Matthew 11:5-8

11:5 The blind see, the ¹  lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them. 11:6 Blessed is anyone ²  who takes no offense at me.”

11:7 While they were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness ³  to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁴  11:8 What ⁵  did you go out to see? A man dressed in fancy clothes? ⁶  Look, those who wear fancy clothes are in the homes of kings! ⁷ 

¹ tn Grk “and the,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. Two other conjunctions are omitted in this series.

² tn Grk “whoever.”

³ tn Or “desert.”

⁴ tn There is a debate as to whether one should read this figuratively (“to see someone who is easily blown over?”) or literally (Grk “to see the wilderness vegetation?… No, to see a prophet”). Either view makes good sense, but the following examples suggest the question should be read literally and understood to point to the fact that a prophet drew them to the desert.

⁵ tn Grk “But what.” Here ἀλλά (alla, a strong contrastive in Greek) produces a somewhat awkward sense in English, and has not been translated. The same situation occurs at the beginning of v. 9.

⁶ sn The reference to fancy clothes makes the point that John was not rich or powerful, in that he did not come from the wealthy classes.

⁷ tn Or “palaces.”