Matthew 19: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus leaves Galilee for the part of Judea across the Jordan River; large crowds follow him, and he heals them there. Pharisees test him with a question about divorce, and he answers from the creation account, says Moses allowed divorce because of hard hearts, and states one exception; his disciples react, and he speaks about those who can accept living unmarried. He then welcomes little children, tells a rich young man to sell what he owns and follow him, and says how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom. Peter asks what the disciples will get for leaving everything, and Jesus promises them thrones, a hundredfold return, and eternal life, closing with a saying about the first being last and the last first.

Claim by Claim

1. 19:1
   • When Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee.
   • Jesus came into the region of Judaea beyond the Jordan.
2. 19:2
   • Great multitudes followed Jesus.
   • Jesus healed them there.
3. 19:3
   • Pharisees came to Jesus.
   • The Pharisees came testing him.
   • The Pharisees asked whether it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause.
4. 19:4
   • Jesus answered them.
   • Jesus asked whether they had not read that the one who made them at the beginning made them male and female.
5. 19:5
   • Jesus said that the Creator said that for this cause a man shall leave his father and mother.
   • Jesus said that a man shall be joined to his wife.
   • Jesus said that the two shall become one flesh.
6. 19:6
   • Jesus said that they are no longer two but one flesh.
   • Jesus said that what God has joined together, let no man separate.
7. 19:7
   • The Pharisees asked Jesus why Moses then commanded to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away.
8. 19:8
   • Jesus said to them that Moses permitted them to divorce their wives because of the hardness of their hearts.
   • Jesus said that from the beginning it was not so.
9. 19:9
   • Jesus said that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.
   • Jesus said that whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.
10. 19:10
    • The disciples said to Jesus that if the case of a man with his wife is so, it is not advantageous to marry.
11. 19:11
    • Jesus said to them that not all men can receive this saying.
    • Jesus said that only those to whom it is given can receive this saying.
12. 19:12
    • Jesus said there are eunuchs who were born so from their mother's womb.
    • Jesus said there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men.
    • Jesus said there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
    • Jesus said that he who is able to receive it should receive it.
13. 19:13
    • Little children were brought to Jesus.
    • They were brought so that he would lay his hands on them and pray.
    • The disciples rebuked them.
14. 19:14
    • Jesus said to permit the little children to come to him.
    • Jesus said not to forbid them.
    • Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.
15. 19:15
    • Jesus laid his hands on them.
    • Jesus departed from there.
16. 19:16
    • One man came to Jesus.
    • The man addressed Jesus as Good Master.
    • The man asked what good thing he should do to have eternal life.
17. 19:17
    • Jesus asked him why he called him good.
    • Jesus said there is none good but one, that is, God.
    • Jesus said that if he wishes to enter into life, he should keep the commandments.
    • In the Greek, Jesus instead asks why the man asks him about what is good, and says there is one who is good.
18. 19:18
    • The man asked Jesus which commandments.
    • Jesus said, do not murder.
    • Jesus said, do not commit adultery.
    • Jesus said, do not steal.
    • Jesus said, do not bear false witness.
19. 19:19
    • Jesus said, honor your father and your mother.
    • Jesus said, love your neighbor as yourself.
20. 19:20
    • The young man said to Jesus that he had kept all these things.
    • The young man said he had kept them from his youth up.
    • The young man asked what he still lacked.
21. 19:21
    • Jesus said to him that if he wishes to be perfect, he should go and sell what he has.
    • Jesus told him to give to the poor.
    • Jesus said he would then have treasure in heaven.
    • Jesus told him to come and follow him.
22. 19:22
    • The young man heard that saying.
    • The young man went away sorrowful.
    • The young man had great possessions.
23. 19:23
    • Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you.
    • Jesus said that a rich man shall enter the kingdom of heaven with difficulty.
24. 19:24
    • Jesus said again to them that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
25. 19:25
    • The disciples heard it.
    • The disciples were exceedingly amazed.
    • The disciples asked who then can be saved.
26. 19:26
    • Jesus looked at them.
    • Jesus said to them that with men this is impossible.
    • Jesus said that with God all things are possible.
27. 19:27
    • Peter answered Jesus.
    • Peter said that they had forsaken all and followed him.
    • Peter asked what they would have as a result.
28. 19:28
    • Jesus said to them, truly I say to you.
    • Jesus said that those who have followed him will, in the regeneration, when the Son of man sits on the throne of his glory, also sit on twelve thrones.
    • Jesus said they will judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
29. 19:29
    • Jesus said that everyone who has forsaken houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for his name's sake shall receive a hundredfold.
    • Jesus said such a one shall inherit everlasting life.
    • In the Greek, the list does not include a wife, and the promise is to receive many times as much rather than specifically a hundredfold.
30. 19:30
    • Jesus said that many who are first shall be last.
    • Jesus said that the last shall be first.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

19:1

"Coasts" in the King James means borders or territory, not shoreline; the phrase is simply "the region of Judea." The area east of the Jordan River, called Perea, was under the same ruler as Galilee. Travelers going south from Galilee often crossed to the east bank to avoid passing through Samaria, whose people were on hostile terms with Judean Jews.

