Matthew 9:9

The Call of Matthew; Eating with Sinners

9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. ¹  “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.

Matthew 4:25

4:25 And large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, ²  Jerusalem, ³  Judea, and beyond the Jordan River. ⁴ 

Matthew 8:19

8:19 Then ⁵  an expert in the law ⁶  came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” ⁷ 

Matthew 8:22

8:22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” ⁸ 

Matthew 9:27

Healing the Blind and Mute

9:27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, shouting, ⁹  “Have mercy ¹⁰  on us, Son of David!” ¹¹ 

Matthew 10:38

10:38 And whoever does not take up his cross ¹²  and follow me is not worthy of me.

Matthew 12:15

God’s Special Servant

12:15 Now when Jesus learned of this, he went away from there. Great ¹³  crowds ¹⁴  followed him, and he healed them all.

Matthew 20:34

20:34 Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.

¹ tn While “tax office” is sometimes given as a translation for τελώνιον (telwnion, so L&N 57.183), this could give the modern reader a false impression of an indoor office with all its associated furnishings.

² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated before each of the places in the list, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

³ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁴ tn “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity. The region referred to here is sometimes known as Transjordan (i.e., “across the Jordan”).

³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then.”

⁴ tn Or “a scribe.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

⁵ sn The statement I will follow you wherever you go is an offer to follow Jesus as a disciple, no matter what the cost.

⁴ sn There are several options for the meaning of Jesus’ reply Leave the dead to bury their own dead: (1) Recent research suggests that burial customs in the vicinity of Jerusalem from about 20 b.c. to a.d. 70 involved a reinterment of the bones a year after the initial burial, once the flesh had rotted away. At that point the son would have placed his father’s bones in a special box known as an ossuary to be set into the wall of the tomb. Thus Jesus could well be rebuking the man for wanting to wait around for as much as a year before making a commitment to follow him. In 1st century Jewish culture, to have followed Jesus rather than burying one’s father would have seriously dishonored one’s father (cf. Tobit 4:3-4). (2) The remark is an idiom (possibly a proverbial saying) that means, “The matter in question is not the real issue,” in which case Jesus was making a wordplay on the wording of the man’s (literal) request (see L&N 33.137). (3) This remark could be a figurative reference to various kinds of people, meaning, “Let the spiritually dead bury the dead.” (4) It could also be literal and designed to shock the hearer by the surprise of the contrast. Whichever option is preferred, it is clear that the most important priority is to follow Jesus.

⁵ tn Grk “shouting, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

⁶ sn Have mercy on us is a request for healing. It is not owed to the men. They simply ask for God’s kind grace.

⁷ sn There was a tradition in Judaism that the Son of David (Solomon) had great powers of healing (Josephus, Ant. 8.2.5 [8.42-49]).

⁶ sn It was customary practice in a Roman crucifixion for the prisoner to be made to carry his own cross. Jesus is speaking figuratively here in the context of rejection. If the priority is not one’s allegiance to Jesus, then one will not follow him in the face of possible rejection.

⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

⁸ tc א B pc lat read only πολλοί (polloi, “many”) here, the first hand of N reads ὄχλοι (ocloi, “crowds”), while virtually all the rest of the witnesses have ὄχλοι πολλοί (ocloi polloi, “great crowds”). In spite of the good quality of both א and B (especially in combination), and the testimony of the Latin witnesses, the longer reading is most likely correct; the shorter readings were probably due to homoioteleuton.