Matius 2:9

2:9 After listening to the king they left, and once again ¹  the star they saw when it rose ²  led them until it stopped above the place where the child was.

Matius 13:32

13:32 It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest garden plant and becomes a tree, ³  so that the wild birds ⁴  come and nest in its branches.” ⁵ 

Matius 23:28

23:28 In the same way, on the outside you look righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Matius 24:29

The Arrival of the Son of Man

24:29 “Immediately ⁶  after the suffering ⁷  of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. ⁸ 

Matius 26:10

26:10 When ⁹  Jesus learned of this, he said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She ¹⁰  has done a good service for me.

[2:9]  ¹ tn Grk “and behold the star.”

[2:9]  ² tn See the note on the word “rose” in 2:2.

[13:32]  ³ sn This is rhetorical hyperbole, since technically a mustard plant is not a tree. This could refer to one of two types of mustard plant popular in Palestine and would be either ten or twenty-five ft (3 or 7.5 m) tall.

[13:32]  ⁴ tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).

[13:32]  ⁵ sn The point of the parable seems to be that while the kingdom of God may appear to have insignificant and unnoticeable beginnings (i.e., in the ministry of Jesus), it will someday (i.e., at the second advent) be great and quite expansive. The kingdom, however, is not to be equated with the church, but rather the church is an expression of the kingdom. Also, there is important OT background in the image of the mustard seed that grew and became a tree: Ezek 17:22-24 pictures the reemergence of the Davidic house where people can find calm and shelter. Like the mustard seed, it would start out small but grow to significant size.

[24:29]  ⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[24:29]  ⁷ tn Traditionally, “tribulation.”

[24:29]  ⁸ sn An allusion to Isa 13:10, 34:4 (LXX); Joel 2:10. The heavens were seen as the abode of heavenly forces, so their shaking indicates distress in the spiritual realm. Although some take the powers as a reference to bodies in the heavens (like stars and planets, “the heavenly bodies,” NIV) this is not as likely.

[26:10]  ⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[26:10]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “For she.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.