Re: AETOS in Matt 24:28

From: Steven Cox (scox@ns1.chinaonline.com.cn.net)
Date: Wed Mar 04 1998 - 09:22:51 EST


        Hello Andrew
        I don't know any more than BAGD's comment that Aristotle
        and Pliny also class the vulture among the eagles. As the
        eagle was unclean to a Jewish audience (all the more so
        for being a standard of the occupying unclean army) does
        it make any difference which carrion bird is meant? Given
        the stars and stripes associations of "eagle" in English
        then "vulture" may be a better rendering.

        What I've always wondered about Matt24:28 and Luke 17:37
        is whether some kind of ABBA structure comparing the
        pseudochrists with carrion was intended.

        Thoughts?
        Steven

At 13:03 98/03/04 +1100, Andrew Bromage wrote:
>G'day all.
>
>Does anyone know what AETOS in Matt 24:28 refers to? It literally
>means "eagle" (no doubt an allusion to a standard of some army or
>other), however some modern translations (NRSV and NIV in particular)
>suggest "vulture", probably because eagles tend not to search for
>PTWMA.
>
>One commentary suggested that in this verse it could have referred to a
>vulture which resembles an eagle. Not being an ornithologist, I don't
>know if such a bird exists, but I'll take their word for it.
>
>Does anyone have any ideas on what this bird might be?
>
>Cheers,
>Andrew Bromage
>



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