'With their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after gain' — same prophetic indictment of mouth-honoring without the heart, paralleling the quoted Isaiah 29:13.

They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don’t do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.


'Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil' — anthropological root of Jesus' claim that defilement proceeds from the heart, source of 'evil thoughts' (Mt 15:19).

Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.


'The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth' — reinforces the heart-as-source-of-evil premise underlying 15:18-19.

Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done.


'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick' — prophetic anthropology directly behind 'out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders...' (Mt 15:19).

The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?


The catalogue of vices (murders, adulteries, thefts, false testimony) in Mt 15:19 follows the order of the second table of the Decalogue, casting heart-evil as Decalogue-breaking.

“You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.


Deuteronomic Decalogue parallel to the Mt 15:19 vice list (murder, adultery, theft, false witness).


'They are the branch of my planting, the work of my hands' — God's true planting language behind 'every plant my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted' (Mt 15:13); the Pharisees are not God's planting.

Your people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.


The Song of the Vineyard: God's planting that fails and is destroyed — background to the uprooting of every plant not planted by the Father.

Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in its midst, and also cut out a wine press therein. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my […]


Prophetic commission 'to pluck up and to plant' — the plucking/planting polarity Jesus invokes in 15:13.

Behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”


'Oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD' — God's planting motif resonant with Mt 15:13.

to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.


'Who is blind but my servant... blind as the LORD's messenger?' — prophetic 'blind' leadership behind 'blind guides of the blind' (Mt 15:14).

Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as Yahweh’s servant?


'His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge' — blind Israelite leaders, a strong source for the 'blind guides' charge.

His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they can’t bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.


'The leaders of this people cause them to err, and those led are destroyed' — guides leading the people to ruin, paralleling both falling into the pit (15:14).

For those who lead this people lead them astray; and those who are led by them are destroyed.


'Whoever digs a pit will fall into it' — wisdom topos of falling into the pit echoed in 'both will fall into a pit' (Mt 15:14).

Whoever digs a pit shall fall into it. Whoever rolls a stone, it will come back on him.


'Hear but do not understand... lest they understand with their heart' — the hearing/understanding/heart cluster ironically inverted in Jesus' 'Hear and understand' (15:10) and the disciples' dullness (15:16).

He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”


'Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the springs of life' — heart as the wellspring from which everything proceeds, paralleling 'out of the heart come...' (15:18-19).

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.


'My sheep were scattered... they wandered, lost.' Jesus' mission 'to the lost sheep of the house of Israel' (Mt 15:24) draws directly on Ezekiel's scattered/lost flock that God himself will seek and shepherd.

They were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill: yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth; and there was no one who searched or sought.


'My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray' — close verbal source for 'the lost sheep of the house of Israel' (Mt 15:24).

My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.


'All we like sheep have gone astray' — the lost/straying sheep image behind 15:24.

All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


'I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant' — individual lost-sheep language resonant with Mt 15:24.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I don’t forget your commandments.


The Davidic covenant promising an eternal son/throne — basis for the Gentile woman's address 'Lord, you son of David' (Mt 15:22), a messianic title.

When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but my loving kindness shall not […]


'A shoot from the stump of Jesse' — Davidic-messianic hope behind the 'son of David' acclamation in 15:22.

A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.


Elijah sent to the Gentile widow of Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, whose son he heals — a typological precedent for Jesus in 'the region of Tyre and Sidon' (15:21) granting mercy and healing to a Gentile woman's child.

Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks: and he called to her, and said, “Please get me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, “Please bring me a morsel of […]


'Israel is my son, my firstborn' — Israel's status as God's children illumines 'the children's bread' (Mt 15:26) reserved first for Israel before Gentiles.

You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn,


'You are the children of the LORD your God' — Israel as God's children, background to the children-vs-dogs (Israel-vs-Gentiles) contrast of 15:26.

You are the children of Yahweh your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.


Rahab the Canaanite who confesses Israel's God and is saved — a figural precedent for a Canaanite woman whose faith Jesus praises (Mt 15:28); Matthew has already named Rahab in the genealogy.

Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, including Jericho.” They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there. The king of Jericho was told, “Behold, men of the children of Israel came in here tonight to spy out the land.” The king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered into your house; for they have come to […]


The curse on Canaan to be servant — the Canaanite woman's reversal (faith commended) stands against the Canaanite-as-cursed-outsider background flagged by Matthew's pointed label 'a Canaanite woman'.

He said, “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.” He said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth. Let him dwell in the tents of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.”


'Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped; the lame man shall leap, and the tongue of the mute sing.' Mt 15:30-31's catalogue of mute speaking, lame walking, blind seeing reproduces Isaiah's portrait of eschatological restoration almost item for item.

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.


'The deaf shall hear... the eyes of the blind shall see... the meek shall obtain fresh joy' — recurrence with the Isaiah 29 already quoted in 15:8-9 binds the chapter; the healings fulfill the same oracle.

In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.


'They will sanctify... the God of Israel' — the crowd's response 'they glorified the God of Israel' (15:31) echoes Isaiah 29's promised honoring of Israel's God, reversing the lip-service of 15:8-9.

But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.


'Who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Is it not I, the LORD?' — the divine prerogative over these very disabilities, now exercised by Jesus, prompting glory to 'the God of Israel'.

Yahweh said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, Yahweh?


Jesus 'went up into the mountain, and sat there' (15:29) before the crowds and the feeding — a faint Sinai/Moses-on-the-mountain coloring.

Moses wrote all Yahweh’s words, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.


'The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD raises up those who are bowed down' — the God of Israel as healer of these conditions, glorified in 15:31.

Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind. Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down. Yahweh loves the righteous.


The manna in the wilderness: God feeds a vast multitude in a 'deserted place' (Mt 15:33) where there is nothing to eat, and all 'ate and were filled' (15:37). The feeding of the four thousand is patterned on the wilderness provision.

They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness; and the children of Israel said to them, “We wish that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, […]


Elisha feeds a hundred men with a few loaves, who 'ate and had some left over' — the closest prophetic precedent: limited loaves, a doubting servant ('how can I set this before a hundred?'), eating to satisfaction, and leftovers, all mirrored in 15:34-37.

A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.” His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’” So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to […]


'Can God spread a table in the wilderness?... he rained down manna... they ate and were well filled.' The doubting question of 15:33 and the satisfied eating of 15:37 echo this recital of the wilderness feeding.

Yes, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?” Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel, because they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation. Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors […]


Moses' concern that the congregation not be 'as sheep without a shepherd' — behind Jesus' compassion on the hungry multitude (15:32) he refuses to send away; pastoral provision for a leaderless flock.

who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh not be as sheep which have no shepherd.”


