Matthew 9:9-17

The Call of Matthew; Eating with Sinners

9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. ¹  “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him. 9:10 As ²  Jesus ³  was having a meal ⁴  in Matthew’s ⁵  house, many tax collectors ⁶  and sinners came and ate with Jesus and his disciples. 9:11 When the Pharisees ⁷  saw this they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ⁸  9:12 When ⁹  Jesus heard this he said, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. ¹⁰  9:13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ ¹¹  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The Superiority of the New

9:14 Then John’s ¹²  disciples came to Jesus ¹³  and asked, “Why do we and the Pharisees ¹⁴  fast often, ¹⁵  but your disciples don’t fast?” 9:15 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests ¹⁶  cannot mourn while the bridegroom ¹⁷  is with them, can they? But the days ¹⁸  are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, ¹⁹  and then they will fast. 9:16 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, because the patch will pull away from the garment and the tear will be worse. 9:17 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; ²⁰  otherwise the skins burst and the wine is spilled out and the skins are destroyed. Instead they put new wine into new wineskins ²¹  and both are preserved.”

[9:9]  ¹ tn While “tax office” is sometimes given as a translation for τελώνιον (telwnion, so L&N 57.183), this could give the modern reader a false impression of an indoor office with all its associated furnishings.

[9:10]  ² tn Grk “And it happened that while.” The introductory phrase καὶ ἐγένετο (kai egeneto, “it happened that”) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[9:10]  ³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:10]  ⁴ tn Grk “was reclining at table.”

[9:10]  ⁵ tn Grk “in the house.” The Greek article is used here in a context that implies possession, and the referent of the implied possessive pronoun (Matthew) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:10]  ⁶ sn See the note on tax collectors in 5:46.

[9:11]  ⁷ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[9:11]  ⁸ sn The issue here is inappropriate associations. Jews were very careful about personal associations and contact as a matter of ritual cleanliness. Their question borders on an accusation that Jesus is ritually unclean.

[9:12]  ⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[9:12]  ¹⁰ sn Jesus’ point is that he associates with those who are sick because they have the need and will respond to the offer of help. A person who is healthy (or who thinks mistakenly that he is) will not seek treatment.

[9:13]  ¹¹ sn A quotation from Hos 6:6 (see also Matt 12:7).

[9:14]  ¹² sn John refers to John the Baptist.

[9:14]  ¹³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:14]  ¹⁴ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[9:14]  ¹⁵ sn John’s disciples and the Pharisees followed typical practices with regard to fasting and prayer. Many Jews fasted regularly (Lev 16:29-34; 23:26-32; Num 29:7-11). The zealous fasted twice a week on Monday and Thursday.

[9:15]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “days.”

[9:15]  ¹⁹ 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.

[9:17]  ²⁰ sn Wineskins were bags made of skin or leather, used for storing wine in NT times. As the new wine fermented and expanded, it would stretch the new wineskins. Putting new (unfermented) wine in old wineskins, which had already been stretched, would result in the bursting of the wineskins.

[9:17]  ²¹ sn The meaning of the saying new wine into new wineskins is that the presence and teaching of Jesus was something new and signaled the passing of the old. It could not be confined within the old religion of Judaism, but involved the inauguration and consummation of the kingdom of God.