Luke 17:24 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Luke 17:24
For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
to flash as lightning · verb — present active participle, nominative singular feminine
out of
ἐκek
G1537
literal or figurative · preposition
the one
ἡhē
G3588
the (sometimes to be supplied · article — nominative singular feminine
under
ὑπὸhupo
G5259
under · preposition
heaven
οὐρανὸνouranon
G3772
the sky · noun — accusative singular masculine
shineth
λάμπει,lampei
G2989
to beam · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person singular
unto
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
the other
τῆςtēs
G3588
the (sometimes to be supplied · article — genitive singular feminine
under
ὑπ᾽hup᾽
G5259
under · preposition
heaven
οὐρανὸνouranon
G3772
the sky · noun — accusative singular masculine
so
οὕτωςhoutōs
G3779
in this way (referring to what precedes or follows) · adverb
shall
ἔσομαιésomai
G2071
will be
also
καίkaí
G2532
and
the Son
υἱὸςhuios
G5207
a "son" (sometimes of animals) · noun — nominative singular masculine, a title
of man
ἀνθρώπουanthrōpou
G444
from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι)) · noun — genitive singular masculine, a title
be
ἔσομαιésomai
G2071
will be
in
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
his
αὐτοῦ.¶autou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
day
ἡμέρᾳhēmera
G2250
day · noun — dative singular feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 24:27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Zechariah 9:14 And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go w…
Malachi 4:1-2 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day tha…
Matthew 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of…
Malachi 3:1-2 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, eve…
1 Thessalonians 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
2 Thessalonians 2:2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is a…
James 5:8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Luke 17:20–end
We have here a discourse of Christ's concerning the kingdom of God, that is, the kingdom of the Messiah, which was now shortly to be set up, and of which there was great expectation.
I. Here is the demand of the Pharisees concerning it, which occasioned this discourse. They asked when the kingdom of God should come, forming a notion of it as a temporal kingdom, which should advance the Jewish nation above the nations of the earth. They were impatient to hear some tidings of its approach; they understood, perhaps, that Christ had taught his disciples to pray for the coming of it, and they had long preached that it was at hand. "Now," say the Pharisees, "when will that glorious view open? When…
as lightning . . . so . . . the Son of man--that is it will be as manifest. The Lord speaks here of His coming and manifestation in a prophetically indefinite manner, and in these preparatory words blends into one the distinctive epochs [STIER]. When the whole polity of the Jews, civil and ecclesiastical alike, was broken up at once, and its continuance rendered impossible by the destruction of Jerusalem, it became as manifest to all as the lightning of heaven that the kingdom of God had ceased to exist in its old, and had entered on a new and perfectly different form. So it may be again, ere its final and greatest change at the personal coming of Christ, and of which the words in their high…
As the lightning, that lighteneth - See this particularly explained, Mat 24:27, Mat 24:28 (note).
John Gill on Luke 17:24
For as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven,.... The Syriac version reads, "out of heaven", and the Arabic version, "in heaven"; which is the seat of lightning, and from whence it arises:
and shineth unto the other part under heaven; enlightens the earth, which is under the heaven: though the sense of the words, as they lie in the original text, seems to be, that as the lightning lightens at one end of the heavens, and shines to the other; which is done at once, in a moment, in a twinkling of the eye, and to which agrees the Ethiopic version;
so shall also the son of man be in his day: which is not to be understood of the swift progress of the Gospel, after his re…
The Church Fathers
For this is the clear sign of the second coming of our Saviour, that suddenly the lustre of His coming shall fill the whole world; and so it follows, For as the lightning that lighteneth, &c. For He will not appear walking upon the earth, as any common man, but will illuminate our whole universe, manifesting to all men the radiance of His divinity.
At the end time of the world, he will not descend from heaven obscurely or secretly, but with godlike glory and as dwelling in the light which no one can approach. He declared that his coming will be like the lightning. He was born indeed in the flesh of a woman, to fulfill the dispensation for our sakes. For this reason, he emptied himself, made himself poor, and no longer showed himself in the glory of the Godhead. The season and the necessity of the dispensation summoned him to this humiliation. After his resurrection from the dead, ascension into heaven, and enthronement with God the Father, he will descend again. He will not descend with his glory withdrawn or in the lowliness of human nature. In the majesty of the Father with the companies of the angels guarding him, he will stand before him as God and Lord of all. He will come as the lightning, and not secretly.
And he well says, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, because the judgment will be given under the heaven, that is, in the midst of the air, as the Apostle says, We shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. (1 Thess. 4:17.) But if the Lord shall appear at the Judgment like lightning, then shall no one remain hidden in the deep of his heart, for the very brightness of the Judge pierces through him; we may also take this answer of our Lord to refer to His coming, whereby He comes daily into His Church. For ofttimes have heretics so vexed the Church, by saying that the faith of Christ stands in their own dogma, that the faithful in those times longed that the Lord would if it were possible even for one day return to the earth, and Himself make known what was the true faith. And you shall not see it, because it need not that the Lord should again testify by a bodily presence that which has been spiritually declared by the light of the Gospel, once scattered and diffused throughout the whole world.
Luke 17:11-21
Luke 17:11-21
11. And it happened, while he was going to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and of Galilee. 12. And as he was entering into a certain village, there met him ten men, lepers, who stood at a distance; 13. And, lifting up their voice, said, Jesus, Master, take pity on us. 14. When he saw them, he said, Go, show yourselves to the priests. And it happened that, while they were going, they were cleansed. 15. And one of them, when he saw that he was cleansed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, 16. And fell on his face [335] at his feet, thanking him: and he was a Samaritan. 17. And Jesus answering said, Were not ten cleansed? But where…
People will tell you, ‘Look, there is the Son of Man’: False Messiahs have arisen throughout history, but expectations for the Messiah were particularly high in the first century, as a variety of figures claimed to be God’s agents of deliverance (see Acts 5:36-37; 21:38). Jesus warned his disciples not to follow these imposters. • For as the lightning flashes: Lightning lights up the whole sky and is visible to everyone in the area. Similarly, when Jesus suddenly returns, it will be evident to everyone.