God the shepherd will feed his flock in good pasture and seek the lost — recurrence with 15:24's lost sheep; the feeding enacts the shepherd's provision of food.

I will feed them with good pasture; and on the mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord Yahweh. I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which […]


The hungry and thirsty fainting in the wilderness whom God satisfies: 'he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry with good things' — resonant with the fainting-on-the-way concern and the filling of 15:32-37.

Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses, he led them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city to live in. Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfies the longing soul. He fills the hungry soul with good.


'You prepare a table before me' — the shepherd providing a meal, faint background to the wilderness feeding.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.


'You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD' — the eat-and-be-satisfied formula echoed in 'they all ate, and were filled' (15:37), with Jesus giving thanks.

You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which he has given you.


'You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing' — God satisfying the hungry, faint resonance with the multitude filled in 15:37.

The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season. You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.


The 'sign of the prophet Jonah' is a typological pointer: Jonah three days and nights in the belly of the great fish prefigures the Son of Man's burial and resurrection (made explicit in Matthew 12:40). Volume and recurrence are strong; Jesus names Jonah directly.

Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.


Beyond the three-days motif, Jonah's preaching of repentance to Nineveh stands behind the rebuke of 'this generation': a pagan city repented at a sign, but the present generation will receive only Jonah's sign. Thematic coherence with Matthew's wider Jonah typology.

Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!” The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.


'An evil and adulterous generation' draws on the prophetic idiom of Israel as an adulterous people ('sons of the sorceress, offspring of the adulterer'), where covenant infidelity is figured as adultery/idolatry.

“But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the prostitute.


The 'adulterous generation' charge echoes Hosea's sustained metaphor of faithless Israel as an adulterous spouse. Faint and one of several possible prophetic backgrounds.

Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts; Lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst. Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness;


Demanding 'a sign from heaven' to validate Jesus inverts the Deuteronomic test of a prophet: a sign alone does not authenticate; covenant fidelity does. Conceptual rather than verbal.

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises in your midst you, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods” (which you have not known) “and let us serve them”; you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is testing you, to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.


The Pharisees and Sadducees 'testing' Jesus by demanding a sign recalls Israel testing the LORD at Massah; the verb of testing carries the wilderness-rebellion overtone. Faint thematic.

Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?”


The warning against 'the yeast/leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees' trades on the Passover/Unleavened Bread association of leaven with pervasive corruption that must be purged from the house. The metaphor's intelligibility presupposes this cultic background.

“‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.


Reinforces the leaven-as-defilement imagery from the Feast of Unleavened Bread, where no leaven may be seen within the borders. Secondary to Exodus 12:15.

Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and no leavened bread shall be seen with you, neither shall yeast be seen with you, in all your borders.


The disciples' anxiety over bread and the rebuke 'you of little faith' recall Israel's distrust over daily provision in the wilderness, where the LORD rained bread from heaven to test their faith. Thematic coherence with Matthew's two feeding miracles invoked here.

Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.


The grumbling-over-food motif behind the disciples' worry resonates with Israel's complaint about manna; the contrast is between miraculous provision already witnessed and persistent forgetfulness. Faint.

but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at.” The manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like the appearance of bdellium. The people went around, gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it. Its taste was like the taste of fresh oil. When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.


'I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven... bind... loose' draws on the Eliakim oracle: 'I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open and none shut, shut and none open.' The key-of-stewardship granting authority to admit and exclude is the controlling image. Strong verbal and conceptual borrowing.

I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.


'The gates of Hades will not prevail' echoes 'Have the gates of death been revealed to you?' — the underworld as a fortified city whose gates symbolize the realm and power of death. Verbal touchpoint ('gates' of death/Hades).

Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?


'You who lift me up from the gates of death' supplies the same 'gates of death/Hades' idiom; deliverance from death's gates is precisely what Jesus' resurrection-grounded assembly will enjoy. Reinforces Job 38:17.

Have mercy on me, Yahweh. See my affliction by those who hate me, and lift me up from the gates of death;


Hezekiah's 'I shall go through the gates of Sheol' offers another close instance of the 'gates of the underworld' figure standing behind 'gates of Hades.'

I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.”


Peter's confession of Jesus as 'the Son of the living God' employs the covenant title 'the living God,' contrasting Israel's God with lifeless idols. The epithet recurs across the OT and grounds the confession in covenant monotheism.

For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?


'Sons of the living God' supplies the specific collocation 'living God' with sonship language that Peter's title brings together. Faint verbal overlap.

Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured nor numbered; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’


The popular identification of Jesus with Elijah ('some say... Elijah') depends on Malachi's promise that Elijah would return before the day of the LORD, an expectation Matthew engages elsewhere (11:14; 17:10-13).

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.


'On this rock I will build' may play on the 'rock from which you were hewn' (Abraham) imagery for the founding of the people of God on a chosen progenitor. Disputed; rock-foundation imagery is diffuse.

“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh: look to the rock you were cut from, and to the hold of the pit you were dug from. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many.


Jeremiah being named among the guesses for Jesus' identity reflects his stature as the suffering, rejected prophet of judgment on Jerusalem; the allusion is to Jeremiah as a prophetic type rather than a specific text. Faint.

“Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”


Jesus 'must... suffer many things... and be killed' draws on the Suffering Servant who was despised, rejected, and stricken; the divine necessity ('must') of the Messiah's suffering reflects Matthew's Servant Christology.

He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.


'The third day be raised up' echoes 'on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him,' the OT text most plausibly underlying the recurrent 'third day' resurrection formula.

After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.


'Get behind me, Satan!' as a rebuke of the adversary echoes 'The LORD rebuke you, O Satan' — Peter unwittingly plays the satan/accuser opposing God's purpose. Thematic and verbal resonance with the rebuke-of-Satan formula.

He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”


The figure of 'the satan' as the adversary who would divert God's servant from his path stands behind naming Peter 'Satan' for setting his mind on human things. Faint, conceptual.

Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them. Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.” Then Satan […]


'He will render to everyone according to his deeds' closely cites 'to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love, for you render to a man according to his work.' Near-verbatim formula of eschatological recompense; the clearest source-citation in the chapter.

Also to you, Lord, belongs loving kindness, for you reward every man according to his work.


Parallel near-verbatim source for 'render to everyone according to his deeds': 'will he not repay each according to his work?' Matthew's wording fuses the Psalms and Proverbs recompense formula. Together with Psalm 62:12 this is a high-confidence citation.

