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One Taken, One Left

Week 6 of 6 in The Olivet Discourse, Week by Week

Two men work the same field. Two women turn the same millstone. Then the Son of Man comes, and "one will be taken and one left" (Matthew 24:40-41, ESV). Popular teaching hears the rapture in that sentence, and whole novels have been built on it. Jesus framed it with Noah's flood, and Luke records the disciples asking Him where the taken ones go.

In one sentence: In Matthew 24:40-41 the one taken is removed in judgment and the one left is preserved, as Noah was left when the flood took the rest; this shows that God judges with perfect discernment at His Son's return and keeps a people for His kingdom, and the church's hope of being caught up to Jesus rests on other texts.

Key Takeaways

(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)

Types & Prophecy

Prophecy. Jesus predicts a separation at His coming "immediately after the tribulation of those days" (Matthew 24:29, ESV): the wicked removed, the righteous left to enter the kingdom (Matthew 25:34). Matthew's harvest parables predict the same order: "Gather the weeds first" (13:30, ESV).

Type. The flood is the pattern Jesus Himself chose: "As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man" (24:37, ESV). The flood took the world away; "only Noah was left" (Genesis 7:23, ESV).

Lessons about Jesus

  • Jesus is the Judge who separates. Two people side by side, in the same work, and He parts them without error.
  • Jesus keeps what is His. The one left is the one He preserves through the judgment, as God preserved Noah (2 Peter 2:5).
  • Jesus comes for His church first. On the dispensational reading, "I will come again and will take you to myself" (John 14:3, ESV) is His promise to the disciples, and Paul describes the church caught up to meet Him (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

Memory verses

✝️ Matthew 24:42 (ESV)

42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

✝️ 2 Peter 2:9 (ESV)

9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

Be Transformed

  • Think. Being taken is the danger in this saying. Being left is the mercy. Read the verse the way Jesus framed it, with Noah.
  • Attitude. Rest in the Lord who "knows how to rescue the godly" (2 Peter 2:9, ESV). He does not confuse the two at the mill.
  • Do. Noah was "a herald of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5, ESV) to the world that was taken away. Name one person who works beside you, pray for them by name this week, and look for a way to tell them about Jesus.

Prayer

Father, you saw that Noah was righteous before you, and you kept him through the flood. You know every field and every millstone, and you will separate with perfect justice when your Son Jesus comes. Thank you that you have not destined us for wrath. Keep us awake. Give us courage to speak to the people beside us while there is time.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Study outline

The saying in its two settings

Matthew and Luke place the saying on two different occasions.

Matthew. Jesus sits on the Mount of Olives and the disciples ask Him privately, "what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" (Matthew 24:3, ESV). His answer runs through the tribulation to its end: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days" the heavens are shaken (24:29), the nations "see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (24:30), and the angels "gather his elect from the four winds" (24:31, ESV). Then Jesus turns from the events to the timing. No one knows the day (24:36). It will come the way the flood came (24:37-39). Two will be in the field (24:40-41). "Therefore, stay awake" (24:42, ESV).

So in Matthew the saying sits between the flood and the command to watch, and ten verses after the coming in glory (24:30) that ends the tribulation. The parent study, The Olivet Discourse, works through that whole sequence.

Luke. Earlier, "on the way to Jerusalem" between Samaria and Galilee (Luke 17:11, ESV), the Pharisees ask when the kingdom of God will come (17:20). Jesus then turns to the disciples and speaks of "the days of the Son of Man" (17:22). Luke gives two illustrations: Noah, and Lot. Then comes the saying, in a bed and at the grinding (17:34-35). And Luke alone records the question the disciples ask next.

Luke 17:36, "two men will be in the field," appears in the King James Version. The Legacy Standard Bible's footnote records that early manuscripts omit it, and the ESV prints no verse 36 at all. It matches Matthew 24:40 and changes nothing below.

The verbs, and what decides their meaning

The verbs are παραλαμβάνω (paralambanō, pa-ra-lam-BAH-noh, "take," G3880) and ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, a-FEE-ay-mee, "leave," G863). Both are present passives in Matthew: "one is being taken, one is being left." Louw-Nida codes both under domain 15, physical movement. Lexically neither verb carries a verdict; the verdict comes from context.

