Matthew 13:10
13:10 Then 1 the disciples came to him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
Matthew 17:10
17:10 The disciples asked him,
2 “Why then do the experts in the law
3 say that Elijah must come first?”
Matthew 19:3
19:3 Then some Pharisees 4 came to him in order to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful 5 to divorce a wife for any cause?” 6
Matthew 19:10
19:10 The
7 disciples said to him, “If this is the case of a husband with a wife, it is better not to marry!”
Matthew 27:13
27:13 Then Pilate said to him, “Don’t you hear how many charges they are bringing against you?”
1 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
2 tn Grk “asked him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant and has not been translated.
3 tn Or “do the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
3 tn Grk “And Pharisees.”
4 tc ‡ Most mss have either ἀνθρώπῳ (anqrwpw, “for a man” [so א2 C D W Θ 087 Ë1,13 33 Ï latt]) or ἀνδρί (andri, “for a husband” [1424c pc]) before the infinitive ἀπολῦσαι (apolusai, “to divorce”). The latter reading is an assimilation to the parallel in Mark; the former reading may have been motivated by the clarification needed (especially to give the following αὐτοῦ [autou, “his”] an antecedent). But a few significant mss (א* B L Γ 579 [700] 1424* pc) have neither noun. As the harder reading, it seems to best explain the rise of the others. NA27, however, reads ἀνθρώπῳ here.
5 sn The question of the Pharisees was anything but sincere; they were asking it to test him. Jesus was now in the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas (i.e., Judea and beyond the Jordan) and it is likely that the Pharisees were hoping he might answer the question of divorce in a way similar to John the Baptist and so suffer the same fate as John, i.e., death at the hands of Herod (cf. 14:1-12). Jesus answered the question not on the basis of rabbinic custom and the debate over Deut 24:1, but rather from the account of creation and God’s original design.
4 tc ‡ Some significant witnesses, along with the majority of later mss (Ì25 C D L W Z 078 Ë1,13 33 Ï lat sy samss bo), read αὐτοῦ (autou, “his”) after μαθηταί (maqhtai, “disciples”), but this looks to be a clarifying reading. Other early and important witnesses lack the pronoun (Ì71vid א B Θ e ff1 g1 sams mae), the reading adopted here. NA27 includes the pronoun in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.