Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 24:38
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 24:38-39
And took them all away.
The moral of accidents
I. What are we to think? Let us now collect and enumerate a few thoughts that we ought to think when we are considering sad things that happen.
1. How many accidents are but slight as to the hurt they do in comparison with the service of the lesson they teach.
2. From how many things going to happen we are saved when loss and danger appear imminent.
3. How manifest and honourable are the work and courage of man in averting accidents, and in lessening the harm they do.
4. How incessant is the beneficial operation of the great natural laws, and how varied in kind is their benefit.
5. How careless and untrue is the work of many men; how needful is it that they should have a warning they will heed. And how often, after all, does the right accident happen obviously at the right time and to the right kind of person.
6. How certain it is that unfaithfulness in work will bring disasters, small and great, which are misnamed when we ca!l them accidents; for, though we knew not, we might have known that they were sure to happen. And-
7. How certain it is, too, that, if anything favourable to us unexpectedly occurs, we shall not be able to take advantage of it unless we are men of some resource and some character.
II. We come now to our second question: what are we to do? What are we to do, then? We are not to eat, drink, and marry, careless of the way in which we do these things, and unmindful of our duty to God in them, as if the world, that can take care of itself, would take care of us without any good heed of our own. We are to ask and get answered the question, What must I do to be saved? Let us, seeing that so much we have may at any time be the prey of the spoiler, store up the inconsumable, imperishable riches. Many men have lost their lives by accident; no man ever lost his soul by accident. (T. T. Lynch.)
Noahs flood
Three rules without an exception-
I. the flood came and took them all away.
1. Many in that time were wealthy. Not one rich man could escape with his hoards.
2. There were some in those days who were extremely poor. The pauper out of the ark perished as well as the prince.
3. There were in those days learned men in the world. Their knowledge could not deliver them.
4. There were many who were very zealous in the cause of religion. Their outward religion of no avail.
5. Some of the oldest men that have lived perished.
6. They wondered at Noah building his ark, as contrary to reason; criticised his building; some took his part; some worked for him. All out of Christ perished.
II. The flood found them all eating, drinking, and marrying-this without exception. The mass of men are busy about fleeting interests, and neglect the salvation of their souls. The reason-
1. Mens indifference about their souls.
2. Universal unbelief.
3. That they were always and altogether given to worldliness.
III. All who were in the ark were safe. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 38. See Clarke on Mt 24:37.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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. It is lawful to eat and drink, provided it be in moderation, and not to excess; and to marry, and give in marriage, when the laws, rules, and ends thereof, are observed: and therefore this must be understood, either of their wholly giving themselves up to the pleasures of life, and lusts of the flesh, without any concern about the affairs of religion, the worship and glory of God, the welfare of their souls and their approaching danger, of which Noah had given them warning; or of their luxury and intemperance, in eating and drinking, and of their libidinous and unlawful marriages; for the word here used for eating, signifies eating after the manner of brute beasts: they indulged themselves in a brutish way, in gluttony and drunkenness; and it is certain from the account given of them, in Ge 6:2 that they entered into unlawful marriages, and unclean copulations: wherefore these things may be spoken of them, as what were really sinful and wicked, and denote a course of sinning, a constant practice of these sins of intemperance and lust, and which is still more fully expressed in the next clause:
until the day that Noe entered into the ark. The Arabic version renders it, “the ship”; the vessel which God directed him to make, for the saving of himself and family. Now the men of that generation persisted in their wicked course of living, after, and notwithstanding, the warning God had given them by Noah, of the flood that would come upon them; and all the while the ark was building, even to the very day that Noah and his family, by the order of God, went into the ark.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Were eating ( ). Periphrastic imperfect. The verb means to chew raw vegetables or fruits like nuts or almonds.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
38. Eating and drinking That is, were going on in the regular and unsuspecting current of life. Marrying and giving in marriage Expecting a distant posterity. The words do not necessarily imply special wickedness, but perfect security, anticipating no coming doom. Until the day Narrowing the time to a point. No such day of unexpected and surprising doom came to Jerusalem or the Jewish state. Never did a city or nation die more truly by inches. There was no day of ruin, no hour of surprise.
Thus far the imagery has illustrated the judgment surprise upon the mass of mankind. Two images now, in the two following verses, illustrate the surprise upon individuals.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they did not know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of man.”
So sudden and unexpected would be the final event that most would be caught unawares when the end came. The similarity lies in the fact that in the days before the Flood men ate and drank, and married and gave in marriage, in the same way as they did in Jesus’ day. In other words they lived what seemed like normal everyday lives. But both ignored the preaching of a Preacher of Righteousness (see 2Pe 2:5). The result was that the flood came upon them unexpectedly, and carried them away, in the same way as the coming of the Son of Man will one day do the same with the same unexpectedness.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
Ver. 38. They were eating and drinking ] Wine, likely; because our Saviour hereupon bids his apostles take heed to themselves lest their hearts at any time should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, &c., Luk 21:34 . Like as some do not improbably conjecture, that Nadab and Abihu were in their drink when they offered strange fire, because after they were devoured by fire from the Lord. Aaron and the priests are charged to drink no wine nor strong drink when they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they die, Lev 10:1-2 ; Lev 10:8-9 . St Luke delivers the matter more roundly by an elegant asyndeton, “They ate, they drank, they married,” &c., q.d. they passed without intermission from eating to drinking, from drinking to marrying, &c.; they followed it close, as if it had been their work, and they born for no other end. Of Ninius, second king of Assyrians, nephew haply to these antediluvian belly gods, it is said, that he was old excellent at eating and drinking. a And of Sardanapalus, one of the same line, Cicero tells us that his gut was his god. Summum bonum in ventre, aut sub ventre posuit; and Plutarch, that he hired men to devise new pleasures for him. See my Commonplace of Abstinence.
Until the day ] They were set upon it, and would lose no time. Their destruction was foretold them to a day; they were nothing bettered by it; no more would wicked men, should they foreknow the very instant of Christ’s coming to judgment. Joseph had foretold the famine of Egypt and the time when it should come; but fulness bred forgetfulness, saturity, security; none observed or provided for it. Quod vel inviti norant, non agnoverant.
a
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 24:38 . with the following participles is not an instance of the periphrastic imperfect. It rather stands by itself, and the particles are descriptive predicates. Some charge these with sinister meaning: , hinting at gluttony because often used of beasts, though also, in the sense of eating, of men (Joh 6:58 ; Joh 13:18 ). So Beza and Grotius; , cuphemistically pointing at sexual licences on both sides (Wolf, “omnia vagis libidinibus miscebantur”). The idea rather seems to be that all things went on as usual, as if nothing were going to happen. In the N. T., and especially in the fourth Gospel, seems to be used simply as a synonym for . In like manner all distinction between and (= to feed cattle in classics) has disappeared. Vide Mar 7:27-28 , and consult Kennedy, Sources of New Testament Greek , p. 82.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Noe = Noah.
into. Greek. eis. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 24:38. , eating) This includes the arts of cookery, confectionary, and other matters connected with luxury. They were employed in this, and in nothing else.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
they: Gen 6:2, 1Sa 25:36-38, 1Sa 30:16, 1Sa 30:17, Isa 22:12-14, Eze 16:49, Eze 16:50, Amo 6:3-6, Luk 12:19, Luk 12:45, Luk 14:18-20, Luk 17:26-28, Luk 21:34, Rom 13:13, Rom 13:14, 1Co 7:29-31
Reciprocal: Gen 6:14 – Make Gen 7:7 – General Gen 7:10 – waters Gen 7:11 – all Jdg 16:30 – and the house 1Ki 1:41 – as they 1Ch 1:4 – Noah Job 21:13 – They Job 24:1 – not see Pro 23:34 – thou Jer 16:8 – General Mat 22:5 – one Heb 11:7 – Noah 2Pe 3:6 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
4:38
None of the things mentioned in this verse were wrong. The great mistake was in being wholly absorbed in their temporal interests and not paying any attention to the admonitions of Noah “a preacher of righteousness” (2Pe 2:5).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 24:38. They were eating and drinking, seeking their enjoyment, not expecting the catastrophe. (As they were drinking, it would seem that wine was made before the flood.) The verse does not at all imply that Christs people are to cease their ordinary employments, in expectation of the coming of Christ. Absorption in these things is censured.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were {u} eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
(u) The word which the evangelist uses expresses the matter more fully then ours does: for it is a word which is used of brute beasts: and his meaning is that in those days men will pay attention to their appetites just like brute beasts: for otherwise there is nothing wrong with eating and drinking.