Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Read Chapter 24
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
De Trin., i, 12: When He says here, “Knows not,” He means, ‘makes others not to know;’ i.e. He knew not then, so as to tell His disciples; as it was said to Abraham, “Now I know that thou fearest God;” i.e. ‘Now have I caused that thou shouldest know,’ because by the temptation he came to know himself.
Lib. 83, Quaest. Q60: That the Father alone knows may be well understood in the above-mentioned manner of knowing, that He makes the Son to know; but the Sonis said not to know, because be does not make men to know.
Ep. 199, 16: The Gospel then says, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man;” but you say, That neither the month nor the year of His coming can be known. This exactness of yours up to this point seems as if you meant that the year could not be known, but that the week or the decade of years might be known, asthough it was possible to fix or assign it to some seven, ten, or a hundred, or some number of years more or less. If you allow that you cannot so limit it, you think with m...
Two women. Slaves of both sexes were employed in grinding corn. Of these, one shall be carried up to heaven by angels, the other shall be left a prey to devils, on account of her bad life. (Bible de Vence)
In many ancient manuscripts, both Greek and Latin, what we read in St. Luke, (xvii. 34.) of two men in the same bed, one shall be taken, and the other shall be left, is here added.
And has indeed God the Father denied the knowledge of that day to the Son, when He has declared, “All things are committed to me of my Father?” but if any thing has been denied, all things are not committed to Him.
The “two in one bed” are those who preach alike the Lord’s rest after His passion, about which heretics and catholics have the same confession; but because the Catholic Faith preaches the unity of the Godhead of the Father and the Son, and the false creed of the heretics impugns that, therefore shall the Divine judgment decide between the confession of these two by taking one and leaving the other.
In some Latin copies is added here, “neither the Son:” but in the Greek copies, and particularly those of Adamantius and Pierius, it is not found. But because it is read in some, it seems to require our notice.
Whereat Arius and Eunomius rejoice greatly; for say they, He who knows and Hew ho is ignorant cannot be both equal. Against these we answer shortly; Seeing that Jesus, that is, The Word of God, made all times, (for “By him all things were made, and without him was not any thing made that was made, )and that the day of judgment must be in all time, by what reasoning can He who knows the whole be shown to be ignorant of a part? This we will further say; Which is the greater, the knowledge of the Father, or the knowledge of the judgment? If He knows the greater, how can He be ignorant of the less?.
Having then shown that the Son of God cannot be ignorant of the day of the consummation, we must now show a cause why He should be said to be ignorant. When after the resurrection He is ...
And all these things are both proofs that He knew, and calculated to turn them from their inquiry. So for this cause He spoke also of the days of Noe, for this cause He said too, Two shall be on the bed, signifying this, that He should come upon them thus unexpectedly, when they were thus without thought, and two women grinding at the mill, which also of itself is not the employment of them that are taking thought.
And together with this, He declares that as well servants as masters should be both taken and left, both those who are at ease, and those in toil, as well from the one rank as from the other; even as in the Old Testament He says, From him that sits upon the throne to the captive woman that is at the mill. For since He had said, that hardly are the rich saved, He shows that not even these are altogether lost, neither are the poor saved all of them, but both out of these and out of those are men saved, and lost.
And to me He seems to declare, that at night will be the ad...
That you may perceive that it is not owing to ignorance that He is silent of the day and hour of the judgment, He brings forward another token, “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” By this He means that He shall come sudden and unlooked for, and while men are taking their pleasure; of which Paul also speaks, “When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” .
Or, To such as are thoughtlessly disposed, it shall be a time of peace and enjoyment; as the Apostle said not, ‘When there shall be peace,’ but “When they shall say, Peace and safety,” shewing their insensibility to be such as was theirs in the days of Noe, when the wicked, and not the good, indulged themselves, but their end was sorrow and tribulation. This shows also, that when Antichrist shall come, those who are wicked, and despair of their salvation, shall run into illicit pleasures; therefore He chooses an instance suitable. For while the ark was building,...
I have read also in some one’s book, that “the Son” here is not to be taken of the Only-begotten, but of the adopted, for that He would not have put the Angels before the Only-begotten Son, saying, “Not the Angels of heaven, neither the Son.”
And Mark has the addition.
Or, these words denote three orders in the Church. “The two men in the field "denote the order of preachers , whose repose is signified by the bed. But in all these orders are good and bad, righteous and unrighteous, so that some shall be taken, and some left.
Then, He says, when everyone is heedless and engaged in their own work, "the one shall be taken," that is, the righteous man shall be taken to meet the Lord in the air, while the other, that is to say, the sinner, is left behind. Even from among those who are servants and laborers who grind at the mill, the worthy are taken while the unworthy are left. From this we learn that no one, whether servant or woman, is hindered from acquiring virtue.
