English · KJV

Matthew 24:38

“No One Knows the Day or Hour”Matthew 24:36–44
King James Version
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,

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
For G1063 as G5618 in G1722 the days G2250 that were G2258 before G4253 the flood G2627 they were eating G5176 and G2532 drinking G4095, marrying G1060 and G2532 giving in marriage G1547, until G891 the day G2250 that G3739 Noe G3575 entered G1525 into G1519 the ark G2787,

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
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,

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
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 ship,

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
For as in the dayes before the flood, they did eate and drinke, marrie, and giue in mariage, vnto the day that Noe entred into the Arke,

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
for as they were, in the days before the flood, eating, and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, till the day Noah entered into the ark,

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
24 Greek words
  1. ὡςhōsAsG5613PRTParticle or Disjunctive
  2. γὰρgarforG1063CONJConjunction
  3. ἦσανēsanthey wereG1510V-IAI-3PVerb Imperfect Active Indicative 3rd Plural
  4. ἐνeninG1722PREPPreposition
  5. ταῖςtaistheG3588T-DPFDefinite article Dative Plural Feminine
  6. ἡμέραιςhēmeraisdaysG2250N-DPFNoun Dative Plural Feminine
  7. ταῖςtais[the]G3588T-DPFDefinite article Dative Plural Feminine
  8. πρὸprobeforeG4253PREPPreposition
  9. τοῦtoutheG3588T-GSMDefinite article Genitive Singular Masculine
  10. κατακλυσμοῦkataklusmoufloodG2627N-GSMNoun Genitive Singular Masculine
  11. τρώγοντεςtrōgonteseatingG5176V-PAP-NPMVerb Present Active Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
  12. καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
  13. πίνοντεςpinontesdrinkingG4095V-PAP-NPMVerb Present Active Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
  14. γαμοῦντεςgamountesmarryingG1060V-PAP-NPMVerb Present Active Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
  15. καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
  16. γαμίζοντεςgamizontesgiving in marriageG1061V-PAP-NPMVerb Present Active Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
  17. ἄχριachriuntilG891PREPPreposition
  18. ἧςhēsthatG3739R-GSFRelative pronoun Genitive Singular Feminine
  19. ἡμέραςhēmerasdayG2250N-GSFNoun Genitive Singular Feminine
  20. εἰσῆλθενeisēlthenenteredG1525V-2AAI-3SVerb 2nd Aorist Active Indicative 3rd Singular
  21. ΝῶεNōeNoahG3575N-NSM-PNoun Nominative Singular Masculine Individual
  22. εἰςeisintoG1519PREPPreposition
  23. τὴνtēntheG3588T-ASFDefinite article Accusative Singular Feminine
  24. κιβωτόνkibōtonarkG2787N-ASFNoun Accusative Singular Feminine
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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This verse

Before the flood people went on eating, drinking and marrying, wholly taken up with daily life, right up to the day Noah entered the ark.

“For as in the days that were before the flood”

Jesus grounds his warning in a judgment his hearers knew had really happened.

“they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,”

Food and family, the two great concerns of everyday life, carried on as though they would last for ever.

“until the day that Noe entered into the ark,”

One day divided the time of warning from the time of judgment. Noah went in when his long obedience was complete.

No One Knows the Day or Hour

Matthew 24:36–44

Summary

Jesus has just told his disciples the signs that will show his coming is near. Now he tells them that the day and hour themselves belong to the Father alone, hidden even from the angels. His coming will be like the flood in Noah’s day, which found people eating, drinking and marrying until the moment the waters took them away. Two people will be working side by side, and one will be taken and the other left. So he gives one command, to watch and be ready, because the Son of man comes at an hour when we least expect him. The when is hidden, the who is revealed, and the one who is coming is our Lord and Saviour.

