Matius 1:18

The Birth of Jesus Christ

1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, ¹  she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Matius 7:25

7:25 The rain fell, the flood ²  came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because it had been founded on rock.

Matius 8:29

8:29 They ³  cried out, “Son of God, leave us alone! ⁴  Have you come here to torment us before the time?” ⁵ 

Matius 11:11

11:11 “I tell you the truth, ⁶  among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least ⁷  in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.

Matius 26:53

26:53 Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and that he would send me more than twelve legions ⁸  of angels right now?

[1:18]  ¹ tn The connotation of the Greek is “before they came together in marital and domestic union” (so BDAG 970 s.v. συνέρχομαι 3).

[7:25]  ² tn Grk “the rivers.”

[8:29]  ³ tn Grk “And behold, they cried out, saying.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1). The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant and has not been translated.

[8:29]  ⁴ tn Grk “what to us and to you?” (an idiom). The phrase τί ἡμῖν καὶ σοί (ti Jhmin kai soi) is Semitic in origin, though it made its way into colloquial Greek (BDAG 275 s.v. ἐγώ). The equivalent Hebrew expression in the OT had two basic meanings: (1) When one person was unjustly bothering another, the injured party could say “What to me and to you?” meaning, “What have I done to you that you should do this to me?” (Judg 11:12, 2 Chr 35:21, 1 Kgs 17:18). (2) When someone was asked to get involved in a matter he felt was no business of his own, he could say to the one asking him, “What to me and to you?” meaning, “That is your business, how am I involved?” (2 Kgs 3:13, Hos 14:8). These nuances were apparently expanded in Greek, but the basic notions of defensive hostility (option 1) and indifference or disengagement (option 2) are still present. BDAG suggests the following as glosses for this expression: What have I to do with you? What have we in common? Leave me alone! Never mind! Hostility between Jesus and the demons is certainly to be understood in this context, hence the translation: “Leave us alone….”

[8:29]  ⁵ sn There was an appointed time in which demons would face their judgment, and they seem to have viewed Jesus’ arrival on the scene as an illegitimate change in God’s plan regarding the time when their sentence would be executed.

[11:11]  ⁶ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[11:11]  ⁷ sn After John comes a shift of eras. The new era is so great that the lowest member of it (the one who is least in the kingdom of God) is greater than the greatest one of the previous era.

[26:53]  ⁸ sn A legion was a Roman army unit of about 6,000 soldiers, so twelve legions would be 72,000.