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 2:20

2:20 saying, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.”

Matius 3:12

3:12 His winnowing fork ²  is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, ³  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ⁴ 

Matius 5:13

Salt and Light

5:13 “You are the salt ⁵  of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, ⁶  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 5:29-30

5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into hell. ⁷  5:30 If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is better to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into hell.

Matius 6:34

6:34 So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own. ⁸ 

Matius 7:5

7:5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Matius 8:34

8:34 Then ⁹  the entire town ¹⁰  came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.

Matius 9:11

9:11 When the Pharisees ¹¹  saw this they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² 

Matius 9:14

The Superiority of the New

9:14 Then John’s ¹³  disciples came to Jesus ¹⁴  and asked, “Why do we and the Pharisees ¹⁵  fast often, ¹⁶  but your disciples don’t fast?”

Matius 9:20

9:20 But ¹⁷  a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage ¹⁸  for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge ¹⁹  of his cloak. ²⁰ 

Matius 9:22

9:22 But when Jesus turned and saw her he said, “Have courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well.” ²¹  And the woman was healed ²²  from that hour.

Matius 10:13

10:13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ²³ 

Matius 10:41

10:41 Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. Whoever ²⁴  receives a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.

Matius 12:50

12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is ²⁵  my brother and sister and mother.”

Matius 13:43

13:43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. ²⁶  The one who has ears had better listen! ²⁷ 

Matius 13:48

13:48 When it was full, they pulled it ashore, sat down, and put the good fish into containers and threw the bad away.

Matius 13:57

13:57 And so they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own house.”

Matius 14:9

14:9 Although it grieved the king, ²⁸  because of his oath and the dinner guests he commanded it to be given.

Matius 15:33

15:33 The disciples said to him, “Where can we get enough bread in this desolate place to satisfy so great a crowd?”

Matius 18:28

18:28 After ²⁹  he went out, that same slave found one of his fellow slaves who owed him one hundred silver coins. ³⁰  So ³¹  he grabbed him by the throat and started to choke him, ³²  saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ ³³ 

Matius 18:35

18:35 So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your ³⁴  brother ³⁵  from your heart.”

Matius 20:8

20:8 When ³⁶  it was evening ³⁷  the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give the pay ³⁸  starting with the last hired until the first.’

Matius 23:4

23:4 They ³⁹  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 23:29

23:29 “Woe to you, experts in the law ⁴⁰  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You ⁴¹  build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves ⁴²  of the righteous.

Matius 27:3

Judas’ Suicide

27:3 Now when ⁴³  Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus ⁴⁴  had been condemned, he regretted what he had done and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders,

[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).

[3:12]  ² sn A winnowing fork was a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blew away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.

[3:12]  ³ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building to house livestock).

[3:12]  ⁴ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.

[5:13]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.

[5:29]  ⁷ sn On this word here and in the following verse, see the note on the word hell in 5:22.

[6:34]  ⁸ tn Grk “Sufficient for the day is its evil.”

[8:34]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Or “city.”

[9:11]  ¹¹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[9:11]  ¹² sn The issue here is inappropriate associations. Jews were very careful about personal associations and contact as a matter of ritual cleanliness. Their question borders on an accusation that Jesus is ritually unclean.

[9:14]  ¹³ sn John refers to John the Baptist.

[9:14]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:14]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[9:14]  ¹⁶ sn John’s disciples and the Pharisees followed typical practices with regard to fasting and prayer. Many Jews fasted regularly (Lev 16:29-34; 23:26-32; Num 29:7-11). The zealous fasted twice a week on Monday and Thursday.

[9:20]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “And behold a woman.” 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).

[9:20]  ¹⁸ sn Suffering from a hemorrhage. The woman was most likely suffering from a vaginal hemorrhage which would make her ritually unclean.

[9:20]  ¹⁹ sn The edge of his cloak refers to the kraspedon, the blue tassel on the garment that symbolized a Jewish man’s obedience to the law (cf. Num 15:37-41). The woman thus touched the very part of Jesus’ clothing that indicated his ritual purity.

[9:20]  ²⁰ tn Grk “garment,” but here ἱμάτιον (Jimation) denotes the outer garment in particular.

[9:22]  ²¹ tn Or “has delivered you”; Grk “has saved you.” This should not be understood as an expression for full salvation in the immediate context; it refers only to the woman’s healing.

[9:22]  ²² tn Grk “saved.”

[10:13]  ²³ sn The response to these messengers determines how God’s blessing is bestowed – if the messengers are not welcomed, their blessing will return to them. Jesus shows just how important their mission is by this remark.

[10:41]  ²⁴ tn Grk “And whoever.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[12:50]  ²⁵ tn The pleonastic pronoun αὐτός (autos, “he”) which precedes this verb has not been translated.

[13:43]  ²⁶ sn An allusion to Dan 12:3.

[13:43]  ²⁷ tn The translation “had better listen!” captures the force of the third person imperative more effectively than the traditional “let him hear,” which sounds more like a permissive than an imperative to the modern English reader. This was Jesus’ common expression to listen and heed carefully (cf. Matt 11:15, 13:9; Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 8:8, 14:35).

[14:9]  ²⁸ tn Grk “and being grieved, the king commanded.”

[14:9]  sn Herod was technically not a king, but this reflects popular usage. See the note on tetrarch in 14:1.

[18:28]  ²⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[18:28]  ³⁰ tn Grk “one hundred denarii.” The denarius was a silver coin worth about a day’s wage for a laborer; this would be about three month’s pay.

[18:28]  ³¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so.” A new sentence was started at this point in the translation in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[18:28]  ³² tn Grk “and he grabbed him and started choking him.”

[18:28]  ³³ tn The word “me” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[18:35]  ³⁴ tn Grk “his.” The pronoun has been translated to follow English idiom (the last pronoun of the verse [“from your heart”] is second person plural in the original).

[18:35]  ³⁵ tn Here the term “brother” means “fellow believer” or “fellow Christian” (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.a), whether male or female. Concerning the familial connotations, see also the note on the first occurrence of this term in v. 15.

[20:8]  ³⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:8]  ³⁷ sn That is, six o’clock in the evening, the hour to pay day laborers. See Lev 19:13b.

[20:8]  ³⁸ tc ‡ Most witnesses (including B D W Θ Ë^1,13 33^vid Ï latt sy) have αὐτοῖς (autois, “to them”) after ἀπόδος (apodos, “give the pay”), but this seems to be a motivated reading, clarifying the indirect object. The omission is supported by א C L Z 085 Or. Nevertheless, NA²⁷ includes the pronoun on the basis of the greater external attestation.

[23:4]  ³⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[23:29]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:29]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “Because you.” Here ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated.

[23:29]  ⁴² tn Or perhaps “the monuments” (see L&N 7.75-76).

[27:3]  ⁴³ tn Grk “Then when.” Here τότε (tote) has been translated as “now” to indicate a somewhat parenthetical interlude in the sequence of events.

[27:3]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.