Only the Father knows the day and hour

Jesus speaks these words on the Mount of Olives, answering his disciples’ questions about the destruction of the temple, the sign of his coming and the end of the age (Matthew 24:3). He has told them of false Christs, wars, famines and earthquakes (Matthew 24:4–8), of persecution and the gospel preached to all nations (Matthew 24:9–14), of the abomination of desolation (Matthew 24:15–28) and the great tribulation (Matthew 24:21), and of the heavens shaken when the Son of man comes in glory and his angels gather his elect (Matthew 24:29–31). Then came the parable of the fig tree: when you see these things, you know that his coming is near (Matthew 24:32–35).

The “But” of verse 36, the Greek dé, turns from the signs to the moment itself. The signs tell the season, and the exact “day and hour” stay with the Father. The word for day, hēméra, can mean the hours of daylight, a whole day, or a longer period that the context defines. “That day” is the day of the Lord’s return and the close of the age, and “day and hour” together name the precise moment.

Jesus draws the circle of those who know it as small as it can be. “No man” translates oudeís, a word that takes in every human being, so all human insight and calculation falls short here. “No, not the angels of heaven” goes further still, past the angels (ángelos, a messenger), who serve God as his messengers and know much that is hidden from us. “But my Father only” names the one exception with ei mḗ, “except”, and with mónos, “only”, which means sole or single. The knowledge belongs to the Father, patḗr, and to him alone. The verb “knoweth” is eídō, which properly means to see and so to know for certain.

The prophets had already spoken of the Day of the LORD as coming suddenly (Isaiah 13:6–9, Joel 2:1–2), and Jesus speaks in the same line. Many in Israel hoped for a dramatic act of God that would overthrow oppressive powers such as Rome and restore Israel, and the disciples’ question carried that hope. Jesus leaves the timing of that day wholly in the Father’s hands, even for his closest friends. In Mark’s account he says the same (Mark 13:32), and after his resurrection he told the apostles, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power” (Acts 1:7). Paul writes to the Thessalonians in the same way, that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:1–2).

Did the Son himself know the hour?

In Mark the saying runs, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32). People rightly ask how the Son of God could be without this knowledge. The answer lies in who Jesus is, fully God and fully man. As the eternal Son, equal with the Father, he possesses all divine knowledge. In becoming man he “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7), the self-emptying often called kenosis. In his human life on earth he did not draw on everything that was his as God, and this hour was something he left with the Father. The limit lay in how he lived and served as a man, and his divine nature stayed whole. It shows his perfect obedience to the Father and his dependence on him all through his earthly ministry.

Why God keeps the hour hidden

The hidden hour guards God’s rule over history, because his plan is beyond the reach of any man or angel to predict or bend. It also keeps his people awake. If the date were known, people would be tempted to put off getting ready until the last moment, and the knowledge could breed complacency or fanaticism. With the hour unknown, every day is lived in expectation. The parables that follow press this home, the wise and foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1–13) and the talents (Matthew 25:14–30). So the unknown hour calls for faithful stewardship, for the work of making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19–20), and for holy living at all times.

It humbles us as well. Our hope rests on Christ himself and his sure promise to return, and every attempt to fix a date for his coming runs against his own plain words.

Can we know anything about the time?

We can know the season. Jesus gave the signs of Matthew 24:4–31 and told his disciples to learn the parable of the fig tree (Matthew 24:32), and earlier he had called people to discern “the signs of the times” (Matthew 16:3). The watchful believer can see the season draw near. The surprise of Noah’s day falls on a world that refuses to look, while the day and hour remain with the Father.

As the days of Noah were

“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Nōe is the Greek form of Noah, and the name alone called the whole story of the flood to mind for Jesus’ hearers, who knew it well. The comparison describes the character of his coming: sudden, decisive, and finding the world unready. “The days of Noe”, hēméra again, are the whole age before the flood with its moral and spiritual climate. The comparison also makes his coming sure, because the flood came just as God had said.

