Matthew 4:21

4:21 Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a boat ¹  with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. Then ²  he called them.

Matthew 6:16

Proper Fasting

6:16 “When ³  you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive ⁴  so that people will see them fasting. I tell you the truth, ⁵  they have their reward.

Matthew 9:15

9:15 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests ⁶  cannot mourn while the bridegroom ⁷  is with them, can they? But the days ⁸  are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, ⁹  and then they will fast.

Matthew 23:34

23:34 “For this reason I ¹⁰  am sending you prophets and wise men and experts in the law, ¹¹  some of whom you will kill and crucify, ¹²  and some you will flog ¹³  in your synagogues ¹⁴  and pursue from town to town,

[4:21]  ¹ tn Or “their boat.” The phrase ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ (en tw ploiw) can either refer to a generic boat, some boat (as it seems to do here); or it can refer to “their” boat, implying possession. Mark assumes a certain preunderstanding on the part of his readers about the first four disciples and hence the translation “their boat” is justified (cf. also v. 20 in which the “hired men” indicates that Zebedee’s family owned the boats), while Matthew does not.

[4:21]  ² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[6:16]  ³ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[6:16]  ⁴ tn Here the term “disfigure” used in a number of translations was not used because it could convey to the modern reader the notion of mutilation. L&N 79.17 states, “‘to make unsightly, to disfigure, to make ugly.’ ἀφανίζουσιν γὰρ τὰ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν ‘for they make their faces unsightly’ Mt 6:16.”

[6:16]  ⁵ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[9:15]  ⁵ tn Grk “sons of the wedding hall,” an idiom referring to wedding guests, or more specifically friends of the bridegroom present at the wedding celebration (L&N 11.7).

[9:15]  ⁶ sn The expression while the bridegroom is with them is an allusion to messianic times (John 3:29; Isa 54:5-6; 62:4-5; 4 Ezra 2:15, 38).

[9:15]  ⁷ tn Grk “days.”

[9:15]  ⁸ sn The statement the bridegroom will be taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 16:13ff.

[23:34]  ⁷ tn Grk “behold I am sending.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[23:34]  ⁸ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:34]  ⁹ sn See the note on crucified in 20:19.

[23:34]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 620 s.v. μαστιγόω 1.a states, “of flogging as a punishment decreed by the synagogue (Dt 25:2f; s. the Mishna Tractate Sanhedrin-Makkoth, edited w. notes by SKrauss ’33) w. acc. of pers. Mt 10:17; 23:34.”

[23:34]  ¹¹ sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.