Matius 5:45

5:45 so that you may be like ¹  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Matius 6:4

6:4 so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. ² 

Matius 6:8

6:8 Do ³  not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Matius 6:15

6:15 But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins.

Matius 6:32

6:32 For the unconverted ⁴  pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

Matius 10:29

10:29 Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? ⁵  Yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. ⁶ 

Matius 10:32-33

10:32 “Whoever, then, acknowledges ⁷  me before people, I will acknowledge ⁸  before my Father in heaven. 10:33 But whoever denies me before people, I will deny him also before my Father in heaven.

Matius 10:35

10:35 For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,

Matius 12:50

12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is ⁹  my brother and sister and mother.”

Matius 13:43

13:43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. ¹⁰  The one who has ears had better listen! ¹¹ 

Matius 15:13

15:13 And he replied, ¹²  “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.

Matius 18:35

18:35 So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your ¹³  brother ¹⁴  from your heart.”

Matius 23:30

23:30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, ¹⁵  we would not have participated with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

Matius 24:36

Be Ready!

24:36 “But as for that day and hour no one knows it – not even the angels in heaven ¹⁶  – except the Father alone.

Matius 26:53

26:53 Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and that he would send me more than twelve legions ¹⁷  of angels right now?

Matius 28:19

28:19 Therefore go ¹⁸  and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ¹⁹ 

[5:45]  ¹ tn Grk “be sons of your Father in heaven.” Here, however, the focus is not on attaining a relationship (becoming a child of God) but rather on being the kind of person who shares the characteristics of God himself (a frequent meaning of the Semitic idiom “son of”). See L&N 58.26.

[6:4]  ² tc L W Θ 0250 Ï it read ἐν τῷ φανερῷ (en tw fanerw, “openly”) at the end of this verse, giving a counterweight to what is done in secret. But this reading is suspect because of the obvious literary balance, because of detouring the point of the passage (the focus of vv. 1-4 is not on two kinds of public rewards but on human vs. divine approbation), and because of superior external testimony that lacks this reading (א B D Z Ë^1,13 33 al).

[6:8]  ³ tn Grk “So do not.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

[6:32]  ⁴ tn Or “unbelievers”; Grk “Gentiles.”

[10:29]  ⁵ sn The penny refers to an assarion, a small Roman copper coin. One of them was worth one-sixteenth of a denarius or less than a half hour’s average wage. Sparrows were the cheapest items sold in the market. God knows about even the most financially insignificant things; see Isa 49:15.

[10:29]  ⁶ tn Or “to the ground without the knowledge and consent of your Father.”

[10:32]  ⁷ tn Or “confesses.”

[10:32]  ⁸ tn Grk “I will acknowledge him also.”

[10:32]  sn This acknowledgment will take place at the judgment. On Jesus and judgment, see Luke 22:69; Acts 10:42-43; 17:31.

[12:50]  ⁹ tn The pleonastic pronoun αὐτός (autos, “he”) which precedes this verb has not been translated.

[13:43]  ¹⁰ sn An allusion to Dan 12:3.

[13:43]  ¹¹ tn The translation “had better listen!” captures the force of the third person imperative more effectively than the traditional “let him hear,” which sounds more like a permissive than an imperative to the modern English reader. This was Jesus’ common expression to listen and heed carefully (cf. Matt 11:15, 13:9; Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 8:8, 14:35).

[15:13]  ¹² tn Grk “And answering, he said.”

[18:35]  ¹³ tn Grk “his.” The pronoun has been translated to follow English idiom (the last pronoun of the verse [“from your heart”] is second person plural in the original).

[18:35]  ¹⁴ tn Here the term “brother” means “fellow believer” or “fellow Christian” (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.a), whether male or female. Concerning the familial connotations, see also the note on the first occurrence of this term in v. 15.

[23:30]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “fathers” (so also in v. 32).

[24:36]  ¹⁶ tc ‡ Some important witnesses, including early Alexandrian and Western mss (א*^,2 B D Θ Ë¹³ pc it vg^mss Ir^lat Hier^mss), have the additional words οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός (oude Jo Juios, “nor the son”) here. Although the shorter reading (which lacks this phrase) is suspect in that it seems to soften the prophetic ignorance of Jesus, the final phrase (“except the Father alone”) already implies this. Further, the parallel in Mark 13:32 has οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός, with almost no witnesses lacking the expression. Hence, it is doubtful that the absence of “neither the Son” is due to the scribes. In keeping with Matthew’s general softening of Mark’s harsh statements throughout his Gospel, it is more likely that the absence of “neither the Son” is part of the original text of Matthew, being an intentional change on the part of the author. Further, this shorter reading is supported by the first corrector of א as well as L W ˹ 33 Ï vg sy co Hier^mss. Admittedly, the external evidence is not as impressive for the shorter reading, but it best explains the rise of the other reading (in particular, how does one account for virtually no mss excising οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός at Mark 13:32 if such an absence here is due to scribal alteration? Although scribes were hardly consistent, for such a theologically significant issue at least some consistency would be expected on the part of a few scribes). Nevertheless, NA²⁷ includes οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός here.

[26:53]  ¹⁷ sn A legion was a Roman army unit of about 6,000 soldiers, so twelve legions would be 72,000.

[28:19]  ¹⁸ tn “Go…baptize…teach” are participles modifying the imperative verb “make disciples.” According to ExSyn 645 the first participle (πορευθέντες, poreuqentes, “Go”) fits the typical structural pattern for the attendant circumstance participle (aorist participle preceding aorist main verb, with the mood of the main verb usually imperative or indicative) and thus picks up the mood (imperative in this case) from the main verb (μαθητεύσατε, maqhteusate, “make disciples”). This means that semantically the action of “going” is commanded, just as “making disciples” is. As for the two participles that follow the main verb (βαπτίζοντες, baptizontes, “baptizing”; and διδάσκοντες, didaskontes, “teaching”), these do not fit the normal pattern for attendant circumstance participles, since they are present participles and follow the aorist main verb. However, some interpreters do see them as carrying additional imperative force in context. Others regard them as means, manner, or even result.

[28:19]  ¹⁹ tc Although some scholars have denied that the trinitarian baptismal formula in the Great Commission was a part of the original text of Matthew, there is no ms support for their contention. F. C. Conybeare, “The Eusebian Form of the Text of Mt. 28:19,” ZNW 2 (1901): 275-88, based his view on a faulty reading of Eusebius’ quotations of this text. The shorter reading has also been accepted, on other grounds, by a few other scholars. For discussion (and refutation of the conjecture that removes this baptismal formula), see B. J. Hubbard, The Matthean Redaction of a Primitive Apostolic Commissioning (SBLDS 19), 163-64, 167-75; and Jane Schaberg, The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (SBLDS 61), 27-29.