19:3

The Pharisees were a widely respected movement devoted to careful observance of the Law of Moses and to the oral traditions built up around it. "Tempting him" in the King James means testing or probing, not luring him into wrongdoing. The question is not abstract: the rabbinic schools were openly split over Deuteronomy 24:1, which allows a man to divorce a wife in whom he finds "some uncleanness." One school read that narrowly as sexual misconduct; another read it broadly enough to cover almost any displeasure, which is what "for every cause" points at. Note also that only the husband is in view. Under Jewish law of the time, divorce was a man's act.

19:4

Jesus quotes Genesis 1:27. "Have ye not read" is a standard debating move: it appeals to a text both sides accept.

19:5

A quotation of Genesis 2:24. "Cleave" in the King James means to stick fast or be joined firmly to, the opposite of the other English verb "cleave," which means to split. "Twain" is an old word for two. "One flesh" is a Hebrew way of speaking about kinship: the two become a single family unit.

19:6

"Put asunder" means pull apart or separate. The phrasing survives in English wedding services, which is why it sounds formal rather than plain.

19:7

The "writing of divorcement" is the certificate described in Deuteronomy 24:1. Its practical function was to prove that the woman was legally free, so that she could remarry without being open to a charge of adultery. The Pharisees treat the passage as a command; Jesus answers in the next verse that it was a concession.

19:8

"Suffered" in the King James means allowed or permitted, not endured. "Hardness of your hearts" translates a Greek word meaning stubbornness or unteachability; it is not about cruelty in particular.

19:9

"Fornication" translates the Greek word porneia, a broad term covering sexual wrongdoing in general rather than one specific act. Exactly what it was meant to cover here was disputed in the ancient church and still is. "Put away" is the King James phrase for divorce throughout this chapter. Some ancient manuscripts do not include the final sentence about marrying a divorced woman.

19:11

"Receive this saying" means take it in and accept it, not merely hear it.

19:12

A eunuch was a castrated man. Some were born unable to father children; others were deliberately castrated, often as boys, to serve in royal households, guard harems, or hold court office, where a man with no heirs was considered safer to trust. Under the Law of Moses a castrated man was barred from the assembly (Deuteronomy 23:1), so the word carried real stigma. The third group, those who "have made themselves eunuchs," was understood by most early readers as a figure of speech for choosing to stay unmarried and celibate, though a few in the early centuries took it literally and were condemned for it.

19:13

Placing hands on a person was the ordinary gesture accompanying a blessing or a prayer for someone, going back to Genesis 48. The parents are asking for a blessing, not a healing. Children had no social standing to claim a teacher's time, which is why the disciples treat the request as an intrusion.

19:14

"Suffer" here means allow or let, the same word used in verse 8. The King James is not saying the children should suffer.

19:16

"Master" in the King James usually means teacher, not owner. "Eternal life" translates a phrase meaning the life of the age to come, the life belonging to the world God was expected to set right, rather than simply unending duration.

19:17

The Greek manuscripts differ here. The earliest copies of Matthew read "Why do you ask me about what is good?"; later copies, which the King James follows, read "Why do you call me good?", matching the wording in Mark and Luke.

19:18

These are drawn from the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5). "Bear false witness" specifically means giving false testimony against someone in a legal case, a serious matter in a system where a capital charge could be established by two witnesses.

19:19

The last item is not from the Ten Commandments but from Leviticus 19:18. "Neighbour" in that passage means a fellow member of the community.

19:20

"From my youth up" points to the age of about thirteen, when a Jewish boy became responsible for keeping the commandments himself.

19:21

"Perfect" translates a Greek word meaning complete, finished, or lacking nothing, picking up the man's own words in the previous verse about what he still lacks. It does not mean flawless.

19:22

"Great possessions" means land as well as goods. In a society where land was inherited and rarely sold, selling it would have meant dismantling the family's standing, not just giving away money.

19:23

"Verily" translates "amen," a word normally said after someone else's statement to affirm it; Jesus uses it to open his own, which is unusual. "Hardly" in the King James means with difficulty, not the modern sense of barely or scarcely.

19:24

A proverb built on deliberate exaggeration, pairing the largest animal people there dealt with daily with the smallest opening they handled daily. The popular explanation that "the eye of the needle" was a low gate in Jerusalem has no support in any ancient source and first appears in the Middle Ages. A few late manuscripts read kamilos, "rope," instead of kamelos, "camel," which would make it a rope through a needle's eye.

19:25

The disciples' shock makes sense against a common assumption of the time that wealth was evidence of God's favor. If those apparently best placed could not get in, the question of who could was genuinely open.

19:27

Peter's question is about what the disciples are owed in return, and it is asked without embarrassment; the following verses answer it rather than rebuke it.

19:28

"Regeneration" here does not mean personal spiritual rebirth. The Greek word means a making-new or renewal, and refers to the remaking of the world in the age to come. "Son of man" is a title drawn from Daniel 7:13, where a figure "like the Son of man" is given authority and a kingdom. "Judging the twelve tribes" uses judge in its older sense, as in the book of Judges: to govern and set right, not merely to pass sentence. The twelve tribes are the traditional divisions of Israel descended from the twelve sons of Jacob.

19:29

"Brethren" is simply the old plural of brother. "Hundredfold" means a hundred times over, the language used of an extraordinary harvest. Leaving "lands" meant giving up inherited farmland, the ordinary basis of a family's security.

19:30

A saying about reversal of rank that the King James places at the end of this chapter and repeats at the end of the parable that immediately follows in chapter 20, so that the parable sits inside the saying like a bracket.