If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this”; doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?


'The Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels... coming in his Kingdom' draws directly on the 'one like a son of man' coming with the clouds to whom dominion, glory, and an everlasting kingdom are given. Strong verbal ('Son of Man,' 'coming,' 'kingdom,' 'glory') and conceptual borrowing.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


'What will a man give in exchange for his life?' echoes 'no man can ransom his brother or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly.' The futility of buying back one's soul with wealth is the shared logic, sharpened by 'gains the whole world but forfeits his life.'

none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough, That he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption.


'Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life' resonates with the rhetorical 'what will a man give in exchange for his life?' — the supreme value placed on life. Faint, possibly coincidental proverbial overlap.

Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.


'With his angels' / 'in the glory of his Father' resonates with 'the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him,' a theophany of the divine coming with the heavenly host that informs the parousia imagery.

You shall flee by the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azel; yes, you shall flee, just like you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Yahweh my God will come, and all the holy ones with you./f + Septuagint reads “him” instead of “you”./f*


'I the LORD search the heart... to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds' is a further OT recompense text reinforcing the Psalm 62 / Proverbs 24 citation of judgment according to works.

I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.


The deuterocanonical 'he will repay to man according to his deeds' continues the Second Temple development of the recompense formula behind 16:27, attesting the currency of the idea in Jesus' milieu.

[source text not in the World English Bible]


Individual accountability — each judged for his own conduct, 'the soul who sins shall die' — undergirds the 'render to everyone according to his deeds' principle. Faint, conceptual.

The soul who sins, he shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.


The glory of the LORD settles on Sinai and the cloud covers it 'six days,' and on the seventh day God calls Moses out of the cloud. Matthew's opening 'after six days' plus the high mountain, the cloud, and the divine voice from the cloud reproduce this Sinai theophany sequence with striking specificity; the strongest structural anchor for the new-Sinai reading.

Yahweh’s glory settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.


Coming down Sinai Moses' face shone (LXX dedoxastai) so that he had to veil it. Jesus' face 'shone like the sun' figurally surpasses Moses: where Moses reflected borrowed glory, Jesus radiates his own. The shining-face motif is a deliberate Mosaic borrowing.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn’t know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him. When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him. Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. […]


'You are my Son' — the royal-enthronement decree. The heavenly voice 'This is my beloved Son' weaves the Davidic/messianic sonship of Ps 2 into the composite oracle; widely recognized as one of the three texts fused at the baptism and transfiguration.

I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.


'My chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him.' 'In whom I am well pleased' (eudokesa) echoes the Servant designation. The voice fuses royal Son (Ps 2) with Servant (Isa 42), framing the glorified Son as the suffering Servant on the way to the cross.

“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights— I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.


'The LORD will raise up for you a prophet like me... you shall listen to him' (autou akousesthe). The command 'Listen to him' is verbatim from the prophet-like-Moses promise; appended to the voice it identifies Jesus as the eschatological prophet, the climactic clause of the composite oracle.

Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from your midst, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.


Elijah sent before the great Day. His appearance with Moses on the mountain anticipates the Elijah-must-come discussion of vv.10-13 and frames the scene eschatologically.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”


Moses ascends a high mountain (Nebo), is shown the land, and dies in a manner the LORD conceals; later tradition held God buried/took him. His reappearance pairs with Elijah (who never died, 2 Kings 2) as the two who left earth extraordinarily, hence fit witnesses of glory.

Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. Yahweh showed him all the land of Gilead, to Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, to the western sea, and the south, and the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, to Zoar. Yahweh said to him, “This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to […]


Elijah taken up to heaven in a whirlwind/chariot of fire — never tasting death. His presence on the mountain trades on the tradition of his heavenly translation, qualifying him to appear in glory alongside Moses.

As they still went on, and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.


The bright cloud (the kabod/Shekinah) overshadowing and filling the tent of meeting. 'A bright cloud overshadowed them' (episkiazo) draws on the tabernacle-cloud of divine presence, reinforced by Peter's wish to build three skenai (tents).

Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle. Moses wasn’t able to enter into the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud stayed on it, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle.


The Feast of Booths (Sukkot): dwelling in tents to recall the wilderness. Peter's instinct to erect three skenai may evoke the festival of God dwelling with Israel; some read an eschatological-ingathering nuance. Faint and disputed.

You shall dwell in booths seven days. All who are native-born in Israel shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.’”


'The wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky... like the stars.' The luminous transformation ('face shone like the sun,' garments 'white as the light') draws on apocalyptic resurrection-glory imagery, anticipating the risen state foreshadowed in v.9.

Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse; and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.


The Son of Man coming with clouds. The cloud plus the Son-of-Man saying in v.9 may activate the Danielic glorification motif; faint here, stronger elsewhere in Matthew.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.


Moses asks to see God's glory and is hidden in the rock as the glory passes. The disciples falling on their faces in terror at the glory echoes the dangerous holiness of seeing divine glory on Sinai. Thematic.

He said, “Please show me your glory.” He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.” Yahweh also said, “Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock. It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of […]


'Your son, your only/beloved son.' The 'beloved Son' (agapetos, the LXX rendering of yahid in the Aqedah) may carry an Isaac-typology overtone of the beloved son led toward sacrifice, dovetailing with the passion predictions framing the chapter.

He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”


God comes in radiance, 'his brightness was like the light, rays flashing from his hand.' The garments 'white as the light' may draw on theophanic light-imagery. Faint.

God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth. His splendor is like the sunrise. Rays shine from his hand, where his power is hidden.


'I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day... he will turn (restore) the hearts.' The scribal expectation 'Elijah must come first' and Jesus' 'Elijah indeed comes first and will restore all things' (apokatastesei panta) directly cite this oracle; identified with John the Baptist.


'I send my messenger to prepare the way before me.' The forerunner role attached to Elijah/John builds on the messenger of Mal 3, the companion text to 4:5 in the prophecy of the coming Day.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!” says Yahweh of Armies.


Of Elijah: 'destined... to calm the wrath of God, to turn the heart of the parent to the child, and to restore (katastesai) the tribes of Jacob.' This Second Temple text supplies the 'restore all things' language and shows the developed Elijah-redivivus expectation Jesus engages. Deuterocanonical.

Who was recorded for reproofs in their seasons, To pacify anger, before it brake forth into wrath; To turn the heart of the father to the son, And to restore the tribes of Jacob.


Jezebel seeks Elijah's life and he flees; 'they did to him whatever they wanted' may echo the suffering/persecution of the historical Elijah, mapped onto John (and onward to the Son of Man). Thematic-typological.

Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don’t make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time!” When he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, […]


'They did to him whatever they wanted to' — the maltreatment of the Elijah-figure (John) parallels Israel's rejection of the prophets generally; faint verbal, strong thematic continuity with the persecuted-prophet motif.

He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”


'Even so the Son of Man will also suffer by them' pivots to the Servant's rejection and suffering, linking the fate of the forerunner to the passion. Faint here, the Servant frame recurs in the chapter.

He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.


'Until the Son of Man has risen from the dead' uses the Danielic Son-of-Man title; the resurrection-secret links glory to vindication. Title-level echo.


'A perverse and crooked generation' (genea skolia kai diestrammene, LXX). Jesus' rebuke 'O faithless and perverse generation' (genea apistos kai diestrammene) borrows the Song of Moses' indictment of the wilderness generation, casting the unbelieving crowd as the new faithless Israel.

They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children, because of their defect. They are a perverse and crooked generation.


'How long will this people despise me? How long will they refuse to believe (ou pisteuousin) in me?' The doubled 'How long...?' lament over unbelief and 'faithless' echoes God's wilderness frustration with Israel through Moses. Strengthens the Moses-typology of the descent from the mountain.

Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?


'They are a perverse generation, children in whom there is no faithfulness.' Continues the Song-of-Moses language behind 'faithless and perverse generation'; reinforces the Deut 32 frame.

He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.


'Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain.' The proverb of removing a mountain by God's power/Spirit may stand behind 'you will tell this mountain, Move from here.' Thematic.

Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you are a plain; and he will bring out the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace, to it!’”


'Every mountain and hill made low.' The mountain-moving saying may draw on eschatological mountain-leveling imagery as a figure of God overcoming all obstacles. Faint.

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.


'The righteous shall live by his faith.' The whole pericope's contrast of unbelief versus mustard-seed faith resonates with the prophetic valuation of faith, though no verbal borrowing. Thematic.

Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.


The wilderness generation tested God ten times and did not believe; 'How long will I bear with you?' echoes the divine forbearance toward a faithless people. Faint thematic.

because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;


'The Son of Man is about to be delivered up (paradidotai) into the hands of men, and they will kill him.' The passive 'delivered up' echoes the Servant who 'was handed over for our sins' (Isa 53:6, 12 LXX paredothe), framing the death as the Servant's vicarious handing-over.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


'His soul was delivered up to death... he was numbered with transgressors.' The being 'delivered into the hands of men' draws on the Servant's surrender; the divine-passive points to God's purpose behind the betrayal.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.


'On the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.' 'The third day he will be raised up' may draw on this resurrection-on-the-third-day text, a candidate source for the early 'third day' formula.

After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.


The 'Son of Man' title carries the Danielic vindicated-one freight; the prediction couples humiliation with resurrection-vindication. Title-level echo.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.


'Three days and three nights'; Matthew elsewhere makes the Jonah-resurrection link explicit (12:40), so the 'third day' here may carry a faint Jonah resonance. Very faint.

Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.


The half-shekel atonement-money each Israelite pays for the service of the sanctuary. The didrachma (= the temple tax, the equivalent of the half-shekel) collected in v.24 is this Mosaic census/sanctuary levy; the whole exchange presupposes Exod 30 as the legal background of the temple tax.

Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are numbered among them, then each man shall give a ransom for his soul to Yahweh, when you number them; that there be no plague among them when you number them. They shall give this, everyone who passes over to those who are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary; (the shekel is twenty gerahs;) half a shekel for an offering to […]


The reckoning of the half-shekel (a beka) from each man counted. Confirms the fixed temple contribution behind the 'didrachma' question; the Pentateuchal institution of the sanctuary tax.

The silver of those who were numbered of the congregation was one hundred talents, and one thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: a beka a head, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone who passed over to those who were numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty men.


The post-exilic community pledges a third/(later half-)shekel yearly 'for the service of the house of our God.' Documents the developing annual temple-tax practice the collectors enforce, the contemporary form of the Exodus levy.

Also we made ordinances for ourselves, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God; for the show bread, and for the continual meal offering, and for the continual burnt offering, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.


'The earth is the LORD's and its fullness.' Jesus' logic that the king's own children are free, and the provision of the coin from the sea/fish, plays on God's ownership of all things — the Son not being a stranger in his Father's house (the temple). Thematic.

The earth is Yahweh’s, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein.


'A son honors his father.' The Father-Son / sons-of-the-king argument that the children are exempt may resonate with the sonship-over-against-temple logic; Jesus as Son is not a stranger to the Father's house. Faint.

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’


A fish as divine instrument/provision at sea; the miraculous coin-bearing fish may carry a faint resonance of God's sovereign use of the sea-creature, though no verbal link. Very faint.


The reversal at the heart of the saying — 'whoever humbles himself... is the greatest' — restates the wisdom maxim that pride brings a person low while the humble in spirit obtain honor. The exaltation-through-humility logic is a sustained sapiential pattern.

A man’s pride brings him low, but one of lowly spirit gains honor.


'Before honor is humility' supplies the proverbial frame for greatness defined by lowering oneself; recurs at Prov 18:12, reinforcing thematic coherence.

The fear of Yahweh teaches wisdom. Before honor is humility.


The image of becoming 'as little children' before God resonates with the psalmist's quieted, weaned-child posture of trust and renounced ambition. Verbal overlap is thin, so the link is thematic/figural rather than lexical.

Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.


'A little child shall lead them' offers an eschatological valorization of the child as figure of the messianic order, a possible backdrop to the child set 'in their midst' as model of the kingdom. Faint and disputed.

The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them.


The skandalon ('stumbling block') vocabulary draws on the Holiness Code prohibition against placing a stumbling block before the blind; Matthew moralizes the cultic-ethical image into causing 'these little ones' to fall.

“‘You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall fear your God. I am Yahweh.


The 'Woe' (ouai) oracle form against the world and against the agent of stumbling reproduces the prophetic woe-cry, of which Isaiah 5 is the paradigmatic chain. Formal echo, not verbal borrowing.

Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!


Being 'sunk in the depths of the sea' may invert Micah's image of God casting sins into the depths of the sea: here it is the offender, not the sin, that is drowned. Suggestive but uncertain.

He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.


A stone bound to a scroll and sunk in the Euphrates as a sign of irreversible sinking judgment ('thus shall Babylon sink') parallels the millstone-and-sea image of inescapable doom. Contested.

It shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates: and you shall say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.


