Matthew 5:13

Salt and Light

5:13 “You are the salt ¹  of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, ²  how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people.

Matthew 5:20

5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law ³  and the Pharisees, ⁴  you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:32

5:32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matthew 6:23

6:23 But if your eye is diseased, ⁵  your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Matthew 11:27

11:27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father. ⁶  No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides ⁷  to reveal him.

Matthew 12:11

12:11 He said to them, “Would not any one of you, if he had one sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, take hold of it and lift it out?

Matthew 12:29

12:29 How ⁸  else can someone enter a strong man’s ⁹  house and steal his property, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can thoroughly plunder the house. ¹⁰ 

Matthew 12:32

12:32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. ¹¹  But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, ¹²  either in this age or in the age to come.

Matthew 15:5

15:5 But you say, ‘If someone tells his father or mother, “Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,” ¹³ 

Matthew 16:26

16:26 For what does it benefit a person ¹⁴  if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what can a person give in exchange for his life?

Matthew 17:20

17:20 He told them, “It was because of your little faith. I tell you the truth, ¹⁵  if you have faith the size of ¹⁶  a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; nothing ¹⁷  will be impossible for you.”

Matthew 18:12

18:12 What do you think? If someone ¹⁸  owns a hundred ¹⁹  sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray? ²⁰ 

Matthew 21:24-25

21:24 Jesus ²¹  answered them, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 21:25 Where did John’s baptism come from? From heaven or from people?” ²²  They discussed this among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’

Matthew 22:24

22:24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and father children ²³  for his brother.’ ²⁴ 

Matthew 26:42

26:42 He went away a second time and prayed, ²⁵  “My Father, if this cup ²⁶  cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will must be done.”

[5:13]  ¹ sn Salt was used as seasoning or fertilizer (BDAG 41 s.v. ἅλας a), or as a preservative. If salt ceased to be useful, it was thrown away. With this illustration Jesus warned about a disciple who ceased to follow him.

[5:13]  ² sn The difficulty of this saying is understanding how salt could lose its flavor since its chemical properties cannot change. It is thus often assumed that Jesus was referring to chemically impure salt, perhaps a natural salt which, when exposed to the elements, had all the genuine salt leached out, leaving only the sediment or impurities behind. Others have suggested that the background of the saying is the use of salt blocks by Arab bakers to line the floor of their ovens; under the intense heat these blocks would eventually crystallize and undergo a change in chemical composition, finally being thrown out as unserviceable. A saying in the Talmud (b. Bekhorot 8b) attributed to R. Joshua ben Chananja (ca. a.d. 90), when asked the question “When salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again?” is said to have replied, “By salting it with the afterbirth of a mule.” He was then asked, “Then does the mule (being sterile) bear young?” to which he replied: “Can salt lose its flavor?” The point appears to be that both are impossible. The saying, while admittedly late, suggests that culturally the loss of flavor by salt was regarded as an impossibility. Genuine salt can never lose its flavor. In this case the saying by Jesus here may be similar to Matt 19:24, where it is likewise impossible for the camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle.

[5:20]  ³ tn Or “that of the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[5:20]  ⁴ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[6:23]  ⁵ tn Or “if your eye is sick” (L&N 23.149).

[11:27]  ⁷ sn This verse has been noted for its conceptual similarity to teaching in John’s Gospel (10:15; 17:2). The authority of the Son and the Father are totally intertwined.

[11:27]  ⁸ tn Or “wishes”; or “intends”; or “plans” (cf. BDAG 182 s.v. βούλομαι 2.b). Here it is the Son who has sovereignty.

[12:29]  ⁹ tn Grk “Or how can.”

[12:29]  ¹⁰ sn The strong man here pictures Satan.

[12:29]  ¹¹ sn Some see the imagery here as similar to Eph 4:7-10, although no opponents are explicitly named in that passage. Jesus has the victory over Satan. Jesus’ acts of healing mean that the war is being won and the kingdom is coming.

[12:32]  ¹¹ tn Grk “it will be forgiven him.”

[12:32]  ¹² tn Grk “it will not be forgiven him.”

[15:5]  ¹³ tn Grk “is a gift,” that is, something dedicated to God.

[16:26]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “a man,” but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense here to refer to both men and women.

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

[17:20]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “faith as,” “faith like.”

[17:20]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[18:12]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “a certain man.” The Greek word ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a somewhat generic sense.

[18:12]  ²⁰ sn This individual with a hundred sheep is a shepherd of modest means, as flocks often had up to two hundred head of sheep.

[18:12]  ²¹ sn Look for the one that went astray. The parable pictures God’s pursuit of the sinner. On the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, see John 10:1-18.

[21:24]  ²¹ tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to them.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[21:25]  ²³ tn The plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used here (and in v. 26) in a generic sense, referring to both men and women (cf. NAB, NRSV, “of human origin”; TEV, “from human beings”; NLT, “merely human”).

[22:24]  ²⁵ tn Grk “and raise up seed,” an idiom for fathering children (L&N 23.59).

[22:24]  ²⁶ sn A quotation from Deut 25:5. This practice is called levirate marriage (see also Ruth 4:1-12; Mishnah, m. Yevamot; Josephus, Ant. 4.8.23 [4.254-256]). The levirate law is described in Deut 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage.

[26:42]  ²⁷ tn Grk “saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[26:42]  ²⁸ tn Grk “this”; the referent (the cup) has been specified in the translation for clarity.