Matthew 7:24-25

Hearing and Doing

7:24 “Everyone ¹  who hears these words of mine and does them is like ²  a wise man ³  who built his house on rock. 7:25 The rain fell, the flood ⁴  came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because it had been founded on rock.

Luke 6:48

6:48 He is like a man ⁵  building a house, who dug down deep, ⁶  and laid the foundation on bedrock. When ⁷  a flood came, the river ⁸  burst against that house but ⁹  could not shake it, because it had been well built. ¹⁰ 

¹ tn Grk “Therefore everyone.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

² tn Grk “will be like.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

³ tn Here and in v. 26 the Greek text reads ἀνήρ (anhr), while the parallel account in Luke 6:47-49 uses ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") in vv. 48 and 49.

⁴ tn Grk “the rivers.”

⁵ tn Here and in v. 49 the Greek text reads ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), while the parallel account in Matt 7:24-27 uses ἀνήρ (anhr) in vv. 24 and 26.

⁶ tn There are actually two different Greek verbs used here: “who dug (ἔσκαψεν, eskayen) and dug deep (ἐβάθυνεν, ebaqunen).” Jesus is placing emphasis on the effort to which the man went to prepare his foundation.

⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁸ sn The picture here is of a river overflowing its banks and causing flooding and chaos.

⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in the context.

¹⁰ tc Most mss, especially later ones (A C D Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 Ï latt), read “because he built [it] on the rock” rather than “because it had been well built” (Ì^75vid א B L W Ξ 33 579 892 1241 2542 pc sa). The reading of the later mss seems to be a harmonization to Matt 7:25, rendering it most likely secondary.