The 'eternal fire' / 'Gehenna of fire' draws directly on Isaiah's closing vision of the dead whose 'worm shall not die, nor their fire be quenched' — the classic source-image for unquenchable eschatological fire, set in the valley outside Jerusalem.

“They shall go out, and look on the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”


Gehenna = the Valley of (the son of) Hinnom (ge-hinnom), where children were burned at Topheth; Jeremiah's condemnation of that valley made it the topographic seed of the later place-of-fiery-judgment.

They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn’t command, nor did it come into my mind.


Jeremiah renames Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom 'the Valley of Slaughter,' a judgment site; reinforces the Gehenna toponym's punitive force behind 'cast into the eternal fire.'

and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal; which I didn’t command, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind: therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter.


Josiah's defilement of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom contributes to the valley's afterlife as a place of refuse and judgment underlying Gehenna. Background rather than verbal source.

He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.


'Their angels always see the face of my Father' presumes the guardian-angel motif of 'he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.'

For he will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you in all your ways.


Angels who 'see the face' of the Father use the royal-court idiom for the highest courtiers — those who 'saw the king's face' and had access to his presence (cf. the seven princes who saw Ahasuerus's face). The little ones' angels hold rank in the heavenly court.

and the next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king’s face, and sat first in the kingdom),


'Those who saw the king's face' as a class of privileged courtiers parallels the access-language applied to the angels. Idiomatic background, contested.

and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and five men of those who saw the king’s face, who were found in the city; and the scribe, the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the city.


V.11 ('the Son of Man came to save that which was lost') directly evokes the shepherd-God's oracle 'I will seek the lost, and bring back the strayed' — and prepares the lost-sheep parable that follows.

I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but the fat and the strong I will destroy; I will feed them in justice.


The title 'Son of Man' in v.11 ultimately reaches back to Daniel's heavenly figure, though here in a saving rather than enthroned register. Faint at this point.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.


Raphael as one of the angels who 'stand and enter before the glory of the Lord' offers a Second Temple analogue to the angels who 'always see the face' of the Father. Deuterocanonical background, contested.

I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and go in before the glory of the Holy One.”


The shepherd who leaves the flock to 'seek that which has gone astray' and rejoices to find it directly enacts God's oracle: 'I myself will search for my sheep... I will seek the lost, and bring back the strayed.' High volume and thematic coherence.

For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I […]


'I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant' supplies the precise pairing of straying and being sought that the parable dramatizes.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I don’t forget your commandments.


'All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way' is the canonical statement of the sheep-going-astray motif underlying the one that 'goes astray.'

All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


The oracle against shepherds who scatter and fail to seek the flock, with God's promise to gather the strays, shares the shepherd/lost-sheep field. Contributory background.

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says Yahweh. Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, says Yahweh. I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they […]


'My sheep wandered through all the mountains... and none searched or sought' supplies the specific detail of the shepherd going 'to the mountains' to seek the strayed one.

My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill: yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth; and there was no one who searched or sought.


'Go, show him his fault between you and him alone' enacts the Holiness Code command 'you shall surely reprove your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him' — private, loving rebuke that does not let sin fester into hatred.

“‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.


'At the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established' is a near-verbatim citation of the Deuteronomic law of evidence ('on the testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be established'). The clearest formula-level borrowing in the chapter.

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.


The two-or-three-witnesses standard is doubled in Deuteronomy's capital-case law ('on the evidence of two or three witnesses he shall be put to death'), reinforcing the juridical weight of the procedure Jesus prescribes for the assembly.

At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.


'Question a friend, perhaps he did not do it... reprove a neighbor before you threaten him' is the closest Second Temple parallel to the graduated, presumption-of-innocence rebuke of Mt 18:15. Deuterocanonical wisdom on fraternal correction.

Reprove a friend; it may be he did it not: And if he did something, that he may do it no more. Reprove your neighbor; it may be he said it not: And if he has said it, that he may not say it again. Reprove a friend; for many times there is slander: And trust not every word. There is one that slips, and not from the heart: And who is he that has not sinned with his tongue? Reprove your neighbor before you threaten him; And give place to the law of the Most […]


Binding/loosing as authoritative juridical decision shares the open/shut imagery of the 'key of the house of David... he shall open and none shut.' The connection is firmer at Mt 16:19; here it is reasserted communally and is more diffuse.

I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.


'Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst' resonates with those who feared the Lord speaking together while 'the Lord took note and a book of remembrance was written' — the divine presence attending the small gathered company. Contested.

Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those who feared Yahweh, and who honored his name.


The 'two or three' of v.20 re-uses the witness-count of v.16, transposing the legal quorum into a quorum of prayer and presence. The verbal carryover from the Deuteronomic formula is deliberate.


'Until seventy times seven' (or 'seventy-seven') deliberately reverses Lamech's boast 'If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold': the same numbers that measured escalating vengeance now measure limitless forgiveness. The LXX of Gen 4:24 reads hebdomekontakis hepta, matching Jesus' phrasing.

If Cain will be avenged seven times, truly Lamech seventy-seven times.”


Peter's 'seven times' as a presumed limit may echo the prophetic 'for three transgressions and for four' idiom of a fixed tally of offenses before judgment; Jesus dissolves the tally. Faint formal parallel.

Thus says Yahweh: “For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron;


The parable's logic — God forgives the one who forgives, and withholds mercy from the unmerciful — is the narrative form of Sirach's teaching: 'Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray... Does anyone harbor anger against another, and expect healing from the Lord?' The closest extracanonical parallel to the whole pericope.

He that takes vengeance will find vengeance from the Lord; And he will surely make firm his sins. Forgive your neighbor the hurt that he has done you; And then your sins will be pardoned when you pray. Man cherisheth anger against man; And does he seek healing from the Lord? Upon a man like himself he has no mercy; And does he make supplication for his own sins? He being himself flesh nourishes wrath: Who will make atonement for his sins? Remember your […]


The king who 'releases' (aphiemi) his servant and 'forgives the debt' enacts the sabbatical-year release of debts (shemittah): every creditor shall release what he has lent. The unforgiving servant violates the release he himself received.

At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts. This is the way it shall be done: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother; because Yahweh’s release has been proclaimed.


The command to sell the debtor 'with his wife and children' reflects the legal reality of debt-slavery regulated in the Jubilee laws ('if your brother becomes poor and sells himself to you'), the very bondage the king's compassion suspends.

“‘If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave.


A creditor coming to seize the debtor's children as slaves (the widow's plea to Elisha) supplies the social backdrop for selling the man 'with his wife, his children, and all that he had.'