The same verb in another sense

Paralambanō is used positively elsewhere, including by Jesus: "I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also" (John 14:3, ESV). The semantic-domain annotation shows the two uses parting company. John 14:3's παραλήμψομαι (paralēmpsomai, from παραλαμβάνω, G3880) is coded Louw-Nida 34.53, the receive or welcome into one's company sense that domain 34 (Association) covers, sharing its slot with δέχομαι (G1209), προσδέχομαι (G4327) and προσλαμβάνομαι (G4355). The two occurrences at Matthew 24:40-41 are coded 15.168, physical movement, the sense of taking someone along with oneself.

Joseph is told "do not fear to take Mary as your wife" (Matthew 1:20) and then "took his wife" (1:24), both παραλαμβάνω, both 34.53. The sense John 14:3 draws on is the one used of a man receiving his bride. The sense at Matthew 24:40-41 is take-along, and Matthew uses it of companions and captors alike: Joseph takes the child and his mother to Egypt (2:13-14), Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountain (17:1) and into Gethsemane (26:37), and the soldiers take Jesus (27:27). The lexicographers coded the two senses apart without reference to anyone's eschatology. The data shows that the verb at 24:40-41 is the take-along verb and not the welcome-into-company verb of John 14:3, and leaves the direction of the taking to the context. That marital sense at John 14:3 belongs to a much larger pattern, worked out in The Bride of Christ.

Noah was the one left

The context is the illustration these two verses complete. "As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man... they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man" (24:37-39, ESV). In that picture the ones removed are the wicked, swept off by the flood. The man left on the earth, preserved through the judgment, is Noah.

Genesis says so in one word. After the flood, "They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark" (Genesis 7:23, ESV). The Hebrew verb is שָׁאַר (shaʾar, sha-AR, H7604, "remain, be left," TWOT 2307). Its noun is שְׁאָר (sheʾar, sheh-AR, H7605, TWOT 2307a), the prophets' word for the remnant: "A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God" (Isaiah 10:21, ESV). The Septuagint renders it with καταλείπω (kataleipō, G2641), "leave behind." In Scripture's first judgment of the whole world, being left is how God saves. Peter's own verbs for Noah are "preserved" (2 Peter 2:5, ESV) and "brought safely through water" (1 Peter 3:20, ESV), and Taken Before Judgment sets out the verbs for Noah, Enoch, Lot and Elijah side by side.

Read as the continuation it grammatically is, "taken" is removal in judgment and "left" is survival. God chose Noah before the rain: "I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation" (Genesis 7:1, ESV). The separation at the flood was God's discernment, made visible.

Matthew's own order: the weeds first

Matthew has already told this story twice. In the parable of the weeds the master says, "Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn" (13:30, ESV). Jesus explains it: "The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers" (13:41, ESV), and then "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (13:43, ESV). The parable of the net says the same: "The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous" (13:49, ESV).

At the end of the age in Matthew, the wicked are removed from among the righteous, and the wheat is gathered into the barn, the kingdom of their Father (13:30, 43). The weeds are gathered out of the kingdom and the wheat into it. The sheep and goats close the discourse the same way. The King says to those on His right, "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (25:34, ESV), and the others "go away into eternal punishment" (25:46, ESV). This shows that God judges as a shepherd who knows His own. He parts people who stood side by side, and He makes no mistakes.

Luke's answer to "where?"

Luke uses the same verb pair at 17:34-35, and there the disciples ask the question Matthew does not record: "Where, Lord?" Jesus answers, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather" (Luke 17:37, ESV).

Carrion birds over a corpse are battlefield imagery, standard in both Greco-Roman writing and Scripture for the aftermath of slaughter: "birds of the air" (Deuteronomy 28:26, ESV), "birds of every sort" (Ezekiel 39:17, ESV), and the same picture at 1 Samuel 17:44 and Psalm 79:1-2. The Greek is ἀετός (aetos, G105), "eagle," and the Legacy Standard Bible footnotes "Or eagles"; Job 39:27-30 describes the eagle in the same terms, "where the slain are, there is he" (39:30, ESV), so the carrion sense holds on either rendering. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible makes the same observation from ancient sources (note on Luke 17:37). And Luke's verb for the vultures gathering is ἐπισυναχθήσονται, from ἐπισυνάγω (episynagō, eh-pee-soon-AH-goh, G1996), the verb of the angels gathering the elect at Matthew 24:31. The verb is neutral (eight uses, including a crowd at Luke 12:1 and Jesus gathering Jerusalem's children at Luke 13:34), so it ties the two gatherings to one coming and leaves open who is gathered.

