Matius 3:9

3:9 and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

Matius 5:13

Salt and Light

5:13 “You are the salt ¹  of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, ²  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 5:25

5:25 Reach agreement ³  quickly with your accuser while on the way to court, ⁴  or he ⁵  may hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the warden, and you will be thrown into prison.

Matius 6:2

6:2 Thus whenever you do charitable giving, ⁶  do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues ⁷  and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, ⁸  they have their reward.

Matius 8:28

Healing the Gadarene Demoniacs

8:28 When he came to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, ⁹  two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were extremely violent, so that no one was able to pass by that way.

Matius 9:15

9:15 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests ¹⁰  cannot mourn while the bridegroom ¹¹  is with them, can they? But the days ¹²  are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, ¹³  and then they will fast.

Matius 12:41

12:41 The people ¹⁴  of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented when Jonah preached to them ¹⁵  – and now, ¹⁶  something greater than Jonah is here!

Matius 13:30

13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At ¹⁷  harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then ¹⁸  gather ¹⁹  the wheat into my barn.”’”

Matius 16:19

16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.”

Matius 16:23

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.” ²⁰ 

Matius 17:9

17:9 As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, ²¹  “Do not tell anyone about the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

Matius 21:16

21:16 and said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of children and nursing infants you have prepared praise for yourself’?” ²² 

Matius 23:13

23:13 “But woe to you, experts in the law ²³  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! ²⁴  You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! ²⁵  For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.

Matius 26:31

The Prediction of Peter’s Denial

26:31 Then Jesus said to them, “This night you will all fall away because of me, for it is written:

‘I will strike the shepherd,

and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ ²⁶ 

Matius 28:9

28:9 But ²⁷  Jesus met them, saying, “Greetings!” They ²⁸  came to him, held on to his feet and worshiped him.

Matius 28:19

28:19 Therefore go ²⁹  and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ³⁰ 

[5:13]  ¹ 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]  ² 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.

[5:25]  ³ tn Grk “Make friends.”

[5:25]  ⁴ tn The words “to court” are not in the Greek text but are implied.

[5:25]  ⁵ tn Grk “the accuser.”

[6:2]  ⁶ tn Grk “give alms,” but this term is not in common use today. The giving of alms was highly regarded in the ancient world (Deut 15:7-11).

[6:2]  ⁷ sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.

[6:2]  ⁸ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[8:28]  ⁹ tc The textual tradition here is quite complicated. A number of mss (B C [Δ] Θ al sy^s,p,h) read “Gadarenes,” which is the better reading here. Many other mss (א² L W Ë^1,13 Ï [sy^hmg] bo) have “Gergesenes.” Others (892^c latt sy^hmg sa mae) have “Gerasenes,” which is the reading followed in Luke 8:26. The difference between Matthew and Luke may be due to uses of variant regional terms.

[8:28]  sn The region of the Gadarenes would be in Gentile territory on the southeastern side of the Sea of Galilee across from Galilee. Luke 8:26 and Mark 5:1 record this miracle as occurring “in the region of the Gerasenes.” “Irrespective of how one settles this issue, for the [second and] Third Evangelist the chief concern is that Jesus has crossed over into Gentile territory, ‘opposite Galilee’” (J. B. Green, Luke [NICNT], 337). The region of Gadara extended to the Sea of Galilee and included the town of Sennabris on the southern shore – the town that the herdsmen most likely entered after the drowning of the pigs.

[9:15]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “sons of the wedding hall,” an idiom referring to wedding guests, or more specifically friends of the bridegroom present at the wedding celebration (L&N 11.7).

[9:15]  ¹¹ sn The expression while the bridegroom is with them is an allusion to messianic times (John 3:29; Isa 54:5-6; 62:4-5; 4 Ezra 2:15, 38).

[9:15]  ¹² tn Grk “days.”

[9:15]  ¹³ sn The statement the bridegroom will be taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 16:13ff.

[12:41]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “men”; the word here (ἀνήρ, anhr) usually indicates males or husbands, but occasionally is used in a generic sense of people in general, as here (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 1.a, 2).

[12:41]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “at the preaching of Jonah.”

[12:41]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “behold.”

[13:30]  ¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[13:30]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “but.”

[13:30]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “burned, but gather.”

[16:23]  ²⁰ tn Grk “people.”

[17:9]  ²¹ tn Grk “Jesus commanded them, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has not been translated.

[21:16]  ²² sn A quotation from Ps 8:2.

[23:13]  ²³ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:13]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Woe to you…because you…” The causal particle ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated here for rhetorical effect (and so throughout this chapter).

[23:13]  ²⁵ tn Grk “because you are closing the kingdom of heaven before people.”

[26:31]  ²⁶ sn A quotation from Zech 13:7.

[28:9]  ²⁷ tn Grk “And behold.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate that the return of the women from the tomb was interrupted by this appearance of Jesus. 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).

[28:9]  ²⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[28:19]  ²⁹ tn “Go…baptize…teach” are participles modifying the imperative verb “make disciples.” According to ExSyn 645 the first participle (πορευθέντες, poreuqentes, “Go”) fits the typical structural pattern for the attendant circumstance participle (aorist participle preceding aorist main verb, with the mood of the main verb usually imperative or indicative) and thus picks up the mood (imperative in this case) from the main verb (μαθητεύσατε, maqhteusate, “make disciples”). This means that semantically the action of “going” is commanded, just as “making disciples” is. As for the two participles that follow the main verb (βαπτίζοντες, baptizontes, “baptizing”; and διδάσκοντες, didaskontes, “teaching”), these do not fit the normal pattern for attendant circumstance participles, since they are present participles and follow the aorist main verb. However, some interpreters do see them as carrying additional imperative force in context. Others regard them as means, manner, or even result.

[28:19]  ³⁰ tc Although some scholars have denied that the trinitarian baptismal formula in the Great Commission was a part of the original text of Matthew, there is no ms support for their contention. F. C. Conybeare, “The Eusebian Form of the Text of Mt. 28:19,” ZNW 2 (1901): 275-88, based his view on a faulty reading of Eusebius’ quotations of this text. The shorter reading has also been accepted, on other grounds, by a few other scholars. For discussion (and refutation of the conjecture that removes this baptismal formula), see B. J. Hubbard, The Matthean Redaction of a Primitive Apostolic Commissioning (SBLDS 19), 163-64, 167-75; and Jane Schaberg, The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (SBLDS 61), 27-29.