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”


The outcry that 'we are forcing our sons and daughters to be slaves' to pay debts parallels the parable's seizure of family for an unpayable obligation. Contributory social context.

Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. Neither is it in our power to help it; for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”


'Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor will himself cry out and not be answered' is the proverbial kernel of the parable: the servant who refuses his fellow's plea forfeits the mercy he had begged and received.

Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.


'He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker; he who is glad at calamity shall not go unpunished' supports the measure-for-measure judgment on the merciless servant. Faint.

Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker. He who is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished.


Daniel's counsel to the king to 'break off your sins by showing mercy to the oppressed' links royal forgiveness with the showing of mercy demanded of the forgiven — a possible backdrop to the king/mercy frame. Contested.

Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if there may be a lengthening of your tranquility.


The setting 'beyond the Jordan' in the region of Judea/Perea uses the standard wilderness-itinerary formula for Israel encamped 'beyond the Jordan' opposite Jericho; faint geographic resonance only.

The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho.


Jesus healing the great multitudes who follow him faintly recalls the eschatological healing of Isaiah's highway-of-the-redeemed; thematic, not verbal.

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.


'He who made them from the beginning made them male and female' verbatim cites Genesis 1:27 ('male and female created he them'); explicit appeal to creation order as the warrant against divorce.

God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.


Genesis 5:2 repeats 'male and female created he them, and blessed them'; the doublet reinforces the 'from the beginning' creation argument and may stand behind Jesus' formulation alongside 1:27.

He created them male and female, and blessed them. On the day they were created, he named them “Adam”.


'For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall join to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh' is a verbatim quotation of Genesis 2:24, the foundational one-flesh text.

Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.


The Pharisees' 'Moses commanded us to give her a bill of divorce' directly cites the Mosaic divorce permission of Deuteronomy 24:1 ('let him write her a bill of divorcement'); the crux of the dispute.

When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be, if she finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and put it in her hand, and send her out of his house.


The full Deuteronomic divorce ordinance (vv.1-4, the prohibition of remarrying a twice-divorced wife) frames Jesus' redefinition of remarriage-after-divorce as adultery.

If the latter husband hates her, and write her a bill of divorce, and puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife; her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh. You shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.


Malachi's covenant theology of marriage ('the wife of thy youth... did he not make one?... I hate divorce') anticipates Jesus' one-flesh-from-creation argument against putting away a wife.

Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant. Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For I hate divorce”, says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “and him […]


'Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh' establishes the one-flesh unity that 2:24 articulates and Jesus invokes as 'no more two but one flesh.'

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.”


Jesus' explanation that Moses permitted divorce 'because of the hardness of your hearts' draws on the Deuteronomic idiom of the uncircumcised/hardened heart of stubborn Israel.

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.


Prophetic 'hardness of heart' / circumcise-your-heart language underlies Jesus' diagnosis of why the Mosaic concession was given.

Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.


The promise to remove the heart of stone faintly contrasts with the 'hardness of heart' that necessitated the divorce concession 'from the beginning it was not so.'

I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.


Jesus' charge that remarriage after unlawful divorce 'commits adultery' presupposes the Decalogue prohibition (Exodus 20:14 / Deuteronomy 5:18).


'Male and female' as a fixed creational pair also appears in the ark narrative; faint reinforcement of the binary-pair language Jesus cites.

went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah.


'Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake' inverts and fulfills Isaiah's promise that faithful eunuchs receive 'a name better than of sons and daughters' within God's house; the strongest scriptural ground for valuing the eunuch in the kingdom.

Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to Yahweh, speak, saying, “Yahweh will surely separate me from his people”; neither let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says Yahweh, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant: to them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, […]


Deuteronomy bars the emasculated from the assembly of the LORD; Jesus' commendation of voluntary 'eunuchs for the kingdom' figurally reverses that exclusion, echoing the Isaian abrogation.

He who is emasculated by crushing or cutting shall not enter into Yahweh’s assembly.


Wisdom blesses the eunuch 'which hath wrought no iniquity... for unto him shall be given the special gift of faith,' a Second Temple anticipation of the eunuch honored in God's kingdom.

And happy is the eunuch which has wrought no lawless deed with his hands, Nor imagined wicked things against the Lord; For there will be given him for his faithfulness a peculiar favor, And a lot in the sanctuary of the Lord more delightsome than wife or children.


Jesus laying hands on the children to bless echoes Israel/Jacob laying hands on Ephraim and Manasseh to bless them; patriarchal blessing-by-imposition-of-hands prefigured.

Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. He blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham […]


The kingdom belonging to little children resonates with the Psalmist's 'out of the mouth of babes' as the locus of God's praise/strength; thematic only.

From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise, because of thine enemies; that thou mightest put down the enemy and avenger.


Laying on of hands as a means of transmitting blessing/commission (Moses on Joshua) lies behind the gesture the disciples sought to prevent.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and commission him in their sight. You shall give authority to him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may obey. He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before Yahweh. At his word they shall go out, and at his […]


'You shall not murder' verbatim from the Decalogue (Exodus 20:13 / Deuteronomy 5:17).


'You shall not commit adultery' verbatim from the Decalogue (Exodus 20:14 / Deuteronomy 5:18).


'You shall not steal' verbatim from the Decalogue (Exodus 20:15 / Deuteronomy 5:19).


'You shall not offer false testimony' verbatim from the Decalogue (Exodus 20:16 / Deuteronomy 5:20).

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.


'Honor your father and mother' verbatim from the Decalogue (Exodus 20:12 / Deuteronomy 5:16).

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.


'You shall love your neighbor as yourself' is a verbatim quotation of Leviticus 19:18, appended by Jesus as the summary of the second table.

“‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.


The whole sequence Jesus recites follows the second-table Decalogue as given in Deuteronomy's repetition; the Matthean order (honor-parents last, plus Lev 19:18) reflects this catechetical cluster.

“Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you; that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.


'Keep the commandments' to 'enter into life' echoes Leviticus 18:5, 'which if a man do, he shall live in them'; the Torah principle of life-by-obedience the young man invokes.

You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances; which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.


Doing 'all these commandments' as righteousness/life lies behind the young man's claim to have kept them and the question 'what do I still lack?'

It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.”


'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God' resonates with the recurrent confession 'the LORD is good' (Ps 118:1; 106:1; 136:1); only God is the source of the predicate 'good.'

Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.


'If you want to be perfect (teleios)' echoes the call to Abraham, 'walk before me and be thou perfect/blameless,' the Septuagint sense of wholehearted covenant integrity.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me, and be blameless.


'You shall be perfect/blameless with the LORD your God' stands behind Jesus' 'if you would be perfect,' framing discipleship as covenantal completeness.