The same proverb stands in Matthew, in a different place: "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather" (Matthew 24:28, ESV). It follows "as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man" (24:27, ESV) and comes before the tribulation ends at 24:29. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible reads the proverb as the public nature of the coming, each verse reinforcing the other (note on Luke 17:37). In Luke it answers "Where?" and in Matthew it stands beside the lightning. It works in both as a picture of a judgment that no one can miss.

The mill detail is domestic and specific. Galilean homes commonly shared a courtyard, and women of different households worked a common millstone together. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible draws the conclusion directly: "despite the closest of associations, one is taken (to judgment, v. 39) but the other is spared" (note on Matthew 24:41). An independent commentary reaches the same reading from the cultural setting.

The case for the other reading

This reading is contested, and good interpreters take the other side. The ESV Study Bible gives both readings at Matthew 24:40-41, judgment first. At Luke 17:34-35 it takes the other: the one taken is caught up to be with Christ. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible calls the question unclear and leans toward salvation (note on Luke 17:34). Their case rests on three things.

The flood's verb is different. Matthew 24:39 says the flood "swept them all away" with αἴρω (airō, G142). The verb for "taken" in 24:40 changes to paralambanō, the verb of John 14:3. On this view the change marks a different kind of taking.

Luke's righteous leave before the fire. Luke's Noah "entered the ark" before the flood came (17:27), and "on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all" (17:29, ESV). In both, the righteous are removed first.

The gathering of 24:31 is close by. The angels have just gathered the elect, so the taken ones may be the gathered ones.

The verb. The switch from airō to paralambanō is real. The domain data above puts Matthew's paralambanō in the take-along sense, which Matthew uses of Jesus taking the three up the mountain and of the soldiers taking Jesus, so the change of verb does not by itself say who takes whom, or to what.

Luke's righteous. Lot is brought out of Sodom and Noah is shut into the ark, and neither leaves the earth: Noah is "left" (Genesis 7:23), "preserved" (2 Peter 2:5) and "brought safely through water" (1 Peter 3:20). In both stories the righteous move to safety on the earth and the judgment then takes everyone else: "the flood came and swept them all away" (Matthew 24:39, ESV), "fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all" (Luke 17:29, ESV). On that pattern the ones taken are the ones the judgment takes. Luke follows Lot's departure with a warning, "Remember Lot's wife" (17:32, ESV), who looked back and became a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26).

The gathering. The elect are gathered at 24:31, and nine verses later one is taken and one left. This study reads the gathered of 24:31 and the left of 24:40-41 as the same righteous, seen from two sides: gathered to the King and left in the land to enter the kingdom (25:34). The ESV Study Bible's second option reads the taken as the gathered, and the neutral verb does not decide between them.

The question "where?" is the disciples' own, and Jesus answers it with a corpse and vultures. This study reads "taken" as judgment, with the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible and the first option of the ESV Study Bible. The NLT Life Application Study Bible reads Luke 17:26-35 the other way, that those who follow Christ "will be taken to be with him." The main point stands on either reading, as the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible says: the return of Jesus separates the saved from the condemned, finally.

Where the rapture fits

This saying is routinely quoted in popular teaching as proof of a pretribulational rapture: taken equals rescued, left equals abandoned. That reading runs against the Noah illustration it completes and against Luke's own answer to "where?"

The dispensational reading places the saying at the end of the tribulation, where Matthew places it (24:29-31). The wicked are taken in judgment. The righteous who survive the tribulation are left, and they enter the kingdom alive (25:34). The church is already with the Lord by then.

