Jesus Christ · On the Last Things
The Days of Noah
Asked about the timing of His return, Jesus reaches back to the flood — and the comparison He draws is not the one a reader expects. He does not say the last days will look like Genesis 6’s corruption (that account has its own weight, and its own pages here). He says they will look ordinary: eating, drinking, weddings — a world with no idea, in the middle of daily life, that a door is about to shut. And He fences the whole teaching, first, with the one sentence that forbids every date-setter since: of that day and hour knoweth no man.
Of That Day and Hour
— Matthew 24:36 — the teaching's own guardrailBefore the comparison comes the fence. No man knows the day or hour — not the angels, and, in Mark’s wording, “neither the Son, but the Father.” The church has handled that clause carefully since the fourth century, when Arians tried to make the Son’s stated not-knowing an argument against His deity; Jerome’s note below shows the discussion already live in the manuscripts of his day. The orthodox answer has long run through the incarnation: the eternal Son, having taken a true human life, speaks from within its real limits (Phil 2:7; Luke 2:52). What the verse forbids is not confidence in His coming but calendars for it — a prohibition every generation of date-setters has tested and proven.
No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.(Ver. 36.) But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, except the Father alone. In some Latin manuscripts, it is added, not even the Son: since in Greek and especially in the exemplars of Adamantius and Pierius, this is not found written, but because it is read in some, it seems worthy of discussion. Arius and Eunomius rejoice, as if the ignorance of the teacher is the glory of the disciples, and they say: One who knows and one who is ignorant cannot be equal.
Jerome· Commentary on Matthew (420), on Matt 24:36
As It Was, So Shall It Be
— the mirrored days, verb for verbTHE DAYS OF NOAH
- eating
- drinking
- marrying
- giving in marriage
- “and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away”
SO SHALL IT BE
THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN
- eating
- drinking
- marrying
- giving in marriage
- “so shall also the coming of the Son of man be”
Ordinary to the Last Morning
— Matthew 24:37-39 — what the comparison actually saysThe commentators converge on the same observation: the verbs Jesus picks are innocent. Eating and drinking are not sins; weddings are not crimes. The indictment is the word knew not— a generation warned for a century by a preacher building a very large boat, and still surprised by rain. Scripture’s fuller account of what those days held — the corruption, the violence, the strange events of Genesis 6 — stands in its own right and has its own pages here; this passage’s chosen point is narrower and sharper: the coming intersects ordinary life without an appointment.
As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. And they were oblivious, until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.And they entered, the male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.'and the LORD shut him in' — the door, in Genesis's own words.
For as in the days ... - The things mentioned here denote attention to the affairs of this life rather than to what was coming on them. It does not mean that these things were wrong, but only that such was their actual employment, and that they were regardless of what was coming upon them.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Matt 24:38
For as in the days that were before the flood,.... Not all the days before the flood, from the creation of the world; but those immediately preceding it, a century or two before it: they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage: not that these civil actions of life were criminal in themselves, had care been taken that they were not abused.
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748), on Matt 24:38
They knew not - That is, they knew not the exact time until it came upon them. So, says he, it shall be when the Son of man shall come. They shall not know the precise time until he comes, and then they will be found engaged in the ordinary business of life unconcerned.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Matt 24:39
One Taken, One Left
— Matthew 24:40-41 — two readings, both holders in this quarryTwo men in a field; two women at one mill; the same work, the same hour — and a separation neither pair saw coming. Which one should the reader want to be? The church’s commentators answer differently, and both answers are quoted below exactly as they stand in this site’s quarry.
Two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.One is taken - Into God's immediate protection: and one is left - To share the common calamities. Our Lord speaks as having the whole transaction present before his eyes.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Matt 24:40
Then shall two men - two women - one shall be taken, and the other left - The meaning seems to be, that so general should these calamities be, that no two persons, wheresoever found, or about whatsoever employed, should be both able to effect their escape; and that captivity and the sword should have a complete triumph over this unhappy people. Two women shall be grinding - Women alone are still employed in grinding the corn in the east; and it is only when despatch is required, or the uppermost millstone is heavy, that a second woman is added.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Matt 24:40
(Verse 40, 41.) Then there will be two in the field: one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken, and one will be left. Then, He said, there will be two in the field, when, at the time of the consummation and judgment, two will be found in the field having the same labor and almost the same sowing, but not receiving the fruits of labor equally. Two women grinding together will also be there: one will be taken, and one will be left.
Jerome· Commentary on Matthew (420), on Matt 24:40-41
The two readings, and who holds eachtaken to safety, or taken by judgment?
Taken to safety:Wesley reads “taken” as “into God’s immediate protection” — the reading the pre-tribulational school develops fully, hearing here the catching away of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. On this reading the one you want to be is the one taken.
Taken by judgment:Clarke reads the taking as capture — and the passage’s own immediate context leans his way for many readers, since the flood comparison two verses earlier says the flood “took them all away”: the taken ones drowned, and Noah was left. On this reading the one you want to be is the one left.
The readings assign opposite fortunes to the same word, and this site does not referee them here — the rapture question has its own full page, doored above. What both readings preach identically is the verse’s undisputed point: the separation is real, sudden, and runs straight through workplaces and households.
Watch Therefore
— Matthew 24:42-44 — the conclusion Jesus drawsThe unknown hour is not a puzzle to be solved but a posture to be kept. Jesus turns the whole comparison into one command — watch — and one image the apostles never stopped using: the thief, who succeeds precisely because he is not expected. Origen’s note below makes the oldest pastoral application: whatever the world’s timetable, every reader meets an unknown day and hour of their own.
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come. But understand this: If the homeowner had known in which watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.Paul carrying the same image forward — the thief, and the surprised.
All who listen to the depths of the gospel and live it so completely that none of it remains veiled from them care very little about whether the end of the world will come suddenly and all at once or gradually and little by little. Instead, they bear in mind only that each individual's end or death will arrive on a day and hour unknown to him and that upon each one of us "the day of the Lord will come like a thief."
Origen of Alexandria· Commentary on Matthew 56 (253), on Matt 24:39
Where It Points
— the flood as the pattern the New Testament keepsJesus’s use of Noah is not a one-off; Peter builds his whole argument for the coming judgment on the same precedent — a world that scoffed, a long patience, a sudden end (2 Pet 3:3-7). The days of Noah are the Bible’s standing proof that God’s warnings are real, His patience is long, and His door, once shut, is shut.
Closing
A generation ate, drank, and married — and knew not. The comparison is not about how bad the last days will look but about how normal, right up to the moment the Son of Man comes and ordinary life is cut down the middle. The only preparation the passage allows is the one it commands: watch.