The word for his coming is parousía. It comes from a verb meaning to be present, and it means a being near, an arrival, a presence. In the New Testament it names Christ’s glorious return, his full presence in power and judgment, and it carried the sense of a king’s visit or an official’s arrival. The one who comes is “the Son of man”, Jesus’ most frequent name for himself. It speaks of his true humanity, and it also points to Daniel’s vision of “one like the Son of man” coming with the clouds of heaven to receive everlasting dominion and glory (Daniel 7:13–14). The teacher on the Mount of Olives is the King and Judge who will come.

What the days of Noah were like

Before the flood, “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5), and the LORD grieved that he had made man and resolved to destroy him from the earth (Genesis 6:5–7). The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence (Genesis 6:11–13). Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD and was righteous in his generation (Genesis 6:8–9). God told him to build the ark (Genesis 6:13–22), and he built it by faith (Hebrews 11:7). Peter calls him “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5), and the ark itself, rising over long years, was a warning anyone could see. Luke records the same comparison, with the days of Lot beside it (Luke 17:26–30).

“They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage”. “Eating” is trṓgō, a verb that first meant to gnaw or chew, used here for the steady habit of meals. “Marrying”, gaméō, is taking a husband or wife, and “giving in marriage”, ekgamízō, is marrying off a daughter, the part parents played in arranging a match. Together they describe a society busy with its food and its families, planning for the generations to come as though the future were secure. The Greek describes all of it as ongoing, a life running on in the same groove.

Then Jesus marks the end of it: “until the day that Noe entered into the ark”. When Noah went in, having finished his long work of obedience, the time of warning was over and the world was caught entirely off guard. The flood that followed is kataklysmós, a deluge that overwhelmed everything, and it stands in Scripture as the great picture of God’s sudden judgment.

Was it wrong to eat, drink and marry?

These things were good in themselves. Food, drink and marriage are God’s gifts and part of the ordinary life he gave us. The evil of Noah’s day lay in the heart, in the wickedness of Genesis 6:5. Jesus names these everyday things because the people were wholly absorbed in them, deaf to God’s warning and heedless of the judgment coming. So the danger he warns of can wear an ordinary face. Being unready is often a quiet indifference to God, carried on through a busy and respectable life.

The flood took them all away

“And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away”. The verb is ginṓskō, to know by perceiving and recognising. The people had Noah’s preaching and the ark before their eyes, and still they stayed unaware, right up to the moment the water came. Their blindness was spiritual, a refusal to heed the warning they had been given. Then the flood “took them all away”. The verb aírō means to lift up, to take up, or to carry off, and here it pictures people swept away by the water, every one of them outside the ark. Jesus closes the comparison with the words he used to open it: “so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

The flood was a judgment in history, and it foreshadows the judgment the Son of man himself will carry out when he separates the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31–46). Peter writes that “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (2 Peter 3:10). God is patient and gives time to repent, and his delay is that opportunity. When he acts, he acts decisively, judging wickedness and keeping safe those who are his.

Christ, the ark of our salvation

Noah and his family were safe inside the ark while the flood took the rest, and Peter links that rescue to baptism and to Christ (1 Peter 3:20–21). Christ is the true ark, the refuge God has provided from the coming judgment. He first came full of grace and truth (John 1:14), as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and through his sacrifice he opened the way of escape. Those who trust him were chosen in him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), are sealed by the Holy Spirit “unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30), and are delivered “from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). The faithful few saved in Noah’s day foreshadow the church. To be ready for the Son of man is to abide in him, who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

One shall be taken, and the other left

“Then shall two be in the field”. “Then”, tóte, places these scenes at the coming of the Son of man. The field, agrós, is farmland or open country, where most people worked in the farming villages of Judea and Galilee. In the next verse “two women shall be grinding at the mill”. To grind, alḗthō, is to crush grain into flour, a hard daily chore done mostly by women. A household mill was two stones, a fixed lower stone and an upper one that turned on it, and two women often worked one mill together, one feeding in the grain while the other turned the stone. The mill was so necessary to life that the law forbade anyone to take a millstone as a pledge for a debt (Deuteronomy 24:6).

