Matthew 2:6

2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,

for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” ¹ 

Matthew 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.”

Matthew 5:13

Salt and Light

5:13 “You are the salt ²  of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, ³  how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people.

Matthew 5:18

5:18 I ⁴  tell you the truth, ⁵  until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter ⁶  will pass from the law until everything takes place.

Matthew 9:6

9:6 But so that you may know ⁷  that the Son of Man ⁸  has authority on earth to forgive sins” – then he said to the paralytic ⁹  – “Stand up, take your stretcher, and go home.” ¹⁰ 

Matthew 11:25

Jesus’ Invitation

11:25 At that time Jesus said, ¹¹  “I praise ¹²  you, Father, Lord ¹³  of heaven and earth, because ¹⁴  you have hidden these things from the wise ¹⁵  and intelligent, and revealed them to little children.

Matthew 12:40

12:40 For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish ¹⁶  for three days and three nights, ¹⁷  so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

Matthew 12:42

12:42 The queen of the South ¹⁸  will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon – and now, ¹⁹  something greater than Solomon is here!

Matthew 13:23

13:23 But as for the seed sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands. He bears fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” ²⁰ 

Matthew 18:19

18:19 Again, I tell you the truth, ²¹  if two of you on earth agree about whatever you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. ²² 

Matthew 23:35

23:35 so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, ²³  whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

¹ sn A quotation from Mic 5:2.

² 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.

³ 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.

³ tn Grk “For I tell.” Here an explanatory γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

⁴ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

⁵ tn Grk “Not one iota or one serif.”

⁴ sn Now Jesus put the two actions together. The walking of the man would be proof (so that you may know) that his sins were forgiven and that God had worked through Jesus (i.e., the Son of Man).

⁵ sn The term Son of Man, which is a title in Greek, comes from a pictorial description in Dan 7:13 of one “like a son of man” (i.e., a human being). It is Jesus’ favorite way to refer to himself. Jesus did not reveal the background of the term here, which mixes human and divine imagery as the man in Daniel rides a cloud, something only God does. He just used it. It also could be an idiom in Aramaic meaning either “some person” or “me.” So there is a little ambiguity in its use here, since its origin is not clear at this point. However, the action makes it clear that Jesus used it to refer to himself here.

⁶ sn Jesus did not finish his sentence with words but with action, that is, healing the paralytic with an accompanying pronouncement to him directly.

⁷ tn Grk “to your house.”

⁵ tn Grk “At that time, answering, Jesus said.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

⁶ tn Or “thank.”

⁷ sn The title Lord is an important name for God, showing his sovereignty, but it is interesting that it comes next to a reference to the Father, a term indicative of God’s care. The two concepts are often related in the NT; see Eph 1:3-6.

⁸ tn Or “that.”

⁹ sn See 1 Cor 1:26-31.

⁶ tn Grk “large sea creature.”

⁷ sn A quotation from Jonah 1:17.

⁷ sn On the queen of the South see 1 Kgs 10:1-3 and 2 Chr 9:1-12, as well as Josephus, Ant. 8.6.5-6 (8.165-175). The South most likely refers to modern southwest Arabia, possibly the eastern part of modern Yemen, although there is an ancient tradition reflected in Josephus which identifies this geo-political entity as Ethiopia.

⁸ tn Grk “behold.”

⁸ tn The Greek is difficult to translate because it switches from a generic “he” to three people within this generic class (thus, something like: “Who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one instance a hundred times, in another, sixty times, in another, thirty times”).

⁹ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “if two of you…agree about whatever they ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven.” The passive construction has been translated as an active one in keeping with contemporary English style, and the pronouns, which change from second person plural to third person plural in the Greek text, have been consistently translated as second person plural.

¹⁰ sn Spelling of this name (Βαραχίου, Baraciou) varies among the English versions: “Barachiah” (RSV, NRSV); “Berechiah” (NASB); “Berachiah” (NIV).