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“Vultures” or “Eagles” in Luke 17?

By January 1, 1996November 9th, 2022No Comments

Q.

A sentence that truly puzzles me is found in Luke 17:37, where the King James Version uses the word “eagles,” but other versions use the word “vultures.” Why is there a difference?

A.
Either word can be used, because they are virtually synonymous. In our present-day thinking, the word “vultures” probably depicts more vividly what is going to take place in this passage and in Matthew 24:28:

For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

The setting of the Battle of Armageddon described in Revelation 19:17 and 18:

And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the, flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

The carnage at Armageddon will be so bad that an angel will call fowls to eat the flesh of those who die in the greatest war of all time.

This article appeared in the “Q & A” column of the Baptist Bulletin (January 1996) by Norman A. Olson. 

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