Both scenes are as ordinary as life gets. Two people are doing the same work side by side, and in a moment they are parted. The separation comes at an ordinary hour, in the middle of ordinary work, and it reaches every walk of life. It is also personal. What decides each outcome is that person’s own standing with the Lord, whoever happens to be working beside them. Luke gives the same sayings (Luke 17:34–36).

“Taken” translates paralambánō, made of pará, “beside”, and lambánō, “to take”. It means to take alongside, to receive near, to take to oneself. “Left” is aphíēmi, to send away, to leave behind, to let remain, or to forsake. Both words describe a sudden parting, and the question people ask is which way it runs.

Taken in judgment, or taken to the Lord?

Believers differ on what “taken” and “left” mean here, and each reading is held by people who trust every word of the passage.

  • Taken in judgment. Many of us read these verses through the flood that comes just before them. There the ones carried off were the wicked, swept away in judgment, while Noah and his family were kept safe. On this reading the one “taken” is removed in judgment and the one “left” is spared, to inherit the earth or, as some hold, to enter the millennial kingdom. Jesus’ parable of the net speaks of the end of the world in the same way, when “the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just” (Matthew 13:49–50).
  • Taken to be with the Lord. Others read “taken” as Christ gathering his own to himself, in keeping with the root sense of paralambánō, to take to oneself. Paul writes that when the Lord descends from heaven, believers will be “caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, 4:17), and Jesus has just spoken of his angels gathering the elect (Matthew 24:31). On this reading those taken enter the kingdom prepared for them (Matthew 25:34), and those left face judgment, the “everlasting fire” of Matthew 25:41. Those who hold to a rapture before the tribulation take “left” to mean left on earth to face the tribulation. The flood’s “took them all away” in verse 39 is a different verb, aírō.

On both readings the parting is sudden, personal and final, and Christ himself makes it. Scripture shows the great white throne where the dead are judged (Revelation 20:11–15), and Christ “shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:1). His first coming already began the division, for he said, “I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). He came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16). Whoever trusts him is justified by his blood and saved from wrath through him (Romans 5:8–9), and has passed from death unto life (John 5:24).

Watch therefore

“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” From the hidden hour, the flood and the parted workers, Jesus draws one command. “Watch” is grēgoreúō, from a root meaning to wake, so to keep awake and be vigilant. It is an imperative, and it describes a state kept up over time, the wakeful alertness of someone who expects his master. “Therefore”, oûn, ties the command to all that has come before, and “for”, hóti, gives the reason, which is the hidden hour. “Ye know not” is eídō with the Greek negative ou. “Your Lord” is kýrios, the one supreme in authority, the master to whom they belong, so the command carries their own allegiance with it. “Doth come” is érchomai in the present tense, which speaks of a future event as certain and always expected.

Jesus’ hearers knew the watchman of the Old Testament, set over the house of Israel to warn it (Ezekiel 3:17), and the watchmen on city walls and over fields and flocks, whose alertness kept the community safe. Many in Israel looked for the Messiah to set up a triumphant kingdom at once. Jesus teaches his disciples to expect a time of waiting whose length is hidden from them, and to spend it awake. The same command comes again and again: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” (Matthew 26:41), take heed, watch and pray (Mark 13:33), be ready (Luke 12:40), watch and pray always (Luke 21:36), and “let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6).

What watching means

People ask whether watching means working out when Jesus will return. It means the opposite. Jesus gives the command because the hour is hidden, so watching is readiness at every hour, and calculating dates has no part in it. It is a whole way of living. It means staying close to God in prayer and in his Word, turning from sin quickly, and seeking to be reconciled. It means obedience, for “hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3–6). It means using the gifts, time and goods he has entrusted to us for his glory (Matthew 25:14–30), discerning the times, standing firm when faith is tested, and being “ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Watching looks forward with hope, love, and a desire to honour the Lord in all things.

