω is found in Polybius and the later Greek authors in a neuter sense, it is more natural to adopt this sense here, by which we at the same time preserve the parallelism between ἀπώλεσεν (subject, πῦρ καὶ θεῖον) and the ἀπώλεσεν, Luke 17:27 (subject, κατακλυσμός).

The word ἀποκαλύπτεται supposes that Jesus is present, but that a veil conceals His person from the view of the world. All at once the veil is lifted, and the glorified Lord is visible to all. This term occurs again in the same sense, 1 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7; and perhaps 1 Corinthians 3:13. The point of comparison between this event and the examples quoted is the surprise caused in the bosom of security.

Mat 24:37-39 contains a passage parallel to Luke 17:26-27 (the example of Noe). The idea is the same; but the terms are so different, that they forbid us to assume that the two editions proceed from the same text.