Matius 9:35--10:4

Workers for the Harvest

9:35 Then Jesus went throughout all the towns ¹  and villages, teaching in their synagogues, ²  preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and sickness. ³  9:36 When ⁴  he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were bewildered and helpless, ⁵  like sheep without a shepherd. 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 9:38 Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest ⁶  to send out ⁷  workers into his harvest.”

Sending Out the Twelve Apostles

10:1 Jesus ⁸  called his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits ⁹  so they could cast them out and heal every kind of disease and sickness. ¹⁰  10:2 Now these are the names of the twelve apostles: ¹¹  first, Simon ¹²  (called Peter), and Andrew his brother; James son of Zebedee and John his brother; 10:3 Philip and Bartholomew; ¹³  Thomas ¹⁴  and Matthew the tax collector; ¹⁵  James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ¹⁶  10:4 Simon the Zealot ¹⁷  and Judas Iscariot, ¹⁸  who betrayed him. ¹⁹ 

[9:35]  ¹ tn Or “cities.”

[9:35]  ² sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.

[9:35]  ³ tn Grk “and every [kind of] sickness.” Here “every” was not repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[9:36]  ⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[9:36]  ⁵ tn Or “because they had been bewildered and helpless.” The translational issue is whether the perfect participles are predicate (as in the text) or are pluperfect periphrastic (the alternate translation). If the latter, the implication would seem to be that the crowds had been in such a state until the Great Shepherd arrived.

[9:38]  ⁶ sn The phrase Lord of the harvest recognizes God’s sovereignty over the harvest process.

[9:38]  ⁷ tn Grk “to thrust out.”

[10:1]  ⁸ tn Grk “And he.”

[10:1]  ⁹ sn Unclean spirits refers to evil spirits.

[10:1]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “and every [kind of] sickness.” Here “every” was not repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[10:2]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.

[10:3]  ¹³ sn Bartholomew (meaning “son of Tolmai” in Aramaic) could be another name for Nathanael mentioned in John 1:45.

[10:3]  ¹⁴ sn This is the “doubting Thomas” of John 20:24-29.

[10:3]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on tax collectors in 5:46.

[10:3]  ¹⁶ tc Witnesses differ on the identification of the last disciple mentioned in v. 3: He is called Λεββαῖος (Lebbaio", “Lebbaeus”) in D, Judas Zelotes in it, and not present in sy^s. The Byzantine text, along with a few others (C^[*^],2 L W Θ Ë¹ 33 Ï), conflates earlier readings by calling him “Lebbaeus, who was called Thaddaeus,” while codex 13 pc conflate by way of transposition (“Thaddaeus, who was called Lebbaeus”). But excellent witnesses of the earliest texttypes (א B ˹³ 892 pc lat co) call him merely Θαδδαῖος (Qaddaio", “Thaddaeus”), a reading which, because of this support, is most likely correct.

[10:4]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the Cananean,” but according to both BDAG 507 s.v. Καναναῖος and L&N 11.88, this term has no relation at all to the geographical terms for Cana or Canaan, but is derived from the Aramaic term for “enthusiast, zealot” (see Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13), possibly because of an earlier affiliation with the party of the Zealots. He may not have been technically a member of the particular Jewish nationalistic party known as “Zealots” (since according to some scholars this party had not been organized at that time), but simply someone who was zealous for Jewish independence from Rome, in which case the term would refer to his temperament.

[10:4]  ¹⁸ sn There is some debate about what the name Iscariot means. It probably alludes to a region in Judea and thus might make Judas the only non-Galilean in the group. Several explanations for the name Iscariot have been proposed, but it is probably transliterated Hebrew with the meaning “man of Kerioth” (there are at least two villages that had that name). For further discussion see D. L. Bock, Luke (BECNT), 1:546; also D. A. Carson, John, 304.

[10:4]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “who even betrayed him.”