You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God.


'Give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven' enacts 'He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the LORD'; almsgiving as deposit with God.

He who has pity on the poor lends to Yahweh; he will reward him.


Tobit's counsel that almsgiving 'lays up a good treasure against the day of necessity' is the closest Second Temple parallel to 'sell what you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.'

Give alms from your possessions. When you give alms, don’t let your eye be envious. Don’t turn away your face from any poor man, and the face of God won’t be turned away from you. As your possessions are, give alms of it according to your abundance. If you have little, don’t be afraid to give alms according to that little; for you lay up a good treasure for yourself against the day of necessity; because alms-giving delivers from death, and doesn’t allow […]


Ben Sira urges 'lay up thy treasure according to the commandments... it shall bring thee more profit than gold,' directly paralleling treasure-in-heaven-through-almsgiving.

Lose your money for a brother and a friend; And let it not rust under the stone to be lost. Bestow your treasure according to the commandments of the Most High; And it shall profit you more than gold. Shut up alms in your store-chambers; And it shall deliver you out of all affliction:


'With God all things are possible' is the strongest verbal kin to 'Is anything too hard (impossible) for the LORD?' spoken at the promise of Isaac; divine omnipotence over the humanly impossible.

Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”


Job's confession 'I know that thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of thine can be withheld' closely matches 'with God all things are possible.'

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.


'If it be marvelous... should it also be marvelous in mine eyes? saith the LORD' grounds the contrast between what is impossible for men and possible for God in the restoration promise.

Thus says Yahweh of Armies: “If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my eyes?” says Yahweh of Armies.


'There is nothing too hard for thee' (cf. 32:27, 'is there any thing too hard for me?') is a near-equivalent declaration of God's unlimited power.

Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,


'Is the LORD's hand waxed short?' belongs to the same idiom of God overcoming the humanly impossible.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Has Yahweh’s hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not.”


The difficulty of the rich entering the kingdom resonates with the Psalmist's verdict that wealth cannot ransom a life; riches as no security before God.

Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches— none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough, That he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption.


The Abraham-Sodom dialogue's confidence in God ('shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?') shares the setting of the same 'too hard for the LORD?' passage Jesus echoes.

Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”


'When the Son of Man will sit on the throne of his glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging' draws on Daniel's vision of thrones set, the Ancient of Days, and judgment convened; the throne-and-judgment imagery.

I saw until thrones were placed, and one who was ancient of days sat: his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came out from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.


'The Son of Man... on the throne of his glory' alludes to the Danielic 'one like a son of man' given dominion and an everlasting kingdom.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


'Judgment was given to the saints of the Most High' grounds the disciples' role of sitting in judgment over the twelve tribes.

until the ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.


'There are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David'—Jerusalem as the seat where the tribes are judged—stands behind the twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

where the tribes go up, even Yah’s tribes, according to an ordinance for Israel, to give thanks to Yahweh’s name. For there are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of David’s house.


'They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the peoples' is the Second Temple promise that the righteous will share God's eschatological judging rule, paralleling the disciples on thrones.

They will judge nations, and have dominion over peoples; And the Lord will reign over them for evermore.


'In the regeneration (palingenesia)'—the renewed cosmos—echoes Isaiah's 'I create new heavens and a new earth'; the eschatological re-creation in which the thrones are set.

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.


'The new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain' reinforces the 'regeneration' framework of the promised renewal.

“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” says Yahweh, “so your seed and your name shall remain.


'Will inherit eternal life' echoes Daniel's resurrection to 'everlasting life,' the OT locus for that phrase informing the disciples' reward.

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse; and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.


'Many first will be last, and last first' resonates with Hannah's reversal song—the LORD raises the poor from the dust and seats them with princes.

Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up. He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s. He has set the world on them.


The hundredfold restoration to those who left all faintly recalls Job's twofold/restored fortunes after loss; reward-after-renunciation pattern.

Yahweh turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends. Yahweh gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came there to him all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold. So Yahweh blessed the […]


Leaving 'houses... father, mother... lands' for Jesus' name's sake to inherit reward retraces Abraham's call to leave country and kindred for a promised inheritance.

Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.


The vineyard (ampelon) is the master's estate where laborers are hired; Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard establishes the vineyard as Israel/God's people under his care and reckoning. Matthew reuses this stock symbol (cf. the next parable, 21:33-41, which quotes Isa 5 directly), framing the kingdom under the imagery of God's vineyard.

Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in its midst, and also cut out a wine press therein. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my […]


The vine/vineyard brought out of Egypt and tended by God is part of the same symbolic field; faint thematic resonance behind the kingdom-as-vineyard image rather than verbal borrowing.

You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it. You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root, and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shadow. Its boughs were like God’s cedars. It sent out its branches to the sea, Its shoots to the River. Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it? The boar out of the wood ravages it. The wild animals of the field feed on it. Turn […]


The Torah commands paying a hired laborer his wages the same day, before sundown: 'When evening had come... pay them their wages' (20:8) directly enacts this hired-laborer wage law, giving the parable its legal verisimilitude and its concern with what is 'right' (dikaion).

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers, or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. In his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it; lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.


Parallel wage-law ('the wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning'); reinforces the same-day payment background of 20:8.

“‘You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. “‘The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.


'Is your eye evil because I am good?' (20:15) uses the Semitic idiom of the 'evil eye' (ophthalmos ponēros) for grudging stinginess; Deut 15:9 warns against the eye being 'evil' (begrudging) toward a needy brother — the exact moral idiom Jesus inverts (here it is the workers who begrudge the master's generosity).

Beware that there not be a base thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand”; and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you.


'Do not eat the bread of him who has an evil eye' — same 'evil eye'=miserly idiom standing behind 20:15; faint, idiomatic rather than allusive.

Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies:


'It is my desire to give... Isn't it lawful for me to do what I want with what I own?' (20:14-15) echoes God's sovereign freedom in mercy ('I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious'); thematic, disputed.

He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”


'The burden of the day and the scorching heat' (20:12) faintly recalls the scorching east wind/heat motif; very weak, likely just realistic detail of agricultural labor.

When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”


The Son of Man 'will be delivered/handed over' (paradothēsetai) to the authorities and Gentiles; paradidōmi is the verb the Greek of Isaiah 53 uses for the Servant being 'handed over' for sins (Isa 53:6,12 LXX), coloring the passion prediction with Servant theology.

All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


'to mock, to scourge' (20:19) corresponds to the Servant who gives his back to those who strike and his face to mocking/spitting; the catalog of mistreatment draws on the third Servant Song.

