Neither Mark nor Luke mention with a loud trumpet call. Both this literal rendering and Good News Translation: (“The great trumpet will sound”) may be impossible for languages where trumpets cannot “sound” of themselves. One may then translate “When an angel blows a loud blast on a trumpet” or “… makes a blast on a great trumpet.” Good News Translation uses the definite article, “The great trumpet,” but since it has not been referred to previously, perhaps the indefinite “a great trumpet” is better.

His angels: Mark 13.27 has “the angels.” Angels was discussed at 1.20.

His elect are “God’s chosen people,” though the context offers no further explanation.

Heaven is best understood as “sky.” The people of the ancient world thought of the sky as a dome which was positioned over the flat earth, and this is the basis for Good News Translation, “from one end of the world to the other.”

From the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Mark 13.27, “from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven”) may be compressed and translated “from all over the world.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the verse as “When the great trumpet sounds, he will send forth his angels in every direction in order to bring together from all over those people whom he has chosen.”

According to Matthew, the subject of the verb gather is they (“his angels”), whereas in Mark the subject is “he” (“the Son of man”).

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .