Matius 1:19

1:19 Because Joseph, her husband to be, ¹  was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her ²  privately.

Matius 2:6

2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,

for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” ³ 

Matius 2:12

2:12 After being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, ⁴  they went back by another route to their own country.

Matius 2:23

2:23 He came to a town called Nazareth ⁵  and lived there. Then what had been spoken by the prophets was fulfilled, that Jesus ⁶  would be called a Nazarene. ⁷ 

Matius 3:3

3:3 For he is the one about whom Isaiah the prophet had spoken: ⁸ 

“The voice ⁹  of one shouting in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make ¹⁰  his paths straight.’” ¹¹ 

Matius 5:13

Salt and Light

5:13 “You are the salt ¹²  of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, ¹³  how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people.

Matius 6:23

6:23 But if your eye is diseased, ¹⁴  your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Matius 8:34

8:34 Then ¹⁵  the entire town ¹⁶  came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.

Matius 10:2

10:2 Now these are the names of the twelve apostles: ¹⁷  first, Simon ¹⁸  (called Peter), and Andrew his brother; James son of Zebedee and John his brother;

Matius 11:10

11:10 This is the one about whom it is written:

‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, ¹⁹ 

who will prepare your way before you.’ ²⁰ 

Matius 12:13

12:13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and it was restored, ²¹  as healthy as the other.

Matius 13:28

13:28 He said, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So ²²  the slaves replied, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them?’

Matius 15:31

15:31 As a result, the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they praised the God of Israel.

Matius 16:23-24

16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.” ²³  16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to become my follower, ²⁴  he must deny ²⁵  himself, take up his cross, ²⁶  and follow me.

Matius 19:16

The Rich Young Man

19:16 Now ²⁷  someone came up to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to gain eternal life?”

Matius 20:7

20:7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’

Matius 21:13

21:13 And he said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ ²⁸  but you are turning it into a den ²⁹  of robbers!” ³⁰ 

Matius 23:4

23:4 They ³¹  tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing even to lift a finger to move them.

Matius 23:16

23:16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple is bound by nothing. ³²  But whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound by the oath.’

Matius 23:18

23:18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing. ³³  But if anyone swears by the gift on it he is bound by the oath.’

Matius 24:22

24:22 And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Matius 24:26

24:26 So then, if someone ³⁴  says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ ³⁵  do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him.

Matius 26:13

26:13 I tell you the truth, ³⁶  wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

Matius 26:17

The Passover

26:17 Now on the first day of the feast of ³⁷  Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and said, ³⁸  “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?” ³⁹ 

Matius 27:21

27:21 The ⁴⁰  governor asked them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas!”

[1:19]  ¹ tn Grk “husband.” See following note for discussion.

[1:19]  ² tn Or “send her away.”

[1:19]  sn In the Jewish context, “full betrothal was so binding that its breaking required a certificate of divorce, and the death of one party made the other a widow or widower (m. Ketub. 1:2; m. Sota 1:5; m. Git. passim…)” (R. H. Gundry, Matthew: A Commentary on his Literary and Theological Art, 21).

[2:6]  ³ sn A quotation from Mic 5:2.

[2:12]  ⁴ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:23]  ⁵ sn Nazareth was a very small village in the region of Galilee (Galilee lay north of Samaria and Judea). The town was located about 15 mi (25 km) west of the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee. According to Luke 1:26, Mary was living in Nazareth when the birth of Jesus was announced to her.

[2:23]  map For location see Map1 D3; Map2 C2; Map3 D5; Map4 C1; Map5 G3.

[2:23]  ⁶ tn There is no expressed subject of the third person singular verb here; the pronoun “he” is implied. Instead of this pronoun the referent “Jesus” has been supplied in the text to clarify to whom this statement refers.

[2:23]  ⁷ tn The Greek could be indirect discourse (as in the text), or direct discourse (“he will be called a Nazarene”). Judging by the difficulty of finding OT quotations (as implied in the plural “prophets”) to match the wording here, it appears that the author was using a current expression of scorn that conceptually (but not verbally) found its roots in the OT.

[3:3]  ⁸ tn Grk “was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying.” The participle λέγοντος (legonto") is redundant and has not been translated. The passive construction has also been rendered as active in the translation for the sake of English style.

[3:3]  ⁹ tn Or “A voice.”

[3:3]  ¹⁰ sn This call to “make paths straight” in this context is probably an allusion to preparation through repentance.

[3:3]  ¹¹ sn A quotation from Isa 40:3.

[5:13]  ¹² sn Salt was used as seasoning or fertilizer (BDAG 41 s.v. ἅλας a), or as a preservative. If salt ceased to be useful, it was thrown away. With this illustration Jesus warned about a disciple who ceased to follow him.

[5:13]  ¹³ sn The difficulty of this saying is understanding how salt could lose its flavor since its chemical properties cannot change. It is thus often assumed that Jesus was referring to chemically impure salt, perhaps a natural salt which, when exposed to the elements, had all the genuine salt leached out, leaving only the sediment or impurities behind. Others have suggested that the background of the saying is the use of salt blocks by Arab bakers to line the floor of their ovens; under the intense heat these blocks would eventually crystallize and undergo a change in chemical composition, finally being thrown out as unserviceable. A saying in the Talmud (b. Bekhorot 8b) attributed to R. Joshua ben Chananja (ca. a.d. 90), when asked the question “When salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again?” is said to have replied, “By salting it with the afterbirth of a mule.” He was then asked, “Then does the mule (being sterile) bear young?” to which he replied: “Can salt lose its flavor?” The point appears to be that both are impossible. The saying, while admittedly late, suggests that culturally the loss of flavor by salt was regarded as an impossibility. Genuine salt can never lose its flavor. In this case the saying by Jesus here may be similar to Matt 19:24, where it is likewise impossible for the camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle.

[6:23]  ¹⁴ tn Or “if your eye is sick” (L&N 23.149).

[6:23]  sn There may be a slight wordplay here, as this term can also mean “evil,” so the figure uses a term that points to the real meaning of being careful as to what one pays attention to or looks at.

[8:34]  ¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative. 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).

[8:34]  ¹⁶ tn Or “city.”

[10:2]  ¹⁷ sn The term apostles is rare in the gospels, found only here, Mark 3:14, and six more times in Luke (6:13; 9:10; 11:49; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10).

[10:2]  ¹⁸ sn In the various lists of the twelve, Simon (that is, Peter) is always mentioned first (see also Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16; Acts 1:13) and the first four are always the same, though not in the same order after Peter.

[11:10]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “before your face” (an idiom).

[11:10]  ²⁰ sn The quotation is primarily from Mal 3:1 with pronouns from Exod 23:20. Here is the forerunner who points the way to the arrival of God’s salvation. His job is to prepare and guide the people, as the cloud did for Israel in the desert.

[12:13]  ²¹ sn The passive was restored points to healing by God. Now the question became: Would God exercise his power through Jesus, if what Jesus was doing were wrong? Note also Jesus’ “labor.” He simply spoke and it was so.

[13:28]  ²² tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the owner’s statement.

[16:23]  ²³ tn Grk “people.”

[16:24]  ²⁴ tn Grk “to come after me.”

[16:24]  ²⁵ tn This translation better expresses the force of the Greek third person imperative than the traditional “let him deny,” which could be understood as merely permissive.

[16:24]  ²⁶ sn To bear the cross means to accept the rejection of the world for turning to Jesus and following him. Discipleship involves a death that is like a crucifixion; see Gal 6:14.

[19:16]  ²⁷ tn Grk “And behold one came.” 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). Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[21:13]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Isa 56:7.

[21:13]  ²⁹ tn Or “a hideout” (see L&N 1.57).

[21:13]  ³⁰ sn A quotation from Jer 7:11. The meaning of Jesus’ statement about making the temple courts a den of robbers probably operates here at two levels. Not only were the religious leaders robbing the people financially, but because of this they had also robbed them spiritually by stealing from them the opportunity to come to know God genuinely. It is possible that these merchants had recently been moved to this location for convenience.

[23:4]  ³¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[23:16]  ³² tn Grk “Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing.”

[23:18]  ³³ tn Grk “Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing.”

[24:26]  ³⁴ tn Grk “they say.” The third person plural is used here as an indefinite and translated “someone” (ExSyn 402).

[24:26]  ³⁵ tn Or “in the desert.”

[26:13]  ³⁶ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[26:17]  ³⁷ tn The words “the feast of” are not in the Greek text, but have been supplied for clarity.

[26:17]  ³⁸ tn Grk “the disciples came to Jesus, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) has been translated as a finite verb to make the sequence of events clear in English.

[26:17]  ³⁹ sn This required getting a suitable lamb and finding lodging in Jerusalem where the meal could be eaten. The population of the city swelled during the feast, so lodging could be difficult to find. The Passover was celebrated each year in commemoration of the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt; thus it was a feast celebrating redemption (see Exod 12). The Passover lamb was roasted and eaten after sunset in a family group of at least ten people (m. Pesahim 7.13). People ate the meal while reclining (see the note on table in 26:20). It included, besides the lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs as a reminder of Israel’s bitter affliction at the hands of the Egyptians. Four cups of wine mixed with water were also used for the meal. For a further description of the meal and the significance of the wine cups, see E. Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 523-24.

[27:21]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “answering, the governor said to them.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.