I gave my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.


'the third day he will be raised up' (20:19) echoes 'on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him'; widely read as the scriptural background for the 'third day' resurrection formula.

After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.


'the Son of Man' (20:18) carries the Danielic title; here paradoxically the exalted Danielic figure is the one delivered up to death, a Matthean recurrence of the title.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.


'the cup that I am about to drink' (20:22) is the prophetic 'cup of wrath/staggering' that Jerusalem drinks (Isa 51:17,22); Jesus takes upon himself the cup of judgment, the dominant OT background for the passion-cup.

Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.


The cup of foaming wine of God's wrath that the wicked drink to the dregs; supplies the 'cup' = divine judgment imagery behind 20:22-23.

For in the hand of Yahweh there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.


'Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and make all the nations drink it' — the cup of wrath passed to the nations; reinforces the cup-of-judgment field Jesus says he must drink.

For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.


The cup of horror and desolation that Jerusalem must drink to the dregs; same cup-of-wrath motif, fainter parallel.

You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore will I give her cup into your hand. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large; you will be ridiculed and held in derision; it contains much. You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria. You shall even drink it and drain it out, and you shall gnaw the broken pieces of it, […]


The request to sit at Jesus' right hand and left in his kingdom faintly invokes enthronement-at-the-right-hand language; weak, the verbal contact is only 'right hand.'

Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”


The 'baptism' of overwhelming suffering pairs with the cup; the engulfing-waters imagery of the righteous sufferer ('the waters have come up to my neck') is a faint background for being 'baptized' with suffering.

Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck! I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.


KEY allusion. 'The Son of Man came... to give his life as a ransom for many' (20:28) compresses the fourth Servant Song: the Servant 'pours out his soul to death' and 'bears the sin of many' (Isa 53:12), making his life an offering (asham, 53:10). 'Give his life' (dounai tēn psychēn) + 'for many' (anti pollōn) maps onto the LXX Servant who is handed over for the 'many' (polloi, Isa 53:11-12). Vicarious, substitutionary death — the figural fulfillment of the Servant.

Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall […]


Jesus identifies himself as the one who came 'to serve' (diakonēsai); the title 'Son of Man' is overlaid on the exalted 'my Servant' (pais) of Isaiah, framing his whole mission as the Servant of YHWH who suffers and is exalted.

Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.


'The rulers of the nations lord it over them... it shall not be so among you' (20:25-26) inverts the false shepherds of Israel who 'with force and harshness ruled them'; Jesus contrasts domineering rule with self-giving service in the shepherd-leadership idiom of Ezek 34.

You haven’t strengthened the diseased, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought back that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with rigor you have ruled over them.


Rehoboam's choice to make his yoke heavier and rule harshly over against serving the people is a narrative type of lordly domination Jesus repudiates; thematic, disputed.

Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. When Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was yet in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam lived in Egypt, and they sent and called him), Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came, and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, “Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make you the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which […]


God 'gave Egypt as your ransom (LXX allagma/lytron), Cush and Seba in exchange for you... I give people in return for your life'; supplies the ransom-in-exchange-for-life logic of lytron anti pollōn in 20:28.

For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Since you have been precious and honored in my sight, and I have loved you; therefore I will give people in your place, and nations instead of your life.


Each Israelite gives a 'ransom (lytra) for his life' at the census so that no plague falls; background to the ransom-price (lytron) vocabulary, though Jesus' self-gift transcends the cultic fee.

“When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are numbered among them, then each man shall give a ransom for his soul to Yahweh, when you number them; that there be no plague among them when you number them.


'No man can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of their life is costly'; Jesus' ransom answers the impossibility the psalm laments — faint, ironic counterpoint.

none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough,


'the Son of Man' (20:28) again carries the Danielic title; the one given dominion and service by the nations is here the one who himself comes to serve, a deliberate Matthean inversion of the Danielic enthronement.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


'that our eyes may be opened... their eyes received their sight' (20:33-34) enacts the messianic-age promise 'then the eyes of the blind shall be opened'; the healing functions as a sign that the awaited deliverance has arrived (cf. Matt 11:5).

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.


The Servant is called 'to open the eyes that are blind'; the blind men's healing realizes the Servant's commission — tying this episode back to the Servant theme just sounded in 20:28.

to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.


'Son of David, have mercy on us!' (20:30-31) invokes the Davidic covenant promise of an everlasting throne to David's seed; the blind confess Jesus as the messianic Son of David.

When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but my loving kindness shall not […]


The 'shoot from the stump of Jesse' stands behind the Son-of-David / Davidic-messiah confession; thematic support for the title in 20:30.

A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.


'the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity' — additional eschatological sight-restoration promise reinforcing the Isaianic background of the healing.

In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.


'Have mercy on us (eleēson hēmas), O LORD, have mercy on us' — the doubled cry of the blind (20:30-31) reuses the stock psalmic plea for mercy; idiomatic rather than a specific citation.

Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.


Matthew's formula citation (21:4-5) of the prophesied king who comes 'humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' Matthew uniquely reads the Hebrew parallelism woodenly, producing two animals (donkey and colt), which shapes his narrative of two beasts (21:7).

Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.


The opening of the citation, 'Tell the daughter of Zion, behold...,' is drawn from Isaiah 62:11 ('Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes') rather than from Zechariah, whose own opening is 'Rejoice greatly.' Matthew blends Isaiah 62:11 with Zechariah 9:9 into a single quotation.

Behold, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.’”


The crowd's cry (21:9) quotes Psalm 118:25-26: 'Hosanna' transliterates the Hebrew 'hoshia-na' ('save now,' Ps 118:25), and 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD' is verbatim from Ps 118:26 (LXX), a Hallel pilgrimage acclamation.

Save us now, we beg you, Yahweh! Yahweh, we beg you, send prosperity now. Blessed is he who comes in Yahweh’s name! We have blessed you out of Yahweh’s house.


Spreading garments on the road as an act of royal acclamation: at Jehu's anointing the men 'took every man his garment, and put it under him... and blew the trumpet, saying, Jehu is king.' The crowd's gesture (21:8) enacts an enthronement.

Then they hurried, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, “Jehu is king.”


Solomon is mounted on the king's mule and led to be made king amid rejoicing; the royal son of David enters his city riding a humble mount to acclamation, the pattern Jesus' entry evokes.

The king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel. Blow the trumpet, and say, ‘Long live king Solomon!’ Then you shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne; for he shall be king in my place. I have appointed him to be prince over Israel and over Judah.” Benaiah the […]