The case for a pretribulational rapture rests on other texts: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, John 14:1-4, and the restrainer of 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7. It is made at length in The Rapture of the Church and The Restrainer. Paul's word there is ἁρπάζω (harpazō, G726), "caught up": "we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:17, ESV). That hope stands on those texts whichever way this saying is read.

So the church reads Matthew 24:40-41 as a warning about the day of the Lord and a promise about God's justice. "God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:9, ESV). You belong to the Lord Jesus who will take you to Himself (John 14:3). So you can hear this saying without fear, and let it send you to the person at the next desk.

Discussion Questions

  1. Genesis 7:23 says "only Noah was left," and the Hebrew verb gives the prophets their word for the remnant. How does that change the way you hear "one left" in Matthew 24:40?
  2. Matthew places this saying after "Immediately after the tribulation of those days" (24:29). What does that placement tell you about who is in the field?
  3. In the parable of the weeds the master says, "Gather the weeds first" (Matthew 13:30). Where else in Matthew does the end of the age remove the wicked from among the righteous?
  4. Luke's Lot leaves Sodom before the fire falls (Luke 17:29), yet Luke's disciples are answered with vultures (17:37). How do you hold those two verses together?
  5. John 14:3 promises "I will come again and will take you to myself." What does that promise give you that Matthew 24:40-41 does not?
  6. Two women at one millstone were parted by the Lord's coming. Who works beside you, and what would it look like to pray for them by name this week?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path

The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.

Group study · 40 minutes

One Taken, One Left

Matthew 24:37-41; Luke 17:26-37

The point In Matthew 24:40-41 the one taken is removed in judgment and the one left is preserved, as Noah was left when the flood took the rest; this shows that God judges with perfect discernment at His Son's return and keeps a people for His kingdom, and the church's hope of being caught up to Jesus rests on other texts.

0–5min

Ask: what comes to mind when you hear One Taken, One Left? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

5–12minRead it aloud BSB

Matthew 24:37-41 37As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. 39And they were oblivious until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.

Luke 17:26-37 26Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man: 27People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30It will be just like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31On that day, let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve his possessions. Likewise, let no one in the field return for anything he has left behind. 32Remember Lot’s wife! 33Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed: one will be taken and the other left. 35Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left.” 37“Where, Lord?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”

12–25minLook closer
What does it say?
What did it mean to them?
What does it mean for us?
Page 1 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

One Taken, One Left

The study in brief
  1. The saying in its two settings. Matthew's Mount of Olives after the tribulation, and Luke's road to Jerusalem.
  2. The verbs. Paralambanō and aphiēmi, and the two senses of "take."
  3. Noah was the one left. Genesis 7:23, the remnant, and Matthew's weeds gathered first.
  4. Luke's answer to "where?". The proverb in Luke and in Matthew, a battlefield, and the shared millstone.
  5. The case for the other reading. Three arguments that "taken" means rescued, and the answers.
  6. Where the rapture fits. The dispensational placement, and the texts the church's hope stands on.
Notes
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One Taken, One Left

12–16minStep 1 · The saying in its two settings

1Matthew places this saying after "Immediately after the tribulation of those days" (24:29). What does that placement tell you about who is in the field?

16–20minStep 2 · The verbs

2John 14:3 promises "I will come again and will take you to myself." What does that promise give you that Matthew 24:40-41 does not?

20–24minStep 3 · Noah was the one left

3In the parable of the weeds the master says, "Gather the weeds first" (Matthew 13:30). Where else in Matthew does the end of the age remove the wicked from among the righteous?

Step 4 · Luke's answer to "where?"
24–31minStep 5 · The case for the other reading

4Genesis 7:23 says "only Noah was left," and the Hebrew verb gives the prophets their word for the remnant. How does that change the way you hear "one left" in Matthew 24:40?

5Luke's Lot leaves Sodom before the fire falls (Luke 17:29), yet Luke's disciples are answered with vultures (17:37). How do you hold those two verses together?

Step 6 · Where the rapture fits
31–35minTalk it over

6Two women at one millstone were parted by the Lord's coming. Who works beside you, and what would it look like to pray for them by name this week?

