Matthew 4:18

The Call of the Disciples

4:18 As 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).

Matthew 6:30

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

Matthew 11:21

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

tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

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

tn Grk “grass of the field.”

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.

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.

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.

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

tn Or “powerful deeds.”

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

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!”