Matthew 1:1

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

1:1 This is the record of the genealogy ¹  of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Matthew 16:20

16:20 Then he instructed his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. ² 

Matthew 23:10

23:10 Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one teacher, the Christ. ³ 

Matthew 24:23

24:23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ ⁴  or ‘There he is!’ do not believe him.

Matthew 26:68

26:68 saying, “Prophesy for us, you Christ! ⁵  Who hit you?” ⁶ 

Matthew 1:16

1:16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom ⁷  Jesus was born, who is called Christ. ⁸ 

Matthew 2:4

2:4 After assembling all the chief priests and experts in the law, ⁹  he asked them where the Christ ¹⁰  was to be born.

Matthew 11:2

Jesus and John the Baptist

11:2 Now when John ¹¹  heard in prison about the deeds Christ ¹²  had done, he sent his disciples to ask a question: ¹³ 

Matthew 16:16

16:16 Simon Peter answered, ¹⁴  “You are the Christ, ¹⁵  the Son of the living God.”

Matthew 22:42

22:42 “What do you think about the Christ? ¹⁶  Whose son is he?” They said, “The son of David.” ¹⁷ 

Matthew 24:5

24:5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ ¹⁸  and they will mislead many.

Matthew 27:22

27:22 Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?” ¹⁹  They all said, “Crucify him!” ²⁰ 

Matthew 27:17

27:17 So after they had assembled, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus ²¹  Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Christ?” ²² 

Matthew 1:17-18

1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, ²³  fourteen generations.

The Birth of Jesus Christ

1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, ²⁴  she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 16:21

First Prediction of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection

16:21 From that time on ²⁵  Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem ²⁶  and suffer ²⁷  many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, ²⁸  and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

Matthew 26:63

26:63 But Jesus was silent. The ²⁹  high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, ³⁰  the Son of God.”

[1:1]  ¹ tn Grk “the book of the genealogy.” The noun βίβλος (biblo"), though it is without the article, is to be translated as definite due to Apollonius’ corollary and the normal use of anarthrous nouns in titles.

[16:20]  ² tc Most mss (א² C W Ï lat bo) have “Jesus, the Christ” (᾿Ιησοῦς ὁ Χριστός, Ihsou" Jo Cristo") here, while D has “Christ Jesus” (ὁ Χριστὸς ᾿Ιησοῦς). On the one hand, this is a much harder reading than the mere Χριστός, because the name Jesus was already well known for the disciples’ master – both to them and to others. Whether he was the Messiah is the real focus of the passage. But this is surely too hard a reading: There are no other texts in which the Lord tells his disciples not to disclose his personal name. Further, it is plainly a motivated reading in that scribes had the proclivity to add ᾿Ιησοῦς to Χριστός or to κύριος (kurio", “Lord”), regardless of whether such was appropriate to the context. In this instance it clearly is not, and it only reveals that scribes sometimes, if not often, did not think about the larger interpretive consequences of their alterations to the text. Further, the shorter reading is well supported by א* B L Δ Θ Ë^1,13 565 700 1424 al it sa.

[23:10]  ³ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[24:23]  ⁴ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[26:68]  ⁵ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[26:68]  ⁶ tn Grk “Who is the one who hit you?”

[1:16]  ⁶ tc There are three significant variant readings at this point in the text. Some mss and versional witnesses (Θ Ë¹³ it) read, “Joseph, to whom the virgin Mary, being betrothed, bore Jesus, who is called Christ.” This reading makes even more explicit than the feminine pronoun (see sn below) the virginal conception of Jesus and as such seems to be a motivated reading. The Sinaitic Syriac ms alone indicates that Joseph was the father of Jesus (“Joseph, to whom was betrothed Mary the virgin, fathered Jesus who is called the Christ”). Although much discussed, this reading has not been found in any Greek witnesses. B. M. Metzger suggests that it was produced by a careless scribe who simply reproduced the set formula of the preceding lines in the genealogy (TCGNT 6). In all likelihood, the two competing variants were thus produced by intentional and unintentional scribal alterations respectively. The reading adopted in the translation has overwhelming support from a variety of witnesses (̹ א B C L W [˹] 33 Ï co), and therefore should be regarded as authentic. For a detailed discussion of this textual problem, see TCGNT 2-6.

[1:16]  ⁷ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[2:4]  ⁷ tn Or “and scribes of the people.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

[2:4]  ⁸ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[11:2]  ⁸ sn John refers to John the Baptist.

[11:2]  ⁹ tc The Western codex D and a few other mss (0233 1424 al) read “Jesus” here instead of “Christ.” This is not likely to be original because it is not found in the earliest and most important mss, nor in the rest of the ms tradition.

[11:2]  ¹⁰ tc Instead of “by his disciples” (see the tn below for the reading of the Greek), the majority of later mss (C³ L ˹ Ï lat bo) have “two of his disciples.” The difference in Greek, however, is only two letters: διὰ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ vs. δύο τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ (dia twn maqhtwn autou vs. duo twn maqhtwn autou). Although an accidental alteration could account for either of these readings, it is more likely that δύο is an assimilation to the parallel in Luke 7:18. Further, διά is read by a good number of early and excellent witnesses (א B C* D P W Z Δ Θ 0233 ˹³ 33 sa), and thus should be considered original.

[16:16]  ⁹ tn Grk “And answering, Simon Peter said.”

[16:16]  ¹⁰ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[22:42]  ¹⁰ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[22:42]  ¹¹ sn It was a common belief in Judaism that Messiah would be the son of David in that he would come from the lineage of David. On this point the Pharisees agreed and were correct. But their understanding was nonetheless incomplete, for Messiah is also David’s Lord. With this statement Jesus was affirming that, as the Messiah, he is both God and man.

[24:5]  ¹¹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[27:22]  ¹² tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[27:22]  ¹³ tn Grk “Him – be crucified!” The third person imperative is difficult to translate because English has no corresponding third person form for the imperative. The traditional translation “Let him be crucified” sounds as if the crowd is giving consent or permission. “He must be crucified” is closer, but it is more natural in English to convert the passive to active and simply say “Crucify him.”

[27:17]  ¹³ tc Again, as in v. 16, the name “Jesus” is supplied before “Barabbas” in Θ Ë¹ 700* pc sy^s Or^mss (Θ 700* lack the article τόν [ton] before Βαραββᾶν [Barabban]). The same argument for accepting the inclusion of “Jesus” as original in the previous verse applies here as well.

[27:17]  ¹⁴ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[1:17]  ¹⁴ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[1:18]  ¹⁵ tn The connotation of the Greek is “before they came together in marital and domestic union” (so BDAG 970 s.v. συνέρχομαι 3).

[16:21]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “From then.”

[16:21]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[16:21]  ¹⁸ sn The necessity that the Son of Man suffer is the particular point that needed emphasis since for many 1st century Jews the Messiah was a glorious and powerful figure, not a suffering one.

[16:21]  ¹⁹ tn Or “and scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[26:63]  ¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[26:63]  ¹⁸ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”