Matthew 17:20-22

17:20 He told them, “It was because of your little faith. I tell you the truth, ¹  if you have faith the size of ²  a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; nothing ³  will be impossible for you.”

17:21 [[EMPTY]] ⁴ 

Second Prediction of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection

17:22 When ⁵  they gathered together in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. ⁶ 

[17:20]  ¹ tn Grk “For truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

[17:20]  ² tn Grk “faith as,” “faith like.”

[17:20]  ³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[17:21]  ⁴ tc Many important mss (א* B Θ 0281 33 579 892* pc e ff¹ sy^s,c sa) do not include 17:21 “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” The verse is included in א² C D L W Ë^1,13 Ï lat, but is almost certainly not original. As B. M. Metzger notes, “Since there is no satisfactory reason why the passage, if originally present in Matthew, should have been omitted in a wide variety of witnesses, and since copyists frequently inserted material derived from another Gospel, it appears that most manuscripts have been assimilated to the parallel in Mk 9.29” (TCGNT 35). The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number as well, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.

[17:22]  ⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[17:22]  ⁶ tn The plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is considered by some to be used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women (cf. NRSV “into human hands”; TEV, CEV “to people”). However, because this can be taken as a specific reference to the group responsible for Jesus’ arrest, where it is unlikely women were present (cf. Matt 26:47-56; Mark 14:43-52; Luke 22:47-53; John 18:2-12), the word “men” has been retained in the translation. There may also be a slight wordplay with “the Son of Man” earlier in the verse.