The householder and the thief

“But know this” brings in a lesson from everyday life, with dé again and with ginṓskō, to be aware of something. “The goodman of the house” is oikodespótēs, the master of the household, responsible for its people and its property. “In what watch” uses phylakḗ, one of the divisions of the night. The Romans divided the night into four watches, roughly six to nine in the evening, nine to midnight, midnight to three, and three to six in the morning, and guards and soldiers kept them in turn. The thief, kléptēs, is the burglar who comes by stealth under cover of dark, unannounced.

Houses were often built of mud brick, and a determined thief could dig straight through the wall. That is the sense of “broken up”, diorýssō, to dig through, a forced and destructive entry. The householder who knew the hour “would have watched”, grēgoreúō, the very word of the command in verse 42, and kept his house whole. Since the hour is hidden, the only way to be ready is to be watching through every watch of the night.

Why does Jesus compare his coming to a thief?

The comparison is about the manner of his coming alone. A thief comes suddenly and unannounced, and the Lord’s return will be just as sudden. It says nothing against his character or the goodness of his coming. The same picture runs through the New Testament. The day of the Lord comes “as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10), and the risen Lord warns, “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief” (Revelation 3:3). Luke records the same saying in a passage about being ready for the Son of man (Luke 12:35–40). The broken house pictures the loss that comes on those who are unready, caught asleep by the most important moment of their lives.

Be ye also ready

“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” “Ready” is hétoimos, prepared, adjusted, with everything put in order for an expected event. “Ye also” sets the disciples beside the householder. He would have watched if he had known the hour, and they must be ready at every hour because it is hidden from them. “As ye think not” uses dokéō, to think or suppose, so the Son of man will come at an hour our own reckoning would rule out, and human guesses about the hour will miss it. “Cometh” is again érchomai, stated as certain fact.

Readiness is active. Jesus goes straight on to the servant whom his master finds faithfully at work when he returns (Matthew 24:45–51), and the parable of the ten virgins ends with the same command: “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13). Being ready is a servant’s diligence in his master’s absence, shown in faithful living, obedience and steady service.

What makes us ready

Our readiness rests on what Christ has already done. The Son of man who will come is the Jesus who was born of a virgin (Matthew 1:23), lived a sinless life, offered himself on the cross and said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). He was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection (Romans 1:4), and he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3). There he intercedes for us (Romans 8:34). In him we have redemption through his blood (Ephesians 1:7), and his Spirit dwells in us (Romans 8:9–11). So our watching is a glad response of love and gratitude to the one who has already secured our hope, and he himself makes us ready.

The Lord we are waiting for

The day and hour are hidden, and the one who is coming is revealed. These verses describe the return of Jesus, who first came in humility. God “hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2), and the last days that began with his first coming will be completed by his second. He comes as “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:11–16). He comes bringing his reward, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:12–13), and he has promised, “Surely I come quickly” (Revelation 22:20).

He told his disciples, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself” (John 14:3), words he gave to comfort troubled hearts (John 14:1–3). We wait for “that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Our citizenship is in heaven, and from there we look for the Saviour, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body (Philippians 3:20–21). When he appears, “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2), and everyone who has this hope purifies himself (1 John 3:2–3).

Ready on an ordinary day

The people in these verses are doing ordinary things: eating, marrying, working a field, grinding grain, sleeping in a house at night. The Lord will come into days like ours. So you can meet each ordinary day as one he may choose, and do its work as someone who belongs to him. Watching means keeping your heart awake to him at the table, at work and at home, and receiving his gifts as gifts.

Because the hour is the Father’s, you are free of every chart and calculation, and you can leave the timing with him in trust. What he asks of you is faithfulness today. The ark stood open while Noah’s neighbours went on eating and marrying, and Christ is the refuge God has opened now. Because the one who is coming is the Lamb who died for you and now intercedes for you, his coming is your hope, and you can say with the church at the close of Scripture, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

Last revised

Historical interpretation

Eight Centuries of Reception

9 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

9 quotes · AD 100–856
Ante-NicenePost-NiceneEarly Medieval
100200300400500600700800900

