Matthew 7:24-29

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. 7:26 Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 7:27 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed; it was utterly destroyed!” ⁵ 

7:28 When ⁶  Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed by his teaching, 7:29 because he taught them like one who had authority, ⁷  not like their experts in the law. ⁸ 

[7:24]  ¹ tn Grk “Therefore everyone.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

[7:24]  ² tn Grk “will be like.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

[7:24]  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.

[7:25]  ⁴ tn Grk “the rivers.”

[7:27]  ⁵ tn Grk “and great was its fall.”

[7:28]  ⁶ tn Grk “And it happened when.” The introductory phrase καὶ ἐγένετο (kai egeneto, “it happened that”) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[7:29]  ⁷ sn Jesus’ teaching impressed the hearers with the directness of its claim; he taught with authority. A study of Jewish rabbinic interpretation shows that it was typical to cite a list of authorities to make one’s point. Apparently Jesus addressed the issues in terms of his own understanding.

[7:29]  ⁸ tn Or “their scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.