Lukas 17:22-24

The Coming of the Son of Man

17:22 Then ¹  he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days ²  of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 17:23 Then people ³  will say to you, ‘Look, there he is!’ ⁴  or ‘Look, here he is!’ Do not go out or chase after them. ⁵  17:24 For just like the lightning flashes ⁶  and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. ⁷ 

[17:22]  ¹ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[17:22]  ² sn This is a reference to the days of the full manifestation of Jesus’ power in a fully established kingdom. The reference to “days” instead of “day” is unusual, appearing only here and in v. 26, but it may be motivated merely by parallelism with the “days” of Noah there and the “days of Lot” in v. 28.

[17:23]  ³ tn Grk “And they will say.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general. Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[17:23]  ⁴ tn The words “he is” here and in the following clause are understood and have been supplied from the context.

[17:23]  ⁵ sn Do not go out or chase after them. There will be no need to search for the Son of Man at his coming, though many will falsely claim its arrival.

[17:24]  ⁶ sn The Son of Man’s coming in power will be sudden and obvious like lightning. No one will need to point it out.

[17:24]  ⁷ tc Some very important mss (Ì⁷⁵ B D it sa) lack the words ἐν τῇ ἡμέρα αὐτοῦ (en th Jhmera autou, “in his day”), but the words are included in א A L W Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 Ï lat sy bo. On the one hand, the shorter reading is impressive because it has some of the best Alexandrian and Western witnesses in support; on the other hand, the expression ἐν τῇ ἡμέρα αὐτοῦ is unusual (found nowhere else in the NT), and may be considered the harder reading. A decision is difficult, but it is probably best to retain the words. NA²⁷ rightly has the words in brackets, expressing doubt as to their authenticity.