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

AD 100DidacheAnte-NiceneSourceThe Didache, Chapter 16
Watch for your life's sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ye ready, for ye know not the hour in which our Lord cometh. But often shall ye come together, seeking the things which are befitting to your souls: for the whole time of your faith will not profit you, if ye be not made perfect in the last time. For in the last days false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increaseth, they shall hate and persecute and betray one another, and then shall appear the world-deceiver as Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do iniquitous things which have never yet come to pass since the beginning. Then shall the creation of men come into the fire of trial, and many shall be made to stumble and shall perish; but they that endure in their faith shall be saved from under the curse itself. And then shall appear the signs of the truth; first, the sign of an out-spreading in heaven; then the sign of the sound of the trumpet; and the third, the resurrection of the dead; yet not of all, but as it is said: The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him. Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.
d. AD 367Hilary of Poitiersas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
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? (Luke 10:22.) but if any thing has been denied, all things are not committed to Him.

Or, the two in the field, are the two people of believers and unbelievers, whom the day of the Lord shall overtake, as it were in the labours of this life. And they shall be separated, one being taken and the other left; this shows the separation that shall be between believers and unbelievers; when God's wrath is kindled, the saints shall be gathered into His garner, and the unbelievers shall be left as fuel for the fire from heaven. The same is the account to be given of that, Two shall be grinding at the mill. The mill is the work of the Law, but as some of the Jews believed through the Apostles, so some shall believe through Elias, and be justified through faith; and one part shall be taken through this same faith of good works, the other part shall be left unfruitful in the work of the Law, grinding in vain, and never to produce the bread of heavenly food.

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.
AD 380Apostolic ConstitutionsPost-NiceneSourceApostolic Constitutions (Book VII), Section 2, XXXII
For in the last days false prophets shall be multiplied, and such as corrupt the word; and the sheep shall be changed into wolves, and love into hatred: for through the abounding of iniquity the love of many shall wax cold. For men shall hate, and persecute, and betray one another. And then shall appear the deceiver of the world, the enemy of the truth, the prince of lies, [2 Thessalonians 2:3-12] whom the Lord Jesus "shall destroy with the spirit of His mouth, who takes away the wicked with His lips; and many shall be offended at Him. But they that endure to the end, the same shall be saved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven;" [Isaiah 11:4; Matthew 24:1-51] and afterwards shall be the voice of a trumpet by the archangel; and in that interval shall be the revival of those that were asleep. And then shall the Lord come, and all His saints with Him, with a great concussion above the clouds, with the angels of His power, [Matthew 16:27] in the throne of His kingdom, to condemn the devil, the deceiver of the world, and to render to every one according to his deeds. "Then shall the wicked go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous shall go into life eternal," [Matthew 25:46] to inherit those things "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, such things as God has prepared for them that love Him;" [1 Corinthians 2:9] and they shall rejoice in the kingdom of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
d. AD 407John Chrysostomas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
He brings forward the elements of the earth to show that the Church is of more value than either heaven or earth, and that He is Maker of all things.

The Lord having described all the tokens that shall precede His coming, and brought His discourse to the very doors, yet would not name the day; Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the Angels of heaven, but my Father only.

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 the as in we 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. (1 Thess. 5:3.)

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, showing 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 ran into illicit pleasures; therefore He chooses an instance suitable. For while the ark was building, Noe preached among them, foretelling the evils that should come; but those wicked giving no heed to him, wantoned as though no evil should ever come; so now, because many would not believe things future, He makes credible what He says from what has happened. Another token He gives to show how unexpectedly that day shall come, and that He is not ignorant of the day, Then two shall be in the field, one shall be taken and the other left. These words show that masters and servants, they that work, and they that work not, shall be taken or left alike.
d. AD 407John ChrysostomPost-NiceneSourceHomily on the Gospel of Matthew 77
And that thou mayest learn by another thing also, that the silence is not a mark of ignorance on His part, see, together with what we have mentioned, how He sets forth another sign also. "But as in the days of Noah they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that the flood came, and took all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." And these things He spake, showing that He should come on a sudden, and unexpectedly, and when the more part were living luxuriously. For Paul too saith this, writing on this wise, "When they shall speak of peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them;" and to show how unexpected, He said, "as travail upon a woman with child." How then doth He say, "after the tribulation of those days?" For if there be luxury then, and peace, and safety, as Paul saith, how doth He say, "after the tribulation of those days?" If there be luxury, how is there tribulation? Luxury for them that are in a state of insensibility and peace. Therefore He said not, when there is peace, but "when they speak of peace and safety," indicating their insensibility to be such as of those in Noah's time, for that amid such evils they lived in luxury.

