Matius 7:24

Hearing and Doing

7:24 “Everyone ¹  who hears these words of mine and does them is like ²  a wise man ³  who built his house on rock.

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, ⁴  so that the wild birds ⁵  come and nest in its branches.” ⁶ 

Matius 16:18

16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades ⁷  will not overpower it.

Matius 25:31

The Judgment

25:31 “When ⁸  the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

[7:24]  ¹ tn Grk “Therefore everyone.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

[7:24]  ² tn Grk “will be like.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

[7:24]  ³ tn Here and in v. 26 the Greek text reads ἀνήρ (anhr), while the parallel account in Luke 6:47-49 uses ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") in vv. 48 and 49.

[13:32]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.

[16:18]  ⁷ tn Or “and the power of death” (taking the reference to the gates of Hades as a metonymy).

[16:18]  sn In the OT, Hades was known as Sheol. It is the place where the unrighteous will reside (Matt 11:23; Luke 16:23; Rev 20:13-14). Some translations render this by its modern equivalent, “hell”; others see it as a reference to the power of death.

[25:31]  ⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.