Matius 5:31

Divorce

5:31 “It was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a legal document.’ ¹ 

Matius 5:40-42

5:40 And if someone wants to sue you and to take your tunic, ²  give him your coat also. 5:41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, ³  go with him two. 5:42 Give to the one who asks you, ⁴  and do not reject ⁵  the one who wants to borrow from you.

Matius 10:38

10:38 And whoever does not take up his cross ⁶  and follow me is not worthy of me.

Matius 15:11

15:11 What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what ⁷  comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.”

Matius 17:14

The Disciples’ Failure to Heal

17:14 When ⁸  they came to the crowd, a man came to him, knelt before him,

Matius 18:24

18:24 As ⁹  he began settling his accounts, a man who owed ten thousand talents ¹⁰  was brought to him.

Matius 19:3

19:3 Then some Pharisees ¹¹  came to him in order to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful ¹²  to divorce a wife for any cause?” ¹³ 

Matius 21:44

21:44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls will be crushed.” ¹⁴ 

Matius 27:15

27:15 During the feast the governor was accustomed to release one prisoner to the crowd, ¹⁵  whomever they wanted.

[5:31]  ¹ sn A quotation from Deut 24:1.

[5:40]  ² tn Or “shirt” (a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin). The name for this garment (χιτών, citwn) presents some difficulty in translation. Most modern readers would not understand what a “tunic” was any more than they would be familiar with a “chiton.” On the other hand, attempts to find a modern equivalent are also a problem: “Shirt” conveys the idea of a much shorter garment that covers only the upper body, and “undergarment” (given the styles of modern underwear) is more misleading still. “Tunic” was therefore employed, but with a note to explain its nature.

[5:41]  ³ sn If anyone forces you to go one mile. In NT times Roman soldiers had the authority to press civilians into service to carry loads for them.

[5:42]  ⁴ sn Jesus advocates a generosity and a desire to meet those in dire need with the command give to the one who asks you. This may allude to begging; giving alms was viewed highly in the ancient world (Matt 6:1-4; Deut 15:7-11).

[5:42]  ⁵ tn Grk “do not turn away from.”

[10:38]  ⁶ sn It was customary practice in a Roman crucifixion for the prisoner to be made to carry his own cross. Jesus is speaking figuratively here in the context of rejection. If the priority is not one’s allegiance to Jesus, then one will not follow him in the face of possible rejection.

[15:11]  ⁷ tn Grk “but what.”

[17:14]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[18:24]  ⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[18:24]  ¹⁰ sn A talent was a huge sum of money, equal to 6,000 denarii. One denarius was the usual day’s wage for a worker. L&N 6.82 states, “a Greek monetary unit (also a unit of weight) with a value which fluctuated, depending upon the particular monetary system which prevailed at a particular period of time (a silver talent was worth approximately six thousand denarii with gold talents worth at least thirty times that much).”

[19:3]  ¹¹ tn Grk “And Pharisees.”

[19:3]  sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[19:3]  ¹² tc ‡ Most mss have either ἀνθρώπῳ (anqrwpw, “for a man” [so א² C D W Θ 087 Ë^1,13 33 Ï latt]) or ἀνδρί (andri, “for a husband” [1424^c pc]) before the infinitive ἀπολῦσαι (apolusai, “to divorce”). The latter reading is an assimilation to the parallel in Mark; the former reading may have been motivated by the clarification needed (especially to give the following αὐτοῦ [autou, “his”] an antecedent). But a few significant mss (א* B L Γ 579 [700] 1424* pc) have neither noun. As the harder reading, it seems to best explain the rise of the others. NA²⁷, however, reads ἀνθρώπῳ here.

[19:3]  ¹³ sn The question of the Pharisees was anything but sincere; they were asking it to test him. Jesus was now in the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas (i.e., Judea and beyond the Jordan) and it is likely that the Pharisees were hoping he might answer the question of divorce in a way similar to John the Baptist and so suffer the same fate as John, i.e., death at the hands of Herod (cf. 14:1-12). Jesus answered the question not on the basis of rabbinic custom and the debate over Deut 24:1, but rather from the account of creation and God’s original design.

[21:44]  ¹⁴ tc A few witnesses, especially of the Western text (D 33 it sy^s Or Eus^syr), do not contain 21:44. However, the verse is found in א B C L W Z (Θ) 0102 Ë^1,13 Ï lat sy^c,p,h co and should be included as authentic.

[21:44]  tn Grk “on whomever it falls, it will crush him.”

[21:44]  sn This proverb basically means that the stone crushes, without regard to whether it falls on someone or someone falls on it. On the stone as a messianic image, see Isa 28:16 and Dan 2:44-45.

[27:15]  ¹⁵ sn The custom of Pilate to release one prisoner is unknown outside the gospels in Jewish writings, but it was a Roman custom at the time and thus probably used in Palestine as well (cf. Matt 27:15; John 18:39).