But not so the righteous, but they were passing their time in tribulation and dejection. Whereby He shows, that when Antichrist is come, the pursuit of unlawful pleasures shall be more eager among the transgressors, and those that have learnt to despair of their own salvation. Then shall be gluttony, then revellings, and drunkenness. Wherefore also most of all He puts forth an example corresponding to the thing. For like as when the ark was making, they believed not, saith He; but while it was set in the midst of them, proclaiming beforehand the evils that are to come, they, when they saw it, lived in pleasure, just as though nothing dreadful were about to take place; so also now, Antichrist indeed shall appear, after whom is the end, and the punishments at the end, and vengeance intolerable; but they that are held by the intoxication of wickedness shall not so much as perceive the dreadful nature of the things that are on the point of being done. Wherefore also Paul saith, "as travail upon a woman with child," even so shall those fearful and incurable evils come upon them.

And wherefore did He not speak of the ills in Sodom? It was His will to introduce an example embracing all men, and disbelieved after it was foretold. So therefore, as by the more part the things to come are disbelieved, He confirms those things by the past, terrifying their minds. And together with the points I have mentioned, He shows this also, that of the former things also He was the doer.
d. AD 420Jeromeas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
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 foundh 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 He who 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,) (John 1:3.) 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 demanded concerning this day by the Apostles, He answers more openly; It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own power. (Acts 1:7.) Wherein He shows that Himself knows, but that it was not expedient for the Apostles to know, that being in uncertainty of the coming of their Judge, they should live every day as though they were to be judged that day.

It is asked here, how it was said above, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, &c. when here only tokens of peace are spoken of as what shall be then? We must suppose, that after the wars and the other miseries which shall waste the human race, shall follow a short peace, offering rest and quiet to approve the faith of the believers.

Or, Two men in one field shall be found performing the same labour, sowing corn together, but not reaping the same fruit of their labour. The two grinding together we may understand either of the Synagogue and the Church, which seem to grind together in the Law, and to make of the same Scriptures meal of the commandments of God; or of other heresies, which out of both or one Testament, seem to grind meal of their own doctrines.
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceCommentary on Matthew
(Verse 37 onwards) Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. It is asked how the following is written: For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes; and now they should remember those things that are signs of peace. But it is to be considered, according to the Apostle, that after wars, and strife, and plagues, and famines, and earthquakes, and other things by which the human race is devastated, peace will soon follow, which promises tranquility to all, so that the faith of believers may be confirmed, whether they may hope that the judge will come after the evils have been completed. For this is what we read in Paul: When they shall say, peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as the pain of a woman in labor, and they shall not escape (I Thess. V, 3).
d. AD 533Remigius of Rheimsas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Post-NiceneSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
And Mark has the addition. (Mark 13:32.)

Or, these words denote three orders in the Church. The two men in the field (prædicatores.) denote the order of preachers, to whom is committed the field of the Church; by the two grinding at the mill, (conjugati.) the order of the married priests, who while with a divided heart they are called first to one side, then to the other, do, as it were, ever turn round a mill; by the two in one bed, (continentes.) the order of the continent, 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.
d. AD 856Rabanus Maurusas quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274Early MedievalSourceCatena Aurea by Aquinas
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.i

Marriage and meats in themselves are not here condemned, as the error of Marcion and Manichæus teaches; for in the one the continuation of the species, in the other that of life, depends; but what is reproved is an unrestrained use of things lawful.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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