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One Taken, One Left

35–40minBe transformed
  • Think. Being taken is the danger in this saying. Being left is the mercy. Read the verse the way Jesus framed it, with Noah.
  • Attitude. Rest in the Lord who "knows how to rescue the godly" (2 Peter 2:9, ESV). He does not confuse the two at the mill.
  • Do. Noah was "a herald of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5, ESV) to the world that was taken away. Name one person who works beside you, pray for them by name this week, and look for a way to tell them about Jesus.
Memory verse

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

Matthew 24:42 (ESV)
Pray together

Father, you saw that Noah was righteous before you, and you kept him through the flood. You know every field and every millstone, and you will separate with perfect justice when your Son Jesus comes. Thank you that you have not destined us for wrath. Keep us awake. Give us courage to speak to the people beside us while there is time.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Notes
The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/last-things/one-taken-one-left/
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Group study · step by step

One Taken, One Left

Matthew 24:37-41; Luke 17:26-37

Open Ask: what comes to mind when you hear One Taken, One Left? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

Read it aloud Matthew 24:37-41; Luke 17:26-37

Step 1The saying in its two settings — Matthew's Mount of Olives after the tribulation, and Luke's road to Jerusalem.

1Matthew places this saying after "Immediately after the tribulation of those days" (24:29). What does that placement tell you about who is in the field?

Step 2The verbs — Paralambanō and aphiēmi, and the two senses of "take."

2John 14:3 promises "I will come again and will take you to myself." What does that promise give you that Matthew 24:40-41 does not?

Step 3Noah was the one left — Genesis 7:23, the remnant, and Matthew's weeds gathered first.

3In the parable of the weeds the master says, "Gather the weeds first" (Matthew 13:30). Where else in Matthew does the end of the age remove the wicked from among the righteous?

Step 4Luke's answer to "where?" — The proverb in Luke and in Matthew, a battlefield, and the shared millstone.
Step 5The case for the other reading — Three arguments that "taken" means rescued, and the answers.

4Genesis 7:23 says "only Noah was left," and the Hebrew verb gives the prophets their word for the remnant. How does that change the way you hear "one left" in Matthew 24:40?

5Luke's Lot leaves Sodom before the fire falls (Luke 17:29), yet Luke's disciples are answered with vultures (17:37). How do you hold those two verses together?

Step 6Where the rapture fits — The dispensational placement, and the texts the church's hope stands on.
Talk it over

6Two women at one millstone were parted by the Lord's coming. Who works beside you, and what would it look like to pray for them by name this week?

Be transformed
  • Think. Being taken is the danger in this saying. Being left is the mercy. Read the verse the way Jesus framed it, with Noah.
  • Attitude. Rest in the Lord who "knows how to rescue the godly" (2 Peter 2:9, ESV). He does not confuse the two at the mill.
  • Do. Noah was "a herald of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5, ESV) to the world that was taken away. Name one person who works beside you, pray for them by name this week, and look for a way to tell them about Jesus.
Page 1 of 2 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

One Taken, One Left

The point In Matthew 24:40-41 the one taken is removed in judgment and the one left is preserved, as Noah was left when the flood took the rest; this shows that God judges with perfect discernment at His Son's return and keeps a people for His kingdom, and the church's hope of being caught up to Jesus rests on other texts.

The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/last-things/one-taken-one-left/
Page 2 of 2 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission
  • ESV Study Bible (Crossway) — notes on Matthew 24:40-41 (both readings) and Luke 17:34-35 (the one taken caught up to Christ). ESV verse text throughout. Quoted briefly with attribution.
  • NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan) — notes on Matthew 24:41 (the shared millstone; quoted) and Luke 17:37 (carrion birds on battlefields).
  • NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Zondervan) — notes on Luke 17:34 and 17:37.
  • Legacy Standard Bible (Lockman / Three Sixteen) — footnote on Luke 17:36.
  • Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Harris, Archer, Waltke) — root 2307 (שָׁאַר) and 2307a (שְׁאָר).
  • Original-language data from this project's bible-text.db — MACULA Greek (SBLGNT) with Louw-Nida domains for παραλαμβάνω and ἀφίημι; unfoldingWord interlinear for Matthew 24:39-40, Luke 17:34 and 17:37, Genesis 7:23 and Isaiah 10:21; Septuagint lemmas for Genesis 7:23.

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