Matthew 4:18

The Call of the Disciples

4:18 As ¹  he was walking by the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon (called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishermen). ² 

Matthew 6:30

6:30 And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, ³  which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ⁴  won’t he clothe you even more, ⁵  you people of little faith?

Matthew 11:21

11:21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! ⁶  Woe to you, Bethsaida! If ⁷  the miracles ⁸  done in you had been done in Tyre ⁹  and Sidon, ¹⁰  they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

² tn The two phrases in this verse placed in parentheses are explanatory comments by the author, parenthetical in nature.

³ tn Grk “grass of the field.”

⁴ tn Grk “into the oven.” The expanded translation “into the fire to heat the oven” has been used to avoid misunderstanding; most items put into modern ovens are put there to be baked, not burned.

⁵ sn The phrase even more is a typical form of rabbinic argumentation, from the lesser to the greater. If God cares for the little things, surely he will care for the more important things.

⁵ sn Chorazin was a town of Galilee that was probably fairly small in contrast to Bethsaida and is otherwise unattested. Bethsaida was declared a polis by the tetrarch Herod Philip, sometime after a.d. 30.

⁶ tn This introduces a second class (contrary to fact) condition in the Greek text.

⁷ tn Or “powerful deeds.”

⁸ map For location see Map1-A2; Map2-G2; Map4-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

⁹ sn Tyre and Sidon are two other notorious OT cities (Isa 23; Jer 25:22; 47:4). The remark is a severe rebuke, in effect: “Even the sinners of the old era would have responded to the proclamation of the kingdom, unlike you!”